“So, it wasn’t a fresh body like Erne, but a twisted corpse?”
"Yes."
It may be strange to say that a corpse was fresh, but in any case, the 'corpse' that Erne saw was far from fresh.
Even though he went to check on it, even taking on the task of escorting it, what was waiting for Erne was a twisted corpse.
Of course, it was a well-preserved corpse with facial features, hair, and even teeth, but it was different from the 'immortal corpse' that Erne was looking for.
He had expected a corpse that looked just as alive as he had.
“I just ate a lot of dust.”
“The dust is still stuck.”
"Still?"
Even though he had clearly shaken it off earlier, there was still dust on his clothes. Erne took off his top and shook it off outside the window.
“Ugh, dust.”
Acrid dust blew in on the wind. Judith inhaled the dust and coughed, waving her hands.
“I’d rather suck it.”
I agree. Erne stopped as he rolled up the shirt and put it in the laundry basket. The basket was full of piled-up laundry.
Judith and Erne looked at the basket and sighed simultaneously.
After the Golden Bug disappeared, the mansion became drastically messy.
There were cobwebs on the windowsills, dust on the floor, and weeds growing in the mansion. The horses, kicking out of the broken stables, grazed freely in the garden.
Judith and Erne also tried their best, but it was impossible for the two of them to keep this large mansion clean.
So they came to an agreement, not an agreement, that they would only manage the kitchen, bathroom, and each other's bedrooms.
“...I can’t put off doing the laundry any longer.”
“I need a servant.”
“This is the mansion from which all the servants ran away.”
Judith gazed vaguely at the mansion that was almost in ruins, then shook her head as if there was nothing she could do about it at the moment.
“But how did that corpse become a mummy?”
“What did they say? They said he committed a great sin.”
Erne recalled the explanation the auctioneer had given.
“A sinner from a tribe that believed in an ancient God in a distant desert. What sin? Well, the records are lost so we don’t know, but it must have been a very great sin.”
Tribes that believe in the Old Gods usually cremate their dead, believing that the body must disappear from this world to awaken again in the arms of the Gods.
But seeing that the body was treated with chemicals to prevent it from rotting away and turning into a mummy, he could only guess that he had committed a serious crime.
“I guess he committed murder.”
“Hey, who would buy a corpse like that?”
“I heard you bought it. And it costs 200 gold.”
“Wow, is money rotting away?”
Erne was inwardly startled by Judith's reaction. Earlier, he had said the same thing to the person who had won the corpse auction. As they live together, even this kind of thing is becoming more and more similar.
Erne vowed to himself that he had to come to his senses. It would be a big deal if two people were to have a stronghold in the same mansion.
“Let’s sleep a little darkly today.”
Erne said something after seeing the candle Judith brought. Judith had been holding it in her hand since she came out to meet him earlier, and then she sneaked into the room and tried to light the candle before leaving.
Two days ago, Judith finished making a prototype of the incense candle. Then, she lit the candle in her room and Erne's room every night, testing whether the scent would last until the candle burned out.
“Close your eyes tightly and sleep. Then it’ll be dark, right?”
“Still bright.”
“Then you can just turn your back and sleep. It’ll smell good and be pleasant while you sleep.”
Despite Erne's refusal, Judith stubbornly placed a candle on the table in his room. When she lit the candle, a faint scent of lavender spread.
“Then take a rest.”
Whether Erne sighed or not, Judith looked at the candle she had made with satisfaction and then left.
Erne, who was clicking his tongue and sweeping his bangs back, furrowed his eyebrows at the dust he could feel between his hair.
“No matter how much dust you wash, it won’t come off.”
There was no result and it was just dust.
Erne's expression as he stood up and dusted himself off was not very good. That twisted corpse was said to have committed a great sin and was not allowed to rot, but why him?
From the followers' point of view, is it because he was a sinner? Did they take revenge by preventing his body from decaying? To prevent him from finding peace even after death?
Or maybe he was trying to sell the corpse by making it incorruptible? If he was extorting money from Cliff, he'd need money there too.
“A twisted corpse is worth 200 gold, so a corpse that looks alive would be worth 2,000 gold.”
He hated to say this himself, but his looks were worth two thousand gold. But then why did they abandon him in the forest?
The more he thought about it, the more confused he became. His head was so complicated that he didn't think he would be able to fall asleep easily. So Erne picked up a bottle of alcohol.
