I Woke Up from Hibernation and Found a Husband - Chapter 12

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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 12
The only person the Voltier siblings could rely on.
Yet, viewed from another angle, he was also the one who could snuff out Theodore’s life more easily than anyone else.
‘Did he treat Bella the way he treated me?’
Theodore believed it was only natural that he was despised. He had hurt and threatened so many people—it was fitting that those consumed by fear would hate him.
‘But she’s different.’
A servant in the Annex would likely face no better treatment than those in the Main House.
He reached this conclusion watching Claire rush away.
My eyes burned with heat. I resented my own stupidity for failing to protect my sister, and the anguish of knowing I had no choice but to depend on Claire gnawed at me.
‘If Uncle truly harbors ill intent, I cannot stop him.’
Claire’s typically composed expression flickered in my mind before dissolving away.
‘She’s such a fragile child—tormented by the Head Butler yet unable to confide in me.’
A single tear finally broke free, sliding down my cheek to gather at my chin.
‘I have to let her go.’
I couldn’t bear the guilt of Claire suffering under a master devoid of reason.
‘It’s far too dangerous for her to remain my maid.’
Whatever unfolds ahead must be mine alone to bear.
Just as I steadied myself and reached to wipe away the tears—
Slam.
“Ugh!”
The door burst open with force, sending Theodore tumbling across the floor like a discarded doll.
“Oh? Why are you there?”
Claire blinked in surprise, raising her eyebrows as she looked down at him.
“Ha.”
Speechless, Theodore lay sprawled on the ground, staring up at her in bewilderment.
“Did you sell your manners somewhere?”
At his words, Claire’s expression flickered with guilt, and she belatedly gave a soft knock on the now-closed door.
Knock. Knock. Knock.
“My apologies.”
Though she offered an apology, her expression remained unapologetic—as if the fault lay entirely with the person who had been sitting in front of the door.
Her shameless behavior was so natural that Theodore found himself speechless again. The anguish from moments before evaporated, and his tears dried instantly.
“Ah, Bella! What happened to her?”
Snapping back to awareness, Theodore asked urgently about Bella, and Claire helped him to his feet, guiding him to the bed as she spoke.
“Calm yourself. The young lady is safe. I watched until she fell asleep before coming here.”
Theodore’s shoulders relaxed at her words. Claire gave him a moment to compose himself before asking.
“Gregory has returned. Were you aware?”
At those words, Theodore’s shoulders tensed.
“Uncle…”
Uncle may not be on my side. That suspicion deepened when, after his return, he made no move to visit Theodore’s room.
‘I really do need to send Claire away.’
Yet contrary to his thoughts, Theodore’s lips would not open easily.
He could not imagine returning to a life without Claire.
‘If she leaves, there will be no one to stop me, no one to walk through the Garden with me anymore.’
The corners of his mouth trembled.
‘Coward.’
Theodore cursed himself. Even knowing what was right for her, he continued to act cowardly to the very end.
Watching Theodore’s body shake from the accumulated self-loathing of years, Claire wondered.
‘Is he cold?’
For a sickly raccoon, he had been sitting on the cold floor far too long. The body heat she felt when supporting him was lower than usual.
“Forgive me for a moment.”
Claire brought a thick blanket and wrapped Theodore’s entire body, leaving only his face exposed.
“What on earth! Let go of this!”
Theodore, who had missed yet another moment to speak, tore through the blanket in bewilderment. As Claire watched him escape from it, she recalled the wolf-like man.
‘He’s far too dangerous an existence for a raccoon.’
The pack’s loyalty to the alpha wolf is absolute.
Claire was inexperienced in social matters, but when it came to wild problems where life and death hung in the balance, her instincts were sharper than anyone’s.
‘Regardless of Gregory’s true intentions, those who follow him will not tolerate anyone who threatens his position.’
Judging from the siblings’ treatment already, the work of strangling the raccoon’s lifeline seemed to be progressing steadily.
‘What should I do?’
The Claire of not long ago would have quickly stopped and returned to the Forest. But the current Claire found herself unwilling to do so.
‘I’ve grown quite attached to these raccoon siblings to simply leave them at the wolf’s jaws.’
She could still leave now if she wanted to.
‘But if I go like this, I’ll feel unsettled and won’t even be able to sleep properly through winter.’
Claire gazed quietly down at the trembling Theodore.
Unlike when she first saw him, when he seemed on the verge of death, he was still weak now, but there was vitality in his eyes and movements.
The way light returned to eyes that had been fading. Claire enjoyed watching that process.
