Please Kill Me - Chapter 4
When she only heard Sergei’s words, she thought, ‘Well, that’s that.’
‘Now that I vaguely remember, I can’t deny it.’
In the end, it’s back to square one. Yekaterina, the empty shell.
Memories from early childhood resurfaced in her mind. Memories from before becoming a street orphan, from the time she lived with her original family. Though she was too young to remember much, one thing stood out in her memory.
The last words her sister, who survived until the end, left behind.
“Survive, Yekaterina.”
At that time, Yekaterina just held her sister’s hand, crying and pleading for her not to go. But now, she understood. Her sister must have been worried about Yekaterina, who would be left alone after her death.
The Ethiel Empire, where they lived, had harsh winters, and it was not uncommon for orphaned children to freeze to death overnight, more common than potatoes freezing and becoming inedible.
Since then, whenever Yekaterina thought about wanting to die, she always remembered her sister’s words. The words telling her to survive, the sincere concern she last heard.
Although she couldn’t recall her sister’s face, those words remained as vivid as if she had heard them yesterday. Perhaps that’s why, even when she felt too exhausted and wanted to give up everything, the memory of those words made her clench her fist again.
However, now…
“….”
Yekaterina looked at her empty hand, then slowly clenched and released it.
‘Sorry, sister.’
She had done what she could. At this point, her sister would forgive her for not keeping her promise.
‘Now, I have to die as quickly as possible.’
That’s how Yekaterina, who had returned to the past, first decided on her own death.
* * *
Although she had resolved to die, there was one obstacle left for Yekaterina.
‘How do I deal with the family’s protective magic?’
The fact that Yekaterina couldn’t easily die was the issue at hand.
It’s almost like a comedy where she has to think about how to die.
‘I don’t want to die like last time, facing all sorts of monsters.’
In her previous life, Yekaterina had struggled against 1st-grade monsters for a considerable amount of time. Despite facing various challenges, she didn’t die easily due to the protective magic. So she repeated this process several times. It was a horrifying experience she didn’t want to go through again.
On the flip side, it meant that unless it was a 1st-grade monster or stronger, there was no way to kill her. The protective magic of Offenbach was a mark passed down only to the head of the family. Sergei, her father, had once made a brief comment about it.
– “It’s a survival-of-the-fittest magic. Can a rabbit eat a lion?”
Offenbach’s protective magic prevented harm to the successor from anything weaker or of equal strength. In other words, Yekaterina couldn’t harm herself, and anyone weaker than herself couldn’t harm her.
‘Well, should I use poison instead of a knife? No, I’ve built up immunity to poison. How about falling from a height? But that doesn’t seem very promising.’
It’s convenient to think of it as a kind of defense barrier surrounding the human body. There was a story in a book about a former head of the family surviving a fall from a cliff unscathed.
Back then, she just thought it was overly romanticized, but if there was really a protective spell in place, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration.
What should she do?
What shattered Yekaterina’s illusions was the maid’s words.
“Then let me explain today’s schedule, miss.”
“……Ah.”
There it was.
Yekaterina’s day began by hearing the list of things to do for the day. Sergei, Yekaterina’s adoptive father, carefully planned out the tasks she had to do each day. Of course, she had to complete all the assigned tasks for that day.
The problem was that the workload was impossible to finish in a single day.
“Today, you need to slaughter 2nd-grade monsters and produce 40 bottles of potion. In the afternoon, you must accompany the Madam to the tea party in the Alyssia family and, after 3 hours of martial arts and magic training, report to me.”
Yekaterina mechanically listened to the maid’s recitation of her tasks, pulling on her indoor shoes.
‘Even just slaughtering 2nd-grade monsters will take easily three hours. And to produce 40 bottles of potion, too. Doesn’t seem like they have any intention of letting me rest today.’
That was the extent of her excitement.
In fact, today’s workload wasn’t unusually heavy. Yekaterina always completed the tasks assigned by Sergei within 24 hours, and naturally, the amount increased gradually, without being noticeable.
Yekaterina always accepted this fact as a matter of course. She was just an adoptive daughter, being favored by Offenbach.
‘I wonder if ordinary people know that just producing a potion can take up an entire day.’
However, that was now a thing of the past. Yekaterina was completely exhausted. She no longer wanted to push herself.
‘If I’m not here, the potion production will be cut in half. Will they slaughter only ten monsters a month without me? Without me, Mother will probably attend tea parties alone……’
Dragging her indoor shoes with each step, these were the thoughts she barely managed to muster.
There was a time when Yekaterina also wished to be recognized. Although she was fortunate to have the Offenbach name as an orphan, she had hoped that by working so hard, one day she would be acknowledged as a valuable member.
That was her lifelong wish.
