I Accidentally Resurrected My Dead Husband - Chapter 34

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 34
“So you’re saying it wasn’t fresh like Ern, but a desiccated corpse?”
“Yes.”
Calling a corpse “fresh” was grotesque, admittedly, but in any case the body Ern had brought back bore little resemblance to freshness.
He’d gone to such lengths—even taking on an escort job—only to find a withered husk waiting for him. It was true the corpse was remarkably well-preserved, its features and hair intact, even its nails—but it was nothing like the non-decaying corpse he’d been seeking.
He’d hoped for something like what he himself was: a body that seemed almost alive.
“It was just covered in dust.”
“And it’s still stuck to your clothes.”
“Still?”
He’d shaken it out thoroughly earlier, yet dust still clung stubbornly to his shirt. Ern peeled off his upper garment entirely and shook it out the window.
“Ugh, dust.”
Acrid dust drifted back in on the wind. Udit, who’d inhaled it, began coughing violently and waved her hand before her face.
“Better to wash it than beat it out.”
Agreed. Ern started to roll the shirt up and toss it into the laundry basket, then stopped. It was already overflowing with backed-up washing.
Both Udit and Ern sighed at the sight of it. Since Cliff had disappeared, the Manor had fallen into disrepair at an alarming rate. Cobwebs lined the windowsills, dust gathered on the floors, weeds sprouted through the halls. The horse that had bolted from the broken stable now grazed freely in the garden whenever it pleased.
Udit and Ern had tried their best. But maintaining such a sprawling Manor with just the two of them was impossible. So they’d reached an unspoken accord: they would manage only the kitchen, the bathroom, and their own bedrooms.
“…We can’t put off the laundry any longer.”
“We need servants.”
“This is the Manor where all the servants fled in the first place.”
Udit gazed wistfully at what was becoming little more than a ruin, then shook her head as if accepting there was nothing to be done about it now.
“But how did that corpse end up a mummy?”
“Something about having committed a grave sin, the auctioneer said.”
Ern tried to recall the Auctioneer’s explanation.
“A criminal from a tribe in the Distant Desert that worships ancient gods. What was the sin? Well, the records were lost, but it must have been something terrible.”
Tribes that worship ancient gods generally practice cremation, believing the corpse must disappear from this world so the soul can awaken anew in the god’s embrace. But seeing that the body had been treated with chemicals to prevent decay—to preserve it as a mummy—suggested the sin must have been extraordinary indeed.
“Probably committed murder or something.”
“Ugh, and someone actually bought a corpse like that?”
“Bought it for eight hundred thousand Gold.”
“Wow, must be rolling in money.”
At Udit’s reaction, Ern felt a small jolt of recognition. Just a moment ago, he’d said the exact same thing when he saw who’d won the bid. Living under the same roof changed you—he was picking up her habits.
Ern resolved to keep his wits about him. Two money-mad people in one household was asking for trouble.
“Let’s sleep in the dark tonight.”
Ern remarked when he saw the candle Udit had brought. She’d been carrying it since coming to meet him, and now she was attempting to sneak it into his room and light it without comment.
Two days ago, Udit had completed a prototype scented candle. Since then, insisting she needed to test whether the fragrance held throughout the candle’s burn, she’d lit one in both his room and hers every night.
“Just close your eyes tight when you sleep. Then it’ll be dark enough.”
“It’s still too bright.”
“Then turn around and sleep facing the wall. You get nice sleep and a pleasant scent—what’s not to like?”
Despite Ern’s protests, Udit stubbornly placed the candle on his bedside table anyway. As the flame caught, a soft lavender fragrance spread through the room.
“Now rest.”
Whether Ern sighed or not, Udit gazed at her creation with satisfied eyes, then left.
Ern clicked his tongue and swept his bangs back, only to feel more dust between the strands, his brow furrowing.
“What kind of dust doesn’t wash out?”
No results, just dust consumed. Ern stood and brushed himself off, his expression far from pleasant.
That desiccated corpse had failed to decay because of some grave sin, the auctioneer had said—but what about him? Was he a criminal in the eyes of his followers? Had they enacted revenge by preserving his corpse so it could never decay? To deny him peace even in death? Or had they preserved him as a non-decaying corpse specifically so they could sell him? If they’d squeezed escape money out of Cliff, then money was certainly needed.
“If a withered corpse fetches eight hundred thousand Gold, an animate-looking corpse would fetch eighty million.”
It was strange to think such things about himself, but his appearance was certainly worth eighty million Gold. Yet if that were the case, why abandon him in the forest?
The more he thought about it, the deeper into mystery he sank. His mind felt too tangled to find sleep easily. So Ern reached for a bottle of liquor. As he lifted it to pour, he held it up to the moonlight to inspect it.
