The Ice Age Came And I Just Got Married - Chapter 17

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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 17
“No. It’s just that when you were at the academy, I never saw the two of you talking to each other. You took a leave of absence and started dating right after?”
“…….”
“…….”
“Never mind. The moment you took leave, Logan went off to war anyway. When would he have had time to date?”
“Senior, you do know that my family went missing and the Everheart family went completely bankrupt under the weight of the accumulated debt, right?”
“That’s unfortunate. Had I known where you were, I could have helped you financially at least.”
Marcus said this while watching my expression carefully.
Silence descended.
Marcus couldn’t quite meet my eyes and looked away.
“I know it sounds like an excuse, but……the news that Everheart had been wiped out only came to light recently, didn’t it?”
It became widely reported when I married Logan. Marcus must have learned of it around that time.
“I did wonder why you’d taken a leave of absence.”
“Senior.”
“I should have looked into it more carefully, but I was too busy establishing the company back then…….”
“Senior.”
Only then did Marcus look at me.
“It’s all right. A lot of time has passed now.”
The Everheart family had been an old and respected noble house.
So the fact that my family—save for me—had all vanished was still a reality difficult to accept.
The cadet branches of the family had all turned their backs, and I had nowhere to rely on.
To keep my mind from deteriorating, I had deliberately erased them from my thoughts—my family, especially my parents’ disappearance. But the moment those memories surfaced, my heart sank with an awful weight.
My eldest brother, who had gone abroad to study, had his correspondence cut off. My second brother disappeared during an expedition to the northern territories. My parents went searching for him and vanished as well.
The last place my parents were seen was the capital, Abrideen, but rumor had it they’d purchased train tickets to Rosebrook.
It was then that Marcus spoke up.
“But still, your noble status hasn’t disappeared. You’ve become a duchess now.”
“What does that matter? The world has gone to ruin. Status is worthless now.”
“That’s true. A world I never wanted has come. I don’t know why I worked myself to the bone earning money all this time if it was going to be like this.”
Marcus sighed heavily.
Honestly, I felt the same way about the world ending—it was regrettable.
When my family’s fate was unknown and our house had collapsed under a mountain of debt, I’d wished for the world to end.
But then Logan appeared like a savior, paid off the debts, and proposed marriage. I thought maybe now I could rebuild my shattered life piece by piece, see some light.
But the world wouldn’t even grant me that small reprieve.
‘What can I do about it? It’s all in the past now.’
Apparently, we didn’t look like an ordinary newlywed couple at all. That’s why he was asking such questions.
There was no real need to hide the fact that ours was a contract marriage. But there was no reason to volunteer the information either.
However, if I was going to be spending a considerable amount of time with Marcus, wouldn’t it be better to tell him the truth?
I looked over at Logan silently. The question in my eyes was clear: Are you all right with this?
Logan received my gaze and merely shrugged his shoulders once.
I took it to mean he had no intention of stopping me.
I turned back to Marcus.
“Logan paid off the debt. In exchange, we agreed to marry.”
Being married to Logan was infinitely better than being sold off to grandfather.
“But why marriage specifically? Is there a reason?”
This time Marcus looked at Logan.
Logan sipped his tea leisurely before answering.
“Because I love Eve. I want to spend my whole life with her.”
Pfft—
It was Jack Harper, who’d been quietly watching for a moment, who spit out his tea.
To be honest, I understood it in my head that Logan loved me. But I hadn’t quite accepted that emotion as love yet. It still felt foreign somehow.
But one thing was certain.
In this catastrophe, even if everyone in the world turned their backs on me, Logan would never harm me.
That conviction was curiously unshakeable.
Now, having lost my family, buried under debt, and watched the world crumble in a single day.
Everything around me was unstable—except Logan.
Perhaps that was why.
Sometimes my heart would skip at even his most offhand remark.
Whether it was love or merely relief, I still didn’t know.
But right now, Logan was the most trustworthy person in my life.
That was when Marcus showed an unexpected reaction.
“I know that much.”
What? You knew?
“You blocked every man at the academy who tried to approach our junior. Don’t tell me you forgot.”
