I Woke Up from Hibernation and Found a Husband - Chapter 2

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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 2
I was born in a cabin nestled deep within the mountains.
The fruit of love between the sickly youngest son of the House of Count and the mercenary tasked with his protection—two souls who had fled into the night together. That was me, Claire.
“My dear! Shall we make apple pie today?”
“Yes, I love the apple pie you make, Father.”
“Your wrist must be aching. Let me hold Claire instead.”
A gentle and tender father, and a steadfast, formidable mother.
Though their beginning had been rather tumultuous, the result was undeniably a harmonious home. My parents loved each other more than anything in this world.
Yet perhaps that very love became a poison.
“Claire, stay here at home until Mother returns. I’ll be back soon.”
When I turned ten, my sickly father finally departed from this world.
Veronica, her face hollow with despair, spent days in a stupor before finally gathering her belongings and preparing to leave the cabin once her husband’s funeral concluded.
“Can’t I come with you?”
“…I’m sorry. This is something I must finish alone. I’ll return quickly.”
On a day when rain poured relentlessly, Veronica departed.
From that day forward, I pressed myself against the window all day long, waiting for her, but a week later, only Angela’s delivery of Veronica’s death notice arrived at the cabin.
“Why?”
Questions flooded my mind. Yet Angela offered no explanation. She merely said it had been a terribly unfortunate accident and that Veronica had wished for my happiness—that was all she would tell me.
Realizing that pressing further would not loosen Angela’s tongue, I fell silent.
In the cabin where happiness had vanished, I endured alone, determined to become happy as my mother had wished.
For a ten-year-old child, the circumstances were cruel, yet I could not descend to the village where people gathered. I was a quarter-blood, but the concentration of ‘Ferocity’—the unique power of my kind—ran dangerously high within me.
Those with strong ‘Ferocity’ possess physical abilities that far surpass ordinary humans.
As a young child, I could not suppress that power, so I chose to train my ‘Ferocity’ to enable myself to live an ordinary life.
Years passed in this manner.
Save for Angela, who visited periodically to resupply provisions, I enjoyed my solitary mountain existence without meaningful contact with others.
When a certain environment persists, it inevitably becomes a pattern.
“Do I really need to go to the village? I could just keep living like this.”
It was around the time such thoughts crossed my mind that a problem arose.
“I’ve run out of money.”
Living in the mountains did not mean I needed no daily necessities.
Hunting and gathering alone had their limits in maintaining a human standard of living.
Of course, had I mentioned it to Angela, who purchased things on my behalf, she would have gladly provided supplies. After all, it was I who had insisted on giving her money when she refused to accept any payment.
But I could not bear to burden her further.
“I’m eighteen now. I can’t depend on Angela forever.”
And so I resolved to descend from the mountain.
I would go to the village, earn a substantial sum, and return. It was time I learned to stand on my own feet as I approached adulthood.
The first step toward that goal was subduing—or rather, serving—the wildcat-like Young Master before me.
* * *
“Are you not listening to me?”
Unsatisfied with merely hurling the candlestick, Theodore gritted his teeth and rose unsteadily to his feet, staggering toward me.
Standing before the enraged Theodore, Claire’s expression remained utterly serene.
She was the complete opposite of Theodore, whose body trembled with barely contained fury, his face twisted like a demon’s.
“Get out!”
Matted ash-gray hair, murky blue eyes. A gaunt face and skeletal frame.
While objectively handsome, the man appeared like a monster from a horror tale—his haggard appearance and savage expression were to blame.
Claire watched the approaching man with indifference, her thoughts drifting elsewhere.
‘He’s quite tall, but terribly thin for nineteen. Does this household starve the Young Master?’
Disheveled and sharp-tempered, he resembled a young raccoon I’d once seen.
‘That white raccoon I spotted near the Rocky Mountain before. It was incredibly adorable.’
Theodore stopped inches from Claire’s face, staring directly at her.
His bloodshot eyes were menacing, yet to Claire they appeared as nothing more than an arrogant raccoon baring its tiny rice-grain teeth and snarling.
“You.”
“Yes?”
“Do you find me amusing?”
“Not at all. Though, might your need for the privy be more urgent than washing up?”
The raccoon—or rather, Theodore—seemed so exasperated by her question that he suddenly shrieked and lunged at her.
