Episode 442 The Fall of the Usher Family (2)
The Usher family’s mansion is truly a fortress.
If Tochka was a natural fortress created by the natural environment, the Usher family’s mansion was a man-made fortress full of all kinds of bizarre traps.
Books and picture frames that sometimes crumble, curtains that flutter even when the wind isn’t blowing, the slow-moving gears of a grandfather clock, statues that suddenly burst into laughter, dead flowers, dead flowers, stuffed animals trapped in flower pots, sloppily stacked brick walls, overly magnificent chandeliers, etc.. …. All were traps full of malice towards the intruder.
But naturally, Bianca, who was born as the owner of this mansion and has lived in it ever since, was able to destroy all of this and enter the interior.
“It’s okay to pass through the hallway when the bookshelves fall and the books on them fall. Oh, it’s limited to horror stories. Not when books of other genres fall. Only ‘The Masque of the Red Death,’ ‘The Black Cat,’ and ‘The Cask of Amontillado.’ Only when the books titled ‘The Jumping Frog or Eight Chained Orangutans’, ‘The Heart of Betrayal’ and ‘The Adventures of Arthur Gordon Pym’ fall to the floor.”
“When the curtains flutter even slightly, you must lie low on the floor unconditionally. It doesn’t matter if the wind blows or not.”
“When the grandfather clock strikes the hour, the secret door between the corridors opens. Of course, you can’t go right in just because it opens. You have to open the door exactly after 5 minutes. .”
“When that statue laughs, you have to be careful with everything around you. It doesn’t trigger any traps, but… I like it when the intruder seems like it’s about to die miserably.”
“If you see a dead, skinny plant in a flower pot, never walk past it. We don’t grow any plants at all in our house.”
“You can just walk past the stuffed animals. But there are some that move their eyeballs occasionally, and when you see them, they unconditionally cover their ears and quickly jump forward.”
“If you see a wall made of red bricks, be careful not to touch your body. If you have no choice but to touch it, run away immediately. If someone calls your name from behind, never look back.”
“Under no circumstances should you pass under the chandelier. But if you must pass, never look at the chandelier. Instead, keep your eyes on the shadow of the chandelier on the floor.”
Bianca penetrated many traps and mazes and penetrated deep into the mansion.
Tudor, who followed him, spoke softly.
“…I can understand why your personality is so twisted.”
“What is this child?”
Bianca punched Tudor in the head once and turned her head away.
“Huh! Well, it’s a bit far from a normal house.”
She added in a very small whisper at the end.
“…But thank you for following me all the way here.”
“what?”
“I didn’t say anything. Let’s go.”
Bianca dragged Tudor away.
Before long, Bianca and Tudor were able to stand in front of Lord Rodrick Usher’s bedroom.
Here, too, the red aura of death was rampant.
The level of miasma that people can’t stand spreads along with the water mist that pushes into the mansion.
It was spinning and jumping around the empty corridors like a red clown dancing demon.
Even though Bianca and Tudor drank the essence of the saint’s tears created by Dolores, they felt a rising vomit.
yet. The bedroom door was open. A
hinge
that has rusted in the water mist emits a dying groan.
The scenery behind the slowly opening door made Bianca and Tudor’s eyes wide open.
“father!”
Bianca involuntarily exclaimed.
The person sitting in the chair with a sullen attitude is definitely Roderick, Bianca’s father and current head of the Usher family.
At first glance, he looked like a mummy with a pale complexion that made him look like a corpse, but he was alive with his eyes open.
“…”
But he didn’t seem to be able to speak.
His black tongue moved a few times inside his parched, shrunken lips, but all that came out of his burnt throat was the turning of a broken clock.
“…Father! How can you look so cruel!”
Bianca stroked Rodrick’s cheeks in disbelief.
But there was nothing in Rodrick’s eyes as he looked at her.
Only the blank, cloudy whites and the pupils with blue flesh embedded in them are fixed to the front.
Watching Roderick’s condition, Tudor bit his lip.
“……It’s the same as my father’s condition.”
Just as the spear king Cervantes died in a crippled state due to the red death, Rodrick was also in the same state.
However, if Cervantes committed suicide by squeezing his last energy, Roderick is stubbornly stubborn until the end.
“Red death is spreading through the water mist inside the mansion. Apparently, the devil poisoned the swamp. Since the mansion was built on top of a swamp, the entire site was slowly engulfed in poison.”
After assessing the situation, Tudor took out a firecracker from his pocket.
Red firecrackers and black firecrackers.
‘After confirming whether Roderick, the head of the Usher family, is alive or dead, set off red firecrackers if he is alive and can escape together, and black firecrackers if he is already dead or alive but unable to move.’
Bikir said this before infiltrating the Usher mansion.
Tudor fell to his hands and pondered, then bit his lip.
