"Pu-haa!"
It was already the middle of the night when Tudor and Bianca crawled out of the water.
The air was icy cold. The wind cut like a knife.
As they turned their heads, they could see the Usher mansion casting a grim shadow over the swampy area that was filled with evil spirits of the Red Death.
"Get it."
"...Yes."
Tudor took Bianca's outstretched hand.
Hand in hand, they raced down the mountain path.
pudeudeug-
A bird flapped its wings behind them.
Tudor and Bianca ran frantically through the dead trees that sprouted up like spines from burned corpses.
Their faces and bodies were scratched by sharp branches and thorns, but they had no time to think about it.
Red death dancing with phosphorus and sulfur fire and water mist wandering over the swamp.
Tudor and Bianca ran to their deaths through the darkness, relying on the fading favor of the saintess.
pudeudeug-
The sound of birds flapping their wings came a little closer.
Then.
…thud!
Tudor stopped running and fell to his knees on the ground.
Bianca gasped and helped him up.
"Tudor, are you okay?"
"...um."
A reddish glow continued to spread across Tudor's side where Bianca's arrow had grazed him.
It was a fatal wound, even if it only grazed.
Bianca hesitated for a moment, then spoke with determination.
"Get up."
"...."
But Tudor shook his head.
"You never know when the demon will come after you. Vikir told us never to let our guard down until we're over the ridge."
"Do you think I'm letting my guard down right now?"
"Uh. It looks that way."
Tudor quietly pushed Bianca away.
"You go ahead. I'll get some rest and catch up."
"Don't give a shit."
Bianca closes the distance that Tudor pushed away.
She grabbed Tudor by the scruff of the neck and spoke.
"You realize there's nothing cool about what you're doing, right?"
"I'm not doing this to be cool. Do you still not know me?"
"So you know me?"
"...."
Tudor and Bianca's gazes locked for a moment.
Tudor spoke in a low voice.
"That night. You saved me when I nearly lost my life within the family, and you risked your own."
"...."
"Now it's my turn. I can't walk anymore anyway. Let me do something for you one last time."
Tudor's eyes, dying of blood loss and hypothermia, sparked.
It was the last spark of light that only a being who sensed the end of his life could give off.
...But.
"If you have the stamina for bullshit, walk."
Bianca's glare was even more overwhelming than Tudor's.
"That night. I may have saved you, but you saved me."
"...."
"Do you have any idea how relieved and grateful I was to see you still alive at the end of where I ran with my lungs bursting... Do you know how relieved and grateful I was at that time?"
Bianca curled her arms around Tudor's shoulders and pulled him close.
Then she growled.
"So live, somehow. As long as I live, you live. When I'm dead, it's up to you whether to search or not."
"...."
Tudor was speechless at Bianca's non-threatening threat.
Soon, they were climbing the mountain path again.
Tudor's mana was long gone, and his body was riddled with cuts, large and small, from the mansion's traps.
His drenched body was constantly losing heat.
pudeudeug-
Behind him, he heard the sound of another bird flapping its wings.
It was only a few feet away now.
"...Bianca."
Tudor, barely walking with the aid of his spear, spoke in a fading voice.
Bianca looked up.
"Thank you."
"...What an ominous way to start a greeting under the circumstances."
"Just. I figured it was now or never."
"Oh, really!"
At that moment, Bianca turns her head.
Thud!
Tudor fell to the ground.
"...."
Bianca stared at Tudor in disbelief.
And she cowered down next to him, too.
"...Yes. Well done, that was good enough."
There was no response from the fallen Tudor.
Then, as Bianca looked at him, tears began to form in her eyes.
Bianca's once proud and confident expression quickly falls away, and she looks like a woman her own age.
She hugged Tudor tightly as his breathing slowed and bowed her head.
In the end, they didn't make it over the promised ridge, but they did manage to lure the demon away and set off the black firecrackers.
It was a situation where she was prepared as it was not a plan made with the survival probability of the two used as bait in mind in the first place.
"Thank you. For coming with me."
She pressed her lips to Tudor's mouth.
pudeudeug-
And a mysterious sound gets closer and closer.
Bianca lifted her head, a look of determination on her face.
She had no strength left, but she would resist with every last ounce of energy she had.
"I will die rather than have my body taken by you!"
She raised her bow as she stood before Tudor.
Across the inky darkness, she could see two red, blazing eyeballs.
Sprinkling an eerie red light, it was like seeing the dog of death from a grotesque legend come to life.
... but.
Flutter-.
What appeared in front of Bianca was not a demon, but something else entirely.
"You still look lively, which is good."
Vikir. The Night Hound stepped out of the shadows.
Bianca's eyes widened.
"Vikir? How are you here? Isn't the meeting place over the ridge?"
