Home/The Ice Age Came? And I Just Got Married?!/ch 3

Chapter 3.

I traced back through the nine lives Logan had lived.

In his first life, Logan only watched Eve from a distance. In the second, he tried to become her friend.

In the third, he confessed his feelings for the first time—but was rejected.

By the fourth, he decided not to meet Eve at all. Perhaps he thought that if she never met him, she wouldn't die.

But even so, Eve died.

In the fifth life, he gathered a little more courage. They even became engaged. But before the wedding could take place, Eve died.

In the sixth life, the two of them fell in love and were happy for a few days. But a few days later, Eve died again.

In the seventh life, he tried to save her by any means—even kidnapping and imprisoning her. But this time, too, someone broke through the window and killed her.

In the eighth life, Eve confessed her feelings first. He thought this time would surely work out—but she died again.

In the ninth life, he gave up on his emotions. He gave up on life itself. This time, Eve grew desperate and tried to save him—but in the end, she died first.

Throughout all ten regressions, Logan had never even properly kissed Eve. This was the first time they had legally married.

With each regression, the relationship between Logan and Eve changed slightly, but one thing remained constant without exception: Eve was Logan's first love.

At this point, it was clear that even fate itself bore ill intent.

I looked at Logan once more.

He pulled a cylindrical metal flashlight from his bag and clicked it on.

There was a brief crackling sound, and then a faint yellow light pushed back the darkness. The light flickered unsteadily, but it was far brighter than a candle flame.

"It's a prototype from some mad scientist I went out of my way to find—the performance isn't great. Let's move as much as we can while we still can."

Logan then pulled out an armful of winter gear from the bag and dressed me in it.

After slinging the bag back over his shoulder, he took my hand with one hand and the flashlight with the other, and started walking forward.

An uncomfortable silence followed.

At the end of that silence, Logan spoke.

"Eve."

"Yeah?"

"How did you know?"

"Know what?"

"About this tunnel."

I pondered the novel's contents for a moment, searching for a way out.

But rather than overcomplicating things, I decided a straightforward approach was best.

"Logan, you came from the future, didn't you?"

At my question, he stopped in his tracks.

Then he turned to face me. In the dark cave, lit only by the flashlight's beam, a faint tension hung in the air.

Breaking the silence, I spoke again.

"When I saw the snow earlier, I had a strange vision. I saw you acting exactly like someone who came from the future."

That wasn't a lie. In Ice Age Survival, which I had read, Logan displayed all the behaviors typical of a regressor.

Logan's gaze flickered sharply.

"You saw the future?"

"Yes."

"Eve, then you..."

"I also saw myself being killed by certain people in the future. And that I died—repeatedly—nine times."

Thud.

The flashlight slipped from Logan's hand and hit the ground.

I picked up the rolling flashlight and handed it back to him.

Logan took it quietly. Only then did I notice that his hand was trembling.

He was afraid of something.

Perhaps it was the same thing he had already witnessed countless times—my death.

If he had given up everything by the ninth life and turned dark in the tenth, he should have stopped caring whether I lived or died.

Why was he still holding on to me, this fool?

"I also found out that you've liked me for a very long time."

If he had liked me that much for so long, why had he pretended not to know me?

Until recently, I had thought Logan wasn't even interested in me.

I didn't know when or why he had come to like me. The novel provided only extremely limited descriptions of Logan's emotions and inner thoughts.

Right now, Logan and I are on completely different scales of feeling.

To be honest, I was flustered.

My heart did race a little, despite myself—but this was hardly the time for romance.

I'm going to die soon.

If I died this time, Logan wouldn't regress again. I forced myself to calm down.

Then I pulled out my pocket watch from my dress and checked the time.

It was 6:00 PM.

The hour when the sun set and temperatures would plummet exponentially.

"Let's keep moving for now."

"Eve, you said you know I like you."

"Yeah. I was a bit surprised."

"That's all you have to say?"

Logan asked with an expectant look.

"So you saved me because of that, right? Thank you."

I kept my answer as brief as possible. Unsurprisingly, that wasn't the reaction he wanted—he sighed and ran a hand through his hair.

It wasn't easy for me to say this either.

For Logan's sake, and for mine, it's better to keep some distance right now.

"Alright. I suppose it's understandable that you'd be taken aback."

I had expected more resistance, but Logan soon accepted my response.

"I'm not going to rush you. Right now, the only thing that matters to me is keeping you alive."

Logan's crimson eyes burned quietly.

He was very different from the Logan I knew.

Something about him seemed... a little off-kilter, if I had to put it.

Logan does like me, but I can't be certain it's love.

The novel had extremely limited descriptions of Logan's emotions, but there was one passage:

[By now, he no longer knew whether he truly loved Eve or was merely obsessed with her.]

Feelings could change unpredictably.

So even though we had hastily married, I needed to build my own strength rather than rely on Logan.

Logan looked as though he had much to say, but he held his tongue.

Instead, in a calmer voice, he said,

"Let's go."

He nodded toward the path ahead. I followed quietly beside him.

If I had known this back when I burned with rivalry against him, would things have been different between us?

Probably so.

Very, very different.

The tunnel stretched deep. And it continued endlessly.

"Eve, is this really a tunnel that leads to Rosebrook?"

"Yes, it is. It should take about three hours on foot to reach Rosebrook. Probably. Just bear with me a little longer."

From then on, we walked for three hours in silence.

The only words exchanged were when the flashlight battery died and we had to pull out a lantern.

He had even prepared a lantern—thorough as always.

Walking through the dark, silent tunnel, all sorts of thoughts crossed my mind.

What if this is all just a dream?

Perhaps we were simply having a long dream. Of course, the cold was so vivid that it was hard to mistake it for a dream.

Just as I began to feel tired—

Drip—

My nose bled again.

Logan stopped, pulled a handkerchief from his pocket, and pressed it to my nose.

Huh?

"I thought you might have bumped into something earlier, but it really is chronic. You still get nosebleeds whenever you're the least bit strained."

"So you really did know. You really did like me that much, huh?"

At my teasing question, Logan shook his head as if telling me to drop it. His look somehow reminded me of someone watching a troublemaker.

I felt wronged, but stopping the bleeding was the priority, so I held my tongue.

Three hours later, we finally reached the end of the tunnel. Just as I had seen in the novel, the forest leading to Rosebrook came into view.

Beyond this forest lay the port city of Rosebrook.

"Wait, Eve. We can't go out yet."

Logan grabbed my shoulder. Even if he hadn't said anything, I had no intention of stepping outside.

From 6:00 PM onward, the outside temperature would drop to minus sixty degrees.

I knew the ice age well.

This world had experienced an ice age thousands of years ago as well, and humanity had faced a great crisis.

Anthropologists hypothesized that a power called "mana" existed in the previous, now-destroyed world. They also speculated that sorcerers who wielded that mana had existed.

When I attended those lectures, I had thought the scholars were just making strange claims again...

But recalling the contents of Ice Age Survival, I began to wonder if their assertions weren't so far-fetched after all.

There was a scene where Logan handled mana stones.

Perhaps the scholars' hypothesis was correct.

No one knew how to end the ice age. It was still an active area of research in academia.

But what was very well known was how humanity had survived the previous ice age.

"Logan, do you know what my major was?"

At my question, Logan nodded.

"Wasn't it Northern Snow and Ice Environmental Change Studies?"

He was the first person to get it right without ever missing a beat. Even I sometimes got it wrong.

Why on earth had he acted like he didn't even know my name at the festival?

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