Chapter 469: The Portraits and the Mad Girl
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Andrea Family, that was, the 'parvenu family' Nangong Sanba was talking about, had been rooted in this snow land for three hundred years. They were wealthy and had a long history. They had incredible properties and ancient foundations in Europe. However, few people in the world knew the existence of this family: for more than three hundred years this family had always followed the strict admonitions handed down from ancient times—not getting involved with the outside world, not trying to escape the snowland, not attracting the attention of others—their ancestors and every patriarch were convinced that were the only ways to maintain the family' wealth, and of course, their lives.
The mottled façade of the castle was the witness of the ups and downs the family had experienced. The elegant and luxurious interior of the castle displayed their wealth and history. The castle had undergone many renovations and modernization over hundreds of years, but without changing the most important parts of the framework. It was clear that every generation in this family knew what was hidden beneath their own castle: they were afraid to disturb the beast in this cage.
Later in the day, Hao Ren saw some of the servants in the castle began busily preparing the dinner, which somehow added live to this building castle. He was wondering where the servants of this place came from: such a lonely and remote place, also a mysterious, gloomy, reclusive castle; he could imagine people were recruited to work here.
Since Nangong Sanba had known a thing or two about the situation here, he naturally played the tour guide role. "Most of the servants in the castle are hereditary. The Andrea Family uses their wealth to feed these people so that their offspring will receive professional education as a servant. And they also recruit outsiders a high price, but even so, they still lose people every few years— some've died of accidents and some who couldn't stand the atmosphere and fled, but in any case, the rich always have their own solution."
Hao Ren and the others were now staying on the third floor of the VIP area. The gorgeous room was covered with thick velvet carpet, with palace-styled decorations, the firewood crackling in the fire, in addition to all the furniture and appliances which were needed. However, this luxurious and comfortable room did not make them feel at ease. Since the moment they entered the castle, Hao Ren always had an uncomfortable feeling coming from under his feet. He asked several others and found that this was not an illusion.
Vivian had had seceral encounter with the vengeful spirit. She could generally make of the situation here. "The vengeful spirit must be in the castle underground, but it hasn't fully entered the material world. And to be honest ... I've a weird feeling about the building."
Hao Ren glanced at Vivian. "Yeah. It's weird. The house looks like a prison from the outside."
Vivian shook her head, opened the window of the room, and looked out at the dark atrium. The two wings of the building had two rows of low-rise houses that extended out to form a cage-like structure behind the castle. She looked at the gloomy and overcast weather outside in thought. "I mean something else... I feel that I've seen this place before."
"I don't know if you've really seen it before but I'm freezing," Becky jumped around with her arms around herself, and then slammed the window closed. "It's freaking cold here! Are you freaking out of your mind?"
Lily was lying in front of the fireplace staring at the flames in a daze. She threw a despised look at Becky when she heard her. "Oh, come on. At this temperature? I feel it's right for me!"
Vivian chimed in. "It's like fish to water, eh? After all, this is the Arctic Circle, your ancestors' place. I bet you could make eighty pulling a sleigh behind you."
The night fell, but the place was close to the Arctic Circle, the polar day and night phenomena could still affect the day-to-day life here. The sun gradually set to the position right above the horizon but stayed there, it stubbornly shone its weak light on the earth. The polar night sunlight did not give much light to the castle. Instead it cause the castle looked even more gloomy because of its angle.
After the dinner in the room, Hao Ren decided to take a stroll ouside in the hallway.
Outside the room was a straight hallway laid with dark red carpet with many portrait paintings on both sides, and the portraits here were no longer full-body images, but avatars framed in oval frames. These lifeless figures looked weird in the warm light. While walking, Hao Ren whispered to himself: he could not understand the pervenu who hung these portrait paintings in the hallway. Was it the parvenu was mentally too tough or something? As if the already gloomy hallway was not enough, he had also hung two rows of zombie faces of his ancestors in it. To make matter worse, the parvenu decided to place a pair of dim lights on both side of each portrait painting. Anyone who had a weak bladder and needed to make a trip to the loo outside at night would be scared the pee of them, literally.
