The Ice Age Came And I Just Got Married - Chapter 13

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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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Episode 13
“He just likes having his name called, that’s all.”
“That so?”
Marcus tilted his head curiously at the ornery squirrel and waggled his finger.
“Come here, Chippy.”
Squeak!
Responding like a flying squirrel to the gesture, Chippy clamped down on Marcus’s finger.
Marcus pointed at the squirrel hanging limply from his bitten finger, tossing me a bewildered look.
I had no idea why that creature was like this.
“Chippy.”
The moment I called, the squirrel released Marcus’s finger and snapped to attention, staring up at me.
Another strange look washed over me.
Cold sweat trickled down my spine. Somehow I’d become the kind of person who abused a squirrel the size of my fist.
“W-well. Don’t get the wrong idea about this.”
“It’s not easy, but I respect your disciplinary methods, Eve.”
Nobody seemed convinced. Then again, I wasn’t sure what to say in my defense.
Because I didn’t know why it acted like this!
In the end, I decided to change the subject.
“Chippy, no one can just wander into this village, right?”
At my question, Chippy spun in place. It seemed like an affirmation.
Jack Harper, who’d been watching quietly, spoke up.
“This squirrel can talk, can’t it? It’s just pretending it can’t?”
Honestly, I thought he had a point.
“But if no one can just enter, how did we get in?”
Marcus raised a fair question.
“I think anyone who has no intention of attacking the village residents can enter. Isn’t that right, Chippy?”
The squirrel spun in place again. Marcus and Jack watched it with fascination.
I still wasn’t used to this, so I could only imagine how they felt.
Anyway, right now the squirrel wasn’t the important thing.
“Chippy will watch over the village just fine while we’re gone for a day or so. Right, Chippy?”
The squirrel stood at attention again, looking up at me as if to say not to worry.
Of course, a squirrel had no face to show, but there was something I could feel nonetheless.
And suddenly everyone’s eyes went wide as they stared at me.
“We… are… going?”
Ignoring Marcus’s surprised reaction, I looked toward Logan.
“Eve, it’s too dangerous for you to go out—”
“If you tell me to stay home, I’m leaving.”
Logan had no comeback to that.
And so our reconnaissance mission to Rosebrook was decided.
.
.
.
We’d said we’d all go on the reconnaissance together, but there was no need for everyone to go.
So Jack Harper agreed to stay behind and watch the village at my suggestion.
“I am grateful for your kindness, as boundless as a duchess’s mercy. I pray for the safe return of you three!”
“I wish you were staying.”
Logan said to me with a gloomy expression.
“But I’m the only one who knows where Winterstone is, so there’s no helping it.”
Winterstone’s location remained fixed until it was discovered, but whenever people carried it, the location kept shifting.
Right now, the Goldstone the Scoundrels Gang carried seemed to be moving continuously through the middle of the city.
‘Why can’t I see the location of the other Winterstone clearly?’
I could vaguely sense that a Winterstone existed somewhere, but I couldn’t pinpoint its exact location the way I could with the one the Scoundrels Gang possessed.
‘Could it be that I can only determine the exact location once I’m in close range?’
For now, that seemed the most likely possibility.
We dressed in as many layers as we could. It was better to wear several thin layers than one thick one, since we’d have to remove clothes if we sweated or got them wet from snow.
By midday, the temperature outside had risen considerably. Probably around minus thirty degrees.
Looking at the thermometer Logan pulled out, it seemed about right.
And surprisingly, because I’d absorbed the Redstone, I didn’t feel the kind of cold that made me think I’d freeze to death. With all the warm layers on, it was bearable.
Of course, the blizzard was raging, so my exposed facial skin was struggling. Even with a mask on, the biting wind made the area around my eyes sting.
We moved slowly southward along the forest path. The snow piled at our feet rose up to our thighs.
Squelch—
Squelch—
With each step, my legs sank deep into the snow. Logan, leading the way, prodded the white expanse with a long pole, testing the ground ahead.
