The Ice Age Came And I Just Got Married - Chapter 25

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Chapter 25
And then, much later.
“The train will not arrive anymore.”
A low, hoarse voice emerged from the speaker.
“The Rescue Team will not arrive either.”
The Cylinder continued to turn.
“If there is anyone listening to this recording……”
A brief sound of cotton being picked over.
“Please, I urge you to leave the city.”
That was all.
I turned the Cylinder again.
The message began from the start. And I rewound it again from the beginning. Again. Again.
Click.
Logan took my hand.
“That’s enough, Eve.”
I lifted my head. Everyone gathered around the greenhouse table was staring at me.
A small fledgling, Pipi, fluttered down and settled atop the old Phonograph.
A heavy silence fell for a moment.
Even knowing the future thanks to the novel, I still couldn’t adapt to this reality.
Perhaps it would be more accurate to say I didn’t want to believe it.
That was when Charlotte spoke.
“We can’t count on the Rescue Team either. To be honest, once we passed the two-month mark, I’d already given up on hope.”
Nathan, Logan’s aide, nodded emphatically in agreement with Charlotte.
“We’ll have to find some way to survive here in this village, won’t we?”
Everyone’s eyes turned toward me.
Of course, Logan’s expression grew all the more grim as a result.
They all understood, more or less, that Logan didn’t welcome any survivors in the village besides me.
So they all leaned on me. Logan found that fact even more disagreeable, though.
But what could I do?
Every scouting expedition, I failed to find a suitable alternative shelter.
So we would have to stay in Dotori Village and fill out the headcount of residents.
‘If only the protagonist would hurry and find a way to end the Ice Age.’
Since Logan’s genocidal schemes were no longer part of the plan, I had faith that the protagonist would safely end the Ice Age as scheduled.
“By the way, how many days until we depart from the Naval Base?”
“Four days.”
At Logan’s answer, I nodded.
Charlotte was learning Sledding from Nathan, and in four days, she might just be skilled enough to handle the sled competently.
Of course, it would be useless anyway without sled dogs.
For this Naval Base reconnaissance, I, Logan, Charlotte, and Marcus were to go.
When we venture into the Urban Area, I hope we can find the sled dogs that Nathan had lost.
* * *
Charlotte Murray. Daughter of Admiral Murray of the Murray Navy.
Admiral Murray directly led the North Sea Fleet as commander and went missing right after the Ice Age, or so the story goes.
Charlotte was certain her father had died. And objectively speaking, it seemed that way too.
She was turning away, unable to accept it—much like my own family.
During her Academy years, Charlotte had been an exceptionally difficult sort of student.
The type who gave her trust to no one, you might say.
It was the same in Dotori Village.
She excelled at everything. They said she would do anything to surpass me, and true to that, there was nothing she couldn’t do.
That’s why I’d come to feel affection for such a Charlotte, to rely on her. I wondered why I hadn’t grown closer to her until now.
‘Wasn’t I the fool who only had eyes for Logan?’
With such thoughts, I decided to clean the small chapel in the village together with Charlotte.
Ah. That is to say.
Besides the eight houses, the village also had a chapel, a well, a grain storage, and a livestock shed.
“Eve, do you believe in God?”
As I swept the main hall with a broom, surveying the chapel’s interior, I shook my head.
“No.”
“Why?”
“My house collapsed and the Ice Age came upon us. I find it easier to believe God doesn’t exist—that’s why we’re in this state.”
“That’s fair, I suppose.”
Charlotte agreed readily.
“So what are you planning to do with this chapel?”
At her question, I shrugged.
“For now there’s no immediate use, but it’s good to have it cleaned. Once the village is filled with residents, I thought it might serve well as a communal space.”
“You’re really planning to take in more people?”
“Charlotte, you’ve seen the Village Rules, haven’t you?”
She nodded at my question, her expression growing slightly more subdued.
“I’ve become afraid of humans.”
Ah. I remembered that she’d endured a month in a den of brigands.
And at that moment, the chapel door swung open.
“Charlotte! What are you doing here?”
It was Nathan, the Sledding-pulling aide.
“Nathan? Is something wrong?”
“I promised to teach you how to sled.”
At Nathan’s reply, Charlotte beside me spoke in a gloomy voice.
“Didn’t I tell you, Eve? I’ve become afraid of humans.”
Ah. That wasn’t about the brigand gang after all?
“Afraid of what! You wield the Twin Sword Technique—what’s there to fear about sledding!”
Nathan’s rebuke rang out. Charlotte apparently couldn’t sled very well.
Charlotte was promptly dragged away by Nathan.
Since she’d volunteered to learn sledding out of a desire to be useful in Dotori Village, there was no one to blame.
I sent Charlotte off that way and continued cleaning the chapel alone.
‘It’s quiet.’
More than quiet—there was an eerie, unsettling quality to the air.
I finished cleaning the main hall and opened the priest’s office in the back.
Inside were only a desk, a chair, and a wardrobe; there didn’t appear to be anything else.
If anything, there was just the Cross sitting on the desk.
I quietly reached out and picked it up.
“Ow! It’s burning!”
I dropped it at once. Alarmed, I looked down at my palm, but there was no injury—it was perfectly fine. Nothing was wrong at all.
I tried to pick up the Cross from the floor again, but it was still burning hot, as if heated in fire.
Holding my hand and staring quietly at the fallen Cross, I decided to call Logan.
.
.
.
“It’s fine.”
Logan picked up the Cross and looked at me in puzzlement.
“Am I actually a demon?”
Logan laughed, but I was deadly serious.
Absorbing the mineral mentioned in the novel as a Mana Stone was strange enough.
I’d never heard of anyone unable to touch a Cross.
“Keep this secret.”
Logan nodded at my words.
“Then I’m a demon too, having married one.”
“That’s not how it works.”
Logan tilted his head slightly and stared at me. After a moment, his voice dropped lower.
“Why? Did someone call you a demon?”
“No. It’s not that.”
“Don’t worry, Eve.”
Logan smiled briefly, then his expression hardened.
“I’ll kill anyone who says such things.”
Here we go again. This damned fool.
The truly frightening part was that in this life, Logan was exactly the sort to do it.
Creak—
And at that moment, Marcus entered the chapel.
“I finished that ‘Skiing’ thing our junior asked for…….”
Marcus stopped in his tracks when he saw me and Logan standing together.
“Is that bastard praying……?”
He seemed to have misunderstood, seeing the Cross in Logan’s hand. Honestly, Logan and a Cross didn’t match.
Can’t a bastard pray?
Marcus was so startled that I found myself equally flustered. I looked at Logan with something like pity in my eyes.
What kind of life has he lived?
Logan tossed the Cross he’d been holding to Marcus.
“Take it.”
“You’re no better than a hoodlum.”
Logan stopped in his tracks and turned to face Marcus. At that, Marcus broke into a wide grin and spoke to me instead.
“Let’s go skiing.”
Of course, Logan wasn’t about to lose—he came right back and slipped an arm around my shoulders.
“I’m afraid my wife has a prior engagement with me.”
“A prior engagement?”
I tilted my head, puzzled, and Logan’s eyebrows shot up. After a moment, he drew his brows together and answered reluctantly.
“A Dotori Sweater. She said this time she’d measure me properly and knit one that actually fits.”
Oh. That’s right. But I’d turned him down so firmly the moment he brought it up that I’d let it go.
I stood there for a moment, torn between skiing and a sweater.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————