I Proposed to My Childhood Friend After Regressing - Chapter 37

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

After My Regression, I Proposed to My Childhood Friend
Chapter 37
Beatrice blinked involuntarily at the sight of the ransacked Storage Warehouse and Valoa, who sat fuming in a corner.
She couldn’t believe what she was seeing was real.
“I, this is…….”
“Jeremy, are you going to release me right now or not? And what are you doing?”
Before speaking again, Beatrice fixed Jeremy with a look that demanded explanation.
“……Um.”
Jeremy smiled faintly, seeming at a loss, and lowered his voice.
“You may well be acquainted, having arrived with the Crown Prince himself……but this is Miss Valoa Crawford. She joined our Volunteer Group not long ago by Her Majesty’s order. Only…….”
“Why are you muttering like that! Did you not hear me say to release me? Are your ears broken or something!”
“……Only that… she keeps trying to escape, or rather, to run away…….”
“Ah.”
Had she not known who the other party was, she would have thought this utterly ridiculous. But this was Valoa Crawford, after all.
It wasn’t as if Jeremy’s voice had grown quieter without reason as he continued speaking.
Yet Beatrice had little difficulty understanding him. She trusted him entirely.
When she’d first arrived at the Marquessate and encountered Valoa Crawford, it had been on the Forest Path in the dead of night.
‘I’ve always wondered what she was doing out at that hour.’
So she’d escaped.
It wasn’t truly surprising. Valoa was more than capable of such a thing.
If anything, it would have been far more suspicious and unsettling had she been tamely helping the monks and the people.
Reading comprehension in Beatrice’s expression, Jeremy released a breath tinged with relief.
“Then Miss Kruger, I’d be grateful for your help. There’s nothing difficult to do—just keep watch over her. And if you have the time, perhaps you could help tend to the crops in the warehouse…….”
Jeremy surveyed the potatoes, sweet potatoes, and lumengroot rolling across the ground with a pained expression.
His eyes showed concern that the crops might have been damaged.
“……These crops are vital famine relief provisions…….”
“Yes, I understand.”
As the daughter of the Hartwell house, enriched by fertile soil, Beatrice possessed some knowledge of crops.
Potatoes, sweet potatoes, and lumengroot were all exemplary famine relief crops that thrived even in poor soil.
Among them, lumengroot grew well even in land tainted by magical contamination and was easy to store, making it ideal for solving the Marquessate’s food shortage.
‘But wait—lumengroot is sprouting? Do storage lumengroot usually sprout this readily?’
She decided it probably didn’t, and quickly dismissed the thought.
For now, whether the lumengroot had sprouted mattered far less than Valoa Crawford standing before her.
Beatrice was just about to nod to Jeremy in agreement—
Bang!
Apparently displeased that the two were conferring while leaving her out, Valoa suddenly kicked a nearby barrel.
As lumengroot spilled from inside with a tumbling sound, she shot her words at Jeremy.
“You seem to think that if you lock me away, you can still manipulate me from the shadows—don’t be mistaken. And stop trying to deceive me with that nauseating expression.”
“……Miss…….”
“Jeremy, if you have time to play games like this with me, go tell your arrogant master or your pompous sister what I said instead.”
“…….”
“Do you really think the other side will come out unscathed after locking me, of all people, in this rotting dump about to collapse? I’m the kind of person who, when I take a hit, needs to break my opponent’s wrist to feel satisfied. Do you understand?”
Valoa’s red eyes gleamed sharply between her disheveled hair.
Jeremy offered an awkward smile to Beatrice, deliberately ignoring the brilliant threat in that gaze.
“……I apologize, Miss. I seem to have asked too much of you. Shall we forget this request? If you wouldn’t mind, perhaps you could come with me to organize the bandages…….”
