I Woke Up from Hibernation and Found a Husband - Chapter 90

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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 90
Claire’s eyes widened as she examined the box. She slipped her hand beneath her clothing and grasped the key she always carried with her—fashioned into a necklace.
‘That box. It’s a pair with Mother’s keepsake.’
Sio pushed the box forward and spoke.
“I cannot explain everything myself. The more I intervene directly in Umbra’s affairs, the bolder they become.”
“I’m sorry?”
“Instead, if you wish to know the truth, open it yourself. Your mother wanted that for you.”
Sio recalled Veronica, who had sought him out after Ian’s death. Her shadowed face, her lips parched and withered. He had recognized at once that Veronica had made peace with death.
‘If I do not return, and Claire wishes to walk a long path and finally reach the truth, please give her this box.’
‘…And the key?’
‘I entrusted it to her most trusted friend. When you believe Claire has grown enough, give it to her.’
Veronica, who had confronted Umbra at close range and witnessed their cruelty, had desperately wished for Claire to live her entire life unaware of their existence.
Yet even so, the wheel of fate had drawn Claire onto the stage, and the child had ultimately yearned to know the truth.
‘There are some things one cannot escape, no matter how hard one tries.’
Sio watched as Claire’s trembling hands lifted the box. The worn key fit perfectly into the box’s keyhole.
Click.
The box opened.
* * *
In an instant, Claire stood in a place that appeared to be deep within a forest.
‘Where am I?’
She raised her hand before her eyes. Her body had become translucent. As she blinked slowly to comprehend the situation, two figures burst through the grass field.
“They intend to steal your ability.”
Before Claire could even evade them, they passed right through her.
Whoosh.
As if passing through smoke, they moved through Claire’s body. She was invisible to them.
“I suspected the recuperation was a pretense, but how could they possibly think to strip away an ability entirely?”
“Calm yourself, Veronica.”
Claire stood frozen, her eyes wide open. The man and woman conversing before her—they were Veronica and Ian, far younger than the versions she remembered.
The box she had opened was an artifact that stored memories from the past.
‘Mother. Father.’
Seeing her parents in their youth felt strange. Tears threatened to spill, and she felt joy at the faces that had slowly faded in her memory now becoming clear once more.
“It’s Hector’s doing. He grew close to the Empress, and he must have colluded with Umbra. When your body neared its limit, he simply stole your ability away.”
“Will it be alright if we flee like this?”
“It will be fine. Now you must only concern yourself with your own recovery.”
Veronica cradled Ian’s anxious, weary face and offered him comfort. From their conversation, it seemed this was the moment when Veronica was fleeing with Ian as he went to recuperate.
‘Lloyd colluded with Umbra to steal the ability?’
Claire gazed at her father’s sickly face. Whether from prolonged exploitation or something else, he looked far worse than the last image of him she remembered.
In that moment, her body lurched powerfully to one side, and a different place came into view.
‘Our home.’
At the sight of the familiar Cabin, a warmth bloomed in Claire’s eyes. Yet it lacked the lived-in quality of her memories, suggesting this moment was from before Claire was even born.
“Veronica!”
Claire’s Father, holding a basket of raspberries, waved his hand toward the direction where Claire stood.
‘Can he see me this time?’
Claire flinched in surprise and hesitated, but Veronica strode past her form and approached Ian with purposeful steps.
‘Ah, he was calling out to Mother.’
Claire watched her mother’s back as she stood armed, while Ian, who had been carefully examining Veronica for any injuries, exhaled a breath of relief.
“You’ve returned safely once again. Thank goodness.”
His face, breaking into a bright smile, appeared far more vibrant than in the previous scene.
“I’m sorry for worrying you.”
“Don’t be. You saved more people again, didn’t you?”
Veronica naturally took the berry basket from Ian’s hands and, wrapping her arms around his waist, smiled.
“The intelligence we received was quite accurate, so we managed to rescue many children. They’re still moving cautiously for now, but I can clearly see they’re becoming bolder with each passing day. Oh, and.”
“Hmm?”
As Veronica hesitated, Ian’s expression shifted to one of confusion.
“Veronica?”
“Your friend, Geo.”
“…Why Geo?”
The scene that unfolded next was Sio’s Greenhouse, darkened by the rain falling outside.
“Both of you, step back.”
Veronica stood holding Ian, who appeared to be in shock, his legs nearly giving way beneath him.
“Especially you, Ian. The closer you draw to them, the faster you will wither away. Such is the nature of this curse.”
“But, but Geo—”
“The founding of Umbra is my sin, my shadow.”
Sio approached Ian slowly, his breathing labored.
“Forgive me. We have already failed. Until ‘that day’ arrives, all we can do now is endure and minimize the sacrifices.”
The next scene was one familiar to Claire as well.
“Ian….”
“Dad! Dad!”
The moment her father departed.
Beneath a sky so heartlessly clear, Ian closed his eyes in Veronica’s embrace. Claire watched her younger self cling to his withered arm and weep inconsolably.
A body ravaged by the abuse of abilities could not be restored, even by the abilities of healing.
“Veronica!”
Angela rushed into the Cabin, as though she had been informed beforehand.
“Angela.”
Veronica handed the exhausted and sleeping Claire to Angela’s arms. Then she retrieved a clean cloth and began wrapping Ian’s body.
“Will you be alright?”
“I will be.”
Her mother, tending to her father’s remains, showed no strength whatsoever, yet her expression was composed—as though this were a scene she had long steeled herself to face.
‘Dad….’
Though it was already in the past, her heart grew heavy as if it had happened yesterday. Claire steadied her crumbling resolve within the memory and watched her mother’s retreating figure.
‘Was she always like this?’
In my memories, Veronica was far more broken than she appeared now. I recalled her face bearing that precarious, fragile expression—the look of someone cornered so desperately that she’d abandoned her young daughter to pursue vengeance.
Yet the Veronica tending to Ian now displayed nothing but composure, a stark contrast to that memory.
‘What changed her?’
I followed Veronica as she carried Ian deeper into the Forest. We passed the Forest Path where Ian often walked, the Streamside, and a cluster of wildflowers—until a Hillside emerged, offering a clear view of our Cabin below.
“You won’t be lonely here, will you?”
Veronica’s eyes reddened as she cradled the prepared remains, her tears threatening to spill—tears she’d hidden from me until now.
‘What is that?’
I clamped my hand over my mouth.
Black smoke billowed from the cloth wrapping my father. No—calling it smoke was inadequate. It was something far stranger: a viscous fusion of liquid and vapor, a substance that defied simple categorization.
“…No.”
Veronica, thrust backward by its momentum, desperately reached toward the smoke. But it mocked her, swelling to monstrous proportions before vanishing in an instant, collapsing into a single point and disappearing.
“No!”
Veronica’s outstretched hand grasped only a black afterimage that dissolved completely. The cloth that had hung suspended in the air fell limply to the ground.
Where the darkness had been, Ian’s body was gone.

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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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