The Ice Age Came And I Just Got Married - Chapter 4
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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 4
……Well, that aside for now.
As it happened, my field of study proved quite useful in this situation.
On top of that, during my Academy years I’d worked as a student journalist, running a column in the newspaper about Ice Age Survival Knowledge.
Though I’ll admit, every time such a “useless” column came up, protests came flooding in demanding it be cut.
Fortunately, the newspaper director happened to like my column, so it never disappeared from the lineup until I dropped out.
“I’m fairly knowledgeable about this kind of climate, is what I’m saying. It’s my major, after all. I even ran a survival column in the newspaper.”
“Oh. I saw that newspaper.”
“You actually read it?”
The fact that someone had read it surprised me quite a bit. I felt almost embarrassed.
“I studied extreme cold pretty intensively. You’ve already been through this situation, so you know it well, but…….”
“No, even if you’ve been through it, it’s different from a real expert.”
In truth, I was just a student back then, so I couldn’t really call myself an expert. Just a major student near graduation, you might say. I scratched my cheek awkwardly and spoke.
“Right. Anyway, I think it’s better if we sleep deep inside the Tunnel tonight. Let’s go further in, where the cold air won’t touch us.”
“Okay.”
We retraced our steps. And once we’d gone deep enough inside, we found a spot and sat down.
Even going deeper in, we couldn’t escape the brutal cold.
Logan pulled a Blanket from his bag.
“Before, on the way to Rosebrook by car, I used to stop at a Cottage.”
“That’s where I got killed by the survivors, right?”
Logan fell silent.
In my ninth life, I survived quite a long time. By the original story’s starting point, I think I lasted roughly half a year.
But I died in the end. Dragged away as a test subject.
“The situation’s changed. So the future will be different too. Eve, you won’t die. I’ll make sure of it.”
Hearing Logan’s words, I felt oddly embarrassed and pulled the Blanket up to my neck.
In the meantime, Logan took dry Firewood and Matches from his bag, struck a flame, and built a campfire.
Crackle-crackle—
The sound of burning wood filled the quiet Tunnel.
“Logan, you should take off your wet clothes.”
“I was about to say the same thing.”
Of course Logan and I had good understanding when it came to matters like this.
We hung our wet Coats by the fire to dry. Steam rose from the frozen fabric, but once they dried slightly, they quickly grew cold again.
The campfire only barely restored sensation to our fingertips—it couldn’t drive back the severe cold seeping deep into the Tunnel.
We passed the time by taking turns feeding Firewood to keep the flames alive, but the cold seemed to grow more intense with each passing moment.
Silence settled over us.
In that silence, we huddled against the wall, trembling quietly.
My skin felt like it was turning blue and hardening.
This is getting a bit dangerous.
Actually…….
“Take your clothes off, Logan.”
“What?”
“We need to share body heat.”
In this weather, in the open air with wind cutting through, it’s the only way to survive.
Logan met my gaze calmly for a moment, then asked.
“……Are we still not—I mean, is this really okay here?”
I’d been too terse with my words.
This guy seemed to have seriously misunderstood something.
I peeled off my wet clothes with frozen hands and tossed them aside.
“Wet clothes keep stealing your body heat. If we sit still like this, Hypothermia will set in.”
Logan hastily turned his head away, hiding his expression. I grabbed his collar and pulled him toward me.
“When people press their bodies together, they reduce heat loss. Direct skin-to-skin contact is the fastest and most efficient way to transfer warmth.”
I don’t think Logan wouldn’t know this. He’s already survived this Ice Age multiple times.
I’m just someone who knows the theory; Logan is the one with experience.
“Especially when it’s this bad—when you’re losing sensation in your hands and feet—that’s the danger zone. If you start to fall asleep, you might not wake up again.”
A brief silence fell.
“Which means this isn’t the time to worry about propriety.”
Logan looked at me quietly for a moment, then exhaled. He swept back his disheveled hair from his forehead and answered.
“When you suddenly tell someone to take their clothes off, they misunderstand.”
From his reaction, I could tell this bastard had understood from the start and just played dumb.
“Would I really say something ridiculous in this cold? What kind of thoughts do you carry around with you?”
Logan shrugs at my response.
“Will you at least credit me with youthful vigor and high spirits?”
His shamelessness knew no bounds.
“And we’re married, Eve. You haven’t forgotten, have you?”
