I Proposed to My Childhood Friend After Regressing - Chapter 99

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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 the Regression, I Proposed to My Childhood Friend
Episode 99
Beatrice did not hesitate.
Mayer, who had given her the letter, was clearly sending her one message.
That they should meet again.
After confirming the business card Mayer had handed her, she went directly to his office the very next day.
“Good afternoon, Mayer.”
“It seems you’ve read the letter. Is there something you’d like to ask me?”
“Yes. Could you tell me how you came to have this letter?”
“How I came to have it…….”
“I simply don’t understand why my mother would send such a letter to you.”
Beliana’s letter had been filled with exceptionally discreet and careful content.
‘If they were exchanging letters of this nature, they’d have to be quite intimate…….’
But how could she have never met someone so intimately connected to her mother? She’d only just learned his name.
Seeing Beatrice’s expression, Mayer nodded as though he understood perfectly, and spoke.
“I understand. You haven’t been through difficulties for very long, Young Miss. It’s an admirable attitude to distrust easily.”
“……What I need is an answer.”
“But if you’re asking why Beliana trusted me, then I have nothing to say. Ah, would you like to see the letters we exchanged?”
Without hesitation, Mayer opened a drawer and handed Beatrice a thick envelope of letters.
The name and handwriting on the envelope’s surface were identical to those of the Hartwell County.
“…….”
“I was Beliana’s long-standing business partner, and due to the nature of the business, I find myself overseas quite frequently. There was little point of contact between you and myself for this reason. I’m a busy man, after all. Moreover, a business partnership is less about sharing daily life and more about responding to crises together.”
Mayer continued his explanation methodically, like a professor.
“The close relationship between the Dalton Duchy and Hartwell County is very important to business. Their networks, political standing, various transactions and interests—all are tightly interconnected. However, it is simultaneously a double-edged sword. If the Duchy had been secretly targeting Hartwell, or harbored thoughts of betrayal…….”
“But the Duchy would have no reason to——”
“It would seem that way. But Beliana was clearly warning of danger to the family. I trusted her judgment and streamlined several distribution networks that went through the Duchy as well.”
He pushed several papers marked with red X’s toward Beatrice from among the documents on his desk, continuing.
“But even if I were to explain my reasons in detail here, it would not be easy for you to trust my words, Young Miss. From your perspective, I am a stranger who rolled in from nowhere, while the Duchy is your only support.”
“…….”
“Investigate it yourself with your own hands. Even if you don’t trust me, the clues themselves do not lie. The objective facts—documents, the Empire’s circumstances, people capable of maintaining objectivity. If I may offer one piece of advice: broaden your perspective. It helps greatly in investigation.”
* * *
Beatrice had been relaying her conversation with Mayer to Clyde when she paused, stepping back into the past.
“Handing the blade to someone with low trust——it was a remarkably subtle method. It made me believe I’d reached my own conclusions.”
“…….”
“Do you remember, Clyde? I said it then. A greenhouse is a greenhouse, no matter how hard you try. Even if I dug jewels from the soil in that greenhouse, how could they ever be ‘real jewels’?”
It was merely a treasure hunt adults had created for children.
“It may seem ridiculous now, but back then I investigated so earnestly.”
That had been genuine.
Beatrice had sought out an academy professor unconnected to either family and asked about the Empire’s political situation, claiming she’d become the Hartwell heir suddenly and was burdened by the weight of it. She’d tracked down familiar noble merchants from the rare few directories salvaged from the fire, rather than the one Mayer had provided, and examined years’ worth of asset flows.
She’d researched multiple years of financial movement and sought out familiar trading partners from the few directories saved from the fire, not the one Mayer had provided.
“But by that time, I was already in the palm of the Crown Princess’s hand.”
“It wasn’t your fault.”
Clyde immediately countered her words.
“By then, the board Elodie had laid out was almost complete.”
The Marquis Territory had become a Cursed Land through Dark Magic, and the Traditionalist Faction’s momentum had grown. The Emperor who might have held the center suddenly collapsed.
The Lumen Root Erosion Disease, now resolved, had long since become a silent weapon in their arsenal by then, so it was hardly surprising.
The Church, too, had joined hands with the Crown Princess to reshape the board.
Under the Church’s tyranny, the Crown Prince had to march toward the frontlines to calm the turbulent populace and prevent the dangers erupting across the Empire.
“What’s more, by that time, Kaerun had already married Elodie. So the Duchy had many of the Crown Princess’s people embedded within it. Everything proceeded so subtly that neither he nor our parents noticed any discord.”
“……Like when she tried to deceive Kaerun in the kidnapping incident?”
“Yes. Just as she naturally gathered supplies using the wedding ceremony with him.”
Listening to Clyde’s words, Beatrice let out a hollow, defeated laugh.
“In any case, most of the clues I found were true, but mixed in were several lies Elodie had prepared. The prime example was the letter from my mother that I received from Mayer.”
It had indeed been written by Beatrice’s mother, but it should have gone to the Duchess, not to Mayer.
“Someone from the Crown Princess’s faction in the Duchy must have intercepted it.”
“Yes. And before I could even realize it, my entire family was dead. What’s more tragic is that by following the clues I’d gathered, the last person I found was…….”
“Elodie.”
She had married Kaerun, the Duchy’s eldest son, though their relationship afterward appeared somewhat distant.
Yet because she had ‘married’ and left the Imperial House, she was neither close to the Crown Prince nor involved with Imperial affairs, and certainly posed no threat to Hartwell County.
At that time, Elodie had been the perfect fit for the ‘objective person capable of maintaining objectivity’ that Mayer had described.
“When I sought out Elodie, I learned that the Duke and Duchess had been trying to arrange our marriage. She handed me a Proposal Letter.”
“…….”
“Looking back now, the reason is clear. Remember when Kaerun said it was fortunate that our two families were joined by our marriage, so the Duchy had reason to protect me? It seems they thought the same, at least for a moment.”
“……But back then, unlike now, the circumstances would have been too poor to make such a choice, wouldn’t they? If we married…….”
“It would look as though the Duchy was trying to swallow Hartwell. Besides, they never even asked for our consent. That’s why they wrote it but placed it deep in a drawer and never sent it. It was simply……a fragment of their hearts thinking of me.”
But this was only something I could understand now, after the Regression.
The Crown Princess, whom I had trusted as an ‘objective’ person, presented a Proposal Letter that appeared objective, using words that sounded objective but were lies to shake me.
‘Bea, I don’t want to say this to you……. The circumstances are too coincidental. I learned too late why the Duchy really had me marry Kaerun. Because I am the Crown Princess who can continue the lineage.’
‘……What do you mean…….’
‘At first, I thought it was coincidence too. But……. Bea, I’m sorry, but the same applies to you. This is the Proposal Letter the Duchy was going to give you.’
‘…….’
‘I know. It must sound insane to you. But could you trust me just this once? This isn’t for you—it’s solace for me, who has already made an irreversible choice.’
‘……I cannot turn my back on them on your word alone, Your Highness.’
‘That’s not what I’m asking. Just believe me and examine the fire site of Hartwell one more time. Just once, I ask.’
That was all.
After relentless investigation, Beatrice trusted the request of the ‘objective’ person she thought she’d finally found, and for that trust, she was kidnapped.

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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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