I Woke Up from Hibernation and Found a Husband - Chapter 6

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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 6
“Can we really allow this? That maid simply won’t do.”
“Exactly! Taking the Young Master out to the Garden—she’s clearly lost her mind.”
The Study was dimly lit, with only a single lamp burning.
Anxious servants gathered around the couch where the elderly Head Butler sat, engaged in hushed conversation.
“We must dismiss Claire. If she finds out, there’s no telling how she’ll react.”
“Then who will attend to the Young Master? Have you already forgotten that Ellin had every rib broken?”
“Just bring in anyone from outside! It’s far easier to use those children who won’t speak a word, even if they die.”
“How is she even unscathed? In the hands of that monster! Yes, perhaps we should make it look like an accident and eliminate them both.”
Tap.
The Head Butler brought his paper knife down sharply against the table, fixing the last speaker with a cold glare.
“I… I apologize.”
“Mind your tongue. We need only maintain the current state until he returns. There is no time to waste on defective goods who haven’t even awakened their abilities.”
And yet.
The Head Butler’s eyes narrowed as he gazed at the flickering lamp. Light reflected off his monocle, wavering.
“That maid certainly does need to be disposed of.”
I had never desired the Young Master’s wellbeing. I merely needed a servant adequate enough to maintain appearances, yet something useless had become attached to me.
‘Theodore is an obstacle to my Voltaire.’
The Head Butler, Bender, smiled coldly.
* * *
The harassment began the day after the Garden visit.
Being forced to work from the crack of dawn without sleep, having toxins that caused skin disease poured onto laundered clothes, being shoved on the Staircase—such things.
For an ordinary person, such torment could have caused serious injury from exhaustion or trauma.
Yes, for an ordinary person.
‘How pathetic.’
Standing before the Staircase, I sensed the approaching servant’s presence and smoothly sidestepped.
“Huh?”
The bewildered man made a stupid sound as he tumbled past me toward the Staircase, but I caught him by the scruff of his neck.
‘I can’t afford to take the blame for this.’
Looking down at the man with cold eyes, I spoke.
“Are you alright?”
“Y-yes, yes.”
Then get lost.
After receiving his stammered response, I hurled him into the Corridor and descended the Staircase.
‘How bothersome.’
It seemed I had thoroughly earned their resentment by taking Theodore to the Garden.
‘Why don’t they just fight openly? Why all this sneaking around?’
In the Mountain where I had lived, everything was clear.
Before those with superior strength, all creatures prostrated themselves, and when enemies met, they clashed until the victor claimed everything.
As I reached for the handle of the trolley I was pulling, I noticed a familiar grassy scent emanating from it.
‘Is this a windflower?’
The windflowers that bloomed frequently around her Cabin bore exquisite violet petals, yet they were a poisonous plant that caused a burning sensation upon contact.
‘Grown adults acting so childishly.’
I heard the maids giggling behind my back.
Claire caught a glimpse of them from the corner of her eye, sighed, and promptly grasped the trolley’s handle.
‘It’s warm.’
The windflower was certainly a dangerous poison—for those with thin, delicate skin like purebred humans. But for Claire, whose veins carried the blood of a grizzly-kin, it was merely a peculiar plant. Nothing more than a mild sensation.
“What? You didn’t apply it properly?”
“I did! You saw it yourself.”
“Then why is she fine?”
The two maids blamed each other. They spoke in hushed tones, but I heard every word clearly.
I released the trolley and walked toward them.
“W-what!”
The startled maid thrust her chin forward with a fierce expression, looking up at me, but it was merely irritating.
I said nothing and bent down to pick up the handkerchief lying on the floor.
“You dropped this.”
“Oh.”
The black-haired maid flinched in surprise, staring at the handkerchief in my hand.
The handkerchief was undoubtedly stained with the poison. My deliberation was brief.
“It’s not mine. Come on, Emily, let’s go.”
I watched the maids hurry away in feigned ignorance, clicked my tongue, and wiped my hands clean with the abandoned handkerchief.
