Home/The Ice Age Came? And I Just Got Married?!/ch 12

3. The Intruders

Chapter 12

But the moment they saw Logan and Marcus emerge from the village entrance, they quickly disappeared somewhere.

They had fled.

Hmm.

It seemed they were also scouting the area.

Marcus mentioned earlier that there was a gang of ruffians who had been chasing him.

Was that their group?

It looked like they had come from the direction of Rosebrook's city center.

Beeeeep—

And at that moment—

The ringing in my ears suddenly returned.

It was the same symptom as when I'd recalled the novel Ice Age Survival.

The problem was, this time I didn't see the novel—I saw something else.

I heard a voice clearly:

【Do you have the Winterstone?】

【Yes! I have it safe.】

【Keep it well. We'll use it when we raid that village tomorrow.】

It was a conversation.

Then, the armed men—who had vanished from my sight—appeared before my eyes again. I could hear their dialogue.

What was even more astonishing came next.

From their bags, a Goldstone emitted a presence like a glowing beacon.

I instinctively understood.

That Goldstone was sending a signal to me—as if calling out to be found.

So to summarize:

After absorbing Winterstones, I began to see the locations of other Winterstones.

And it seemed I could also see or hear the situations of those carrying them.

Thus, I now knew that the group prowling around Acorn Village possessed a Goldstone.

There are so many Winterstones.

Remarkably, once I sensed it, I could perceive how many Winterstones were in Rosebrook and exactly where they were.

There's probably a range limit.

Since I couldn't sense any Winterstone energy beyond Rosebrook.

The "ruffian gang" that had been lurking around Acorn Village had completely vanished. I kept watch for another three or four hours, but there was no sign of them.

Logan and Marcus were returning to the village. I lowered my binoculars, grabbed my hunting rifle, and went down.

We gathered in the greenhouse for a strategy meeting.

Of course, Chippy kept nagging us to tend the garden while we talked.

Chirp!

Chippy pushed an empty basket toward us.

The message was clear: stop loafing and work. That cranky squirrel.

I sighed and picked up a small hoe.

Thanks to all the rough work I'd done after my family's ruin, gardening wasn't particularly difficult.

"That's not work for delicate hands. Don't do it."

Marcus tried to take the hoe from me—but the cranky squirrel slapped his backside with its tiny paws. Not that it hurt.

Squeak—!

"He says I should do it."

I pointed at the squirrel and took the hoe back from Marcus.

Then I turned over the soil in the harvested plot.

It was a process of removing roots and weeds and breaking up hard clods of earth.

"I never thought I'd see the day when a ducal couple would be tilling a potato field."

Jack muttered.

"I never thought I'd see the day a railway company chairman would be planting cabbage seedlings."

I opened a seed pouch and dropped carrot seeds in one by one. If planted too close together, the roots wouldn't grow properly.

After finishing a row, I watered them with the sprinkler Logan had brought. The moist soil gave off a faint earthy scent.

Outside, the world was still frozen—but inside the greenhouse, spring was beginning anew.

All thanks to the guardian of the greenhouse.

I glanced at the cranky squirrel, who was standing on the central table with arms spread wide, gathering energy.

Odd and temperamental—but so adorable and small that I just couldn't dislike him.

What exactly is that creature?

In the novel, it was only mentioned as the greenhouse guardian—no specifics about Chippy's true nature were ever revealed.

"Jack, give me that. I'll do it."

"Chairman, why do you always pick the easy tasks? You said you were an expert."

"When your boss says jump, you jump."

"But these days, it's the Duke who feeds us, not you, Chairman."

Logan silently worked the soil with his shovel, then, seeing Marcus bickering endlessly with Jack, he shoved a potato into Marcus's mouth as a snack.

"Just do your damn work."

His voice was full of irritation. His glare was deadly.

And yet he still gave him a snack—so kind.

"Pfft—fine, fine. I get it. But you've never had any dignity, have you? Are you really a duke?"

"My identity is closer to a soldier, I suppose."

Logan answered casually, brushing his hair back.

Though the two seemed to clash on the surface, I was relieved they were getting along better than I'd feared.

"So, does anyone have a plan?"

At my question, everyone looked at me.

"About the ruffian gang."

The ruffians were apparently old acquaintances of Marcus and Jack—more precisely, they were the ones who'd chased Marcus and Jack all the way to Acorn Village.

Marcus added an explanation.

"The truth is, they took something important from me."

"Important?"

"A key. The key to the naval base. They probably don't know what key it is yet."

The naval base located at Rosebrook Harbor...

That was the place rumored to house the Ice Age Research Institute.

Civilians weren't allowed entry, so little was known—but I'd heard my second brother worked there.

Even so, he never told me exactly what kind of research they conducted.

"Why did Senior have the key to the naval base?"

At my question, Marcus scratched his cheek awkwardly.

"The power of influence?"

He went on to explain that he'd known the leadership of that "ruffian gang" even before the apocalypse—and that it was a very deep, very bad blood between them.

"How convenient. I want the Goldstone that gang is carrying. And we can retrieve the key while we're at it—kill two birds with one stone."

At my words, Marcus turned toward me, still holding the hoe—or rather, he twisted his crouched body.

The sight of him in formal attire holding a hoe looked like something out of an eccentric artist's painting.

"To be honest, I don't understand half of what our junior is saying. You said you absorbed the Winterstones I gave you and Jack, and you can use their power—and now you can also locate other Winterstones and even eavesdrop on or see people through them? How is that possible?"

"I'm the one who most wants to know that—how any of this is possible."

Just then, Logan shoved another potato into Marcus's mouth—more accurately, he crammed it in.

"You're making our lady uncomfortable. A freeloader talks too much."

Marcus spat out the potato and pointed at Logan, grumbling to me.

"Junior, are you really not going to divorce this guy? Can a landlord just trample on human rights like this?"

I sighed.

"So no one wants to have a proper strategy meeting?"

At my words, Logan answered.

"Eve, I can handle this alone. I'll just go and annihilate that so-called 'ruffian gang.'"

I had no doubt Logan was capable of that.

"Still, going alone is dangerous. I trust your combat ability—but think about the outside temperature."

At my point, everyone fell silent in agreement.

Living in the relatively warm village, it was easy to forget how harsh and terrifying the outside world was.

Logan and Marcus, who'd just returned from scouting, must have been acutely aware of the conditions out there.

"Chippy, come here."

I called to the cranky squirrel, who was inspecting the garden to make sure the seedlings and seeds were planted properly.

The moment his name was called, the squirrel immediately snapped to attention.

Then, with precise steps, he marched over.

The men's eyes all turned to me.

"Why are you all looking at me like that? Do you think I'm bullying this tiny creature?"

"Then why is that ill-tempered squirrel so disciplined?"

I felt very wronged.

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