Home/The Ice Age Came? And I Just Got Married?!/ch 9

Chapter 9.

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His body was as heavy as a waterlogged cotton rag, and his fever was raging.

How had it come to this? Where was he now? When was the last time he'd felt such warmth?

Marcus gave up trying to lift his heavy eyelids and traced back through his memories.

The great disaster had struck without warning; leaving the hotel, he'd run into his aide, Jack.

After that, it had been a frantic struggle for survival.

They'd moved from place to place within Rosebrook, scavenging for food and seeking shelter.

But every shelter that seemed promising already had an owner, and they were always driven out.

There was a Rutland villa in Rosebrook, of course—a lavish mansion flaunting immense wealth.

But unfortunately, the northern part of the Uptown District, where it stood, had been entirely destroyed by an avalanche.

Ha. Nothing goes right.

The city appeared utterly deserted—not even an ant in sight.

But that was only on the surface. Beneath the shadows, many survivors were hiding.

The reason Marcus had managed to survive this long was his "information network," backed by a memory that could recall anything he'd seen even once.

He was the chairman of the Rutland Company, but simultaneously, he was an information broker who ruled the back alleys.

Born into a poor family with nothing, he had risen to his current position—surviving through countless schemes, stratagems, and information.

Fortunately, that ability had also helped him survive this disaster.

Until he became the target of those people.

About a week after the disaster struck, factions had formed among Rosebrook's survivors.

They were ruthless.

They would stop at nothing to survive.

At first, they raided food stores.

Then, they took coal for heating.

And finally, they began taking people and enslaving them.

The problem was, they weren't ordinary thugs.

They operated with organization.

They had patrol squads, dedicated lookouts, and even spies planted among the survivors.

They were completely insane.

They were creating a new order atop the old one to survive.

The strong took, and the weak froze to death. A month into the ice age—that was how they seized control of Rosebrook's survivor society.

Marcus and Jack had stumbled into them while searching for food and were chased down.

And so they ran, and ran, and ran.

In their desperate flight, they eventually entered the forest zone—the land called the Devil's territory.

"Chairman, if we go any further, we'll reach that place. We can't go on. Even those ruthless bastards avoid it, they say."

"Then what, die here? The sun's about to set—we need to find shelter."

How much deeper into the forest they'd pushed, he couldn't remember.

Eventually, they found the so-called forbidden ground—the Devil's Village—and to their astonishment, they noticed that the village had significantly less snow.

Even more, smoke was rising from the chimney of a large mansion at the edge of the village.

Marcus narrowed his eyes.

"Chairman, it looks like someone lives there!"

"The Devil's Village can't possibly have human residents. Let's go check—whether it's human or demon."

"I-I'm scared, Chairman."

Jack began trembling—clearly for reasons other than the cold.

"The sun is setting too. Stay here if you want."

Marcus dragged his heavy body forward, step by step. In the end, Jack also shuffled along after him.

The moment they passed the village wall and set foot on its ground—

Warmth enveloped them.

It wasn't a miraculous sensation of melting—but he could feel warmth circulating through the village.

Dragging their frozen bodies, they somehow reached the mansion with the smoking chimney and knocked.

Perhaps it was relief.

Their bodies, pushed to the absolute limit, finally gave out.

Jack and Marcus had summoned their last strength, knocked on the front door, and collapsed.

...

Marcus, half-conscious, opened his eyes a crack. A woman with pure white silver hair appeared in his blurry vision.

"...Ma... Marcus opened his... eyes..."

An angel?

How could such a dazzlingly radiant, white-haired, beautiful being exist?

She looks just like Eve Rania Everhart.

Eve Rania Everhart had looked like that, too.

Eve also...

Wait—Eve?!

Marcus snapped his eyes open and sat up.

He was in an unfamiliar place.

There was no visible breath in the air.

Realizing that, he looked around.

Outside, the world was such that a person would freeze to death within minutes after sunset—but this room was astonishingly warm.

He was lying on a worn bed with a cherry-wood frame, but the blanket smelled faintly of soap and was soft and fluffy.

