I Accidentally Resurrected My Dead Husband - Chapter 55

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

Chapter 55
Udith was left so speechless by the sheer absurdity that her lips just fluttered open and closed. As she stood there bewildered, the corner of Ern’s mouth lifted ever so slightly. It was infuriatingly charming.
He’d done it on purpose—deliberately teasing her. How could a person manage to be so irritating from the moment they came back from the dead all the way to now? Whether Udith fumed silently or not, Ern simply continued his conversation with Tan.
“Though you’re not planning to stay for free, I hope?”
“Ah, the lodging fee—I’ll pay it however I can.”
“Never mind the money.”
Ern made a gesture toward Tan’s hand.
“Let me borrow that hand of yours.”
* * *
Under cover of a drizzling night, the Grand Mother and her group slipped quietly into Rainhardt Mansion through a sparsely traveled road. About twenty people in total—including six young children and three elderly, and among them a newborn babe.
Half of them were put to work cleaning the mansion. It was late, but the state of the place left no choice; it simply couldn’t be left as it was. The other half were set to making scented candles.
“Like this, we can make far more than if the three of us—myself, Henry, and Udith—worked through the night.”
It was true. Ern had wanted to escape, at least for a while, from the overtime of candle-making. And in doing so, he’d also meant to give Udith time to rest. He’d thought that once they opened the shop, she’d be able to sleep more. But as business flourished, Udith’s greed grew; she’d catch brief snatches of sleep while continuing to make candles.
“So now you take it easier too.”
“Ern, do you know that saying? Sleep comes only in death.”
“What?”
“We can’t miss an opportunity like this to stockpile inventory.”
“……You’re going to end up sleeping that way forever.”
“People don’t die that easily. There’s even someone who died and came back to life, after all.”
Contrary to Ern’s intention, Udith burned with determination to produce as much volume as possible. In the end, she made candles late into the night again and collapsed into sleep like someone losing consciousness.
A faint murmur escaped her.
That night, Udith had a most peculiar dream.
A desolate field, indeterminate in location.
There was scarcely any cover save a few withered trees. In the middle of them lay a pile of firewood as if someone meant to build a fire, and around it circled a figure with exceedingly long hair, moving round and round.
Even from very far away, the hair seemed so long it might brush the ground. Whether the figure was a woman or a man was impossible to tell; they danced around the woodpile in slow, deliberate circles.
A shrill, sinister laugh rang out—the sound grated like fingernails scraping across a blackboard, raising goosebumps all over. Udith cowered behind a withered tree, tormented by that laughter until she woke.
“……Ugh, what a disturbing dream.”
It was a strange dream indeed. Rain had pattered all night long, and now a madwoman had appeared even in her dreams. Udith rubbed her stiff shoulders and got up.
Today, too, there was much to do. She had to move the candles made yesterday with the others—who had become their houseguests—to the shop, buy the lacking materials, and also…….
“You’re awake, Miss Herington?”
“Huh? Oh, yes.”
She’d stepped out of her room without thinking, and Tan, still in nightclothes, slipped past her and greeted her with the morning’s courtesy.
“Mia’s prepared breakfast. Come quickly.”
She’d caught the aroma of something savory—it seemed someone who’d woken earlier than Udith had already begun preparing the morning meal.
“You’re awake, Miss Herington. I’m sorry for using the kitchen without asking first.”
Something was bubbling gently in a great cauldron that Ern and Udith had never even looked at during their time alone. Mia was ladling melted cheese over hardened bread and placing each piece onto plates.
“I also used the ingredients in the kitchen freely. Many people haven’t had a proper meal in days, you see. I’m truly sorry for that too. Beitch will bring replacements for everything we’ve used later.”
“No, don’t worry at all. After all….”
They hadn’t purchased it anyway. Most of it had been obtained from the Marquis Ferni’s estate and the Baron Bricks’s estate, but Udith saw no need to say this aloud.
“But the quantities seemed so small.”
“That’s why I made it into a stew. When portions are small, a soup is the way to go.”
Mia smiled brightly and gave Udith’s back a gentle push toward the dining room. Ever since the Gold Silkworm Establishment had ceased to exist, Ern and Udith had not used the Dining Room at all.
With only two mouths to feed, they couldn’t justify cleaning such a cavernous space every day. But seeing the Dining Room put back to use, Udith suddenly felt the weight of her surroundings—that this was indeed a count’s estate.
“I didn’t remember it looking like this.”
Apparently, even Ern, who had spent his childhood in the count’s household, felt the same novelty.
“Ern’s here too.”
“Yeah, some of the Shartin children came and woke me for breakfast.”
It had been the younger members of the Shartin Clan who’d roused him. As Udith and Ern took their seats, Tan appeared at the Dining Room entrance, his arm linked through the Grand Mother’s.
“Miss Herington, Count Ern, thank you. Thanks to you both, I slept soundly. I won’t impose on you for long.”
