The Ice Age Came And I Just Got Married - Chapter 98

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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 98
Down the stairs. And down again.
After descending who knows how far, my skin prickled as I touched the final step—a cool draft rose from below.
The cellar stretched beneath the mansion.
Wine racks along the walls had collapsed, scattering broken bottles across the floor.
But something was odd.
Beyond the rubble of one collapsed wall, another space opened up.
I raised my fingertips. Light spilled from them—the Winterstone that Luca had given me, the kind that glows.
Aiden stared at me in surprise.
“Ah. This is the Yellowstone.”
“That’s not what surprised me.”
Aiden let out a hollow laugh.
“That you can wield the power of Winterstone at all is remarkable, but to absorb every Winterstone and use them freely—it’s extraordinary.”
“Well, there is a side effect.”
Drip-drip—
On cue, a nosebleed spilled down. As it flowed, my mind cleared.
As though my body were gradually adapting to the Winterstone’s power.
Aiden pulled a handkerchief from his pocket, startled. He held it to my nose, though he was too cautious to pinch it off like Logan would have done.
I nodded to him in thanks and took the handkerchief, pressing it to my nose.
“So you really do have a delicate constitution.”
At his murmur, I turned to look at him. He seemed to be searching his memory before speaking.
“Ah. You and the Duke became quite the legend at the Academy, so I’ve heard stories about you through the years.”
There’s nothing I can say about my Academy days. Those years when I was mad with competitive fervor—they’re actually shameful memories for me.
“That you had a frail body but a sharp mind. That you saw the Duke as a rival and would stop at nothing to beat him. Rumors like that.”
I felt a bit embarrassed and scratched my cheek.
“I never imagined things would turn out like this between Logan and me.”
“People don’t pour so much emotion into someone they’re indifferent to. From the start, it seems you two were destined to become entangled.”
I had no rebuttal. I’d already come to think the same way myself.
“It’s a shame. I sometimes think it would have been nice if I’d met you first.”
Aiden smiled with that beautiful face of his, and it was genuinely lovely.
But unfortunately for him, I see Logan’s face every day—!
“The Everhart family is ruined anyway. The Crown Prince wouldn’t have been interested in me regardless.”
At my answer, Aiden opened his eyes wide, staring at me as if to ask how I could possibly know that.
“I met someone named Claire Shon Wayne. She’s in Dotori Village now.”
A moment of silence fell.
The name Aiden hadn’t expected to hear seemed to shake him deeply. His eyes flickered with sharp uncertainty.
“Does she… still resent me?”
“I’m not in a position to say, but don’t cling to her. It’s for her own sake.”
Only then did Aiden close his mouth.
I decided to change the subject.
“It looks like the next building connects through here.”
I shone the Yellowstone’s light across the wall.
Looking closer, the next space was also a storage room.
The storage rooms connected—to the next building, and then the next.
We decided to keep moving forward. We needed to get outside anyway.
Past the collapsed wall came a food storage chamber, and beyond that, an underground vault.
Before long, we weren’t walking through a single mansion anymore—we were crossing through multiple buildings buried beneath the snow.
Then.
Bang!
Gunfire erupted again.
“Pardon me.”
Aiden immediately pulled my shoulder.
“Duck!”
A bullet whistled past the broken wall. We peered carefully through the gap to see what lay beyond.
What had once been an alley between buildings.
Now snow had sealed the ceiling, turning it into a murky passage.
Inside, people were exchanging gunfire.
Using collapsed pillars and walls as cover, both sides were firing relentlessly.
Wait. They can do that underground?
Bang! Bang!
In the confined space, the gunshots echoed several times louder than they should have.
Broken bottles and splintered wooden crates littered the floor, and dust from the stone walls sprayed in all directions with each shot.
“You bastards! Is this really the time for us to be fighting among ourselves?”
“That’s right! We should be going after the Crown Prince first!”
“No, you idiot! How are we supposed to catch him here? He fell into the collapsed building, didn’t he? He’s probably already dead!”
“Put the guns down!”
“You stop first!”
What in the world was this about? So their real target had been Aiden all along. It seemed they’d been searching for us continuously.
“It appears to be one of the guilds in Norton, ma’am,” Aiden answered in an even tone.
As if being a target was of no concern to him whatsoever.
Or rather—to be precise—as if he’d grown utterly accustomed to it.
“This isn’t the first contract like this, so please don’t worry too much.”
Aiden gazed briefly down the corridor where gunfire was being exchanged. Bullets grazed the walls and curses flew back and forth, yet his expression remained unmoved—not a flicker of doubt crossing his features.
Instead, he shifted his gaze methodically, as though assessing each element of the situation with perfect calm.
“Many men wish to seize the Crown Prince’s head and claim his throne for themselves. With the social system in ruins, it’s only natural that such men emerge.”
Ah. Then it struck me. Aiden had faced death at every moment since the world had fallen.
With the social system collapsed, anyone could seize power. That’s precisely why people needed a justification—a pretext by which they could dominate all others and claim dominion over them.