"I picked you up. Well, I took some risks."
With that, Vikir raised his hand.
A werewolf, a ghoul, a giant carapace centipede, a mountain turtle, a griffin, ... and several other creatures had their throats slit and were dripping blood.
Bianca suddenly realized that she and Tudor had made it this far without being attacked by any of the creatures.
That was because Vikir had been silently clearing the escape route all this time.
When they'd first made their plan, he'd been the one to abandon them, but he'd actually cared for them more than anyone else.
"...Vikir."
Bianca's voice trembled, but Vikir waved her off as if it were no big deal.
Meanwhile.
Vikir turned his head and watched the trajectory of the black firecrackers as they rose above the Usher mansion.
Those firecrackers could only mean one thing.
Roderick Usher was dead, or at least as dead as he could be.
Bianca explained.
"My father is alive. But because of the red death poison that has taken over the grounds of the mansion...."
"I see the situation. Save your strength for the rest of the story."
With that, Vikir walked over to the fallen Tudor.
After checking his pulse, Vikir nodded.
"He'll be fine. With some potions and a holy power poultice, he should be up and about in no time."
"Well, do you think we can do that? We have to go over the ridge...."
"Yes, if you stay still."
"Huh? What's that...?"
Bianca didn't even have time to ask.
hwag!
Vikir scooped Tudor up on the spot. With Bianca on his side, he started running up the hill.
"What?"
Bianca panicked, but then squeezed her eyes shut.
Vikir's strength and speed were immense, and even with Tudor and Bianca on his back, he could climb the steep rock face in the blink of an eye.
It was like a bird gliding.
'...Thank God.'
Vikir was also relieved by the current situation.
In the original story, this was the place where Tudor died, and where Bianca's mind went crazy.
Usher's restoration operation.
It was supposed to happen much later than it did, but it was the right place.
Prior to the restoration of Usher, Tudor is gravely wounded while attempting to stop Bianca from being brainwashed by a demon, and as a result, he is unable to penetrate the Daylily of the Demon Legion and dies a long, hard death after leading his allies to safety.
Bianca is driven to madness by the guilt of having failed to restore her family name and of having harmed Tudor, her lifelong childhood friend and lover who had been there for her in her darkest time.
... But fate has changed.
Tudor survives, and Bianca's sanity is restored.
This was only possible because, at a crucial moment, Bianca refused to be brainwashed by Madeline.
" ...I guess we have to thank Lovegood."
Vikir stared at the brooch in Bianca's hair.
A hairpin with a pink heart-shaped brooch attached to it.
It's called a "love shield.
It was an artifact that Vikir had gotten back in the day when he participated in the University League.
To be more precise, Vikir had gotten Decarabia as a reward for his excellent performance in the University League.
At the time, there was a student named Merlini Lovegood who had better grades than Vikir, and the prize she received was this artifact called 'Love Shield'.
'The artifact I won is called the Love Shield. It's a hairpin with a heart-shaped brooch, and it's supposed to protect against any kind of powerful brainwashing or mind control magic once you wear it, but only if you have someone you truly love by your side!'
The effect of this artifact, called the Love Shield, is a one-time defense against all powerful brainwashing.
However, the artifact requires the presence of someone you truly love for it to work.
<-PS. Merlinie Lovegood, President of Vi*Sa*Mo->
-'Perfume, skin lotion, shoes, belts, hats, sunglasses, shirts, bags, fountain pens, ties, wallets, sneakers, hairpins... Oh my. There is also an artifact that was used as a prize in the university league. Also, what is this? It's the key to the carriage?'
In the past, Lovegood had mailed the artifact to Vikir as a gesture of fandom, and Vikir had kept it and handed it to Bianca before infiltrating the Usher mansion.
'Take these with you.'
Bianca with a hairpin, Tudor with red and black firecrackers.
Vikir's preparation, just in case, saved Tudor and Bianca from a harsh fate.
" ...It's the first time I've seen a face.."
Vikir, who was looking at his own face in a puddle on the ground, turned his head.
kkoog-
He saw Tudor fainting and Bianca's hands clasped together as she looked at Tudor.
* * *
Then.
Vikir found a temporary camp on the ridge, and in a pit covered with fallen leaves, he took out the potion he had placed beforehand and fed it to Tudor.
"...Huagh? Why am I still alive?"
Bianca cried out as Tudor woke up with a loud scream.
Just then.
pudeudeug-
The sound of a bird flapping its wings came from far behind them.
Up on the ridge, Vikir stood in full view of Usher's mansion.
just as expected.
[...Find them! ...Must find them!]
He could hear Madeline's poisoned voice and the sounds of Usher's knights moving about.
Tudor and Bianca's eyes widened.
"Get ready."
Vikir spoke.
"It's time to pay them back."