Please Kill Me - Chapter 17
“Is the injury that serious?”
“If a swordsman can’t use his hand, it’s a big problem. They told me to be careful not to get hurt any further.”
Leonid added this with a hint of regret. Even in the midst of this, his gaze on Yekaterina remained unwavering.
The reason was simple.
‘I’m not sure if I can fool her with this.’
Because the injury was fabricated.
* * *
After Yekaterina left Leonid’s office and the commotion had settled, Leonid faced the inevitable question.
“Your Excellency, why did you let the intruder in?”
Essentially, why hadn’t he expelled Yekaterina right away.
The questioner, Vasily, was red-faced, probably because his pride was wounded knowing that the security he was in charge of had been breached.
He looked ready to cut Yekaterina’s throat if he was given permission.
However, if the woman’s identity was indeed what she claimed, Vasily would certainly find it challenging to even lay a finger on her. Leonid responded indifferently.
“I let her in because she has her uses.”
“Then is there a need to treat her as a guest? If you order, I will open the torture chamber.”
“Vasily.”
Leonid tapped the desk lightly with the tip of his index finger, cutting off the agitated knight.
His piercing blue eyes stared coldly at the other person.
“Have you ever heard of the adopted daughter of Offenbach?”
“Yes. I am aware that she was taken in as a comfort for the heir. Isn’t she the one who Sergei Offenbach used to command like his own limb?”
“Yes. She hasn’t been involved in any significant activities to that extent, so I haven’t seen much of her either, but when I think back, there was one occasion.”
A few years ago, not far from the capital, in the eastern forest, high-grade monsters appeared in swarms.
It was such a large disturbance that even Leonid, who was in the mountains in the northern territories, was summoned belatedly.
Upon arriving in the capital, Leonid had to head to the forest without a moment’s pause, only to find the extermination operation already in full swing.
– It appears to be at least a second-grade monster! Please be cautious, Your Excellency!
– It seems like an intense battle is ongoing, but who is on the field?
-The support troops sent by Offenbach are there, as we understand!
The imperial army’s statement was correct but also incorrect.
Because the support on the field was just one person.
When Leonid arrived at the scene where the monsters were, only one living being remained.
A woman, drenched in the bodily fluids of monsters, as if to prove a fierce battle had taken place.
And beside her were the bodies of monsters, lying in the middle of the ruined forest.
“There were no other signs of life around. It seems she took them on by herself. In fact, the other support troops from Offenbach were dealing with lower-grade monsters elsewhere.”
This had taken a toll on her as well; she didn’t look to be in normal condition.
The injuries she had sustained were visible even from a distance.
However, as soon as Leonid appeared, the woman vanished into the forest beyond.
What remained in his memory was her indifferent expression, unbefitting of the evidently painful situation she was in, and her silver hair soaked red.
It was only much later that Leonid learned that the owner of the silver hair was the adopted daughter of Offenbach.
“That woman claimed to be the adopted daughter of Offenbach. If she is indeed Yekaterina Offenbach, someone who single-handedly took down a second-grade beast, breaching the security wouldn’t have been a difficult task for her.”
Beyond the fact that the intruder was Offenbach’s adopted daughter, there was another troubling point.
Specifically, the part about her wishing for death. More precisely, the reason she provided why she couldn’t die on her own bothered him.
The current Arlan imperial family, Rostislav, and Offenbach had protective magics passed down in their families since the founding of the Ethiel Empire.
These magics were strictly inherited by the family heads, known to only a very few.
“I don’t know the details of Offenbach’s protective magic either. Partly because it’s strictly passed from head to head and partly because the opponent is Offenbach… But at least I know what kind of magic it is. It’s a kind of protection magic, just with a peculiar condition.”
A magic of survival of the fittest, where one could only be hurt by something stronger than oneself. It was a magic that fittingly matched Offenbach, which prioritizes the strongest.
It was one of the things Leonid learned when he became the head of Rostislav.
Upon inheriting the family’s protection magic, he also learned about the closely guarded secrets, including the protection magics that had been passed down only to the imperial family and the central two families.
And the things Yekaterina had mentioned perfectly matched the Offenbach magic he knew.
– I can’t die on my own.
– I won’t get hurt even if I stab myself with a knife. Poison turns into water in my mouth, ropes break if I try to hang myself, and if I fall off a cliff, I end up caught in a tree. But even after all that chaos, I don’t get a single scratch.
– So… I need someone stronger than me. Someone strong enough to actually hurt me.
The implication of those words was clear.
The woman in front of him was genuinely Yekaterina Offenbach.
And for some reason, the magic did not pass down to an heir, but had been inherited by her.
