I Accidentally Resurrected My Dead Husband - Chapter 49

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

Chapter 49
It was essentially a scheme to con the con artist—a plan that Smith had enthusiastically endorsed, even lending his own name to it.
Watching Udith standing before Cain on his knees, clutching the contract with barely concealed delight, Ern couldn’t help but think she looked positively villainous.
“Like a proper villain.”
That was exactly it—a villain. Especially with two burly thugs flanking her in that shadowy alley, grinning like that. Now he understood why Smith had called her a talent in the trade.
After Cain had slunk away like a defeated soldier, Udith finally noticed Ern, and her whole body erupted into bouncing waves, arms flailing in greeting.
The way she hopped in place reminded him precisely of a rabbit—though this was a villainous rabbit, having just extorted someone’s real estate at a pittance. The thought struck him as so absurd that he couldn’t help but laugh aloud. A villain? So what, as long as she wasn’t conning him. He started to raise his arm to wave back, then hesitated.
How many times had he waved back to someone without it being a signal? Just waving, yet it felt so strange. Perhaps he never had.
The awkward flutter in his belly made him lower his arm, but it seemed Udith’s joy-drunk eyes found even that gesture sufficient. As her smile broadened and his own lips instinctively curved upward in response, she suddenly bumped fists with the Ruman brothers and drew them both into a light embrace.
“……?”
Ern’s smile froze mid-rise. Surely it wasn’t proper for a wife to embrace strange men in front of her husband. And two of them, no less.
But before Ern could act—before he even fully registered the sharp flicker of displeasure—Udith came running toward him.
“Ern!”
As though there were no question who deserved to share in her greatest joy, she waved the contract like a victor’s banner.
“Tonight we’re having meat!”
* * *
“Ehehehe.”
Standing before the shop that had just been sold for two hundred fifty thousand Gold—including the Ruman brothers’ cut—Udith’s cheeks simply refused to descend.
Her own shop under her own name. Not rented, not leased—owned outright. Honestly, she hadn’t expected to acquire real estate this quickly. Even if it was small, it was hers.
“Remarkable that you can smile while breathing this stench.”
Cain—for it was he—wrinkled his nose in disgust at the persistent miasma, studying Udith as though she were some fascinating specimen. Udith merely patted his shoulder reassuringly.
“Our Cain will purge every trace of it, won’t he? Why would I worry?”
When their eyes met, Udith gave him a playful wink. The corners of Cain’s mouth pinched tighter just as Ern unceremoniously drew Udith away from him.
“You looked positively depraved just then.”
“Madam, pray remember that a representative of public order is present.”
With a tsk, Udith pouted and stepped back from Cain. Only then did he wipe the foolish expression from his face and slip into his familiar professional voice.
“As I mentioned before, eliminating the miasma is not particularly difficult, but it is quite tedious. I trust you will follow my instructions carefully.”
* * *
“…must be done. Now, that concludes my explanation.”
Cain had warned them: tedious work. Hearing it firsthand, Udith found it was far more tedious than anticipated. In fact, it could not be completed in a single night.
First, Cain lit Yew Wood Branches dried in sunlight, purifying the miasma through smoke while exterminating the centipedes lurking within. Then, ventilating the space, he gathered Yew Wood Ash and sprinkled it across the blackened, mucus-like remains of the deceased proprietor’s corpse. He even paused to offer respect to the dead.
That alone took six solid hours. Scheduled for a sparse night to avoid disturbing neighbors, the ritual finally concluded just as dawn began to break.
Yet this was merely the beginning of a prolonged Purification Ceremony.
“The next stage requires materials.”
“What do we need?”
“Water that has been boiled three times and cooled three times. We’ll use it to cleanse the shop, so the more abundant your supply, the better.”
“That’s all?”
“Yes, I shall bring the rest. Ah, and one more thing—all three of you.”
Cain’s eyes moved from Udith to Ern to Henry in turn.
“You must purify yourselves. A Ritual Purification Bath is mandatory. Wash thoroughly for no less than one hour. Refrain from taking life, and abstain from meat and alcohol.”
“What? No drinking?”
“Just one day, Ern. Bear with it.”
Ignoring Ern’s indignant grumbling, Udith pressed Cain further.
“Is that all we need to watch out for?”
“Well, there is…”
Cain, who had been speaking with such fluency, suddenly cleared his throat awkwardly.
“You must refrain from that.”
“From what? What are you talking about?”
“Sharing a bed… you cannot do that.”
Cain chose his words with deliberate care, opting for the most clinical terminology. Yet his eyes betrayed him—flickering repeatedly between Ern and Udith.
“That’s not it.”
