The Ice Age Came And I Just Got Married - Chapter 78

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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 78
* * *
Claire came to her senses abruptly.
Where was she?
It was a dim space. People crowded around her, packed tightly together. It felt like standing in a queue.
Leon Fokner stood beside her, exactly where she’d expected him to be.
There was a stage bathed in dim light, and on it sat a small monkey.
‘What is all this?’
The people’s eyes were vacant, unfocused, yet the monkey on stage was abruptly playing a trumpet. Well, there were all kinds of monkeys, weren’t there.
‘There’s no trainer, so what on earth is that monkey?’
Claire decided this was a dream. There was no way this absurd situation could be real.
But no matter how much time passed, she couldn’t wake from this damned dream.
The wretched monkey had now begun hopping excitedly across the stage, blowing its trumpet with abandon.
Looking around again, she noticed that everyone in the queue was holding something in their hands.
Frozen bananas, or frozen meat.
The most common item was the Mana Stone.
She’d seen them many times while living with Eve and recognized the mineral.
Winterstone.
A considerable number of Winterstones were clutched in the hands of the people around her.
They stood in line, presenting them to the monkey in turn as tributes.
Claire’s hand also held a Winterstone—or rather, a Goldstone.
The monkey, having received the tributes, began happily devouring the people who had offered them.
Yes. That’s exactly where Claire’s conviction that this was a dream broke down—at that utterly impossible grotesqueness.
“Fokner, pull yourself together.”
Claire whispered very quietly, shaking Leon’s shoulder. But his eyes remained unfocused, staring straight ahead.
“Ha.”
A hollow laugh escaped her lips.
“This has to be a dream.”
She muttered while wiping cold sweat from her forehead with her hand.
“It has to be…….”
The thought that this was not a dream grew stronger by the moment.
If she could, she would turn away from this reality.
But the reason she couldn’t was—
Kwaaaaa!
The crazed monkey didn’t stop. It examined the tributes, and when they failed to satisfy it, it opened its enormous mouth and devoured the person, then repeated the process.
She couldn’t understand how such a small body could open its mouth so wide, or how an entire human could fit inside it, but understanding seemed unnecessary right now.
‘What do I do? What do I…….’
Anxiety gnawed at her. The line was shrinking.
There were about thirty people ahead of Claire, but the problem was that Leon had nothing in his hands.
Claire tore a button from her military uniform.
Most military uniform buttons in this era were made of brass.
The button’s size and weight happened to be perfect for what she was thinking.
She immediately absorbed the Goldstone she’d been holding into the brass button.
She wasn’t certain the effect had worked properly.
But according to what Eve had told her, the Goldstone strengthened an object’s durability.
“If you ever find a Goldstone, try absorbing it into a weapon or object. It will strengthen durability and maximize the object’s properties.”
Eve was special. Claire liked her. She was the kind of impressive woman one wanted to serve under as a superior.
Her situational judgment and response capability were faster than most soldiers.
On top of that, she knew how to position people appropriately and use them according to their strengths, and her own abilities were formidable.
‘I really do want to serve under her.’
Thinking such thoughts, Claire examined the brass button briefly, but felt no particular change.
She tossed and caught it repeatedly in her palm, thinking hard.
‘Well. Mrs. Chesswind said it would work.’
It would have to.
Soon she gauged the distance between the stage where the ugly cannibal monkey was playing its trumpet, collecting tributes, and making a raucous commotion, and herself.
‘I can do this.’
She gripped the brass button tightly in her palm, then hurled it like a shuriken.
Whiiiissh!
A sharp, cutting sound pierced the air near her ear. Claire’s eyes tracked its flight.
The brass button cut through the air, tracing a golden arc.
‘Faster.’
An explosion-like boom shook the interior of the Parade Standby Room.
Crash!!
The metal reinforced with Goldstone unleashed its uncanny power, shattering the mad monkey’s trumpet to pieces.
Metal shards and ice fragments scattered in all directions.
The mad monkey’s bizarre performance cut off in an instant.
And one by one, focus returned to the eyes of people who had been staring blankly as if entranced—as though they were waking from hypnosis.
“Lieutenant Claire?”
Leon was no different. His mind had returned to normal.
Claire wiped the sweat-soaked nape of her neck roughly with the back of her hand and let out a sigh.
“Thank goodness, Sergeant Fokner.”
“What on earth is happening?”
Leon looked around in bewilderment, while Claire simply exhaled deeply, relief written across her face.
* * *
The path to the Parade Standby Room was treacherous.
Despite the distance being short.
Ping-ping!
We came under relentless fire from mysterious groups along the way.
What on earth is this?
There’s an old saying on the Eastern Continent: when whales fight, shrimp backs are torn.
This was exactly the situation the people of Dotori Village now found themselves in.
I unfolded the theme park map again.
We were currently crouched and hidden behind the seating at the Outdoor Performance Venue, having passed through Carousel Square.
To the west lay an Artificial Lake where boats could be rented, along with a Walking Path—and gunfire came from that direction.
It wasn’t the Tonis group. They were moving with us at the moment.
Then Tony and his people whispered.
“Did you see?”
“That’s definitely Hailwood and Orange Market, isn’t it?”
I joined in their conversation.
“What are those?”
“Ah. Those are Survival Faction names. Hailwood seems to have come from Westfield, and Orange Market is probably the bunch that came down from Norton. Both are towns on the outskirts of Avridin, but…….”
“Good heavens. I know.”
The leader’s hair was orange, and their base was a market, so they became Orange Market.
Tonis, Orange Market, Dotori Village.
They all had the same talent for naming. It somehow gave me confidence.
Dotori Village seemed to be the best of the bunch.
More than anything, that Orange Market is one of the villain groups that appears in the Cruel Frost War. Not comparable to Logan, the final villain, but still.
But why are they all gathering here?
Don’t whales usually fight one-on-one? We’ve got three whales here?
Tonis, Hailwood, and Orange Market too!
It was all too clear that Dotori Village was the shrimp in this scenario. After all, there were only three adults among us.
“Let’s move without getting tangled up with them as much as possible.”
Everyone nodded in agreement at my words.
We could hear Hailwood and Orange Market shooting frantically at each other, but we deliberately turned away from it.
We crouched and moved shamefully behind the chairs in the seating area…….
Crash—!
Suddenly, an enormous boom echoed from the Parade Standby Room.
Thanks to it, Hailwood and Orange Market seemed to stop fighting and turn their attention that way.
After a moment of silence,
Hailwood and Orange Market simultaneously rushed toward the Parade Standby Room.
‘Wait!’
The Winterstone is all gathered there……!
And those bastards’ objective is definitely the Winterstone plunder.
Damn it. I can’t let this happen.
“We run too! Move!”
A shrimp can’t just have its back torn by the whales. Even a shrimp jumps when stepped on.
This is war.

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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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