I Proposed to My Childhood Friend After Regressing - Chapter 2

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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After Regression, I Proposed to My Childhood Friend
Chapter 2
Beatrice was certain, in that moment, that she’d hallucinated. There was no way Clyde would propose to her!
To clear her head, she crunched the ice in her iced tea between her teeth, then pressed her fingertips to her temples and continued.
“Sorry, I think I’m more tired than I realized. Could you say that again? What did you just say?”
“Marry me.”
“……Marriage? You’re asking me to marry you right now?”
“Yes.”
Good heavens—it wasn’t a hallucination after all.
Beatrice suppressed the urge to leap up and bounce with delight, forcing herself to appear composed instead.
She had no idea what had prompted this, but the direction things were taking was exactly what she wanted.
She gave a light cough and straightened in her seat, turning to face Clyde with an open expression.
Despite her efforts to restrain her emotions, a note of barely concealed joy crept into her voice.
“……You madman, is that how you propose to someone? Any woman with feelings for you would run away. But fine. Yes. Let’s get married.”
“……What?”
Her acceptance came so swiftly that Clyde’s composure cracked visibly. He seemed to be doubting whether he’d heard correctly himself.
Beatrice, however, had no intention of waiting for him to regain his senses.
“I said yes to marriage. The truth is, I came here to propose to you.”
“……You?”
“Yes.”
Unfazed by Clyde’s incredulous response, Beatrice withdrew a crumpled Proposal Letter from her pocket and held it up.
She even took the care to smooth out the wrinkles so the writing would be clearly legible.
“…….”
“Thank goodness you spoke first, honestly. I was wrestling with how on earth to bring this up.”
With a satisfied air, she stretched both arms out in a long stretch. Now that the tension had lifted, a strange hunger overtook her—she reached for the cookie beside her iced tea and popped it into her mouth.
“……So you were also planning to propose to me? Today?”
“That’s what I’m saying.”
Beatrice crunched on the cookie as she confirmed his statement, raising one eyebrow with a slight smirk.
“Now that I think about it, that’s suspicious. Why did you want to propose to me?”
“Well, you’ll be hearing marriage talk from everyone soon enough, so I figured we could use each other as shields—”
“Skip the nonsense.”
“Then I was going to—”
“And don’t bother saying ‘because I’m handsome’ or ‘let’s get married so I can count it as saving someone.'”
“……What are you?”
He let out a hollow laugh, as if marveling at her prescience. Clyde leaned back in his chair with both hands raised.
He gazed at nothing for a moment as if deliberating, then leaned forward to face Beatrice again.
His blue eyes—the ones everyone praised as beautiful—gleamed with determination.
“Beatrice, this will sound absurd, but hear me out.”
“Go ahead.”
“……I think I’ve undergone a Regression.”
Clyde’s gaze was utterly serious.
Beatrice listened to his low, steady voice, then shrugged nonchalantly with a soft snort.
“Oh, what a coincidence. So have I.”
“Beatrice, I’m not joking. I saw your family’s house burn down with my own eyes.”
Her hand, casually reaching for a cookie, froze mid-motion.
She blinked rapidly, her pale green eyes flickering before she whispered almost to herself.
“……Wait, really?”
“What?”
“But I mean it too. Your entire family was executed as traitors.”
Beatrice’s pale green eyes and Clyde’s blue eyes met lightly across the empty space between them.
The two of them knew each other far too well. And that meant they both understood: every word spoken now was the unvarnished truth.
Beatrice looked at him with an unusual gravity, then pressed her forehead with one hand and lowered her head.
The tight line of her lips and the tension in her jaw visible beneath her palm made for a decidedly serious expression.
Serious enough that Clyde rose from his seat and gripped her shoulders.
“Hey…….”
And the moment his warmth touched her shoulders, a short sigh escaped Beatrice’s lips.
“Ugh……. Ha, what is this?”
“Hmm?”
“I mean, normally when you find out something like this, shouldn’t you feel relieved to know you’re not alone?”
She murmured in disbelief, then lifted her head again. She looked Clyde up and down, her tongue clicking in disapproval.
“Honestly, why can’t I rely on you? Is it because you look decent but that’s all?”
“What did you just—”
“I mean, I’m grateful the proposal didn’t fall through thanks to you, but really, if I could ask for one more person to regress, I’d take literally anyone but—”
Catching that look in her eye, Clyde snapped and began firmly pressing the crown of her head.
