A few days later, she was ready to go to the convent in the early morning.
Scarlett hugged Viktor tightly.
“I’m going to miss you, Viktor.”
Viktor smoothed Scarlett’s hair, which was resting in his arms and looking up at him so earnestly, and tucked it behind her ear.
“Father’s anger will have subsided by the time you return.”
At his words, Scarlett nodded, then leaned her head against Viktor’s chest and said.
“Will you let go of your anger too?”
“No.”
At his obvious answer, the smile disappeared from Scarlett’s lips.
“Not even after a month?”
“You betrayed me.”
What was her husband thinking?
In the early days of their marriage, she couldn’t sleep soundly all day, trying to figure out what was on the mind of the man she had fallen in love with at first sight.
She would do ridiculous daisy petal fortune-telling, with only two answers, ‘he loves me’ or ‘he loves me not,’ and she would even look for rare flowers in the field that were said to make love come true. She tried laughing, sulking, and crying, but her husband was always the same.
He was a man who wouldn’t catch fire. Being by the side of the always-cold Viktor, she always felt like she was the only one burning brightly.
She wondered how she could have loved such a man for two years, but then the thought followed that this was what unrequited love was like.
Unrequited love was, after all, loving someone who didn’t love you back. In the end, she thought that time was the only answer. When her flame went out at some point, this love would also disappear.
Scarlett smiled, stepped back, and asked in a gentle voice.
“How about three months? Will you let go of your anger in three months?”
“…”
“Then one hundred days. After one hundred days… let go of your anger. Please? I don’t want it to be longer, because I’m afraid you’ll forget me.”
“Okay. Let’s do that.”
When Viktor answered, Scarlett was delighted. She hugged him tightly, then waved and said.
“See you in one hundred days, my love.”
“Okay.”
Would his anger subside after one hundred days? Would the flame in her heart go out if she was away from him for a hundred days?
Scarlett got into the carriage, earnestly hoping for both.
Mellin Convent was located quite far from the capital.
The faces of Scarlett’s servants, who entered the convent that stood alone in the middle of nowhere, darkened.
The room prepared for Scarlett was made of stone and was empty, like a prison cell.
Candice, the maid who had brought Scarlett’s luggage, frowned.
“My goodness, even for a convent, there should be a bed, shouldn’t there? She’s not a religious ascetic, she’s an penitent.”
Scarlett, who had somewhat expected this, smiled silently and looked up at the small window. Her only concern was that the sun didn’t shine in well.
The servants had brought winter bedding and a brazier to decorate the room. It was natural for a wealthy family like the Dumpert family to bring this much luggage when they traveled.
At that moment, Father Delphio, to whom Gregory had personally entrusted Scarlett, entered the room. He looked at the servants who were about to put down the bedding and said in a solemn voice.
“What are you doing? Why does a woman who has come to repent need so much luggage?”
At his words, the servants stopped.
Father Delphio continued.
“Take your luggage and leave at once. Lord Leskia will be displeased.”
“Even so, how can you treat our mistress like this…”
Candice tried to object, but Delphio cut her off and raised his voice.
“This is also Lord Gregory’s command.”
“…”
Since it was Gregory’s order, Candice had no choice but to back down.
The servants, though flustered, reluctantly packed the luggage they had placed in the room.
After they had looked back several times and left the room, Delphio stood in front of Scarlett with a holy book in his hand.
A nun came and whispered.
“You just need to kneel.”
And when she also left, Scarlett, with a slightly nervous face, knelt at the priest’s feet.
Delphio turned the pages of the holy book and said.
“Lord Leskia has said. All demons are in the technology created to surpass others. Therefore, as the daughter of a watchmaker and born into the Crimson family, you were born with original sin.”
Scarlett’s expression hardened at his words.
Lord Leskia was the god of nature, and Edelord, the state religion of Sallantie, was a religion that believed in this god. Hundreds of years ago, the ancestors of Sallantie, who were nomads, followed a small star and settled in this place. And they began to worship the star that guided them and Lord Leskia, who created nature.
It was true that those who believed in Lord Leskia sought a life closer to nature. But for Delphio to use the religion to claim Scarlett’s original sin was a stretch.
