Please Kill Me - Chapter 86
Yekaterina Offenbach. What is it about her that makes every little thing she does so infuriating and leaves him feeling so pitiful? It hadn’t been long since he resolved not to be swayed by Yekaterina, yet her declaring his words were meaningless had instantly brought him down.
‘Is it because I’ve never met anyone like her before?’
No one Leonid met has ever been quite like Yekaterina. Nobody else has seemed as if they’ve been stripped of their emotions like her, and yet still manages to irritate him with everything she does.
It was even more so as Leonid was not a particularly arrogant person; he was the kind of person who doesn’t even feel insulted when Olga, a subordinate, snaps at him.
So why is it only with Yekaterina that he lost his temper so completely?
‘Damn it!’
Leonid punched the wall in frustration and immediately regretted it.
This is the palace. Damaging the wall would be problematic.
Carefully, he pulled a tapestry over the spot he had hit, covering his tracks, and then buried his face in his hands again.
‘They say getting too close with ink will stain the sleeves.’
It feels as though staying near this madwoman is driving him mad as well.
Leonid spent a bitterly regretful night in the unlit room, replaying his own foolishness.
The next morning.
He watched the sky brighten after he couldn’t sleep the night and resolved:
‘From today on, I will erase Yekaterina Offenbach from my mind.’
Whatever she does, I truly don’t care anymore.
* * *
“Your Excellency, about Yekaterina Offenbach.”
“Damn it all…”
If there was one misfortune Leonid had, it was that he seemed doomed to never escape the topic of Yekaterina Offenbach.
The person who brought it up, Vasily, looked utterly baffled as Leonid cursed before he even finished speaking.
“…Did I do something wrong?”
Even to those who didn’t know Vasily well, his expression was clearly one of unjust accusation. But ignorance can be a fault too.
Unfortunately for Vasily, he had unwittingly stirred Leonid’s wrath by bringing up the very topic that had kept him awake all night.
However, it was hardly fair to blame Vasily for not knowing what he couldn’t possibly know.
Leonid pressed his tired eyes hard under his palms.
“If you’re too tired, I can come back later.”
“It’s fine. Speak. You’ve prepared for the meeting, right?”
“Actually, that’s why I’m here.”
Vasily glanced around cautiously before speaking.
They were at a temporary camp on the border between the forest and the hunting grounds, created for the purpose of monster subjugation.
The camp was simply divided by the colors of the tents representing the imperial family and two central noble families—truly a makeshift setup.
This meant that there was also a high probability of people from other factions being around.
Originally, only the initial scouting parties were supposed to be here, but yesterday’s sighting of a high-grade monster had changed the situation.
The imperial family had requested additional personnel capable of handling such monsters, which had led to a meeting of commanders from various factions.
And that was why Leonid was here today.
While there were others in Rostislav capable of confronting a high-level monster, Leonid was the only one immediately available.
Once Vasily confirmed there were no eavesdroppers, he spoke in a lowered voice.
“Your Grace, I hesitated to bring this up, thinking you might already be aware… But has Yekaterina Offenbach disappeared from the mansion?”
“She has disappeared. But there’s been no contact from the mansion about it. How did you know?”
“Yesterday, in the forest, she saved us when we encountered a high-grade monster.”
Leonid raised an eyebrow at Vasily’s words.
“She saved you?”
“Yes. We were completely at the mercy of a hallucination-type monster when she appeared out of nowhere and dealt with it. I don’t know her intentions, but it would be problematic if other scouting parties found out, so I was going to follow her. However, I had to tend to our people and couldn’t pursue her. It’s unclear whether she returned to the mansion, and I’ve been trying to locate her since then, not sure if she returned to the mansion after that.”
“Was there any sign that other scouting parties noticed?”
“From what I’ve gathered, there were signs in the forest that someone had been slaughtering monsters, but no one has been able to identify the perpetrator. We couldn’t find her either.”
“That’s to be expected. I took her away myself. It’s a relief no one noticed.”
Vasily’s mouth dropped open in shock.
“Are you saying you personally handled this, Your Grace? But if you were there, couldn’t you have said something!”
“It wasn’t the right situation for that. The priority was to get Yekaterina Offenbach out without the others catching on.”
Leonid hadn’t thought Yekaterina would meet Vasily, which is why he didn’t alert him. Spreading the news that she had left the mansion could bring no good.
“Thankfully, Yuri helped, or I might not have been able to extract her unnoticed. Understand this.”
“Ah, some of the late returnees mentioned seeing Prince Yuri; now it all makes sense. I understand.”
