After Returning, I Proposed to My Childhood Friend
Chapter 2
Beatrice was certain that what she had just heard was an auditory hallucination. After all, there was no way Clyde would ever propose to her!
To snap herself back to reality, she crunched down on the ice in her iced tea and pressed her temples firmly as she continued.
"Ah, sorry. I must be a bit tired. Could you say that again? What was that just now?"
"Let's get married."
"……Mar…ry? Did you just ask me to marry you?"
"Yes."
Good heavens! It wasn't a hallucination, was it?
Beatrice suppressed the urge to jump up and down on the spot, forcing herself to act as nonchalant as possible.
She didn't know what was going on, but the flow of events was, at the very least, highly desirable for her.
Clearing her throat lightly and straightening her back, she looked at Clyde and opened her mouth.
Even though she tried to suppress her emotions, a hint of delight leaked into her prim voice.
"……You lunatic, what kind of proposal is that? Even a woman who had feelings for you would run away. But, fine. Let's do it, let's get married."
"……What?"
Clyde’s expression cracked slightly at her excessively quick acceptance. It seemed he, too, was doubting whether what he had heard was real.
Of course, Beatrice had no intention of waiting for him to regain his composure.
"I said let's get married. Actually, I came here to propose to you, too."
"……You did?"
"Yes."
As she listened to Clyde’s somewhat bewildered question, Beatrice pulled a crumpled proposal letter from her pocket and showed it to him.
She didn't forget the courtesy of smoothing out the wrinkles, just in case the text wasn't legible.
"……."
"Haa, thank goodness you spoke up first. I was agonizing over how on earth I was supposed to bring this up."
Feeling like a weight had been lifted, she stretched her arms out long and popped a cookie that had been sitting next to her iced tea into her mouth. Now that the tension had faded, she suddenly felt a bit peckish.
"……So, you were planning to propose to me, too? Today?"
"That’s what I’m saying!"
Beatrice, who was crunching on the cookie while confirming Clyde’s words, slid one eyebrow upward.
"Now that I think about it, it’s suspicious. Why are you proposing to me?"
"That’s because people will start telling you to get married soon, so we can use each other as a shield……."
"Don't give me that nonsense."
"Then, I……."
"Ah. For the record, 'because I'm handsome' and 'let's get married as if we're saving a person' are both forbidden."
"……What are you?"
He let out a dry laugh as if wondering how she knew all that, then leaned back in his chair with both hands raised.
Clyde stared into the air for a moment as if pondering something, then pulled his upper body forward again to face Beatrice.
His blue eyes, which everyone praised as beautiful, shone with resolve.
"Bia, even if it sounds absurd, just listen to me for a moment."
"Go ahead."
"……I think I’ve regressed."
Clyde’s gaze was dead serious.
Beatrice listened to his low, grave voice in silence before letting out a rough snort and shrugging her shoulders.
"Oh, what a coincidence. Me too."
"Bia, I’m not joking. I saw your family’s estate burn down with my own eyes."
Her body, which had been reaching nonchalantly toward the cookies, froze for a moment.
She blinked rapidly to hide her wavering light-green eyes and muttered to herself without realizing it.
"……Oh, that’s true."
"What?"
"But I’m telling the truth, too. Your family was framed as traitors and executed, every last one of them."
Beatrice’s light-green eyes and Clyde’s blue eyes locked in the air.
The two knew each other very well. Which meant they both understood that these words were the absolute truth, without a single lie.
Beatrice, who had been looking at Clyde with rare, serious eyes, pressed a hand to her forehead and bowed her head.
The tightly pressed lips and the tense jaw visible beneath her hand looked quite grave.
At least enough for Clyde to rise from his seat and grab her shoulders.
"Hey……."
And the moment his warmth touched her shoulders, a short sigh burst from Beatrice’s lips.
"Tsk……. Ha, what is this."
"Huh?"
"No, usually when you find out a fact like this, shouldn't you be relieved that you aren't alone?"
Muttering in disbelief, Beatrice lifted her head again. Then, she scanned Clyde up and down and clicked her tongue once more.
"Damn it, why is it so hard to rely on you? Is it because you’re just a hollow shell of a man?"
"What, you brat?"
"No, thanks to this, it’s a huge relief that the proposal didn't fall through, but, ah, it really is… if you were going to regress one more person, I’d have preferred someone else over you……."
