The Ice Age Came And I Just Got Married - Chapter 71

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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 71
“I saw it. There’s a child.”
Logan had already noticed; his voice remained calm.
And he’d registered something else—the child looked strangely familiar.
Together with Logan, I emerged cautiously from beneath the tent. The reindeer herd froze suddenly, as if they’d heard the rustling.
Then, all at once, they turned toward us, and our eyes met.
A moment of standoff followed.
We couldn’t move easily, and they stood motionless in return, watching us.
It was then that a boy, lying prostrate atop the largest reindeer, raised himself up.
Ana’s family—the ones I’d encountered before the tsunami that rose above the harbor district of Rosebrook.
The boy appeared to be around ten years old, the one Ana had called her brother.
The moment he spotted us, his eyes widened in shock.
The reindeer settled onto its haunches then. As the ground drew near, the boy scrambled down to his feet.
The reindeer began to move, dispersing to find their own way, leaving the boy behind.
The boy watched the herd disappear into the distance with a bewildered expression, then made his way toward us.
He wore an enormous fur coat—something that hadn’t been there before—draped thickly enough to keep him safely warm even in this cold.
Whatever the situation was, I decided to go out and meet the boy.
So Logan and I stepped out from the tent together, greeted him, and brought him inside.
The moment he entered the warm shelter, the boy looked up at us with glistening eyes.
I asked him then.
“Do you remember us?”
“Yes. You’re the sister who traded with Ana.”
“Sister? I’m not that young. Call me ma’am.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
He was a stubborn child. I didn’t bother to correct him again.
“What about your family?”
“I don’t know. I lost them. We were following the forest path north of Rosebrook when we found a cave. When I woke up after sleeping there one night, they’d all vanished.”
The boy had black hair and golden eyes. His cat-like gaze gave his tearful expression a certain pathos.
“I wandered through the forest and found those giant deer. They let me ride on their backs.”
Then the boy reached into his pocket and pulled something out.
‘…Huh?’
A yellow mineral. At first glance it resembled Goldstone, but the yellow was distinctly different from gold.
“The big deer gave me this too.”
Yellowstone was a mineral with the property of emitting light.
That’s when the boy asked me a question.
“Would you trade with me?”
“Trade for what?”
“Please take me in. I’m good at everything. I can do anything.”
I was at a loss for words.
The boy carefully grasped my sleeve.
Logan stood with folded arms, watching. It meant he would defer to my choice.
Looking at the boy, who gazed up at me with such longing, I spoke gently.
“Barter is the exchange of one thing for another, not of people.”
But I wasn’t about to refuse the Yellowstone he was offering.
“I’ll give you something else in return for this. Whatever you want.”
The boy blinked.
“Really? But you already said you’d save me. Can I really make a trade too?”
“Adults don’t need anything in return for helping a child. So let’s just exchange things fairly.”
“But…”
“We’re going to help you anyway. We’ll take you to our village. Do you have any objection?”
At my words, the boy shook his head vigorously.
“Then let’s go back to our village and think about what you want.”
Soon tears gathered in the boy’s eyes, and then he burst into sobs.
I didn’t know what had happened to him, but since I had some familiarity with the child, my heart grew heavy.
No—rather, I felt a weight of guilt.
If I hadn’t moved toward the sea because of the tsunami, could I not have helped his family?
Of course, I know that wasn’t possible.
But remembering how, just before I moved that collapsing tsunami, I’d traded Ana’s Silverstone through Barter, I couldn’t help but feel I owed this child a great debt.
‘Even if I can’t repay what I owe Ana, I can at least protect this child.’
I grasped the boy’s hand firmly.
The boy’s name was Luca Miller.
Luca decided that when morning came, he would help us pack up the tent and go fishing.
The embers we’d kept burning through the night were buried completely under snow, erasing all trace of our camp.
We folded the waterproof tarp and secured it back onto the cargo sled, scattered spruce branches across the ground, and our encampment returned to the original forest—as if no one had ever been there at all.
We put on our skis again, and Logan carried Luca on his back. That way, we glided down toward the sea.
As morning sunlight broke through, the Frozen Coast gleamed with silver light.
The nearby sea was covered in thick ice, but in the distance, dark blue seawater rolled slowly into view.
Logan walked along the coastline for a time, inspecting the ice.
He tapped it with the end of his axe to listen for the sound, tested its firmness by putting his weight on it, and only then did he stop.
“This spot will do.”
We set the cargo sled on its side to block the wind and unpacked our gear.
Luca watched us work with steady, methodical movements, his expression bewildered throughout.
Logan raised the axe high.
Bang—
A heavy thud sounded, and a crack spiderwebbed across the ice. True to his monstrous strength, the man knew how to use it.
And Luca’s eyes gleamed as he watched.
Bang— Crack—!
After a few more strikes, a hole large enough to fit a human head opened up.
Beneath it, dark blue seawater slowly came into view.
It was the kind of water that looked terrifyingly cold and deep.
I threaded bait onto the end of the fishing line and slowly lowered it into the water. The bait was clam meat that Brian had been saving.
With the cold being this severe, it froze automatically, which meant there was no worry about spoilage—if you could call that an advantage.
The sea was as deep as I’d expected. It was only after the weighted line had descended for a while that I felt the bottom through my fingertips.
“Don’t move the line too often.”
Logan spoke softly.
“Winter fish are cautious.”
I nodded. When it came to fishing, Logan seemed to have far more expertise than I did.
We set out three simple chairs and sat holding Redstone, shivering against the cold.
The wind had died down, but time on the ice seemed to flow with unusual slowness.
Luca crouched beside me, barely breathing, his gaze fixed on the water below.
“My mother can’t fish, but it seems there’s nothing you can’t do.”
“I don’t know. Your mother probably had other things she did well, didn’t she?”
“Oh yes—she was an excellent cook.”
I laughed.
“See? I can’t cook.”
Though I’ve become quite skilled at knitting now. Knitting and embroidery are the basic accomplishments expected of a noblewoman, after all.
Luca smiled as if he’d understood something, then, his lips threatening to fade, he deliberately pulled the corners of his mouth upward and spoke with forced brightness.
“I wish Mother, Father, and Ana were all alive.”
“They are alive.”
Your family and ours too. Everyone.
I gently stroked the child’s dark hair.
Now that I thought about it, his hair color resembled Logan’s.
Though his face looked nothing like Logan’s, the ten-year-old boy was already so beautiful that at first glance, he could almost pass for Logan’s son.
That was when it happened.
Tug—
A very faint vibration traveled through my fingertips.
“Eve. Wait just a moment.”
Logan placed his hand over mine. He didn’t pull the line immediately.
Again.
Tug—
This time the sensation felt slightly heavier. In one motion, I lifted the fishing rod with all my strength.
A cod much larger than my palm thrashed in the air.
“We’ve got it.”
Luca’s face lit up brilliantly.
“Wow…!”
Of course, I was just as thrilled. As I laid the cod onto the ice, watching it flail and writhe, I found myself jumping with joy.
“Wow! This is incredible!”
Though of course, moments later it had stopped flopping, and the instant it was exposed to the open air, it froze solid.
Logan watched Luca and me with a quiet smile. Then he turned back to his own spot and began reeling in his fishing line.
A moment later.
From his ice hole emerged a cod twice as thick as the one I’d caught.
“…….”
“…….”
Luca and I fell silent for a moment, our eyes fixed on the cod I’d just pulled from the water.
Logan, unbothered by it all, tossed his fish into the Cargo Sled and spoke.
“Effortless.”
True to his word, we went on catching Large Fish Catches one after another.

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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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