Please Kill Me - Chapter 179
Olga and Yekaterina had been holding on to their last shred of humanity and agreed to keep their emotions a secret with their faces reddening.
Above all, Yekaterina felt guilty about their reactions.
‘This all happened because of me.’
It would have been better if she could have contacted them beforehand, but this was the best she could do.
She averted her gaze, feeling troubled, and said,
“Don’t worry too much. I won’t let Leonid die.”
“I’m not worried. I just wanted to know what happened…”
Vasily answered in a voice that had become steadier, only to suddenly pause as if remembering something.
“If you’re not going to let him die, do you have a plan?”
“Of course. This is my responsibility—”
“What do you mean by that, Miss!”
Olga interrupted, clearly surprised.
“Technically, it was our Master who lost control and caused this mess! You did nothing wrong!”
“That’s true. We didn’t think it would come to this, but we did suspect that our Master would surely cause some kind of accident…”
They had only anticipated that it would be an accident involving Yekaterina being imprisoned, never considering that Leonid himself would end up in that situation.
As Vasily recalled how Leonid had changed during Yekaterina’s absence, he shook his head in disbelief, while Olga grasped Yekaterina’s hands tightly.
“You were under a spell, weren’t you? I didn’t even know that. You must have had a tough time alone.”
“I’m… fine.”
“I’m so glad you’re back, Miss! Surely our Master will be freed too! I’m not worried. With Prince Yuri around, and given that the name Rostislav carries weight, how could anything go wrong?”
While Olga seemed to genuinely believe in Leonid’s safety, Yekaterina had a different opinion.
Under different circumstances, she might have shared Olga’s perspective, but not now.
“…Since I’ve left Offenbach, I have no idea what Dmitry might do. I can’t just sit back and wait.”
“What are you planning to do, then Miss?”
Yekaterina’s gaze shifted to Vasily, her dark eyes settling low.
“I need to meet Leonid first.”
* * *
A few days later.
“I didn’t believe it when I heard about it, but I can’t believe there’s actually a passage like this…”
Vasily was in shock.
It was understandable because he was standing in the secret passage of the imperial prison.
When Yekaterina had suggested they meet Leonid a few days ago, Vasily had doubted his ears.
— Even after just entering the Rostislav estate, you’ll be prohibited from accessing the palace. How are you planning to see him? Are you going to climb over the palace walls?
— Is that not possible?”
— …
He had forgotten. This person doesn’t adhere to common sense.
Vasily looked at Yekaterina, who was asking if there was really any difference between the palace walls and those of other mansions, and he found a newfound respect for Leonid.
‘To handle someone like her…’
He was indeed his master.
Still, respect is just respect, and Leonid was not here.
Vasily tried to do whatever he could to thwart Yekaterina’s plans.
— Even if you climb over the palace walls, you’ll be caught quickly.
— I learned a less visible route when I went last time. As long as I check the guard shift times, it won’t be hard to get there.
— Does that even make sense?
— Why wouldn’t it?
It was as if she was asking something so obvious rather than being overly confident.
— …Even if you manage to get in that way, there’s no way to enter the prison.
— There should be a secret passage. We just need to find that.
— A secret passage? What a romantic notion. Plus, finding a secret passage isn’t easy…
— If finding it were easy, it wouldn’t be a secret passage.
The answer was so rational that Vasily found himself speechless once more.
Of course, if finding it were easy, it wouldn’t be a secret passage.
While that was true,
— Don’t worry. I’ll do the searching on my own.
It seemed that Yekaterina had no idea that the worries he was voicing were not the real worry.
In the end, Vasily raised both hands in surrender.
A few days later, just yesterday morning.
— I found it.
— Excuse me?
— The secret passage.
— What?
— I’m going to check it out tomorrow, so if you want to join me, get ready by midnight.
— What? No, are you serious?
Vasily blinked in disbelief. He knew that Yekaterina went out every night, but he never expected her to find it so quickly.
How did she even know about the existence of a secret passage, and how did she manage to find it?
Has she ever been imprisoned before? It’s a space that’s difficult to discern from the outside, making it hard to guess where it might be located.
But, as usual, Yekaterina didn’t provide any detailed explanations.
By the time Vasily regained his wits after a brief daze, she had already vanished.
All he could do was gather his things to leave.
And so, currently…
“Watch your head as you enter; the ceiling is low.”
Vasily was really following Yekaterina into the imperial prison.
