I Woke Up from Hibernation and Found a Husband - Chapter 50

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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 50
“Excuse me?”
Claire paused to consider.
A woman in a white one-piece dress resembling pajamas, standing in an Anomalous Space filled with strange phenomena, gazed at her with concern.
‘Should I answer her?’
As Claire maintained her silence, the woman carefully studied her expression.
“Um… you’re not hurt anywhere, are you?”
“I’m fine.”
Upon hearing my response, she visibly relaxed, relief washing over her face.
“Thank goodness. I was worried. The people I meet here are often injured.”
Claire’s eyes narrowed at those words.
“Do you meet other people here?”
“Yes, women who have lost their way often come here, and I guide them back outside.”
At that moment, I recalled the stories of several missing women who had returned alive.
‘Is she the one who lets them go?’
Innocent, round eyes. Black hair tied back in a single braid, slightly coarse to the touch. For someone who had supposedly created this space herself, she seemed genuinely delighted to have met Claire.
“Do you know where this place is?”
“Of course. This is practically our front yard.”
“Then can you guide me out?”
“Of course. You want to leave, don’t you?”
Claire didn’t answer immediately, taking a moment to pause. Turning her head, I could see a Lake. Unlike the vanished Gorge, this space was peaceful and serene.
“I want to go to the highest Cliff above the Gorge.”
The woman’s expression vanished at those words. Like a broken doll, she froze, then forced her mouth open to speak.
“There’s no Cliff here.”
“No. There must be one.”
Claire’s eyes held absolute certainty without the slightest flicker of doubt. The woman stared at her in bewilderment before asking.
“My, you’re quite stubborn, aren’t you? What would you do on top of a Cliff?”
Claire answered readily.
“I’m searching for someone precious to me.”
“Someone precious?”
The atmosphere shifted once more at those words. A warm breeze blew gently. As if the mist over a field were clearing, the outline of a distant Cliff became visible.
“Ah, how did you know I’m weak to such words… The path there is rather difficult though. Will you be alright?”
“I will be fine.”
Though her attitude had changed in an instant, Claire paid it no mind. This space had long since lost all causality.
A Strange Space resembling a nightmare dreamed in daylight. I decided to trust my instincts now.
“Alright then, let’s go. My name is Erika.”
As she extended her hand, a brief silence fell. Claire gazed at her pale hand for a moment, as if lost in thought, before extending my own hand in return.
“I’m Claire.”
The two of us walked toward the Cliff, avoiding the Lake. Along the way, I saw blue Trees scattered about. They were the same species as the Tree that had been in the Reed Field moments before.
‘No matter how far I walk, the Cliff doesn’t seem to get any closer.’
Claire turned to look back at the path she had walked. The Lake had already receded into the distance, yet the Cliff seemed no closer than before.
“You said you came looking for someone precious to you? What kind of person are they? An older sister? A mother?”
“Well, I suppose you could say someone who is both an older sister and like a mother to me.”
“Wow! Really? That’s similar to my situation. Our sisterhood was like that too.”
“I see. Then you must have cherished your younger sister very much.”
“That’s right. My younger sister… No, wait! She’s my older sister! I’m the younger one.”
Flicker.
An ancient lighting fixture flickered momentarily, and the world grew murky before returning to clarity.
As the Cliff receded further into the distance, Claire’s footsteps finally came to a halt.
“Claire?”
Claire fixed her gaze upon the eyes of the woman who had introduced herself as Erika and spoke.
“Was Erika someone precious to you?”
The woman could not hide her bewilderment at those words.
“What? But I’m Erika?”
“I never said the person I’m looking for was a woman.”
‘An older sister? A mother?’
The woman’s earlier question, which had naturally presumed the person to be female, hung between them. The smile vanished from her expression.
“No. I am Erika. I live here. With my older sister Eris. Forever.”
The woman’s hair suddenly came loose and grew longer and longer. Black, coarse strands that seemed about to touch the ground. As her hair stirred slightly, a violent gust of wind swept through once more.
‘There it is again.’
Claire clicked her tongue.
Whenever even the slightest flaw was exposed, that gust of wind blew forth like a defensive mechanism. It seemed she had much to hide, yet something about it felt clumsy and incomplete.
