Please Kill Me - Chapter 54
Four days ago.
“No. This time, I’ll send a unit led by Vasily Arkady. There’s no turning back. And I’ll have someone watch you for a while, so just know that.”
Leonid had left the room with those words.
Click. As the sound of the door closing echoed, Yekaterina thought to herself.
‘No choice then.’
I’ll have to sneak away.
From the moment Yekaterina suggested she should follow Vasily, her plan never included the option of her not going.
It was inevitable. If Yekaterina didn’t go, Vasily would die, and Leonid would end up going. And Yekaterina couldn’t guarantee that Leonid wouldn’t get more hurt in the process. She couldn’t delay her already delayed death any longer.
‘But disobeying Leonid’s orders isn’t something I feel like doing.’
Yekaterina was someone who strictly adhered to rules.
Sergei had taught her to do so, and having always lived under Sergei’s command, obedience was second nature to her.
So, Yekaterina intended to comply with Leonid’s decisions as much as possible.
Unless it was a matter of life and death.
‘This time, I must die by Leonid’s hand.’
If Leonid couldn’t kill her, she would have to enter and exit the monster cage several times.
Even for Yekaterina, who had been through so much, that was a dreadful experience. Truly, something she didn’t want to relive.
‘I might not be able to stay in the mansion anymore if I act on my own.’
But that was a problem for later. Whether she had to look for mercenary work outside, or ask to be kept in the dungeons of Rostislav, Yekaterina didn’t care.
The problem was that Leonid had placed her under surveillance, and she couldn’t sneak into the departing troops due to strict checks.
Ideally, the easiest way to go would be to hide in the departing troop’s supply wagon, but after spying the knight squad under the guise of taking a walk, Yekaterina quickly abandoned that plan.
“Do not come anywhere near this area.”
It was Vasily himself who sternly warned her off. A clear sign that word of her wanting to join the troops had already spread.
Faced with Vasily’s warning, Yekaterina chose not to respond, instead silently observing the man who was unknowingly close to his own death. It seemed pitiful that he was sharpening his days without knowing how close his end was.
This thought startled her a bit.
‘Pitiful?’
No matter how she thought about it, it was undeniably strange for such a thought to cross her mind. The first thing Yekaterina learned in Offenbach was to cut off feelings. Not to sympathize with anyone, not to take interest in anyone.
And that includes herself. Under the law of the survival of the fittest, such emotions were of no help.
– Only the outstanding survive in Offenbach. If you can’t find a way to survive, it’s natural to be weeded out. Does anyone question why herbivores are eaten by carnivores?
Being harmed or someone else being harmed, it’s all because of weakness.
– Death and injury happen because of weakness. It’s deserved.
Therefore, there was no need to pity. There was no reason to resent.
On nights when she felt suffocated for no reason, she had to recite those words to barely manage to breathe.
Through such times, Yekaterina became indifferent.
But now, feeling compassion for a knight she barely knew?
‘Has dying and coming back changed people?’
It was an enigma.
However, what was certain was Vasily’s intense hate for Yekaterina. He was always on edge whenever she approached the training ground, and he was tight-lipped about the troop deployment, fearing leaks.
While she understood, it seemed futile to seek information from Vasily’s side. It seemed like it would be quicker to just witness Leonid getting hurt.
‘And the surveillance attached to me is bothersome.’
Leonid starting to call people to the mansion incessantly from the next day was equally irritating.
So, Yekaterina decided to change her plan.
‘I need to act alone.’
She chose to become an internal thief of Rostislav.
* * *
The first target was the gardener, Josip.
“What! You’re bothering me at this godforsaken hour! Can’t you just go away?”
Josip had the rugged appearance of a man who could easily pull out seedlings with his bare hands, and true to his looks, he had a very gruff personality.
And one more thing,
“I wanted to see a skilled gardener at work.”
“…What, what did you say?”
He was extremely weak to flattery.
“I noticed some bulbs in the garden that are difficult to grow in this weather. Those types need their leaves wiped daily and need to be carefully protected from freezing, or they’ll die immediately.”
“How, how did you know that?”
“I’ve been growing plants for a long time.”
It was not a lie that she liked the garden.
Yekaterina had cultivated various plants, including poisonous ones, at Offenbach to create various medicines. Thanks to this, her understanding of plants was comparable to that of a professional.