Outside the castle, the temperature was minus tens of degrees below, but inside the castle it was still warm and pleasant. Wearing a unlined garment strolling in the hallway, Hao Ren suddenly stopped in his tracks.
He was counting the portraits of the ancestors of the Andreas, from the youngest generation—that was, the father of current head of family, Igor—to those of the Bolshevik period, the Alexander period, and Catherine period. Under the cold glances of the portraits in the oval frames, Hao Ren had unknowingly reached the end of the hallway.
In front of him was weird portrait hung on the wall at the end of the hallway.
Unlike the oval frames on either side of the hallway, this portrait is a full-body portrait of a woman in black dress standing in a dark red rose background. However, the woman's face was shrouded in black gauze.
Names and years of Andrea ancestral portraits were displayed in a uniform format, but the weird portrait of the female had only one simple word: ведьма (witch).
This strange thing immediately aroused Hao Ren's interest. He began to study portraits and texts on both sides. Finally he had established that the one hanging on the left, a white bearded old man was the earliest ancestor of Andrea's while the woman whose face was shrouded was not a member of the Andrea family.
She did not even have a name. However, this nameless woman who was simply called a 'witch' was hung in the foremost prominent position of all.
Just when Hao Ren was about to go and ask the others to come to check out the situation here, he suddenly heard a burst of noise.
The sound seemed to come from some room on the upper floor of the castle. Despite the thick walls, he could still heard it clearly. It sounded like someone was crying and wailing, accompnying by the shattering sound of glass and dishes, and of furniture tipping over. And there were voices of people breathing, dissuading, and screaming. This disturbance continued for a few minutes before it died down. Finally Hao Ren faintly heard the sound of the heavy iron gate shut, and no noises were heard again.
Hao Ren suddenly felt a stranger next him. he instinctively turned around and was almost scared the wit out of him: a white figure which appeared out of noewhere was standing behind him like a wandering soul!
When he looked closely, he realized that it was not a wandering soul, but a young, skinny girl in a white dress. The girl seemed to be seriously ill, her face pale, her steps staggering. Her body rocked involentarily from left to right, back to front as she stood there. She shrunk her shoulders and looked at Hao Ren for a while before suddenly lifted the hair in front of her face, exposing a weird smile. "Did you hear the sound upstairs?"
Hao Ren patted his chest, his heart pumping fast while cold sweat trickled down his spine; despite his experiences in wars in the alien worlds, he could not help but was frightened seeing that. What he saw now was totally different, his experience seemed to be of no help in such circumstances. He curiously looked at the strange girl and asked, "... you are?"
The girl did not know the person in front of him, but judging from his attire, he must not be one of the servants in the castle.
The young girl seemed to have not heard Hao Ren's question as she just listened to the movement of the upstairs and there was a weird smile on her face. "That is my brother," she giggled. "The last male in Andrea Family. If he could not survive past this year, this prison is going to collapse!"
She then suddenly looked up at Hao Ren. "You're all here to cast out the spirit?"
"Sort of." Hao Ren was having goosebumps as he was being stared at by her pair of white eyes. But he also realized that the girl might be mentally unsound. He wanted to leave quickly.
"Another group of conmen..." The young girl giggled. "Well, well, take all the money, after all, it's a curse... The witch would not spare us, but would also not spare you lot... Take away all the money!"
Hao Ren ears erect, "Who is the witch?"
But at this moment, the girl's mental illness suddenly took over. She no longer took questions from Hao Ren. Instead, she muttered as she walked away, with only intermittent words coming out of her mouth. "The money should have gone just like the way it came... endless of money, endless of deaths ... the prison's going to collapse, it's going to collapse, it's going to collapse..."