The Ice Age Came And I Just Got Married - Chapter 88

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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 88
Part 12. Logan
The next day, Graham left Dotori Village.
“You need to be careful.”
I pressed a generous supply of extra Redstone on my brother, but he laughed and refused, taking only a small amount instead.
“You’ve got more people to feed now. You should look after your territory residents.”
“Territory residents……”
I laughed awkwardly.
“It’s not quite so grand. Just people living together, really.”
Graham smiled faintly too.
“All lords say that.”
……
“What people think doesn’t depend on how you see yourself.”
He turned to look around Dotori Village once more.
Houses just beginning their expansion, people busily hauling materials, children darting across the snow — all of it was visible.
“Those people already see you and the Duke as their masters.”
I said nothing. I knew it myself — I had brought them here, and with that came responsibility.
In moments like these, the weight pressed heavy on my chest. But if someone who once ruled the Cheswind Dukedom couldn’t manage this many people, then was I even worthy of becoming Logan’s wife in the first place?
When I thought of it that way, it became bearable.
“Yes. I know.”
“Being a lord isn’t something you choose for yourself alone.”
……
“The moment people entrust you with their backs, you already are a lord.”
“Thank you.”
Graham looked at me steadily, then pulled me into an embrace with eyes red and bloodshot once more.
“…… Brother, take care of yourself.”
“I will. For your sake especially, I’ll come back safe.”
The sincerity in his words was such that I felt guilty for having doubted him, even for a moment.
I bit my lip hard and nodded.
“Promise we’ll meet again soon.”
“This time I won’t make you wait long.”
Graham patted my head and left the village.
He said he was going to Northon. He’d meet with the Crown Prince first, explain everything from start to finish, and ask for his help.
Aiden would certainly be of great use to him.
For days afterward, I shut myself in my room with a hollow ache in my chest.
I’d only just found my family again after five years, and now I was sending him away so soon. The emptiness I felt was deeper than I’d expected.
But I couldn’t stay miserable too long — it would be a burden on the villagers.
By the fifth day, I gathered myself and came out of my room.
For the first time in a while, I went to the Greenhouse and saw Marcus and Logan. They were tilling the soil in silence when they noticed me and stood up.
“Our junior, I see your complexion has much improved.”
Marcus and Logan seated me at a table in the Greenhouse and began brewing tea.
Wait. When did those two become so friendly with each other?
“I’m sorry for worrying you.”
“There’s nothing to apologize for.”
Marcus spoke bluntly and placed a single petal on the rim of my teacup.
Truly a romantic. Once I might have found this saccharine, but now it felt rather touching.
In any case, I set the Black Mana Stone on the Greenhouse table.
“Ah. So you finally came out to deal with that?”
I nodded at Marcus’s question.
“I want to analyze it first to confirm whether it’s Winterstone.”
I tapped the Black Mana Stone lightly.
……
No reaction came, no matter how long I waited.
Perhaps this much is manageable?
I increased contact, touching it more deliberately — poking with my fingers, pressing with my palm.
But there was no response at all.
Marcus handled it from different angles as well, but found the same thing — no reaction.
“It won’t even absorb?”
Puzzled, I tried to absorb the crystal, but it truly wouldn’t absorb.
“It’s not Winterstone then. So what is it?”
Winterstone typically requires a person to touch it with their bare hands to activate it. Once activated, physical contact was no longer necessary.
“Logan, want to give it a try?”
At my question, Logan nodded and approached, tapping the Black Mana Stone lightly.
But before his hand even made contact—
Thud.
A sudden, massive pulsing sound erupted.
We all reacted to it at once.
“What was that just now?”
Marcus asked in alarm, his voice uncertain.
Then the Mana Stone suddenly rolled toward Logan. Like a magnet drawn to metal.
“Logan!”
I gasped and grabbed his wrist. The stone had affixed itself to his palm.
Logan furrowed his brow and tried to pull it free, but in an instant it absorbed into his body entirely.
