I Accidentally Resurrected My Dead Husband - Chapter 46

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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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Chapter 46
“Ahhhhhhh!”
“Eek!”
Even Udiet, who didn’t startle easily at a few ordinary insects, let out a scream.
What kind of centipede was that—a leggy snake! The plump creature stretched far longer than Udiet’s outstretched hand.
“Ugh, get away!”
One of the centipedes crawled up Udiet’s skirt. She convulsed, shaking her skirt frantically while bouncing in place. The creature wouldn’t fall, and beneath her feet something soft and spongy gave way.
“Ugh.”
She didn’t look down, but she knew what it was without seeing.
“Stay calm.”
Just as Udiet was about to topple backward—though given the centipede nest below, she probably wouldn’t have fallen anyway—Ern caught her swaying form. He brushed the centipede clinging to her skirt away with his hand, then hoisted her into his arms, cradling her like a princess.
Udiet wrapped her arms around Ern’s neck as if clutching a lifeline. Even carrying her in a princess hold, Ern ran outside the Shop with remarkable speed.
“The centipedes have gone mad. I’ve never seen so many before.”
Tan, who had been the first to bolt from the doorway, muttered with a shudder. At Tan’s voice, Udiet lifted her head from where she’d been burying her face against Ern’s shoulder.
Ern’s face was inches from hers. She’d never been this close to him, even when they were together constantly. Since she’d rarely been held by anyone at all, Udiet felt embarrassed and squirmed awkwardly.
“Hold still, or you’ll fall.”
“Please put me down.”
A princess hold—this was far too awkward. She would’ve preferred being slung over his shoulder like when they fled the Arena. Wait. As Udiet recalled their escape from the Arena, she realized that one person who should have been among them was missing.
“……Henry!”
* * *
“Hand over your Medal.”
Watching Henry trembling atop a decorative cabinet, Ern clicked his tongue.
“A man who’s seen battlefields getting scared of centipedes.”
“But dozens of them suddenly burst out—how could anyone not run?”
“You’re carrying a sword for nothing. Shouldn’t you be cutting them down?”
With a look of disgust, Ern told him to come down already. As Henry clambered off the cabinet, he felt an odd sense of déjà vu. It seemed like they’d had this sort of conversation before.
“Are you all right, Henry?”
“Yes, I’m composed now.”
The centipedes had all fled, vanishing into the shadows of the Shop. They seemed to be hiding in unseen corners. Since they planned to eliminate the source of the stench and exterminate the centipedes in the process, they went back inside.
Tan, with her sleeves covering her nose and mouth, headed toward the torn-up floorboards. Udiet, Ern, and Henry naturally gathered there as well.
Between the floorboards and the ground below lay a gap just barely wide enough for a person of small build to squeeze through. Even someone of Ern’s or Henry’s stature—or even Tan’s—couldn’t fit, but Udiet looked like she might barely manage it.
Dark, unidentifiable mucus had pooled thickly in the gap, and in the center, something that resembled bone was faintly visible.
“Hmm, looks like human bone.”
Henry, with his experience in law enforcement, inferred from the shape that it was likely a human corpse.
“It appears to have died in a crouched position.”
“That seems to be the case.”
Udiet, Ern, Tan, and Henry all stood around the broken floorboards, gazing down at the same spot.
The mere fact of a corpse’s presence was grotesque and repulsive, but compared to the centipedes, it was nothing.
“But the longer I breathe this smell, the worse I feel. My head’s aching too.”
Henry grimaced, stifling a cough.
“This isn’t just a stench—it’s poison.”
Even for a spirit medium, the smell was unbearable; Tan spoke through a distorted grimace.
“Poison, you say?”
“Yes. Not lethal on its own, but prolonged exposure causes intoxication. It even corrodes wooden furniture. So let’s step outside and discuss this.”
They emerged back outside.
“I think I understand what happened. I don’t know who’s lying on that floorboards, but they dabbled clumsily in Curses.”
When Tan worked as a spirit medium, her bearing grew remarkably mature.
“Dabbled clumsily, you say?”
“What you all just saw was a form of Poison Sorcery. It’s a type of revenge where strong resentment is transformed into poison.”
Poisonous snakes, poisonous wasps, or Poisonous Centipedes—along with other venomous insects, a hundred creatures are gathered into a single jar and starved. Then they consume each other inside the jar.
When only one creature remains, its handler feeds it meat smeared with the intended target’s blood and throws it in the jar. After thirty-three days of conditioning, the jar is opened, and the surviving creature tracks the scent of that blood wherever it leads.
“No matter how far the victim is, the creature finds them. I learned that if bitten by one, no Antidote will work.”
Tan continued her explanation.
“To increase the success rate of revenge, you should use insects with potent venom from the start, and use only the same species. Moreover, for the entire thirty-three days, you must not miss a single day of feeding it the target’s blood.”
