I Accidentally Resurrected My Dead Husband - Chapter 71

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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 71
Everyone understood: Udith had done all she could for them.
Yet as they faced the question of where to go next, no one’s expression brightened.
Then Udith reappeared in the Dining Room, having changed into more comfortable clothes.
“I’m glad you’re all here. There’s something I’d like to discuss with you.”
Udith took a deep breath, confirming that only adults occupied the Dining Room—the children had been excluded. All the way back from the Harbor, she’d been wrestling with what to do about the Grand Elder’s group.
“I have something to say regarding where you’ll stay.”
“Speak freely, Miss Herington,” the Grand Elder said.
His expression suggested he would accept whatever she proposed.
“I’d very much like you all to remain here at the Mansion.”
“We’ll start looking for another place to—wait. What did you just say, Miss Herington?”
Beitch, the apothecary, blinked, his prepared response interrupted mid-sentence.
“I’d like us to keep living together here.”
Continuing to harbor them was dangerous—she knew that. But winter was coming. These were people cast out even from that damp, shadowed corner; where else could they go? The Udith of before might have closed her eyes to it all, for nothing mattered to her more than business. Yet the Udith she was now could not send out into the freezing streets a child who’d stolen a servant’s dress from the Marquis’s Estate just to help her, nor could she turn away someone who’d been gathering shells because she’d mentioned, in passing, using them to make scented candles.
There hadn’t been time even to see the sea properly on a first visit, and yet this child collected shells. She couldn’t drive her away.
Besides, there was a saying:
“High Risk, High Return.”
“Pardon?”
“The greater the danger, the greater the profit.”
Everyone’s faces suggested they’d never heard such a thing in their lives.
“The Candle Business is on an upswing. When the tide comes in, you must row. I want to row with all of you.”
“Why did your tone suddenly sound like a con artist?” Tan interrupted, throwing off the thread of her speech and earning a sharp glare from Udith.