“Oh, no. It’s fine. I’ll stay here and organize the crops.”
“Thank you for understanding. Then shall we go now—what?”
“I think tending the crops is more important than organizing bandages! I’m rather frugal with food anyway…!”
Jeremy glanced back and forth between Valoa and her, looking somewhat bewildered.
The look seemed to say: Is this strange, terrifying person really going to stay in the same space, really?
Beatrice smiled reassuringly and nodded firmly.
“I’ll leave as soon as I’m done! There might be other things to help with anyway!”
“Ah, yes! Thank you.”
At Beatrice’s seemingly casual demeanor, Jeremy eventually excused himself without further protest.
With the sound of the door closing, the warehouse fell silent in an instant.
In the oddly heavy silence, Beatrice glanced sideways cautiously.
“…….”
Valoa Crawford, who had seemed about to devour Jeremy, now sat with utter indifference.
Seeing her resting her chin in silence, Beatrice felt her fingertips tighten slightly.
‘……It’s a bit warm……?’
Her heart must have been racing.
‘It’s fine.’
Taking a long breath to steady herself, she recalled what Clyde had told her.
‘You’re Lia Kruger, not Beatrice Hartwell, are you?’
‘That’s… true.’
‘Then it’ll be fine. Valoa doesn’t really take notice of other people in the first place.’
Yes. Clyde was right.
‘I am Lia Kruger. I am Lia Kruger. There’s no way Valoa would see through the high-grade Illusion Magic Glasses that Her Majesty the Empress uses.’
As she recalled logical reasons not to worry, her heart grew lighter.
Beatrice exhaled softly and relaxed her shoulders.
Truth be told, she felt more strongly like Jeremy—wanting to bolt right out.
Of course, Beatrice didn’t have as strong feelings about Valoa as Clyde did.
Except for when Valoa had interfered to keep her away from Clyde’s side, they’d rarely entangled.
‘If asked whom I disliked more between Princess Elodie and Valoa, I’d say the Princess.’
Still, no one would want to be alone with a woman whose eyes have gone mad and commits arson.
Yet Beatrice stayed because something in what Valoa had said to Jeremy had sounded grave.
‘It doesn’t seem like she and Jeremy met for the first time in this Volunteer Group.’
Moreover, she’d specifically told Jeremy to relay her words to her “arrogant master” and her “pompous sister.”
That after locking her away in this place about to collapse, they’d still walk free.
‘The latter is obviously Princess Elodie… but who is the former?’
She said Jeremy’s master—so perhaps someone from the Religious Order?
‘……So you’re saying the Order and the Princess are in league?’
If so… wasn’t the situation getting serious?
As Beatrice was analyzing Valoa’s words while picking up lumengroot—
As if waiting for Beatrice to drop her guard, Valoa, who hadn’t spared her a glance, suddenly spoke.
“Hey.”
“……Yes?”
“You know who I am, right? I know who you are too.”
Along with words that made her heart seem to plummet.
At Valoa’s sudden statement, Beatrice dropped the lumengroot she’d been holding and broke into a violent cough.
“Ah, cough, cough! Um, me, you mean me?”
“Yeah, you. Who else is here.”
Valoa twisted one corner of her mouth in a smile and spoke, her eyes slowly tracing across Beatrice’s face.
“You’re that girl. The one I ran into on the Forest Path at night.”
“……Ah.”
Thank goodness—for a moment, I really thought I was exposed.
As she was hastily gathering her dropped heart, Valoa tilted her head with a peculiar gaze and twirled a strand of her own hair absently.
“Say, want some advice?”
“Advice……?”
“You know Clyde Dalton? The Crown Prince Crowell?”
“…….”
“If you hear that either of them is dead soon, just pack your things and run. Anyway, this place is going to…….”
Before Valoa could finish, Beatrice abruptly rose and yanked the warehouse door open.
No doubt the rest of what she’d say would be important.
It would have been better to hear it all, then leave naturally under some pretext.
But…….
‘Clyde… dead?’
She was far too impatient to wait for that.

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