I Accidentally Resurrected My Dead Husband - Chapter 7

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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 7
With the Countess and the Count dead in quick succession, the assassins ceased their visits, yet what had been twisted never returned to its proper state. Sleep would not come. Through those sleepless nights, Ern found himself consumed by a fundamental doubt: why had he fought so desperately to survive?
He had never fought while clinging to his life, but if he hadn’t fought at all, wouldn’t he simply have perished? What had he hoped to gain through all that effort? Honor? Gold? Nothing stirred his interest. He had simply drawn his sword because enemies came at him.
‘If a blade point is aimed at me, it does foul my mood.’
Yes, that was the reason. Ern had drawn his sword for that alone. Once he could no longer fathom why he should live or what he should fight for, everything became tedious.
He kept his neck clean and exposed. If anyone came seeking to take it from him, he was willing to oblige. Those people who had once tried everything to kill him would find it absurd to hear, but what did it matter now? Everything had become hollow anyway.
He passed the sluggish, endless hours with drink and lived defenseless. Whether his life thread was simply too stubborn to break or whether his time had not yet come, Ern continued to survive. And just as he grew weary of that very fact—that he alone had lived on—he died.
In truth, he couldn’t remember exactly when he died. A deep sleep had held him for a long time, and he had no desire to wake. But then, suddenly pulled by a strong force, he opened his eyes to find a woman with her hand between his legs.
‘What? Dead and resurrected? Without even rotting for nearly fifty days?’
Ern tore at the sheet and barely covered his lower half, furrowing his brow. Was this punishment? A curse to never die? He would have found it less bewildering had he become a ghost instead.
“Give back the Medal.”
His irritation, sharp and sudden, was directed at Henry, who sat off to the side with his soul half-fled from his body.
“A man who went to war screaming over a corpse—what’s he afraid of?”
“Afraid? When a corpse suddenly comes back to life, you don’t scream?”
“That woman didn’t scream.”
She said her name was Udith Herrington. Henry had given him a rough explanation—that she had married him while he was dying, and inherited the Rainhardt Family estate. Ern didn’t know much about Udith, but one thing was clear: that woman was not in her right mind.
Husband? The term, heard for the first time in his life, made Ern question his own hearing.
“She must have been startled. When she left, her face was flushed bright red…….”
Wait—flushed red, not pale?
Henry paused, remembering exactly where Udith had been standing relative to Ern’s body, and shook his head slowly. Ern, who had exposed everything, seemed utterly unbothered. Henry, out of courtesy, made no move to ask if he was all right. A strong premonition told him he would receive a truly disagreeable answer.
“Is she really a stranger?”
“We’re meeting for the first time today.”
Ern pressed his temples, which throbbed dully. What in blazes had happened to him? Who had killed him and turned him into a corpse that wouldn’t rot? And why had they forced a marriage upon him?
He was just beginning to think he ought to speak with Udith when she carefully opened the door.
“May I come in?”
Ern observed Udith as she entered, far more composed than before.
“……No matter how I look at it, you’re still a stranger.”
Ern’s eyes raked over Udith from top to bottom. She flinched—that predatory gaze belonged to a savage beast tracking its prey.
“I’ve brought something to drink.”
Udith held out the tray first. Ern picked up the steaming cup sitting on it and, without thinking much, leaned in to smell it—then tilted his head in confusion.
The tea gave off no scent at all, leaving him uncertain whether his sense of smell had failed or whether the tea itself was strange.
“What kind of tea is it?”
“Just hot water.”
Of course—water would have no scent.
Though usually one would bring tea in such a situation, Ern was not the type to nitpick such things.
“No liquor?”
He was a man for whom alcohol alone sufficed.
“……No.”
She couldn’t even produce tea, so naturally there was no liquor—that was the expression on Udith’s face as she quickly lowered her eyes.
“Didn’t I tell you before? The Rainhardt Family owes a great deal of debt.”
Ern’s eyebrows rose at an angle, and Henry hurried to his aid. He certainly didn’t want to see Ern throwing a tantrum clad in nothing but a scrap of cloth.
