Please Kill Me - Chapter 176
A crack slowly appeared in the face hardened like plaster.
“…Why?”
From lips that should not have been pried open, a voice emerged, fragmented and strained.
“Why did you choose him? Why… must it be him by your side, Sister?”
Am I also not beside you…?
His voice faded away, the feeble question becoming a confession of his hidden feelings—the truth that he still cherished Yekaterina, which he had concealed beneath layers of hurt.
“You said you remembered me. So why don’t you talk to me like before? You promised, didn’t you? That if you heard my voice, you would always come to me.”
In his life, he had never truly experienced love, not even for a moment.
Growing up, he had become accustomed to the scent of blood long before the smell of milk, learning to fear even caring for someone. Those days filled with unfulfilled longing—a longing he may not have even realized existed—were suddenly filled by Yekaterina.
Only when he held her hand did he understand what he had been missing all along. Even when Yekaterina lost her memory and he let go of her hand under Sergei’s threats, he found solace in her mere presence.
With her, he was not alone.
They shared no blood, yet they possessed the same essence.
Similar values, thoughts, and circumstances.
Surely, they had been the same person once, but where did it all go wrong?
His body grew weaker each day, and his mind fatigued even faster.
Being rejected by his mental anchor seemed only natural.
Eventually, cracks appeared on Dmitry’s face. A long tear rolled down and fell from his chin.
“Please don’t leave me…”
Yekaterina silently watched his plea, reaching out to observe the unfamiliar expression on the face of the familiar young man.
Though she felt as if she had known Dmitry for a long time, revisiting those memories made past thoughts feel strangely foreign.
She had always seen Dmitry as the embodiment of Offenbach, cherished and nurtured by Sergei, believing he respected and followed Sergei as well.
But Dmitry’s situation couldn’t have been that different.
He was also a victim of Sergei’s abuse, forced to endure a childhood where his limbs were metaphorically severed by Offenbach’s rules.
So, Dmitry’s words weren’t entirely incorrect.
They undoubtedly shared something profound.
The mindset of Offenbach, the same emptiness, and the same hatred.
‘While I was alone, you must have been alone too.’
As her fingertips extended like budding branches, they brushed against the tear-stained cheek of the young man.
The symbol of Offenbach, which appeared so icy and cold, actually had a warm and soft skin, just like any other person.
Perhaps they were the ones who, despite being closest to each other, knew the least about one another.
Had they realized this fact even a little earlier, Yekaterina might not have chosen Leonid.
But the time had already passed. Yekaterina withdrew her hand from Dmitry.
“I definitely told you that we are the same, Dmitry.”
Now Yekaterina could recall that moment.
“Do you remember what I said afterward?”
“…If you mean that we are both Offenbach and both outsiders…”
“We are both outsiders. So we must learn to survive alone.”
As Yekaterina repeated her past words, her hand removed Dmitry’s grasp.
“It’s been over ten years since I said that. Now it’s time for us to be able to survive without each other’s voices.”
Although they shared similar experiences, that did not mean one could speak for the other.
They were certainly alike but also different. They had spent far too long not knowing each other.
“I am not like you, Dmitry. Even if… you turned back time for me.”
At Yekaterina’s words, the image of Offenbach shattered.
Dmitry’s face turned pale with shock at Yekaterina’s statement. How could one express the crack in his face as if a boulder were splitting?
“How could you…?”
He couldn’t even deny it, and Yekaterina responded by slowly fluttering her eyelids instead. After a moment, she opened her mouth.
“At first, I couldn’t be sure. Before I died… I mean, for most of my time locked in the prison, I was unconscious.”
In Offenbach’s monster cage, there were various creatures, but there were no first Grade monsters.
Capturing a first Grade monster was a challenging task, even for someone like Sergei.
While meeting a first Grade monster might not be extraordinarily difficult, capturing it alive and subduing it before putting it in a cage was a different story altogether.
How could one hope to confine a first Grade monster that even the strongest Yekaterina in Offenbach couldn’t handle?
Thus, Sergei used a different method. He pushed Yekaterina into a cage filled with high-grade monsters, aiming to weaken her strength.
He exploited the fact that Offenbach’s protective magic was influenced by the subject’s state.
Once Yekaterina was exhausted and weakened, there would be small openings in the protective magic to be penetrated, allowing sharp fangs to find their way in.
