Please Forget Me - Chapter 212

‧₊˚ ☁️⋅♡𓂃 ࣪ ִֶָ☾.

The smell of burning wood, toasted bread, and sharp blood.

Before leaving, his body had smelled of fresh soap, but now there was a strange mixture that didn’t quite fit—smoke from the firewood, the scent of bread, the acrid stench of gunpowder, and the coppery tang of blood.

My wicked imagination ran away with me. I unwittingly pictured the moment when those scents—rarely mingling together—merged all at once.

He went all the way to the monastery and killed all the other monks. It hadn’t taken long, so there was still plenty of daylight left. Killian, who thought it a waste to wait idly, returned to knead and bake bread for his wife, right where the monks he had killed bled and cooled.

“It’s a warm bread after a long time. Try it before it gets cold.”

He offered the bread with a proud smile as if he had just baked it in our own kitchen—completely nonchalant.

Killing six people, stealing their belongings, baking bread in their oven… as if it were nothing.

It couldn’t be true. It shouldn’t be true.

I desperately searched his face for any trace of pain he hadn’t hidden, but all I got was a stubborn piece of bread pressed into my mouth.

“How is it?”

It almost tasted like blood.

“It’s good.”

Killian smiled happily at my lie. I clenched my already queasy stomach, forced myself to chew and swallow the bread.

I was an accomplice. No, since this man changed because of me, I should be the main culprit.

“My God… that damned beast dared to—”

My thoughts involuntarily returned to the moment he changed.

“I’m sorry, I should have killed him earlier. Why did I hesitate? I’m sorry. It’s my fault.”

Killian had killed the Major like slaughtering livestock and sincerely apologized to me for not finishing the job sooner.

The Major was already dead, yet his eyes still wanted to kill him. Probably then, he had already killed the gentle part of himself. Since that day, he had changed.

“Mr. Renner… please let me just check if he’s alright.”

“Mrs. Werner, please be quiet.”

“I don’t know what circumstances led you to this, but I know you’re a kind person. Your kindness wasn’t just smoke, so please…”

“Mrs. Werner.”

“Please, or just lay him down gently so he can breathe easy…”

“How about I send the principal straight to hell so he can rest forever?”

“……”

That day, when Mrs. Werner begged for the principal’s life, I first saw the man I knew as ‘Johann’ transform.

Who was this man who spoke such evil words in that gentle voice?

My husband felt even more unfamiliar, and I trembled in fear.

“If you don’t shut your mouth, I’ll kill the one you love.”

At the time, I was shocked—it was a threat unlike anything I’d seen from the man I knew. But later, I used the same threat, holding the principal’s life over Mrs. Werner to silence her, so I understood that behavior.

I understand today’s actions too.

The monks remaining at the monastery had to be silenced. They might have heard about us from other monks. If those monks who came to check on us didn’t return, they’d call in the military.

Since the monastery was isolated from the village, no one would suspect even if the monks didn’t appear for a while. That bought us time until I could set out again.

‘So Killian made the right decision.’

‘But was it really necessary to go that far?’

My mind understood, but a corner of my heart still asked:

‘What are you talking about? We nearly lost our lives because we spared the major.’

Though I felt an urge to poison the Major in his drink and regretted not doing it sooner. If I had acted first, we wouldn’t be fugitives, and Killian wouldn’t have had to dirty his hands or change.

Now, a moment’s hesitation and a bit of mercy could turn into a lethal poison for us.

Killian must have thought the same, which is why he chased down the monks without hesitation and killed them without mercy.

So I understand Killian.

What I can’t understand is how the same man who agonized over killing one guilty soldier now seems unfazed after killing six innocent civilians. Why doesn’t he seem troubled today?