Chapter 11

The answer came, and Ekaterina had no intention of continuing the exhausting conversation.

“Thank you for caring. Then I will… … .”

“Ekaterina.”

But Leonid caught her again.

Ekaterina was starting to get annoyed by him now.

He used to say useless things in the interrogation room before returning, and he still does. It would be easier to understand the intention if there was something to wish for, but why the hell is this happening?

Or is it a characteristic of Rostislav?

Ekaterina tried to get the question out of her mouth without any sieves. If only Leonid hadn’t opened his mouth first.

“Do you think I will be able to let you go after I hear that?”

“Are there any problems with my story?”

“It’s surprising that you don’t think there is. Or do you think I can’t be worried about you?

Ekaterina was momentarily speechless. Because the word ‘worry’ was so unfamiliar.

And Leonid’s face when he spoke like that looked quite familiar.

– Do you not want to live?

Yes. Leonid, who asked her like that in the interrogation room, had just that kind of face. As if he had chewed a cow, something quite uncomfortable on his face.

“I know for sure what would happen if I let you go like this, but do you think I can let you go? It’s not like there’s no room left in Rostislav.”

“I don’t understand why you care about me.”

It’s not that I didn’t understand it, but it’s the first time I’ve heard something I don’t understand.

Why on earth do you care?

“We met for the first time today.”

It wasn’t even a very pleasant meeting.

Ekaterina and Leonid are members of a hostile family. One even asked the other to kill them when they first met today. In the meantime, what else do you have to worry about?

“Is it that important? It’s just a favor. I am not asking for anything in return.”

“There is no favor that does not expect a reward.”As soon as I spit it out, my mind felt a little refreshed. Ekaterina has always acted faster than expected.

‘Yes.’

There is no favor that does not expect a reward. This was Catherine’s truth.

People are extremely indifferent to others. In the world, if five or six people died from an infectious disease next door, the door was locked to prevent the spread of the disease. If there was a child wandering on a snowy street, the world was passing by, pretending not to see him.

Therefore, it is only natural that the person who reached out to the child had the intention to raise the child well and use it. It is natural for the person who took the child to reciprocate as desired.

So, what do you, who reached out to me now, want from the person you are about to kill?

‘Something must have a purpose to use it.’

If she knew the purpose, she was willing to accept the offer.

In the first place, Ekaterina didn’t reject Leonid’s offer because she didn’t like it.

He said that there was no reason for the favor, so she just rejected it, and she could accept any offer of a deal with a clear purpose and reward.

But what do you pay in return?

I came here with nothing only because I thought I was going to die. He didn’t ask me for those common precious metals, and he didn’t ask for any useful information.

“Oh, if you want to know about Offenbach, I think I might be able to help. It is easy to draw even the structure of the capital and mansion. It will be useful if you want to send intruders.”

“If I had been Offenbach, it would have been a very harsh offer to accept.”

“Are you accepting me?”

“Unfortunately, such a mean way is not to my taste.”

“Then even if you need a mercenary?”

This time, Leonid frowned.

“If that’s the case, I can help. That’s my specialty.”

“Hire you as a mercenary and use you?”

“Whether it’s a bodyguard, a request to kill someone, whatever. I know that many families use mercenaries when they don’t want to get their hands dirty.”

“Then why don’t you go to that family?”

“I hadn’t thought of that. Thank you for letting me know.”Ekaterina frowned and leaned back on the window sill. and caught again.

Thanks to this, the two pairs of eyes shared their gazes in the air again.

Leonid seemed to know what Ekaterina’s gaze meant without even asking.

‘Aren’t you going to put this down?’

It seems that the indifferent chirping voice is already resounding in his head.

Leonid pulled off his hands as they fell, and so did Ekaterina’s lips.

“… … History sometimes tells stories of foolish people who felt superior to their enemy’s family by enslaving them.”

Again, Leonid could understand what Ekaterina meant.

Are you one of those fools too?

“… … It’s not like that.”

“Then why do you keep holding on to me?”

Why do you want to do me a favor?

To Catherine’s question, Leonid could not find an excuse to properly answer.

No, he never thought that doing a favor would be this difficult in the first place. I’m sure you’ll be asked about your favor in this way.

He was a very different person. It’s like facing a purple apple.

‘There is no favor that does not expect a reward.’

Even if you don’t have a face if you can see that you are having a hard time, wouldn’t you be willing to hand over a coin? A heartless person might turn away, but at least Leonid has lived that way.

If someone is having a hard time, do them a favor, and that too sometimes leans in someone’s favor.

Of course, Leonid’s favor had a purpose.

The fact that having Ekaterina with you would be a good condition to start a fight with Offenbach.

But that wasn’t all of the favor.

‘The biggest problem is that I’m concerned.’

As long as he was certain that Ekaterina would return to visit Leonid, Leonid didn’t want to worry too much about where she was.

There is no sense of indebtedness to using Ekaterina as a cause. Because it was Ekaterina who broke in first.

But other than that, he didn’t even care about it, so it was frustrating.

It wasn’t enough that she came to be killed by him from the beginning, she said that she would casually enter a torture device like the black room.

Ekaterina looked like she had given up on everything.

If you leave her alone, it’s like jumping into an ice-cold lake. No, as if she were some kind of thin ice.

It looked like it would crack if I made a little mistake.

So I have no choice but to look.

Ekaterina didn’t seem to understand this simple logic.

However, if he continued to remain silent, Ekaterina would almost certainly jump through that window.

What kind of dilemma is this?

In the end, Leonid burst into anger.

“Is it my fault that I’m someone who cares so much?”

“… … Are you mad now?”

“Don’t count it like that. Just do it your way Whether you go into a black room or break into someone else’s house.”

“I don’t know why you’re angry. Did I provoke you?”

“It’s frustrating.”

Leonid chewed on the profanity with his teeth, then walked closer to Ekaterina.

“Where are the people who break into someone’s house to be killed by them? I don’t know why you want to die, but you have to consider my position, which is why I’ve come to you at will.”

I thought that if I talked like this, the question of why you care about yourself would come back again.

“You know the story of Princess Evanna and Prince Terenti, right?”

What a strange story is back.

“Why that classic?”

“There was a war between the two countries, and the princess and the prince were in love with each other. You know how the story ends, right?”

“Aren’t they both dead?”

“If you don’t want to die, you better not like me.”

AHA.

Only then did Leonid understand the flow of this strange conversation.Hearing what she had just said a while ago, Ekaterina misunderstood that Leonid had fallen in love with her.

In fact, in terms of words, the misunderstanding was not quite out of the ordinary.

You may have heard that the word you care about is the word you like.

However, that was only from Ekaterina’s point of view, not Leonid’s.

‘Ha’

Who likes whom now?

If I said it twice, you can even wear a wedding ring on your ring finger. Leonid bit the inside of his molars.

“These misunderstandings only let me know that this is an envoy from this side as well.”

“The book says that it is usually too late after you realize your heart. Don’t like someone who’s going to die soon.”

“So, I don’t like-”

squeak.

The sound of someone’s stomach rumbled loudly between the two of them as they got closer.

Leonid forgot that he had been frowning the whole time and looked at Ekaterina.

Ekaterina then put her hand on her stomach and looked at him, and met Leonid’s gaze a moment later.

“Do you provide any meals during my stay?”

It was the moment when there was a food eater in the duchy of Rostislav. The quarrels that had been fought so far were ridiculously instantaneous.