Chapter 30
30
*
Scarlett didn't think she would be able to sleep deeply. However, she hadn't considered her weak physical strength, as she was always holed up in her workshop. She had used up all her mental strength the day before while working, so when she opened her eyes in the morning, the sun was high in the sky.
Scarlett, still drowsy, got out of bed. And unconsciously, she looked at her wrist and saw a bandage wrapped around it.
“……”
Scarlett, staring blankly, muttered.
“I must have done it in my sleep.”
Otherwise, there was no way there would be such a poorly wrapped bandage.
Considering the fantastic quality of her sleep, it wouldn't be strange if she had woken up in her sleep, wrapped the bandage in a light sleep state, and gone back to sleep.
In the first place, there was no one else who would do such a thing. Viktor wouldn't do such a kind act, and since he was good at everything, there was no way he would have tied it so clumsily.
After looking at the bandage, she finished getting ready and left the bedroom. And as she left the house to get gravel, the pleasant autumn sunshine of the south was sparkling.
The airmen were engrossed in their training, and she could see Viktor's back as he watched them. Viktor Dampfelt, in his handsome naval uniform, looked like an elegant stallion. The black pants, tailored to fit his body, were sleek, and his beautifully muscled thighs exuded a sexual charm.
"Good morning."
"Good morning!"
The young men greeted Scarlett with cheerful voices as they passed by. They all seemed to have gained strength from the fact that there was a technician who could fix the engine.
Viktor turned to Scarlett and opened his mouth.
"We'll leave at dawn tomorrow. Go back to sleep."
"I'm going to get materials."
"Have your subordinates do it."
"They're your subordinates, not mine."
At Scarlett's words, Viktor clicked his tongue.
Viktor gestured to someone in the distance. Soon, one of his subordinates brought a horse out of the stable. It was a beautiful black horse.
Viktor put her on first, then got on behind her.
"It's far."
"Yeah."
Scarlett decided not to refuse Viktor's help anymore. It was a waste of time anyway.
Scarlett had never ridden a horse except for a pony when she was young, so she felt awkward and uneasy riding a horse. But once the horse started, she found stability.
Viktor was holding her waist with one arm, and it felt like she was tied to rebar. He had a body that seemed to transcend humanity. Scarlett, who had been closing her eyes tightly, opened her eyes at the softened breeze. Viktor leaned down slightly, and Scarlett was embarrassed by his closeness.
After a while, the two arrived near the river flowing under the waterfall.
After getting off the horse, Scarlett rolled up her sleeve and looked at the bandage on her wrist, saying,
"It came loose."
Viktor turned his head when he found the bandage.
Scarlett asked.
"Did I wrap this in my sleep? I can't trust my memory."
"...I did it."
"Don't lie. There's no way someone as good at everything as you are would have wrapped it so messily."
"I'm sorry to have disappointed you."
At those words, Scarlett blinked in embarrassment. Then, looking at the bandage again, she said.
"Wow. Now that I look at it again, it's well done."
After praising him like that, she quickly headed to the river. She felt like Viktor was laughing behind her, but he wasn't a very good laugher, so it must have been her imagination.
And she walked only a few steps into the river and picked up a stone. It was a stone with quartz embedded in it.
"Wow……."
The stone, sparkling in the sunlight, was surprisingly beautiful. And she remembered that this was the stone that was always piled up in her parents' workshop.
At the same time, she remembered her father crushing the stone with a small pestle and panning it. The things he picked out were then ground again and hardened. What he made with it became an important part that went into the Crimson Clock. She hadn't been doing something so important.
Scarlett said, looking at the stone.
"After my parents passed away, all the clocks made by the Crimson family are fake."
As memories poured back, her head ached. She staggered in the river, and Viktor hurriedly grabbed her.
After a while, she regained her composure and raised her head.
"Sorry. I was a little shocked all of a sudden."
Scarlett said, letting go of his arm, and went into the river to take out the gravel.
Even though it was warmer in the south than in the capital, the water was cold. Scarlett put her hand in the river and started taking out gravel and putting it in her bag. She thought that she wouldn't be able to take much at once, and that it would be almost impossible to come here again. In the end, the latter thought won, and she decided to fill the bag with gravel. And when she came out of the water and tried to push the bag, it wouldn't budge because she had put too much in it.
After failing several times, Scarlett stopped Viktor from trying to lift it.
"I'll do it."
"How?"
"I have to put wheels on it. That's what I do every day."
Scarlett looked around and found a tree. And she started carving wheels with the tools she always carried.
Viktor was just staring at Scarlett.
