The Ice Age Came And I Just Got Married - Chapter 76

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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 76
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The administrator’s lobby.
I sat on the lobby sofa with Graham and the survivors from the Capital of Abrideen, exchanging words.
Graham had apparently crossed the sea by boat from a neighboring country to reach the Granden Kingdom.
I’d wondered how that was possible, but when I heard he’d endured it all with nothing but the determination to see me, my chest tightened.
The first place he arrived was the Coastal City near Abrideen. He said it was barren because there were no survivors at all.
So he headed straight to the Capital of Abrideen. Though about a third of the city had been wiped out by avalanche, what remained was apparently still functioning.
If “functioning” was the right word—but at least the capital of the kingdom had plenty of survivors.
“The problem was there were far too many people.”
Graham exhaled a quiet sigh.
“Food was critically scarce, and the military and administration didn’t survive the first month of the Ice Age.”
His voice was measured, but those few words alone told me how devastating the Capital had become.
“In the end, the Crown Prince relocated his base to Norton.”
…….
“Now Abrideen isn’t a city anymore. It’s a Lawless Zone, with different factions occupying different districts.”
Rosebrook wasn’t much different. The only difference was that it was slightly smaller in scale.
A moment of silence fell.
Everyone was allowing the siblings to reunite after so long and settle their hearts.
But despite that, Graham hadn’t said a word about our family.
In all the time we’d had no contact—what he’d done in Norsellan, why contact had been impossible, whether he knew about our parents’ and Julian’s disappearance, whether our house had been destroyed.
I hadn’t even had the luxury of grieving my family’s disappearance. The debt was far too heavy for that.
I still couldn’t figure out where our parents had incurred such debts in the first place. No one had explained it to me.
There might have been a way to find out, of course. But someone like me, who’d only ever been good at studying, knew nothing of how the world worked.
I looked at Graham and carefully opened my mouth.
“What were you doing all this time……?”
“Let’s talk about that a bit later.”
My words caught in my throat and I closed my mouth. Graham clearly didn’t want to talk about what he’d been doing in Norsellan.
A sudden thought occurred to me then.
Had Graham really wanted to see me after all?
That was when it happened.
Marcus, who’d been listening with his arms crossed, let out a dry cough and interjected.
“Right. Yes. That touching reunion was quite enough. I think we’d better understand our situation.”
He reclined against the back of the sofa, scanning Graham and the Abrideen survivors in turn.
At that moment, an armed man standing behind Graham stepped forward.
The man, who introduced himself as Tony, spoke without preamble.
“I understand you used the Winterstone Power a short while ago. Is that correct?”
He hadn’t actually seen me use the power directly—he seemed to think I’d brought a Stone, like the others, and used it that way.
There was no need to correct him, so I simply nodded. Seeing my answer, Tony nodded as well and continued.
“Right now, the Capital is embroiled in a Winterstone war. That war has spread to Rosebrook too.”
Conflicts over Winterstones were common enough in novels that I’d anticipated this.
“Currently, we of the Tonies Survival Faction are at a standoff with Rowell’s Survival Faction.”
I looked at Tony, the leader of the Tonies, and paused. I could guess exactly who’d named the faction.
“Make your choice.”
Tony’s gaze turned toward us.
“Will you lend us your strength, or stand with the Rowell faction?”
Before his words had even finished, another man standing in the back let out a dry chuckle.
“What’s there to ask? You’ve just had a family reunion. Of course you’ll side with us.”
My mind suddenly grew complicated.
To summarize: Dotori Village had become the shrimp caught between warring survival bases.
It was Marcus who spoke up then.
He leisurely crossed his legs and reclined against the back of the sofa. His posture was relaxed, in stark contrast to the tension from moments before.
But his blue eyes scanned his opponents without a single gap.
“Asking someone to pick a side before negotiations have even begun isn’t precisely a proposal that appeals to a businessman.”
His voice was quiet, but the air in the room shifted instantly toward Marcus.
He tapped the armrest lightly with his fingertip and continued.
“There is an order to transactions.”
Marcus paused for effect, then smiled faintly before scanning the Tonies survivors in turn.
“What can you offer us?”
The room fell silent.
The men on Tony’s side exchanged glances with one another, but no one dared speak first.
Marcus didn’t miss the opening.
“The excuse of Everhart bloodline works fine on our junior here, but not on me. I’m a merchant.”
He turned his head slightly to glance at me, then fixed his gaze back on Graham.
“Cooperation between Survival Factions isn’t something to be settled by bloodline or connections.”
His smile remained, but his voice dropped lower.
“What value can each of us provide to the other? Only after we’ve examined that will we decide whether to move or stay put.”
Marcus interlaced his fingers slowly.
“So if you want us to move, give us a good reason.”
At that, the survivors from Tony’s Survival Faction clicked their tongues and huddled together, muttering among themselves.
“Can you negotiate with the Rutland chairman?”
“Hey, X. How am I supposed to do that?”
“But Everhart is here.”
Graham, listening to their conversation, interjected.
“I’m afraid I can’t help out this time.”
After a brief silence, the survivors from Tony’s Survival Faction bickered among themselves and came to a conclusion.
“Fine! Let’s just move on our own.”
Noticing which way their conclusion was heading, Marcus added a remark.
“But are you aware that right now Tony’s group is fighting an enemy that doesn’t exist?”
Everyone stopped moving and looked at Marcus.
“All of Rowell’s survivors have vanished.”
“It’s the truth. Just three hours ago, the hotel was full of people, and then they all disappeared without a trace. Not a single one left.”
When I added my words to Marcus’s, a heavier silence settled over the room.
We had no real reason to travel with them. Even less so if Survival Factions were locked in a power struggle among themselves.
It would only drain our stamina rather than help us.
Being glad to see Graham was an entirely separate matter from survival.
‘More than anything, it doesn’t make sense that Graham would be traveling with these seemingly dim-witted survivors.’
Either these survivors have some secret weapon we don’t know about, or all this scattered behavior is an act. It had to be one or the other.
Eventually, Marcus let out a sigh and made the first proposal.
“It seems like your target is the representative of Rowell’s company—am I right? Whether it’s to seize this place or to negotiate. That’s why I’m asking.”
At Marcus’s question, the survivors from Tony’s Survival Faction nodded almost involuntarily.
“Then let’s do it this way. We also want to know the cause of this problem, and we have someone we need to rescue…….”
Marcus paused for a moment and glanced toward the window. Outside was still dim.
“We’ll work with you up to finding Rowell’s representative and his survivors.”
“Yes, let’s do that.”
Tony, the representative of Tony’s Survival Faction, nodded.
And so a temporary alliance was formed.
Once the conversation seemed to have wound down, I turned to Graham again.
I’d completely forgotten to tell him something important.
“Oh, by the way. I got married.”
Crash—
The vase sitting on the table fell and shattered.
It happened because Graham, who had been crossing his legs, suddenly uncrossed them and knocked against the table with a kick.
Undeterred, I introduced Logan, who was sitting beside me.
“Say hello. He’s my husband.”
“W-what?!”
Graham shot to his feet and glared at Logan.
Logan didn’t flinch. He sat with his arms crossed, simply watching Graham with an unwavering gaze.
What are you looking at?
—is what his eyes seemed to say.
Still, no matter what, he’s my brother. I wish he’d open his eyes a little more prettily.
“Eve. I know I have no right to say this, but you hated this bastard, didn’t you? You called him a rival?”
Graham asked me in bewilderment, as though he simply couldn’t believe it.

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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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