Chapter 43
Ebil grabbed his hand and staggered to his feet, heading for the door, but Isaac had already hooked his cane into the rings on both sides of the door. Isaac—who had suddenly grown taller than Ebil—looked back at him.
Ebil trembled and shouted, “You— you bastard!”
He swung his fist, and Isaac didn’t dodge; he took the blow. Isaac’s cheek, pale from growing up without sunlight, flushed red in an instant.
He cupped his burning cheek with his hand and remembered the sound of his uncle hitting young Scarlet.
Whether Isaac had covered Ebil’s mouth himself or Ebil had muffled his own cries, there were no screams or sobs.
Isaac gave a small sigh, unfastened the cufflink Scarlet had fastidiously attached, and tucked it into his inner pocket.
When his sight returned one day, Isaac realized many things: that Scarlet had put unnecessarily expensive cufflinks on his clothes, that the clothes he wore were even better than Scarlet’s, and so on.
The man called Isaac Crimson was nothing more than a ghoul scraping by on Scarlet Crimson’s childhood to keep his own life attached.
He folded his shirt sleeves neatly and walked toward Ebil. Ebil, who was pressing his severed hand with the other to staunch the bleeding, swung his arm again.
Because he hadn’t been able to see for so long, Isaac assumed Ebil would be slow to react—but that was a mistake.
Isaac’s senses were so sharp that he seemed to groan at the sound of the wind made by a thrown fist; he reacted as if even the air around a swinging hand was audible.
After avoiding that fist, Isaac struck Ebil in the face. A scream echoed through the mansion once more. Isaac began to pummel Ebil, who was clutching his face.
Originally, Isaac had planned only to make sure Ebil could never make clocks again.
If Ebil couldn’t make clocks, it would be harder for the family to drive out Scarlet, who had clockmaking skill. So he should have stopped after cutting off the fingers.
But once the rage that had built up started to burst forth, he couldn’t stop.
Since he was thirteen he had only ever listened to the sounds of his sister being struck. He’d known everything and still pretended not to hear—covered his ears in the attic and pretended nothing was happening.
When she would soon come over beside him and giggle as if nothing had happened, his chest would ache yet he’d feel a strange relief.
In the middle of it, Ebil, who must have thought he was about to die, pressed his hands together and begged.
“St-stop, Isaac! You’ll really kill me if you keep this up! Hey! Someone break down the door and come in!”
Isaac’s anger showed no sign of easing, but he did stop punching. He removed the ring from Ebil’s finger.
It was the Crimson family signet, the head-of-house jewel—the garnet-set ring—and Isaac slid it onto his own finger. The ring, stretched to fit Ebil’s finger, spun loosely on Isaac’s thin finger.
Whatever the reason, he raised his hand toward the window and looked at the ring on his finger. Only Isaac could know how visible that ring was, and that thought made Ebil even more terrified.
“You brat… you think taking one ring from this house will send the family—this business—back to you, some worthless kid who hasn’t done a thing for it? Do you think that girl’s skill is real skill?”
“Before uncle occupied this house for even ten years, Crimson clocks had so many defects. If Scarlet were wrong, that would become clear soon enough.”
At that moment the servants smashed the door and rushed in.
Ebil’s wife, Anne Crimson, and their daughter, Marylin Crimson, who had been at tea in the grounds and came running at the screams, shouted. Anne fainted on the spot at the sight of her husband bloodied and the hideous silkworm-like things covering Isaac’s eyes.
Ebil Crimson croaked, “Ar-rest that brat at once!”
“I am the head of this family.” Isaac’s words made the servants hesitate.
They briefly worried about whom to obey, but then, as they had up to now, they decided to follow Ebil Crimson.
They approached Isaac and grabbed his arms. Isaac leaned in and inspected the faces of the servants holding him. Each time his gaze came close, the servants groaned and turned their heads away. It was a gruesome sight.
No matter how strong Isaac was, he could not break free from several servants. They bound him, and after a while the police arrived.
