The Ice Age Came And I Just Got Married - Chapter 30

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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 30
I stood in a corridor, and there was a door. On the door was written the word “Research Facility.”
‘Research Facility? Could it be…?’
Was this the Ice Age Research Facility?
I turned the doorknob.
Click—
The door was locked.
That’s when I remembered the key Marcus had given me.
I hurriedly pulled out the key, inserted it into the lock, and turned it.
Snap—
The doorknob turned smoothly and the door swung open. So this really was the key to the research facility.
I stepped inside with an uncertain expression.
The ceiling was higher than I’d expected—high enough to disappear into the darkness.
Faint lights hung at regular intervals along the walls, but most of them were dark. As a result, the lab lay half-submerged in shadow.
The first thing that caught my eye was a massive iron shelving unit. Each shelf was crammed with thick file folders and worn leather-bound books.
Some books lay scattered on the floor, and certain documents were left spread haphazardly across desks.
As if the people who worked here had vanished one day without warning.
A long workbench sat in the center of the research lab.
On it lay thermometers, barometers, and brass measuring instruments covered in dense markings, all scattered in disarray.
Dozens of maps hung on the walls, some of them covered entirely in crimson lines.
As if someone had been tracking the path of something’s movement.
‘Movement path…’
It wasn’t a military installation, nor a hospital, and it was far too vast to be a university lab.
Then my gaze stopped at one corner of the room.
A massive blackboard covered an entire wall. It was densely covered with numbers and equations overlapping one another.
And at the very top, one sentence written in rough strokes caught my attention.
“Faster than expected.”
“Humanity is finished.”
Inexplicably, a chill ran down my spine.
It felt like a desperate warning left by someone.
‘That handwriting…’
It resembled Julian’s writing.
Yes.
To be honest, I knew the moment I saw it.
This was definitely the Ice Age Research Facility.
I turned back to the maps covered in those crimson lines. And I checked the very small letters written beneath one of them.
‘Analysis of the Frost Heart’s Mana Resonance’
The Frost Heart.
There it is again. So it really was a Mana Stone after all—that ancient artifact.
And my suspicion was correct: Julian really did flee with the Frost Heart.
But why?
“Right. If the ‘Frost Heart’ shattered, as you said, and those fragments are Winterstones, then? If the Frost Heart is a massive Mana Stone and the source of Winterstones, then it makes sense.”
My hypothesis had been exactly correct.
Recalling my conversation with Logan, curiosity about this “Frost Heart” began to well up inside me.
What on earth was it?
Could it possibly be the cause of this Ice Age?
If the “Frost Heart” truly was a Mana Stone, then it was entirely plausible.
The maps connected by crimson lines seemed to show the locations of Winterstones.
The points where the lines converged were similar to where I had discovered the Winterstone.
The analysis of the Frost Heart’s Mana resonance might somehow be related to Winterstones.
If it was before the Frost Heart shattered, there would have been some sign on the parent crystal as well.
I searched through the research facility for any other useful information. But one oddity struck me: there were many research instruments, yet only one researcher’s desk.
‘Was he alone in this enormous lab?’
I examined the one researcher’s desk. Perhaps it belonged to Julian.
Sure enough, familiar objects sat on top of the desk.
‘Wait—these are the gloves I gave him.’
On one side of the desk lay a worn, frayed pair of gloves. They were the gloves I had knitted for him. They’d been my first attempt at knitting.
Behind them was a picture frame. Inside was a family portrait.
Mother and Father, Graham my eldest brother, Julian the second son, and me, the youngest—all sitting together on chairs in a photography studio.
The family portrait I hadn’t been able to bring with me.
I rubbed my stinging nose and slipped the photograph from its frame into my inner pocket, handling it with care.
I searched the desk from end to end, but found nothing else of note.
Bending down to peer beneath it, I spotted a scrap of paper jutting ever so slightly from under one of the drawers.
What’s this?
I scraped at it carefully with my fingernail and worked the paper free—a crumpled sheet, torn from a notepad, finally came loose.
“Give the Map to Eve”
“Eve needs Winterstone”
“Steal the Frost Heart from them”
I stared at the scrawled memo with bewilderment. Being torn, the rest of its contents were lost.
I rifled through every drawer, but found no diary or notepad.
‘If Julian had taken anything, he wouldn’t have left the Family Portrait or the Gloves I gave him.’
So someone had already searched this room?
Regardless, the fact remained: Julian had stolen the Frost Heart.
Why would he do that?
The memo said he’d stolen it from “them”—but who were they?
More troubling still: the note about me needing Winterstone meant Julian knew something about this phenomenon, about me absorbing Winterstone right now.
‘What on earth is happening? Tell me, Julian.’
I gazed at the scrap with confusion before pocketing it.
I gathered the scattered research notes and Map from the floor. There was nothing else worth taking—someone had already ransacked this place thoroughly.
‘Logan will be worried. I should get back.’
I opened the laboratory door with a heavy heart and stepped out. Yet as I surveyed the facility, one feeling crystallized within me—
A strange certainty that Julian was somehow still alive.
Once outside the Ice Age Research Facility, I looked around. The vacant Corridor stretched ahead in utter darkness, visibility zero.
Only an eerie silence filled the space.
I moved forward cautiously, feeling my way in the dark.
I didn’t know where I was, but the passageways twisted like a maze.
‘Should I use Silverstone Power again?’
But what if I ended up somewhere entirely different?
Grrrowwwl—
A sound like a beast’s cry echoed from somewhere nearby.
Damn it. I can’t see anything in this darkness.
I flicked my fingers quickly.
Flames erupted along both sides of the Corridor. Now I could see what had made that sound.
A wolf.
But it was no ordinary wolf. It lolled its tongue—a forked tongue, split in two, easily twice the length of any normal wolf’s—and tasted the air.
Screech!
Startled by the sudden flames, the creature reared and thrashed. Its paws had been singed by the fire.
Click—
I loaded the Shotgun in one fluid motion.
Then I stepped back carefully, maintaining a safe distance.
It was Graham who had first taught me how to hunt.
“Eve, let me teach you to hunt.”
“I don’t want to learn hunting. I’m going to be a dignified, elegant noblewoman.”
“You need to learn. It will help you.”
“But Simona doesn’t learn things like that.”
“Simona will regret it someday, mark my words.”
Had Graham known something then? The way Julian seemed to know something?
Perhaps the two brothers had already shared information.
Did Mother and Father know something too? Is that why they all vanished so suddenly?
But why did they all leave me behind?
“Eve, when you meet a wolf, don’t run.”
“Why not?”
“The moment you show your back, you become prey.”
What had Graham said back then?
“Wolves are patient creatures, Eve. They’ll wait until you stumble, until you tire, until you turn your back. So when you face a wolf, don’t falter. Don’t.”
Wolves were pack animals, normally. But it seemed unlikely they’d come prowling through a Naval Base together on their own.
It was more probable they’d escaped from some enclosure.
Was this the gaze Logan had sensed earlier?
I stood facing the wolf, locked in a standoff. As Graham had said, it didn’t rush to attack.
After seeing the flames, it even retreated slightly. It had decided I wasn’t an easy target.
While I maintained the standoff, nerves drawn taut, a sound came from behind me—something moving.
I turned toward the noise and saw wolves approaching from that direction as well.
And in that very instant I turned to look back, the wolf facing me seized the moment and lunged.

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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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