Chapter 3
I thought about Logan’s nine previous lives.
In the first life, he only watched Eve from a distance.
In the second, he tried to become her friend.
In the third, he confessed to her for the first time.
She rejected him.
In the fourth life, he decided not to meet her at all.
He wondered if meeting him was the reason she kept dying.
But even then…
Eve still died.
In the fifth life, he became a little braver.
They even got engaged.
But Eve died before the wedding.
In the sixth life, they finally dated.
They were happy for a few days.
Then Eve died again.
In the seventh life, Logan even kidnapped her and locked her away to keep her safe.
But someone broke through the window and killed her anyway.
In the eighth life, Eve confessed to him first.
He truly believed things would work this time.
But she died again.
In the ninth life, Logan gave up.
He gave up on love.
He gave up on life.
This time, Eve desperately tried to save him.
But in the end…
She died first once again.
Across all ten timelines…
Logan had never even shared a proper kiss with Eve.
This was the first time they had legally become husband and wife.
With every new life, the relationship between Logan and Eve changed a little.
But one thing never changed.
Eve was always Logan’s first love.
At this point…
It felt like fate itself hated them.
I looked at Logan again.
He reached into his backpack and took out a metal flashlight.
When he pressed the switch, it crackled for a moment.
A faint yellow light pushed back the darkness.
The light flickered, but it was still much brighter than a candle.
“I got this from a crazy scientist after a lot of trouble.”
“It doesn’t work very well.”
“So we should keep moving while we still can.”
Then Logan took several winter clothes out of the bag and helped me put them on.
After putting the backpack back on, he held the flashlight in one hand…
And my hand in the other.
Then we started walking deeper into the tunnel.
Silence filled the air.
After a while…
Logan spoke first.
“Eve.”
“Hm?”
“How did you know?”
“Know what?”
“About this tunnel.”
I quickly thought about the novel.
Should I make up an excuse?
No.
It was probably better to tell him the truth.
“Logan.”
“You’re from the future, aren’t you?”
He stopped walking.
Then he slowly turned toward me.
The tunnel was dark.
Only the flashlight lit our faces.
The air suddenly became tense.
I broke the silence.
“When the snow started falling…”
“I saw something strange.”
“It was like a vision.”
“I saw you acting like someone who came from the future.”
It wasn’t exactly a lie.
The Logan in How to Survive the Great Winter had always acted like someone carrying memories from another timeline.
Logan’s red eyes shook.
“You saw the future?”
“Yes.”
“Eve… then does that mean…”
“I also saw myself being murdered.”
“And I saw that I died nine times.”
Thud.
The flashlight slipped from Logan’s hand.
I picked it up from the ground and handed it back to him.
He quietly accepted it.
Only then did I notice…
His hands were shaking.
He was afraid.
Maybe…
He was afraid of watching me die again.
If he had already given up everything after the ninth life…
If he had become the villain in the tenth…
Then why was he still trying so hard to save me?
Idiot.
“I also found out…”
“You’ve liked me for a long time.”
If he had loved me for so many years…
Why had he always acted like I didn’t exist?
Until recently, I had honestly believed he wasn’t interested in me at all.
I didn’t know when he had fallen for me.
Or why.
The novel hardly ever explained Logan’s feelings.
Right now…
Logan and I don’t feel the same way.
Honestly…
I didn’t know how to react.
My heart had skipped a beat.
But…
This wasn’t the time to think about romance.
I’m supposed to die soon.
If I died this time…
Logan wouldn’t be able to go back again.
I took a deep breath and calmed myself.
Then I pulled out my pocket watch.
It was six in the evening.
The sun was setting.
Soon the temperature would drop even faster.
“We should keep moving.”
“Eve.”
“You know I like you now.”
“Yeah.”
“I was surprised.”
“That’s all?”
Logan looked at me as if he was expecting something more.
“So that’s why you saved me.”
“Thank you.”
I kept my answer as short as possible.
It obviously wasn’t the response he wanted.
He sighed and ran a hand through his hair.
Honestly…
Saying that wasn’t easy for me either.
For Logan’s sake…
And for mine…
It’s better if we keep some distance right now.
“I understand.”
“If it were you, you’d naturally be shocked.”
I thought he would argue.
Instead…
He accepted my reaction.
“I’m not asking you to decide right away.”
“The only thing that matters to me now…”
“Is keeping you alive.”
His crimson eyes quietly burned with determination.
He wasn’t the Logan I remembered.
Something about him felt…
A little broken.
I know Logan likes me.
But I can’t say for sure that it’s love.
The novel had rarely described his emotions.
But there was one line I still remembered.
“He no longer knew if he truly loved Eve… or if he had simply become obsessed with her.”
People’s feelings could change.
Even if we were married now…
I couldn’t depend on Logan.
I needed to become stronger myself.
He looked like he wanted to say many things.
But in the end…
He stayed silent.
“Let’s go.”
He nodded toward the tunnel.
I quietly followed him.
Back when I saw him only as my rival…
If I had known all of this…
Would things have been different between us?
Probably.
Very different.
The tunnel was long.
It seemed to go on forever.
“Eve.”
“Are you sure this tunnel leads to Rosebrook?”
“Yes.”
“It should take about three hours on foot.”
“Just hang in there a little longer.”
After that…
We walked in silence for three hours.
The only time we spoke was when the flashlight battery died and Logan took out a lantern instead.
He even packed a lantern.
He really prepared for everything.
As we walked through the dark tunnel…
All kinds of thoughts filled my mind.
What if this is just a dream?
A very long dream.
But the freezing cold felt far too real.
It couldn’t be a dream.
As I started feeling tired…
Blood suddenly ran from my nose.
Logan immediately stopped.
He took out a handkerchief and gently pressed it against my nose.
“Huh?”
“I thought you had hit something earlier.”
“So it really is a chronic problem.”
“You still get nosebleeds whenever you push yourself too hard.”
“So you already knew.”
“You really did like me that much, huh?”
I teased him.
Logan simply shook his head.
He looked at me the way someone would look at a troublesome child.
It wasn’t fair.
But stopping the nosebleed was more important.
So I kept quiet.
Three hours later…
We finally reached the end of the tunnel.
Just like in the novel…
A forest leading to Rosebrook stretched out before us.
Beyond this forest was the port city of Rosebrook.
“Wait, Eve.”
“We can’t go outside yet.”
Logan placed a hand on my shoulder.
Even if he hadn’t stopped me…
I wasn’t planning to leave.
After six in the evening…
The outside temperature would fall to minus sixty degrees Celsius.
I knew a lot about the Ice Age.
Thousands of years ago…
This world had already survived one.
Humanity had nearly gone extinct back then.
Anthropologists believed that the ancient world had something called mana.
They also believed there had once been mages who could use it.
When I first learned that in class, I thought it was just another strange theory.
But after remembering How to Survive the Great Winter…
It didn’t seem impossible anymore.
I remember Logan using mana stones.
Maybe…
The scholars were right.
No one knew how to end the Ice Age.
Even now, researchers were still trying to find the answer.
But one thing was well known.
People knew how humanity had survived the last Ice Age.
“Logan.”
“Do you know what I studied?”
He nodded.
“Wasn’t it Northern Ice and Climate Change Studies?”
I blinked.
This was the first time anyone had ever said the full name correctly.
Even I got it wrong sometimes.
Then why…
Why did he pretend not to know my name at the Academy festival?
THIS IS THE END OF CHAPTER 3