There was no telling what lay hidden beneath the surface.
It could be a frozen ravine, or collapsing earth.
“Wait.”
Logan raised his hand, bringing us to a halt.
He tapped the ground beneath his feet a few times, then chose a different route.
Moments later.
Crack—!
The snow field we’d been about to cross gave way entirely.
Beneath the pristine white lay a frozen stream, hidden and waiting.
Marcus muttered, his face weary.
“Even if we survive this weather, the whole place is a minefield.”
We trudged on for some time longer.
At the edge of the forest, a massive iron structure materialized before us.
It was the Rutland Cargo Station, on Rosebrook’s outskirts.
This place should have bustled with steam locomotives and laborers.
The rails lay buried beneath pristine snow, and the freight trains that had once rested here had transformed into enormous blocks of ice.
It was as though someone had stopped time itself in its tracks.
Marcus gazed at the station in silence.
As the former chairman of the Rosebrook Railway Company, he must have felt something different standing here.
But there was no time to indulge in nostalgia.
A faint sound drifted from within the city.
Screeeech—
A sound like metal scraping. We all turned our heads at once.
Beyond the blizzard, a dark shadow flickered between the collapsed buildings.
Was it human? Or a Snow Monster?
‘It’s not quite time for them to awaken yet.’
Snow Monsters.
Creatures that began appearing across the world six months after the Ice Age commenced.
They came in many varieties, and most of them awakened from within the accumulated snow.
Buried in the drifts, they could burst forth from anywhere without warning.
‘Still, they shouldn’t appear right now.’
For now, we could rest easy.
Then Logan drew his Great Sword, and Marcus disengaged the safety on his Rifle.
Click.
I chambered my Shotgun.
“Stay alert from here on.”
Logan spoke, his red eyes fixed on the city of Rosebrook ahead.
“The city is far more dangerous than the forest.”
With that, we stepped back into the frozen harbor city of Rosebrook.
“Eve, which way?”
Logan asked me.
I pointed toward the heart of the city.
“The Central Market District. There’s a weapon shop there. They probably absorbed Goldstone into weapons to increase durability.”
Even if Winterstone is absorbed into a weapon, the moment I grasp that weapon, the Winterstone returns to me.
The twenty or so Redstones that had been buried in Eve House gave me enough material to run countless experiments, which meant I’d gained a deeper understanding of Winterstone.
【How many Goldstones are left?】
【Three remaining.】
【We’ll absorb them into this one.】
【Then we’ll slit that bastard Marcus’s throat.】
【That bitch went into the Devil’s Village, right? You’re sure?】
The scene wasn’t visible to me, but their voices came through crystal clear.
I glanced sideways at Marcus.
I hadn’t heard directly how he’d become entangled with the Scoundrels Gang, but I had a rough idea.
Marcus’s storyline had been briefly described in the novel as well.
‘If I get the Naval Base key, maybe I can enter the Ice Age Research Institute?’
My Elder Brother had been conducting research on the Ice Age before he vanished.
He was presumed to have disappeared during a northern expedition, but I knew he’d worked at the Ice Age Research Institute before departing on that mission.
A clue about Elder Brother’s whereabouts might surface there.
‘Dealing with the Scoundrels Gang won’t be difficult with Logan around…….’
Logan’s martial prowess on his tenth playthrough exceeded imagination. In the novel itself, the only character capable of standing against him was the protagonist Aiden, if I remembered correctly.
And even Aiden had suffered nothing but defeats at Logan’s hands until later, when he grew stronger and finally struck back.
Just then, we entered through the eastern entrance of the Central Market District.
Peep—peeeeee—
A faint cry drifted from somewhere, and I turned my head toward it.
The sound resembled the kind of call a small creature like Chippy might make.
And sure enough.
Beneath the rubble of a collapsed tree on the market floor, a single chick lay trapped.
A tiny, insignificant white-headed nuthatch with pristine white plumage.
‘Wait—could this bird possibly be……?’
The one that appeared in the novel?

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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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