“The bottle seems light. Did Udit drink from it while I was gone?”
He murmured this unfair suspicion—Udit would protest if she heard—and took a sip. Beneath the sharp bite of alcohol came the faint whisper of lavender.
* * *
Four days later, as Udit’s scented candle neared completion, Henry arrived at Ern’s door looking haggard. He asked without preamble:
“How are you holding up?”
“That’s what I should be asking you. Sounds like the Constabulary has been busy lately.”
Ern looked Henry over from head to toe. Dark circles under hollow eyes, skin looking dry and dull, the shirt that he usually kept pressed without a single wrinkle now creased and rumpled. Even Ern, for all his obliviousness, couldn’t help but ask if he was all right. Henry let out a long sigh and splashed his face with water from the basin.
“You know that Illegal Auction House you tipped us off about? We conducted a raid and arrested several people involved.”
Among them was the Auctioneer whom Ern had escorted.
“The Auctioneer got out fast, didn’t he? He was boasting about how many nobles he knew, and I figured it was all talk, but apparently it was real.”
The Auctioneer had bragged at length about his connections to nobility. Ern had assumed it was all bluster, but judging by how quickly he’d been released, it must have been genuine.
“It would’ve been better if that were the case. Ern… that Auctioneer… he’s dead.”
“What?”
“From the moment we brought him in, his condition was poor, but he died while locked up.”
His fever climbed and fell, climbed and fell, until at some point it burned hot as boiling water, and he began talking nonsense before he died. I had a physician brought in to treat him, but nothing worked.
“That’s not all. Four laborers who worked at the auction house, the Hustleton Marquis who participated in the bidding, and eight servants from his household—they’ve all died or are dying from the same symptoms.”
“All of them?”
“Yes. Even the Beto Baron, who went to the auction house with the Hustleton Marquis that same day, is in critical condition now. Two of the baron’s guards have already died.”
That was why Henry had taken a moment from his duties to come see Ern, who had been at the auction house that same day.
“Is it possible the Hustleton Marquis is short and heavily built? Does he wear a long mustache?”
“That’s the man. At first I thought a plague had broken out at the auction house, so we proceeded with an investigation. But the illness didn’t spread any further.”
As Ern listened to Henry list the names of those who had died from the sickness, a crucial fact came to mind. The auctioneer, four laborers who carried goods, the Hustleton Marquis and his servants, the Beto Baron who was the Hustleton Marquis’s friend, and the baron’s guards.
There was one thing they all had in common: direct contact with the non-decaying corpse.
“It doesn’t seem to be a plague.”
“Then what?”
“All the people you mentioned either made contact with the non-decaying corpse or were in very close proximity to it.”
After the Hustleton Marquis purchased the non-decaying corpse, he came to view it with the Beto Baron. The servants who accompanied them came to see the mummy as well.
The mummy was likely moved at the Hustleton Marquis’s manor by his servants, and in the process, the marquis’s attendants also came into contact with the mummy.
“Are you saying the disease was transmitted from that mummy?”
“You said the illness didn’t spread any further. If that’s true, then that becomes a stronger possibility.”
“Then why are you unaffected?”
“I’m sturdy.”
The answer was oddly grating, and Henry blinked for a moment.
“Well, setting that aside—there’s still a problem I can’t explain. How do you account for the laundry maid from the Beto Baron’s household suffering from the same symptoms? That maid never even went near the mummy.”
“Hmm…….”
“Could it be the mummy’s curse or something?”
Henry rubbed his arms nervously, frightened by his own words.
“Does a mummy have nothing better to do than curse laundry maids? Stop talking nonsense and conduct another investigation—make sure you haven’t missed anything.”
Henry said he would look into whether the laundry maid had any contact with the mummy that he might have overlooked, then took his leave.
Through that night, Ern could not stop thinking about the mummy and the laundry maid. Why was he unaffected despite his contact with the mummy, while the maid was suffering? Was the mummy even the cause at all?
As he lay in bed wrestling with these thoughts, he heard the sound of a horse whinnying and stomping outside.
“What creature is awake at this hour?”
Had a fox gotten in? Ern rose from his bed and moved toward the window. The moment he reached for the window, a soft knock sounded—tap, tap.
When there was no answer,
tap, tap—
the soft knock came again.
“Are you there, Ern?”
It was Udit. She had announced loudly that the scented candle was finished and she wouldn’t need to light it anymore, but it seemed there was still an experiment to conduct. At the sound of Udit’s voice, Ern answered without hesitation.
“Of course I’m here. Where else would I be at this hour? Don’t tell me you’re coming to my room again…….”
Ern flung open the door and trailed off.
There was no one there. Only dust scattered in the darkness.

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