I Proposed to My Childhood Friend After Regressing - Chapter 24

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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 My Regression, I Proposed to My Childhood Friend
Chapter 24
“Here. Get inside!”
The guard shoved Beatrice forward and closed the door behind her with a grave expression.
—Clank!
“Your meal for the day is on that table over there. Keep quiet and don’t make a fuss until the Marquis calls for you.”
With that final word, the guard left the Prison.
Beatrice exhaled sharply and slowly surveyed her surroundings.
The narrow Prison cell, ringed by damp stone walls, contained only a table and a hard bed.
Left alone in the empty space beyond the iron bars, lit only by torchlight, the reality of her captivity finally sank in.
“……Ugh. What in the world is this?”
Beatrice perched on the hard bed, removed her Glasses, and rubbed her eyes with her palm.
‘I’m locked in a Prison as a criminal! This is absolutely ridiculous!’
She’d never been imprisoned before the regression either.
Beatrice stared blankly into empty space for a moment, then rose from the bed. Next, she made her way to the table to retrieve the meal the guard had mentioned.
On the table lay a hard loaf of bread and a thin, murky soup.
The rations were meager at best, but Beatrice paid them no mind and tore into the bread.
‘My mind won’t work if I don’t eat at times like this.’
Experience was what you drew on in moments like these. This was her first time in a Prison, but not her first time being confined.
As she chewed bread soaked in soup, Beatrice mentally organized everything that had happened so far.
And even ventured into what could be inferred from it.
‘First: Mana Discharge and Mana Collision phenomena have occurred frequently in the Marquis Territory since the past. But unlike before, these phenomena have begun causing harm to people.’
Of course, she still didn’t know the cause.
‘Second, the Marquis and Alec are currently moving together. And they’ve been installing Puppets throughout the territory to solve the Mana Collision problem.’
She still didn’t understand why they’d chosen Lockdown in the process.
‘And third: Baloa is destroying the Puppets without the Marquis or Alec’s knowledge.’
Whether this was the Crown Princess’s doing or Baloa’s own idea, she couldn’t say.
In any case.
‘Right now, what I need to focus on is that Baloa has pinned her wrongdoings on me, and I’m in an unfavorable position!’
Having left the Cloth Fragment behind, Clyde and her companions would find her once they arrived in Yongdo.
And they would step forward to free her from this absurd false accusation.
‘But then again, hmm…….’
Beatrice shoved a spoonful of soup into her mouth, her expression grave.
‘Right now, I’ve told both the Crown Prince and Clyde a bald-faced lie that I’m from the Marquis Territory. I can just as easily be accused of deceptively manipulating both sides with ill intent.’
Moreover, would Alec even accept that Baloa was the true culprit?
Baloa Edvane Crawford.
Beatrice’s thoughts drifted to Baloa’s actions, and she reached into her pocket, withdrawing a single broken piece of Orharkon.
It was the one remaining fragment after the authorities had seized the evidence.
‘Setting aside who orchestrated this, I’m curious why she did it.’
The simplest explanation would be that she wanted to sabotage the Marquis’s plan, but her opponent was Baloa.
The poster child for narcissism—someone who prioritized her own moods and thoughts above all else.
‘There’s no reason for her to suddenly rebel against the Marquis or Alec. Even if the Crown Princess proposed it, she’d still be pretending to be virtuous, so she wouldn’t have outright promised Baloa whatever she wanted.’
Ah, who knows!
All this thinking was making her head spin with heat.
‘Clyde would handle this better than me.’
Beatrice wiped the last of the bread across the soup and popped it into her mouth, gently patting her stomach.
‘For now, I should sleep.’
She’d been awake all night, following the guard’s lead.
Her body ached in places, and her eyes were growing heavy.
Beatrice tucked the remains of her meal to one side and flopped onto the hard bed.
“Yawn… I need to learn more about that mysterious disease too…. But Mana Collision is dangerous, even if it doesn’t cause sickness….”
She mumbled tasks to herself with her eyes closed, but not for long.
Soon after, Beatrice fell into deep sleep, snoring softly.
