The Crimson family, Scarlett Dumpert’s family of origin, was a family of great watchmakers. Among those talents, her parents, who passed away when Scarlett was twelve, were unprecedented geniuses.
Even now, living a life overflowing with wealth after marrying Viktor Dumpert, a corner of her heart still held a sense of loss for not having learned the clockmaking skills that were the foundation of the Crimson family.
But now, just after her twentieth birthday, she was recalling a very young age, sitting on her parents’ workbench, where they would lose track of time and become engrossed in their work.
The millimeter world inside the watches they made, her parents who would forget to feed their child while talking about new techniques—a vast amount of information about the two geniuses began to appear.
“It’s because of the medicine in your tea.”
Scarlett, who had been lost in happy memories, was brought back to her senses by the nonchalant voice of the Royal Police officer, Hughan Hunter.
Scarlett was sitting in the interrogation room of the Royal Police Headquarters. The large window overlooked Lilson Square.
Scarlett asked in a somewhat dazed voice.
“Medicine? What are you…”
When Hughan suddenly got up and approached her, Scarlett stopped talking.
Hughan gestured at the teacup with his chin and took out the handcuffs he had at his waist.
“The medicine in the tea you drank is a sorcery that makes memories clearer. It’s a medicine made on a pirate island, so it’s almost impossible to get it in this country. Why, the medicine to restore the optic nerves that you wanted to get for Count Isaac Crimson is also made on a pirate island, isn’t it?”
‘Oh, so that’s why…’ Scarlett reacted out loud without even realizing it.
Hughan scoffed and continued.
“In addition, if this medicine is overused, the brain defensively tries to find memories, which paradoxically causes amnesia. The human brain is a strange thing.”
“…Amnesia?”
“Yes, so no matter what I do to you from now on, you won’t remember anything by the time you leave the police station.”
Scarlett’s eyes began to tremble slightly at his businesslike voice.
Hughan grabbed her left wrist, took off her wristwatch, and put handcuffs on her.
Scarlett suppressed her fear and pulled her arm with all her might.
“I am Viktor Dumpert’s wife. How dare you…”
“Of course, I respect Captain Viktor, but you are different, ma’am. You’ve become a target because you’re easy to deal with.”
Hughan used his strength to pull the other end of the handcuffs, which Scarlett was trying to resist, and hooked it onto a ring on the wall. He then closed the curtains to cover the window and continued.
“Your parents died early, and your uncle raised you, didn’t he?”
“W-What does that have to do with anything?”
“I heard that Count Isaac Crimson, the head of the family, can’t see, so your uncle, the de facto head of the family, held Count Isaac hostage and treated you like a slave. So it’s as good as saying you have no one to help you.”
“My husband won’t just stand by.”
Hughan glanced at Scarlett at her firm voice.
“Lord Viktor doesn’t care for you that much, does he?”
“Don’t talk nonsense. My husband loves me.”
“You know that’s not true, don’t you?”
At his sarcastic remark, Scarlett was speechless.
Her husband was a rational person.
He was a person who hated to be broken down.
So she thought he wouldn’t be able to love anyone else.
If she didn’t think that way, her love for him, which had made her willing to give up her life for him for the past two years, would be a pitiful waste.
Hughan clicked his tongue at her desolate face.
“So what’s the point of showing loyalty? As I said, this is a very rare medicine to get. It means that there are people who are so against Lord Viktor Dumpert becoming a part of the royal family that they are willing to use such medicine to interrogate you, doesn’t it?”
Hughan took out a piece of paper with an address written on it from his inner pocket.
“And I will connect you to a place where you can get the medicine you’re looking for.”
Scarlett’s gaze shifted to the note he held out.
Hughan wore a satisfied expression.
“Lord Viktor is a man of principle, so he wouldn’t look for this medicine for you, would he? He betrayed you first. So, what kind of disqualifying reasons can you give me about Lord Viktor Dumpert?”
Scarlett let out a long sigh and turned her head toward the window.
Her husband had lived his whole life with a sense of guilt and inferiority because his mother was banished from the royal family because of him.
The thought that if he became a royal, she might be able to break down a corner of his fortress-like composure, was greater than her feelings for her brother.
She thought she was incredibly selfish and slowly closed her eyes.
Scarlett knew that they wouldn’t be able to leave a scar on her body. No matter how much the Royal Police and how much they looked down on her, they would still be wary of Viktor.
So all she had to do was hold out until her husband came. It was an easy task to just keep her mouth shut until he came.
People in Sallantie called November the month of pirates. November, when the sea wind blew fiercely and it rained almost every day, was the perfect month for pirate ships to avoid the navy’s eyes and come to plunder. But now, that was a thing of the past. Thanks to her husband who had almost annihilated the pirates.
Scarlett was sitting on the bed, looking out the window at the cold November rain, thinking such thoughts. But she couldn’t just keep avoiding it. She got up, her mind foggy as if she were still drunk.
“My head hurts…”
Scarlett covered her throbbing forehead with her hand and left the bedroom.
The place was familiar. It was the suite at the hotel where she and Viktor had their wedding.
But everything else was a blank slate. She had no memory of why she was lying here, or since when she had been.
Even the pajamas she was wearing were ones she had never seen before.
Her last memory was sitting across from a man who said he was from the Royal Police and drinking tea. But even that memory was so hazy that it seemed like it would disappear at any moment, and she couldn’t remember the man’s face properly.
