I Woke Up from Hibernation and Found a Husband - Chapter 92

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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 92
Once everyone was seated at the table, Sio glanced around the room.
“Before we begin, this is information that cannot leak. Precautions will be necessary.”
He immediately swept his hand through the air. In response, the carnivorous plant “Nepta” that had been confronting them moments before surged forward, its stems swelling as they cascaded down upon the group.
Theodore, startled, rose to shield Claire, but Sio spoke with firm assurance.
“It’s fine. I won’t let it harm you.”
True to his word, Nepta used its entire stem structure to construct an enormous dome, sealing off the space.
A soft thud.
As darkness enveloped the space, Sio raised a lantern he’d retrieved from beneath the table. In an instant, what resembled a cozy small cavern had been completed.
“The space created by the ancient plant Nepta is perfect for obscuring the eyes of those with ill intent.”
Though his words made little sense, the three had no choice but to nod in agreement.
“Now then, let me begin the tale.”
The flickering orange glow from the lamp danced softly across his white hair, casting gentle shadows.
* * *
‘The Land of Eternal Rain.’
A territory perpetually shrouded by torrential downpours that seemed endless. Everyone knew the story of how Berus’s first Emperor had stopped the rain and founded the Empire.
But what came before?
Before Berus halted the rain, was there truly no one who remembered that land of eternal precipitation?
“Imber. The name of a clan that lived revering the eternal rain as sacred.”
“Imber.”
Claire repeated the name, letting it settle in her mind.
“Yes, a people who served the rain and clouded skies. They dwelled at the boundary between clarity and obscurity, offering daily prayers toward the torrential lands they deemed holy.”
As he spoke, Sio retrieved a teapot from a shelf beneath the table and set it down. The glass vessel contained tea that had been cold-steeped, the liquid sloshing gently within.
“That is, until Berus stopped the rain.”
Deep crimson tea flowed from the tilted spout, droplets falling steadily. He continued his narrative while watching the red liquid drip.
“When Berus halted the rain and declared he would restore the land, overturning what Imber considered sacred, the enraged clan declared war.”
Their conflict raged for some time. Imber cried out that they would never forgive those who desecrated the holy site, while the Empire countered that there was nothing wrong with transforming abandoned wasteland into something of value.
“In the end, the Empire prevailed. When you counted not only Berus and the vanguard he led, but also the relatives who joined in succession, their numbers far exceeded Imber’s.”
Sio pushed full cups toward the three of them.
“Though numbers alone weren’t the deciding factor. There was also a difference in the nature of their abilities.”
“A difference in the nature of their abilities?”
“Yes. What differed between the Empire’s people and Imber wasn’t merely their reverence for the holy site. Do you know that all humans possess mana?”
When Kenneth shook his head, Sio set down the teapot and explained.
“Mana is an energy born at the world’s creation. If you think of it in terms of Gifts, it’s the driving force behind those abilities.”
Gifts manifest through mana as a prerequisite. However, the actual ability varies dramatically depending on conditions such as the manifestor’s bloodline and temperament.
“But mana doesn’t manifest solely as Gifts. For the Empire’s people, mana manifested as Gifts, but for the Imber clan, it manifested as sorcery.”
“Sorcery?”
Claire, Theodore, and Kenneth—all three were bewildered by this unexpected turn in the conversation.
“Sorcery is similar yet different from Gifts. It might be easier to think of it as magic. Imber wielded mana through incantations. They typically used three forms of power: blessings, curses, and contracts. However, because its use carried many restrictions and wasn’t suited for combat, it was perhaps inevitable that Imber would be overwhelmed.”
“…Contracts.”
At those words, Kenneth’s eyes widened as if he’d grasped something, his gaze fixed intently on Sio. Sio smiled faintly and nodded.
“That’s right. Tenel and I are descendants of the Imber clan.”
Claire and Theodore immediately recalled what had transpired at Voltier Castle upon hearing this.
‘So the foundation of that sorcery was witchcraft after all.’
The crimson papers that had filled Theodore’s bedroom, the stench of corpses.