Ebil was immediately taken to the hospital for surgery to stitch his severed fingers. Several of his teeth were broken and his ribs were fractured.
Meanwhile, Isaac was interrogated at the police station; strangely, at first regular police handled it, but soon he was transferred to the Royal Police.
He had expected to be brought to the station, but never thought the Royal Police would get involved. The Royal Police functioned more like military police and generally did not meddle in such personal disputes. The fact that it had reached headquarters made Isaac feel that something odd was afoot.
Unlike the plain meal at the regular station—a sandwich with baked apples—the meal after transfer was elaborate: soup, cold dishes, hot courses. Even that alone showed that those being questioned here were not ordinary people.
Isaac brought the food close, studied it, and put it into his mouth. Seeing it made the taste worse; he thought he had liked not knowing the appearance and only tasting it. Blindness had one advantage after all.
While he was eating like that, Scarlet arrived at the police station.
She ran toward him the moment she saw him. Isaac’s eyes widened and he sat up.
“Scar- Scarlet?”
Scarlet scowled and, without warning, slapped him hard on the back. The officers flinched and looked at her.
“Are you mad?”
“Oww…”
“You’re impossible!”
“I’m sorry, Scarlet…”
Isaac kept apologizing with the expression of someone on the verge of tears.
Scarlet sighed deeply, then checked Isaac’s face for injuries and asked, “Uncle tried to stab you first, didn’t he?”
Isaac nodded. Scarlet’s hand trembled as she covered the wound on his neck that he’d left on purpose.
“Could’ve been terrible… I told you it was dangerous, didn’t I?”
“I was wrong.”
Isaac pouted, and Scarlet, unable to stay angry, struck him one more time, harder. Then, with an oddly mature tone, she said, “They’ll ask me a few questions here and then let your brother go. I’ll be back soon, so stay put.”
“I don’t care about prison time…”
“Don’t say ridiculous things.”
Scarlet glared and Isaac shut his mouth. Scarlet then moved off with the Royal Police.
They took Scarlet to the Royal Police Headquarters, and as she entered the place she’d been before, memories of that day returned to her bit by bit.
Everything felt familiar. She remembered clearly walking in with the Royal Police in front of her, and the interrogation room came back the moment she stepped inside.
Scarlet stopped when she saw Hyugen Hunter standing in the interrogation room. At his nod the Royal Police shoved her inside.
After a moment of silence, Scarlet spoke.
“So what I remembered is correct, right?”
Once the memory started it became clearer. She recalled the man who served the tea that day—Hyugen Hunter—and the words he had said. She remembered the regretful feeling about drinking it and some of the things he had said.
“It was the tea. He drugged the tea.”
Hyugen smiled and, as he handed her a cup again, said, “Just as Miss Scarlet recalled. I did serve the tea.”
“You said you put something in the tea.”
“I see. It seems you’ve recovered some of your memory.” Hyugen smiled and continued.
“As you know, we cannot use torture. If Miss Scarlet were to be injured it would cause a problem. We do not want to hurt you by force-feeding or anything like that.”
He said this calmly, and then held up a document.
“This is a report on how severely Count Crimson beat Ebil Crimson.”
“You said uncle was the one who tried to stab Isaac first.”
Scarlet said this, and Hyugen let out a small laugh.
“That’s right. The Count claimed Ebil Crimson had first tried to kill him with a paper knife. So it was self-defense. But you know how that goes—those are the kind of lies rich young men tell to cover up trouble after they cause it.”
“It’s not a lie! And before, Victor—”
“You must compare apples to apples. Sir Victor is the captain of the Rubid, Salantie’s flagship. Even if he beat Ebil Crimson to death, he wouldn’t be prosecuted. Count Crimson is different. He has no witnesses, no one to help him nearby.”
“…….”
“If I wanted, I could rot Count Crimson away in prison for a long time.”
At his words Scarlet squeezed her eyes shut without realizing it.
The teacup he pushed clinked as it came closer. In a soft voice he said, “Drink this tea. Then I’ll make this report disappear as if it never existed.”