Erne, who was about to pour alcohol into a glass, lifted the bottle and looked at it in the moonlight.
“I think the wine is a little empty. Did Judith steal it while I was away?”
Erne sipped her drink, muttering words that would have offended Judith if she had heard them. A faint scent of lavender lingered at the end of the bitter alcohol.
Three days later, when Judith's candle was nearing completion, Henry came to see Erne with a tired face.
And then all of a sudden he asks a question.
“Are you okay?”
“I guess I should ask that. Is the police busy these days?”
Erne looked Henry up and down. He had sunken eyes and sallow skin, and his shirt, which was always pressed without a single wrinkle, was wrinkled.
Even the most indifferent Erne couldn't help but ask if he was okay. Henry sighed deeply and washed his face dry.
“You know that illegal auction house you reported? We went out there to crack down on it and arrested a few people involved.”
Among them was the auctioneer whom Erne had escorted.
“That auctioneer, did you just come out? He was really bragging about knowing a lot of nobles. I guess it was true.”
The auctioneer had been bragging to Erne for quite some time about how many nobles he knew. He thought it was all a bluff, but it seemed it was real since he came out so quickly.
“That would be better. Erne, that auctioneer... is dead.”
"What?"
“He was in bad condition when he was captured, and he died while locked up.”
The fever went up and down repeatedly, and at one point, the fever reached a boiling point, he started talking nonsense, and then died.
Henry brought in a doctor to treat him, but he didn't respond to any treatment.
“That’s not all. Four laborers who worked at the auction house, Viscount Hustleton who participated in the auction, and eight servants working in the house are all dead or suffering from the same symptoms.”
"Entire?"
“Yes. Baron Beto, who went to the auction house with Viscount Hustleton that day, is also in a state of emergency. The Baron’s two guards have also died.”
Henry was worried about Erne, who was at the auction house that same day, so he took some time to come and see him.
“Is the Count of Hustleton a short man and a large man? He has a long mustache.”
“Yes, that’s him. At first, we thought there was an epidemic in the auction house and investigated. But the disease didn’t spread any further.”
As Erne listened to Henry's list of people who had died from the disease, one important fact occurred to him.
The auctioneer, four porters, the Viscount Hustleton and his servants, the Viscount Hustleton's friend Baron Beto, and the Baron's bodyguard.
They all had one thing in common: they had been in direct contact with an incorruptible corpse.
“I don’t think that’s a contagious disease.”
"Then?"
“All the people you mentioned were in contact with or very close to an incorruptible corpse.”
After Viscount Hustleton had won the bid for the incorruptible corpse, he and Baron Beto came to view the corpse. The servants who had accompanied them also came to view the mummy.
The mummy would have been moved from the Viscount Hustleton's mansion by his servants, and in the process, the Viscount's servants would have also come into contact with the mummy.
“Are you saying that you caught the disease from that mummy?”
“If the disease doesn’t spread any further, then that’s likely the cause.”
“Then why are you okay?”
“Because I’m strong.”
Henry blinked for a moment at the strangely unlucky answer.
“Well, let’s say you are. But there is still a problem that cannot be solved. How do you explain the fact that the laundry maid working for Baron Beto was also sick with the same symptoms? She had never been near the auction house.”
"Hmm..."
“Could this be the mummy’s curse?”
Henry kept sweeping his arms down his chest as if he was scared even as he spoke.
“Do you think the corpse would curse the laundry maid because she has nothing better to do? Stop talking nonsense and check again to see if you missed anything.”
Henry went back to find out if the laundry maid had any contact with the corpse.
Until that night, Erne thought about the corpse and the laundry maid all the time.
Why is he fine after coming into contact with the mummy, while the laundry maid is sick? Was the mummy the cause in the first place?
As he was lying in bed thinking, he heard a horse yapping and grumbling outside.
“What kind of beast is awake at this hour?”
Did a fox come in? Erne got out of bed and went to the window. The moment he was about to open the window, there was a small knock.
When there was no answer from him,
Knock knock.
The small knock was heard again.
“Do Sir Erne here?”
It was Judith. She was bragging that the incense was finished and that she wouldn't have to light it while sleeping from today onwards, but it seemed like she still had some experiments to do.
Erne answered Judith's voice without any doubt.
“Of course, I'm inside. Where would I go at this hour? You’re in my room again...”
Erne opened the door abruptly and trailed off.
