I Woke Up from Hibernation and Found a Husband - Chapter 76

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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 76
“There is no hell quite like this.”
Hooper wiped the cold sweat from his brow and clicked his tongue. Though he had stepped forward with a fallen Knight’s blade, even at the Border where monsters flooded periodically, such a gruesome spectacle was rare.
“Ahhh! Father!”
“When will the Knights arrive!”
The Royal Ball Hall, where monsters and victims intermingled, was absolute chaos. Fragments of the dead rolled across the stone floor, and explosions had shattered the ground and walls in places, making movement itself difficult.
“What happened? Were we attacked?”
“It seems someone had laid explosives beforehand.”
I surveyed the half-destroyed ballroom and assessed the survivors’ situation. Those still alive had clustered together to face the monsters.
‘They’ve divided into three groups.’
One faction, centered around Theodore and young nobles capable of using abilities, had positioned the weak in the center and constructed a defensive formation.
Unlike the Emperor, who appeared to have already fled, there was another faction of Knights centered around Aaron, who remained in place while directly eliminating monsters.
And.
‘Ilya!’
Under the protection of a familiar-faced elderly noblewoman, there were those gathering the wounded. Everything Ilya’s hands touched crumbled and dissolved under the power of decomposition.
‘If contact is possible, it’s an invincible ability.’
Witnessing that surreal sight, a question bloomed in my mind.
‘Yet among the nobility, there are many with abilities, aren’t there? Why are they so helpless against this?’
Before I could voice the question, Theodore, who had just pulled a young man back from the brink of death, spoke.
“Those monsters—they were people.”
“What?”
“Some of the attendees began coughing blood and going berserk the moment the explosions occurred.”
In that instant, a chill ran down my spine.
“Eil! Eil! Come to your senses! Father is here! Your father is right here!”
An elderly nobleman wielding a sword cried out with trembling voice. The blade thrust toward the monster, which had lost reason and raised its claws, carried no strength whatsoever.
‘The reason they cannot fight at full strength.’
I gazed upon the monster that had once been human. A concentrated mass of formless energy. No matter how sharply I honed my senses, I could feel no life force within it.
“But they are already.”
Theodore slowly nodded, answering in silence.
‘Already dead.’
He, who had long suffered under the dead’s abilities through Gregory’s curse, could sense it. That instinctive revulsion—the aura that the living could never emit, like gazing down into deep slumber.
‘Umbra.’
Only they could orchestrate something like this.
“Those who escaped mean reinforcements will come. We just need to hold on until then.”
Cold sweat traced Theodore’s jawline. Unlike battles at the Border, where broad strikes typically swept away monsters, the difficulty felt different now—with survivors and targets densely interwoven.
“I don’t see Kenneth anywhere.”
Scanning the surroundings, I noticed Kenneth was nowhere to be found. Theodore glanced toward the window, then spoke.
“He said he thought he knew where the explosives were and left to try to prevent any further detonations.”
Judging by the fact that explosions had ceased since then, it seemed he had succeeded.
“Kyaaaaaaah!”
A piercing scream drew Claire and Theodore’s attention.
The sound came from near Aaron, some distance away from where they stood. A Palace Maid who had been hiding behind him had let out the cry.
“What is that?”
The creature before Aaron underwent a transformation. Pressed into a defensive position by the Crown Prince’s lightning-fueled assault, it began consuming the surrounding entities to bolster itself.
“What is that…”
As what appeared to be its mouth gaped open and closed, what lay within was a darkness as fathomless as an abyss.
‘It is no longer human.’
As a strange, grinding sound—like metal scraping against leather—filled the space, the people finally acknowledged that the being before them was not someone they had loved.
“Everyone, snap out of it! If you hesitate out of attachment, your families will die!”
At Aaron’s command, those who had grasped reality shifted their stance. Survival, and protecting those still living, became the priority.
“Your Highness!!”
After consuming the entities, the creature had grown three times its original size, yet its speed had only increased.
