“…”
“…”
A short silence fell between the two of them at her sudden action.
His hair was tousled between her fingers, and his face, caught off guard, was fully exposed to her.
Beatrice stared at him intently, her eyes narrowing slightly.
‘…Ah, he really is disgustingly handsome.’
His blue eyes, wide with surprise, and his slightly parted lips were so irritatingly good-looking that they further scattered her thoughts, which were already failing to function properly.
“Um, Bea?”
“…Shh. Be quiet. I’m thinking.”
Having bought time with sheer momentum, Beatrice searched her mind for something to say before finally blurting out a single sentence.
“You’re suspicious.”
“…What?”
“You’ve been extremely suspicious for a while now.”
“In what way.”
Though she had shouted it just to smooth over the situation, once the words were out, she realized she had much to say.
Especially seeing how he naturally tried to back away again, even though he clearly knew what she was talking about!
“You’ve been subtly pushing me to the sidelines, saying it’s something I don’t need to know, and telling me not to move from a safe place.”
“…”
“When you just asked me where I was going, you didn’t ask out of purely genuine curiosity about where I was heading, did you?”
The more she spoke, the more her true feelings surfaced.
Beatrice tightened her grip, pressing him down more firmly as she spoke.
“I was going to wait a bit, thinking you might have suffered some major shock during the regression, but seriously. Hey. Even my mom and dad don’t act as sensitive as you.”
“…I think the Count and Jedaric would have acted similarly if they were in my situation.”
“What did you say?”
Because Beatrice leaned in, claiming she couldn’t hear him well, Clyde’s body was pushed further back into the sofa than before.
“No, but wait a second.”
“Wait for what.”
As the situation reached a point where he was about to be buried in the sofa cushions, Clyde lightly grabbed her wrists.
“I’m telling you to wait a second, okay? First, get off of me. Take your hands off my face too. Hey, right now this is……”
“Where do you think you’re pulling a trick? Do you think I don’t know you? The moment I let go of my hands, you’ll slickly change the subject and play dumb.”
She could see it clearly without even looking.
Beatrice snorted and put her weight into it, as if she would never let that happen. It was a silent ultimatum to confess and find redemption.
In a situation where his words wouldn’t even register, Clyde protested with a wronged expression.
“No, Bea. Is it really that strange for me to care about your safety?”
“Yeah.”
“You’re my childhood friend, my wife, and my comrade who regressed with me.”
“You might as well say you’re possessed by a ghost.”
A childhood friend was, by nature, someone who left the other person to their own devices.
It meant they weren’t the type to worry in such a stifling, itchy manner.
‘If he had been like this from the start, he wouldn’t have left me alone in a flower bed when I collapsed from drinking strawberry wine at the Academy festival!’
At the time, instead of moving Beatrice—who had climbed into the flower bed thinking it was a bed—to her room, Clyde had simply asked if she needed a blanket.
Then, when she nodded in her sleep, he generously covered her with his coat, which still had his name tag on it, and left.
He even kindly took a picture of the scene with a recording Obscura!
‘Of course, the flower bed I fell asleep in was right in the middle of a crowded garden, so it was at a level where we could laugh it off! And the kids came to wake me up soon after, saying they heard it from Clyde.’
However, the point was that the him back then did not act like he did now.
If it were the suspicious Clyde of late…
‘He probably wouldn’t have let me drink the strawberry wine in the first place.’
It was a reasonably sound deduction.
Beatrice squeezed his cheeks, which he was unfairly trying to use to resolve the situation, and tilted her head.
“Hey, just spit it out. Your mind is always thinking complicated thoughts, so it’s obvious. Something must have happened in the past that would shock me if I heard it now, right? And it’s either about me or something closely related to me.”
“…”
“If you said we should hold hands and work together, then trust me. Don’t go around scaring people for no reason.”
“What’s there to be scared of?”
“Don’t you know? If a person starts doing things they never used to do, they’re about to die.”
Her voice was firm, as if he were about to drop dead at any moment.
Clyde stared at her blankly before letting out a low sigh.
Then, he pulled Beatrice’s hands away from where they were squishing his cheeks.
