IARMDH - Chapter 81



'I feel strangely uneasy. Should I have brought you with me?'

Erne tried to calm his anxious mind and chased after the men heading to the contact point. Judith was not a child. She was an adult. She should be able to do well at sitting quietly.

“Where is the contact point?”

“They all came.”

After chasing them for about ten minutes, the two men stopped at a fork in the road leading from the forest to a small village.

“It’s that tree.”

The cart-puller pointed to a dead tree near the fork in the road with its trunk bent. They walked toward the tree and suddenly began to dig.

“This is enough. It’s enough.”

The big man dropped his shovel and brought out a sack of money. He opened it and took out two coins.

“Brother, if you keep doing that and get caught by the older brother, you’ll be screwed.”

“I haven’t been caught until now.”

The big man smiled faintly and tossed a coin to the cart puller.

“I shouldn’t do this,” he said, but he still took the coin and put it in his pocket.

They put the sack of money in the hole they had just dug and covered it with dirt. Then they broke a large branch in half and stuck it obliquely next to the ground where they had buried the sack of money.

'I guess they needed a shovel to exchange money like that. But I've heard of this method before.'

As Erne searched his memory, the guys hummed as if the work was over.

“Let’s go and have a drink, with the money we earned from the favor.”

“Yes, let’s go.”

The men headed toward the village. Erne waited in that spot for a moment. Since they said today was the day to ask for money, there would be someone coming to collect the money.

***

The moment Erne left to chase after the money movers.

Judith sat in the forest, holding her breath. In the distance, she could see the light of the bonfire the men had lit.

'I won't get caught if I get a little closer here.'

They were completely unguarded. For someone who was running away after committing a scam, their behavior was incredibly calm.

'In fact, they had already committed the same scam in the South and were running away when they committed the same scam in the capital.'

Since they weren't caught then, they seemed confident that they wouldn't be caught this time either.

“Hey you little punk, I told you to buy some Prisella Aegis, but you didn’t buy any!”

A nervous voice tore through the silence. Judith moved a little closer, wondering what was going on.

He looked like a dark shadow in the campfire light, but a man wearing an apron was coming out of the tent and was complaining.

“I told you over and over again that without it the product would stink, that it was the most important thing.”

He was almost cursing as if he was quite annoyed.

“Calm down. You can just go out and buy it now. Don’t do that. Let’s go together.”

The tall man coaxed the man in the apron.

“Let’s buy some Prisal and have a drink while we’re at it. There’s still time before we start the next task. Let’s take our time.”

The tall man tried to coax and persuade the man in the apron. Eventually, the man in the apron was convinced and went back into the tent and came out.

It's hard to see, but it looks like he took off his apron.

After that, the two disappeared side by side. Judith made sure that they were completely out of sight and moved closer to the tent.

There are four of them in total.

Two of them buried the money and went to drink, and the other two joined the first two after buying some kind of elixir.

That meant there was no one in that tent right now and for at least several hours.

'You said earlier that there was a piece of paper with the recipe written on it, right?'

If you have that, you can make the antidote. Since they probably didn't take the recipe with them when you went out drinking, there's a good chance it's in the tent somewhere.

'Erne told me not to do anything dangerous.'

Judith took a deep breath. But the recipe had to be obtained as soon as possible, and the men had emptied the tent without even posting a single guard.

This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Judith crept out of the forest. She looked around carefully, listening intently, but when she heard nothing, she quickly retreated into the tent.

“Ugh.”

As soon as she entered, Judith covered her mouth at the overwhelming smell. A familiar stench vibrated inside the tent.

“It smells like a rotting corpse.”

Fortunately or unfortunately, Judith was familiar with this smell, because it was the stench that had prevented Judith from opening her business.

It was a smell she could never get used to. Judith retched a few times and slapped her cheek.

“This is not the time, let’s find the recipe first.”