The room was neither large nor small. Through the window above the bed, he could see lush green trees.

The bedroom was on the second floor.

What? Lush green trees?

Click. Creak—

Just then, the door opened.

The person who entered was a man—in a black military uniform.

Black hair, crimson eyes. His characteristic expressionless, sculpted face gave nothing away.

"Cheshwind?"

Logan Arthur Cheshwind. Two years his junior at the academy. Why was he here?

"Why are you here?"

Not "How did you get here?" Not "Are you all right?" Not "How have you been?"

The first words out of his mouth were: "Why are you here?"

Marcus let out a dry laugh.

Still as rude as ever.

But he didn't say that out loud—after all, this man had saved him.

I'm sure I saw Eve.

As that thought crossed his mind, Marcus suddenly became certain: where Logan was, Eve couldn't be far.

Marcus sighed and answered with a weary look.

"To survive, obviously. Why else?"

At his reply, Logan fell silent. An uncomfortable quiet settled between them.

"I appreciate you saving me. I didn't know this was your shelter."

"If you'd known, you could have prepared to leave."

Logan tilted his head slightly.

Marcus felt a surge of irritation but held it back. Logan was his lifesaver, after all.

When Marcus didn't retort, Logan raised an eyebrow in mild surprise.

Marcus endured and changed the subject.

"Eve is here too, right?"

"You call her Eve so casually?"

"And you're quite short with your senior, aren't you?"

"Ah, I've inherited the dukedom in the meantime."

Damn class system. In the end, Marcus looked away in defeat—just as Eve entered the room.

"Senior Rutland, it's been a while. How are you feeling?"

As expected: where Logan went, Eve followed. Damn it.

"Hey, Logan. Our senior woke up—why are you just standing there? Didn't you check on him?"

"That guy's fine. He talks well enough."

Logan answered childishly, then, outside Eve's line of sight, raised his index and middle fingers to his own eyes, then pointed them at Marcus.

I'm watching you.

That was the message.

That son of a bitch is still as rude as ever.

If Eve and Logan had been rivals for the ages, Marcus and Logan were famously bitter enemies.

Despite being in different years, they clashed constantly.

Usually, Marcus picked the fights, and Logan accepted—but Logan never backed down.

The reason Marcus picked those fights was simple.

He wanted to court Eve—but Logan had her under airtight guard.

Marcus flashed Eve a charming smile.

"Eve, wouldn't you check on me instead?"

"Huh? Why?"

"What?"

"Since you're both men, it'd probably be more comfortable for you with him."

Eve refused with a bright, innocent face.

She seemed completely oblivious to Marcus's implication.

Logan let out a quiet snicker.

The nervous tapping of his fingers, his arms crossed, suddenly became much more relaxed.

Whether Eve noticed or not, she excused herself.

"Then rest and recover. Ah, and your aide is resting in the next room, so don't worry too much. We can talk more later."

"W-Wait, Eve!"

Before Marcus could stop her, Eve swept out of the room like the wind.

Marcus stood frozen, his hand reaching out to empty air. Logan smirked.

It was a clear victory.

---

I know why Senior Marcus is so kind to me. It's because I'm an earl's daughter.

He wanted to penetrate deeper into noble society.

Being the adopted son of an earl was certainly respectable—but he wanted more: the title of a countess's husband.

That aside, Marcus was not a character tied to either the protagonist or the antagonist.

More precisely, he was a brilliant strategist and aide in a survival camp opposing the protagonist, Aiden.

But...

To be honest, living alone with Logan here in the Devil's Village had been quite cozy and comfortable. I didn't particularly need an extra mouth to feed.

I'll have to send him back.

Having made up my mind, I headed to the greenhouse.

The glass greenhouse was entirely transparent. At its entrance, I saw a tiny creature pacing nervously with its little paws clasped together.

"Chippy?"

Hearing my call, the squirrel perked up its ears and hopped around, trying to catch my attention.

Oh my. So cute.

Then it hurled an acorn it was holding at the glass door.

Thump.

What was it doing now? That cranky squirrel.

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