episode_0063

A mansion with a constant roar – Asher stepped outside in front of the entrance.

“Let’s keep going like this…!”

Asher wanted to take a step without hesitation. The scenery outside that he was seeing with his own eyes for the first time in a long while was a sweeter temptation than the masterpiece sweets of a famous dessert artisan.

If we continue like this, it will get easier.

All your hard work and effort will be rewarded.

Reason and emotion. No matter which part you give your body to, the only conclusion you can draw is one that throws itself outward.

However.

Nevertheless, as Asher’s body was thrown forward, a sense of discomfort came over her. It was as if an invisible hand was grabbing Asher’s ankle and not letting go.

A moment of hesitation changed Ashe’s fate.

She finally remembered.

The person who reached the singularity point after the butler and Letia in this mansion. His words and actions grazed my temple like an arrow.

It was a time when I was struggling with Mirelda’s riddle on the second floor.

Ashe, who had jumped into a random painting to overcome the crisis, was welcomed by a beautiful woman.

Bernacien Arcaden.

The mistress of this mansion and Letia’s biological mother. And… a witch like Letia.

Clearly, Bernacien said this.

[Then it’s time to go back now.]

[If… you ever find the courage to stop at the end of your journey, I hope you will come find me.]

[May your future be blessed…]

The end of the journey.

The courage to stop.

At the time, I dismissed it as a meaningless remark and quickly forgot about it. However, at the very end, Bernacien’s request was holding Ashe back.

If escaping the mansion is the end of her journey…

Perhaps now is the time to be courageous.

‘What should I do, what should I do, what should I do…!?’

Even while he is pondering, the butler and Letia are approaching Ashe with each passing moment. If it is a misreading, Ashe will pay the price for her foolishness.

My head was in chaos.

Information overload has led to chaos.

In less than ten seconds, countless families passed through her lifeline.

That must have been the case.

“Hoo…!”

Asher blew away all those distracting thoughts with one deep breath.

“I…”

Swish.

Asher retrieved her front paw. Then, the paw she had retrieved hit the marble floor of the mansion with a thud.

“I’m going back to the mansion.”

He declares with a trembling voice. He takes a step inside the mansion, looking at the butler and Letia coming down the stairs with frightened red eyes.

“Anyway… That day, I was dead!!!”

I scream out loud in an attempt to shake off any trace of fear.

Asher was admitting it himself.

That his actions were nothing more than a desperate attempt to forget his fear.

But Asher didn’t know.

Looking straight ahead with tearful eyes,

The messy footprints that are left behind while trembling are

That it is a symbol of courage that shines brightly like the stars in the lonely night sea.

“Eeee!!!”

Asher ran, shouting. As soon as he did, the front door closed behind him.

Kuung!

A tone of despair took hold of Asher’s consciousness. However, Asher, who was truly leaving footprints toward the future, did not look back.

Kkwaddudduk!

At that moment, a slash passed Asher’s feet.

“Ugh…!”

This power, this precision, it’s still threatening. With just a light swing, it cuts down everything in a straight line.

Previously, when the mansion was damaged, it was immediately restored, but the scars the butler left on the mansion showed no signs of regeneration.

“But… I’m already sick of tag! Thanks to this damn mansion!”

As soon as Asher turned the corner and formed a square, he stopped.

Crunch. Crunch.

The butler’s footsteps are getting closer.

I held onto my tension as the sound of my shoes hitting the marble floor spread, one step at a time.

The moment of operation is a moment.

The moment the butler turns the corner.

“Eat this!”

Chae-Ang!

Asher quickly threw down his sword and crossed the path he had walked while the butler was making a surprise attack.

It was a strategy that would never work against the enemies I had encountered in the mansion so far.

It was a shallow move that worked because the butler had lost mobility in exchange for power.

Blame, blame, blame, blame!

“Sigh… Hehe…!”

Asher ran. He ran so fast that his breath was almost out of his throat.

No matter how poor the butler’s mobility was, he had already given him a distance right in front of his eyes. If he had been careless, his entire torso would have been sliced off by a long-range attack.

Even climbing those many stairs, Asher’s heart and lungs felt like they were going to burst.

Her efforts were not in vain.

Ashe finally reached the midpoint between the first and second floors – in front of the portrait of Bernacien Arcaden.

“Why didn’t I think of this?”

The paintings in this mansion are alive.

Once you enter, they show you their own story.

If so, wouldn’t it be right to consider Bernacien Arcaden’s portrait as a living painting as well…!

“Please… I hope my feeling isn’t wrong…!”

Sreung!

An eerie metallic sound comes from behind, stabbing Asher’s buttocks.

As if urged, Asher closed his eyes tightly and jumped.

“Whaaat!”

Boom!

It was indeed a physical ability worthy of royalty.

It was nothing compared to Hailey’s power, but it was enough to get her on the same level as the painting.

So Asher entered once again.

Into the world of her last paintings while alive.

◇

Inside the world of conversation.

Asher’s eyes widened at the familiar sight.

The interior scenery was very familiar, with smooth, solid marble floors and numerous works of art lining the hallways.

Arkaden’s mansion.

It was a place that contained the scenes that Ash had been exploring and escaping from so far.

“But… there’s no one.”

It was when Asher was mumbling.

“Do you see it?”

“Ugh!”

Whirl!

Asher immediately turned around. Where there should have been nothing, there was an unforgettable person.

“Bernassienne…”

“Nice to meet you, Youngae. No, I guess I should call you Princess from now on?”

“…”

The memory… remains.

The Bernatien on this side still had the same memory of talking to the Bernatien on the second floor. No, maybe it was Bernatien Arkaden himself then and now.