Judith covered her nose with her hand and looked around the tent. In the middle of the tent, two large pots were boiling over a rough brick fireplace.

“It won’t be there.”

On the other side was a long wooden table, and on the opposite side was a shelf and a cluttered desk.

“I guess that’s the body you brought earlier.”

Something covered with a thick cloth was lying on a long wooden table.

“...But why is the corpse bleeding?”

Knock, knock.

A dark red liquid dripped down the edge of the wooden table.

Looking back, only the soil under the wooden table was damp. 

Knock, knock, knock. 

Judith swallowed hard.

“Oh, I must have made a mistake while moving.”

Judith's gaze, which followed the drops of blood against her will, landed on something on the floor beyond where the drops of blood were falling.

“What’s down there...”

An old, stained pile of rubble. And something inside that made the pile bulge. The source of the stench was inside.

“It won’t be there”

Judith turned her head. If there was a recipe, it would be on the shelf or on the messy desk next to it. Judith approached it.

Knock, knock, the sound of liquid dripping slowly clung to the back of her neck. Judith swept her hand over the back of her neck for no reason.

“Concentrate.”

Think of Sir Henry, poor Sir Henry. Judith looked carefully at the desk, which was cluttered with shelves, papers, and trash. But there was no recipe anywhere.

At that moment, Judith saw an apron hanging carelessly on the back of the chair. It seemed to be the apron the man had been wearing earlier. Judith approached the chair and searched through the apron pockets.

You can carry it in your apron pocket to check the recipe from time to time while making cosmetics.

And Judith's prediction was correct. Inside the pocket was a piece of paper with the recipe written on it.

"It's okay."

Judith carefully took the recipe paper and spread it out on the desk. Then she took out the paper and charcoal she had prepared in advance and copied the recipe.

I'd like to steal the paper itself, but then they'd know someone broke in.

It was possible because I only had to write down the ingredients rather than copying the entire recipe.

“Two liters of Prisella extract, ten bundles of dried purslane, and two bottles of Gulisse oil.”

Look at these, these are the ingredients that really go into making cosmetics. The purslane has a soothing effect, and the gullise oil has a moisturizing effect.

These were the materials Judith had seen when she studied the materials available in this world to make incense.

“You want me to dilute a liter of Nikar and add it? Isn’t that the blood-removing detergent? Ugh, that’s what happens when you put that strong detergent on your face.”

It seemed like there was some strange ingredient in it. It was none other than detergent that was in the cosmetics ingredients. Judith clicked her tongue. There was no way her skin would be okay with something like this in it.

“And finally... 2 pounds of fat?”

Are you using something like pork fat? Judith tilted her head while writing down all the ingredients and quickly looked over the recipe.

“...After removing the fat, place it on a cotton cloth, drain the blood, and let it harden. Wash the hardened fat once in diluted Nicar. The fresher the fat, the better. Do not use fat from a corpse that has been dead for more than 3 days, as it has a strong odor...”

Knock, knock, blood dripped from the corpse, and cold sweat rolled down Judith's forehead.

“These crazy guys.”

You made cosmetics from fat removed from corpses?

Ugh. The bread she had just eaten was about to vomit back up, so Judith covered her lips again.

Judith put the recipe back into her apron with trembling hands. The sound of dripping blood made her shudder.

I wondered why blood was dripping from the corpse... No, no, let’s not imagine. Let’s not think.

Judith gritted her teeth and tried to leave the tent. Then she heard the voices of the two men who had said they were going out for a drink. And they were very close.

“...Because.”

“...There’s no need.”

The men were approaching. Judith took a step back.

'I',m in big trouble.'

There was nowhere to hide in the tent. There wasn't even a back door. Judith stamped her feet and tried to lift the edge of the tent to get out.

But the men had so meticulously placed the tent under the tent that there was no space for Judith to escape.

At that moment, Judith saw a torn, fluttering cloth in front of her eyes.

“...Ah, why over there of all places.”


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