‘If I leave, those eyes will turn dead again.’
This spark I barely managed to kindle. I did not wish to see it extinguished like this.
‘Winter.’
She resolved to stay by Theodore and Isabella’s side until winter hibernation, as she had originally intended.
‘Rather, I’ll stay and think things through until my heart is settled. If I still can’t leave by then, I can always run away with these siblings like their mother did.’
Her intention to leave had not changed. She simply resolved not to abandon them and leave as things were.
With that thought, her heart felt lighter. Just as Claire, having sorted out her feelings alone, was about to wrap Theodore in the blanket again.
“Claire.”
“Yes, Young Master.”
“Leave this place.”
“······What?”
A sudden thunderbolt of dismissal struck down.
Had she misheard?
Claire’s eyes wavered violently. Merely fifteen seconds after resolving to stay. Yet the raccoon had reached his conclusion without knowing her heart.
‘This is right. I cannot expose an outsider like Claire to any more danger.’
“Is it because of the blanket?”
Claire hastily pulled the blanket away from Theodore. But Theodore met her gaze with an even darker expression and spoke.
“This isn’t wordplay. Leave this Mansion today.”
The seriousness in Theodore’s eyes made it easy for Claire to recognize that he meant every word.
‘Why so suddenly? Does this raccoon have no survival instinct?’
She could not comprehend it.
An overwhelmingly powerful predator had appeared. If any survival instinct remained, one would ordinarily flee immediately or desperately scramble to increase their allies.
‘Shouldn’t this be a situation where I’d be clinging to him, begging him not to go?’
Yet Theodore’s gaze was clearer than ever. The haze that typically clouded his eyes from the madness was absent this time.
Claire found herself studying his blue eyes anew—eyes that resembled a summer Lake. Witnessing such resolve twisted something within her chest.
“I refuse.”
“What?”
“I do not wish to leave.”
Claire’s expression changed for the first time, becoming petulant. Childish stubbornness flickered across her usually composed face.
“I can work harder.”
This was her first venture into working life.
Conversations with someone other than Angela, learning and mastering tasks, all those processes. The various emotions she discovered there.
Though it felt odd to say before someone afflicted with madness, Claire had found joy in the moments spent with the Voltier siblings.
“I can become a more perfect maid.”
So she was reluctant to end it now.
“You really are.”
Theodore bit his lip as emotions surged violently within him. He barely managed to continue speaking, suppressing the burning sensation inside.
“Do you think you’ll gain anything by staying by my side? This madness is incurable. I could hurt you at any moment.”
‘He’s worrying about something unnecessary again.’
Claire regarded him with slight pity and answered.
“I can overcome it.”
Then Theodore spoke with an even more trembling voice.
“I’ll never become a Count anyway. There’s nothing to gain by staying, so leave now while you can.”
‘At least you’ll still pay my wages.’
You will, won’t you?
Claire’s eyes wavered for a moment, but she quickly steadied herself and spoke.
“It doesn’t matter. Whether someone becomes a Count or not was never important to me. I have no intention of profiting from it either.”
‘I’ll be leaving by next winter anyway. A title so distant holds no interest for me.’
Claire quietly observed Theodore, his emotions in turmoil, as he gasped for breath.
His gaze gradually fell downward. Meeting her feet with his eyes, he spoke weakly.
“I cannot protect anyone with this body.”
His exhausted frame looked particularly helpless today. Without thinking, Claire reached out and awkwardly patted his back.
“I am strong enough, so it will be fine.”
Theodore let out a hollow laugh.
‘Why on earth would she go this far?’
Voltier had no abilities, no real authority, and was even temperamental—yet I couldn’t fathom why she placed such trust in someone like me.
“Why would you go to such lengths? It would be easier to just run away.”
At his question, Claire answered as though he were asking something obvious.
“I am the Young Master’s maid.”
A servant existed to guarantee their employer’s safety and comfort.
‘As a capable maid, I must endure trials of this magnitude.’
It was a profoundly twisted form of social life, yet for someone who had never been ordinary to begin with, it was somehow fitting.
‘Hm?’
Claire watched with fascination as Theodore’s face flushed crimson in an instant. With his ears burning just as red, he pressed both hands against his face and mumbled.
“It’s not that simple.”
“It’s not a problem with an answer, either.”
“You could come to regret this!”
“Most choices leave some form of regret in their wake.”
Claire’s resolve was already unshakeable. In the end, it was Theodore who surrendered first.
“Do as you wish.”
At those words, color returned to Claire’s face.
The dismissal was rescinded.

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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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