Please Kill Me - Chapter 90
“If caught, the runaway dies.”
Dmitry, a man with silvery-white hair standing quietly a step behind Sergei, said. His calm voice contrasted sharply with Sergei’s barely restrained fury and brought a sudden stillness.
The young man’s voice continued again.
“Everything in Offenbach costs a life. For minor offenses, we imprison and administer physical punishment, but for more severe crimes, execution is inevitable. Depending on the severity, the execution might be delayed for a week, a fortnight, or even a month.”
“…The duration is adjusted?”
“The graver the crime, the longer it takes to reach death, naturally. The criminals should be grateful they can atone with their lives.”
Dmitry detailed the methods of executing criminals in excessive detail. It was detailed enough to bring a mixture of horror and disbelief among everyone present.
After a moment of heavy silence, Sergei spoke again.
“Enough explanations. So, how did those who encountered the high-grade monster survive? I heard there were no capable fighters among them. Who helped them?”
Instead of Leonid, it was Vasily who responded. With the story they had agreed upon during their way here; that Leonid had briefly intervened to save them following Yuri’s request. With the timing matching up and no witnesses, the questioning didn’t last long.
Once Sergei heard what he wanted, he left the meeting abruptly, followed by Piotr, who discreetly glanced at the remaining Rostislav knights before disappearing.
Leonid and Vasily remained seated, as if glued on, long after everyone else had left the tent.
Leonid’s mind replayed a fragment of their earlier conversation relentlessly:
— So, will I be imprisoned once we get back?
— Have you always had a penchant for getting imprisoned?
— I’m a fugitive, after all.
— Does your side imprison fugitives?
— It depends on the circumstances.
The thought of these exchanges made his stomach churn with frustration and emptiness. He felt even more sick as he hadn’t eaten anything.
He remembered how he had interpreted her words, “It depends on the circumstances,” and how casually he had taken them. Watching Yekaterina talk so nonchalantly, he realized he had taken it half-jokingly.
Leonid wished he could go back to the past. He had learned too much about someone else.
* * *
Meanwhile, at the First Prince’s palace.
“Do you remember? So, we decided that whoever brought fresh strawberries would win. How could anyone find unfrozen strawberries in Ethiel! It’s ridiculous, even thinking back on it. Isn’t it?”
“Yes, it is.”
Yekaterina once again sat across from Larisa, the madwoman. Unsurprisingly, it was Yuri’s request.
— Even if my mother’s sanity doesn’t return, it’s been so long since I’ve seen her happy…
With no real reason to refuse, Yekaterina had agreed willingly. She had plenty of time before she died, and making Larisa happy was not difficult.
Larisa only needed Yekaterina’s presence to babble happily.
— I also want to gather information about my mother’s madness. Until now, I had no idea how to approach it.
So Yekaterina spent hours listening to Larisa’s stories. As a result, she learned a bit about Larisa’s condition.
Firstly, Larisa wasn’t just reminiscing.
“Ha, it’s so good to see you again, sister. Life in the palace has been so hard. I wish you could stay longer. Tomorrow, I have to return to the palace again.”
Larisa’s mind was trapped in the day she had last seen Marina in a lucid state.
The reason Larisa constantly told stories of the past was simple.
She was stuck in that moment of reunion with Marina.
Naturally, she wanted to share her memories. Childhood pranks, thoughts and daily lives shared as they grew up, the special memories made more enjoyable by being together.
After reminiscing for a while, Larisa would lean on Marina and confide her current sorrows.
“The imperial palace never feels like home, no matter how long I stay. I feel so anxious and uncomfortable, as if everyone is watching my every move… I can’t form any attachment to anything here. If I had known it would be like this, I wouldn’t have fallen in love with His Majesty…”
Every woman in the palace had her own reason for being there, but Larisa was one who had entered the palace out of love for the Emperor. Perhaps if she hadn’t loved him, she could have endured better.
But Yekaterina, who knew little of palace life or love, could only guess.
“His Majesty is so fickle. He gets angry too easily and casts me aside too readily… and then comes back to me again. Is it to give me false hope? What should I have done?”
“Yes… what could I have done?”
Yekaterina’s dry lips moved slowly as she watched Larisa, who was lying with her head on her lap.
It was something she normally wouldn’t have done. But maybe being around someone who talked so much had made her more talkative, or perhaps it was the certainty that her words wouldn’t be understood that made her speak up.