“……It’s a contract marriage. Purely formal. Marital obligations aren’t mandatory.”
“So. My usefulness has expired?”
The way he said it made me feel like the unscrupulous one, reaping benefits while pretending ignorance.
“But what good is being husband and wife on paper during a disaster event like this?”
“That’s exactly why it matters, Eve. Because social systems have collapsed in a disaster event like this.”
I tilted my head at Logan’s words. Shouldn’t it be the opposite?
“Well. You’ll understand soon enough, I expect. But as you said—let’s remove our clothes.”
Logan began peeling off the thick layers he’d wrapped himself in, one by one.
Beneath them lay a hardened frame crisscrossed with faint scars. A soldier’s body.
The broad shoulders and densely packed back muscles bore witness to countless years of wielding a blade.
Even at rest, sharp lines of definition traced down his arms and abdomen—a body sculpted with discipline.
Across the exposed skin lay fresh scars, not yet old.
The mix of blade wounds and gunshot marks suggested recent combat experience.
I was the one who’d insisted we undress, yet now that he actually was, I found myself hesitating, suddenly self-conscious.
And no wonder. We’d been married mere days. We hadn’t even had our wedding night.
Whoooooosh—
The sound of the blizzard roared desolately around us. For its cry to reach even this deep into the tunnel, the storm outside must be absolutely ferocious.
Logan stripped off his gloves last, then looked at me.
“Come here.”
He called me in a low, quiet voice.
I hesitated for a moment, then saw the sickly pallor spreading across his skin and threw off my doubts. In just that brief span, Logan’s body temperature had plummeted visibly.
I finished undressing and pressed myself into his arms. Between us, we wore nothing but undergarments.
The moment bare skin met bare skin, my body shuddered.
“You’re so cold.”
The words escaped before I could stop them, and Logan laughed quietly.
“The feeling’s mutual.”
I gritted my teeth and pulled myself harder against him, then drew the coat and cloak over us both, keeping our body heat from escaping.
In the narrow space, only our strained breathing sounded.
The skin that had felt like ice at first began, degree by degree, to recover its warmth.
I could feel his heartbeat.
Thump.
Thump.
Strong and steady—proof that his life wasn’t in danger. A relief.
Pressed so close, I felt his breath against the nape of my neck.
“Logan, you can’t fall asleep.”
I mumbled the words, eyes half-closed.
Not until daybreak, not until we reached shelter indoors where the wind couldn’t reach—only then could we rest.
“I doubt I could sleep like this anyway.”
Logan’s voice came back steady as ever, but the problem was me. My own words were coming slower, increasingly sluggish.
Once hypothermia sets in, it becomes dangerous.
Drowsiness creeps in. Your limbs grow heavy. Thought itself becomes an effort. And then sleep takes you.
I forced myself to keep talking, desperate to stay conscious.
“Logan, what are your plans for what comes next?”
At my question, Logan fell silent for a moment, his face thoughtful.
I already knew something of his various plans, so I waited patiently for his answer.
I waited like that for a time.
But the silence stretched too long. Is this the moment he’ll fall asleep and freeze to death?
Just as I was about to break the silence with something else, he finally spoke.
“I have a mansion in Rosebrook that I’ve prepared.”
Just as I’d anticipated, he answered.
In my tenth life, the first thing Logan did was purchase an abandoned manor in the port city of Rosebrook and transform it into a survival base.
He’d spared no effort furnishing the shelter, ready to bring me there the moment disaster struck.
“A mansion you prepared knowing things would come to this?”
“Yes. I built it so we could survive for at least several years. So the two of us could live together there.”
I fell silent.
‘So the two of us could live together there.’
The moment I heard those words, my chest fluttered with an unfamiliar sensation. I pressed my hand gently over my heart. It was pounding fiercely.
‘Come on, calm down. Logan will notice.’
I tried to steady myself with a few deep breaths.
That was when it happened.
Logan’s cold hand moved slowly, wrapping around my back.
As if trying to hold my body heat from slipping away.
He paused for a moment before speaking, his voice low.
“Get used to it.”
“What?”
“This is going to keep happening.”
He meant we’d keep doing this—undressing, sharing warmth—again and again?
Was I the only one finding this strange?
Logan added one more thing.
“Eve, I can hear your heart racing.”
My heart was thundering so hard I thought it might burst.
Lord help me. I’m completely embarrassed.
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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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