I Woke Up from Hibernation and Found a Husband - Chapter 51

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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 51
Angela watched as Eris rushed through the door with urgent haste, breathing as though her lungs had betrayed her. She threw herself into Angela’s arms, gasping for air.
“Erika! Erika!”
“Sister Eris?”
Eris’s trembling hands seized Angela’s neck—not to strangle, but with careful precision, as though checking whether a pulse still beat beneath the skin.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
The rhythmic vibration of a living heartbeat resonated against her palms.
“Ah.”
Relief flooded through Eris as she collapsed to her knees before Angela.
“Thank goodness. Thank goodness you’re alive. Their lackeys came. I thought you were… I thought you were…”
Skeletal fingers gripped Angela’s wrist. As the tremors coursing through Eris’s body transmitted to her own hands, Angela exhaled silently, watching her own fingers quiver.
‘Does it matter who lives, so long as someone does?’
This broken woman clung to the warmth of any living thing. She would snatch anyone from the streets, name them Erika, and lavish them with care—as though that alone could transform them into a true sister.
“Ugh.”
In that moment, Eris let out a pained cry, clawing at her own chest as she hunched forward.
“Sister?”
“Nnngh…”
She could barely maintain consciousness. The illusions surrounding them flickered in and out of existence, wavering like candlelight.
A lavish, glittering Luxurious Room transformed into a Dilapidated Small Room with nothing but a thin quilted blanket, then back again. A woman with long dark hair aged into an elderly figure with white hair, then reverted to youth.
Angela barely restrained the instinct to push Eris away.
‘Which one is real?’
“Erika.”
Eris straightened, calling out the name with a voice thick with moisture, her crimson eyes burning with venom.
“I’ll protect you. I will.”
The moment those words left her lips, a tremendous tremor engulfed everything. Skeletal hands pulled Angela’s head close, cradling it fiercely. A deafening roar shattered the world, demolishing the illusory walls that contained them.
‘What is happening?’
As Angela’s eyes widened in shock at the apocalyptic shaking and sound, a new voice pierced through.
“So it really works.”
For the first time, another presence entered the space that had belonged only to Eris and Angela. A husky yet composed voice—one Angela knew well.
“Claire?”
“Angela?”
Through the rubble of the collapsed Building, Claire’s silhouette appeared. Eris instinctively grabbed Angela’s wrist, preventing her from rushing forward.
“You can’t go!”
Angela felt the hand holding her transform into something aged and frail. It wasn’t only Eris’s hand—the world itself seemed broken, reality and illusion bleeding into one another.
“Angela!”
Claire called out again, then rushed into the Building first.
“Claire.”
Seeing Claire’s urgent expression for the first time, Angela reflexively pushed Eris away and leaped from the Bedroom.
“Thank goodness you’re safe.”
They embraced each other. Angela’s eyes widened as she looked at Claire’s face—the child who was always composed and emotionally reserved now had reddened eyes and a trembling nose.
“Thank goodness.”
‘I’ve caused you worry.’
Overwhelmed by emotion, I pulled Claire into a fierce embrace. She had grown so much without my notice, yet in this moment, I could only see the small child who had waited for me in the Cabin.
“No.”
Eris watched helplessly as Angela slipped from her arms.
“No.”
In the aftermath of the illusory world’s collapse, my body refused to obey. Having maintained the ability for far too long, my rapidly deteriorating form was reaching its end.
“Erika, you cannot go.”
At those words, Claire lifted her head from Angela’s shoulder. Theodore was approaching Eris to finish this.
“Wait a moment.”
Claire stopped Theodore and drew near to Eris.
“We’ve met before, haven’t we?”
Eris, who had been sitting in despair and resignation, lifted her head.
“You were the person by the Lakeside. It was you, wasn’t it?”
The woman who introduced herself as Erika. She had feigned brightness and gentleness, yet something about her had felt discordant. At the time, I had simply attributed it to her being an illusion, but seeing Eris now made it clear.
This shattered world was the fractured psyche of Eris.
‘Was it because of her sister Erika’s death?’