There was no one there. There was only the blowing dust.
"Yes."
It may be strange to say that a corpse was fresh, but in any case, the 'corpse' that Erne saw was far from fresh.
Even though he went to check on it, even taking on the task of escorting it, what was waiting for Erne was a twisted corpse.
Of course, it was a well-preserved corpse with facial features, hair, and even teeth, but it was different from the 'immortal corpse' that Erne was looking for.
He had expected a corpse that looked just as alive as he had.
“I just ate a lot of dust.”
“The dust is still stuck.”
"Still?"
Even though he had clearly shaken it off earlier, there was still dust on his clothes. Erne took off his top and shook it off outside the window.
“Ugh, dust.”
Acrid dust blew in on the wind. Judith inhaled the dust and coughed, waving her hands.
“I’d rather suck it.”
I agree. Erne stopped as he rolled up the shirt and put it in the laundry basket. The basket was full of piled-up laundry.
Judith and Erne looked at the basket and sighed simultaneously.
After the Golden Bug disappeared, the mansion became drastically messy.
There were cobwebs on the windowsills, dust on the floor, and weeds growing in the mansion. The horses, kicking out of the broken stables, grazed freely in the garden.
Judith and Erne also tried their best, but it was impossible for the two of them to keep this large mansion clean.
So they came to an agreement, not an agreement, that they would only manage the kitchen, bathroom, and each other's bedrooms.
“...I can’t put off doing the laundry any longer.”
“I need a servant.”
“This is the mansion from which all the servants ran away.”
Judith gazed vaguely at the mansion that was almost in ruins, then shook her head as if there was nothing she could do about it at the moment.
“But how did that corpse become a mummy?”
“What did they say? They said he committed a great sin.”
Erne recalled the explanation the auctioneer had given.
“A sinner from a tribe that believed in an ancient God in a distant desert. What sin? Well, the records are lost so we don’t know, but it must have been a very great sin.”
Tribes that believe in the Old Gods usually cremate their dead, believing that the body must disappear from this world to awaken again in the arms of the Gods.
But seeing that the body was treated with chemicals to prevent it from rotting away and turning into a mummy, he could only guess that he had committed a serious crime.
“I guess he committed murder.”
“Hey, who would buy a corpse like that?”
“I heard you bought it. And it costs 200 gold.”
“Wow, is money rotting away?”
Erne was inwardly startled by Judith's reaction. Earlier, he had said the same thing to the person who had won the corpse auction. As they live together, even this kind of thing is becoming more and more similar.
Erne vowed to himself that he had to come to his senses. It would be a big deal if two people were to have a stronghold in the same mansion.
“Let’s sleep a little darkly today.”
Erne said something after seeing the candle Judith brought. Judith had been holding it in her hand since she came out to meet him earlier, and then she sneaked into the room and tried to light the candle before leaving.
Two days ago, Judith finished making a prototype of the incense candle. Then, she lit the candle in her room and Erne's room every night, testing whether the scent would last until the candle burned out.
“Close your eyes tightly and sleep. Then it’ll be dark, right?”
“Still bright.”
“Then you can just turn your back and sleep. It’ll smell good and be pleasant while you sleep.”
Despite Erne's refusal, Judith stubbornly placed a candle on the table in his room. When she lit the candle, a faint scent of lavender spread.
“Then take a rest.”
Whether Erne sighed or not, Judith looked at the candle she had made with satisfaction and then left.
Erne, who was clicking his tongue and sweeping his bangs back, furrowed his eyebrows at the dust he could feel between his hair.
“No matter how much dust you wash, it won’t come off.”
There was no result and it was just dust.
Erne's expression as he stood up and dusted himself off was not very good. That twisted corpse was said to have committed a great sin and was not allowed to rot, but why him?
From the followers' point of view, is it because he was a sinner? Did they take revenge by preventing his body from decaying? To prevent him from finding peace even after death?
Or maybe he was trying to sell the corpse by making it incorruptible? If he was extorting money from Cliff, he'd need money there too.
“A twisted corpse is worth 200 gold, so a corpse that looks alive would be worth 2,000 gold.”
He hated to say this himself, but his looks were worth two thousand gold. But then why did they abandon him in the forest?
The more he thought about it, the more confused he became. His head was so complicated that he didn't think he would be able to fall asleep easily. So Erne picked up a bottle of alcohol.
