I Accidentally Resurrected My Dead Husband - Chapter 84

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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 84
“I thought you were actually reflecting on it.”
In Ern’s room, Ern growled as he peeled off his bathrobe and changed into sleeping clothes.
“What kind of reflection requires doing it over and over again?”
While Ern was changing, Udith sat facing the wall and muttered under her breath, her lower lip jutting out—though of course Ern, being in the same room, heard every word.
“What on earth were you thinking going in there?”
Ern came to sit across from Udith. She turned to face him and looked directly into his eyes—eyes that held no trace of remorse.
“What was I thinking? I didn’t know those thugs would come back so soon. Besides, because of what I did, we found out what the cosmetics are made from. If I’d succeeded alone, you would have praised me.”
She was acting as if she hadn’t nearly failed. Ern’s eyebrows twitched at her words.
“Praised? Even if you’d succeeded, you’d deserve a scolding. What possessed you to take such a reckless risk alone?”
Ern sighed, muttering that he knew this would happen, that he’d seen it coming. Udith’s lips puffed out stubbornly.
She knew she’d done wrong. She admitted it was dangerous. But the more people scolded her, the more defiant she became. If she’d failed, she’d have nothing to say. But she hadn’t failed—she’d succeeded.
Shouldn’t her accomplishment deserve some recognition? When Udith looked at him with an expression that said “I’m very dissatisfied,” Ern found himself at a loss.
“You’re not a child anymore. If you know something is reckless and dangerous, why would you charge into it? Why throw yourself into harm’s way like that?”
“You said you saw it coming. So either don’t leave me alone, or don’t scold me.”
Udith snorted.
“Are you saying this is my fault?”
“No—if you knew it was going to happen, why did you leave me alone?”
“Fine, it’s my fault. I won’t leave you alone again, I promise.”
The voices of the two had risen, and then suddenly stopped. Something felt off, didn’t it? Why did you leave me alone? I won’t leave you alone again. This was almost like……
‘Wait, am I whining at him like a lover would?’
The complaint one might level at a beloved, and Udith’s lips trembled. Why had she said that? Heat flooded her cheeks as regret washed over her.
‘It sounded like I made him promise—like I swore him an oath.’
It sounded less like a casual remark and more like a solemn vow. Ern hoped it was only his ears playing tricks, but the awkward silence that descended suggested otherwise. His neck flushed slightly as he let out an unnatural cough.
“Ah, I’m, I’m tired.”
Unable to endure the uncomfortable quiet, Udith mumbled some excuse to herself.
“Should we sleep now?”
“…Yes, I think that would be best.”
Yes, that would be best indeed. For once, Ern and Udith were of the same mind. They lay down on the bed. Though embarrassed and unable to look at each other, instead staring only at the ceiling, their hands found each other like magnets drawn together.
“Your hand.”
Ern extended his palm with fluid grace, and Udith’s hand settled onto it. He wove his fingers between hers, one by one, as if afraid she might slip away in sleep.
……
And Udith felt his fingers resting on the back of her hand in a way that suddenly tickled. Tonight, sleep would elude her for an entirely different reason.
* * *
Disguised as merchants, the Security Force watched the scammer gang, and set an ambush near the rendezvous point Ern had mentioned. But no one came to the rendezvous. When they dug, the money pouch was already gone—taken while Ern and the Security Force were changing shifts. Cain was unsurprised; he had anticipated as much.
He decided to apprehend the scammer gang first and then investigate their backers. He considered continuing to shadow them discreetly to the next rendezvous, but feared more victims might fall prey in the meantime.
Apprehending the scammer gang went smoothly. The Security Force raided their hideout and arrested two of them, while the other two who fled were caught by street thugs Smith had enlisted. The two in aprons and rope belts who were taken by the Security Force were fortunate compared to the other pair captured by Smith’s men.
The Ruman Brothers took thorough revenge on the men who had sold them such strange cosmetics.
“They took a beating, and yet their skin is still glowing?”
“We kept applying the cosmetics they made. If they know where the cure is, they’ll talk readily enough. They’ll sing if they want to live, they will. Hehehehe.”
“I see. A clever method.”
At Ern’s praise, Smith grinned wickedly and bound the tall one and the stout one, then handed them over to Ern. Ern and Udith took the two men to the Security Force. The scammer gang was locked in separate cells and interrogated.