‘I need to clean this properly. I can’t let the Young Master find out.’
I even used the water from a vase in the Corridor to scrub meticulously, then tossed the handkerchief out the window.
After one final inspection of the trolley, I headed toward Theodore’s Room.
“Young Master, it’s Claire.”
I knocked and entered to find Theodore just waking from his afternoon nap, still drowsy.
“I’ll prepare your tea at once.”
Theodore watched intently as I set the tea set on the table.
“You seem to be later than usual.”
“Ah, there was a minor matter to attend to. It’s been resolved now.”
I decided not to inform Theodore about the harassment.
‘It’s painfully obvious what my standing is in this Mansion—there’s no need to mention it.’
What I feared most now was losing this position, which paid well for the work involved.
Theodore lifted his cup and sipped his tea slowly.
The pale pink liquid steeped from flower petals passed beyond his pallid lips.
‘Does he actually enjoy that?’
I had never understood people who savored tea.
‘It’s just fragrant water.’
Give me a steaming bowl of meat broth any day.
As I entertained these idle thoughts, Theodore finished his tea and set the cup down.
“Would you like more?”
“That’s enough.”
“Then shall we prepare to venture into the Garden right away? I’ve been tending to the Flower Bed beside the Pond, and I thought you might enjoy seeing the progress.”
Theodore’s head lifted with newfound interest at my words.
“There was nothing remarkable about it until last week?”
“It was a sudden order. I completed the work swiftly, laboring through the late night and early dawn hours.”
Theodore’s expression shifted to one of suspicion as something occurred to him.
“Surely you weren’t conscripted for this as well?”
“Yes, I was.”
It was only natural—the urgency with which the Flower Bed had been renovated, even through the night, was entirely to spite Claire.
“······How late did you work? After leaving my Room?”
“I attended to the Young Master’s bedtime, then worked until 2 in the morning, and rose again at 5 to continue.”
The reduced sleep was irritating, yet tending the Garden proved surprisingly enjoyable.
‘Perhaps I possess some talent as a gardener after all.’
My shoulders lifted with pride, eager to show Theodore my handiwork. But he seized my wrist, his expression grown grave.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Tell you? About what?”
I blinked down at Theodore, whose face bore an expression of distress.
“Ah, I wanted to show you the Flower Bed as a surprise. It’s quite beautiful, really······.”
“Did you not trust me? Enough to endure such hardship in silence?”
Oh, so that was it.
My lips parted slightly.
This frail raccoon seemed to be harboring unnecessary guilt.
“That’s not what I meant at all. It truly wasn’t so difficult.”
A few nights without sleep wouldn’t weaken me—I’m not so fragile as that.
‘I simply cannot reveal that I’m a beastkin.’
In this empire, the standing of beastkin was poor, which is why I had falsified my status when applying as a servant.
Yet Theodore’s expression remained unmoved.
I scratched my head, observing the tension etched across his brow.
‘I’m truly fine.’
“From now on, I shall inform you of such matters without fail. Shall we take a stroll?”
Having decided to concede this round, I coaxed Theodore toward the Garden.
‘Perhaps seeing the Flower Bed I cultivated will ease his irritation.’
The Freesia Flower Bed, encircled by low stone walls beside the Pond.
It was my ambitious creation, thoroughly reflecting my aesthetic sensibilities.
‘Looking at it again, the fried egg flowers are quite lovely.’
I turned to gauge Theodore’s reaction as I gazed contentedly upon the Flower Bed.
He stared at it silently, his lips pressed tight, then asked with a troubled tone.
“Surely you didn’t move all those stones by yourself?”
Boulders the size of a child’s head, densely arranged to form the wall.
‘To think I had to move those heavy stones all by myself in just a week.’
Theodore gazed at Claire’s scarred hands. Most of the wounds came from training and hunting in the Mountain, though Theodore had no way of knowing that.
‘Is it not to your liking?’
Taken aback by his unexpected reaction, Claire turned her head back toward the stone wall with a dejected expression.
The two of them, each weighed down by different concerns, cut their walk short that day.

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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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