Please Kill Me - Chapter 46
“I’m sorry for being presumptuous, but I just couldn’t grasp it. What makes this so different? I’m aware of her unconventional values.”
“Yes. She is unconventional.”
Excessively unreasonable, acting too self-centered, almost as if she had never interacted with another person before.
“But that also makes it hard for her to conceal her intentions.”
“It didn’t seem like she had any intentions to hide,”
“Do you remember Yekaterina Offenbach’s first question, Vasily?”
Vasily looked uneasy, but quickly responded.
“Of course. She asked who would lead the troops if they were mobilized.”
“Right. If her aim was to undermine you, she would have targeted you from the start. Why bring up troop mobilization first?”
As if she knew there would be a need to call up troops.
With that thought, Leonid couldn’t stay put any longer. He abruptly stood up.
“Where, where are you going?”
“To Yekaterina Offenbach. If I want to find out anything, I need to dig into her. You go and mobilize five knights and twenty soldiers under your command. We’ll decide who leads later.”
With that, he went looking for the room given to Yekaterina.
But upon arrival, the room was in complete disarray.
Cut hair littered the floor, two people were arguing loudly, and Yekaterina sat emotionlessly looking at the mirror, draped in a cloth meant for hair trimming.
While Olga and Stepan often clashed in opinions,
‘What are they doing, leaving Yekaterina like that?’
As if Yekaterina wasn’t causing enough headache, these supposed servants seemed to double the pain.
One silver lining was that Leonid’s orders worked wonders.
“Clear this up and leave. Now.”
Upon Leonid’s command, they quickly tidied up the room and left.
Yekaterina remained seated the entire time, still covered in cloth.
Did she take a liking to the cloth?
Leonid briefly wondered but quickly dismissed the thought. He had already experienced enough to know that pondering over Yekaterina’s actions only lead to headaches.
“The servants have been rude. I apologize.”
“No need. It was amusing.”
“Amusing?”
It was then Leonid remembered Yekaterina had been silently looking at the mirror amidst the chaos of the two servants.
Was she watching Olga and Stepan reflected in the mirror? He had thought she was either finding the change in her appearance strange or was simply tired of their antics.
“The shape of my hair doesn’t really matter to me. It’s interesting to see them get so worked up over such trivial matters.”
And it truly was.
To Yekaterina, the entire situation was curiously entertaining.
The fact that two people were fussing over cutting just a bit of hair, the effort they put into deciding how to trim her bangs, and even wrapping a cloth around her neck for a haircut—all of it was amusing and intriguing.
But among all, the most interesting part was Olga and Stepan’s discussion, or rather their competition, over how to style her hair.
In reality, their ‘discussion’ was more about each claiming they had done a better job cutting her hair.
Nevertheless, to Yekaterina, their not-quite-argument seemed like a delightful debate over her hairstyle.
– “The Miss would look cuter with a shorter cut! Stepan doesn’t know anything!”
– “What do you mean, ‘doesn’t know anything’? Look how neat and pretty this cut is! If it’s trimmed like this, it would be great for updos!”
– “Which Miss these days wears updos? It makes you look older. Braids and half-up styles are in! That’s what all the young ladies are wearing now!”
– “Older, really? Updos are neat and elegant, so lovely to look at! Such nonsense!”
– “Then why doesn’t Stepan wear his hair in an updo!”
Although it was a bit fierce, this was definitely a conversation filled with affection.
At least, that’s how Yekaterina perceived it. Many from Offenbach would likely agree with her view.
Therefore, she had no intention of intervening or taking sides, simply observing in silence.
Had Leonid not interrupted so suddenly, Yekaterina might have enjoyed this interesting interaction a bit longer.
She felt a slight regret about this interruption, yet she hadn’t even realized she felt such regret. While removing the cloth from beneath her neck, she asked.
“It’s still a long way off bedtime, why have you come already? Planning to sleep this early?”
Leonid instinctively frowned.
“No, I didn’t come for that matter, so let’s not bring that up right now.”
“Then why did you come?”
Leonid’s brows furrowed deeper, trying to discern whether Yekaterina genuinely knew nothing or was pretending to be unaware.
But gauging the intentions of someone who consistently maintains a poker face is a difficult task.
Eventually, giving up on trying to read her, Leonid directly brought up the topic.
“The imperial hunting grounds are experiencing a mass appearance of monsters.”
“That’s unusual.”
“Yes. And so, the imperial family has requested troops from the two central families.”
