The Story of Gothic Lady Who Met a Grave Keeper in Another World - Chapter 18

 Wait, what is going on?

 What had happened to me?

 Thorden was in a state of confusion.

 What had he just done?

 Had he made a bag with Eri? As the grave keeper? Like a child sewing with his mother?

 And did Eri want to give the finished product to Thorden?

 No way, no way.

 No, no, this is bad, this is crazy, He is going to throw up.

 Thorden ran to a rag shop he was familiar with, and then ran straight into the “workroom,” the room he had told Eli not to go into.

?This was the room he had told Eli not to enter.

 As he jumped into the room, his feet slipped and he fell.

 The floor was wet with a sticky substance.

 The rising odour was coarse and fishy.

 The floor was wet with blood all over.

 The familiar smell of death fills his lungs, calming Thorden.

 When he stood up, he saw that on the bunk in the centre of the room was a corpse that had just arrived that morning.

 It was a corpse that had been beheaded.

 The head had been separated from the body, and Thorden sewed it back together.

 That is not all. The bodies of those who died on torture were also put into “decent shape” by Thorden.

 When Eri handed him a needle and thread, he was horrified at what she was doing.

 He wondered if Eri had entered this room. He wondered if she had seen the work that Thorden was doing in this room between the dead and the living.

 But she did not.

 With the same tools that Thorden used to sew the bodies together, Eri quickly produced a bag. She even allowed Thorden to help her.

 She seemed to admire Thorden’s skill with the needle, even though she couldn’t convey it in words.

 My heart was pounding loudly.

 He can’t take this any further.

 He can’t be attracted to her any more.

 As Thorden takes a fearful step toward her, Elr closes the distance between them too carelessly.

 Her gentle fingertips are now clutching at Thorden’s heart, causing him constant pain.

 It would be unbearable to move away, and to move closer would be to offer up an even deeper part of his heart.

 So what to do?

 Shall he tell Sciuto what happened and let Eri go?

 No, no.

 The state pays Eri because Thorden is the owner of Eli.

 Once the state becomes the owner of Eri, the state can exploit her as much as it wants. After the exploitation is complete, they are resold as slaves.

 If the buyer is not good, Eli will never get his citizenship.

 So, at the very least, he should try to avoid any further contact with Eri.

 He would have to hire someone to do her menial chores to feed her.

 It would be too dangerous for anyone other than himself and Sciuto to know that Eri was here.

 Wouldn’t Sciuto take care of Eri personally?

 If he could keep the property and leave it with Sciuto, he would be able to …… no, no, no, no. Sciuto would not have that much mercy.

 He would rather say. “As a nation, we don’t care how the owners treat their property, as long as they don’t abuse and murder them.”

 Thorden ruffled his hair.

”It would have been easier if it was a …… corpse.”

 The disturbing words just came out of his mouth.

 Ever since Eri’s arrival, Thorden’s mind has been at a loss for calm.

 He had no idea how to regain his composure.

 At that moment, the corpse on the bunk woke up with a start.

 Thorden looked out the window.

”… is it night?”

 Thorden picked up his shovel and lantern.

 He put on his cloak and led the risen corpse to the grave.

 The charge against this corpse is an assault on a woman.

 If he is not falsely accused, he will not find true peace for ten years.

 Thorden laid the body in a coffin on the grave grounds, dropped the lid on top, carefully nailed it in place, and covered the top with a thick layer of earth.

 The only way to make this a hardship under the grave keeper is to have him sleep in the grave if there is no work to be done.

 For the dead, the real hard work may be to endure the solitude of being alone under the dark hole of the grave.

 The wood rots prematurely in a cheap coffin, though, and the dead can easily come up to the surface. 

 A wealthy family would have a sturdy stone coffin made to prevent the dead from wandering above ground.

 But a decapitated sinner, as in this case, is given a flimsy wooden coffin that will last at most a year.

 The corpses will storm in, destroying the coffin from the inside and digging their way through the earth to get out.

 In the end, the work of the grave keeper is to keep the dead tied up in the graveyard.

 After covering the grave with dirt, Thorden squints at the light leaking from the window of Eri’s house.

 From now on, he must be more and more nervous about managing the dead, lest they be lured by that light and put Eri in danger.

‘Do we need …… curtains?’

 He suddenly thought of that.

 The light of the house was too bright in the cemetery.