I Accidentally Resurrected My Dead Husband - Chapter 72

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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 72
Udith didn’t drift off to sleep as usual, and asked instead.
She was curious whether Ern, having achieved his purpose, would leave or stay. She was curious, but didn’t dare ask outright. If he gave her an answer like “of course,” she felt it would wound her deeply.
Not that she had any intention of holding him back if he went.
“……But why aren’t you sleeping tonight?”
What if everything Loam said was true?
Ern evaded the question. If he’d known the answer, he would have spoken it; but not knowing, what could he do? He simply covered Udith’s eyes with his palm and told her to get some sleep.
“Do you think I’m a chicken? Cover my eyes and I’ll fall asleep?”
Even so, she drifted off almost at once. She’d tried not to show it, but the consecutive days of travel in the carriage had worn her down. Ern listened to her even breathing and let his head fall back against the pillow.
So if everything Loam said was true, what was he supposed to do? The answer that came back was either find the Root Organization in his mind’s eye and finish it once and for all, or leave this place as originally planned.
‘Either way, I’ll have to leave here.’
The Root Organization would be outside the Capital. If he became a mercenary and wandered as he’d first intended, he would naturally leave the Capital. Whichever path he took, there would be no returning to Rainandt Manor for some time.
If Ern were as he’d been right after his resurrection, he would have chosen one or the other without hesitation. Or he would have wandered as a mercenary, and the moment he learned the Root Organization’s location, he would have gone to satisfy his curiosity—without lingering doubt, without the slightest vacillation.
“……Why.”
But why am I agonizing over this now?
Udith’s thin, measured breathing echoed through his mind, muddying his thoughts. Ern couldn’t sleep. He lay awake the entire night, and only as dawn broke did he reach a conclusion.
He was lost. Completely.
* * *
The moment her eyes opened, Udith took the Deposit Certificate and went to Smith.
“Nine million gold. I’m repaying it now.”
Udith placed the nine-million-gold Deposit Certificate on Smith’s desk with a decisive thunk.
“Oh, nine million gold all at once?”
Smith’s eyes lit up as he reached for the Deposit Certificate.
“……?”
“…….”
Smith pinched the Deposit Certificate that lay pressed beneath Udith’s palm with two fingers and pulled. But Udith didn’t release the pressure.
“……Madam, I must ask you to let that go.”
“Ah.”
She’d brought the Deposit Certificate intending to hand it over to Smith, but now that the moment was here, she found herself reluctant to part with it. Udith sighed at her own hesitation and loosened her grip.
“I don’t know why, but it feels like I’m being robbed.”
“That’s the feeling you always get when paying off usurious debt.”
Was that supposed to be consolation, Smith? Was that really supposed to make her feel better? Whether Udith glared or not, Smith held the Deposit Certificate up to the candlelight to examine it.
“What do you see when you look at it like that?”
“Nothing, really. Just looks like there’s nothing there.”
There’s something there, though. She clearly can’t see anything at all. Udith’s expression turned sour.
“Well then, the Countess of Rainandt now has 183 million gold remaining to repay.”
Smith opened his ledger and entered today’s payment amount beneath Udith’s name.
“What, is that all she managed to pay back?”
Ern, who had been leaning against the wall and quietly listening to what was nearly a comedy routine between Smith and Udith, straightened up.
She’d sacrificed sleep to make scented candles, deliver them, even resorted to eating leftovers from other people’s meals—and there was still over 180 million gold left to repay?
“That usurer is swindling me.”
Ern’s demeanor turned ominous.
“Swindle, you say? Even so, money-lending is built on trust.”
Smith’s face crumpled in aggrievement. Udith rushed forward as if to grab Ern by the collar and whispered urgently.
“It’s because we’ve been paying interest and principal together.”
“……So most of the money we’ve both earned by working ourselves to the bone has been going straight to that bastard as interest?”
Hollowness. Yes, if Ern had to name the emotion he felt now, it was hollowness. He was hollow. The money he’d earned by swapping a sword-grip for a pot handle, even making scented candles with his own hands—all of it had gone to interest. There was a reason that man was called ruthless.
“Why do you charge such extortionate interest!”
“Because it’s usury, isn’t it? Of course. Though I’ll say, the Countess has been repaying faster than anyone else.”
Even after deducting the nine million gold paid today, Udith’s debt-repayment rate was far superior to others’. This was the highest praise Smith could offer, but the debtor who heard it was far from pleased.
“He’s no different from a bandit—except he didn’t need a blade.”
