I Woke Up from Hibernation and Found a Husband - Chapter 49

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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 49
I’d been thinking about it the whole time.
Time zones, scents, visual information. A space where everything was misaligned. Could a place where right and wrong became meaningless truly exist in reality?
“Is this a hallucination?”
At Claire’s words, the Faceless Man laughed. His voice seemed to bypass her ears entirely, transmitting directly into her mind.
“Does it matter? Whether reality or fantasy, only what appears before you is truth.”
His form gradually crumbled. Like cherry blossoms scattering on the wind, the man dissolved away as Claire called out to him.
“Is he safe?”
“Who knows? If you’re curious, why not search for him yourself? He’s still alive for now.”
Another gust of wind. This time, I found myself at the edge of a tranquil lakeside.
‘He’s gone.’
Seeing the space where the man had stood now empty, Claire clicked her tongue. Even knowing this place might not be reality, escaping proved far from simple.
“Excuse me?”
A small, cautious voice called out to Claire, who had been lost in thought while gazing at the blue water’s surface. A woman’s voice, delicate and hesitant.
Turning her head, she saw an Unknown Woman holding the hem of her skirt, her eyes filled with concern.
* * *
A Burning Building. His left face melted away. His abdomen pierced by a spear. Yet Ebon still lived. Matthew’s original purpose had never been to kill him.
“Kaya will come soon. Just hold on until then. It’ll all be over.”
Kaya.
At the unexpected name, Ebon’s eyes, which had been lying prone and lifeless, flickered. The woman from the Alley whom Matthew had begun following blindly at some point.
‘Why is that name coming up here?’
With an almost delirious expression, Matthew grabbed Ebon’s ankle before the Building collapsed and dragged him outside.
“I’ll give my ability to Kaya, and then I’ll receive a new power. Something far stronger and cooler than a transformation ability.”
Madness filled his sweat-drenched face. Gritting his teeth, Ebon endured the pain of his battered body being dragged.
“I’m going to the Market. Did you know? You can buy and sell abilities there. Kaya taught me that. This is how I’ll earn her recognition. Just like you earned recognition from that garbage you call a father.”
Matthew’s flushed face looked like that of someone intoxicated by something—whether guilt or euphoria, it was far from normal. Unable to restrain himself, Ebon spoke.
“You’ve changed. You’re not yourself anymore.”
At those words, Matthew’s expression went blank in an instant, as if his excitement had been doused.
“We’ve never lived normally in the first place, Ebon. Garbage is finally living like garbage should.”
He’d lost too much blood. After that, memories remained only in fragments, scattered and sparse.
A robed woman and man emerging from darkness. Outstretched hands. Something sharp descending close enough to pierce his heart. A figure blocking it. Horns of an animal perched atop that figure’s head….
Wait, a beastkin?
“Gasp!”
Gasping as though pulled from water, Ebon jolted awake from the nightmare.
“What is this?”
As I steadied my ragged breathing and regained my senses, what came into view were my limbs, bound by iron chains in what resembled an Underground Dungeon.
Clank.
Even when I shook my arm, pressed tightly against the Wall, the thick iron chains didn’t budge an inch.
‘What was I doing just now?’
I’d been following behind Claire when a sudden gust of wind made me close my eyes without thinking, and when I came to, I was here.
‘I need to escape this place first.’
As I turned my head, exhaling sharply to gather more information about my surroundings, that’s when it happened.
“You can’t escape anyway, so stop clinging to false hope.”
A woman’s voice mixed with a metallic scraping sound reached my ears. Startled, Ebon turned toward the iron bars covering one wall, and there stood a Long-haired Woman outside the cell, her hair nearly touching the floor.
The light behind her cast shadows across her face, obscuring it completely.
“Who are you?”
Instead of answering, she opened the iron door. It swung open silently. She stepped inside and stopped directly in front of Ebon’s face.
“Did they send you?”
“They?”
A young woman with a cold expression. Yet something felt distinctly wrong.
‘What is this discrepancy?’
Ebon perceived her face as wavering. Upon closer inspection, an extremely thin and precise membrane appeared to stretch across her skin.
She was wearing a mask, just as I was.
