The Ice Age Came And I Just Got Married - Chapter 34

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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 34
“That person… I don’t know much about them either. They were someone Captain Russell used to keep around.”
The way he kept glancing at Logan suggested he was quite nervous.
‘Captain Russell is mentioned here too.’
So the conversation I’d had with the soldiers in the Quarantine Zone wasn’t a dream or hallucination after all.
“Back then, when he said he was studying the Glacial Period, everyone secretly mocked Director Julian, if I recall correctly. A Glacial Period, they said. And there was also the question of why we’d be researching such a thing at our Military Base in the first place.”
It was understandable to think that way. At the time, I hadn’t understood my brother either.
I knew he was obsessed with the Northern Glacial Environmental Change Research, but I never imagined he’d bury himself in the Research Institute like that, cut off from the family.
And in the end, he disappeared before I could even see his face again.
“But it turned out our Military Base had ‘that’ all along.”
“That? What do you mean?”
At my question, Arnolds lowered his voice further.
“The Frost Heart. Ah—civilians wouldn’t know about it. It’s an Unidentified Mineral that was discovered at Rosebrook Harbor.”
I recalled the Unidentified Mineral report I’d seen in the records room.
Could there be a connection to the fact that the most Winterstone had been buried in Rosebrook?
‘There probably is.’
If the Frost Heart, its source, had been discovered here.
“Did my brother steal it and run away?”
“How did you know? There was quite an uproar five years ago, if I remember right. Captain Russell received disciplinary action over it, but it was only nominal—there were no real consequences. All the soldiers in the Military Base whispered about how strange it was.”
“Do you know where my brother ran to?”
“All I know is that he went to the Northern Region and then disappeared. According to Captain Russell, Director Julian apparently left word that he would return someday.”
Return someday?
Caught up in excitement, I rose from my seat without thinking and stumbled. Logan caught my arm, steadying me.
My brother Julian was alive.
That vague hope had grown sharper.
I didn’t know what had become of him now that the Glacial Period had struck, but none of that mattered.
Just having this slender thread of hope was enough.
Then Arnolds, who had been watching for my reaction, asked me a question.
“But about you conversing with the soldiers from the Quarantine Zone…”
“You betrayed them and killed them, didn’t you?”
He had no answer to give. His head bowed.
That was when Charlotte issued a warning to Arnolds.
“If that’s true, you’ll pay a price for it. Of course, I’m hardly one to speak.”
The heavy guilt that had accumulated from living with the Brigands still weighed on her.
But Charlotte had never killed anyone. They weren’t even comparable.
Arnolds said nothing.
Soon tears began to stream down his face. Of course, he didn’t look pitiable or sorry in the slightest.
“This place doesn’t get any sunlight and lies so deep underground that all manner of rumors circulate. Naturally, there are plenty of stories about the Quarantine Zone. Many soldiers have died there, after all.”
He went on, wiping away the tears that poured down.
“For instance, there’s a common saying that people who die in the Quarantine Zone can’t leave that place even in death. The more wrongfully they died, the truer it supposedly is.”
“And yet you locked your comrades in there and let them die.”
At my words, Arnolds climbed down from his chair and prostrated himself on the ground, his head bowed low.
“I… I will follow them there.”
“Not because you’ve run out of food and need to follow them for that reason, I hope?”
At my question, Arnolds fell silent.
Those soldiers from the Quarantine Zone really were tragic.
“Please confine me to the Quarantine Zone.”
With those words, silence fell again.
“…I’ll take him.”
Logan spoke to me, and I nodded.
The moment Logan seized Arnolds by the arm, he suddenly collapsed.
As if he hadn’t truly believed we would actually take him.
“No, no. This isn’t… this isn’t what I meant!”
The man who had spoken so calmly just moments before, as if he could accept death, was gone.
When the moment came, accepting death proved far more difficult.
He clung to Logan’s feet.
“Please… please save me. I don’t want to die… Ugh, waaah!”
As Logan pressed down with his boot once more on the struggling Arnolds, he could no longer cry out.
Realizing his pleas would get him nowhere, Arnolds quickly searched for another approach.
“Sulgwe! Yes! I’ll give you information about Sulgwe!”
Marcus, who had been training his gun on the soldier the entire time, tilted his head.
“A Sulgwe? What’s that?”
“M-monsters that awaken when disasters like Glacial Periods occur, sir!”
Arnolds answered hastily.
I wasn’t surprised, since I already knew what it was.
‘That is strange, though. According to the novel, Sulgwe shouldn’t have appeared yet.’
Since we were in front of the Research Institute, I assumed it must be an experimental subject. But was it really a Sulgwe?
“Junior, are you talking about those things that were dead in the hallway earlier?”
“Yeah. Eve, you did that, didn’t you?”
Marcus and Charlotte looked at me simultaneously.
When I nodded, Marcus stared at me with a troubled expression.
“My junior is becoming someone more and more incredible. I’m starting to feel the gap.”
It wasn’t enough. There was still an abundance of Winterstone I hadn’t absorbed.
“I know quite a lot about Sulgwe myself. I hope whatever information you have proves useful.”
At Logan’s mention, the man trembled with fear, but he faithfully divulged what he knew about the Sulgwe.
“That damned creature, the creature isn’t, isn’t, isn’t an experimental subject created by humans!”
“Then what is it?”
“It’s a secret weapon created by an ancient sorcerer!”
Oh. That’s genuinely new information.
“That’s hardly useful intelligence. How does knowing that help us survive?”
Logan was right—to someone it might matter, but it wasn’t particularly necessary for our survival.
Logan cut off Arnolds coldly and seized him by the nape of the neck, dragging him forward.
Arnolds shrieked and thrashed about, but he couldn’t break free from Logan’s grip and was pulled along helplessly.
And none of us made any move to help him.
‘I never expected the story about ancient sorcerers to come up here.’
I’d thought it was merely folklore.
As I’d mentioned before, anthropologists had formulated a hypothesis that something called “Magical Power” existed in the Previous World before its collapse.
And they’d speculated that sorcerers capable of wielding that power must have existed.
Thinking of the novel, I’d concluded that this wasn’t some preposterous claim—it might actually be true.
‘The more time passes, the more evidence keeps surfacing that it’s closer to fact.’
Just then, we arrived at the Quarantine Zone.
Logan hurled Arnolds into the Quarantine Zone. I glanced around cautiously. It was about time to recover the Bluestone.
“Any last words?”
Arnolds now looked entirely resigned, his head bowed low.
Then suddenly, as if remembering something, he looked up at me.
“W-wait. Director Julian has also been researching those ‘Sulgwe’ creatures.”
I thought he was making a last-ditch effort, but since it was interesting information, I gave him a response.
“If these are monsters that awaken when a Glacial Period occurs, then by that logic there wouldn’t have been any Sulgwe five years ago. How were you researching them?”
“The Frost Heart emits a special energy source. We believe the director was experimenting to see if Sulgwe could be created using the energy that the Frost Heart possesses.”
“You seem to know quite a lot that the other soldiers don’t.”
“I was close with Captain Russell.”
“Do you know where Captain Russell is now?”
“After the Glacial Period crisis broke out, he left to find the Crown Prince, as far as I know.”
Did a character named Captain Russell appear in the novel?
No matter how hard I tried to recall, nothing came to mind, which suggested that Captain Russell had failed to achieve his objective.

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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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