Crash.
With interlaced hands raised high, it brought them down upon the Stone Floor, leaving a deep crater.
‘Does the destructive power increase when they merge?’
The beast-like fighting style underwent a change. While doing everything to prevent fusion between entities and engaging in combat, mutant creatures continued to emerge from various points.
“Ahhh! Get away!”
A Young Noble Lady, seeing the creature approach right before her face, curled up and squeezed her eyes shut.
‘It’s all over. I’m going to die!’
Trembling with despair, she grew puzzled when the expected impact never came, and cautiously lifted her head.
‘Huh?’
Before her eyes was someone’s back. Fists driving forward in rapid succession. Each time an arm pulled back sharply, the muscles of the back rippled visibly beneath the dress.
‘This person is…’
In society, Claire was called a fortunate peasant.
A gangly, unremarkable wanderer who had reversed her fate by catching the eye of a Young Master—at every tea house, people chewed over Claire like dessert. And truthfully, she had thought the same of herself.
‘But.’
“Are you all right?”
Claire, having dispatched the enemy before her, turned back to check on the Young Noble Lady’s condition.
“Y-yes.”
Though the woman wore a dress, the phantom image of a Knight clad in magnificent armor flickered briefly across her vision.
“Thank you so much.”
Seeing the dazed expression on the Young Noble Lady’s face, Claire offered a sympathetic look.
‘She must have been quite frightened.’
She gave a reassuring shrug and spoke.
“You’ll be fine. These creatures are troublesome, but the people here are no pushovers either.”
Certainly, these were unfamiliar enemies with many variables. But this was a Ballroom filled with nobles accustomed to the Battlefield, Knights, and those possessing supernatural abilities.
As the guilt that had formed from facing those who were once human crumbled before people like Aaron and Theodore, who engaged in combat with genuine resolve, the tide of battle shifted rapidly in their favor.
‘Reinforcements are taking too long.’
As the surroundings began to clear somewhat, Theodore felt something nagging at him and turned his gaze toward the entrance.
It had been quite some time since the Imperial Family, save Aaron, had evacuated, and some survivors had fled the Ballroom.
‘No matter how late, I should have arrived by now. Did something happen outside as well?’
In that moment, the last creature fell to Aaron’s hand.
“Ah! It’s disappearing!”
From the body collapsed on the ground, the ominous crimson aura that had been undulating began to fade away, one wisp after another.
Those who had been sitting helplessly, clutching their transformed loved ones and friends, now gazed at the dissipating light with eyes filled with desperate hope.
‘What if they return to us?’
But their fervent wish, regrettably, went unanswered—as the crimson energy vanished completely, the form transformed into a pale ashen gray before beginning to crumble.
“Why!”
Someone cried out in anguish.
What had once been human, now stripped of its human form, settled into ash. Even as they desperately swept it up with their hands, only dust slipped through their fingers.
“It’s over.”
“I suppose so.”
The aftertaste was bitter.
“I won’t let them go unpunished.”
Not the Voltier Siblings, nor the Eris Sisters, nor perhaps even Claire’s parents.
The tragedy wrought by Umbra was so base and heavy that I felt a fierce, burning rage.
‘What do they think human lives are?’
Many left not even a corpse behind. And those who had to stop their transformed loved ones with their own hands—their suffering was beyond measure.
A species that deemed such tragedy inevitable deserved to be erased from existence.
“Yes, let’s eliminate them all. Together.”
Theodore spoke those words while meeting my gaze. The unwavering trust that filled his rippling blue eyes had become familiar to me now, so I did not look away from his stare.
“Let’s go check outside now.”
It was around the time people had begun moving one by one to leave the Ballroom.
“No! No! Jeron, come to your senses! Jeron!”
At the sight of someone panicking and screaming, my eyes naturally turned in that direction.
‘…Ilya?’
There, trembling and weeping, was Ilya cradling a young man bleeding profusely in her arms.

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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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