Scarlett said.
“My parents didn’t make watches to surpass others.”
“Time is revealed by nature. The artificial creation of a way to read time, which made people’s hearts busy, is the act of a demon.”
“That’s a ridiculous thing to say…”
“That is why you betrayed your husband.”
Soon, Delphio had the priests make her kneel on the floor. Then he said proudly.
“You may not understand your sin now, but you will soon. You will find both repentance and purification here.”
A hundred days was a longer time than she thought.
In the meantime, the very cold season passed, and a fierce cold snap with a biting wind arrived. Sallantie had a lot of snow throughout December and January. The capital in February and March was often rainy, and the gloomy weather with strong winds continued.
While his wife was away at the convent, Viktor was doing interviews with journalists, which he wasn’t suited for.
He looked out of the carriage at the pouring rain. Blight, who had meticulously arranged the countless medals on his uniform so that not a single one was crooked, squinted and examined them, then pursed his lips as if he wasn’t happy with something.
It was Viktor who had hired Blight, seeing his near-obsessive tidiness. Since he had hired him himself, Viktor didn’t say anything, even though he was tired of his tidiness.
Blight, after much deliberation, finished Viktor’s grooming and carefully plucked a withered petal from the bouquet he had brought.
Paying attention to every movement, even as he handed the bouquet to Viktor, Blight asked.
“Are you sure about this? Seeing Duchess Marina.”
“I go often.”
“But this time, it’s with journalists.”
“There’s no other way.”
He had tried not to use this method until the very end, but the Royal Police and the media had been relentlessly attacking Viktor for his lack of filial piety, so he had no other choice.
Soon, Blight opened the carriage door and got out, opening an umbrella.
Amidst the crowd of reporters, Viktor got out of the carriage, holding a bouquet in one hand.
As his beautiful, unyielding face was revealed in the rain, the reporters, who had prepared aggressive questions, paused. An aura of dignity, unbelievable for a man of only twenty-six, emanated from this young officer.
He entered Oslith Convent, the wealthiest convent in the capital, where his mother, Marina Dumpert, was.
Oslith Convent was famous for having a chapel full of stained glass inside. It was beautiful, but very few were allowed to enter and leave.
His mother, Marina Dumpert, was sitting in an armchair on a porch overlooking the garden, decorated with the vast amount of money Viktor had donated.
As Viktor approached, Marina looked at her son.
“Viktor.”
“Mother.”
Viktor approached with a smile. And next to the chair, on the floor made of good wood, he knelt and looked up at Marina.
Marina stroked Viktor’s hair for a moment, then stood up abruptly. And her eyes changed as she grabbed his neck.
“You, if it weren’t for you…”
“…You would have lived as a royal. Yes, I know.”
“You shouldn’t have been born! You ruined my life!”
“You’ve said that many times, too.”
He just let his mother’s thin hands scratch his shoulders and the back of his neck.
It was something that happened all the time. After hitting and scratching Viktor as if to kill him, Marina, perhaps tired, was breathing heavily. Then, as if she was coming to her senses, she asked him.
“Is your wife doing well?”
“Yes.”
“Does she still love you so much?”
At her words, Viktor smiled faintly.
“Of course. So much that it’s overwhelming.”
Marina nodded, then opened her mouth again.
“When I was little, did I ever tell you about the slide in the royal palace?”
“…No.”
It was a story he had heard a thousand times. The story of the slide with golden handles, and the story of the cradle with many jade ornaments that all royals inherited.
After talking about her life in the royal palace for a long time, she would again resent Viktor. The bouquet he had given her had long been torn to shreds and thrown into the rain, having incurred Marina’s wrath.
Viktor, who had listened to her story for a long time, got up when Marina showed signs of being exhausted and falling asleep.
Then Marina grabbed his arm and said.
“Son, one day, please take me back to the royal palace.”
Her face was filled with a mixture of inexpressible hope and madness.
“My beloved son. You’re the only one I can trust. You understand, right?”
“Of course.”
Viktor said as he adjusted her blanket.
“One day, I will take you back to the royal palace.”
