I Accidentally Resurrected My Dead Husband - Chapter 38
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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 38
Those who answer the Call of the Ancient God are visited each night by it, their souls burned and carried away. That was why people had been suffering from such terrible fevers.
Which meant ordinary fever remedies couldn’t bring the temperature down. A special remedy was needed—and the problem lay in its ingredients.
“It has to be made with Oasis Water? Where am I supposed to find Oasis Water?”
Udiet’s brow furrowed. Before she could even get Oasis Water, Ern looked ready to cross over holding hands with the Ancient God.
“My lady, there is an Ancient God Exorcism Method here.”
After turning a few more pages, the exorcism method appeared. As Udiet and Henry read it eagerly—like travelers spotting an oasis in the desert—the light of hope slowly faded from their faces.
I. Prepare Identical Twins and place them in one room. When the Ancient God comes and calls one of their names, the twin whose name was not called must open the door.
II. The twin whose name was called must watch the door through a Mirror. The twin gazing into the mirror must not take their eyes from it until the Ancient God has completely withdrawn. No matter what appears.
III. The twin whose name was called must speak: “My name is—, and you have found the wrong person. Please leave this time.” This must be repeated continuously until the Ancient God departs.
—At this point, if the twin who was called sees their own face reflected in the mirror they hold, the Ancient God has withdrawn, and you may rest assured.
Udiet slammed the book shut with a rough gesture.
“Where am I supposed to find Identical Twins?”
Identical Twins willing to stake their lives for Ern, at that!
* * *
The sun had begun to set. At the same time, Ern’s condition grew gravely worse.
Neither Udiet nor Henry was a physician, but they could feel it nonetheless. Tonight would be the critical turning point. While Henry watched over Ern briefly, Udiet stepped outside to gather the bed sheets she’d hung to dry.
Ern was sweating so profusely she had to change the sheets three times a day. Collecting the crisp, dry linen without giving any thought to his suffering, Udiet found her gaze drifting toward Ern’s room. Though the room itself wasn’t in direct sight from where she stood, her anxious heart kept pulling her eyes in that direction. But all she could see was her own face, dimly reflected and clouded in the window pane.
“Nursing duty I never signed up for.”
At this rate, I’ll be attending two funerals. In my last life, there was never anything like… Wait a moment.
A sudden thought struck her. Udiet hurriedly gathered the sheets and returned to the room. There, she opened the book she’d received from Ceres. Her fingers flew through the pages in frantic haste.
“Identical Twins are needed to confuse the Ancient God.”
They’re needed to make it call a different name. But what if one body had two names?
“Could this actually work…?”
While Udiet pondered this, the sun continued its descent, and dusk began to fall. She gathered the dry sheets and headed toward Ern’s room.
“His breathing doesn’t sound good.”
Ern’s breaths were labored. His chest rose and fell sharply, as though he’d just run a great distance. Surely he wasn’t actually going to die from this?
The idea that had struck her moments before circled through her mind. It might work. Which meant it also might not. If it failed, not only Ern but Udiet herself could be in mortal danger.
“Ern…”
His death wouldn’t exactly harm her. She’d simply feel a bit emptier. There would be no one to greet each morning, no more silly jests to exchange. Udiet had always been accustomed to silence. A life lived alone in an empty house, falling asleep with no one else—that had been her existence. So at first, living with Ern had felt uncomfortable.
But she’d grown used to his presence quickly. Eating together, saying good morning, everything. So now she hated it—the thought of returning to quiet solitude. There was a risk in trying to save Ern. That would be a loss. But what had that past life been like, constantly haggling over gains and losses? She’d died under a truck, meaninglessly.
So this time, just once.
‘I’ll make a choice that my heart calls me to make.’
* * *
The sun had set completely. In the pitch darkness of night, Udiet stood holding a tabletop Mirror. In the room where Henry and Ern waited, she’d lit three candles just to be safe.
“No matter what sounds you hear, you must not open the door, Henry. Do you understand?”
“I understand, my lady. But isn’t this terribly dangerous? I’m worried about you.”
“I appreciate your concern. But Ern must be saved. And besides, the Ancient God has already come for me as well. I can’t live with candles lit in my room forever.”
Saving Ern was the same as saving herself. Udiet had steeled her resolve. In theory, there was no flaw in the plan. Her body was called Udiet Herrington, but her soul was called Yi Yujin.
Since she couldn’t turn around to open the door, Udiet pressed herself against it. Her back to the door, one hand on the handle. With her other hand, she held up the Mirror. Her tense face reflected in its surface.
