The Ice Age Came And I Just Got Married - Chapter 75

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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 75
We stepped outside to look around.
The hotel lobby was quiet too. I could see fresh logs burning in the fireplace there.
A few teacups still steaming sat by the hearth.
The Refuge Shelter staff who’d been stationed at the front desk were nowhere to be seen.
I slowly surveyed the lobby.
The employee who’d greeted us last night and the soldiers who’d been making rounds had vanished without a trace.
Even Claire and Leon were gone.
By contrast, only our group—the ones who’d arrived late last night—remained intact.
Something was wrong.
“Seeing that even Wayne and Forkner have disappeared…”
A possibility began to form in my mind.
“What if everyone who’d been here for more than a day has vanished?”
Marcus nodded at my conjecture.
“Honestly, there’s so little evidence, I think your theory makes sense.”
We searched the entire hotel, but there wasn’t even an ant in sight.
“Did someone move them to Silverstone?”
Logan shook his head at my suggestion.
“When you moved Haeil, I noticed the ability didn’t seem precise enough to relocate each individual person in this hotel to a specific coordinate.”
He was right. It wasn’t that fine-grained.
Then did the people inside the hotel move themselves—all together, somehow?
Suddenly, the Management Building came to mind.
Hadn’t I found it strange that the Management Building at the Amusement Park had lights on when we were heading back after seeing the orangutan statue?
“Let’s go to the Management Building.”
“The Management Building?”
Marcus asked back, seeming puzzled. I searched my memory and explained.
“On the way back from seeing the statue, I noticed that building had its lights on. I just assumed the staff were there and didn’t think much of it, but now that I think about it, you said all the survivors here were supposed to be at the hotel. So why would that building be lit up?”
A brief silence fell.
“Let’s go.”
As we stepped out through the hotel’s main entrance, the dawn air cut into our faces. The wind bit like a blade, piercing and brutal.
The moment we emerged, frost immediately clung thick to my eyelashes, weighing them down.
Even though I’d covered everything but my eyes with cloth, my exposed skin stung as if being scraped.
But I couldn’t turn back. If we didn’t find out what was happening, we’d be next.
More snow had fallen during the night; the Amusement Park lay buried under a fresh, fluffy layer.
The frozen fountain and the carousel were gradually becoming more obscured in the pale dawn mist, looking increasingly like ancient ruins left behind long ago.
The monkey statues perched on the carousel horses were now so covered in snow that their shapes were barely visible.
I looked at the orangutan statue beside the carousel. It remained steadfast in its place.
‘No matter how I think about it, that statue didn’t do this.’
Not unless there was some new ability neither Logan nor I knew about.
With each step, the snow crunched beneath our feet.
That sound alone echoed across the silent amusement park.
“That’s odd.”
Logan spoke up.
“There are no footprints.”
Everyone looked down at the ground at his words.
The path from the hotel to the Management Building.
All the footprints from yesterday had been erased by the snow that fell through the night.
There were no new tracks either. It was as if no one had ever walked this path.
Yet a faint glow still seeped through the Management Building’s windows.
We arrived at the Management Building not long after. Unlike the ornate hotel, it was simple and austere.
It was a single-story building, though it seemed fairly spacious in size.
Knock-knock.
I knocked on the door, but there was no response from inside. Just as Marcus raised his hand to knock again, Logan kicked the door open.
The door, which looked frozen solid and immovable, swung open in one motion. Fortunately, it didn’t break.
“This monster of a man.”
Marcus shook his head. His strength was indeed monstrous. No matter how many times I saw it, it was astounding.
“There’s no one here either.”
At Marcus’s words, I turned my head to look again.
We had no weapons. From the moment we entered the hotel initially, we’d been given instructions that we had to surrender all weapons for safety.
I had the Winterstone Power, and Logan had overwhelming physical strength, so I wasn’t too worried.
I never thought something like this would happen.
“There’s a basement here.”
Marcus, who had been examining the interior of the Management Building, turned a corner and pointed to something with his finger.
There was indeed a staircase descending below, and at the bottom of the stairs, a door came into view.
Logan led the way down the stairs. I followed at the very back. There was no telling when an enemy might appear from somewhere.
And beyond the door at the foot of the stairs lay an unexpected sight.
There were armed survivors.
The moment Logan opened the door, gunfire poured from within.
And at that same instant, a thick wall of ice formed between us and them.
It was the Bluestone Power—activated without my conscious thought.
Both sides were startled. We were startled.
Whether the ice created by the Bluestone was something special or simply too thick, I couldn’t say, but the bullets bounced off without breaking through.
The gunfire from inside ceased.
“Damn those Rowell Company bastards!”
At that shout, I tilted my head in confusion. They’d mistaken us for Rowell Company survivors.
Then they weren’t Rowell Company survivors?
“Why don’t you identify yourselves and state your purpose?”
Marcus, the master negotiator, stepped forward and opened his mouth. Logan, who had no intention of negotiating at all, twitched his eyebrows and retreated backward.
“You identify yourselves first. Are you affiliated with Rowell Company?”
This time a different man spoke. Though his face was hidden behind the ice wall, his voice sounded strangely familiar.
The voice of someone who should never be here.
Surely not.
Surely not……?
I carefully approached Marcus’s side and placed my hand on his shoulder.
My heart pounded violently. My hands began to tremble.
I swallowed hard and opened my lips as calmly as I could manage.
“May I ask your name? Your voice sounds very much like someone I know…….”
“Wait. Could you say that again?”
A man stepped closer to the ice wall. Pale ash-grey hair flashed briefly into view.
Because the ice was so thick, his features weren’t visible at all, but something about his height and build…….
“……Graham?”
“……Eve?”
My knees buckled.
Marcus and Logan caught me as I swayed on either side.
With trembling hands, I accepted their support and rose, pressing my lips together.
“Eve? It really is you, isn’t it?”
I dispelled the ice wall.
There stood a man among the armed soldiers—a nobleman-like figure.
His pale ash-grey hair fell softly to his shoulders, and his dark violet eyes were framed by angular glasses that gave him a cool appearance.
Perhaps it was the inherent dignity of nobility.
Despite wearing nothing more than Winter Clothing cobbled together from various finds, he made the people around him look like his personal guard.
Snow lay softly on the coat draped across his broad shoulders, but he stood rigidly without any thought of brushing it away.
Five years. It had been five years.
Just before Julian went missing five years ago, he had left to study abroad in a neighboring country, and it had been far too long since I’d seen his face.
Honestly, I’d thought the chances of him being alive were slim. So I’d half-given up hope.
“You’ve been alive, Eve.”
His expression, which had been firmly composed, visibly wavered.
Across his face—which in my memory had always been so cold—relief and disbelief swept through at once.
He stood gazing at me for a long time without speaking.
As if to confirm that I wouldn’t vanish before his eyes.
“Is it really you, Graham?”
Only then did his tightly drawn lips soften.
“My little rabbit.”
He added quietly, pausing for a moment.
“……I’ve missed you.”
The moment I heard that embarrassing, shameful nickname from our childhood—one he had used once and never again—an overwhelming warmth rose within me.
Only then did I understand what it meant for one’s chest to burn.
It really was him. My eldest brother, who had left to study abroad and with whom contact had been lost.
The emotions I had sealed deep within my heart came pouring out.
The lock I had fastened to keep from breaking and falling apart when I thought of my family had finally come undone.
There was no point in hesitating any longer.
I rushed to my brother and pulled him into my arms, holding him tight.
This time, so he couldn’t run away and leave me behind.

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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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