The Ice Age Came And I Just Got Married - Chapter 73

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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 73
“If you’re asking for assistance, I trust you’ve prepared suitable compensation to match?”
“I beg your pardon?”
“Since you mentioned cooperation, surely you’ve also prepared a proposal that benefits both parties. In times like these, goodwill is all the more precious.”
“Ah… y-yes, of course.”
He clearly hadn’t thought that far. Quite shameless, really.
But he’d certainly piqued my curiosity.
I instructed Nathan to bring the map.
Soon we spread it across the table and worked together to chart a path to the amusement park four days hence.
Retrieve the Winterstone.
Then I heard the voice again. Now I was certain—it was the Heart of Frost.
The moment the voice reached me, points on the map began to shimmer.
Instinctively, I understood those lights marked where the Winterstone lay.
‘What is this. Why are there so many at the amusement park?’
It wasn’t just one or two.
Dozens of lights flickered and tangled around the amusement park, pulsing in and out.
It was as if signals were being sent from deep beneath the earth.
“Eve?”
Logan’s voice snapped me back to myself.
“What are you thinking so hard about?”
I looked down at the map again.
The amusement park still glowed with countless, uncountable lights.
They were visible only to my eyes. The others didn’t sense anything amiss—they were still debating the route we’d take.
“Just thinking we should make the trip to the amusement park.”
Logan studied me quietly, as if trying to gauge what lay beneath my words.
Was he going to refuse?
If he did, I was prepared to persuade him.
“If anyone gets in the way,”
he interrupted himself and fixed his gaze on Felix, who sat across from me.
“Can I kill them?”
It was an intentional gesture, I thought. Nathan and Jack—evidently sharing the same thought—turned ashen and swallowed hard.
I glanced at Felix and smiled.
“Yeah. If they’re in the way, you should.”
Felix’s face went pale.
It was a warning of sorts. And there was no reason to worry, really—Logan was the type of man who could actually do it.
“Well then, let’s prepare to head out.”
It was decided that Logan, Marcus, and I would visit the Rowell Company amusement park.
Felix had objected to Marcus coming along, but when I said I wouldn’t go unless he did, he reluctantly agreed.
“Is there some problem with me going?”
Marcus taunted Felix with obvious amusement at his reluctance.
From what I’d heard, the Rowell Company and the Rutland Company had never been on the best of terms, even before the disaster struck.
Learning that made me all the more determined to bring Marcus along.
I entrusted Luka, who’d only recently arrived in the village, to Charlotte’s care, then began preparing for the journey.
* * *
Claire and Leon found themselves stranded in an unexpected place.
They’d gained nothing at the naval base. After drawing a blank, the two tried to return to Dotori Village, but encountered a massive blizzard blocking their path.
After wandering through the snowstorm in a daze, it was survivors from the Rosebrook Amusement Park who came to their aid.
And so Claire and Leon found themselves taking temporary shelter at the Rosebrook Amusement Park, which operated under the Rowell Company.
Before the Ice Age, the Rowell Company had been a logistics enterprise run by one of Rosebrook’s foremost magnates.
It couldn’t match Marcus’s Rutland Company, but the Rowell Company had dominated the eastern coast of the kingdom.
The amusement park the Rowell Company built was itself a space designed to flaunt that wealth.
Once, it had been sought out by nobles and the affluent from across the kingdom for leisure.
Seasonal gardens where flowers bloomed, concert halls, a carousel and pier for pleasure boats, a massive resort hotel that welcomed hundreds of guests daily—it had been a sprawling recreational haven.
Unlike Sunhaven, which traded on its beaches, it was a resort with sights to behold in a different sense entirely.
But the Ice Age had frozen even that splendor.
The carousel, buried in pristine snow and motionless, was draped in icicles hanging from skeletal branches like blades, and the hotel’s outer walls were crusted thick with frost.
The hotel still retained coal boilers and steam-generating equipment that had been installed as emergency systems before the Ice Age, but not all facilities had been restored.
Heat was directed to only portions of the building, while the rest remained sealed off to conserve fuel.
Faint warmth permeated pockets throughout the structure, and soft lamplight seeped from every window.
It resembled a small city standing in the heart of a snow-buried ruin.
Unlike the harsh world outside, the interior of the mansion was comparatively warm. One could scarcely find a trace of people worn down by hunger.
Meals were provided three times a day without fail, and the hearth never went out for a single moment.
The residents, far from regarding the two strangers with suspicion, received them with genuine kindness.
Claire and Leon were lodged in the top-floor suite of the hotel—originally reserved for distinguished guests alone.
It felt entirely different from the villa where they had stayed in Sunhaven.
And that was precisely what troubled Claire.
Hadn’t she already learned this lesson in Sunhaven?
Places that seemed too perfect always concealed something.
“Please rest comfortably until the effects of the snowstorm subside. Should you need anything, do not hesitate to let us know.”
The representative of the Rowell Company had taken in and cared for the survivors left stranded in Rosebrook, it was said.
In the early stages of the disaster, the ruffians who had swept through Rosebrook were suddenly wiped out entirely.
The representative of the Rowell Company had rescued all the slaves held captive at their stronghold and taken them in, or so the story went.
Moreover, when the tsunami that engulfed Rosebrook showed signs of collapse, he had guided the evacuating people to the amusement park.
“He seems like a good man, but we mustn’t let our guard down.”
Leon agreed with Claire’s assessment.
“Quite right. Sunhaven also appeared to be a perfect refuge on the surface.”
Claire nodded at Leon’s words.
After finishing their meal, Claire and Leon decided to explore the amusement park. However—
“You cannot venture outside.”
The staff restricted and controlled movement through the amusement park. Now that he thought of it, whether because of the cold or some other reason, there were no people wandering about the grounds.
With no choice left to them, Claire and Leon each retired to their rooms.
That night, Leon slipped into Claire’s room. He had entered through the window.
“Captain. I believe it would be wise to investigate this place.”
“I was thinking the same thing myself.”
Claire was already gathering her weapons.
The problem was that all usable weapons—rifles and the like—had been confiscated when they entered the mansion.
“We should find the guns first. And…”
Leon understood what Claire left unsaid.
“You wish to know the truth about this place, Captain?”
“Yes. If these survivors who gathered here thinking they’d found paradise are merely being exploited, I want to help them escape.”
“They may have nowhere to go even if they escape.”
“There’s a difference between having a choice and having none. We uncover the truth, then let the survivors decide for themselves whether to stay or leave—just as we did in Sunhaven.”
Leon agreed with Claire’s words.
Her manner reminded him somehow of Eve Chestwind. It seemed she had been influenced by her, but Leon knew this was also Claire’s true nature.
It was one of the reasons Claire had taken a liking to Eve.
And so Leon and Claire’s minds aligned.
But then—
Knock, knock.
The problem was that a visitor had arrived, as though they had been waiting for this very moment.

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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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