They coveted the Crown Prince’s head only for that justification.
“Moreover, it seems internal conflict has broken out among them. That works even more to our advantage.”
He said this with complete composure, despite having been pursued to this place by men who meant to kill him.
As if such things happened every day.
I found myself thinking anew that the Crown Prince must have it terribly hard. I turned my head away.
‘That passage over there—it looks like it leads to the bank vault.’
Beneath a collapsed pillar, a bronze nameplate reading “Norton Central Bank” was partially exposed.
It was one of the buildings we’d been searching for.
A structure that might well contain a storage chamber.
But first, we needed to rejoin Logan and the others as soon as possible.
“I think it would be best if I stayed behind while you go on ahead, ma’am. I’ll draw their attention.”
Aiden kept his hand resting on his sword hilt as he quietly surveyed the corridor.
The gunfire had died down momentarily, but it was only a matter of time before they spotted us if we turned toward that side.
“What? How can you say that? And besides, that’s not even an option right now.”
Apart from my reluctance to throw Aiden to the wolves and flee alone—a shameless act I had no wish to commit—there was nowhere else we could realistically escape to.
“If we stray too far, our paths might tangle with Graham’s or Logan’s. And our destination is the same anyway. It’s far better that we move together.”
He fell silent for a moment, then glanced around before meeting my eyes. In his gaze, hesitation flickered before calculation could take hold.
“I apologize for drawing you into my affairs. Please forgive me.”
Then he nodded slowly.
“If you’ll stay with me, I’ll protect you to the end.”
That was when it happened.
“Wait? Isn’t that the Crown Prince?”
“We found him! We found him!”
“I told you bastards, didn’t I?! This passage connects to below the collapsed mansion!”
Their shouts echoed through the corridor.
Bang!
Gunfire erupted first.
Aiden’s reflexes kicked in—he grabbed my wrist and yanked me toward him. The bullet tore through the wall exactly where I’d been standing.
Damn it. I drew my shotgun and loaded a shell.
And Aiden drew his sword.
Shring—
The clear ring of steel cut through the darkness.
Bang!
An incoming bullet struck the blade and ricocheted sideways.
Clang!
Then came a second shot, a third.
Aiden didn’t retreat an inch, twisting his sword to deflect each bullet’s trajectory.
The rounds hammered into walls and ceiling in succession, scattering sparks.
“That’s impossible!”
Someone’s cry had barely faded when Aiden closed the distance in an instant.
Not even his footsteps made a sound.
Flash.
As silver blade-light tore through the darkness, the man’s gun went spinning through the air.
Aiden did not cut down his opponent.
He struck precisely at the wrist to drop the gun, then swiftly brought the flat of his blade against another attacker’s neck, leaving them unconscious.
There was no unnecessary bloodshed.
That was when it happened.
“Eve!”
With Aiden’s cry, a gun barrel suddenly emerged from the adjacent alley.
They had seized the moment when Aiden was locked in combat.
Click.
Of course, I wasn’t worried. I was about to load my shotgun in return and channel both the bullet’s force and the Bluestone’s power when—
Crack!
With a heavy detonation, the man who’d had his gun trained on me was hurled through the air.
His body crashed into the collapsed stone pillar and was impaled there, blood streaming from his mouth as he fell.
It certainly hadn’t been Aiden’s doing.
“Huh?”
I let out a bewildered sound.
Bang!
A greatsword came crashing down onto the floor.
The stone ground splintered like a spider’s web, and the shockwave rippled outward in all directions.
Those who lost their footing tumbled down in quick succession.
Through the swirling dust and snow,
a man emerged slowly. A thick black cloak billowed around him, and as he raised his head, I saw crimson eyes.
It was Logan.
Boom!
One sweep of his sword.
It wasn’t wind—it was a maelstrom. Tremendous blade pressure swept through the corridor, sending everyone in the front line flying at once.
Wait. Was this really the work of human strength?
Was it possible to achieve this without the power of Winterstone, using pure physical force alone?
People crashed into the walls like scattered leaves.
“A—a monster!”
Someone screamed. It was hard not to feel that way.
But it wasn’t over.
Each time Logan’s greatsword flashed, a gun snapped in two; each time his fist swept through, a body shattered through a wall.
There was no counterattack.
No time to aim, no chance to pull a trigger.
A dozen men lay sprawled on the ground in less than ten seconds.
Silence fell over the corridor once more.
Logan wiped the blood from his greatsword lightly, then came to a stop directly before me.
“Eve, are you hurt?”
I shook my head, my face dazed.
He stared at me with an expressionless face, then asked again.
“Did you wait for me?”
“Huh? Y-yes. Yes, I waited.”
Logan sheathed his greatsword in the scabbard strapped to his back, then hoisted me up by slipping his hands under my arms. Cradling me in his embrace, he whispered.
“Don’t worry. You can never escape from me.”
His voice was low.
“So be at ease. Wherever you disappear to, I will follow.”
I was bewildered.
Logan shouldn’t have any memory of me right now.
It felt as though my husband had returned to me.

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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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