I Accidentally Resurrected My Dead Husband - Chapter 17

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Episode 17
“Me?”
“Yes.”
The man answered shyly, a large Rose Bouquet held in his hands. Udiet glanced back and forth between the flowers and his handsome face, then clapped her hands together once.
“Haven’t we met here before?”
“You remember me. We’ve crossed paths a couple of times.”
So he was someone she knew, at least in passing. A man like that shows up with flowers and speaks to her? What could it mean?
‘Though it feels strange to say it myself, Udiet does have rather lovely features.’
Udiet absently played with her hair, then tucked it behind her ear.
“Do you have something you’d like to say to me…?”
“Well, would you accept this? ……It’s a gift for the Brix Baroness’s Daughter.”
The man offered the bouquet. A carriage passed by in the middle of his words, and she didn’t quite catch the name, but Udiet—being herself the Brix Baroness’s Daughter—naturally assumed the flowers were meant for her. In her past life, she’d been too busy earning money to ever experience romance, but it seemed this life might offer better prospects.
“I’d like to have a special Candle made for the Baroness’s Daughter.”
“Pardon?”
The corners of Udiet’s mouth, which had been rising in a smile, froze awkwardly mid-arc.
I’m the one who makes Candles, and he wants me to make a special Candle for me? That doesn’t add up.
“Could you make a special Candle just for the Brix Baroness’s Daughter using these flowers?”
* * *
The man’s name was Zarque.
He was the lover of the Brix Baroness’s Daughter and was planning a special gift ahead of his proposal. He’d happened to see the colored Candles that Udiet sold and had gotten a wonderful idea.
It was to dry flower petals and use them to decorate the Candle. He would dry red roses just for the Brix Baroness’s Daughter and decorate a Red Candle with them. That way, he said, it would be a far more meaningful gift than a mere bouquet, and Zarque had even paid a deposit before leaving.
“So he was already spoken for. Poor our Herington Baroness’s Daughter—what a shame!”
“Why me?”
“You were all excited thinking you were being confessed to.”
“……That’s not true.”
Udiet’s ears flushed crimson.
She shouldn’t have asked Ern to come along. She’d been too eager to make all the deliveries at once and had only embarrassed herself. Besides, Zarque should have explained his commission first, not thrust a bouquet into her hands—honestly, how many people wouldn’t have misunderstood in that situation?
“Come on, be honest.”
“About what?”
“You were wondering whether to mention you’re not just a Baroness’s Daughter but actually a Countess. Weren’t you?”
Ern was the only one having fun. The moment Zarque handed over the bouquet and deposit and stepped into the Brix Baroness’s Estate, Ern clutched his stomach laughing. He kept it up the entire way back to the Manor after delivering the next order.
He was utterly infuriating. Udiet took a swing at him when he let his guard down, but Ern simply rolled his shoulder back and dodged it effortlessly. Once again, her fist cried out in defeat against Ern.
“You said you’d buy me jerky.”
“Buy it yourself.”
Since she wasn’t in the mood to buy Ern jerky just now, Udiet fished out a Gold Coin and tossed it to him.
“Get jerky and a new waterskin with that, and five potatoes. Keep whatever’s left.”
“How am I supposed to get all that with one coin?”
“Figure it out.”
“What, are you some kind of street thug?”
Ern tossed the Gold Coin up, caught it, and muttered with an irritating grin.
“Just answer me one thing, and I’ll go buy it without complaint. If that guy had confessed just now, would you have said yes?”
“Ugh, seriously!”
After teasing Udiet to his heart’s content, Ern demanded payment for his silence and finally left.
* * *
Back at the Manor alone, Udiet set about drying the rose petals. Dried roses arranged in full blooms atop a Red Candle with its subtle scarlet glow would certainly be splendid.
“Maybe I’ll tuck dried petals in between as well.”
As Udiet sketched out various designs for the Candle, she pulled a small Ring case from a basket.
“Could you place this Ring inside the Candle?”
“Inside the Candle? I can do it, but then the Candle wax would cover it, and you wouldn’t be able to wear the Ring.”
“That’s fine. I just want to add a small bit of surprise.”
In all her years, this was the first time someone had asked her to embed a Ring inside a Candle.
“It’s definitely not a Proposal Candle, but it does look rather expensive.”
Zarque had said he’d bought it at a market stall on a festival day and was giving it as a joke, but it didn’t look like the sort of Ring peddled in the marketplace.
“Well, it’s not my concern.”
All she had to do was make it according to his specifications. Though Ern had teased her because of Zarque, he’d paid enough that the ribbing was worth enduring.
“He must love the Baroness’s Daughter very much.”
Udiet placed the Ring back in its case and stored it in a drawer, then organized the day’s payment and new commission. She checked her remaining materials and experimented with making a Blue-tinted Candle using newly purchased powder.
After bickering with Ern—who seized every chance to tease her—through dinner and finishing her remaining work, it was nearly midnight. Udiet rubbed her shoulders, which had grown stiff and tight, and climbed into bed. She was just drifting off to sleep, half-drowsy under the covers, when it happened.
Creak, creak—
What was that sound?
