Home/The Ice Age Came? And I Just Got Married?!/ch 7

2. The Devil's Village

Chapter 7

A month had passed since then.

Life in the Devil's Village was surprisingly bearable. Outside the village, temperatures dropped to minus sixty degrees, but inside, even at its coldest, it was only around minus ten.

"I wish summer would come soon."

At my muttering, Logan glanced at me. I shrugged and explained.

"At minus sixty degrees, most plants and animals can't survive long."

"That's true."

"More than anything, if the ground doesn't thaw for over two years, plants probably won't be able to take root anymore."

"The food chain will collapse too."

At Logan's reply, I nodded vigorously. After all, we had been top and bottom of our class—we ought to be able to have conversations like this.

If even summer doesn't come, this land's ecosystem will collapse within a year.

Whatever happened, the protagonist needed to find a way to end the ice age quickly.

Logan had prepared an astonishing amount.

In particular, we were using the village headman's house as our residence, and my room even came with a walk-in closet filled with winter clothing.

On top of that, the headman's garden had a greenhouse—and it was incredibly warm, making it possible to grow crops, which was its greatest advantage.

In the greenhouse, we grew potatoes, cabbage, turnips, and carrots.

All thanks to Logan having stocked everything in advance so we could be self-sufficient.

Moreover, the greenhouse was enormous, so we had divided it into sections.

Each crop had different root depths, nutritional requirements, and humidity preferences.

Potatoes, in particular, took up a lot of space and needed hilling, so they couldn't be placed too close to the cabbage.

I used a small trowel to gently pull soil up around the potato stems.

Potatoes yield better when you mound the soil like this...

Cabbage, on the other hand, could rot if it got too humid, so ventilation was important. I opened the greenhouse window to let in some air.

Just then, Logan came into the greenhouse.

"I told you I'd do this, Eve. You should just rest in the mansion."

"Rest and do what? There's nothing to do."

Rustle, rustle—!!

At that moment, a baby squirrel descended from the tree in the center of the greenhouse and chattered at us.

It was a complaint about the noise.

Yes.

This squirrel was a very special squirrel.

You could call it the guardian of the greenhouse, keeping it warm?

Even in the novel, its true nature was never revealed—but it was excellent at greenhouse management. It grew crops remarkably well.

I watched the tiny, palm-sized squirrel scurry around the plots, checking on each crop's condition.

"When we first started tending the garden, it used to tug at our hair and torment us. Now it tends everything as if it's its own."

At my words, Logan let out a dry chuckle.

"That was probably just territorial behavior. That squirrel has a peculiar temperament."

Watching the busy squirrel, I sat down at the table under the large tree in the greenhouse.

Logan took the seat across from me.

Naturally, we set out teacups and began brewing tea.

Over the past month, this had become our own newlywed-ish (?) routine.

In these bleak times, without these small comforts, it would have been hard to endure.

"Logan, have you thought about rescuing more people and bringing them here? There might be survivors."

"No."

"Why?"

At my question, Logan tilted his head and replied in a rather twisted tone.

"You're the only one who matters to me."

I calmly brewed the herbal tea and nodded.

"I see."

Logan was a lunatic, after all—I had to understand that.

Besides, in Logan's memories, I had died nine times already. And except for the first death, I had been killed every single time.

There was no way he could trust humans.

His overprotectiveness stemmed from trauma—I had to accept that.

"Both of us have missing families, but I recall you had an aide who was close to you. Don't you want to find him?"

At my words, Logan seemed to think for a moment, then shook his head.

"Ah. Nathan will come on his own."

"All the way here? How?"

"You'll see when he gets here."

Logan's aide, Nathan Holt, was an excellent sled driver.

Since he had been one of the northern expedition members Logan had sponsored, I knew him well. If he was still alive, he might even be coming by dog sled.

When I was fifteen, there had been a sponsorship event for a northern exploration project.

Sponsors were given access to the expedition reports, and I had desperately wanted to participate.

At the time, influenced by my second brother—who was an assistant professor in Northern Snow and Ice Environmental Change Studies—I was deeply interested in northern exploration.

I ended up choosing the same major as my second brother when I was in my second year of the academy, after all.

Anyway, the northern expedition project only accepted one team on a first-come-first-served basis—and Logan had snatched it right from under me.

That was the day I properly recognized Logan's existence.

And here I was, circling back to thoughts of Logan again. I shook my head and tried to think of something else.

"...How's the Redstone doing?"

At my question, Logan pulled a Redstone from his pocket and placed it on the table.

A faint crimson light flickered from within the crystal, as if it held an ember.

Its surface wasn't smooth.

Like a freshly mined mineral, it was rough and cracked in places, with dark red veins entwined between the crystals like blood vessels.

Just looking at the Redstone made me feel warm.

More precisely, the air around the stone was subtly heating up.

"The heat is still alive."

We had found this in the basement of the headman's mansion. And a whole pile of them, at that.

I had led Logan to the basement under the pretense of exploring the mansion, so now he firmly believed I had acquired some kind of "clairvoyance."

It's not entirely wrong, either.

But there was one thing Logan didn't know.

Mana stones—Winterstones.

Immediately after the disaster, unidentified mana stones began appearing all over the world. People named them Winterstones.

When Logan regressed for the tenth time, after nine previous regressions, these Winterstones had appeared.

Winterstones came in various types and colors, each possessing mysterious powers and functions.

In the novel, the only way to end the ice age was to gather as many Winterstones as possible and grow in power.

Rosebrook was said to have the largest deposits of Winterstones buried within it.

I had known the mansion Logan prepared also had some, which was why I had happily discovered and collected them.

Just then—

The crimson light trapped inside the Redstone suddenly burst outward.

"Eve!"

Logan grabbed my wrist in alarm—but by then, the Redstone's power had already been absorbed into my hand and vanished.

Huh?

What was that?

In the novel, there was never any mention of Winterstones being absorbed into the human body.

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