Ern’s brow furrowed as he left Smith’s office, showing no sign of relaxing.
“Worse than a bandit, actually,” Udith added.
A bandit only stole what you already had, but Smith made you earn money only so he could steal your future earnings too. As they were leaving the building where Smith’s office was located, a familiar voice called out to them.
“Miss Herington, is that you?”
Udith and Ern turned toward the voice.
“Big Luman?”
Head shaved clean except for a strip down the middle, eyes fierce and piercing, a Livestock Catching Knife hanging at his waist—it was Big Luman, the elder of the Luman brothers. Of course, the Luman brothers did have real names.
But since Smith and everyone else called them Big Luman and Small Luman, Udith had taken to calling them Big Luman and Small Luman as well.
“Well, I’ll be. Big Luman got himself a lover? Couldn’t tell from a distance.”
Of course it was a polite way to put it. But it wasn’t entirely false either. How to describe it—Big Luman looked considerably better than the last time Ern had seen him.
The deep furrows in his brow had smoothed somewhat, his dull skin now carried a subtle sheen, and the sagging belly had tightened considerably.
“Ha, I’ve been shedding a bit of weight lately. My brother’s doing the same.”
Somehow his manner of speaking had become remarkably genteel as well. Ern found himself unable to look away from the transformation. The last time he’d seen the Luman brothers was twenty days ago, on their regular debt-repayment day.
There had been hardly any change then. Could a man really become this refined in just twenty days?
“You look well.”
Even Ern, who was sparing with praise, couldn’t help but say something.
“Ha, I’m taking good care of myself and hoping to find a wife soon.”
“Keep it up and you will.”
At Ern’s words, Udith nodded vigorously.
“How on earth are you managing it? To change so much in just twenty days?”
On their way back from parting with Big Luman, Udith remained astonished. She was so amazed that she’d even forgotten her regret over spending nine million gold on debt repayment.
“If he can do that much in twenty days, he’ll be a completely different person in forty.”
Ern clicked his tongue at Big Luman’s secret to transformation.
They naturally made their way to the Candle Shop. Today was Liyan’s first day of work. If Liyan took over the shop, Ern could rest easy even if Henry later returned to the constabulary.
* * *
“Oh, Ern.”
As they entered the shop, an unexpected visitor greeted them. Cain had been sampling the scented candles when he spotted Ern and waved.
“And you’ve brought your wife, I see.”
Cain extended his hand with perfect courtesy. Udith placed her fingers lightly upon his palm. He then made as if to kiss the back of her hand—a standard courtesy to a lady—but Udith found it awkward, and Ern, for reasons he couldn’t quite name, found it repellent.
“Have you come to purchase scented candles, my lord?”
“Unfortunately not.”
“Then what are you doing here? Don’t get in the way of business—get out.”
Ern tried to usher Cain out. Henry, watching from a distance, felt a strange kinship with the man’s plight.
“I’ve come because I have something to tell you.”
“What could that be?”
“His Majesty wishes to see you. And your wife as well.”
* * *
When Ern’s people arrested Loam’s gang, word of Ern’s survival reached the Emperor’s ears. The Emperor was hardly surprised to learn that Ern had died, then lived, then pretended to be dead on paper. He merely responded with the attitude that this was the sort of thing one had to pull off to earn the title of the Empire’s Mad Dog. However, he was quite taken aback by news of the marriage. He even remarked that his wife must be a woman of truly exceptional tastes—though Cain had not relayed this part to Ern.
In any case, since Ern had played a significant role in capturing Loam’s gang, the Emperor considered it an occasion for commendation and summoned Ern to the Imperial Palace.
Ern grumbled that the Emperor would simply hand down some gift or reward and be done with it, that there was no need to drag him all the way to the Imperial Palace. He was sick of the palace, he said—a remark that would have astonished Loam, had the man still been locked in his cell to hear it.
After all, here was someone who used to slip out of the palace grounds at the drop of a hat to shirk his duties, yet now he was tired of the place. What audacity.
“Ern, I’m not going to ask you to smile. But could you at least try to look less furious?”
Yet once an imperial command had been issued, he could hardly refuse. So in the end, Ern found himself boarding the carriage to the palace, his face twisted in displeasure the entire way through the Imperial Palace’s main gate.
When Ern’s expression showed no sign of improving even after he’d stepped out of the carriage, Cain finally made an almost pleading suggestion that he relax his features.
“What’s wrong with my expression?”
“You look ready to strike His Majesty. It’s terribly disrespectful.”
“That remark is more disrespectful.”

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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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