Bernacien chuckled, obviously seeing what Asher was thinking.

“Shall we take a walk, Your Majesty?”

“… Yeah.”

Maybe because my head was busy, I accepted the suggestion without even thinking about it.

In the midst of the confusion, the silence grew longer. As if considering Ashe’s state of mind, Bernacien spoke first.

“Are you curious? What exactly is Bernacien Arkaden in this mansion?”

“Well, that’s right…”

“To conclude, it is me. I am just a parasite on my daughter’s power.”

It was Bernacien who immediately revealed the surprising truth. Then she began to confess an even more amazing truth.

“Actually, I’ve known the princess for a long time. You can guess what it is, right? Well, we made eye contact, right? At the wedding.”

“No way…!”

[Keep it safe. Who knows? An unexpected relationship might come to you.]

This is a joke that Bernacien made to Baekryeon, who received the bouquet on the day of the wedding. At that time, she observed Ashe, who was observing them over Baekryeon’s shoulder, in return.

It was a supernatural phenomenon that occurred when the powers of two witches connected by blood came together.

The strange phenomenon did not stop there, but showed Bernacien a glimpse of the future.

That future also included information about Princess Ashe, who visited the mansion many years later.

[… It’s painful to have an inevitable fate.]

Bernacien’s self-deprecating sentiments were sung in such a context.

What triggered it was the realm of the black box, but it was clear that Baekryeon’s future would not be smooth.

However, I was afraid that Baekryeon’s already difficult fate would become even more difficult, so I didn’t say anything more.

“Where should I start confessing? First of all, how bad is the relationship between us mother and daughter?”

“If you’re mother and daughter… you and Letia?”

“Of course.”

“How can we be on bad terms when we haven’t even seen each other’s faces?”

“That’s bad. Actually, I want to be cute, but… I can’t just accept my daughter’s undesirable stubbornness.”

Bernacien continued his story as he leisurely walked down the hallway on the second floor.

“Your Highness, who do you think is the one who gives trials and rewards?”

“Well, that’s the mansion… Well, it’s Letia.”

“Half is correct.”

At the dubious answer, Asher’s eyes slowly turned towards the other person’s meaningful smile.

“… You too?”

“That’s the perfect answer.”

Bernacien smiled brightly. A smile so bright that it was useless sparkled. The beauty of a woman worthy of being called a wonder of the land radiated various radiances even with a slight change.

“… Why?”

“The daughter is still filled with revenge even after hundreds of years. If things were as they were, the princess would have had no chance of survival when she visited this mansion.”

“But I’m still alive like this.”

“Yes, you interfered by cutting my soul. Instead, you set a condition. If the princess walks the ‘right path’ and finds out the truth about the mansion… I advised the child to stop holding a grudge.”

In other words, the trials that Asher cleared were no different from the collaboration between mother and daughter.

The fact that the method is close to modern games is also because it is a collaboration between Bernacien and Letia.

Letia, who was attached to the method of ‘game’. And Bernacien, who often heard stories about the amusements of this world from Baekryun.

After the coordination of these two people, the form of the ordeal that Asher had been overcoming was born.

“Then did you prepare the butler too?”

“Oh my, you have good reasoning skills?”

“Your daughter, with her reasoning skills and her wit, doesn’t seem like she’d let go of the butler…!!!”

“Ah, ahaha… ahaha…”

Bernacien scratched the bridge of his nose as if embarrassed. If you think about it, it was an obvious inference, but it suddenly seemed like he was looking down on Ashe.

“… I feel sorry for Baekryeon. But if I hadn’t erased her memories, she would have suffered. The isolation from Letia was inevitable. As you said, she had such a strong attachment to her father… In the end, they both suffered. ”

“Yeah, that looks like it.”

The final ordeal was proof of this. Trying to kill Ashe, who had been willingly helping Baekryeon by manipulating her father, Baekryeon. From Baekryeon’s perspective, it was an extremely cruel act.

After all, Letia’s heart was consumed by corrupt hatred.

I am so caught up in the swamp of hatred that I don’t even care about my father, whom I truly love.

“Anyway, this is why the butler recognized me at first sight. If I can erase memories, I guess I can plant them in reverse.”

“If he wasn’t dead, it wouldn’t be worth a penny.”

Bernacien’s power was not even half as great. Unlike Letia, the queen of the dead, Bernacien only pretended to have power by reducing the amount of soul heat she possessed as a witch.

However, Ache mercilessly denied Bernatien’s soul-crushing efforts.

“But I don’t like either one.”

Bernatien’s mouth tightened at the unexpected complaint.

“… Yes?”

“Is the butler a toy to you? Who is he to manipulate my memories and make me act like a puppet? I appreciate you helping me, but as the butler’s master, I have a lot of things to consider, right?”

“…”

“Shouldn’t you have listened to the butler’s opinion from the beginning? The butler has been involved in this and that since coming to this world, and now he’s unilaterally involved in your affairs even after death! This is absurd! How can the two of you do that when you know exactly how the butler lived?”

Bernacien’s mouth was shut tightly. He seemed to have lost his mind after being hit with a counterattack from an unexpected place.

It is a mistake that cannot be expressed even if you have ten mouths.

Bernacien bowed his head in acknowledgement.

“The princess is right… However, I have a shameless request. Could you please grant it?”

“How shameless… Say something first.”

Ashe crosses her arms proudly. She nods to Bernacien to proceed.

“Black is a symbol of misfortune and death.”

The moment she blurts out the words I’ve heard countless times, her gaze turns fierce.

“Please, before the mansion completely collapses… Please save these two people who were fooled by this ridiculous fate.”

This is the final test.

It is a fateful path that tests Ashe’s courage.