I Proposed to My Childhood Friend After Regressing - Chapter 92

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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 92
“Possess someone from a novel……? A world inside a book, a book…….”
Beatrice, who had been murmuring the same words in a daze, suddenly grabbed Turner’s both hands.
Caught off guard, Turner called out to her softly, her eyes wide with surprise.
“……Um, Beatrice?”
“That’s it, books……. Books and fate, this sort of combination is rather…….”
As Beatrice continued muttering the same words absently, Turner’s gaze grew steadily clouded with unease.
Regretting that she’d spoken at all, Turner called out to her again, her expression apologetic.
“Um……. I…….”
“Turner.”
“Y-yes!”
“Could you tell me more details about that book?”
“……What? Oh, you mean the fantasy novel I was reading?”
“Yes. And if possible, about this possession phenomenon too. Why didn’t you know it was possible to return before?”
Beatrice’s eyes gleamed with intensity, burning with concentration. Caught off guard by this fervor, Turner hesitated before stammering out what she knew.
“Well, so… is a novel where the protagonist is Crown Prince Crowell……. The story begins at the point shown in the title—after the crown is taken by Princess Elodie. Possession and Regression are all the rage these days, so it’s a rare gem of a traditional story that just came out……!”
“Wait a moment.”
Beatrice cut off Turner’s increasingly animated explanation with cool precision, pressing her on the essential points.
“When you say Possession and Regression are ‘all the rage,’ you mean these things happen frequently?”
“Oh, that just meant there are a lot of stories that deal with ‘themes’ like Possession or Regression. As for whether they actually happen often in reality…… I’m not really sure. I never expected to experience it myself. And generally, those who undergo Possession end up staying in the new world rather than returning. Plus, there’s also the common trope of, ‘I thought I was Possessed into a book, but I was actually someone who belonged to that world all along!'”
“I see.”
“So it’s possible that I’m the ‘real’ Valois Crawford after all! If that were true, I think I’d feel like the sky was falling!”
Even as she spoke, Turner suddenly clapped a hand over her mouth and scrunched her face in dismay.
“Ah, please forget you heard that. Ptooey, ptooey! Why did I say such unlucky things!”
If this had merely been an interesting conversation, Beatrice might have offered some comfort. But she was in no state for that now.
Because thanks to Turner’s confession, she had just grasped the thread of her research!
‘Why didn’t I think of this before?’
Human lives and stories are often compared to books. And sometimes, in tales told to children, places like libraries where countless books gather make an appearance.
‘Father used to tell me stories like this before bed. The Dimensional Library and the witch who works there, things like that.’
The protagonists in fairy tales go on adventures inside the books in the library, and sometimes they’re chased by fanged monster-books in the Forbidden Book Section, the restricted area.
‘And as I always say, in fields like magic, you often find something in trivial or seemingly absurd places.’
Deep in thought, Beatrice suddenly posed a question to Turner.
“Turner, where do you live? Are there any distinctive features?”
“Um……. Where I live?”
Blinking at her sudden question, Turner scrunched her nose and opened her mouth.
“Well… it’s not a place with any particularly grand characteristics. If I had to point something out…… sometimes there are monster incidents?”
“Monsters, you mean?”
“Yes, sort of. In that world, those monsters live in nature like the Darkness Mountain Range and attack people, right? But in my world, there’s a separate space where they appear. We call it a Gate……. Not just anyone can enter it, and only those publicly recognized as having special abilities—Monster Hunters—are allowed inside.”
“Monster Hunters…….”
Beatrice finished speaking and released Turner’s hands. Then she turned toward the bookshelf where the novels were stored.
Bewildered but following along, Turner craned her neck. Beatrice was rifling through the novels on the shelf.
“Um, Beatrice……?”
“Just a moment! Really, just a moment!”
Without stopping her hands, Beatrice spoke to Turner, then seized a book and flipped through it, her eyes suddenly brightening.
“Found it!”
“……Huh?”
“Turner, could you take a look at this book? Whether it resembles the place you live?”
“Um…….”
With a somewhat suspicious expression, Turner accepted the book and slowly turned the pages. One page, and then another.
As the pages turned, her hand gradually quickened, but it came to a halt partway through.
“What do you think?”
“It’s similar. Well, the wording is a bit different, but looking at the descriptions, it seems like the same place.”
Hearing Turner’s hollow voice, Beatrice silently let out a cheer of triumph.
“What is this? I mean, I don’t really understand…….”
“It’s just a hypothesis—not certain yet. If Valois Crawford didn’t suddenly develop a mental illness, then your possession must be real. And just now, by confessing that you possessed someone in the book you were reading, you revealed that you’re from a different world than us.”
“Oh, yes, right?”
“We’re all protagonists in our own story—our own ‘life.’ You’ve heard something like that before, haven’t you?”
Just as Turner had been animated explaining earlier, Beatrice continued with an animated expression.
“This is a similar idea.”
Something cannot come from nothing. No matter how absurd, if there’s a ‘product,’ there must be a cause that brought it about.
The same applied to Possession, Regression, and other worlds.
“If various worlds and timelines exist in the world, and you were able to cross over in the form of ‘Possession,’ then there must definitely be something that connects your dimension with this one.”
Figuring out what that link was and how to use it as the basis for research was the most difficult part to solve.
“But I think you’ve most likely solved that problem for me. Books. In other words, through the form of stories, we were able to connect our overlapping worlds to each other.”
“Um……. I’m not sure I fully understand, but I get the gist. So from this side’s perspective, your world is also a novel? And I could be just an unnamed character to someone?”
“Yes! To be precise, it seems someone observed a portion of a dimension and wrote down the results in the form of a story. I’ll have to investigate the details from now on though!”
Already, she was fascinated.
Alchemy was the study of creating something from nothing, or more precisely, the study of appearing to create something from nothing.
In other words, it was a discipline concerned with discovering the causes of things, phenomena, and movements that are invisible or unexplained.
‘If only the Empire had been more open to magic, I would have pursued Alchemy as my field!’
Feeling a regret she’d never known before, Beatrice grasped Turner’s hands again.
“Thank you, Turner.”
“Huh? Thank me……?”
“Because of you, it feels like the fog in front of my eyes has lifted!”
“……Um, well, you’re welcome? But still, I think that’s thanks I should be giving you…….”
“What should I do? Should I go back to the Imperial Palace? No, is it the weekend so everyone’s resting? Well then, I should at least write down everything that’s come to mind……?”
Turner watched in a daze as Beatrice bustled about before abruptly sitting down, then absently scratched her head.
With a resigned shrug as if to say there was nothing for it, Turner sat down in front of Beatrice again.
Then she opened the book she’d been reading.
She’d already laid all her cards on the table, and if Beatrice and Clyde were to accept her proposal, she still had much to consider about how to defeat Beatrice.
Just as Turner was about to review some methods she’d thought through, Beatrice, busy flipping through a book, suddenly spoke up.
“Oh, and the method to incapacitate me is simpler than you might think.”
“Um, yes?”
“My eyes.”
She pointed to her own eyes with her finger and nodded matter-of-factly.
“Covering my eyes so I can’t see would be more than enough.”

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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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