Home/The Ice Age Came? And I Just Got Married?!/ch 28

Chapter 28.

"No—I mean it. Unconditional sacrifice isn't always a good thing. Humans are so multi-faceted."

I'd rather be a demon with immense power than a saint who sacrifices everything.

Logan stared at me as if dumbfounded.

"Hey—you two. Instead of whispering to yourselves, how about letting us in on what's going on?"

At Marcus's words, I finally explained calmly to Charlotte and Marcus.

I told them that the "Heart of Frost" seemed to be the original source of the Winterstones, and that my brother Julian had apparently taken it and fled somewhere before going missing.

If it was the source of the Winterstones, then the "Heart of Frost" itself was also a mana stone.

Would finding it bring an end to the ice age?

Why had my second brother fled with it? How had he ended up missing? Was he even alive?

"Then what did that man mean when he said you could save people—and that humanity was doomed because of you?"

"I don't know that part either."

Silence fell again.

It was Charlotte who broke the long quiet.

"Instead of standing here, let's move indoors. The sun is setting."

As she said, the sun was already tilting.

Once it started to tilt, it would set quickly.

So we turned back to head down to the city.

Creeeeak—

And just then—

Rumble—

Suddenly, the naval base gate began to open.

We all froze in place.

The open entrance was dark.

There was no one there—no sign of how it had opened.

We all had the same thought, and simultaneously looked at Charlotte.

She was the admiral's daughter—she'd know more about the naval base than us.

"It's a manual mechanism—someone inside must have opened it. That means there's a survivor."

At Charlotte's answer, Logan looked at me.

"Eve."

"We should go."

"...Yeah."

He didn't stop me.

By now, he recognized that absorbing Winterstones was the only way to increase my chances of survival.

"But I don't think there's anyone inside."

At my words, Charlotte looked puzzled.

"How can you be sure? This manual mechanism can't be opened without someone inside."

"I can sense Winterstone energy inside, but I don't detect any human presence. Still—we won't know until we go in, like Charlotte said."

We needed to be careful, just in case.

We all checked our weapons.

Thanks to Logan's thorough preparations for the ice age in Acorn Village, we had plenty of weapons and ammunition.

Marcus and I carried rifles, while Logan and Charlotte drew their swords.

And cautiously, we stepped into the naval base.

As soon as we entered the dark interior, we saw stairs leading down—seemingly connecting directly to the underground facility.

Logan held up a lantern. Its dim light illuminated the rough concrete walls.

"It's deeper than I thought."

Marcus was right.

The stairs descended endlessly.

Step by step.

As we went deeper, the air grew colder.

Military lamps were mounted at regular intervals on the walls, but they had all long since gone dark.

Frost clung white to the ceiling corners.

Occasionally, the sound of dripping water echoed.

Drip.

Drip.

The sound traveled far through the empty underground space.

Without letting my guard down, I tried to sense the locations of the Winterstones.

Squeak—

The baby bird, Pipi, who had been sleeping in my pocket, wriggled out.

Squeak?

Soon, he fluttered around us.

Coming to a strange place, he must have been flustered.

We descended the stairs endlessly.

As we kept going down, I quietly fell into thought.

Specifically, I was mulling over what the soldier had said earlier.

There was a lot that hadn't been in the novel.

Of course, that made sense.

Even if the novel had an omniscient perspective, the protagonist's viewpoint dominated the narrative.

I didn't know what was in the Ice Age Research Institute.

But perhaps I could find clues about my brother Julian's disappearance and the ice age itself.

When we finally reached the end of the stairs, I heard Charlotte, who had been leading the way, catch her breath.

Below, a vast corridor spread out before us.

Rows of iron doors lined both sides, with faint lettering still visible above them.

[Supply Depot]

[Communications Room]

[Operations Conference Room]

[Infirmary]

[Records Archive]

I could roughly imagine how busy this place must have been before the ice age began.

But now, silence reigned.