“Ern and I alone can’t manage both making scented candles and maintaining the Mansion. That’s why I’d like to formally hire all of you.”
“Really?”
There were three people in the Grand Elder’s group who could be called elderly, though only the Grand Elder himself had difficulty moving about.
The other two were younger than the Grand Elder and still capable of work.
Udith hired them as gardeners. While they possessed Shartin racial characteristics, other noble houses also entrusted garden work to Shartins, so it seemed reasonable enough.
Excluding Beitch and Tan, who earned independently, she hired two-thirds of the remaining group for candle-making, employed Mia, the housekeeper, and the rest as servants for the Mansion.
As for Liyan, who looked identical to an Imperial but had never found proper work due to a lame leg and fragile health, he would help Henry at the Candle Shop.
Finally, the children were assigned to odd jobs, but primarily to be children—studying and playing. They agreed to receive smaller wages in exchange for room and board.
‘If I leave them be, I’ll simply be lending out empty rooms and paying modest wages, so it’s a gain for me.’
Such was the arrangement from Udith’s perspective.
‘Safe, clean lodging and work that isn’t grueling. An offer no one could refuse.’
It was equally advantageous for the Grand Elder’s group.
“The real problem is security,” Udith said.
Their presence had to remain absolutely secret—both for the property value and for the Candle Business.
“Don’t worry, Miss Herington. We won’t venture outside at all,” the Grand Elder assured her.
“Right—Liyan or Beitch can buy whatever we need. The Mansion is spacious enough that we won’t feel cramped,” someone added.
Someone even suggested preparing a hiding place in the Basement in case an unexpected visitor arrived.
“Clever of you to make your escape before you even hear someone arrive.”
At that unexpected voice, everyone in the Dining Room stiffened and turned. Ern had returned without their notice and now regarded them with an expression of barely concealed contempt.
* * *
“How did the interrogation go? What did Loam say?”
In Ern’s room, Udith followed close behind him, eager to know. She was just as curious about why Ern’s corpse hadn’t decomposed, about what had actually happened.
“Apparently they experimented on me—killed me and brought me back.”
Since Loam didn’t know much about Sorcery, this was all Ern had been able to extract from him.
“And it seems the Followers’ main branch has grown more interested in money than in me now. Selling that Mummy through Ceres back then—that was for money too, he said.”
The Mummy had been hidden in a safe house within the Capital, according to Loam.
“They didn’t disturb the Capital’s security as a cover to escape?”
“No—the main branch was crying so hard for funds that they had no choice but to sell.”
Udith could understand that. Those people needed money too, after all. Whether hiding or plotting rebellion anew, one needed coin to survive.
“And they tried to recruit you to extract information about me.”
Their first attempt was when they approached you offering to remove some curse attached to you; the second attempt was supposed to happen at Marquis Ferni’s Estate.
“At the Marquis Ferni’s Estate?”
“They meant to draw Marquis Ferni’s Wife to their side.”
The Red Liquor Medium’s faction had used Marquis Ferni to place a Ritual Wooden Figurine beneath Marquis Ferni’s Wife’s bed.
“Originally they planned to make her have strange dreams so she’d lock eyes with one of the Followers.”
But unexpectedly, Marquis Ferni’s Wife had spotted Loam coming to see the Marquis and mistaken him for a ghost.
“They meant to drive the Marquis’s Wife toward paranoia, then ‘cure’ her while gaining her complete trust.”
It meant they’d been trying to create fanatics. They were planning to use Caroline to siphon wealth from the Rofrey Company while keeping Udith on a hook they could pull whenever they needed.
If necessary, they could have summoned her to the Marquis Ferni’s Estate and abducted her. But those plans had completely fallen apart the moment Udith bought that dream.
* * *
That night, changing into his nightclothes, Ern turned over Loam’s testimony in his mind. Facing execution, the man had spoken freely, as if he had nothing left to hide.
“If you want to find the main branch, you’ll have your hands full. I don’t even know about the new one. The Red Liquor Medium—that old man would know. But he’s dead now, isn’t he? Well, he wouldn’t have talked anyway. But I’m wondering… do you really have any reason to seek them out? They didn’t seem particularly interested in you anymore.”
If Loam was telling the truth, the Followers would no longer be hunting Ern. He hadn’t learned exactly what experiment they’d conducted, but the danger had passed.
“If you want to know what experiment they performed, then yes, finding the main branch is the right move. But do you really think they’ll tell you once you find them?”
Loam had said that searching for the Followers’ main branch just to discover the experiment’s purpose was a waste of time. Even if you found someone who knew the goal, they wouldn’t tell you—or they couldn’t, bound by Curse.
Loam’s other testimonies were questionable, but this much rang true. The Followers wouldn’t easily reveal the truth to Ern. They’d be bound by Curse as well. His mind grew tangled. Ern’s hand moved instinctively toward a bottle of liquor, but Udith pushed open his door, dressed in her nightclothes.
Yet her pajamas were different from usual. Normally, her nightgown was a thin cotton slip with buttons only at the front, but tonight she’d wrapped some sort of broad band around it.
“What in the world are you wearing?”
Now she was doing strange things even to her sleepwear. When Ern reached for the band, Udith stepped back.
“There’s something oddly unpleasant about this, isn’t there?”
“Oh, I hid the deposit certificate here, and I just… forgot to mention it.”
Udith laughed sheepishly. The nine-million-gold Deposit Certificate she’d received from Denver—she’d agonized over where to hide it, then decided to simply keep it on her person.
Since her pajama slip had no pockets, she’d placed it inside a long strip of cloth, folded it in half, and tied it around her waist like a sash. Of course, this mansion bore the stigma of being cursed, so thieves wouldn’t dare enter, but this way she could rest easier.
“It’s all going to end up in Smith’s hands anyway. Why cling to it so?”
Ern clicked his tongue and lay back on the bed. Udith quickly settled beside him. They clasped hands with the ease of flowing water, interlocking their fingers so the grip wouldn’t slip during sleep. What had once felt awkward was now almost unconscious.
“Do we have to interrogate Loam again tomorrow?”
“I’ve heard most of the answers I needed. The Marquis said he’d verify the truthfulness of today’s testimony and report back to me.”
“And if everything Loam said turns out to be true?”

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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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