I Woke Up from Hibernation and Found a Husband - Chapter 91

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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 91
The scene shifted once more.
Veronica tore through the rain across the Wild Mountain, and Claire instinctively knew her destination was the Convent.
‘Mother went to find Father.’
With each step Veronica took, the ground beneath her feet cratered. Her leaping gait had already become that of a beast. Veronica was so consumed with urgency that she was beginning to reveal aspects of the Fire Bear’s form.
‘Did Umbra take Father?’
Claire felt her heart pounding so violently it ached. She wanted to know what happened to Veronica next, but she was too afraid to witness it.
‘If Mother reaches the Convent, she will die.’
She knew this was merely a fragment of the past, yet she wanted to stop it. But even as she reached out with desperate hands, Veronica’s form passed right through her fingertips and continued her desperate flight.
The moment Claire let her hand fall in resignation, the scene changed once again.
* * *
“Is this why you let Ian go?”
“How cold—not even a greeting for someone who came to meet you.”
In a desolate clearing with the Convent’s walls visible in the distance, Veronica stood facing a man in a black robe, both of them battered by the torrential downpour.
‘Who is he?’
As Claire approached to get a better look at the man, a soft chuckle escaped from him.
“Still, you spent your final years in peace, didn’t you? Ian—I treated him with respect. Only…”
He pulled back the hood of his robe as he spoke.
“What remained was nothing but waste, drained of even the energy to extract. It was wasted effort.”
A man with short black hair, unfamiliar to Claire. Upon seeing his face, Veronica drew two daggers from her bosom and gripped one in each hand.
“Knox.”
“Should I return the husk? Since you couldn’t extract his power, there’s no further use for it anyway.”
The unfamiliar man’s face twisted into a smile that somehow felt disturbingly familiar. As if there was nothing more to hear, Veronica clenched her teeth and lunged at him.
“Your skills have grown rusty.”
The man drew his blade in an instant, parrying her daggers with an expression of boredom.
“Has peace made you soft?”
Their movements were so swift that even Claire could barely follow them with her eyes. Each time their blades clashed, lightning-bright flashes illuminated the dark forest.
‘Those movements…’
As the fight intensified, Claire felt a strange sense of déjà vu. The man called Knox’s movements felt oddly familiar.
Elegant yet relentless—the arc of his blade was unmistakable. That swordsmanship was surely…
‘Gregory?’
“How far do you intend to mock Ian!”
“Mock? I’d call it mercy.”
Their battle raged on for some time. As their exchange prolonged, Claire’s expression grew darker and darker. Swordsmanship resembling Gregory’s. What connection did this Knox have to Gregory? Was this the final moment of her mother’s life?
“Did you bear a child?”
At Knox’s blunt question, Veronica’s expression turned glacial.
“What?”
“Ian. Even with his weakened body, he lasted ten years—it wouldn’t be strange if you’d borne at least one child.”
The man’s eyes gleamed with an intensity as if he were assessing something.
Veronica did not answer. She simply adjusted her stance, resolved to sacrifice her own life if it meant completely ending his.
“Ah, there’s no need to be so cautious. After all, she’s nothing but a mongrel tainted with Beastman blood. It’s highly unlikely that Ian’s abilities were passed down to her, so there’s no point in searching.”
In that instant, Veronica’s presence transformed.
Her eyes gleamed with an ominous aura in the darkness. Light trails followed wherever her gaze moved, and portions of her limbs shifted into bestial forms, maximizing her mobility.
‘The manifestation of savagery.’
Claire recognized the power coursing through Veronica—it was the feral nature of the Fire Bear. A sharp beast poised on the brink of rampage now revealed its true killing intent.
“So you’ve finally steeled yourself to fight in earnest.”
The man’s blade clashed against Veronica’s with a bitter laugh. Unlike the deadlock moments before, Knox’s body was driven back violently, shattering through a tree before crashing to the ground. It was the instant Veronica raised her arm to end his breath.