“And this special power doesn’t belong solely to the Empire’s people or those of Imber bloodline. There are those who existed on this land far longer than them.”
Sio’s gaze turned toward Claire.
“Now called ‘Fecus’ among the Beastmen. Their ferocity is yet another manifestation of mana.”
Fecus.
The beings closest to the ancients, the race that wielded mana in its most essential form.
Sio looked at Claire and barely suppressed a sigh threatening to escape. The reason Tenel and Umbra used Beastman blood as a medium for witchcraft was surely because their blood was the purest conduit for responding to mana.
“But if that’s truly the case, why hasn’t the Empire learned of this fact?”
Kenneth asked with a bewildered expression. Though Fecus faced discrimination, at least the name “Beastman” left traces of their existence, but the Imber clan was a concept that would overturn the Empire’s entire understanding of the world.
“The reason for that is the beginning of all these nightmares.”
Sio’s eyes darkened. The clan’s transgressions filled his mind. What he was about to speak of was a shameful and terrible past.
* * *
Imber.
A clan of witches who revered the eternal rain and practiced witchcraft based on mana. There were two things they held especially dear.
First, the promised rain that fell eternally. Imber believed that the ceaseless downpour was proof of a land overflowing with mana.
Second, the harmony of light and darkness. Because their holy site was perpetually shrouded in dark clouds even during the day, it was extraordinarily difficult to distinguish the time. Imber believed that the ambiguous sensation where the boundary between morning and night, light and darkness, blurred was evidence of infinity.
“Having lost the first—the holy site—Imber had few choices available. Fight, or dissolve into them.”
Ultimately, the clan split into two factions. The hardliners who insisted they must sever Berus’s lifeline to reclaim the rain, and the moderates who argued that victory had already slipped away and they should at least preserve the remaining clan members’ lives.
“But the hardliners couldn’t overcome Temper’s ancestor, who was responsible for Berus’s protection and the Convent’s security.”
Those who cried out for Berus’s destruction all vanished beneath fierce flames, and the surviving moderates hid in the Empire Outskirts to preserve their clan’s lives, creating a village of their own.
“Yet even having lost the holy site, their essence remained that of a witch clan. They could not abandon the second principle. Harmony. Unity. To those who revered such things, twins were an ominous taboo.”
Twins born when the village had finally taken root after several generations. Identical faces. Identical builds. The only difference was their hair—one black, one white.
Imber split in two once more. Those who insisted the twins must be eliminated, and those who argued their hair was yin and yang itself and they should be spared.
They ultimately decided to observe the children as they grew before making a judgment.
‘Perhaps it would have been right to kill them both.’
Sio recalled young Tenel grasping his hand with a sorrowful expression. His fragile younger sibling who always smiled shyly. If only he could have coldly rejected that hand, perhaps this tragedy could have been prevented.
“One day, the Village Sorcerer Leader spoke.”
“These two children are like parallel lines that can never touch. The one with black hair will bring destruction.”
With those words, the fate of the six-year-old twins was sealed.
“You will remain.”
“What about Tenel?”
Even at such a young age, I understood. It was an execution.
“I said you will remain!”
But I pushed through the adults without hesitation and entered the hut. Born with far greater aptitude than Tenel, the adults’ resistance posed little obstacle to me.
“Sio….”
Inside that room lay a small child surrounded by adults, weeping as he grasped his own fate.
“Tenel.”
Sio extended a small hand toward the child who bore an identical face to her own.
“Tenel, do you want to live?”
At those words, Tenel’s eyes turned toward the adults surrounding them. I could feel the weight of multiple pairs of eyes filled with murderous intent, all fixed upon me alone.
“Yes.”
Tenel averted their gaze and grasped Sio’s hand with trembling fingers.
“Yes, I want to live. Sio.”
“Then let’s live.”
At those words, the Village Sorcerer Leader cried out as though in agony.
“No! Sio, release that hand at once!”
Sio gripped Tenel’s hand even more firmly in defiance. With head held high and unwavering resolve, she spoke with absolute conviction.
“I refuse. Tenel and I are one. Forever.”
It was the first eternal contract ever forged by a young sorcerer possessed of unfathomable potential.

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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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