116 Strange treasure

In front of Francis there was another road leading up towards the mansion. As he made his way toward his objective, he saw a dark figure approaching him. He knew from its shape what it was. One of the executioners was patrolling the street. Fighting them was no longer a challenge for Francis. He knew perfectly well how they fought as he'd encountered them many times before.

As soon as the hulking beast saw him, it came running straight at him. Francis readied his pistol to shoot second before its axe came crashing towards his skull. A shot was released. The beast was on the ground. Francis got ready to transform his right arm and reduce the beast's insides into mushy fluid.

The sound of heavy footsteps was heard before Francis could complete his visceral attack. From the corner of his eyes, he saw a fast swing aimed at him. He instinctively jumped back but his instincts were not of an experienced warrior. Although he managed to avoid a direct hit from the gigantic axe, its hilt managed to make contact with his body and send him flying dozens of paces away.

He stood back, 'hard to breathe….' He inspected his chest and found out that several of his ribs were broken. With a shot from a blood vial, he managed to repair the damage and look at what had happened. One of the executioners lured him towards attacking while another was lying in ambush. He'd almost lost his head in one strike.

Francis had a bad habit of getting overconfident then makingnear fatal mistakes. That moment was one of them and he cursed himself for being a fool despite his age and experience. The two executioners were running towards him. He slapped himself to regain his composure and got ready to retaliate.

Meeting both of them at the same time was going to be a challenge, but not a difficult one if he kept a cool head. The two beasts split up and made to attack him from different angles. Francis turned to the one on his right – the one who had ambushed him – and jumped over his sweeping attack.

He softly landed on his toes a charged immediately before the swing from the one at his back could reach him. As the wind got cut right before the back of his head, he cut the beast's leg and made it stumble down on its knee. He then jumped behind it just before the second blow from the axe came crashing towards his back.

The axe hit the staggered executioner and spilt its head in two. Francis appeared from behind its corpse to slash the other giant's legs and bring down to its knees. He then followed his attack with a thrust to its neck. Then with a swift swing, Francis managed to cut the executioner's head off.

'That takes care of things.' He slapped himself again and jumped on the same spot twice as if he were motivating himself to do better. Francis walked through the road he had just cleared. The path led upwards towards the entrance to the mansion.

As he walked through the muddy road, Francis noticed a small wooden house to his right. He got closer and decided to inspect the place first. The front door was strongly barricaded. Francis tried to force it open but gave up on the idea after a few pushes. 'It's probably filled with corpses,' he thought as the repugnant smell reached his nose.

Something kept his attention focused on the house though. Somehow, he knew that there was something special about that small wooden house. He just couldn't put his finger on it. With three swift swings from his Chikage, Francis cut the door open.

Corpses flooded towards him and the rotten smell almost intoxicated him. He coughed as he made way for the pile of corpses. Francis brought a piece of cloth to cover his mouth and nose and went inside.

At first glance, there was nothing extraordinary about the place. Francis started doubting his sixth sense but he kept looking nonetheless. There were some old wares scattered all around the decaying house. Furniture had been corroded by mold and even the wooden pillars of the house looked like they were about to collapse.

Whoever lived in this place before had an affinity towards trinkets and oddities. In the farthest room from the entrance, Francis found something quite peculiar. It looked like a treasure room built by a child. The content of the treasures varied from one item to another.

'Perhaps these had great value to people before the beastly scourge,' Francis was thinking about the place as he stroked the little white hair that grew on his chin. 'Let's see, we have useless wares, some big empty wooden chests, a big metallic jug eaten by rust…' Francis was sorting out the items he found in the room.

Part of him wanted to leave the place while the other still pressed him to look some more. He didn't know why, perhaps it was his insight taking over, or it was just his curious nature. Either way, Francis kept looking and sorting the useless items. 'Look what we have here,' he pulled a small wooden box from underneath a pile of rusted iron cups.

The box had a complex carving and seemed to belong to some noble family. 'Our late collector had gotten his hands on something precious. It even has its own sigil!' Francis looked at the wooden box with awe. Despite the humid air and the countless dead bodies stacked inside the house, the wood still managed to keep its splendor. Francis was puzzled at the properties of the wood from which the box was made.

He opened the box and found an intricately designed necklace. The chain was made of gold and its links were smaller than an ant. Francis' eyes widened as he saw the sigil on the precious stone attached to the chain. The stone had a dark red sparkle to it. Francis was amazed at the work that had been done on the stone.

It was a jewel he had never laid eyes upon in his lifetime. Being an old wealthy merchant who had traveled to many places and seen what no one could see in their lifetime, Francis was bewildered. The stone had a dark red color and a deathly aura surrounded it.

On the inside, Francis could see two lions circling each other but never attacking. As he moved the jewel around, it felt like the lions were moving as well. Francis couldn't help but admire the work of whoever engraved that sigil inside the stone without damaging it.

Francis pocketed the necklace without inspecting it. He decided to ask his mentor about it as soon as he finished exploring the mansion. After all, he grew tired of this village and wanted to find a way towards Byrgenwerth. He longed to meet the scholars that made Yharnam a legendary place.

Francis left the old wooden house and walked upwards, towards the mansion. At the front door he found a trio of mad ladies guarding it. They did their best to stop him but he was too focused, too fired up to be stopped by mere mindless assailants. Francis entered the place to find it old and decrepit, as if it was untouched for many years.

The ceiling was crumbling and the entrance hall filled with corpses. In fact, it wasn't even a hall. It was rather a small room, which was filled with corpses, with a staircase leading down. Francis immediately took the stairs and went down.

As he entered the next room he understood that he was in no mansion. He was in a large hall filled with hanging corpses and strange statues. At the end of the hall, he saw a small door yet before he could move towards it he heard footsteps to his right.