Please Kill Me - Chapter 68
It was a real problem indeed.
‘After all, you’ll soon forget about me.’
If the lines she had maintained were blurred, it would be Yekaterina who would suffer the confusion.
She wanted to die as a stranger, but Leonid’s actions prevented that, making it her own issue.
He would probably continue to look at her in the same way until his dying day.
With a look that neither understands nor wants to understand.
And soon, he would forget. Like many memories do.
‘But I will…’
Until the moment I close my eyes for the last time, I will be looking at you.
Remembering that I once occupied a momentary space in your life, even if it’s only until death.
I’ve never feared that. I’ve never been wary of loneliness.
Why do you keep holding onto my hand?
‘It’s a hand that will eventually be let go…’
If we never held hands, there would be no such thing as letting go.
Just as one does not miss summer in a land without summer, I should not find it strange to be alone…
“……”
Yekaterina’s gaze shifted towards Leonid. He had finished adjusting her robe and now, holding her hand, he was walking ahead.
“I can’t let you run away again, so bear with it even if it’s uncomfortable,” he said, attaching those somewhat awkward words to that one inadequate hand.
Instead of responding, Yekaterina quietly followed behind him.
Though there was no path in the forest, it somehow felt like they were walking along one. Was it like this when she walked into town holding her sister’s hand as a child?
‘It would be nice if I could remember.’
Now, there are no memories left. Nothing remains.
Since that cold, lonely road to Offenbach at the age of seven, Yekaterina had no memories of walking hand in hand with someone.
So, it was fine to call this the first time.
Yekaterina followed the figure walking ahead. Throughout their exit, trivial conversations flowed in an attempt to kill the silence.
But perhaps because they were too keen on the sense of bitterness between them, they both missed something crucial.
Between the shadows of trees and the presence of forest creatures, someone was watching them, hidden and unnoticed.
In the midst of the forest, where only the carcass of the high-grade monster that had lost its core lay, the sounds of Leonid and Yekaterina finally faded away.
It was then that the hidden presence revealed itself.
“….”
A young man with silver hair, not particularly old but visibly youthful in appearance—Dmitri Offenbach.
Lost in thought, he stood guard over the clearing. Soon, his subordinate, Ivan, approached him and bowed his head.
“Young Master, the order to withdraw has been issued.”
“….Is that so? Why?”
“It appears that a high-grade monster has been sighted… Were you aware of it, Young Master?”
“How could I not be, when it’s right before my eyes?”
“Then, is that… did you, Young Master…?”
Ivan glanced at the monster carcass nearby. It looked to be one of the stronger grade 2 monsters. It was something that not many within Offenbach could handle alone.
‘Handling that would require someone of Miss Yekaterina’s caliber.’
Unlike the animals hunted for their meat, bones, or hides, the only thing to be gained from butchering a monster was its core—a condensed mass of magical energy, equivalent to the monster’s heart.
The core of a high-grade monster could fetch a price higher than a diamond of the same size. However, extracting a high-quality core without damage required more skill than just combating the monster.
The butchering of a high-grade monster was not something the average skilled person could even contemplate. In Offenbach, perhaps only the direct descendants had such capability.
Yet, Dmitri’s expression seemed to say he’d heard something quite absurd.
“If I had done it, I wouldn’t have been able to retrieve the core so cleanly.”
“By retrieval, you mean…”
“It wasn’t just killed. The core was extracted.”
“But, it didn’t seem like there was anyone capable of that here. At least someone of Miss Yekaterina’s skill would be needed—”
Ivan halted his words abruptly.
“Could it be, the Miss herself…?”
“Yes.”
Dmitri let out a bitter laugh. As he pictured the recent events at the clearing in his mind, there was a depth of regret in his expression that seemed too mature for his age.
“I found her in such a foolish way.”
How could he describe the feeling?
The person who had tormented him day and night recently, and yet he could not bear any resentment towards her. The emotions he felt when he saw her again, and she was holding someone else’s hand, ready to leave.
It wasn’t only the Rostislav search party that had encountered a brutally hunted monster. The Offenbach forces had come across it too. The difference between them was clear: while the Rostislav party could analyze the scene but couldn’t guess who the perpetrator was, Offenbach had someone who knew.
‘It’s unmistakably Sister’s handiwork.’
Seeing the site filled with monster carcasses, Dmitri had to make an unusual effort to mask his expression.
The other fools in Offenbach might as well have had their eyes on their feet for all they could see, but Dmitri knew. He knew that Yekaterina was the one who had orchestrated this scene.
