I Proposed to My Childhood Friend After Regressing - Chapter 97

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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 97
Clyde’s body went rigid at Beatrice’s question.
As if he’d heard something he shouldn’t have, he worked his lips soundlessly several times before finally forcing out a single word.
“……What?”
It wasn’t an answer, and yet it was one all the same.
Beatrice rolled her eyes at the utterly unprepared expression on Clyde’s face. She scratched the back of her head lightly and muttered softly.
“Hmm……. You didn’t know either, then. Well, I guess I was just overthinking things, huh.”
“……Overthinking? Wait, hold on. Let’s take this one step at a time, Beatrice. What exactly are you saying? Our parents tried to have us married?”
For all Clyde’s effort to keep the mood light with his game of truth or dare, his expression had turned grave.
Unable to help herself, Beatrice closed her eyes tight for a moment, then began to speak, choosing her words with care.
“Well, you know that after our house burned, I came to rely on your family, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Do you remember how chaotic High Society in the Empire was back then?”
Beatrice, at least, remembered. The uproar of those days.
* * *
[The Sudden Collapse of House Hartwell… Where Did the Remaining Fortune Go?]
[The Inferno That Claimed the Lives of the Hartwell Family—Accident or Intention?]
[The Sole Survivor Revealed: Where Beatrice Hartwell Has Chosen to Stay!]
The sudden tragedy that befell House Hartwell shook the Empire’s High Society to its core.
The manor burned to the ground in a single night, and the household had no time to evacuate.
The wealth of a family known far and wide for their riches.
The existence of the youngest daughter, the sole survivor of the tragedy.
The sudden calamity and all the traces it left behind were more than enough to stir people’s imaginations.
“The Hartwell family—wasn’t that where the Empress’s close associate, Jedrick, was taken in? I heard he was obsessed with the same sort of strange magic as Her Majesty…… What if they were conducting dangerous research and blew up the manor?”
“Hmm, I think there’s something far more sinister lurking behind this incident. Otherwise, how could not a single soul have evacuated properly?”
“Perhaps they were after the family fortune. Look—in the end, only the family’s sole daughter remains.”
“Oh, now that you mention it, that lady wasn’t married yet!”
Since no one knew the truth of the matter, people indulged in all manner of speculation and put forth various claims.
Yet to speak honestly, the “truth of the incident” was of little real importance to them.
What the Empire’s nobility loved was not the facts that had occurred, but the story itself.
The fall of House Hartwell—tragic beyond measure, with all dead and no one left to face consequences—was the most exquisitely sensational fodder for High Society’s gossip.
Beatrice, who had been raised gently beneath her parents’ wings, was naturally the perfect target for people to sink their teeth into.
“Oh, how pitiful! To lose her entire family in an instant……. Is she even keeping her sanity?”
“Miss Beatrice is quite fortunate, if I may say so. Normally, as the youngest, she would never have inherited everything like this.”
“Hmm, is that so? If we think about who benefited most from this incident…….”
“Nonsense! The one who benefited most hasn’t appeared yet, has he? Ehehehe! Wouldn’t the man who wins Miss Hartwell’s heart be the truly fortunate one?”
“But how did the young lady manage to escape the tragedy alone?”
“Word has it that someone saw Miss Beatrice out in the City that very night.”
“……Oh, of all things, Miss Beatrice Hartwell was out alone that night.”
“They say she was shopping for something…… Since the Count’s birthday was coming up a few days later, perhaps she was secretly preparing a gift?”
From pitiable victim of total loss to lucky survivor and fortune’s darling.
And when the cadet branches of House Hartwell began to suffer a series of mysterious accidents and fell into peril, Beatrice swiftly transformed into a delectably tempting prize.
Until, unable to bear it any longer, the Dalton Duchy took her under their protection, accepting the scandal that would come with it.
“The Hartwell family and the Dalton Duchy have long stood as trusted friends, and shall continue to do so. Until the funeral period is complete and the Hartwell family’s affairs are settled, the Duchy will support the Count’s heir.”
And so Beatrice came under the Duchy’s protection while the matter was resolved.
After struggling through the chaos alone for so long, managing the aftermath of what had befallen her family, Beatrice wept the moment she set foot in the Duchy again.
The Duke and Duchess held her close, stripped of her usual vitality, and spoke to her thus:
“Beatrice, for now, don’t worry about anything else. Let’s focus on taking care of you first.”
“That’s right. Your body has suffered too much in far too short a time. Your father and I will look after things, so you should focus on eating well and getting plenty of rest, all right?”
With the two adults’ intervention, Beatrice was finally able to find a safe haven, to catch her breath, and to allow her wounded body and spirit to begin to heal.
Of course, this kindness could not work without cost.
While the Duchy’s household left her alone, believing she needed time to herself, Beatrice was quietly devouring herself from within, gnawed by guilt.
And Clyde, who under normal circumstances would have hovered at her side, had been called away by an urgent summons from the Crown Prince.
“……You’re leaving now?”
“Yeah. Things seem to be taking a serious turn, just as His Highness feared. The sooner I move, the sooner I can come back.”
“…….”
“I’m at least relieved you’re staying with us. I was worried anyway—you keep getting smaller and smaller, and I wasn’t sure how much more of this you could take.”
“You’ll come back, won’t you?”
“Why are you asking so seriously? By the time you’ve counted a few nights, I’ll be back.”
“……Am I a child? Counting the nights?”
“What, you’ve got the strength to complain? I’m off.”
And with those words, Clyde departed—and did not return even after “a few nights” had passed.
At first, Beatrice thought it was possible.
It was common enough for matters to take longer than expected.
But as the mood in the Duchy grew steadily more grave, and the time Kaelyun spent away from the Duchy stretched longer and longer, Beatrice’s unease only deepened.
It had been so short since she lost her entire family, and now the fear that she might lose Clyde as well gnawed at her.
Mercifully, Clyde had not vanished. A letter arrived at the Duchy explaining that his return was delayed because he was held up by pressing matters.
Beatrice read the letter he sent several times over, trying to quiet her anxiety, yet still a sense of dread kept creeping back in.
‘What if I never see him again?’ The fear wouldn’t leave her.
After enduring several more “nights” like that.
Beatrice came to a realization—perhaps this anxiety wasn’t entirely about Clyde.
‘Perhaps this fear comes from the fact that I can’t do anything with my own hands.’
Ever since the day her family died, hadn’t she only been receiving protection?
Everything had already changed from how it was before.
‘I can’t just stay like this.’
Like someone sinking into a swamp, the atmosphere around her grew heavier and more suffocating—and yet there must surely be something she could do herself.
In the end, Beatrice resolved to cast off her anxiety and rise again as the Hartwell family’s sole direct heir.
She would inspect the state of the family’s territory, sort through the Account Ledgers destroyed in the fire and review contractual relationships, carefully setting things in order step by step.
It was not an easy task, of course.
Beatrice had not been raised as an heir, far too many records had been lost, and many of the family’s experienced administrators had perished in the fire.
And yet, there came to Beatrice a man who said he had worked alongside the Hartwell Count for many years.
“I have something I must convey to you, young lady.”
Bearing with him the last traces of her mother.

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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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