Regression After Proposing to My Childhood Friend
Chapter 11
Clyde Dalton had told Beatrice Hartwell one lie.
A lie that if anything were to happen while they were separated, they should meet at their designated rendezvous point.
At the time, he had assumed a situation where they would be apart as naturally as if it were nothing at all, but...
“...My stomach...”
“Your stomach?”
“My stomach hurts so much...”
“...Ah, I see... Well, that is unfortunate.”
Knowing that Valois was in the same space as Beatrice, Clyde had no intention of leaving her side.
Watching Valois’s pathetic schemes from the shadows, Clyde quietly twisted one corner of his mouth.
“Ha. As if.”
Valois Edvain Crawford had not deviated from his expectations even in the slightest.
Her tendency to resort to suspicious and clumsy schemes because she was so self-centered, and her malice that led her to easily harm others for the sake of her own petty desires—everything was exactly as he predicted.
As he watched the two, a question Beatrice had asked him a while ago suddenly crossed his mind.
‘Clyde, did Valois do something to you?’
‘Suddenly?’
‘You tremble with disgust whenever you see that woman. Like you’re looking at some creepy bug.’
‘...’
‘Look at that expression. There really was something, wasn’t there? What is it? Did she tell you to become her husband if you wanted to save your life? Or did she treat you like some kind of pet?’
...If it had been something like that, it wouldn’t have been much of a blow.
Scenes from that day still haunted Clyde’s dreams like a nightmare.
The day he had revealed himself to buy time after sending his companions, including the Crown Prince, to safety.
Valois had looked down at him with a languid posture and said:
‘Clyde Dalton, I’ll make you an easy offer. It doesn’t matter if you don’t mean it, just say you’ll become mine. Then, the thing you so desperately...’
At that moment, Beatrice’s voice, filled with tension, snapped him out of his reverie.
“...I! I will call a servant on my way so they can help you immediately!”
Seeing her move away from Valois toward their meeting spot just as they had discussed, his tightly coiled nerves loosened slightly.
It seemed that her hurried footsteps, despite her attempt to act natural, had played a part.
It was because he could practically picture the look of utter distaste on Beatrice’s face just from seeing her back.
With a much calmer heart, Clyde kept his eyes on Valois, who stood alone in the hallway.
With an expression that suggested she might throw a tantrum at any moment, she pondered something deeply before slowly moving. The direction, naturally, was the place he and Beatrice had agreed upon.
‘Not even surprising.’
Beatrice hadn’t seemed to notice, but Clyde had reminded her of their promise and let slip information about their meeting spot several times at the ballroom.
It was partly because having many eyes on them was to their advantage, and partly to limit the locations where Valois could commit her misdeeds.
More precisely, it was to ensure that Beatrice would be perfectly safe from her malice.
‘I even kept the Crown Prince by her side like a protective charm for that very reason...’
—Whoosh!
‘And it was a very good thing I did.’
As soon as Valois saw the silhouettes of a man and woman behind the old tree, she smashed a nearby oil lamp and set the place ablaze.
It was a reckless and irrational act to commit arson in plain sight at a large banquet filled with nobles, but Clyde was not surprised.
‘Typical.’
The Valois he knew was a shameless person who, aside from her cunning and malicious way of thinking, did not care about anything other than her own whims.
“...What does this trivial thing matter? Even if I am pointed out as the culprit, what are they going to do if I say it was an accidental fire?”
“...”
“Besides, would they really die from a fire of this magnitude? At most, they’d just lose the faces they loved so much.”
Yes, just like this.
Clyde watched Valois, who was smiling cruelly with her lips curled up, and spoke in a low voice.
“Indeed. I trusted that you would not hesitate to commit such an irrational and cruel act.”
Valois, who had reflexively turned her head at the voice heard from close by, had a rare look of panic in her eyes.
“...Clyde Dalton? Why are you here...”
“Strange, isn’t it? Why am I here when I should be the victim of the fire you started along with Beatrice? You clearly saw two people behind the old tree before you lit it.”
“...”
“Don’t you agree? Lady Valois Edvain Crawford?”
“...How? How did you recognize me?”
Shock filled Valois’s eyes. However, Clyde had no intention of kindly answering her question.
“That shouldn’t be what’s important right now. Shouldn’t you be checking who got caught up in your rampage instead of me?”
Valois, who had been frowning while listening to Clyde, hurriedly turned her gaze toward the old tree.
Beyond the flames that were growing in size, she could see two round heads of different heights peeking out from behind the old tree.
And one of them had silver hair that no citizen of the Empire could fail to recognize.
“Crowell Edvain...”
She stumbled for a moment, having unconsciously parted her lips to utter the familiar name.
Before she could even understand why things had turned out this way, Valois turned quickly and ran out of the garden.
Because, very rarely, a red warning had flashed in her mind.
Of course, it was useless.
Before Valois could even escape the scene, the guards who had been hiding and protecting the Crown Prince quickly subdued her.
Valois, who had been treated roughly for the first time in her life, stiffened as she failed to grasp the situation, but soon erupted with the rage boiling up from within.
“How dare you! Won’t you let go of me this instant? Who do you think you’re...!”
“Whoever you are, it does not change the fact that you are the culprit who attempted to harm the Crown Prince.”
“Culprit...? Who, me? Stop talking nonsense. I never touched the Crown Prince, so why am I the culprit? I clearly...!”
“You clearly intended to kill my wife and me. Honestly, I think being caught like this is deserved for that alone, but since you don’t seem to accept that reason, shall I recite the Imperial Law for you?”
Imperial Law, Article 3, Section 1.
“For the sake of Imperial security and stable state governance, any direct or indirect threat to the safety of the Emperor, the Empress, or the next Emperor, the Crown Prince, shall be considered treason.”
“...”
He, who had stepped in for the guards to counter Valois’s struggle, stepped on the scorched grass with a somewhat cold gaze.
“My Lady. You have just committed treason. Do you understand?”
“Treason, ha-ha! Me, treason? Ahahahaha!”
“...”
“Ha! You rat-like thing, you lured me from the start, and now, what, treason? You’re going to frame me as a traitor?”
Valois Crawford burst into laughter as if she were insane, then, unable to control her emotions, began to thrash about wildly again.
“Your Highness, you should keep a bit more distance...”
“It’s fine. Clyde, are you alright?”
“Clyde!”
Until the Crown Prince Crowell and Beatrice, who had been behind the old tree, as well as others who had noticed something amiss in the garden, gathered around.
“What is it? Didn’t you hear a sound just now?”
“I thought I smelled something burning over there, too.”
“Oh... Look, it seems someone has been caught, hasn’t it? Who is it?”
As the voices of the people grew close enough to be heard clearly, Valois twisted her red lips and shouted loudly for all to see.
“I’ll say it again! It’s true that I targeted Beatrice Hartwell and Clyde Dalton. They bullied me first, so I wanted to teach them a lesson. But how is it my fault that the Crown Prince happened to be where I was targeting them!”
With her head held high in defiance, she glared fiercely at Beatrice and Crowell and spat out insults.
“And if you want to get technical, isn’t it more suspicious why the two of them were together? What could a married woman possibly be doing in a secret place alone with the Crown Prince?”
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