The Story of Gothic Lady Who Met a Grave Keeper in Another World - Chapter 25

?The event was so vulgar that it was like eating sugar candy in a nightmare.

?Why Eri did that to him, Thorden has no idea.

?She should have been so disgusted by the blood-soaked gravedigger taking her lips away that she has have vomited, but she swallowed the pain and invited Thorden into her home…

?This is insane.

?Thorden was frozen with fear, but Eri gave him forgiveness.

?She placed their lips together, entwined their tongues, and gave him her saliva.

?From the lips that touched Eri’s lips to his tongue, from his throat to his stomach where he swallowed the saliva.

?The warmth spread through Thorden’s body, which had always been somewhat empty and cold. 

He even felt his cold, hardened blood begin to flow.

?It was warm and hot.

?It was hard to breathe, and his breathing jumped.

?

?Eri’s soft palms lightly tapped Thorden’s shoulders as she devoured as much as she was given.

?Eri wiped her saliva-soaked lips and whispered something into Thorden’s ear.

?But Thorden had no idea what the words meant.

?He wanted to understand.

?He had never wanted to understand another person’s words so badly.

?Eri learned the same language as Thorden.

?He thought that he should have made more effort to learn Eri’s language than Thorden did.

”Eri….. I don’t … know, I don’t know, I’m sorry, I don’t …… know how to…”, he pleaded in a shaky voice, in a language that was impossible for her to understand.

?Eri laughed in annoyance and stroked Thorden’s hair like a mother does to her child.

?Then, a little awkwardly, she pointed to the area around Thorden’s lower abdomen.

She said, “–. —“

?Thorden finally became aware of the existence of his lower body.

?The moment he became aware of it, the blood inside him drained from his body.

?He let out an inarticulate scream and yanked Eri off of him, tumbling off the couch and into a corner of the room.

?In that brief moment, the ugly sign of desire also rumbled away, but it was already over since Eri was aware of his desire.

?Thorden grabbed his bloody apron and ran out of Eri’s house, repeating his apologies.

?He always feels like he is running away like this.

?What was it last time??

?He thinks it was when she presented him with a bag and he ran away.

?Oh, to run away!

?That’s just too rude.

?But then, what should he have done?

?How could he have stayed there after such an ugly scene?

?What did Eri say?

?She noticed Thorden’s desire and said something in a kind voice with a troubled smile.

?Thorden sat down on the floor.

?He looked at the open workroom door and remembered that he was in the middle of a job.

?Vomit strewn on the floor.

?It was Eri’s rejection, Eri’s disgust.

Eri detests Thorden.

?The unshakable fact is there.

?So why is Eri like that?

?It is too deep to call it mercy.

?For a long time, Thorden remained sitting still.

?Finally, he started to move, because a corpse with its guts protruding from its belly had crawled out of the room and he had to push it back into the workroom.

?He doesn‘t feel like messing with any more corpses today.

?Locking the workroom neatly from the outside, Thorden boils the water.

?The sweet scent of Eri – moist and sweaty.

?How about the smell of death that permeates him?

?It was unbearable.

?Since Eri’s arrival, he has shaved his beard, wiped his body, and tried to keep himself as clean as possible, but such efforts are not enough.

?

?He also has to do something about his clothes.

?No matter how much he washed his body, it would be meaningless, if his clothes were like this.

?First of all, he needs to separate his work clothes from his daily clothes.

?No matter how many aprons he wears, his clothes will get dirty from the carrion and blood, and the smell will soak into them.

?If you wear such clothes when you are in contact with Eri, you will cause her unnecessary pain.

?After all, the current Thorden was so unpleasant and horrifying that even the kind-hearted Eri would vomit if he touched her carelessly.

?It would be no exaggeration to say that this is a physiological hatred that affects the very core of the body.

?If Eri does not deny that Thorden is a grave keeper because he is a grave keeper, it means that he is a horrifying creature before he is a grave keeper or anything else.

?That was more intolerable to Thorden now than being disgusted because he is a grave keeper.

“Do you need …… perfume,…… no, first of all, clothes,…… and, yes, gloves,……”

?He had forgotten.

?When he went out on the town, he wore gloves to prevent anyone from touching him – gloves that he had taken off at home.

?He had taken them off at home, but he needed them no matter what I thought.

?How could he have ever used his bare hands when touching Eri? He should have worn gloves when he touched Eri.

?Thorden made a sullen face.

?Buying clothes?

?It is easy to say, but of course, there are no stores in town where the tomb guard can shop.

?He might be able to buy something by hiding his identity, but if his identity were to be discovered, it could cost him his life.

?

?Although grave keepers are hated and persecuted, it is forbidden to harm them – in other words, ‘If you touch them, kill them. If you let them live, posthumous retribution awaits you.’

?

?If a grave keeper disappears, the dead are allowed to roam the streets until the next grave keeper appears, so no one takes the initiative to kill a grave keeper, except if he appears in the streets spreading bad luck.

