Home/The Ice Age Came? And I Just Got Married?!/ch 60

Chapter 60.

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Everyone had taken shelter in Eve House. I climbed up onto the wall with Logan and Marcus.

The cold wind lashed at our faces.

Howl—

The blizzard was close enough to see beyond the forest.

I clutched my coat collar with one hand and looked up.

Beyond the wall, fierce snow was whipping through the air.

The forest, visible just minutes ago, was now shrouded in a hazy white veil.

"There!"

Marcus shouted.

I turned with Logan to look in the direction he pointed.

But no matter how hard I looked, Vincent and Nathan were nowhere to be seen—the rapidly falling snow had already erased all traces.

Squeak—!

Just then, Pipi came fluttering unsteadily through the storm. He landed on my shoulder, then was knocked off by the wind.

I caught him. Feeling safe in my hand, he kept gesturing toward a certain direction—trying to show us where Nathan and Vincent were.

Pipi fluttered in my hand, but couldn't fly for fear of being blown away.

I held him tightly and moved in the direction he struggled toward.

"Eve—stay back. I'll handle this."

"Logan—if I move, you move too, right?"

At my question, Logan looked at me uneasily, then nodded.

"Then if you move, I move too. We're one body."

"..."

"And Nathan is your man—but he's also mine. I'm the Duchess of Cheshwind, and I have a duty to save my people."

Logan laughed. Lately, he seemed to oppose me out of habit first, then watch what I'd do next. ...Is he a pervert?

Just then, Marcus behind us said,

"Excuse me—are you both forgetting I'm here?"

Logan snapped back to reality and sighed.

"Right. Let's go."

And so, relying on Pipi like a guidepost, we moved forward through the whiteout—where we couldn't see an inch ahead.

"Logan!"

At my call, Logan wordlessly wrapped his arm firmly around my waist.

The ground had collapsed into a massive icy pit.

"Wait—stay back. I've been through situations like this many times—leave the rest to me."

Logan pushed me toward Marcus and muttered lowly. He approached the debris, then stamped the frozen ground with his boot.

CRASH—!

With an impact that seemed impossible for a human, the massive stones and ice blocking the entrance shattered and flew apart.

Through nine regressions, Logan's honed instincts told him exactly where the survivors were trapped beneath the snow.

But the pit was deeper than expected, and the storm was filling it with snow again. There wasn't enough time to pull them out physically.

I steadied my swaying body and checked my pocket watch.

Twenty minutes until Acorn Village enters the storm's path.

It was getting harder to hold out. Time was running out.

Then—

You have the Silverstone.

A voice spoke in my mind.

I instinctively clutched my chest.

I could feel the silver mana stirring deep in my heart.

"Eve—no. Not here."

Logan, sensing I was about to use the Winterstone, stopped me.

He wasn't trying to overprotect—it was just common sense that using a Winterstone in a dangerous whiteout was risky.

His objection was reasonable.

But—

You can do it.

The voice kept whispering.

I placed my hand over my heart. It pounded fiercely as silver mana flowed through my body.

I reached past Logan's shoulder, locking onto the "space" inside the pit, recalling the sensation of moving the entire frozen tidal wave.

Logan turned to look at me.

"Trust me—I'm confident."

"..."

After a brief silence, Logan slowly let go. Instead, he stepped closer to my side—ready to catch me if I collapsed from a nosebleed.

I nodded to him, then snapped my fingers. A silver constellation swept through the pit.

FLASH—!

Where the blinding light passed, the stones and snow that had buried the survivors vanished.

Logan quickly jumped down, pulled Vincent and Nathan out, and tossed them up.

...Tossed them like sacks of cargo.

Vincent lay collapsed on the intact part of the wall, gasping for breath. Nathan clutched the Redstone shard I'd given him, sighing in relief.

Both were seriously injured—Vincent especially.

Soon, Logan leaped back up.

"I knew you'd come—I believed in you."

Nathan said with a pale smile—looking at me, not Logan.

The Redstone Nathan had was too weak to save both of them from the avalanche.

I immediately approached them and reached out. Red light from my fingertips enveloped their frostbitten bodies.

"Urgh."

Vincent, barely conscious, seemed to feel the warmth and opened his eyes.

He looked up at me—his gaze trembling.

The exertion must have been too much—hot liquid trickled from my nose.

Logan, as if waiting for it, pulled out a handkerchief and pressed it to my nose.

Then he glared at Vincent with murderous eyes—clearly holding him responsible for making his wife overexert.

Logan probably hadn't wanted to save Vincent.

He'd even witnessed Nathan reaching out to save Vincent from a distance.

"Sorry to interrupt, junior—we don't have time. Ten minutes until we enter the storm's path."

Marcus urged us to hurry, supporting Nathan. He tilted his head toward Vincent.

"He looks heavy—I don't think I can carry him."

Logan's face twisted in annoyance.

Vincent looked utterly dejected and hung his head.

"Just leave me—I don't want to cause any more trouble."

Honestly, I'd felt Vincent's dislike for me from the start—it was obvious.

Yet he had still helped reinforce the wall for the village, following orders from Logan and me.

It was an accident—not intentional, and not his fault.

Even if it was only because he had to survive here for now, the fact remained.

Just then, Logan spoke to Vincent.

"Honestly, I don't care what happens to you—I could leave you here right now..."

Logan trailed off, glanced at me, and continued.

"But I won't—because of my wife."

Only then did Vincent look at me.

He groaned in pain—his face full of regret and self-reproach.

"I'm sorry—I was arrogant."

What exactly he was arrogant about, I wasn't sure—but Nathan seemed to understand.

"I understand now why the Duke's aide told me to bet on the Duchess."

...?

I'd like to know what that means.

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