“What happened…”
As she looked around, she saw today’s newspaper on the table.
When Scarlett checked the date, she lost her strength and plopped down on a chair.
The day the Royal Police Headquarters was supposed to investigate Scarlett to see if her husband had any moral flaws that would prevent him from being recognized as a royal family member was November 7th, and the date on the newspaper was November 14th. She had lost all memory of the past week.
On the coffee table, there were bottles of alcohol scattered around, and on the sofa, there were paper bags filled with luxury goods from a famous brand near the hotel.
“Did I buy those?”
Scarlett muttered as if possessed, and then rummaged through the paper bags to look for a receipt that might help her remember.
At that moment, the door to the room was flung open.
Scarlett turned around and first saw a hotel employee holding a key. She frowned, wondering how they dared to enter a guest room without permission, but then her husband, Viktor Dumpert, walked in through the open door.
“Viktor.”
As soon as she saw her husband’s face, Scarlett felt relieved and ran to him, throwing herself into his arms.
“Oh, thank goodness.”
Her husband, who was always blunt and had never given her a single sense of security that he was on her side throughout their two years of marriage, was now the only one she could rely on.
Scarlett complained.
“I don’t know why I’m here. What happened?”
As she said that, she looked up and saw Viktor’s dark blue eyes looking down at her, and her shoulders, wrapped in thin clothes, flinched. The anger in her husband’s eyes, which were always so rational that they were almost indifferent, was boiling.
“That’s a good excuse.”
His low voice, mixed with the sound of the rain fiercely hitting the window, sent a chill down Scarlett’s spine.
“Did something… happen?”
At that moment, Evan Wright, the first mate of the Rubid, Viktor’s ship, who had come with Viktor, called out to Scarlett.
“Mrs. Scarlett.”
Scarlett, whose nerves were on edge and who was surprised even at the sound of her name being called, turned around. Evan, who was usually a slick person, looked troubled and held up a black potion he had found under a wine bottle.
“This is a medicine from a pirate island. The sorcery medicine you’ve been looking for that can make the blind see.”
“R-Really?”
Scarlett, who had been terrified, rushed to grab the potion, but Viktor grabbed her by the elbow. The man who was always a gentleman roughly pulled Scarlett toward the table. Then he held up the newspaper in front of her face, which was full of bewilderment.
The first page of the newspaper, which Scarlett had only checked the date of, was filled with a large-font article.
[Can Viktor Dumpert, who imprisoned his royal mother in a mental institution, become a member of the royal family?]
As Scarlett stared blankly at the article, Viktor opened his mouth.
“You told the Royal Police, didn’t you? During the background check.”
“N-No. That can’t be.”
“There’s a lot more than this. Enough to fill a whole page.”
Viktor personally opened the newspaper for her.
Just as he said, all of Viktor’s weaknesses that Scarlett knew were detailed in the newspaper. Among them was the far-fetched accusation that a close friend of Viktor’s from his cadet days was now an officer in the Bestina army. What was not a big deal when Viktor was in school was now pointed out as a problem with the deteriorating relationship with Bestina.
Viktor looked down at Scarlett, who was reading the newspaper with a blank face, and muttered.
“You sold me out for that medicine.”
At his cold voice, Scarlett felt her head ache even more. She wanted to explain something, but her mind was blank, and nothing came to mind.
“That’s impossible.”
Scarlett muttered.
It was true that she had been looking for that potion. It was for her own brother, Isaac Crimson, who was blind from the accident. Of course, Isaac was a precious person to Scarlett, but she would never have betrayed her husband for him.
Confused, she urgently grabbed the lapel of Viktor’s coat.
“You know how much I love you. Do you really think I, who knows how hard you worked to become a royal, would betray you for Isaac?”
“It’s not what I think. It’s the truth.”
“It’s not!”
“Then why aren’t you back home? Why are you hiding here?”
“That’s… I told you. I don’t remember.”
At her repeated claims, not only Viktor but also Evan and Viktor’s secretary, Blight, who had come with him, wore uncomfortable expressions.
For Scarlett, it was a crazy situation that she couldn’t remember, but for everyone else, it only seemed like she was avoiding talking about her betrayal of her husband.
Scarlett reached out to hug Viktor and said.
“Viktor, please. Believe me.”
But Viktor grabbed her arms, pushed them down, and asked in a hoarse voice, as if he was trying to hold back his anger.
“Stop talking nonsense.”
“Really…”
“Just say you were blackmailed. Or that you were tortured.”
At his cold voice, even the thoughts that were barely surfacing sank as if a weight had been attached to them.
As Scarlett just stood there with a bewildered expression, unable to speak, Viktor continued.
“Even if it’s a lie, just say that. Then I’ll at least try to understand.”
“I…”
With a painful and frustrated heart, Scarlett’s wine-colored eyes, which looked so sweet, became moist. She even felt fear as Viktor’s expression twisted in front of her eyes.
Unable to withstand the pressure, Scarlett answered.
“I don’t think… I was blackmailed or tortured. Maybe…”
After saying that, she was afraid that Viktor would leave, so Scarlett raised her hands again and urgently hugged her husband’s neck.
“I think I went crazy for a moment. I’m sorry, Viktor.”
Then Viktor let out a hollow laugh and muttered.
“Do I have to send my wife to the convent too?”
At his words, Scarlett’s movements became slow, as if she had frozen.