Once the Grand Mother’s thanks concluded, Mia and a girl who looked to be about sixteen came in carrying food. The stew—containing potatoes, carrots, soft-cooked onions, and merely a lump of meat no larger than a palm—tasted far better than it had any right to.
The bread with melted cheese was hard, certainly, but not inedible.
“Now this is real food.”
“It’s been so long since I’ve had something you could actually call a meal.”
There they were, the people who’d made do by forcing down hard bread in hot water with reckless haste, using busyness as an excuse. Though the Grand Mother’s group were the ones who’d been starving, somehow it was Ern and Udith who were eating the most voraciously.
* * *
“Is this really our mansion?”
“I thought we’d come to someone else’s house.”
That evening. The moment Udith opened the mansion door after returning from work, she was startled by how brilliantly the estate shone before her eyes.
“Haha, welcome home. We’ve done a bit of cleaning while you were away.”
“Dinner will be ready soon.”
The mansion was clean and well-provisioned. She didn’t even have to worry about washing up.
“Sir Ern, a button fell off your shirt. I sewed it back on and pressed everything while I was at it.”
“Miss Herington, you mentioned needing a head scarf, didn’t you? I had some fabric left over, so I made one. What do you think?”
A life where others did the laundry, made her head scarves, and even scrubbed the bathroom.
“It’s comfortable.”
“So comfortable.”
Udith and Ern found themselves in rare agreement. The life they’d lived until recently—dragging their exhausted bodies home each day, letting chores and laundry pile up indefinitely—felt like a distant dream.
No, not distant. It was only yesterday. A few extra hands had transformed their entire routine overnight.
“You’re quite skilled with your hands, Sia.”
“I’ve loved making things since I was little.”
Had Sia not borne the distinctive features of the Shartin Clan—those amber eyes—she might have carved out a living from her craftsmanship. But with insufficient spiritual power to become a Spirit Medium, she’d scraped by doing harder labor: scrubbing haylofts and stables. Now, though, candle making felt genuinely easy and delightful by comparison.
“Compared to my other work, making scented candles is truly simple and fun.”
To speak honestly, Sia’s skill surpassed even Udith’s. If Henry was invaluable to the shop’s operations, then Sia was equally irreplaceable in candle making. She was a talent worth coveting—so much so that Udith found herself retiring earlier than usual.
“Tonight I’ll sleep properly.”
Udith stretched lightly and threw herself onto the bed. She’d lost sleep the night before, and now exhaustion claimed her almost instantly.
A desolate field. Around a pile of firewood, a long-haired figure danced and spun with uninhibited grace. Nearly seven feet tall, neither quite man nor woman, the creature twirled naked in circles.
Arms rising and falling, shoulders swaying—how long had this continued?—when faint vapor began to rise from the unlit bonfire. The seven-foot figure grew more animated, bouncing with abandon before suddenly whirling around.
Udith, crouched in a shrub shorter than herself, caught her breath. The creature didn’t seem to notice her; it turned away again and resumed its dancing bounce.
The next day.
“…Why do I feel like I was the one running?”
Udith woke with a long sigh. Though she hadn’t been the one dancing or exerting herself, her entire body felt stiff and sore, as if she’d been moving all night.
“Strange—I had the same dream as yesterday.”
Except this time she’d gotten closer to the creature. How could she have the same dream two nights in a row? Udith rubbed her stiff neck and rose.
“I must be under more stress than I thought.”
She dismissed it easily. It wasn’t a frightening dream, not unpleasant—merely one where her mind was somewhat restless.
But when she found herself having the same dream a fourth consecutive night, Udith began to sense something was wrong.
‘Not again—why this dream today too?’
Hiding barely above a rock that came to her knees, Udith was once again forced to witness the seven-foot creature’s dance.
The distance shrank steadily. Now, a single careless breath would expose her. Though dreams offered no real control, Udith did her utmost to make no sound.
Pale vapor rose from the unlit woodpile. She’d taken it for smoke at first, but up close it resembled steam. The more vapor that rose, the more animated the seven-foot figure became, dancing with frenzied delight.
‘Its arms are so long.’
The creature raised and lowered its arms, which hung all the way to its knees, thrashing about wildly. Watching made her dizzy. She shouldn’t move, couldn’t move, but in that moment of weakness, Udith toppled sideways into the grass.
The seven-foot creature stopped dancing. It whipped its head toward her. Between strands of jet-black hair, the whites of its eyes flickered grotesquely. Disgusting! Goosebumps raced down her spine. She wanted to flee desperately, but her body felt pinned to the ground—immobile.
The creature stared down at her, motionless. Its gaunt, skeletal frame was entirely naked, hair cascading to its feet, arms dangling to its knees like seaweed swaying in water.
Between matted, drenched hair, a dark mouth continued murmuring incessantly. What was it saying?
Not-you-not-you-not-you-not-you-not-you-not-you-not-you-not-you-not-you-not-you-not-you-.

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