The Story of Gothic Lady Who Met a Grave Keeper in Another World - Chapter 12

What? What?

 What was that? What just happened?

 Why did I get pushed out of the way all of a sudden, and then Mr Thorden suddenly left?

 What does that mean?

 Does he have a special way of getting angry?

 Or is that just another world standard?

I thought, “What are you going to do about this, seriously? He’s coming back, isn’t he? He’s not just going to leave me here, is he? Even if he does, will Mr Sciuto come back for the book?”

 I’m worried. There is nothing but anxiety.

“What should I do? …… did I do something to offend him?

 He seemed to be getting a pleasant massage, and even his moustache was being maturely shaved.

 But there was no doubt that right after the bath he got moody.

 He suddenly became cold, retreated to his room, and when I went to apologize, he pushed me away and ran away.

 Huh?

“Was he …… embarrassed?”

 Suddenly, my brain recalled the results of various shota manga.

 Shota.

 In other words, an older sister and a boy. A boy.

 If I were to describe a 21-year-old big, stocky man as a “shota,” there would be booing from all quarters, but I guess that’s about as close as I can get to the situation.

 Haha?

 I had an older woman wash my body and shave my beard, and I accepted it, but then I felt awkward and couldn’t handle it, so I withdrew and then he came after me and said, “Idiot! Leave me alone already!” 

If so, the theory is that I should go after him and tell him I’m sorry.

 I peeked out the door through which Mr.Thorden had run out, into the cemetery, where the sun had set.

 Something was wriggling on the ground in the cemetery.

 An arm sticking out of the ground looks like it’s trying to come over to me.

 Looks like I am hallucinating, even though I’m not on drugs.

 I gently close the door.

 I can’t do this.

 I can’t do this. I can’t get out. Yes, you can’t.

 I understand. I’m sorry.

 I’m not going to act like a Big sister again.

 So please come back, Mr Thorden!

 I’m scared! Alone in the cemetery! I’m scared!

” I’m ……!”

 I was scared, scared, and then I remembered something even scarier.

 It was the room that Mr Thorden had told me never to enter.

 Probably the room with the dead bodies.

 Zombies at the front gate, corpses at the back gate.

 I shivered and went upstairs, jumped into my room and covered myself with the futon.

When you’re scared, sing a song! Sing a song! Sing ……! Something cheerful ……! There’s no such thing as ghosts!

 Rattling!

 Windows shake.

 The door shook.

 I screamed.

“Ahhhhh! Zombieeeee! Wow! Zombies, definitely zombies! I can’t face a zombie without a gun!”

 I started to cry.

 I cried wistfully.

 I had a feeling I could make it, but maybe not. I want to go home. I want to go home to a world where dead bodies don’t move.

 I wished it would be dawn soon, but there was no way I could sleep under such circumstances.

 I thought and then was able to go to be to sleep.

 I was awakened by the chirping of a little bird.

“Wow,…… I’m disappointed in my brazenness,…….”

 I got up from the bed with a start and walked over to the window.

 I looked for the chirping little bird.

 I found it.

 Half of its feathers were rotting away — I was surprised to see that the little bird was also a zombie.

 I was surprised. Even if I was a little used to it.

“It’s called …….”

 I opened the window and looked out, and I couldn’t believe my eyes.

 The scenery had changed.

 No, the cemetery is a cemetery.

 But there is a brand new house.

 It is surrounded by a nice fence, so it looks like a single-family home with a little yard.

I wondered, “…… What? Was there a house like that yesterday? There wasn’t, was there?”

 As I rubbed my eyes, Mr Toden slunk out of the house that had suddenly appeared.

 What followed in a crawl after that was – how can I put it?

 How can I describe them? …… Well, they are zombies.

 Relatively fresh zombies, looking at first glance like normal human beings, but obviously dead.

 They are obviously dead, but they are carrying tools and wood.

How many people use the word “zombie” in such a short period of time?

 Anyway, the group of zombies, accompanied by Mr Thorden, looks like a “Thriller” type of composition, and as if following Mr Thorden’s instructions, they are creeping back to their graves.

Protecting the graves.

 Was that your occupation?

 Did he have some kind of special ability to manipulate corpses?

 As I gazed at the scene from the window, my gaze suddenly crossed with that of Mr Thorden, who looked like he had just finished his work.

 I could hear Mr Thorden raise his voice, and a look of despair crossed his face.

 Then, with a look of distress on his face, he crouched down on the spot.

 Oh, I’m sorry. Was it something I shouldn’t have seen? 

 But it can’t be helped, can it?

 When you wake up to the chirping of zombie birds, and your housemate and zombies come out of the detached house with a garden that suddenly appeared, you’re going to pay attention even if you don’t want to, right?

“…. Hmm?”

 I thought I saw Mr Thorden crouching down and glancing up at me with his head in his hands.