“Tell us everything you know, and we’ll reduce your sentences. But only for the one who talks first.”
Cain delivered the same message to all four, and they nearly all began talking at once.
“The person who taught us the formula was a Shar’tin boy.”
“A boy?”
“Not very young—judging by their combined testimony, somewhere between sixteen and eighteen. They said they met him only once.”
The scammer gang originally made and sold sausages. Needless to say, not the sanitary, legal variety. They mixed animal byproducts left over after butchering with cornmeal and the addictive fruit of a certain tree, creating sausages.
It made money, but not much. For all the effort, the profit was meager. Then one day, a Shar’tin boy they’d never seen before approached them and asked if they wanted to make real money.
Cosmetics that work in two days, and arthritis medication. There would be side effects, the boy told them, but if they fled before the side effects appeared, it didn’t matter.
“He said the price of cattle offal and human corpses was about the same.”
Obtaining bodies was easy enough. Bribe the cemetery keeper, and fresh corpses could be procured whenever needed. People died daily, after all.
“And making the product was even easier than making sausages.”
Yet when selling it, they could charge extortionate prices.
“They planned to travel from south to north, selling cosmetics and arthritis medication, and stop once they’d made their way across the empire.”
That would have been enough to live comfortably for life. The scammer gang couldn’t refuse.
“They said they’d bury the money from cosmetics sales at the rendezvous point, and days later when they went back, they’d find a note with the next rendezvous location where the money had been buried. That’s how they exchanged payment.”
“So you managed to find out where the next rendezvous is?”
“Yes, we have it secured.”
“But, my lord.”
Udith raised her hand as if she had a question.
“Even if he was eighteen, he was still a child compared to those men. Why would they keep a promise made to a child so faithfully?”
They’d already gotten the formula, after all—it would’ve been simple enough to seal their lips and be done with it.
“The boy threatened to place a Curse on them.”
“A what?”
“He threatened that if they didn’t pay, he’d place a Curse on them.”
Ern let out a dry laugh.
“They got frightened by a child’s threat and handed over money?”
“As he was saying this, a Poisonous Snake suddenly slithered across the ground at their feet.”
Had their conversation taken place somewhere truly remote, Ern might have found it less remarkable—but they’d been in quite a substantial Restaurant near the bustling heart of the city, he was told. A common establishment catering to ordinary folk, certainly, but hardly the sort of place where Poisonous Snakes would appear. Yet there one had been.
“The Poisonous Snake seemed to understand what the boy was saying, or so they claimed. They were evidently terrified. You know how it is—people from the Alleyways tend to believe in such things.”
Those who moved through the Underworld, be they moneylenders or pickpockets, lived perpetually close to death. Strange deaths, accidents without explanation—these walked always at their side. And so, naturally, they came to revere Mediums, Witchcraft, and Amulets.
“A Shar’tin Boy who could harvest fat from corpses to make Cosmetics, who knew how to handle Poisonous Snakes—he must have seemed formidable indeed.”
When payment was late, Poisonous Spiders and Poisonous Centipedes would often crawl into their Hidden Hideout, or so the Scammer Gang believed with absolute certainty. They attributed it all to the boy’s doing.
“In any case, they’ve stationed a disguised Security Force at the next Rendezvous Point. They’ve also ordered those nearby to report if any Shar’tin Boy is spotted in the area.”
“Has anyone asked about a cure?”
“No, they claim they don’t know one. The boy said that since they won’t be using it anyway, why would they need a cure? He insisted it posed no threat to life, so there was no need to worry.”
Who the boy was, Ern couldn’t say, but one thing was clear: his character had been corrupted from a tender age.
“In any case, they’re extremely anxious about it.”
Those men could care less about the Side Effects—whether their skin itched or stung made no difference to them. But Henry… Ern drew a short breath. With each passing day, Henry’s skin was growing harder, more rigid.
“The Cosmetics materials my wife provided have been shared with other physicians as well.”
“I do hope someone develops a cure quickly.”
* * *
Dragon Fruit Cactus. The most common cactus in the Desert, and the oldest.
Beichi had discovered that the sticky juice yielded when the Dragon Fruit Cactus was split in half contained powerful detoxifying and soothing properties. There was already a developed medicine for those who had consumed Nicar. So why not mix a medicine made from the cactus juice with the Nicar antidote and take them together?
The problem was that when those two medicines were mixed, their effects canceled each other out.

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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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