Erne, who was about to pour alcohol into a glass, lifted the bottle and looked at it in the moonlight.
“I think the wine is a little empty. Did Judith steal it while I was away?”
Erne sipped her drink, muttering words that would have offended Judith if she had heard them. A faint scent of lavender lingered at the end of the bitter alcohol.
***
Three days later, when Judith's candle was nearing completion, Henry came to see Erne with a tired face.
And then all of a sudden he asks a question.
“Are you okay?”
“I guess I should ask that. Is the police busy these days?”
Erne looked Henry up and down. He had sunken eyes and sallow skin, and his shirt, which was always pressed without a single wrinkle, was wrinkled.
Even the most indifferent Erne couldn't help but ask if he was okay. Henry sighed deeply and washed his face dry.
“You know that illegal auction house you reported? We went out there to crack down on it and arrested a few people involved.”
Among them was the auctioneer whom Erne had escorted.
“That auctioneer, did you just come out? He was really bragging about knowing a lot of nobles. I guess it was true.”
The auctioneer had been bragging to Erne for quite some time about how many nobles he knew. He thought it was all a bluff, but it seemed it was real since he came out so quickly.
“That would be better. Erne, that auctioneer... is dead.”
"What?"
“He was in bad condition when he was captured, and he died while locked up.”
The fever went up and down repeatedly, and at one point, the fever reached a boiling point, he started talking nonsense, and then died.
Henry brought in a doctor to treat him, but he didn't respond to any treatment.
“That’s not all. Four laborers who worked at the auction house, Viscount Hustleton who participated in the auction, and eight servants working in the house are all dead or suffering from the same symptoms.”
"Entire?"
“Yes. Baron Beto, who went to the auction house with Viscount Hustleton that day, is also in a state of emergency. The Baron’s two guards have also died.”
Henry was worried about Erne, who was at the auction house that same day, so he took some time to come and see him.
“Is the Count of Hustleton a short man and a large man? He has a long mustache.”
“Yes, that’s him. At first, we thought there was an epidemic in the auction house and investigated. But the disease didn’t spread any further.”
As Erne listened to Henry's list of people who had died from the disease, one important fact occurred to him.
The auctioneer, four porters, the Viscount Hustleton and his servants, the Viscount Hustleton's friend Baron Beto, and the Baron's bodyguard.
They all had one thing in common: they had been in direct contact with an incorruptible corpse.
“I don’t think that’s a contagious disease.”
"Then?"
“All the people you mentioned were in contact with or very close to an incorruptible corpse.”
After Viscount Hustleton had won the bid for the incorruptible corpse, he and Baron Beto came to view the corpse. The servants who had accompanied them also came to view the mummy.
The mummy would have been moved from the Viscount Hustleton's mansion by his servants, and in the process, the Viscount's servants would have also come into contact with the mummy.
“Are you saying that you caught the disease from that mummy?”
“If the disease doesn’t spread any further, then that’s likely the cause.”
“Then why are you okay?”
“Because I’m strong.”
Henry blinked for a moment at the strangely unlucky answer.
“Well, let’s say you are. But there is still a problem that cannot be solved. How do you explain the fact that the laundry maid working for Baron Beto was also sick with the same symptoms? She had never been near the auction house.”
"Hmm..."
“Could this be the mummy’s curse?”
Henry kept sweeping his arms down his chest as if he was scared even as he spoke.
“Do you think the corpse would curse the laundry maid because she has nothing better to do? Stop talking nonsense and check again to see if you missed anything.”
Henry went back to find out if the laundry maid had any contact with the corpse.
Until that night, Erne thought about the corpse and the laundry maid all the time.
Why is he fine after coming into contact with the mummy, while the laundry maid is sick? Was the mummy the cause in the first place?
As he was lying in bed thinking, he heard a horse yapping and grumbling outside.
“What kind of beast is awake at this hour?”
Did a fox come in? Erne got out of bed and went to the window. The moment he was about to open the window, there was a small knock.
When there was no answer from him,
Knock knock.
The small knock was heard again.
“Do Sir Erne here?”
It was Judith. She was bragging that the incense was finished and that she wouldn't have to light it while sleeping from today onwards, but it seemed like she still had some experiments to do.
Erne answered Judith's voice without any doubt.
“Of course, I'm inside. Where would I go at this hour? You’re in my room again...”
Erne opened the door abruptly and trailed off.
There was no one there. There was only the blowing dust.
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