“He’s alive. Rodrick is alive.”
Eventually, Tudor chose red firecrackers.
Tudor is about to take it to the window.
at that time.
…Teouk!
There was a hand snatching Tudor’s wrist.
It was Bianca.
“……Are you crazy?”
She snatched the red firecracker from Tudor’s hand and threw it out the window into the swamp.
“Is there any way to kill all the other kids?”
“No! Lord Rodrick is alive!”
“Don’t you remember what Bikir said? My father… he can’t move anymore.”
Bianca bowed her head and trembled.
She must be the one who wants to light the red firecracker more than anyone else at this moment.
Tudor had no choice but to bow his head looking at Bianca.
Right then.
“Hohohoho- Aren’t you giving up too soon?”
There was a voice that caught the attention of Bianca and Tudor.
When I turned my head, I saw a woman with a pale complexion, like a corpse, standing there with an awe-inspiring attitude.
Usher for Madeline. Roderick’s sister and the current head of the household.
In fact, it was the dark side that was holding all the power of the Usher family.
“As expected, that father and that daughter. Treating her as someone who died hastily even though her flesh and blood are still alive.”
Madeline glared at Bianca, her corpse-like eyes glinting.
Then he spoke in a voice full of ridicule.
“Do you intend to bury your father alive? Just as your father did to me.”
Madeline had suffered from a serious fever as a child.
Her heartbeat and complexion changed like a corpse, and Rodrick buried her under the ground.
But somehow, Madeline was alive.
After being buried alive, she broke the coffin and dug up the soil to break through the center of the tomb.
Since then, Roderick has been tormented for the rest of his life by the guilt of almost burying his sickly sister alive.
He did whatever his sister asked for, and he risked anything.
Aww-
knowing that, Bianca gnashed her teeth.
“You were a demon from the beginning, right? You took over the body of Aunt Madeline, who died of a fever, and you’ve been tricking your father all this time, right?”
“Hohoho- Well, since when was I a devil? When I was buried alive? Or since I was born? Or was I a devil in the first place?”
Madeline gradually distanced herself from Bianca.
at that time. A line was drawn between Bianca and Madeline.
“Don’t cross the line.”
Tudor. He was blocking Madeline with an unwavering gaze.
Madeline’s eyes narrowed as she saw the gungnir carried on her only arm and the leather decorations hanging under the blade of gungnir.
“Are you taking Pasamonte’s skin off and using it as a window decoration? Playing with the corpse of your uncle who lost in the battle for succession to the throne. It’s a bit bizarre to be called a knight of the Don Quixote family who pursues justice and uprightness, right?”
Despite Madeline’s smirks, Tudor did not forget his original purpose.
Tuck-
Tudor grabbed Bianca’s hand and started running back.
“Run Bianca! We have to get out!”
However, Tudor and Bianca’s attempts were in vain.
When Madeline reached out, the surroundings seemed to freeze, and then a thick wall of ice rose up and covered the window.
“Keugh!”
Tudor paused for a moment.
And Madeleine’s alluring voice softly wrapped around Tudor’s ears.
“It looks like you want to leave the mansion. But that’s impossible without my permission.”
“…”
“Hohoho- can you stop staring at me so scary?”
Madeline smiled gracefully, covering her mouth with her hand.
And then he continued to speak as if he were patronizing.
“Actually, getting them out of the mansion isn’t that difficult. As long as they can pass my test.”
“Abandon the idea of seducing me with your three tongues.”
With his back to the ice wall, Tudor gripped the spear tightly.
However, the words that came out of Madeline’s mouth were unexpected.
“Really. If you can pass one very simple test, I’ll let you out of here.”
“……?”
When Tudor frowned, Madeline immediately continued.
“All you have to do is prove that you are brave enough to pass my test. They say that the knights of the Donquixote family are very brave.
It was an openly cheap provocation, but Tudor had no choice.
Then Madeline spoke.
“‘Where is the one who can kill me?’ If you can say these words out of your mouth three times, I will acknowledge your courage. I will open the door to the mansion.”
It was an easy transaction. Currently, there is no ambush here except for Madeline.
Tudor and Bianca looked at each other with hard expressions.
The eyes of the two quickly crossed in midair.
And soon, after confirming once again that there was no danger around him, Tudor opened his mouth.
“Where is the one who can kill me? Where is the one who can kill me? Where is the one who can kill me?”
There was firm faith in Tudor’s words.
Except for the devil in front of him, there is no existence that would try to harm him.
It was a matter of course.
……however.
Upon hearing Tudor’s voice, Madeline’s eyes softened.
The moment when Tudor broke out in a cold sweat in front of that ominous ship.
“…Here it is.”
Right behind Tudor’s back, a voice sounded as if possessed by something.