“That’s far from easy.”
Ern murmured.
“Exactly. It’s expensive too. So sometimes shortcuts are used. You concentrate the resentment onto a body part of the person you want to revenge and place it in the jar.”
Usually fingernails or hair are used, but some people have cut off fingers or other body parts and placed them inside.
“Then a poison is created that causes such excruciating agony to wrack the entire body just from touching the inside of the creature.”
As Tan explained, she glanced briefly back toward the Shop.
“That person’s resentment must have been extraordinarily strong. They offered themselves up entirely as a sacrifice. The problem is the method was far too amateurish.”
The corpse below seemed to have used the poisonous centipedes as arrows of vengeance. So they’d managed to gather perhaps dozens of them somehow, but everything after that went wrong.
“Containment is the crucial part. That way the centipedes would devour each other. But they didn’t know that, so they took the centipedes down to the floorboards and simply released them without any precaution.”
It seemed likely they couldn’t obtain the blood of their intended curse target, or didn’t even know such a thing was necessary. No wonder the curse failed to manifest properly.
“They did seem to know the incantation to complete the sorcery. That’s why all that vague, putrid mass formed, and it’s been harming this shop.”
“So you’re saying this person held a grudge against the shop itself, Tan?”
“My sense is they bore resentment toward whoever operates the shop. The fact that no smell appeared when it was vacant, but the moment business started it reeked—that tells the story.”
Ah, so that was it. Udiet, now understanding the source of the stench, looked at Tan and asked.
“It can be eliminated, can’t it?”
“Yes. It’s not difficult. There are many steps involved, though.”
Relief flooded through her. Udiet exhaled deeply. Just then, Henry, who’d been listening quietly to their exchange, broke in.
“But if it’s a curse born of resentment, shouldn’t you still find out who caused that resentment in the first place?”
“No. The curse itself failed, so there’s only residual resentment left, and it’s tormenting people.”
Therefore, finding whoever had kindled the original resentment would serve no purpose in breaking the curse.
“In a way, it’s pitiful. What must have happened to drive them to sacrifice themselves like this, all for a revenge they’d planned?”
“And it didn’t even succeed.”
While Tan, Henry, and Ern conversed, Udiet stared steadily at the shop.
“Miss Herington, you’re going to get rid of that right away, aren’t you? Come on, at least—”
Tan was about to explain how to dispel the curse when Udiet cut him short.
“No.”
Ern was left speechless. She’d said no. No. The very person who’d fussed most about getting rid of it, who’d been loudest about wanting it gone, now refused to eliminate it. Ern didn’t understand, but he asked calmly.
“Why not? Don’t tell me you’re planning to find out who harbors this grudge and actually take revenge for them if they’re worth it?”
Instead of answering, Udiet merely smiled enigmatically.
“Did one of the centipedes bite you?”
Ern swept his gaze over her with concern.
“Ern, the lady’s about to do something righteous, so why are you being such a wet blanket?”
“Don’t you know people die when they suddenly change? Last time too, she thanked me while buying me a horse, then nearly died not long after.”
That had been because of the golden centipede, but the timing was remarkably inauspicious regardless.
“Listen, spirit medium. Take a good look and see what’s possessing her.”
Ern seized Tan by the crown of his head and turned him toward Udiet. Tan made a grimace but examined her nonetheless.
“She’s been acting strange all day. Won’t give up gold coins, won’t refuse to resolve the resentment of a complete stranger.”
See if some money-loving ghost hasn’t latched onto her, Ern said, gripping Tan’s crown firmly to keep him in place.
“Miss Herington is perfectly fine.”
“Well then, perfectly fine and that’s that.”
Udiet brushed Ern’s hand away from Tan’s head, then wrapped her arm affectionately around Tan’s shoulders.
Tan looked even more uncomfortable than when Ern had been holding him.
“Why, why are you doing this?”
He sent a desperate look toward Ern and Henry, silently pleading for rescue.
“Embracing another man so casually right in front of her husband, tsk.”
“Try acting like a husband first before you say such things, Ern. Besides, nowadays it’s fashionable to keep a mistress even after marriage.”
“There’s no end to the vulgar fashions that emerge.”
Watching them pay him no attention whatsoever, Tan resigned himself to his fate.
“Tan, or rather, I’ll speak comfortably since I’m your senior, is that all right?”
“Yes, do as you please.”
“Now, speak clearly and truly. If you’re trying to swindle us here, I won’t let you off easily.”
Are you… a gangster? Tan swallowed the words that had risen to his throat and simply nodded.
“I’ve already told you where I live. How could I possibly swindle you?”
“The curse—you’re certain you can eliminate it?”
“Yes, I’m certain. I could start today if needed.”
Udiet patted Tan’s back approvingly.
“Then let’s have it done a few days from now.”

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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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