If the cloth slipped while he was making trouble, who would cover Ern up? Henry Spencer himself, and no one else. He had no wish whatsoever to embrace that part of Ern with his whole body.
‘What made me think that thing was pretty enough to hold a funeral for him?’
While Henry indulged in belated regret, Udith vigorously nodded and held up two fingers beside him.
Normally, raising only the index and middle fingers signified a victory gesture, but here it meant a debt of 200 million Gold. She even murmured under her breath, “A debt of 200 million Gold,” as if worried Ern wouldn’t understand.
“…….”
Faced with such an earnest desire to emphasize the magnitude of their debt, Ern found himself momentarily at a loss for words. When a corpse that doesn’t rot suddenly comes back to life, bringing up debt first—what kind of circumstance was that?
Though he himself did not live by common sense, Udith was no better. Come to think of it, he’d known as much from the moment she called him “husband” to a near-stranger.
“I know how bewildering this must be for you, Lord Ern.”
“You don’t seem to know much at all. If you did, you wouldn’t have called me husband.”
“Well, we are married, after all. In my heart, I have accepted you as my husband.”
Udith murmured softly that they had even shared a Vow of Kiss, though it had been one-sided.
“But you didn’t consummate the marriage, did you?”
Though Ern had certain character flaws, this time he had not been trying to be sarcastic. He had merely been curious whether they had consummated it, given the Vow of Kiss. His body, after all, might have functioned properly of its own accord, even while his mind was absent.
“……Ah, is that what you meant?”
Yet her answer came back subtly off the mark. Worse, it seemed to come after deliberate consideration, which unsettled him further.
“That what? No, I don’t think so.”
Whatever it was, it didn’t seem right. Udith nodded with the air of someone reaching a decision.
“All right then. Let’s consummate the marriage.”
Udith let out a short sigh—a sigh that sounded precisely like “Men are impossible, after all.” Or was that merely his imagination? Ern’s lips twitched. When one is too bewildered, words fail—and he was in precisely that state.
“Henry, would you mind stepping aside for a moment?”
If the First Night was to happen regardless, there was no harm in getting it over with right now, in one swift stroke.
Udith stole a glance at Ern’s firm chest and the taut muscles of his abdomen. She hadn’t anticipated the First Night, but his appearance did much to quiet her hesitation.
‘That’s right—in my last life I nearly became a maiden ghost. This time around, living with a man doesn’t sound so terrible.’
Honestly, when would she ever get another chance at a man who looked like this? Even in a novel’s world, that was no easy feat. Besides, the fact that he’d brought up the First Night first suggested he found her pleasing too.
‘Maybe because the original work is an adult novel, things move fast from the very first meeting. Well, even maintaining a marriage for just two years wouldn’t be a loss.’
By then, property values would have risen considerably, so all things considered, it had worked out well. Udith signaled to Henry—who was glancing nervously between her and Ern—to hurry and leave.
“So, I suppose I’ll be going, then?”
Henry rose awkwardly, drawing out his words in an odd manner.
“……Where are you going?”
Ern rubbed his eyes with the heel of his hand, irritably snapping at Henry for no particular reason.
“You said you had no unusual tastes.”
Udith had started toward Ern but stopped short, muttering something under her breath. At that, Ern raised his voice toward her.
“No!”
Where was this conversation even going? Watching Udith pout her lips in apparent disappointment at her failed attempt at seduction, Ern felt his resolve crumble entirely. The Empire’s mad dog thought for the first time that it was a losing proposition to argue with someone not in their right mind.
“Then, shall we divorce?”
At her question, he drained a cup of already-cooled water in one long gulp and nodded. It was the natural course of things, after all.
“It would be better for you too.”
He’d heard the marriage wasn’t something she’d wanted in the first place. Though judging by how eagerly she’d rushed to consummate it, she seemed to want it now. But in any case.
“Once we divorce, there’s no need for you to pay off this family’s debts either.”
“…Ah, actually, I borrowed a bit more money.”

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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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