‘Oh no, the raccoon bites.’
Lost in her daydreams without a care, Claire panicked and swung her fist.
Thud.
“Ah.”
I’d done it.
Though she hadn’t swung with particular force, Theodore flew like a sheet of paper, crashing against the wall before crumpling to the floor.
‘It’s not you I’m worried about—it’s the Young Master! Do you understand how grave a crime it is to injure a nobleman?!’
Angela’s panicked cry echoed in my mind like a phantom voice.
“Y-Young Master?”
How was I going to fix this?
Claire rushed toward the unconscious Theodore. Fortunately or unfortunately, there was no blood or visible wound.
“Did he simply faint from shock?”
How could a human be this fragile?
Theodore’s durability rating plummeted significantly in my assessment.
Scratching my cheek as I looked down at the sprawled Theodore, I suddenly began to clap softly.
A brilliant idea had struck me.
* * *
“Ugh…”
Theodore groaned as his eyes fluttered open.
Due to the constant headaches that plagued him, he rarely woke comfortably, but today his back and lower spine ached as well.
He pushed aside the plush blanket and sat up, then turned his head. Someone was in the room.
“Good morning, Young Master. I hope you slept well.”
Claire, who had been preparing wash water at the small table beside the bed, bowed respectfully.
“It is my pleasure to make your acquaintance. I am Claire, and I shall be attending to you from this day forward.”
The secret measure Claire had devised to handle the aftermath of sending Theodore flying.
It was simple: denial.
“…You’re saying we’ve never met before?”
“Yes. This is our first meeting, is it not?”
Her wide, round eyes gazed at him intently, as if asking if something was amiss.
Her wide, round eyes gazed at him intently, as if asking if something was amiss.
A chill ran down Theodore’s spine, and he instinctively averted his gaze, turning his head away.
“I must have been mistaken.”
Watching Theodore’s deflated profile, I reflected on the situation.
‘Hmm, he flared up for a moment, but now he’s suddenly regained his composure.’
This was useful information for serving the Young Master going forward.
“Shall I prepare a meal?”
Theodore shook his head at my offer.
“My head aches. I don’t need food—leave at once.”
With that, he collapsed onto the bed and pulled the blanket over his head.
This time, I obediently left the Bedroom.
‘That gaunt frame really needs proper nourishment.’
Though I’d failed to get him to eat, I still considered the task reasonably successful.
I felt a quiet sense of accomplishment.
‘Working in society. It’s not so difficult after all. Angela must be getting older—she worries over nothing these days.’
At this rate, earning my target amount in just a few months seemed entirely feasible.
In good spirits, I entered the Break Room by the Warehouse where the servants gathered. The maids who had been chatting in small clusters fell silent in shock, as if they’d seen a ghost.
“You actually woke the Young Master?”
Alice, the maid who had shown me the way, asked with evident suspicion, and I shrugged.
“Yes. You saw me enter the Bedroom. He opened his eyes, then said he wanted to sleep a bit longer, so I came out.”
Alice’s eyes narrowed.
She had definitely seen me enter. And she’d clearly heard the sound of something breaking and shattering.
‘But how is she unharmed?’
Anyone who entered Theodore’s Bedroom typically emerged with at least one injury.
“You must have been fortunate.”
Even as she said this, Alice couldn’t entirely hide her displeasure.
‘Does she resent that I came out unscathed? Why?’
Curiosity bloomed in my mind, but annoyance outweighed it, so I chose silence.
‘Did they have a wager?’
Regardless of the circumstances, I only cared about receiving my payment.
“Nothing unusual happened?”
Alice probed cautiously, and I shook my head.
“No. His intentions were clear, and he didn’t make many requests, so there wasn’t much for me to do.”
His intentions were certainly clear—a candlestick came hurtling at my head. Could there be a more explicit eviction notice than that?
A huffing white raccoon. Fierce, perhaps, but merely troublesome—hardly insurmountable.
“Y-yes, that’s right.”
Alice stiffened as though she’d heard something utterly peculiar, then hastily excused herself from the room.
I watched her departing figure for a moment before making my way toward the Dining Hall.
‘I should prepare the Young Master’s meal in advance.’
By this standard, I was proving to be quite the capable maid.
Though it was my first venture into employment, my first day on the job had gone remarkably well.

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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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