Reading Cain’s implication, Ern’s throat seized with an odd metallic sound. The notion of himself and Udith bound by such a word had never crossed his mind, and he found himself embarrassingly flustered.
“No.”
Udith, however, seemed largely unbothered. Cain clearly believed them to be a married couple—a reasonable misunderstanding. And since this was the second time she’d been on the receiving end of it, the awkwardness had dulled somewhat.
“We cohabitate, but we don’t share a bed.”
“Isn’t that arrangement rather unusual?”
“But it’s the truth.”
……
Well, it was the truth. But how could she say it so matter-of-factly?
Ern felt an embarrassing flush creeping up his neck, and his alone.
Still, if one thought about it even briefly, Udith was the kind of person who could propose a consummation on a first meeting without so much as a blush.
Her moral compass had always been flexible. Getting worked up over someone like that would only cost him.
“Isn’t that so?”
While Ern methodically reclaimed his composure, Tan tilted his head. He’d heard that Henry and Udith were nothing to each other, but that Udith and Ern were husband and wife—yet they didn’t share a bed?
“Then perhaps…….”
Tan’s eyes, which had been turning the thought over, rolled between Ern and Henry with sudden clarity.
“What was that look just now? Why are you staring back and forth between me and that bastard?”
The reason Ern had barely clawed back shattered like glass. A wave of disgust rolled up from his depths, and his brow furrowed so sharply his dark eyebrows nearly merged into one.
“How deeply offensive.”
Henry’s expression was more contemptuous than if he’d seen a swarm of centipedes crawling past.
“I could make that indecent mind of yours as clean as purified water.”
The moment Ern’s hand moved to his sword hilt, Tan’s shoulders flinched as he muttered something aggrieved.
“No, I was just—I only asked because all three of you need to be ritually pure, so I thought I’d check whether——”
That might have been the end of it, if Tan hadn’t added under his breath, “They say strong denial is really just affirmation.”
That dawn, Tan ran laps around the neighborhood several times over, all in the name of a sound body housing sound thoughts.
* * *
The Miasma Purification Ceremony proceeded without incident—though boiling, cooling, and moving water in quantities sufficient to cleanse the entire shop proved grueling work.
Before washing the shop with water, Tan transferred the body of the Old Woman, who had offered herself as a sacrifice, into a box made of parasol wood. Thanks to the smoke from the Yew Wood Branches, the viscous slime coating her bones had vanished, leaving only her skeleton—pitted here and there with holes—to rest in the box.
After moving the body, they scrubbed the shop clean with water that had been boiled and cooled three times, placed Salt Jars in all four corners, and hung Dried Sage Bundles from the ceiling. While the toxins embedded throughout the shop gradually dissipated, they carried the Old Woman’s remains to the Cemetery where her son lay buried and interred her beside him.
As a fellow member of the Chartin Tribe, Tan burned with rage at Cain’s wickedness. Yet with no physical evidence and the victim already dead, there was nothing more they could do.
“At least Miss Herington snatched the shop from that man at a pittance, so that must have offered some comfort.”
Following Tan’s reasoning, they could only hope it provided whatever solace it might. In any case, with the past put behind them, the Herington Special Candle Shop finally opened its doors.
During the days the shop had been closed due to the miasma, Udith had prepared small Scented Candles and Colored Candles in advance to give away at the opening event. Buy one Scented Candle, receive one small Colored Candle free; buy two Scented Candles, get a small Scented Candle as a gift. Customers who purchased ten Colored Candles were also sent home with a small Scented Candle as a present.
The strategy proved effective. The shop was thriving with business. And at the heart of that throng stood Henry.
With his light brown hair neatly combed back, eyebrows trimmed to precision, and freshly shaved, Henry was the very embodiment of a gentleman.
Though he’d joined the Knight Order by connection, he maintained his physique with discipline—not an ounce of excess on him. His broad, angular shoulders were especially striking in the crisp white shirt. With his rich baritone voice delivering kind and attentive compliments, always wearing a gentle smile, even passing women seemed drawn in as if enchanted.
“That fragrance truly suits you perfectly, miss.”
“Miss? How old do you think I am?”
The matron waved her hand dismissively, though her open smile betrayed her pleasure.
“Ah, forgive me. You look so youthful I naturally assumed you were still unmarried.”
“Oh my, oh my.”
The lady, her finger adorned with a Ruby Ring no larger than a fingernail, broke into a hearty laugh at Henry’s flattery, then swept her hand across the shelf from right to left.
“I’ll take everything from here to there.”

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