The Ice Age Came And I Just Got Married - Chapter 7

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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 7
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If the capital, Abridene, had descended into chaos from avalanches and landslides, then Rosebrook had become hell itself—courtesy of a frozen sea.
The harbor district lay thick with pale sea mist, and massive chunks of drift ice ground relentlessly against the docks.
But the truly shocking sight lay elsewhere.
A colossal tidal wave.
A towering tsunami that had been about to swallow the harbor whole stood frozen solid, suspended in the act of descent. It had turned to ice the moment before impact.
Beneath it stretched a long, dark shadow across the harbor below.
‘Are there survivors at all?’
The streets were packed with people frozen solid where they stood.
‘The entire city feels like one vast grave.’
The sight was so surreal that even fear seemed to elude me.
Still, Logan kept the frozen corpses out of his direct sight as much as possible while drawing his weapon—a rifle he’d had stowed in his pack.
“Let’s go find weapons.”
“That’s not decoration, is it?”
I gestured at the rifle and asked. Logan let out a soft laugh.
“This is my backup. I prefer a blade as my main weapon. Rosebrook has a master weaponsmith.”
He gave me a quick, appraising look from head to foot before continuing in an offhand tone.
“You’ll need a weapon too, Eve.”
“I don’t know how to use weapons. I only studied academics.”
“That’s a lie—you were top of the class in Hunting and Gathering.”
“Were you stalking me?”
Logan didn’t answer. But the fact that he didn’t made it feel like he absolutely was.
In any case, while we were in the city, we gathered as much survival gear as we could manage.
We walked through streets as silent and ghostly as a phantom city, collecting supplies, then made our way to the weapons shop Logan had mentioned.
Logan selected a massive greatsword and several additional weapons for himself, while picking out a hunting shotgun for me.
‘If we carry too much, it’ll be difficult to move.’
Reluctantly, I had to suppress my greed.
“Let’s go.”
At Logan’s word, I nodded and we left the weapons shop.
From there, we headed southwest. We had to make for Demon Village.
I swallowed dryly and scanned the surroundings.
A city eerily silent, and a colossal frozen tsunami that looked ready to collapse at any moment.
‘I remember this from the novel. That tsunami will come crashing down in just a few months.’
Before that happened, we’d need to gather whatever supplies we could. Once it collapsed, what little infrastructure remained in the city would be utterly destroyed.
The saving grace was that the effects of that massive frozen wave wouldn’t reach Demon Village.
While staying at the shelter Logan had prepared in Demon Village, we’d have to venture into the city repeatedly to gather provisions.
With that plan in mind, Logan and I entered the forest.
The snow inside the forest rose up to our thighs, forcing us to push forward with difficulty.
After trudging through the snowy woodland for some time, something pale began to appear in my field of vision.
It was a ruined village, blanketed in a light, graceful dusting of snow.
Could the snow have accumulated to about ankle depth there?
So the entire forest had snow up to our thighs, yet here the snow lay in such a ‘soft and beautiful’ layer.
That’s right.
We had finally arrived at the ‘Demon Village’ Logan had spoken of.
Part Two: Demon Village
A month later.
Life in Demon Village was quite bearable. While outside the village it was negative sixty degrees, inside it was at worst negative ten.
“I wish summer would hurry and come.”
At my murmur, Logan glanced at me. I shrugged and elaborated.
“Most plants and animals can’t survive long at negative sixty degrees.”
“True enough.”
“Besides, if the soil doesn’t thaw for more than two years, plants probably won’t be able to take root at all.”
“The entire food chain will collapse.”
I nodded emphatically at Logan’s response. After all, we were top and second in our class—this much of a conversation should go through smoothly.
‘If summer doesn’t come, the ecosystem of this land will crumble in just a year.’
One way or another, the protagonist needed to find a way to end the Ice Age quickly.
Logan had truly prepared an enormous amount.
In particular, we were using the Village Chief’s house as our residence, and my room there even had a walk-in closet stuffed full of winter clothing.
Moreover, the Chief’s Manor had a greenhouse in its garden, and because it was remarkably warm, we could grow crops—which proved to be the greatest advantage.
The Greenhouse grew potatoes, cabbage, turnips, and carrots.
‘Thanks to Logan preparing everything in advance, we could be self-sufficient.’
Besides, the Greenhouse was enormous, so we’d divided it into sections.
Each crop had different root depths, nutrient requirements, and humidity preferences.
Potatoes especially took up a lot of space and needed the soil mounded up around them, so they couldn’t be planted close to the cabbage.
I slowly drew the soil beneath the potato stems with a small spade.