It was an unexpectedly aggressive gesture from someone known in the Social Circle and Imperial Knight Order as the paragon of gentlemen.
“Where did that cheeky mouth come from? Hm? Just a handsome face? Ha! Look, let me show you how incredible I am—”
“Ouch! I don’t care, you idiot! You didn’t even prepare a proper reason for proposing, and now you’re spilling secrets to me—ow! Get your hand off!”
“I’m not moving it.”
“Oh, so that’s how you’re going to play it?”
Beatrice stopped thrashing her arms to try and pry him away. Instead, she drew back her tightly clenched fist and drove it forward in a straight line—a precise strike aimed directly at his chest.
“Ugh!”
“Quit whining.”
Watching Clyde double over in mock pain, she snorted and brushed her disheveled hair back with her hand, sticking her tongue out slightly.
“Who told you to do something worth hitting?”
“……You…….”
“That’s enough! We’re wasting time here with no one watching. Sit back down, quick. Since it’s come to this, let’s hurry up and prevent Clan Annihilation.”
She rapped the table with her palm impatiently, and Clyde—who had been clutching his stomach moments before—straightened up perfectly fine.
Given the gravity of their situation, he settled back into his seat as if granting her this one concession, his expression growing far more composed.
“Alright. Let’s start with the basics. You know about the faction that drove a wedge between our families, right? And that the key person behind it is ‘that person.'”
“Yes.”
How could she not know? She’d learned of their existence only after everything had crumbled beyond repair, and the despair she’d felt had been overwhelming.
‘This time, it won’t happen.’
Beatrice brushed aside the memories of her past. What mattered now was not the past.
“This time it won’t work. So if we……”
“……get married and make the two families into one united household, so to speak.”
“Exactly.”
The two locked eyes once more and simultaneously extended their hands in a handshake. Though of course, the contact lasted only a fraction of a second.
There was no need to dwell affectionately on the hand of someone like Clyde Dalton—or anyone, for that matter.
With their unified front confirmed, Clyde calmly withdrew a sheet of paper from his pocket.
“You understand this already, I’m sure, but we’ll have to climb one major mountain to make this marriage happen, won’t we?”
“Right. We both have older brothers.”
“I was thinking, since persuasion might take time——”
“That paper is……. You didn’t——!”
“Yes, that exact thing.”
Beside Beatrice’s crumpled Proposal Letter lay a crisp Marriage Registration Form.
“If it seems like we’ll lose time, let’s just file the registration first.”
Beatrice stood up and applauded Clyde’s audacious plan. Then she added seriously.
“Let’s sign it now. You don’t have another copy?”
“I do.”
“Each of us keeps one, and if either of us smells trouble, we file it.”
“Done.”
The two exchanged satisfied nods and immediately picked up pens to begin filling out the Marriage Registration Forms.
“Wow, seeing my name next to yours like this actually gives me chills. Look—see the goosebumps on my arm?”
“Who are you to talk? How am I supposed to live with this?”
“What’s the big deal? My mother said that nowadays divorce isn’t even considered shameful. Once we’re done with what we need to do, we’ll part ways cleanly. Our family’s rich, so you don’t have to pay alimony.”
“I’ve never met anyone who talks about divorce while accepting a proposal.”
“You should be thanking me for accepting a proposal like that in the first place.”
Despite their bickering, the Marriage Registration Form they completed turned out to be remarkably useful.
“Why on earth is there a difference between three years from now and right now? I’m going to marry Clyde, I’m getting married, please let me get married!”
Though not in the form they’d originally envisioned—it became embarrassingly necessary.
“You……you’re doing that right now……. Goodness! She said she was going to meet Clyde at the Duke’s Residence without any notice, and I thought—what is a grown lady doing?—so I rushed over, and this is shameful! Did your mother teach you to act like this?”
“I don’t know, don’t know! If you won’t give permission, I’ll start sabotaging things right now!”
It had also been revealed much sooner than expected.
Lying flat on her back with her eyes squeezed shut before her flustered mother, Beatrice glanced sideways to check on Clyde.
At least there was one saving grace: she wasn’t making a fool of herself alone.
“With all due respect, wouldn’t it be better for you to congratulate us at the wedding ceremony rather than learn of our marriage from documents and the Imperial Newspaper?”
Though this side wasn’t exactly showing restraint either.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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