Shaking his head lightly, Clyde spoke in a voice that sounded half-resigned.
“I’m telling you now, guessing is different from knowing.”
“It won’t be more annoying than being dragged around while making vague guesses.”
“Hey, you… Fine. Just get up first, then we’ll talk.”
Clyde supported her waist with one hand so she wouldn’t fall as he slightly lifted his upper body.
Just as the distance between the two of them temporarily closed.
—Knock! Click!
With a light knock, the door swung open.
“Bea, Clyde isn’t in the guest room, so he’s here, right? Brother said he has something to give him since he’s going far away, so I came to borrow him for a sec… ond…”
Carlyle, the second son of the Hartwell family who had opened the door naturally, locked eyes with the two people unexpectedly entangled.
“…”
“…”
A heavy silence flowed between the three of them.
No one could think to move or speak.
In the space where only awkward air circulated, the first person to try and fix the situation was Carlyle, who had opened the door.
“Ahem.”
He swallowed once, lowered his gaze for a moment, and then raised it again.
Then, he nodded with the most composed expression possible.
“Right. You two reconciled well… Yeah. That’s a relief, hey.”
He said so, but his voice sounded not at all like that.
Only then did Beatrice regain her senses, her face turning bright red as she trembled.
“No! That’s not it…!”
“It’s fine, it’s fine.”
Cutting Beatrice off, Carlyle nodded with a benevolent smile.
It was a smile that said even if their eldest brother didn’t, he, the second son, understood everything.
“It must be embarrassing, so you don’t have to explain. My apologies. It hasn’t quite sunk in for me yet that you’re married.”
“I’m telling you, it’s not like that!”
“He’s right, I—it’s not that……”
“Yeah, yeah. Right. If you two say it’s not, then it’s not. I have at least that much quick-wittedness.”
His tone suggested he had no intention of listening at all.
Whether Beatrice clutched the back of her neck in frustration or not, Carlyle seemed to have quickly sorted his emotions.
Actually, to him, it was only natural.
Though they hadn’t moved out yet, they were strictly a married couple.
Moreover, wasn’t today the last night Clyde would spend with Beatrice before leaving for a while!
‘They say a couple’s fight is like cutting water with a knife, but….’
He awkwardly rubbed the back of his head, stepped back, and grabbed the doorknob.
“Don’t worry. I’ll keep it a secret from Brother. I’ll come up with a good excuse.”
“Excuse for what! Brother, Carlyle, hey!”
However, it was already too late.
He closed the door without wavering despite her calling his name, and right before the door shut completely, he added one last thing.
“Oh, but just in case, lock the door.”
“…”
—Click.
Beyond the completely closed door, the sound of light footsteps began to fade away.
Beatrice, staring blankly at the door, muttered hollowly.
“…I told him it wasn’t like that, so why tell us to lock the door, you crazy brother of mine…”
It was Carlyle, of all people.
Carlyle, who was desperately bad at lying or hiding things and was always picked apart by their eldest brother, Ian.
In no time, Ian, their parents, and the entire household would probably know everything that just happened!
‘Since the eldest brother is quick-witted, he won’t bring it up or act like he knows, and he’ll probably make everyone keep their mouths shut, but still……’
Beatrice, squeezing her eyes shut and rubbing her face, muttered briefly toward Clyde.
“…Hey, want to run for it?”
“…To the Imperial Palace?”
“Yeah, to the Imperial Palace.”
Technically, it was past the hour for entering the Imperial Palace, but fortunately, Clyde was a knight directly under the Crown Prince.
Specifically, a knight who was being dispatched tomorrow.
‘And although I haven’t revealed it, I am nonetheless the Empress’s special envoy!’
The Knights had dormitories for those who couldn’t return home due to official duties, and Beatrice had the Head Maid, Kaya, to help her.
Exchanging quick glances, the two made their escape from the Hartwell estate, fully utilizing their childhood experience playing hide-and-seek in the mansion.
[We’re leaving early because things are busy! We’ll be back! I’ll write! With love, Beatrice and Clyde.
P.S. We swear in our lives we’re not running away.]
They even left a note in their own way so their family wouldn’t worry.
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