“Don’t play dumb. If that’s not it, why did you come all the way here?”
The woman who had been speaking in riddles reached out her hand. The moment the wooden mask in her grip was torn away, Ebon witnessed a tremendous fury surging in her eyes.
“You! You!”
“Ugh.”
A powerful hand seized Ebon’s hair and wrenched his head backward.
“Ha! So they were desperate enough to send you directly. What’s with that grotesque face? Did that woman beat you? How pathetic!”
Pain shot through Ebon’s head and neck, contorting his face.
‘Who is she talking about? Could she know Matthew?’
Someone who resembled Ebon so closely they could be mistaken for the same person, yet bore no burn scars. There was no one else but Matthew.
“Do you know my brother?”
“Ha, brother?”
The woman who had released Ebon’s head burst into wild laughter.
“Your excuses are pathetic. You’re planning to deceive me again with that innocent act and steal her away, aren’t you?”
She staggered backward, clawing at her own face roughly, her body convulsing.
“No one can take Erika from me. Watch from there! See how your cursed companions die!”
The membrane surrounding her flickered like noise as the sorcerer who had manifested her ability lost her sanity. Skin aged beyond her years and white hair, incongruous with her age, overlapped and vanished repeatedly in the briefest of moments.
“You can’t take anything more from me! Not Erika, not my power. Ah, Erika! Are you alright? I’m coming!”
Thud.
The woman locked the door again and rushed out of the Basement in a frenzy, as if she had forgotten Ebon’s existence entirely.
Ebon stared at the mask rolling across the floor, breathing heavily.
“Matthew, what on earth are you doing?”
* * *
Among the most frequently handled subjects by the Information Broker Network, none is more prominent than “Abilities.” Stories of someone awakening a special ability or solutions to counter certain powers always commanded a price.
“There were sisters renowned as Illusion Sorcerers.”
Kenneth spoke, gazing at the empty space where Claire and Ebon had vanished. He and Theodore had already returned to their original forms.
“Illusion Sorcerers?”
The Illusion Sorcerer sisters who last operated five years ago—Eris and Erika.
Despite the twelve-year age gap between them, they were siblings whose identical abilities and similar appearances made them closer than most.
“They were originally affiliated with the Guild, but left about five years ago. From what I heard, they departed to find a way to treat an illness that had afflicted their younger sister, but at some point, they vanished without a trace.”
“This illusionist is the one who orchestrated the current catastrophe?”
Though it was a rare ability, it felt insufficient to pinpoint a suspect based on that alone. Yet Kenneth nodded without hesitation, as if he knew far more than that.
“The public believed their abilities were identical, but in truth, they differed slightly. Erika, the younger sister, could construct illusory barriers.”
When Erika deceived the world and separated it from reality, Eris’s ability would flood that realm completely. Their seemingly opposing powers, perhaps because the sisters shared blood, instead created a synergistic effect that elevated their renown.
“There was quite a stir when the Gold-ranked Mage retired. I never imagined she’d be hiding in a place like this.”
Kenneth recalled the legend that had become synonymous with the terror of the Plains.
‘But why are they attacking people?’
Their official reason for retirement had been Erika’s illness. By the time she fell ill, Ian, the only healing mage capable of treating her, had already disappeared, and no other medical approach showed meaningful improvement.
‘If an illusory barrier exists, does that mean the treatment succeeded? Then why continue this instead of returning or settling somewhere?’
Those possessing unique abilities, even if their fates remained uncertain, were treated as valuable intelligence and stored separately. In every record Kenneth had reviewed, there was no mention of the sisters’ notoriety.
‘Close sisters with moderately gentle temperaments. That’s all they should have been.’
His contemplation was torn from reality by a distorted sound as if space itself were tearing.
Screeeeeech.
An unpleasant noise like an ancient iron gate opening echoed out, and space rippled in countless places. Cracks appeared here and there as if the fabric itself were buckling.
“What’s happening inside?”
Theodore and Kenneth, who had been covering their ears, locked eyes with one another. The cause remained unknown, but with an opportunity presenting itself, there was no time for hesitation.
Both of them lunged simultaneously into the cracks.

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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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