“……I’m hearing this for the first time.”
I turned to look at Logan. He merely shrugged and held his tongue.
To be honest, I’d suspected as much—but that was only because I’d thought of the novel The Glacial Age, which let me piece it together. During my academy years, I genuinely hadn’t known.
“Logan, if you were that obsessed, why did you pretend not to know my name?”
“It’s a high-level strategy. They might as well rename you from a mongrel to a fox.”
Marcus sipped his tea with an elegant bearing, his mouth never ceasing its work. It was impressive, in its way. Not just anyone becomes a businessman.
“Either way, there’s only one conclusion.”
Logan spoke calmly.
“Eve is my wife.”
I don’t understand my own heart.
Even as I think of Logan as an alliance born from survival, words like that still make my heart flutter.
He professes affection without demanding an answer, stands by my side without forcing my feelings.
Perhaps it was this patience that made him the person I trusted most.
Maybe that’s why.
I was growing more comfortable with him, little by little.
.
.
.
The days that followed passed peacefully enough.
Half of the recovered Goldstone was absorbed into Logan’s and Marcus’s weapons respectively, strengthening their durability, while Logan kept the Pinkstone.
I had no need to be greedy—I’d already absorbed Goldstone at the weapon shop.
In any case, I spent those idle days wandering through Dotori Village, working to transform the desolate settlement into something a little more vibrant.
Of course, I only found the work to be done; Marcus and Jack did the actual labor.
After that, we placed coal bins and braziers at the central square and every major intersection.
When night fell, red flames would bloom from the braziers stationed throughout Dotori Village.
Inside the village, temperatures held at a minimum of minus ten degrees—which was genuinely brutal.
So we periodically cleared the snow piled in the alleys, and hung canvas sheets where the wind blew fiercest.
We built a communal woodshed in the square, cutting timber here and there and stacking firewood so it would never run short.
It was fortunate that we were still early in the Glacial Period, so usable firewood remained plentiful.
We even set up markers along the main paths to mark the way through the snow.
“Our junior is brimming with romance. Planting flowers in pots even in a situation like this.”
Marcus grumbled as he said it, yet faithfully did as I asked.
In front of every window that caught good sunlight, we placed pots of white Snow Flowers.
Snow Flowers bloom in early spring when snow still lingers. Their flower language is hope.
Interspersed among them, we also set out pots of Christmas Rose, sometimes called the winter rose.
Its flower language is hope and memory—and please soothe my unease.
Actually, what we planted most of all were herbs: rosemary, mint, and the like.
Tidying and tending the village turned out to be more enjoyable than I’d expected. Time slipped away unnoticed.
But now I needed to prepare for guests.
It was time for the Rogue Bandit Gang to send a signal.
【It seems Baker is already dead.】
【There are survivors here!】
I’d left a Pinkstone fragment at the weapon shop.
Thanks to it, I could eavesdrop on the conversations of the Rogue Bandit Gang members who came there searching for my group.
【Damn it, what bastard did this?】
【Isn’t it Marcus Winston Rutherland?】
【That garbage couldn’t have done it alone.】
【Then……】
【Didn’t they say the Duke and Duchess of Cheswind were at Devil’s Village? If the mongrel duke helped Rutherland, it makes sense.】
【How did they even get inside Devil’s Village? I heard nobody walks out of there alive.】
【Are you seriously telling me an old dog like you believes that urban legend is real?】
【My apologies. Shall we assemble a strike force?】
【First, let’s kidnap the Duchess of Cheswind.】
【Is the Duchess of Cheswind there?】
【I’m certain of it. Didn’t someone say they spotted a woman sitting on the mansion’s roof through binoculars? What other woman would be on land the Duke of Cheswind purchased?】
【I apologize.】
【Never mind. She’s weak anyway—no strength to speak of, and she has a chronic condition. She’ll die soon enough. Let’s use her before that happens.】
Then those thugs discovered fragments of Pinkstone, and they took them. How fortunate.
‘No, but if he’s weak, with no strength and a chronic illness, he’ll die soon enough, so what’s the fuss?’
It was a reputation she’d heard before, but hearing it stated so baldly felt entirely different.

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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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