She’d made all the preparations, so surely the Ancient God would come? The fleeting worry proved groundless when, moments later, came a soft knock. Knock-knock.
“Miss Herrington, are you there?”
Ern’s voice. Her throat tightened, and she swallowed hard. Knock-knock came again in succession, cold sweat beading her palm gripping the handle.
“Miss Herrington, I know you’re there.”
Stay calm. Focus. Udiet drew a long breath and turned the handle. Creak—the sound of the old lock might as well have been a scream.
Don’t take your eyes from the mirror. Udiet fixed her gaze on her reflection. She could see the door slowly opening. Beyond it, the corridor came into view.
Nothing seemed out of place. Could the book be wrong? As Udiet drew breath, a shadow appeared behind her.
A man. A man covered in blood.
Because of the height difference, the mirror showed only his lower face. A man with a scar running from his lips to his chin laughed darkly. In his hand was a short but wickedly sharp blade.
“—!”
The man suddenly raised the knife toward Udiet’s neck. Forgetting the rule never to take her eyes from the mirror, Udiet’s instinct screamed at her to turn her head—
Whiiiiieeee—
A horse’s cry cut through the air.
Outside her room’s window, a horse circled wildly, its cries piercing the night. The sound jolted Udiet back to her senses. She steadied the mirror. The scarred man in its reflection clicked his tongue in frustration. A line of cold sweat traced down the back of her neck.
Coming to her wits again, she felt no presence behind her. Focus. They say even if a tiger bites you, you can survive if you keep your mind sharp.
“Miss Udiet Herrington, are you there?”
This time it was Layla’s voice. The dark man mimicking that delicate tone made her skin crawl. Udiet licked her parched lips.
“My name is…”
Her throat caught, her voice emerging metallic and strained. Udiet stared hard at the man. The blade he held still hovered near her neck. But something about the way he held his arm seemed off.
Why wasn’t his arm straight? Why could she see his fingers gripping the handle pointing toward her? A normal grip should show the back of the hand, with fingers pointing toward the body, but his was reversed—
“Hgh…!”
Damn it all—his neck was twisted completely backward. Udiet bit the soft flesh inside her mouth. The man’s head had rotated a full one-hundred-eighty degrees.
Where his chest should have been below the neck, his back pressed instead. The grotesquely contorted man was smiling. Gooseflesh erupted across her skin like a violent tremor.
“Miss Udiet Herrington, are you there?”
Blood dripped from the man’s jaw. Suddenly chills seized her, and her whole body shook—yet only her neck where his blade rested burned as though seared by flame.
“My name is Iyujin, and you have sought the wrong person. Please leave this time.”
She forced the words from a throat that wanted to close shut. In the mirror, the man’s lips began to curl upward, then froze.
“Miss Udiet Herrington, are you there?”
His voice was hardening by degrees. Udiet fixed her gaze straight upon the man’s mouth.
“My name is Iyujin, and you have sought the wrong person. Please leave this time.”
The soul’s name was Iyujin. The body’s name was Udiet Herrington. Both were Udiet’s names. Yet a name belonged to the one who bore it only if they themselves recognized it as their own. Today, Udiet was Iyujin.
“Miss Udiet Herrington, are you there? Are you? Miss Udiet Herrington, are you, Udiet, Rainhardt, Countess, are you there, are you there, Udiet, are you there, you are!”
The man’s mouth convulsed. Across his grotesquely twisted neck, sinews bulged and writhed, and from the back of the hand gripping the blade, bones began to jut and splinter through the skin.
Damn it, how vile. Her right neck and shoulder burned as though scorched, while the rest of her body felt as though plunged in ice. Udiet trembled from head to foot even as sweat poured down her face.
“My name is—Iyujin, Iyujin! You have sought the wrong person. Please leave this time.”
My name is Iyujin, you have sought the wrong person, please leave this time, my name is Iyujin. You have sought the wrong……
The hand holding the mirror shook violently. In the instant the man’s hand twisted and his blade scraped diagonally across Udiet’s neck, the mirror shattered with a sharp crack. The fissure split the mirror in half, Udiet and the man on either side of the divide. He lowered his blade and bowed slightly at the waist.
In that moment, as his face—visible now down to the bridge of his nose—struck her as oddly familiar, his lips moved.
A pity.
She heard no sound, yet she knew unmistakably what he had said. A pity.
Then.
Crack—
Fine fissures began to spread across the mirror, and within moments the glass shattered into fragments and fell.
Neigh—
Outside, a horse whinnied in alarm.
“…Hah,”
Only then did Udiet release the breath she had been holding, swaying on her feet.
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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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