 Mr Thorden stood up slowly and gestured for me to come down.

 To be honest, I don’t want to go there subtly, but I don’t have a choice.

‘”Oh no… now that I’ve seen their secret, I wonder what they’ll do …maybe… they’ll sell me off as a …… slave. I don’t …… like that. ……”

 Yesterday I was hurt by the fear of being left alone in the middle of a graveyard, but that doesn’t mean I want to be sold off as a slave, of course not.

 I went downstairs and saw that a new house had been built, no mistake, in the same position as the main house.

 It was a one-story house with glass windows and decorative lattices.

 A quick peek inside revealed that it was well-furnished with chairs, tables, and other furnishings.

 The ground, which until last night would have been a graveyard, has been hard-packed and there is no sign of a body buried there.

They probably moved it. Buried bodies. By themselves.

 And if I’m right, they are the ones that built this house.

 It’s them.

 Under the direction of the site supervisor, Mr Thorden, the zombies must have worked through the night to build this cosy house.

 But then…

 As I walked up to Mr Thorden, he looked uncomfortable and silently held out his hand to me.

 In the palm of his craggy hand was a single metal key.

” Hoo?”

I made a strange noise.

 As I stood there in blank amazement, Mr Thoden continued to offer me the key,

 When I still did not accept the key, he held it out to me as if to say, “Please use it.”

 No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

 No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no!

 I yelled.

 Mr Thorden’s shoulders jumped and he began to wince at how loud I was shouting.

He said, “–? –……—…… –!”

“No, it’s not that I don’t like it or anything, it’s just that it’s common sense to say ……! I mean, why the house all of a sudden!”

 We don’t understand each other’s words, but I think we’re both somehow getting what we want to say to each other.

 Is that it?

 Is it that kind of adolescent idea, that having a woman living under one roof makes you feel uncomfortable?

Or is it a miracle, the result of a combination of grave-keeping special abilities?

 Ah, I get it. I understand.

 The reason why Mr Thorden was so gloomy earlier.

 You didn’t want me to know that zombies built this house, did you? Right?

 You thought it would scare me again.

 Don’t worry. It’s already gone beyond horror or a prank.

 It’s a zombie comedy.

“…… Eri ……–?”

 It was a question as if to say, “Don’t you like it?

 Grave-keepers are a discriminated class.

 And Mr Thorden is probably asking, “Would you want to live in a house built by a gravedigger?

 I have a feeling.

 I held my head in my hands.

 No, I am glad.

 Actually, I am very grateful.

 For what it’s worth, suddenly living under one roof with a strange man or something like that, was totally out of the question.

 I was anxious, and I had been trying to cover myself up by forcing myself to think of Mr Thorden as a ‘cute little guy.’

 I let out a sigh and smiled.

 I could see a bit of relief on Mr Thorden’s face.

May I take a look inside?

 I gestured for him to show me around. He hesitated for a moment and then led me into his new home.

 It is a one-story house with a loft and is spacious.

 It is spacious, with a loft, enough for a woman to live alone.

 There is an easy-to-use kitchen, a toilet with a hole in the ceramic plate, and a facility that allows you to wash yourself with water as if someone had insisted in this world that you would die without a bidet.

 So you keep water in that tank and use it. Hmmm…

 And then there is the washroom. What a bathhouse!

 It is not a wooden tub, but a ceramic tub, and there are facilities to boil water.

 Modern.

 It is a very stylish house. Or should I say “modern”?

 So, was Mr Thorden’s house simply pre-modern?

 The town we visited by horse-drawn carriage was indeed a mixture of medieval and modern times, but the oldest house among them must have been Mr Thorden’s. Why didn’t they rebuild it before?

 He can have built such an amazing house overnight.

 I mean, I’m sure they got all the materials except the wood from somewhere. ……

 Overnight? How?

 The mystery only deepens, but I’m sure we’re grateful anyway.

“Um, …… thank you …….”

 I said thank you, even though I was sure he couldn’t understand me.

 Mr Thorden was still nodding his head in wonder.

 I’d like to be able to learn at least a simple greeting as soon as possible, this is…

 If words don’t work, body language will.

 At any rate, I grabbed Mr Thorden’s hand and shook it.

 At that moment, he said, “Yah!”

 With a yell, he violently shook my hand off.

 Oh, what a clear statement.

 I could hear it.

 And I understood what it meant.

 It definitely meant “stop,” “don’t,” or “don’t touch me.

 As I stood there blankly, Mr Thorden took a half-step back with a frightened look on his face.

When I said to him, “……, um…”

 I called out to him, and he quickly turned his back on me and walked out of the house.

 Then he ran into the house to himself and closed the door violently.

” Okay ..?”

 Isn’t that an overreaction ?

It is not like I would eat Mr Thorden, right?