“You’re too late.”
The man, who had remained composed even as the blade fell before his eyes, spoke those words with a hint of melancholy.
‘No!’
A black, formless spear materialized from nowhere and pierced through Veronica’s body.
Though Claire knew she couldn’t stop it, she ran forward to catch Veronica’s crumbling form.
“Why didn’t you use your ability to counter?”
At that moment, someone emerged leisurely from the forest. Though the late hour and falling rain obscured the view, that man alone appeared strangely vivid.
“Wait… Gregory?”
The figure that appeared had a pale complexion utterly at odds with the dark night.
‘Gregory?’
The man lying on the ground, drenched in Veronica’s blood, finally rose to his feet.
“I deemed it unnecessary to use it.”
As he pushed himself upright, black liquid flowed like water, his form wavering for a moment before shifting into a familiar appearance.
Claire’s eyes widened as she recognized the dark blue hair settling into place.
‘Knox was a disguise. That man was Gregory all along!’
Claire’s teeth clenched so hard they nearly creaked. The bitter regret of not ending Gregory—the one involved in her parents’ deaths—with her own hands at House Voltier gnawed at her.
“No, that’s not it. That’s not what I gave you that ability for.”
Crouching beside Veronica, Claire looked up at the man with resentment. He bore an uncanny resemblance to Sio, the Master of Arcadia.
“I gave you the ability to kill and to take. There’s no point in holding back in a moment like this. Wouldn’t you agree?”
“My apologies, Tenel.”
Tenel.
Claire’s bloodshot eyes burned the face of Veronica’s killer into her memory.
“Tsk, a half-breed. Useless as material. Let’s go.”
The man, looking down with eyes that regarded her as worthless, turned and vanished first. Gregory, left behind, turned his expressionless face toward Veronica. Then, with nauseating gentleness, he closed her eyes with his own hand before following Tenel into the darkness.
‘Mom…’
In the space they left behind, Claire gazed helplessly at Veronica as her breath faded. No matter how agonizing it was, this was already the past. All she could do was watch powerlessly.
“Claire…”
But then, Veronica’s closed eyes opened once more.
Her gaze turned toward where Claire sat. Though Veronica couldn’t possibly see her, Claire felt as though their eyes had met.
“I’m sorry, Claire.”
With those softly spoken words, the light faded from her eyes.
* * *
“Claire, Claire!”
“Gasp!”
I gasped for breath like someone who had held it far too long, my eyes snapping open.
Plip.
Water droplets fell upon my knees, and when I touched my face, my fingertips came away wet. Only then did I realize I was crying.
‘Mother.’
‘Mother is sorry.’
Veronica’s words, spoken in that darkness where she had been left alone, echoed vividly in my mind. Without even thinking to wipe away the tears that fell, I turned to face Sio.
“What are you?”
Tenel—the villain I had encountered in the memory the box had shown me. Sio possessed the same face, the same violet eyes.
“Why do you share a face with the one who murdered my mother?”
At my words, Theodore and Kenneth’s eyes widened.
“So you witnessed your mother’s death.”
Sio smiled sadly, as though already knowing what the box contained.
“Answer my question.”
My voice—rough as a beast’s growl—betrayed just how shaken I was. Sio knelt before me where I sat collapsed on the floor, our eyes meeting.
“Calm yourself. The one you saw was not me.”
“But surely—”
“Yes, he wore a face identical to mine.”
With that, Sio raised a hand to trace his own features.
“His name is Tenel. He is my twin brother.”
“Twin?”
Kenneth’s eyebrows rose as though hearing this for the first time.
“Simply being twins doesn’t explain this.”
Sio nodded in understanding at my words and gestured toward the Dining Table in the corner of the Greenhouse.
“You’re right. We have a longer story to tell—not just you, Claire, but you as well, Kenneth.”
With a look of displeasure, I followed his lead toward the table.

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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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