Please Kill Me - Chapter 189
Yekaterina looked as if she couldn’t believe her ears.
— Should I go out?
— I was surprised to see you not leaving when you usually do.
— Leonid said it would be fine, so I should wait.
Yekaterina spoke like that, but after seeing Vasily’s expression, she added another comment.
— You look skeptical?
— I apologize. I’m not very good at detecting lies.
To be honest, Vasily was curious why Yekaterina wasn’t insisting on going to kill the Emperor right away.
— I thought you were fervently searching for a secret passage to break His Grace out.
— I could still break him out. Opening a door is no big deal.
— Yes, so… are you not going to do it?
— I shouldn’t. Leonid wouldn’t like it.
Though Yekaterina spoke nonchalantly, it was a huge shock for Vasily.
The fact that Leonid could control Yekaterina was startling enough, but the realization that she had voluntarily refrained from acting was even more surprising.
Since that conversation, Vasily had not kept a close watch on Yekaterina.
It was clear what actions would displease Leonid, so there was no need for him to watch her closely.
‘Above all, Miss doesn’t want to cause trouble for His Grace.’
In other words, their goals were the same for both Yuri and Yekaterina.
Yekaterina would never risk Leonid’s life just to break him out of prison.
So, what was she planning to do?
Vasily recalled their previous conversation.
— Sir Vasily, have you ever been to the contaminated forest?”
As soon as the calm voice resurfaced in his mind, the frown on Vasily’s face lifted.
During one of their sparring sessions, Yekaterina had asked him in her characteristic indifferent tone. Though her body was relentlessly pressing him, her voice was as calm as ever.
— There should be a sealing stone in that forest. I wanted to know what it looks like.
— I’ve seen it, but—ugh!
— Left side is open.
Thud! Vasily finally fell to the ground after being hit by the wooden sword.
— You have strong upper defenses, but the downside is that your lower defenses are weak. You should extend your range a bit to narrow the attack angle.
Yekaterina said this while picking up the wooden sword Vasily had dropped and tossed it back to him. She then asked,
— So, what does the seal stone look like?
— I don’t remember it clearly… but I’m sure you’d recognize it if you saw it. It’s impossible not to.
Vasily explained that the sealing stone was located in a place difficult for living beings to approach, so he hadn’t been able to see it closely.
— It’s not something that easily breaks, but if it does break, it will be a big problem.
However, Vasily soon forgot this thought. He often discussed their respective domains or family customs with Yekaterina, and he assumed that their conversation that day was just a continuation of those discussions.
Moreover, since Yekaterina pushed forward with the sparring without giving him much of a breather, Vasily was too out of breath to think clearly.
He didn’t consider why Yekaterina suddenly brought up the contaminated forest.
Perhaps he had been too complacent. The relationship between the sealing stone and the monsters wasn’t common knowledge. But Yekaterina was a direct descendant of the Offenbach family.
If Vasily knew about it, she would certainly know as well.
As the thought crossed his mind, a cold sweat trickled down Vasily’s back.
“…No way.”
It was a fleeting suspicion, but it was enough.
Urgent footsteps echoed through the corridor.
From the moment he doubted, Vasily was already rushing out.
* * *
“…He said I would know when I saw it.”
And indeed, Yekaterina murmured to herself as she drew her dagger.
Before her stood a small altar.
It was adorned with strange symbols that were unrecognizable, looking highly suspicious at first glance.
Since nothing appeared to be placed on the altar, it seemed that the altar itself served as the seal stone.
‘Looking at the different colors here and there…’
It was likely a sign of repairs made to maintain the shape of these symbols.
If the magic power emitted by the sealed core couldn’t withstand the corrosion of the altar’s markings, the seal would weaken.
In other words, just erasing a single symbol could yield sufficient effect.
‘Now I just have to destroy it.’
Getting this far wasn’t easy.
When asked if finding it had been difficult, it was ironically not the case.
On the contrary, the altar was conspicuously displayed at the very bottom of the underground prison. The problem was that it was inside a cage.
‘It’s not like I didn’t expect it.’
After spending a significant amount of time, Yekaterina finally opened the cage.
Now all that was left was to destroy it.
As she approached the altar, she already felt a prickling sensation in her throat.
It was a similar feeling to when a first-grace monster roared, releasing a heavy aura and magical energy.
But the energy from the altar felt sharper.
That meant the core of the sealed monster was powerful.
“Cough!”
If she continued to receive this magical energy directly, her fingertips would tremble uncontrollably. Prolonged exposure to this magic would surely make her vomit blood and collapse.
