Episode 444 The Fall of the Usher Family (4)
“Fu-ha!”
It was already midnight when Tudor and Bianca crawled ashore.
An atmosphere so cold that ice freezes. The wind that blows is fierce like a knife.
As he turned his head, he saw the Usher mansion cast a gloomy shadow over the swamps, where the spirits of the red death swarmed.
“catch.”
“……huh.”
Tudor took Bianca’s outstretched hand.
The two ran down the mountain road holding each other’s hands.
I heard the sound of a bird flapping its wings behind me
.
Tudor and Bianca ran frantically through the dead trees that grew bony like vertebrae left after a corpse was burned.
There were scars all over his face and body from sharp branches and thorns, but he had no time to think about such things.
The red death dancing with the phosphorus and brimstone fire mists floating over the swamp.
Tudor and Bianca ran to their death in the dark, relying on one of the saint’s blessings, which was gradually fading. The sound of a
bird
flapping its wings came a little closer.
at that time.
…thud!
Tudor stopped running and suddenly knelt on the ground.
Bianca is startled and supports Tudor.
“Tudor! Are you okay?”
“……Um.”
A red aura continued to spread across the side where Bianca’s arrow had passed.
No matter how much I brushed it, it was pretty serious.
After thinking for a while, Bianca said with a determined expression.
“Get up.”
“…”
But Tudor shook his head.
“You never know when the devil will come after you. Vikir told you not to be on your guard until you cross the ridge.”
“Does it look like I’m being careless?”
“Uh. It looks like that.”
Tudor quietly pushed Bianca away.
“Go first. I’ll rest a little and follow you.”
“Don’t be mean.”
Bianca closes the distance that Tudor pushed away.
She said, grabbing Tudor by the collar.
“You know what you’re doing right now isn’t cool, right?”
“I’m not doing this to look cool. Do you still not know me?”
“So you know me?”
“…”
Tudor and Bianca’s gazes met for a while and remained there.
Tudor said in a low voice.
“That night. You saved me from almost losing my life within the family. You risked your life too.”
“…”
“Now it’s my turn. I can’t walk anymore anyway. Let me do something for you one last time.”
Tudor’s eyes, which had been dying from blood loss and hypothermia, lit up.
It was the last light that only beings who had intuited the end of life could radiate.
……however.
“If you have the stamina to talk bullshit, go for a walk.”
Bianca’s gaze was even more overwhelming than Tudor’s.
“That night. I saved you, but you were the one who saved me.”
“…”
“Do you know how lucky I was that you were alive? When I saw you still alive at the end of the place where my lungs exploded and ran… You know how relieved and grateful I was at that time. ?”
Bianca rolled Tudor’s collar and pulled him closer.
And growled.
“So live. Somehow. As long as I’m alive, you should live too. After I die, then you decide whether to follow through or not.”
“…”
Tudor didn’t say anything to Bianca’s non-threatening threats.
Soon after, the two started climbing the mountain path again.
The mana has been used up long ago, and the body is full of large and small wounds from breaking through the mansion’s traps.
Body heat continued to escape from the drenched body. I heard the sound of a
bird
flapping its wings again.
It was really not far away now.
“……Bianca.”
Tudor, who was barely walking on the ledge, opened his mouth in a dying voice.
Bianca also raises her head.
“thank you.”
“……What are you doing ominously? Greetings in this situation.”
“Just. I don’t think I can do it now or not.”
“Oh really!”
The moment Bianca turns her head away.
thud!
Tudor fell to the floor.
“…”
Bianca looked at Tudor like that.
And she, too, sat quietly beside Tudor.
“……Yes. Well done. This was great enough.”
There is no answer from the fallen Tudor.
Then, tears began to form in Bianca’s eyes as she looked at Tudor.
Bianca, who had been confident and aloof, quickly collapsed and took on the appearance of an ordinary woman of her age.
She bowed her head, hugging the dying Tudor tightly.
In the end, they couldn’t cross the ridge they had promised, but they succeeded in luring the devil and setting off black firecrackers.
It was a situation that was prepared as much as it was not a plan with the survival probability of the two used as bait in the first place.
“Thank you. For being with me.”
She put her lips to Tudor’s mouth.
Puddeuk-
And the sound of a question that gets closer and closer.
Bianca raised her head with a determined expression.
Although there was no more strength left, it was the intention to gather up the last energy and resist.
“I’d rather die than lose myself to you!”
She stood in front of Tudor and raised her bow.
yet. On the other side of the thick darkness, I see two eyeballs burning red.
It gave off an eerie red light, and it was like seeing a dog of death in a grotesque legend come to life.
……but.
Flutter-
The person who appeared in front of Bianca was not the devil, but a completely different being.
“You still look lively. Thank goodness.”
Bikir. The night hound emerged from the darkness.
Bianca’s eyes widened.