Clyde, having caught the look in Beatrice’s eyes, bristled and pressed down firmly on the top of her head.
It was a violent movement, quite unlike someone known as the epitome of gentlemanliness in high society and the Imperial Knights.
"Which mouth is saying such cute things? Huh? A hollow shell? Ha! Hey, do you want me to show you how great I am?"
"Aack! I’m not curious, you idiot! You couldn't even prepare a proper reason for a proposal and ended up spilling your secrets to me, what could you possibly show me……. Ack! Get your hand off me!"
"I won't."
"So that’s how you want to play?"
Beatrice stopped flailing her arms to push him away. Instead, she thrust her clenched fist straight forward. It was a strike aimed precisely at his solar plexus.
"Ugh!"
"Stop acting like you're dying."
Watching Clyde hunch over as if in pain, she snorted, brushed her disheveled hair back with her hand, and stuck her tongue out slightly.
"That’s what you get for doing things that deserve a hit."
"……You……."
"Ah, forget it! There’s no one here to watch, so stop wasting time and sit back down quickly. Since it’s come to this, let’s hurry up and prevent our families from being wiped out."
As she tapped the table with her palm to urge him on, Clyde, who had been clutching his stomach until just a moment ago, straightened his body perfectly fine.
As the matter was of such importance, he sat back down as if to let it slide just this once, and opened his mouth with a much calmer expression.
"Fine. Then let’s get to the core. You know it too, right? That there is a force that drove a wedge between our families. And that the key figure is 'that person'."
"Yeah."
How could she not know? After everything had collapsed beyond repair, she had felt such despair when she finally learned of that force's existence.
'It's fine. It won't be like that this time.'
Beatrice roughly pushed the memories of the past to one side. What was important now wasn't the past.
"It won't work this time. So, we……."
"If we get married and make our two families into one, so to speak."
"Yes."
The two, meeting each other's eyes again, reached out and shook hands simultaneously. Of course, the moment their hands touched was merely a fleeting instant.
It wasn't as if there was any need to affectionately hold the hand of someone like Clyde Dalton, of all people.
Having confirmed their formation of a joint front, Clyde calmly pulled a sheet of paper from his pocket.
"As you might have guessed, we have to cross a major mountain to get married, don't we?"
"Right. You and I both have older brothers above us."
"I thought of something in case persuasion takes too long."
"That paper is……. Don't tell me!"
"Yeah, it's that 'don't tell me'."
Next to Beatrice’s crumpled proposal letter, a crisp marriage registration form was placed.
"If it looks like things are going to be delayed, let’s just submit the registration first."
Beatrice gave a standing ovation to Clyde’s bold 'let's cause a scene and see what happens' plan. Then, she added seriously.
"Let's write it now. Do you have another one?"
"I do."
"Let's each keep one, and if either of us senses something is off, we submit it."
"Good."
The two, nodding in satisfaction, picked up their pens and began filling out the marriage registration forms.
"Wow, it gives me genuine goosebumps to write my name right next to yours. See? Are the hairs on my arm standing up?"
"Look who's talking. How am I supposed to live with someone like this?"
"Who says we have to live together? My mom said that these days, divorce isn't even a stain on one's reputation. Once the work is done, let's just part cleanly. My family is rich, so you don't even have to give me alimony."
"You’re the only person who would talk about divorce while accepting a proposal."
"Be grateful that I accepted that thing as a proposal."
The marriage registration form they filled out while bickering like that was indeed used quite usefully.
"Ah, whyyy, what’s the difference between doing it in three years and doing it now? I’m going to marry Clyde, ah, let me get married!"
It was just that, unlike what she had imagined when filling out the form, the process became extremely humiliating.
"Th-this child……. Good heavens! I rushed over because I heard you went to the Duke’s estate to meet Clyde without an appointment, wondering what a grown lady was doing, but this is shameful! Is this how I raised you?"
"I don't know, I don't know! If you don't give me permission, I might just go ahead and do it!"
It was also submitted much earlier than expected.
Beatrice, who had closed her eyes and laid down on the floor in front of her mother, who was clutching the back of her neck, glanced sideways to check on Clyde.
The only fortunate thing was that she wasn't the only one doing this embarrassing act.
"It may be out of line for me to say this, but wouldn't it be better for you to receive congratulations at the wedding rather than finding out about our marriage through documents and the Imperial newspaper?"
Well, this was also a fairly significant act of filial impiety, but still.
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