She recalled the Tomb she had seen in the Reed Field. Flowers offered in mourning and a gravestone where the name of the deceased appeared to have been carved character by character.
The name inscribed there had unmistakably been ‘Erika’.
When I opened my eyes again, I saw thick fog. The sensation beneath my feet and the faintly visible silhouettes felt familiar—the same place as the slope where I had first fallen.
‘So only the environmental conditions have changed. Have all the spaces that could be manifested already been cycled through?’
Each time the wind blew along the Gorge, the fog grew thicker. Just as I thought I wouldn’t be able to see a person standing directly in front of me, I sensed something approaching rapidly from my left.
I twisted my body to evade the extended dagger, and I immediately recognized the owner of the wrist I had grasped.
“Kenneth?”
“Claire?”
Kenneth stood with a bewildered expression.
“I was definitely fighting a monster just moments ago. Damn it, so it was that kind of trap.”
Kenneth confirmed Claire, who held his wrist, and let out a sigh as if he had realized something.
“Now I understand what must have happened to all the people who were abducted. They must have seen different illusions and ended up slaughtering each other.”
Shortly after, Theodore rushed in from another direction and joined the group, and the three of them took a moment to regroup.
“Claire, thank goodness you’re safe!”
Watching the two of them huddled closely together in the fog so as not to lose sight of each other, I voiced the thought that had been occupying my mind.
“But are the two of you certain of your own identities?”
Ebon, who had been with me, had been switched without anyone knowing, so there was no reason to assume these two hadn’t been as well.
‘The nail markings still seem to be there, but you never know.’
The sorcerer who created this space must have confirmed Ebon by now, so perhaps they could even manifest the pattern.
“Hmm, if something like that happened, it’s definitely worth checking.”
Kenneth shrugged his shoulders and spoke as though it were no difficult matter.
“Do you remember the horse hoof grass?”
“Yes, the incorrect password you mentioned when we first met at the Information Broker Network.”
“If you remember that far, then Claire is the real deal! So, this time it’s this one, right?”
Kenneth laughed playfully and turned to look at Theodore.
“What did we ride to reach the Laten Plain?”
The answer came immediately to the simple question.
“A swift ship.”
But the problem was that the answer came from behind Claire’s back.
“Who is that?”
“Huh?”
Another Theodore emerged through the mist. Claire and Kenneth blinked, their eyes darting back and forth between the fake and the real.
“Damn this fake bastard!”
Kenneth struck the fake Theodore with what seemed like delighted enthusiasm. Though no impact was felt, the fake scattered like smoke and vanished into the mist.
“You look rather relieved about something?”
Theodore joined them with an uncomfortable expression. Kenneth shrugged his shoulders.
“Well, at least this confirms it.”
Claire stared at the empty space where the fake had disappeared. Indeed, the illusion itself seemed to have no offensive power.
“How did you two get inside?”
“The space suddenly became unstable and cracks formed. We slipped through the gap.”
Claire quickly shared what she had discovered with them. The hallucinations that shifted constantly from the moment of the gust, the space’s owner who was not favorably disposed toward intruders. And.
“I saw the tomb of someone named Erika.”
At those words, Kenneth and Theodore’s expressions hardened.
“Erika?”
“Do you know her?”
“It’s not so much that we know her as….”
The illusionist sisters, Eris and Erika. The younger one who had suffered from illness.
‘So she died after all.’
But there was something strange about that.
“If the younger sister who handles barriers is dead, then who is holding us captive now?”
“We need to break the barrier first.”
At Kenneth’s words, Claire’s expression became puzzled.
“Didn’t nothing work from the outside?”
“That was from the outside. But with spatial abilities, it’s much easier to shake them from within.”
“Ebon’s ability didn’t work inside here either.”
“That’s because transformation ability is also in the illusion category. The sorcerer who created this space is at a much higher level than Ebon.”
The most effective means of shaking an ability is none other than an ability itself. To disturb a stably manifested ability, one needed an even more powerful ability.
“And we have an extremely powerful ability, even if it’s not in the illusion category.”
Kenneth and Claire’s eyes turned toward Theodore in unison.

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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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