Only the sound of our four footsteps echoed through the empty corridor.

Logan's lantern light illuminated one corner of the floor.

An old military cap lay there.

Beside it, a rusted rifle.

And on the wall, scratch marks that looked like they'd been made by fingernails.

Someone had tried to survive here until the very end.

But that raised a question.

The traces gave a strong impression that they were fleeing from something.

Charlotte murmured blankly.

"There's so much blood."

As she said, bloodstains covered the place.

But the problem was that there were no bodies. The bodies had been removed—the blood dragged in long streaks toward somewhere, then suddenly stopped around the middle of the corridor.

It sent a chill down my spine.

Looking around, it didn't seem like bloodstains would just break off in the middle of a corridor like that.

Unless something had devoured the bodies right here.

"There must have been an internal conflict."

"In the middle of a disaster, when everyone should be working together to survive, there's internal conflict?"

"Survival situations breed more discord, actually."

Marcus countered Charlotte's words.

We decided to enter the communications room first—to try contacting other areas.

Logan and I knew that other regions were in the same situation.

But Marcus and Charlotte seemed to need hope—just like I had, clinging to a phonograph even though I knew everything.

The communications room was in better condition than expected.

Complex wires were tangled like spiderwebs across the walls, and a row of radio equipment stretched along one side.

Marcus immediately approached the equipment.

"There's no way we're getting power..."

He muttered as he examined the area.

After a moment, he found a hand-cranked generator in the corner, pulled over a chair, and sat down.

"When I was young, I was a signalman."

Before entering the academy, Marcus had served as a boy soldier.

Creak.

He turned the generator handle.

Hmm—

The long-dormant machinery hummed lowly.

Charlotte's eyes brightened a little.

"Senior, will we get a connection?"

"I don't know."

After graduating from the academy, he'd only done business. Even as he answered, he didn't stop cranking.

Soon, static crackled from the radio.

Crackle—

Everyone's eyes turned to the equipment.

Crackle—

Marcus slowly turned the frequency dial.

"This is Rosebrook Naval Base. Please respond."

Silence.

"This is Rosebrook Naval Base. Please respond."

Still no answer.

Crackle—

Only static filled the speaker.

Charlotte bit her lip.

Marcus silently switched to another frequency.

The capital.

The south.

The west.

The railway authority.

The royal army.

He sent out every call signal he knew.

But only endless silence returned.

And then—

Crackle—

Suddenly, a faint voice broke through the static. Everyone froze.

"...Hel...p..."

The voice was too faint to make out clearly. Marcus hurriedly adjusted the dial.

"Say that again!"

Crackle—

"...Hel... help... save me..."

And then—click.

The signal cut off.

Silence fell over the communications room.

No one could speak.

They weren't even sure if what they'd heard was an actual transmission.

Marcus stared at the speaker for a long time, then slowly withdrew his hand.

"If that wasn't an error, then there are still survivors in the royal army."

"Senior—that survivor sounds like they're dying, don't they? That was a rescue call."

At Charlotte's words, Marcus fell silent.

Even if they'd received the signal and heard the cry for help, they had no way of knowing the exact location or situation of those people—so they couldn't help.

We tinkered with various machines after that, but nothing worked.

The generator soon died too—probably because the temperature was too low.

Though the underground facility was warmer than outside, it had been left unattended for too long.

We had no choice but to leave the communications room.

"Where would the Ice Age Research Institute be?"

At my question, Charlotte stroked her chin as if searching her memory. She scanned the corridor, then pointed at the [Records Archive].

"There should be an internal map in there. I remember there being a restricted area near the admiral's office—we should check that out."

As Charlotte said, not only maps but also "classified documents" seemed worth investigating.

Still—I'm sure there are Winterstones inside the base, but I can't pinpoint their location.

Was it because we were underground? Outside, I could locate them just by getting close.

I glanced at Logan. He was holding his greatsword, constantly staring at something.

"Logan, what's wrong?"

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