No. Nothing like this happened on the way here from Rowell Amusement Park. Why now? Why this?
“Logan? Are you all right? Logan!”
I seized his shoulders in panic. But Logan stared past me into empty space as if he couldn’t hear my voice at all.
The focus in his crimson eyes slowly blurred.
At the same moment, hairline fractures like black thread began to spread along his arms, tracing the paths of his veins.
“Logan!”
I lunged forward and grabbed his hand. His fingertips were ice-cold.
Crack.
Logan suddenly seized his chest. His breath came in harsh, ragged gasps.
“Ugh……”
His body swayed violently.
“Move back! Now!”
Marcus yanked me behind him without hesitation.
In the very next instant.
Boom—!
A blinding wave of black energy exploded outward from Logan’s body in all directions. The greenhouse windows trembled violently, and potted plants crashed to the ground, shattering into fragments.
It was fortunate that the greenhouse glass, reinforced with Goldstone, didn’t shatter.
The violent shockwave sent both Marcus and me flying backward.
“Logan! Snap out of it!”
I scrambled to my feet and rushed toward him.
He knelt on one knee, breathing hard and labored.
Black fractures had appeared on Logan’s neck and shoulders. They writhed like living creatures before slowly seeping beneath his skin and vanishing.
“What in the—”
Marcus swallowed hard.
That was when it happened.
Logan’s body went limp and pitched forward.
“Logan!”
I ran and caught him before he fell.
His body was completely lifeless in my arms.
“Logan! Wake up!”
I tapped his cheek gently, but he didn’t respond.
He was still breathing, so it seemed like a simple loss of consciousness. But the shock of what had just unfolded made it impossible to calm myself.
It was because of Logan that I’d been able to stand firm and endure even if the Ice Age came and the world fell to ruin.
Without Logan, I might have gone mad long ago, or died.
The moment my strongest pillar—Logan—crumbled, my mind went blank.
A terror I couldn’t bear washed over me.
With trembling hands, I clutched his palm tightly.
“What on earth is happening?”
“First, let’s move him to a room.”
Marcus lifted Logan and carried him to the bedroom.
Marcus calmed the people who’d come running at the commotion and began organizing the situation, while I sat blankly in front of Logan’s bedroom door, staring endlessly at his unconscious face.
A week passed, perhaps.
When Logan woke again,
all of his memories of me were completely gone.
* * *
A day had passed since Logan awakened.
Dotori Village was still in the midst of expansion. They had torn down the outer walls and widened the land a bit more.
Building five more houses was the immediate goal.
The loggers ventured into the forest and hauled out timber, while the carpenters set up posts and fitted roof frames on the spot.
On one side, workers carried stone; on the other, they tamped earth to lay the foundations.
They reinforced the roofs at an angle so the accumulated snow wouldn’t collapse them, and repaired the stoves so they’d sit in the center of each house.
Though none of them were accustomed to such work, they learned to drive nails, move timber, and raise walls—gradually becoming part of Dotori Village.
And Logan’s condition was still not good.
I sat in the Greenhouse with an unsettled expression, taking tea with Pipi.
Well, I drank the tea—Pipi was cracking open acorns.
“Pipi, what should I do?”
I sighed deeply and drained my cup.
Pipi tilted his head and looked at me, then offered me an acorn seed.
He had just been busily shelling it with his teeth, and now he was giving me its most precious contents.
Too startled to close my mouth, I watched Logan enter the Greenhouse.
I sprang to my feet. Pipi scrambled down from the table and disappeared into hiding.
As if to say: you two should talk.
Logan scanned the interior of the Greenhouse slowly, then looked at me standing in its center.
Marcus came in after him, but stopped short when he spotted me.
“No matter how hard I try to remember, I can’t recall who you are.”
Logan’s words made my heart sink. The fact that he didn’t recognize me—it shattered something in my chest.
When he collapsed, I understood.
I think I’ve come to care for Logan more than I realized.

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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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