Our Family Has Fallen

What happened, Audrey couldn’t remember at all; she only felt she was back to that carefree childhood.

Born with a silver spoon, as a member of the upper class, she never needed to worry about survival; enjoying a refined life was her daily routine.

Days were spent on horseback, nights belonged to ballrooms.

Old aristocrats woke up to this scene every day, nothing much else.

Until she came of age and married into a family richer than theirs, but that was also the beginning of her nightmare.

During the day, she was the noble and elegant mistress of a luxurious manor; in the eyes of outsiders, their relationship seemed so close and humble. But at night, she was the object of her husband’s savage desires and drunken rages.

Finally, after night upon night of humiliation and abuse, she had had enough; she chose murder as a path to freedom and a hefty inheritance.

Poisoning the wine, watching her husband drink it down amid low compliments and soothing words; at that moment, she felt an indescribable pleasure.

Seeing him collapse from the poison, she faced his pleas with a cold smile and indifference, watching his hypocritical apologies slowly turn into desperate sobs.

Without a doubt, she succeeded; the seemingly loving appearance of the past prevented everyone from noticing that the murderer was right by their side.

Now everything belonged to her; she became the true mistress of the manor.

At that time, she thought she was the happiest, doing whatever she desired, being pursued by countless men, as those so-called gentlemen all eagerly tried to please her in hopes of gaining her favor.

But years of squander and mismanagement plunged the manor deep into debt, and once the money ran out, those gathered admirers scattered.

Facing creditors’ demands and imminent eviction, she paced in the empty hall, her heart filled with anger and shame, unsure of what would become of her after losing all this; only the bitter wine offered her some comfort.

Fuelled by alcohol, she shouted unspeakable words at her ex-husband’s portrait, only to notice his possessive hand pressing on her shoulder in the picture.

A streak of light depicted in the portrait reminded her—his ring is unaccounted for, it must have been buried with him.

To maintain her social status, she planned to loot her ex-husband’s grave, snatch the ring from his finger, even knock out the golden tooth from his mouth.

She called it "I’m taking back what’s owed to me."

However, graveyards are watched over by tomb guardians, and sometimes church inspectors patrol; luckily, years without incident had made the tomb guardian lax.

The two struggled in the graveyard, and compared to the tomb guardian’s timidity, her ferocity prevailed; realizing she couldn’t accomplish anything without killing the guardian, she stealthily approached and killed him with a pickaxe.

Blood splattered instantly, warm droplets on her skin gave her a peculiar sensation.

It’s known that grave robbing is an extremely vile crime; if discovered, she would not only lose everything, falling from her noble status but likely face either the gallows or the stake.

The pressure she felt having nearly been discovered by the guardian was imaginable.

But now the accumulated pressure was released; she was the ruler of the graveyard!

That feeling plunged her into unprecedented excitement, instantly opening up her new world.

As if she awakened, she could plow a ten-acre field without feeling tired.

But upon entering the graveyard, she was dumbfounded; after years gone by without visiting, she had forgotten the exact location, only recalling a general area.

Under such circumstances, returning during the day was impossible; she could only blindly dig at night, choosing the more ornate tombstones.

Opening a coffin, the burial goods gave her a sense of gain, driving her to work even harder for a time.

She soon found her ex-husband’s coffin, obtaining everything she wanted from his skeletal remains.

But such things were far from enough; to fill the deficit caused by rampant spending, much more was needed.

This kind of thing happens once or countless times; it’s like an addiction.

Soon she aimed at tombs built with massive stone blocks, deep underground.

Such things are only attainable by those truly powerful, and they are not without defense; tombs usually hide traps.

If the tomb owner were associated with supernatural powers, it’d be even more formidable, using eerie forces to bind spiritual bodies, alongside evil rituals...

In any case, various complex scenarios could trap even professional tomb robbers, not to mention Audrey, a novice who rashly entered driven by impulse.

But sometimes novices have a protection period; Audrey happened to choose a spot and after descending into the tomb, discovered some disarmed traps on the ground.

As she went deeper, she found more chaotic scenes, with scattered flying daggers and poison needles lying on the ground or embedded in walls.

She seemed to feel that someone had been battling with those traps, fighting against non-existent foes.

However, all these traces were covered with dust, appearing ancient.

This scene didn’t deter Audrey, whose courage grew sideways; instead, it aroused her curiosity.

Even realizing this tomb had been previously breached, she couldn’t help but delve deeper into the tomb.