?As a gravedigger, there are only a few ways in which Thorden can purchase goods.

?First of all, he has to ask Scuito to do it for him. Ask Scuito to act on his behalf. This is the best option available to Thorden. An ordinary grave keeper cannot establish a relationship with the people who live under the light.

?The second way–and this is the most common–is to buy from the executioner’s servant who brings the body. In this case, Scuito once told me, it is not an exaggeration to say that the price is double the market price.

?However, Thorden was a little hesitant to ask Scuito for things now.

?If that was the case, he would have to give the list to the executioner’s servant.

?But this was still a bit of a problem.

?Get some decent clothes.

What would the executioner’s assistant think when so ordered?

?He might wonder why the grave keeper would want decent clothes.

?It might give him the unnecessary suspicion that he is trying to come out of the grave.

?Although he had already visited Scuito once for Eri, it would mean something different for a grave keeper to show up at a government office claiming to be a grave keeper than for him to show up in town dressed in decent clothes.

?Should he ask Scuito to do it?

?He should ask Scuito to arrange some decent clothes for him so that he doesn’t make Eri uncomfortable.

?

“I’m a … monster.”

?He can’t do so much on his own.

?The real benefit of being a grave keeper is not so bad.

?Many of the dead bring money for their burial, saying, “I would like to be given exceptional mercy and protection by the gravedigger. For the wealthy, the amount can be as much as “half of the estate left to them.” Gravekeepers guarding the ancestral graves of royalty are often given servants and a mansion.

?Many grave keepers do not need to shop in town because people bring the necessities of life with them upon their death.

?In the case of a condemned corpse, this is paid for by the state.

?The problem, however, is that it is deeply believed that once the money is in the hands of the grave keeper, it is cursed.

?The phrase “grave keeper’s price” is used to describe a seemingly good item that is bad.

“…..Wait a minute.”

?Thorden looked up.

?The unused burial money and offerings of the dead – which had been piled up in the workroom without being examined, come to think of it, the clothes Thorden was wearing right now were also offerings to the previous grave keeper.

?The reason why Thorden is wearing it is that the general public naturally does not know the physique of the grave keeper, so he inevitably brings something to fit “the fittest man of his acquaintance”.

The reason is that a small token is useless, but a large token can be worn for a longer period of time.

?Before the previous grave keeper died, Thorden had already reached his current height, so the previous keeper gave him to him, saying, ‘You can use it.’

?Many of the offerings are well-tailored and sturdy and will last far longer than the cheap second-hand clothes that the executioners stock up on.

Thorden fled back into the workroom, which he had locked, and began to lead the rampaging corpse into the grave.

?He quickly buried it deep in the ground, stamped the earth hard, and returned to the workroom.

?He removed the nails from the crates that were still piled up in the corner of the room, and after looking through them and finding new bedding, boots, and clothes, Thorden stood for a moment in his workshop.

?When he opened the long wooden box, he found a brand-new shovel for digging holes.

?Inside was a letter.

?It was written in a child’s handwriting, in a language even Thorden could read.

?Please take care of my mother.

?Looking through all the boxes and bags, he found many more letters.

?Occasionally, he remembers the previous grave keeper reading a letter.

?But he never once imagined who the sender was.

?Not even once.?

“Not once …… did I ……”

?He was never interested in knowing.

?He never had any feelings for the families who left their dead bodies behind.

?He saw himself in the dead left behind, and he saw his mother in those who left.

?But there must have been one of them.

?Some sincerely sought the mercy of the gravedigger.

?He wonders what they thought of the items that were left behind as a matter of routine, asking them to be put to good use.

?Once, a bereaved family rushed back to the town after seeing Thorden and even prepared a replacement for him.

?It must have been because Thorden was a bigger man than they had expected. Then they must have thought, ‘We want the donation to be used for the tomb guard.’

?Suddenly, he felt a pang of pain in my chest.

?Thorden could not remember.

?Who was the sender of the letter?

?To which corpse was the wish entrusted?

?This was no time to be ashamed of being a gravedigger.

?Even if he were not a gravedigger, he would still be too much of a human being.

?How could he curse himself while being so indifferent to others, to the living?

?How could you wish to serve Eri?

?How could he have suffered the death of someone so dear to him, and have to hand over the body to such a shabby grave keeper?

?If he had to hand over Eri’s body to a grave keeper like himself, he would not be able to rest for a single night.

?Thorden washed himself, burned his old clothes in the fireplace, and dressed in his new clothes.

?Shirt, gilet, jacket, trousers, boots, cloak, robe, and black gloves.

?Many of the clothes were ill-fitting, but what was put on felt more comfortable than anything he had ever worn before.

?

“I’m sorry …… guys, I’ll protect you …….”

?Thorden carried the shovel he had been given.

?He went out on his usual rounds of the cemetery on that leg.

?

“I’m going to use it. I’m going to use it… for them.”