I Proposed to My Childhood Friend After Regressing - Chapter 87

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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
Episode 87
Beatrice kept her final promise to the princess.
That is, instead of returning to Hartwell County House, she remained in the Duchy and met with two men.
Under ordinary circumstances, her strength would have been completely exhausted, but the world sometimes produced matters important enough to make one forget fatigue.
‘That’s right. Exactly like now.’
Sipping Ginger Milk Tea brought by a servant in the familiar Glass Greenhouse, Beatrice alternated her gaze between the two brothers of the Dalton Family seated before her.
“…….”
“…….”
A silence heavy as death settled over the Glass Greenhouse.
Ordinarily, someone would have broken the quiet and spoken, but today no one did.
Not only because what had happened today was no trivial matter, but because she thought the person directly involved—Kaerun—needed time to accept the situation.
How much time had passed?
Kaerun, who had been rigid and motionless, staring only at his teacup, finally opened his mouth.
“……Clyde, Beatrice. You two… you already knew about this, didn’t you?”
Listening to Kaerun’s voice crack and fracture, the two slowly nodded.
“Yes.”
“Mm-hmm…….”
“……Since when?”
The two exchanged glances briefly. It did not last long.
Beatrice, unwilling to think too hard given that Clyde was present, made a gesture with her chin telling him to handle it.
Understanding Beatrice’s intent, Clyde rubbed the back of his neck lightly and spoke.
“We only found out recently. Around when we were preparing for the wedding?”
“Mother and Father?”
“Not yet. Actually, the only people who know this are me, Beatrice, and Crowell.”
At Clyde’s answer, Kaerun rubbed his eyes with one hand as if exhausted.
A voice tinged with bitterness seeped from between his lips.
“……Why didn’t you tell me? Even if not me, you should have told our parents…….”
“And if we had told them?”
Clyde, cutting off Kaerun’s words, raised one eyebrow slightly as he leaned back in his chair.
“If you hadn’t witnessed everything in the cabin today and only heard my story, would you have believed me?”
“…….”
“You couldn’t answer easily either, could you?”
After taking a sip of Black Tea, Clyde met Kaerun’s gaze once more and made a hand gesture of dismissal.
He had glimpsed self-blame flashing across Kaerun’s eyes for a moment.
“I’m not trying to blame you. I would have done the same.”
“…….”
“If you’d come to me and said ‘Beatrice is betraying you,’ I would’ve told you that made no sense at all.”
“……I see. Thank you.”
Kaerun accepted his younger brother’s consideration awkwardly, closing and opening his eyes briefly.
Then, as if he had made a decision, he drained his teacup in one go.
It had the force of a man drinking spirits rather than tea.
After wetting his throat with tea, Kaerun wiped the corner of his mouth with the back of his hand and looked directly at Clyde. Eyes of nearly identical color met in the air across the table.
“Then now—”
“What?”
“Do I have the right now? The right to hear the full details of the situation.”
Why Elodie had staged this false masquerade.
Whether there was a reason for hastening the wedding.
And what those two were thinking.
At the intensity in his eyes that wished to know everything, Clyde slowly nodded.
“We didn’t arrange this meeting for that, but…… if you’re willing to help us, it would be more than reassuring.”
“…….”
“The story may be cruel to you, but for now, I’d like you to listen.”
With those words, Clyde slowly recounted everything that had transpired so far.
From the suspicious feeling he’d had while preparing for marriage with Beatrice to the strange traces discovered in the Downer Marquis Territory.
To Elodie’s simultaneous proposal to Valois Croford and Beatrice to become “The Blue One,” and the plan of the princess they had deduced.
He told them nearly every truth, save only Regression and Possession.
“And after investigating Beatrice and Princess Elodie’s movements not long ago, I became certain.”
“……That there’s a hidden layer to my wedding?”
“Yes. In the materials, the manpower, and the timing—everything reeked of a plan.”
“Oh, and by the way, I learned about the kidnapper around that time too. People were whispering about it.”
“……I see.”
After hearing the full story, Kaerun’s eyes closed slowly.
On the surface, he looked far calmer than before. But…….
‘His hands are trembling.’
Beatrice did not miss his bobbing throat or his subtly shaking hands.
Kaerun Dalton swallowed the emotions rising in him time and again, finally regaining his composure.
“……So you two were either trying to stop my wedding, or you were working out a way to thwart Elodie’s plan at the Wedding Venue.”
“We haven’t thought of concrete measures yet, but yes.”
Clyde answered cleanly without filler, then paused to think before adding softly,
“Of course, that plan included telling you the truth.”
“……I see.”
For the first time since that moment they’d met on the street until now, a faint smile crossed his lips, which had been rigid.
He reached out and gently ruffled Clyde’s hair as one would a younger brother.
“You two must have had a hard time of it.”
“…….”
“I’m not sure what I can do, having learned of this so late, but at least I can lend a hand.”
“…….”
“And for that same reason, I hope you’ll choose the latter. I think it would be better to settle things at the Wedding Venue rather than overturn the wedding itself.”
Of course, the family name would circulate through society for some time, but it was also the surest way to step away from the game entirely.
Setting aside the anguish he’d shown moments before, Kaerun expressed his thoughts with gravity.
At his bearing, so thoroughly that of an eldest son, even Clyde found himself at a loss for words.
“Bea, you said Count Hartwell and Lord Jederic still don’t know about this?”
“What? Right.”
“It would be better to give them a hint only after we’ve secured the evidence. Elodie was trying to touch you for the sole purpose of provoking Clyde.”
“…….”
“Once she learns you’re ‘Lia Kruger,’ she won’t stay quiet.”
Kaerun, who had been thinking something over briefly, let out a short, rueful laugh.
“I thought it was forced back then……. But now I’m grateful that you married Clyde. Thanks to that, the Duchy gains justification.”
Though it seemed Elodie intended to use that justification differently.
He lifted his head as if he’d suddenly remembered something, looking at the two of them.
“Come to think of it, you two said you found out about this before the wedding?”
“Huh? Yes.”
“……I’m asking just in case, but you didn’t hurry the wedding because of Elodie, did you? Or decide to marry in the first place because of her?”
……He was right on the money.
At the perfectly accurate guess, Beatrice’s lips moved uselessly several times.
“Well, actually…….”
“……Actually?”
It was right then, suspicion settling in Kaerun’s eyes at the rather loaded word.
“No.”
Clyde, cutting off the conversation between the two in the middle, opened his mouth again with great firmness.
“I don’t know what you’re thinking, but our marriage has nothing to do with this.”
“……What?”
Nothing to do with it—what nothing to do with it!
At the lie tumbling so easily from Clyde’s mouth, Beatrice turned her head sharply to look at him.
Naturally receiving Beatrice’s questioning gaze, he continued calmly,
“I chased after her because I liked her, and I proposed because I didn’t want to hide behind the name ‘Childhood Friend’ anymore.”
“Hey…….”
Hearing Clyde’s answer, Beatrice looked thoroughly flustered and tapped his arm.
It was to say there was no reason to hide now, when they’d already shared everything with Kaerun.

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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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