Udiet’s eyelids trembled faintly. She lay still, listening intently, but heard only the desolate wind whistling through the window.
Sob—
Then came another sound. What on earth was it? Someone crying? Udiet started to open her eyes, then hesitated. In this Residence, there was only Ern and herself. Could it be… Ern weeping?
Sob, sob, sob—
Yet the voice sounded too high-pitched. It was like a woman crying, or perhaps a child, and the sound made her skin crawl. Fine hairs rose along the back of her neck.
Sob—
The crying grew closer. She couldn’t open her eyes. As the sound brushed against her ear, Udiet’s instinct screamed at her to keep pretending to sleep.
But the moment that thought crossed her mind, her eyelids began to tremble uncontrollably. And in that fleeting instant, through the narrow crack of her barely-open eyes, she saw it.
Something pitch-black, staring down at her.
* * *
Meanwhile, in Ern’s room.
Sob—
Ern, who had been lying with his eyes closed, unable to sleep, suddenly opened them at the distant sound of weeping. Who could be crying at this hour? Udiet?
“…….”
Had he misheard? Ern had begun to sit up, but when no further sound came, he lay back down. Besides, there was no reason Udiet would be crying.
The memory of Udiet bashfully tucking her hair back, thinking she was being confessed to by Zarque, made him laugh again. So she did want a romantic entanglement after all, even though he’d thought her interested only in money?
“Though it could just be the wind.”
When her husband was alive and well before her eyes. She’d call out “dear” eagerly enough when she needed something, but now she’d deny it, wouldn’t she? How irksome.
Sob—
It was definitely crying. Ern sat up. Though he heard no footsteps, he drew his sword just in case and stepped into the corridor.
Sob, sob, sob—
From the far end? Ern had just begun to move toward Udiet’s room when he whipped his head sharply in the opposite direction.
“…….”
Nothing there. He moved silently, sword held at the ready. No sound came from behind the pillars, above the ceiling, or anywhere else. The moment he drew his blade with careful quietness,
Sob, sob, sob, sob.
A damp, wailing cry brushed against his ear, soaking it. Something pitch-black. A shape without form, a substance darker than the night itself—and within it, two eyes gleamed. His gaze met theirs.
Eyes with no whites.
Horror flooded through his entire body. The instant their eyes locked, it vanished. Not in any direction he could name, but gone in a heartbeat.
“……What was that.”
He turned about slowly, a moment too late, as one who has let their quarry slip away. The hunched shadow that disappeared around the corridor corner—was it phantom or flesh?
Ern could not shake the memory of those pitch-black eyes that had fixed themselves upon him for that brief, burning instant.
* * *
“Ugh, my shoulders.”
The next morning, Udiet drew water in the kitchen and rubbed her stiff shoulders and neck. She hadn’t slept well at all; her sleep the night before had been restless and fitful.
“I really thought a ghost had appeared.”
The dream had felt so vivid. Last night she’d been terrified half to death, but now that morning had come, the fear had evaporated.
“The sky’s cloudy.”
Ern, emerging from his room at that moment, also gazed at the overcast window and muttered to himself. Dark clouds were gathering; rain seemed imminent.
“Perfect weather for a nap.”
Last night had been nearly sleepless; he’d only dozed off near dawn, and even then he’d woken to Udiet moving about. Now the events of yesterday seemed like nothing more than a vivid nightmare.
“Are you really talking about napping the moment you wake up?”
“There’s nothing else to do anyway.”
Ern shrugged and deliberately stretched out in a spot where Udiet could see him clearly.
“Why do you always have to lie down right there? Are you trying to provoke me?”
“Why shouldn’t I? Of course I am.”
So even that handsome face deserves a good slap, Udiet thought, adding another item to her growing list of revelations.
“When exactly will the forged identification documents be ready?”
“Ah, so you’re eager to be rid of me. I understand—you’ll have an easier time courting your lover with me gone. No hard feelings.”
How much longer did this man intend to tease her about this? Udiet glared at him with all the force her eyes could muster. Ern, for his part, remained thoroughly amused.
“You’ll probably tell me you’re remarrying too.”
“I might.”
“What?”
“Well, if a good man comes along, why not? There’s no reason to spend the rest of my life as a widow.”
She wouldn’t go out of her way searching, but if someone decent appeared, it was possible. Udiet had left that door wide open.
“And you should remarry too if you meet a good woman, Ern.”
“I’ll have a new identity, so it’ll be my first marriage for all intents and purposes.”
“My goodness, how clever you are.”
Udiet checked the dried inverted Rose Bouquet and muttered as if to herself, though her voice carried clearly enough for Ern to hear.
“I’m just curious who’d be willing to marry a man who lies in bed all morning.”
“Don’t trouble yourself with such worries, Miss Herington. Even if I spent the entire day lying down, there’d be a line of women wanting to marry me.”
* * *
Rain that had begun falling in the late evening drummed against the window with a gentle patter—a quiet night that wouldn’t let sleep come. For reasons she couldn’t name, Udiet tossed and turned in bed for what felt like hours.
A faint sigh escaped her lips.
Again. Again, still.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————