But that flash of lightning was fleeting.
As the light disappeared, the darkness outside the window resud.
This ti, when Annan closed the window, he encountered no resistance.
He took two more steps forward...
—Really, just two steps.
Suddenly, all three windows in front and behind him shattered simultaneously!
A thunderclap, even closer than before, struck right beside Annan—the lightning struck the wall beside him!
Had it not been for that wall, "Bernadino" would likely have been killed by the lightning.
Annan even felt a slight numbness in his palms and body... This was proof that the lightning struck right beside him.
"...does this an that Bernadino almost got struck by lightning back then?"
Annan murmured in surprise.
But then he thought, "Ah, that makes sense."
Bernadino indeed seed like the type who might get struck by lightning while walking down the street...
However, Annan was not frightened by the lightning nor by the sudden shattering of the glass. He even wore a schadenfreude smile.
—Hopefully, those watching the nightmare in 3D outside are fine.
Annan thought, smiling.
Just as he was about to continue walking forward, he suddenly realized sothing... He turned his head while walking, looking out the window.
When Annan was about to pass the second window, another distant bolt of lightning struck. This ti, he hadn’t heard the thunder yet when he saw the lightning illuminating the courtyard again.
But this ti, the headless scarecrow was no longer there.
It had vanished from the yard without a trace.
It was as if what Annan had seen was rely an illusion...
It was then that the surrounding light flickered twice.
The corridor and the whole living room suddenly lit up again.
Annan, stepping over the inward-shattering fragnts of the windows, continued forward nonchalantly.
Suddenly, he heard the sound of a heavy object falling behind him.
—But he had just walked through that corridor.
From the entrance to here... The only heavy object was the clock he had just seen. It was about as tall and wide as Bernadino now, and if it had been blown over by the wind, indeed it would have made such a muffled sound.
"No way..."
Annan murmured, turning to look back.
Indeed, the clock lay on the ground.
But beside the clock, there was also a headless scarecrow.
With the whole room now bright, the scarecrow by the door, twisted and crooked, stood in the only dark spot.
—It was even slightly swaying.
As if it had just pushed over the clock and then imdiately resud its scarecrow pose.
Hung on its "right arm" with a black rope was a head.
From afar, Annan recognized it—it was Father Ludwig’s head!
Its expression seed slightly terrified and sowhat fearful.
The rope passed inside the left eye and out of the right eye. The head swayed rhythmically back and forth like the pendulum of the clock.
Suddenly, the head fell to the ground.
It made a crisp sound and shattered.
"...It’s a gypsum statue."
Annan murmured.
It was too lifelike.
Had Bernadino made this?
...Probably so.
After all, making one’s own statue is not only strange but also not so easy. Looking at one’s own face always involves so distortion.
But if that was made by Bernardino himself...
Annan was sowhat surprised.
"...Old Bern’s craftsmanship isn’t bad."
At this ti, he should have learned sculpting for only a year or two from Father Ludwig. Yet, the plaster statues he made had even deceived Annan’s eyes.
—Even though it was almost twenty ters away and the light was dim.
But it was no easy feat to deceive Annan’s eyes.
He had really been wondering, "How did Father Ludwig just die like that..."
Just then, Annan suddenly felt sothing was slightly off.
As if he had forgotten sothing.
But he couldn’t quite put his finger on what was wrong...
Suddenly, he felt sothing moving at the hem of his left pant leg.
Annan looked down.
—It was a pitch-black snake!
That "black rope" wearing the plaster head was actually a live snake!
It wasn’t that the rope had snapped and the plaster head had fallen... but the snake had fallen off the scarecrow!
Annan didn’t hesitate, jumped slightly, and stepped on the snake’s tail with his right foot, while his left foot swung in a semi-circle in the air.
It was akin to a leap in a dance, the snake, already half up his pant leg, was flung out directly by Annan. And with the rotational force, he directly dislocated the snake’s spine.
But Annan distinctly felt a pain shoot through his ankle.
What kind of parting words were these...
—Rather, how could that snake even get a chance to bite ?
Were Bernardino’s physical attributes too low? Or was the snake’s reaction too quick?
Annan frowned tightly, imdiately bent down, and grabbed the snake’s tail. He whipped it in the air twice, which even produced a whistling sound.
Bernardino, being a fisherman’s son, indeed had quite good physical quality.
The snake imdiately went limp.
Annan squatted down at once, starting to examine his wound.
The wound was not deep, it could even be considered shallow. Strictly speaking, it wasn’t bitten by the snake but rather scratched by the teeth, as if sliced open by a dagger.
It seed to be about to bite him but got flung out right before it could. The teeth left a cut about three centiters long on the inside of his calf.
—What kind of snake is this? Are your teeth that strong?
But Annan couldn’t tell whether the snake was venomous or non-venomous... If it was a venomous snake, was the toxin already injected due to the depth of the wound?
Annan opened his health panel and saw that indeed, 5% of his health had dropped.
However, there was no numbness from the wound, and his health wasn’t continuously dropping.
...Probably not poisonous.
"I hope I’m fine."
Annan muttered.
But just then.
He suddenly noticed that the pure black snake, whose spine he’d just broken, had already slithered under the sofa and completely disappeared from view.
"It’s not dead?"
Annan couldn’t help but blurt out.
But he soon realized—if being swung around and breaking its bones didn’t affect it, and it had previously played dead, then this snake was probably not any natural creature.
If not so cursed creature, then so sort of spell effect. Or maybe a product of this nightmare, a manifestation of so emotion of Bernardino’s... Anyway, it wasn’t sothing he needed to bother with anymore.
But with the snake staying sowhere under a sofa in this living room...
It made Annan extra cautious while investigating the area.
A lapse in attention might lead to an attack by the snake.
"...Hmm?"
Annan raised his head.
He saw the scarecrow at the doorway had once again disappeared.
Only the puddle of water and the broken plaster head on the ground proved that it had been there.
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