Please Kill Me - Chapter 30
“Then just bribe them to keep quiet. Ensure the servants don’t gossip about their master’s affairs.”
“Do you really think silencing the servants will clear up such misunderstandings?”
“What does it matter? They’ll keep their mouths shut anyway.”
Yekaterina was genuinely puzzled.
Servants wouldn’t dare gossip about matters their master has ordered them to keep quiet. It seemed straightforward and logical.
“Wouldn’t that solve the problem?”
At this simple logic, Leonid was at a loss for words.
No matter how much one silences the servants, an already spread rumor couldn’t be contained.
And he didn’t want his subordinates harboring such misconceptions about him.
Yekaterina seemed utterly oblivious to this.
Hence, her confident assertion.
“No one will care. Don’t worry.”
Leonid buried his face in his hands. Taking a deep breath, he lifted his head.
“Fine, you’re right. If I order them to silence, no one will care whether you stick by my side all day or I carry you around, right?”
“Finally, we’re getting somewhere.”
“But it bothers me.”
At that, Yekaterina’s lips tightened slightly.
“Are you beginning to understand?”
“…You said you didn’t like me.”
“That’s right.”
“Was that a lie?”
“If you’re so keen on calling me a liar then…”
“Liar.”
“Fine. I’m a liar. So we can’t share a bed. Happy now?”
Leonid surrendered, raising both hands in defeat. Yekaterina nodded seriously, as if she’d expected this all along.
“You should have been honest from the start. I can understand that. Most people can’t stand being in the same room with someone they like.”
At this point, Leonid was curious about what was going on in Yekaterina’s head.
When he said he didn’t like her, she insisted on sharing a room regardless of his protests. But the moment he suggested he did like her, she quickly acquiesced.
What kind of logic was that?
“Still, try to bear with it.”
Back to square one.
“But you just said you could understand?”
“I told you not to like me. Try using your brain a bit.”
“Is that even possible?”
“Right, the brain doesn’t have muscles. How about trying with your heart?”
Since the heart itself is a powerful muscle. Yekaterina added this, causing Leonid’s mind to shatter into pieces.
Meanwhile, unaware of such facts, Yekaterina was now encouraging Leonid to muster courage.
“Is life important to you, or is it the heart? With effort, nothing is impossible.”
“No matter how hard I try, I don’t think you’ll ever understand…”
“Why wouldn’t I?”
“No, it’s just that.”
Leonid sighed and neatly concluded in his mind.
Persuading Yekaterina with words was impossible; he decided to resolve it through force instead.
Using force on a guest. It was the solution Leonid hated the most, but he had no other choice now.
He lightly flicked his hand to change the subject.
“Anyway. Let’s stop discussing this topic. I won’t change my mind, so you should just go back to your room and get some sleep.”
“No, you’ll die.”
“I feel more like dying because of you right now, so please, just leave.”
Instead of responding, Yekaterina simply stared at him with that deep, dark gaze.
If only she glared sharply, it might have been easier to deal with, but those eyes were inscrutable, making it impossible to discern her thoughts and feelings.
However, the standoff was brief.
Suddenly, Yekaterina turned and left the room.
Her departure was without even a simple goodnight.
If the swaying silver hair on Yekaterina’s back seemed a bit dejected, would it be too sentimental?
Leonid stood there for a long time with furrowed brows still not relaxed, staring in the direction Yekaterina had left.
It was an uncomfortable feeling.
* * *
Eventually, Leonid stayed up all night.
“You look tired, Leonid.”
At the voice, Leonid opened his eyes. Gradually focusing, he saw a young man with smooth black hair. Apparently, he had dozed off in the middle of their conversation.
Rubbing his forehead, Leonid apologized.
“My apologies. I was up all night. Where were we?”
“About taking Yekaterina Ofenbach to the hunt to have her attack you in front of everyone, and then pinning all the blame on Ofenbach.”
The young man seemed to like the plan quite a bit, adding several emphatic lines over the scribbled notes on the paper.
“Looking at it again, it’s brilliant. Rostislav will be the perfect victim. Truly befitting the guardian of justice.”
“Enough with the jokes. Justice, what…”
Guardian of justice. Alongside the moniker of the guardian of evil that Ofenbach bore, it was a nickname held by Rostislav.
Rostislav’s strong inclination towards righteousness and its reputation for producing outstanding knights contributed significantly to this. Of course, the fact that the house had been in opposition with a family notorious for all sorts of crimes for many years also played a significant role.