‘I suppose you could say she was like an older sister and a mother figure.’
‘Really? That’s similar to my situation. My sister and I had that kind of relationship too.’
Perhaps it was hearing that voice of empathy. I could not silently stand by and watch Eris meet her end.
“What happened to you?”
Eris looked up at Claire with weary eyes. The illusion that had masked her face had long since faded. The vibrant face from before her sister’s death had transformed in an instant into that of an elderly woman weathered by hardship.
“Just a moment.”
The door opened, and Ebon walked in. Kenneth, who had rescued him, was with him.
“I have something to ask.”
Ebon, unmasked, approached Eris directly and knelt before her. In her hollow eyes, a fierce, blazing emotion kindled.
“You!”
Before she could cry out something in her seething voice, Ebon spoke first.
“What happened? What did a man with a face like mine do to you?”
He covered the left side of his face with his hand, then revealed his unmarred visage. Those copper-colored eyes held such earnestness. In that gaze, devoid of malice, Eris recognized the truth.
“You’re not that man.”
She laughed hollowly, her gaze turning toward the ceiling.
“You didn’t come to take my ability.”
“Then what exactly happened?”
Just as they were about to ask again.
“If you are so curious about his sins, I shall show you.”
The wind blew once more. What filled their vision was an illusion from a certain day.
* * *
“Didn’t the Guild promise that if I helped you, they would find a way to save Erika!”
Clutching Erika, who gasped for breath, Eris cried out desperately. Yet the woman before her answered in a calm tone.
“I’ve tried, but what can I do if it doesn’t work? This must be the extent of your brother’s fate.”
“What?”
The Red-haired Woman exaggerated a look of regret, drawing her eyebrows down dramatically.
“It really is a shame. An illusion barrier ability—how unique and wonderful. It pairs so well with your own power, too.”
Eris and Erika. Together, they were far stronger than apart. When Erika created an illusory domain and Eris filled it with her multifaceted hallucinations, a new field emerged that was indistinguishable from reality itself.
“Even among peers, this is truly rare. Such a waste. Do you perhaps have any hidden sisters?”
Before the woman who giggled about bearing a daughter instead, Eris rose with bloodshot eyes.
“You, are you seriously—”
“So that’s why. We’ve devised a good method in Umbra.”
The woman smiled mockingly at Eris as she lunged forward. At that very moment, Matthew appeared behind Eris and struck the back of her neck, rendering her unconscious.
Through the haze of fading consciousness, the woman’s voice reached her ears.
“If one ability is too precious to use alone, then simply combine two. Simple, isn’t it?”
‘Erika.’
She heard her sister’s final breath beside her, yet Eris could do nothing.
When her eyes opened again, it was far worse. Erika was dead. Her pallid body lay before her. Rising from the bed beside that corpse, Eris retched.
Without anyone telling her, she knew. Erika’s ability had entered her body.
“Oh, you’re awake. You could have slept longer if you wished.”
A Blue-haired Man entered the room. Clad in black fabric that rose to his neck and wearing gloves, he smiled with a sickly expression.
“How does it feel? Being united with the ability of the sister you cherished so dearly.”
What gleamed in his eyes was base, petty ambition.
“For a first attempt, it was a masterpiece. Though I doubt you’ll last long.”
Eris realized her body was aging rapidly. It seemed to be a side effect of whatever they had performed. Yet watching Erika’s corpse—her heart now gone—was tens, hundreds of times more agonizing than her own decaying flesh.
Eris went berserk. She wanted to kill them all and follow Erika. But tragically, she could not.
“Erika, where are you? Erika.”
Her mind crumbled before her body did. Her will for vengeance, the very knowledge of her sister’s fate—all of it grew increasingly dim.
“I’ll protect you, sister.”
She barely escaped, but what remained was a single, burning resolve to protect her sister. With vacant eyes fixed upon the full moon hanging in the sky, Eris seemed to reach a decision and altered her course.
“No one will ever tear us apart.”
She burned what remained of her soul and constructed a fortress in the Gorge of the Laten Plain.
A fortress to protect Erika.

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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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