I Woke Up from Hibernation and Found a Husband - Chapter 104

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 104
‘Where am I? What time is it? No… am I even still alive?’
Elliott existed in a void.
A perfect sealed chamber where sight and sensation were severed—his body refused to obey his will, as though pinned beneath an invisible weight.
‘I’m not hungry. I’m not tired.’
Everything felt distant and utterly hopeless. Trapped in this surreal form of confinement, doubt crept in—what if he had already died the moment of his abduction, and this was the afterlife?
Yet occasionally, an intense gaze pulled him back to reality.
‘Again.’
Even in this Strange Space where all five senses seemed to vanish, the sensation of being watched remained unnaturally vivid. It was strange to call it a “gaze” when he could see nothing, but no other word captured the feeling.
‘It’s as though someone observes me through a one-way device. And their stare carries an absurd, suffocating hatred.’
At first, he thought it was Bianca, but now even that certainty eluded him. This was primal murderous intent and resentment—something transcending Bianca’s inferiority complex.
‘Can I escape?’
Could anyone find me trapped in this abyss?
One imprisoned in darkness could be certain of nothing.
* * *
Market’s organizational structure was a network where the leader remained difficult to locate, but Umbra, Market’s parent organization, maintained a clear hierarchy.
Tenel was the practical boss, with Gregory and Leon serving as his direct subordinates, and below them stood the middle managers Kaya and Matthew, who had risen from Market’s ranks.
The reason they could ascend from Market members to Umbra’s middle management was simple.
Among those injected with supernatural abilities, they had survived—neither dead nor consumed by the side effects.
‘Not being devoured by your own power is a talent in itself.’
“The remaining Beastmen have been disposed of. Though the Beastman Special District Self-Defense Force seized considerable numbers, we’ve secured sufficient stock and delivered it to Matthew.”
“Mm, good.”
A languid-faced woman turned the ledger pages before her one by one. At one of Market’s branches located in the Back of Commercial Building, Kaya—the middle manager responsible for Market’s actual operations and the management of test subjects—processed her work.
‘The preliminary work for the conditions Tenel ordered is complete. Once I distribute the remaining drugs and systematically close all Market branches by that date, we’re done.’
Satisfied that everything was proceeding smoothly, she stretched contentedly.
“When I leave, have this branch distribute the remaining drugs and shut down.”
“Yes, understood.”
Kaya gathered the ledger and her belongings, rising from her seat.
‘Should I join Matthew’s location?’
She thought of Elliott, whom Matthew was guarding. The existence of a prince who couldn’t be killed was quite troublesome. If she lost control of him and Elliott used his ability to alter the weather in her area, the location of their base could be exposed.
‘I made the right call using my ability to restrain him.’
That’s why Umbra employed Kaya’s ability—”Cognitive Disruption”—to efficiently imprison Elliott. It severed the target’s senses, robbing them of all five sensory perceptions.
‘If one cannot properly perceive the situation, they cannot possibly devise an escape plan.’
As she stepped toward the exit with her document case, it happened.
Crack.
A thick man’s fist burst through the wooden wall, aimed directly at Kaya’s head. She reflexively retreated, and five of Market’s Bunjeon operatives in black garments erupted from the breach, surrounding her.
“Lucky to find you so quickly.”
As the dust from the shattered wall settled, the assailant’s figure emerged.
A man with short hair revealing a deep brown scalp—Grant.
“You!”
Upon recognizing Grant’s face, Kaya let out a scornful laugh.
“I don’t know how you found this place, but what did you think you could accomplish coming alone?”
Grant’s lips curled upward as he answered her challenge.
“Who said I came alone?”
The moment his words ended, figures emerged from all directions, encircling Bunjeon and Kaya. Claire, Theodore, Kenneth, Ebon, and one unfamiliar face.
“Is she an important person?”
“Yes. She holds a rather high position.”
Claire felt a surge of satisfaction. After interrogating Abe and squeezing every scrap of information about Market from him, she had arrived at this location with modest expectations—only to find Kaya conveniently present.
I had made the right call contacting Grant and Arcadia beforehand.
Stirring up a hornet’s nest without expert assistance would have been nothing but recklessness.
“Stake your lives to help Kaya escape.”
As the situation took an ominous turn, the eldest-looking among the Bunjeon members spoke with grim resolve.
So it really was Kaya.
Ebon’s heart began to pound violently at hearing that name spoken aloud.
“I’m going to Market. Do you know that? You can even buy and sell abilities there. Kaya told me about it.”
His twin brother Matthew’s corruption—the person who had exerted the greatest influence over his fall. If anyone knew Matthew’s current whereabouts, it would be her.
“You won’t be taking anything with you.”
The instant Kaya’s lips curved upward, the document case she held was engulfed in a fierce blaze, incinerating the ledgers within. The case itself appeared to be some sort of device designed to destroy evidence if necessary.
Seeing this, Grant clicked his tongue and threw himself forward to subdue them.
“Be careful! That woman possesses an ability that distorts perception!”
His words served as a signal, and the two groups collided. Grant remained tense. Through several confrontations with them while rescuing the Beastman, he had naturally come to understand Kaya’s ability.
A dangerous power that makes recognition itself impossible.
The more targets she used the ability on, the weaker its effects seemed to become, but on a battlefield, a single moment of hesitation meant death.
Something felt off.
Yet contrary to his expectations, the process of subduing them proceeded remarkably smoothly. While Claire’s group’s strength played a part, the fact that Kaya barely used her ability at all seemed to reduce variables significantly.
That can’t be the full extent of her power.
A terrifying ability that sometimes strips away all five senses entirely. Yet she had not deployed such an ability until he had her restrained…
“She must already be using her ability elsewhere, not here.”
Kaya knelt among the fallen Bunjeon members, her expression one of frustration.
Should I reclaim the ability I used on Elliott right now? But without his permission…
“Well? You’ll have a hard time hearing it from my lips no matter what you expect.”
Even cornered, Kaya’s spirit remained unbroken; if anything, she held her head high. If she could just hold out a little longer, Leon might notice the disturbance and retrieve her with his ability.
But what she did not know was that someone had already anticipated this.
“It would be wise to take measures preventing this young lady from escaping or taking her own life first. Many of these people tend to die rather abruptly before we can even interrogate them.”
While the others were subduing Market, a figure who had been quietly standing guard by the wall stepped forward leisurely.
A middle-aged gentleman with delicate features and an austere face that made it difficult to discern gender at a glance. He was someone Sio had sent.
There was something unsettling about Samuel.
Kenneth, who knew him as a fellow Guild member, quietly averted his gaze.
Samuel—Arcadia’s Gold-ranked Mercenary with hair beginning to turn white, swept back neatly, displaying an elegant bearing. He was one of the few in the Guild who had awakened to a mental-type ability.
But Kenneth knew the fierce fire concealed beneath that composed facade.
‘With that refined demeanor, how many minds had he already shattered to death…’
He was a man with a clear moral compass of his own. And Kenneth had witnessed more than once just how cruel he could become toward those he deemed “evil” by his standards.
“Well then, we should change locations first. We can’t have a comfortable conversation within Market’s territory, after all.”
“What?”
As Samuel approached, Kaya instinctively recoiled, shrinking back in her seat—and a slender hand extended toward her.
“Once you’re broken, it will become quite entertaining.”
With Samuel’s eyes narrowing into thin crescents, Kaya’s consciousness evaporated.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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