As she had promised, Scarlett quickly made the wheels, and skillfully fitted the pieces of wood together to make the bag transportable without glue.
However, the wheels didn't roll easily on the dirt floor. Viktor, who had been watching Scarlett trying to transform something again, let out a small chuckle with a face that had been stiff all along.
"……Why are you laughing?"
Scarlett glared, and Viktor replied.
"Because you look like a squirrel collecting acorns."
"What makes you think that?"
"Overall."
After saying that, Viktor grabbed Scarlett's waist and put her on the horse.
"The sun's going down. Let's go."
"What about that bag……."
"My subordinates will do it."
As soon as the two of them got on the horse, a few subordinates who were somewhere took the bag, as he said.
Scarlett panicked and asked in an embarrassed voice.
"……Where were those people watching from?"
"From when you came out of the bedroom."
"Even when I was picking up gravel?"
"They must have been watching very uncomfortably."
"I wasn't acting like an aristocrat, in your eyes."
At those words, Viktor looked at Scarlett once and replied.
"You're talking as if you were ever aristocratic."
"I tried."
"It's not a matter of effort."
Viktor held Scarlett's body in one arm and fixed her in place, saying.
"I always, don't understand you."
At those words, Scarlett raised her head and looked at Viktor.
The nuance of what he was saying was unfamiliar. It was as if he was saying that it was partly his fault. It was a very strange thing to come out of the mouth of Viktor Dampfelt, who was a perfect human being.
Viktor's arm holding Scarlett tightened.
*
They slept in the same room for another day. This time, she wasn't tired, so she couldn't fall asleep easily. Scarlett lay down early and pretended to sleep.
At dawn the next day, Scarlett left the airbase with Viktor's group. As they headed to the capital by train, the sun rose and then slowly set again.
On the way back facing each other, Scarlett asked.
"I wanted to ask you something, did you do the Crimson Clock tax investigation?"
"Yeah."
Viktor replied and turned the page of his book. Then, he put down the book for a moment and looked at Scarlett, saying.
"So the clock is wrong?"
"Yeah. Only the clocks with the version 5 parts made by my uncle."
"What are you going to do?"
"I have to tell them to do a recall. All of them."
"You're doing something dangerous again."
At Viktor's words, Scarlett replied.
"This is obvious."
"What's obvious?"
"I'm the Crimson family's legitimate daughter. Are you telling me to let the faulty clocks continue to be sold?"
"Leave it. It's nothing. If you just keep your mouth shut, no one will know."
At Viktor's words, Scarlett said firmly.
"How can no one know? I know, my deceased parents are watching, and the people who are using the clocks will know."
"You're out of your mind."
At Viktor's words that came out unconsciously, Scarlett replied.
"Yeah. You knew. That's why you sent me to the Monastery."
"I didn't know it was such a place when I sent you there."
"A hundred days is long. If you cared about me even a little, you would have come at least once."
"You betrayed me!"
As Viktor's voice grew louder, the officers of the Rubid Ship in the first-class train car got up and left for the smoking room as if they had promised.
Scarlett thought that Viktor had probably never raised his voice like that in his life. He was still not relieved of his anger at all. Scarlett asked in a rather calm voice.
"Are you still angry that you couldn't return to the royal family because of me? Even though I was in the Monastery for a hundred days?"
"I forgive you. It's just that I can't forget."
Scarlett felt suffocated and pressed her chest with both hands. And then, she forced a smile and said.
"That's good. I don't think I'll ever forget those hundred days either. That time when you didn't come and I was terrified every day. I won't forget it until I die, me too."
"……."
"Me too……."
As she said that, Scarlett grabbed the window frame as if she was out of breath.
Viktor grabbed her hand.
"Scarlett?"
"Ah……."
Fortunately, Scarlett soon came to her senses. And after taking a deep breath, she raised her head. But soon, she looked around with an embarrassed face.
"Viktor."
She blinked and looked at Viktor, asking.
"Where is this?"
"……What?"
"Why am I on a train……."
Scarlett looked around with bewildered eyes. But soon, she looked out the window and smiled brightly.
"Still good. It's my first time seeing a plain."
"……."
"Why do you have that expression, my love."
Viktor couldn't say anything and was just looking at her.
After a while, Viktor finally opened his mouth.
"Scarlett."
"Yeah."
"We're divorced."
"Huh?"
Scarlett asked back and fell into thought. And after being dazed for a moment, she soon came to her senses.
"Yeah, I remember now. We're divorced. I went to the airbase. I've been like this lately."
Fortunately, Scarlett quickly came to her senses. However, Viktor was frozen in place for a moment by her strange behavior that had passed in a short time.
