"His heart isn't beating."
Henry tried to gather his wits as he heard Judith mutter in a trembling voice.
Should I call a doctor? Or the police? No, I'm the police!
As Henry was shaking his head in confusion, he saw Judith's trembling hands trying to completely open the white cloth.
"Just a moment, Ma'am!"
Even in his confusion, Henry urgently called Judith.
"Please protect Erne!"
"Yes?"
"He's naked."
"Ah..."
The cloth fell from Judith's hands, and Henry defended his friend's honor.
***
'Why was a buried body found in the forest?'
That part was still a mystery, but Henry and I cleared up the mind.
First, Erne's body was moved to the Rhineland mansion. I was reluctant to leave the body in the mansion, but I had no choice.
Normally, a corpse cannot be placed in a morgue without the permission of the chief constable, but Henry used his connections to temporarily entrust Erne's body to them.
But that only lasted for a day or two, and it couldn't last any longer than that.
'If we report to the police that there's something strange about Erne's death, there'll be an uproar.'
What if the corpse doesn't decay, but it's the illegitimate child of the House of Rhineland?
The rumors surrounding the Rhineland Manor will inevitably grow and spread out of control. At the same time, the Countess who remains in the Rhineland family will also become known.
'I might have to be called to the police station for questioning.'
In the worst-case scenario, I might be arrested and questioned. I thought that the most suspicious person in this situation was myself.
'Then I won't be able to meet the order delivery date?'
And that's not all. If word gets out that the candles were made in the Rhineland Mansion, the orders that were placed might be canceled, saying it would be bad luck.
If I do that, I won't be able to pay the interest, and if I can't pay the interest, Smith will come looking for me, and I'll be dragged into the hell that Smith has prepared for me.
My head started spinning as I thought about what would happen next.
'Absolutely not.'
I persuaded Henry to take Erne's body out of the mortuary. Fortunately, Henry did not want Erne's body to be autopsied.
"If he had died normally. It would have been different, but in this condition, he would just be subjected to experiments under the pretext of an autopsy."
And above all, Henry,
"I want to make Erne comfortable. I know a good medium."
He was a fortune-telling fanatic.
Henry was the kind of person who believed that such bizarre incidents were the kind of things that required help.
"Are you by any chance averse to 'them'?"
'They' refers to the Shartine people. They are desert people who make a living by fortune-telling and were incorporated into the empire a hundred years ago.
However, even after quite some time had passed, they were unable to mix with the people of the empire.
While the imperial people visited the Shartine tribe to have their fortunes told, they also looked down on and oppressed them.
Some of them even openly detested the Shartine tribe. Henry asked if Judith was one of those people.
"That's not it, but..."
Since she wasn't from this side in the first place, how could she have a crush on the Shartines?
However, only very briefly.
"I know it's embarrassing to say this in this situation, but if it's a psychic, it would be quite expensive, right?"
"..."
No, really, in this situation, how could you say something like that?
Henry looked at Judith with an expression on his face, and Judith held up two fingers and whispered softly.
"The debt is 200 million gold."
"I will pay."
"Sir Henry is a very good man."
***
The next day, Henry set out to find the brave medium.
Erne still seemed alive. There was no rigor mortis, and his eyes were not clouded. If something was wrong, it was terribly wrong.
I chewed my fingernails in the face of the situation that I had no idea how to handle. I didn't know for sure, but if Erne continued to exist as an unrotten corpse, it would definitely be bad news for mw.
'If I had found him on my own, I would have buried him somewhere.'
I couldn't witness it with Henry. I, who had been chewing my fingernails, turned around with a determined expression and headed towards the fireplace.
If it doesn't rot, you have to make it rot.
"I'm sorry, Sir Erne."
But please understand that I can only do this.
I threw the firewood I had brought into the fireplace. I was worried that Erne might rot if the room got too warm.
I was desperate now. I wanted this matter resolved as quickly as possible.
What if the medium that Henry called fails?
"I don't feel comfortable doing this. If rumors spread that there is an Immortal corpse, the price of the house won't go up."
So, you who are dead must follow the course of nature.
I feel sorry for Erne, but I couldn't give up my original 400 million gold mansion, my countship, and my already well-established business.
In this strange world where the caste system and capitalism coexist, titles and money are my spear and shield.
"..."
I, who was about to turn around, stopped. An unexpected sense of guilt grabbed my ankle. What should I say, I felt like I was neglecting a sick person. Is it because he seemed like too much of a living person?
"If this isn't a living corpse, then what is?"
It's neither alive nor dead. If it had been conscious, I would have suspected it was a zombie or a corpse, but that's not the case. I can't believe it.
I put my finger under Erne's nose again. Still, I could not feel any breath.
Instead, stains that had not been visible before came into view. Mud had dried and stuck to his chin, behind his ears, and on his shoulders.
I have never personally conducted a funeral, but I knew that there was a procedure to clean the body before a funeral.
As a gesture of atonement, I decided to cleanse Erne before the medium arrived, as I was about to leave.
"Then excuse me."
I took a wet towel and began to wipe Erne's body. There was mud not only on his face and neck but also here and there on his upper body.
"Did you roll around in the mud?"
When asked, the dead man did not answer. I turned to talking to myself.
"Why are your chests so wide?"
Whether it was because of his naturally strong bones or because he trained hard. Erne had a body that made it difficult to sleep on his side.
His shoulders were broad, his ribcage was thick, and his waist was slim, but his abs were also well-defined.
While I was cleaning, I carefully examined the wound to see if there were any visible signs of trauma. However, there were no visible signs of trauma. There were only old scars.
One scar, showing how he had been injured, ran diagonally from his lower abdomen all the way to his pubic bone.
"Oh..."
I, who was following the scar, gasped for a moment. It was because I had gone too low. In this life, in the past, this was the first time I had seen a naked man, but I could tell that Erne was amazing...
"Oh. I'm sorry."
Although Erne didn't move at all, I, whose face was red, quickly covered Erne's neck with the cloth.
***
49 days since the wedding.
"His soul is trapped inside his body! What a poor thing."
After the fire in the fireplace had died down, the day had changed. Henry brought in the medium. He said it took a while to find the medium, as he wandered from place to place without a home.
"He must have felt so suffocated and sad, having to leave but not being able to."
I had imagined the psychic to be an old woman, but he was surprisingly a young man.
He had copper-colored skin and amber eyes. He was a man with all the characteristics of the Shartine tribe from the original work.
"So Erne's body can't rot, no, can't return to the earth?"
"Yes. I don't know how, but he made his body a prison."
So the body does not decay and the soul cannot escape, the medium explained in a very serious voice.
Well, it seemed plausible at first.
"Then what should we do to free Erne?"
"You have to open the door."
"Is this the door?"
"Yes, there are three doors in the human body."
When a person dies, three doors in the body open and the soul ascends, but for some reason, Erne is unable to open the doors.
"Why won't the door open?"
"This often happens to people who have trained their bodies to the limit, like Sir Erne."
I tilted my head, wondering why the explanation was so vague, but Henry was busy agreeing.
Although I was a bit reluctant, I didn't bother to light the candle because the person who paid was satisfied.
"Anyway, the important thing is that you have to open the door."
The medium explained that if they could help him, Erne's soul would be able to go to heaven and his body would be able to return to earth.
"Would you like to open that door with me?"
The medium held out both hands and whispered.
"Yes, yes, of course."
Henry clasped his hands together and nodded enthusiastically.
"How can I open the door?"
"We must hold a memorial service.'
Are you telling me to do something good?
Wow, this repertoire is continuing just as I thought.
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