“Bikir? W How is this place? The meeting place is over the ridge, isn’t it?”
“I came to meet you. Well, I took a little risk.”
After speaking, Bikir raised his hand.
Werewolves, ghouls, thick-shelled centipedes, mountain turtles, griffins, etc… In addition, several other monsters were dripping blood with their heads cut off.
It was only then that Bianca realized that she and Tudor had come this far without being attacked by any monsters.
It was because Bikir had been silently cleaning the escape route.
At first, at the time of the plan, it was said that they were abandoning the two, but in fact, Vikir cared about them more than anyone else.
“……Bikir.”
Bianca opened her mouth with a trembling voice, but Bikir waved her hand as if it was nothing.
Meanwhile.
Vikir turned his head to see the trail of black firecrackers rising over the Usher mansion.
That firecracker means one thing.
Roderick Usher is dead. Or they were put in a miserable situation where they could not even die.
Bianca’s explanation continued.
“Father is alive. But because of the miasma of the red death that is encroaching on the entire mansion site…” ”
I understand the situation. From now on, save your stamina.”
Eventually, Vikir approached the fallen Tudor.
Bikir, who looked at his pulse, nodded.
“This is fine. If you eat some potions and get some divine power steaming, you’ll wake up right away.”
“Can you do that? Go over the ridge…”
“It’s possible if you just stay still.”
“Huh? What is that…?”
Bianca didn’t even have time to ask.
sudden!
Bikir picked up Tudor on the spot. Then, with Bianca strapped to her side, she started running up the slope.
“Uh uh uh huh?”
Bianca was taken aback, but soon closed her eyes.
Bikir’s strength and speed were so great that he was able to climb up steep cliffs in the blink of an eye, even with Tudor and Bianca on his back.
It was as fast as a bird gliding.
‘……It’s fortunate.’
Bikir was also relieved in his own way at the current situation.
In the original history, it was this place where Tudor died and where Bianca went insane.
Usher’s Operation Restoration.
Originally, it should have happened much later than now, but the place was certain.
Before restoring the House of Usher, Tudor was seriously injured while trying to stop Bianca from being brainwashed by the devil. As a result, he remained alone without being able to break through the daylily of the demon corps, evacuated his allies, and died a heroic death.
In the end, Bianca goes crazy with the guilt of not being able to restore her family and harming her lifelong childhood friend and lover, Tudor, with her own hands.
……But fate has changed.
Tudor survived and Bianca did not lose her mind either.
It was possible because Bianca was not brainwashed by Madeline at the crucial moment.
“…I guess I should thank Lovegood.”
Bikir peered at one of the brooches in Bianca’s hair.
A hairpin with a pink heart-shaped brooch attached.
Also known as ‘The Shield of Love’.
This was an artifact Bikir obtained when he participated in the University League in the past.
To be more precise, Bikir earned the Decarabia as an award for outstanding performance in the collegiate league.
At that time, there was a student named Merlini Lovegood who had better grades than Bikir, and what she was awarded as a prize was this artifact called ‘Love Shield’.
‘The artifact I got is ‘Love Shield’! It’s a hairpin with a heart-shaped brooch! If you wear it, it is said that it will block any kind of powerful brainwashing or mental magic at least once! However, they say that it only works if you have someone you truly love next to you!’
The effect of this artifact called the defense of love is to block any powerful brainwashing at once.
However, in order for this artifact to activate, there must be someone you truly love next to you.
< To Vikir >
< With love♥ >
< -PS. B*sa*mo chairman Merlini Lovegood- >
‘perfume skin lotion shoes belt hat sunglasses shirt bag fountain pen necktie wallet sneakers hairpin…… OMG. Artifacts that were sold as prizes in the college league are also included. And what else is this? Isn’t that the wagon key?’
In the past, Lovegood sent this artifact he received by mail to Vikir as a fan, and Vikir kept it well and handed it to Bianca before infiltrating the Usher family’s mansion.
‘Take this with you.’
Hair pins for Bianca and red and black fireworks for Tudor.
Thanks to Bikir’s preparations just in case, Tudor and Bianca were able to escape from under the wheel of harsh fate.
“…Is this the first time I’ve benefited from your face?”
Bikir, who was looking at his face reflected in the puddle on the floor, turned his head. I
could
see the hands of the stunned Tudor and Bianca staring at him tightly interlocked.
* * *
Before long.
Bikir found a makeshift camp on the ridge and took out the potion he had placed in the pit covered with leaves and fed it to Tudor.
“……omg? Why am I still alive?”
Bianca bursts into tears as Tudor roars and wakes.
Just then, the sound of a
bird
flapping its wings came from far behind
. [… Follow it!…We
must
find it!]
I could hear Madeline’s voice and the sound of Usher’s knights moving. “Prepare,”
Bikir
said
,
“It’s time to pay back everything.”