Anyone watching would say it was brazen—how could a noblewoman raised so delicately have such nerves? But then again.
The first time was hard; the second came easily.
* * *
“Hey.”
“Nnngh…….”
“Wake up, now!”
Tap.
A rough hand tapped her shoulder, and Beatrice’s brow twitched.
“……Mm.”
She opened her eyes slowly, staring blankly at the bare ceiling and the unfamiliar guard.
‘Right, I was arrested.’
Beatrice quickly oriented herself to reality and sat up.
The guard, watching her rub her eyes, clicked his tongue and got straight to business.
“The Marquis and the Grand Duke wish to see you.”
“……I see.”
“Follow me.”
Sleep fell away in an instant. Suddenly, she was alert.
Following the guard out of the Prison, Beatrice passed through long corridors and several more buildings.
House of Downer had an atmosphere entirely different from the Hartwell Earldom, which radiated wealth, or the Dalton Duchy, which exuded dignity.
‘It’s remarkably practical and neat.’
A noble house’s atmosphere typically reflected its master’s disposition and character.
As Beatrice inferred the Marquis’s personality from the building’s interior, the guard obtained permission and opened the large doors.
In the bright, spacious Conference Hall, the first thing that caught her eye were two men seated at the head of the table.
One was a rugged, muscular man with a gruff bearing; the other was a silver-haired man whose refined features were every bit as striking as Clyde’s, despite the marks of time.
The Marquis Downer and Grand Duke Alec Edvane Crawford.
“Marquis, Your Grace—here is the culprit!”
“Well done.”
The Marquis commended the guard briefly, then gestured for Beatrice to approach. The air grew heavy in an instant as he opened his mouth again.
“So. You’re the one who’s been destroying Puppets lately? The scale is wide and the damage substantial—I imagined a fit young man—but I was mistaken.”
“…….”
“Have you any excuse to offer? Why did you do this? Did someone put you up to it, or was it your own doing?”
In response to the Marquis’s question, Beatrice took a measured breath, adjusted her Glasses, and met his gaze directly.
Another noble participating in the interrogation cried out that such rudeness from a criminal was unacceptable, but Beatrice paid no heed.
“To begin with the conclusion: I am not the culprit.”
“Not the culprit? The guards discovered you at the Crime Scene and recovered all the evidence—and you claim it wasn’t you?”
“Yes. It wasn’t me. I happened to be in that location by chance, and suddenly was left holding the tools.”
“If you’re going to lie, at least put some sincerity into it!”
Unable to bear more, the Marquis slammed his fist against the armrest with a bang. Alec took over the questioning from beside him.
“Since you claim you’re not the culprit yourself, I must ask: if not you, then who is the real culprit?”
“That is…….”
Beatrice hesitated. She wasn’t sure whether naming Baloa as the culprit here would be wise.
Staring into Grand Duke Alec’s eyes, wrestling with the choice, Beatrice closed her eyes firmly and reached a decision.
“I didn’t see their face. A hooded figure in a robe threw the tools at me and fled.”
At Beatrice’s answer, the Marquis finally exploded.
He bolted from his seat and hurled the evidence the guard had given him in fury.
“These Puppets were Purification Tools created to solve the crisis that recently struck the Marquis Territory! Because you destroyed them, people in those areas have been injured and fallen ill again! My people are barely holding on as it is, and now you dare offer such pathetic excuses!”
The Marquis’s anger was justified.
Beatrice herself was well aware that her words sounded like utter lies.
‘But if I bring up Baloa now, this already tangled case will only become more knotted! Besides, why would Baloa destroy the Puppets if they’re Purification Tools……. Wait?’
Hold on. Purification Tools?
Beatrice unconsciously echoed the Marquis’s words, and a sudden doubt bloomed in her mind.
‘Puppets containing Orharkon are conduction devices—they have no purification function. So why would the Marquis call them Purification Tools?’
Beatrice’s mind raced. Orharkon, Mana, purification, Lockdown.
The disparate pieces of doubt she’d carried were converging at a crucial, delicate moment…….
Creak—
“Forgive the interruption.”
Beatrice’s unreliable but steadfast ally, Clyde, emerged.

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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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