‘Potatoes grow better when you cover them this way…….’
With cabbage, moisture could cause rot, so ventilation was critical. I opened the Greenhouse windows to air it out.
That’s when Logan stepped inside.
“I said I’d do it, Eve. You just go rest in the Manor.”
“And do what while I’m resting? There’s nothing to do.”
Chitter-chitter!!
Just then, a young squirrel scampered down from the tree in the center of the Greenhouse and cried out at us.
It was a protest about the noise.
That’s right.
This squirrel was very special indeed.
‘You might call it the guardian of the Greenhouse, keeping it warm.’
The novel never explained what this creature actually was, but it managed the Greenhouse beautifully. The crops grew wonderfully under its care.
I watched the palm-sized squirrel dart around the garden plots like Pororo, checking on each crop’s condition.
“When we first started tending the garden, it gave us such a hard time, pulling at our hair. Now it cares for it like it’s its own.”
Logan let out a dry laugh at my words.
“That must’ve been territorial behavior. Stubborn little thing.”
I sat down at the table beneath the Greenhouse’s great tree, watching the squirrel dart busily about.
Logan settled in across from me.
We naturally began setting out the teacups on the table and brewing tea.
Over roughly a month of living here, we’d fallen into our own little newlywed(?) routine.
During such uncertain times, you had to seize even these small moments of happiness, or you wouldn’t survive.
“Logan, aren’t you thinking of rescuing more people and bringing them here? There might be survivors out there.”
“No.”
“Why?”
At my question, Logan tilted his head slightly and spoke in a very skewed tone.
“The only thing that matters to me is you.”
I calmly steeped the herbal tea and nodded.
“I see.”
Logan was a fool, so what could I do but understand?
Besides, in Logan’s memories, I’d died nine times. Except for the first death, I’d been murdered every single time.
He had no reason to trust humanity.
Logan’s overprotectiveness was nothing but trauma speaking, and I had to accept that.
“We’re both missing our families, but you at least had an aide nearby you saw regularly. Don’t you want to search for him?”
At my words, Logan seemed to recall something for a moment, then shook his head.
“Ah. Nathan will come on his own.”
“All the way here? How?”
“You’ll see when he arrives.”
Logan’s aide Nathan was an excellent sled driver.
He’d been one of the members of the Northern Expedition that Logan had sponsored, so I knew him well. If he was still alive, he might well be coming by dog sled.
When I was fifteen, the Northern Expedition Project had held a sponsorship event.
Sponsors were granted access to read the expedition reports, and I’d desperately wanted to participate.
Back then, I’d been deeply interested in the Northern Expedition, influenced by my second brother, an associate professor in the Department of Northern Glacial Environmental Change Research.
‘In the end, when I was a second-year student at the Academy, I chose that major to follow his path.’
Anyway, the Northern Expedition Project only accepted one team on a first-come, first-served basis, and Logan had completely stolen that from me.
That was the day I’d truly recognized Logan’s existence.
Everything circles back to memories of Logan. I shook my head and tried to think of something else.
“……How’s the Redstone holding up?”
At my question, Logan pulled a Redstone from his pocket and set it on the table.
A faint red glow flickered deep within the crystal, as if harboring embers.
The surface was not smooth.
It was rough and cracked in places like freshly mined ore, and dark-red threads of light twisted between the crystals like veins.
The Redstone was warm just to look at.
More precisely, the air around the stone was warming very slightly.
“The heat is still alive in it.”
I found this in the basement of the Chief’s Manor. A whole pile of them, too.
Logan thinks I’ve developed foresight now, since I managed to coax him down to the basement under the pretense of exploring the manor, and he discovered them there. He’s convinced of it.
‘Not wrong, exactly.’
There’s one thing Logan doesn’t know.
Mana stones. Winterstone, to be precise.
Shortly after the catastrophe, mysterious mana stones appeared all over the world. People took to calling them Winterstones.
These Winterstones appeared after Logan’s ninth cycle and into his tenth regression.
Winterstones came in different types and colors, each possessing its own mysterious power and function.
In the novel, one could only end the Ice Age by gathering as many Winterstones as possible and growing stronger with them.
‘Rosebrook was supposed to have the most Winterstones buried in it.’
I learned there were some in Logan’s manor as well, so I was delighted to discover and collect them.
Then, all at once, the crimson light flickering inside the Redstone burst outward.
“Eve!”
By the time Logan grabbed my wrist in shock, the Redstone’s power had already been absorbed into my hand and vanished.
What?
What is this?
The novel never mentioned Winterstones being absorbed into a human body.

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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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