Chapter 44
44
“How can I trust the Royal Police?”
“Hasn’t our deal already been successful once? I thought we’d built up some trust.”
Isaac was referring to the bitter medicine.
Indeed, he had received the method for obtaining the medicine from the Royal Police, and Isaac had been able to see the light. Paradoxically, this transaction had already built up a bit of trust.
Hugh Gunther tore up the statement on the spot. Then, he took out a second statement, signed it, and handed it to Scarlett.
“Here you go.”
She took the statement. It confirmed that Evil Crimson had tried to stab Isaac Crimson first, and it softened all the words related to Isaac Crimson’s assault.
Scarlett looked at the tea placed before her, and Hugh Gunther continued.
“Drink up.”
At his words, Scarlett slowly took a deep breath.
She asked, “If I drink this, will my memories be erased?”
“To be precise, it digs into your memories. The partial erasure of memories is just a side effect of the drug.”
“……Ah.”
Scarlett wore a desolate expression.
“So, I didn’t go crazy because of the guilt of betraying Viktor. I really didn’t have the memories?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
Scarlett reproached herself for doubting herself even for a moment. And taking the glass, she said, “Don’t touch Isaac anymore.”
“I won’t.”
While they were talking, she downed the tea, which had gone cold, in one gulp. Then, she got up and headed for the door, but the Royal Police blocked it and wouldn’t open it.
Hugh Gunther said in a nonchalant tone, “Stay a little longer. The drug needs to take effect.”
“……I will.”
Scarlett stood still in her place.
The Royal Police blocking the door hesitated, then said to her, “I’m telling you this because you’ll forget, but Miss Scarlett, you kept your faith with Viktor.”
At his words of consolation, Scarlett murmured in a desolate voice, “I wish Viktor had come here back then…….”
Scarlett’s lips trembled. She gave a faint smile.
“Just once…… he could have left that honor behind and come to see me.”
“That’s why Miss Scarlett became a target.”
Hugh Gunther said jokingly.
Scarlett nodded weakly.
“I lived with such a cold man…….”
As she muttered that, she felt a headache and staggered. Then, the Royal Police blocking the door hurriedly supported her.
“Are you alright?”
The Royal Police officer whose eyes met hers was young, about Scarlett’s age, and had a healthy complexion.
It was terrible that there were kind individuals in a group that committed such heinous acts. Scarlett thought that perhaps they simply regarded what they were doing as orders and didn’t think of it as individual wrongdoing.
“I’m fine.”
She barely straightened herself up.
It was only after three or four hours that the Royal Police opened the door.
Scarlett was guided by the Royal Police again as she moved her feet. She kept thinking in her head, trying to hold onto her memories somehow.
‘I have to remember. I must remember what happened today.’
Before the drug erased all her memories, Scarlett first confirmed with her own eyes that Isaac’s statement had been changed. And she gave Isaac, who was locked up in the detention center, a quick glance.
Isaac also seemed to think it wasn’t difficult to use violence because he had grown up in a violent environment. She couldn’t leave him alone.
‘First, I have to do something about Isaac’s violence. And then I’ll tell my husband…… no, my ex-husband. I didn’t betray you. You’re the one who betrayed me. I’ll definitely say that and get angry.’
Only after conveying those words.
Only then would she be able to tell Viktor how heartbroken she had been back then.
About how scary it was to lose her memories and wake up in a hotel.
And even more frightening than that was the moment she realized she couldn’t rely on her beloved husband at all, and that she really, really, really hated her husband for not believing in her back then.
In a daze, she had only brought her handbag with her wallet from home, so she grabbed a passing capital police officer and said, “Excuse me, but could you lend me a pen and paper?”
She was going to write down what she remembered before she forgot it.
The police officer replied coolly, “Yes, of course.”
Then, he picked up a pen on the desk and hesitated for a while, saying he was looking for unused paper.
Belatedly, Scarlett realized that one of the Royal Police was watching inside from outside the police station. When she realized that even if she wrote down what she remembered, it would eventually be taken away, the police officer said, “I’m sorry, but I don’t think we have any unused paper. Should I just lend you a pen?”
Then Scarlett turned around and asked, “Pardon?”
“The pen. You asked to borrow it, right?”
As the police officer held out the pen, Scarlett blinked. Tilting her head, she smiled.
“It’s alright.”
She greeted him and left the police station. And she sat on a bench in the square in a daze.
It was already midnight when she came to her senses a little. Only then did she get up from the bench and tilt her head.
“What am I doing here?”
Scarlett muttered to herself and hurried home.
As she walked, she thought about when she had been sitting here.
This morning, she had heard from her husband’s tailor that the cufflinks he had hinted at were out at the department store, so she had gone early to pick them up. She thought she had received them, but when she came to her senses, it was night. Moreover, when she opened her bag, the cufflinks weren’t there.
Scarlett turned her head to look at the clock tower, and her heart sank, so she ran to the road where private carriages passed. It was already past ten o’clock.
“Oh, what should I do?”
Viktor would be asleep by now. He might not even know that I haven’t come in. But Scarlett was anxious about her late return itself. Scarlett was scared and wiped away the tears that were dripping down.
“I’ve never been home this late before…….”
Fortunately, a private carriage was caught quickly.
She shouted urgently, “To, to the Dumpelt Family residence, please!”
*
The Dumpelt Family was generally quiet, but today it was busy and bustling from the morning. This was because Viktor’s Mother, Marina Dumpelt, was choosing a dress to wear to Nina Hunter’s charity party.
As Viktor had expected, Marina was overjoyed at the fact that she would be participating in a social event for the first time in a while.
Marina invested the entire day in choosing a dress to wear to the charity party.
She only enjoyed the process of trying on various clothes, and she wasn’t mentally stable enough to make any decisions, so everything was decided by her son, Viktor. Marina, who had changed her clothes once again, said with an excited face, “Viktor, being raised in the Royal Family is very different.”
“In what way, Mother?”
Viktor answered appropriately and held up the empty bottle of alcohol that he had finished drinking. Then, a maid ran over in surprise.
Usually, it was natural to ask if the employer wanted the bottle filled before they emptied it, but Viktor didn’t give them a chance and poured all the alcohol into his throat as soon as it was brought.
Crossing his legs and leaning towards the table placed sideways, he had already drunk enough alcohol to put an ordinary person in a life-threatening situation.
While the maid was bringing new alcohol, Marina said with a dreamy face, “When I was young, that place seemed as vast as the whole world……. I would run around the entire Royal Palace, and when the royal children gathered on a nice carpet, my late aunt would read books to us. Ah, she was really, really a storyteller.”
Viktor listened to the words he had heard a thousand times with one ear and let them out with the other as he waited for the alcohol.
After a while, Blight entered instead of alcohol.
“Young Master, fragrant tea has arrived. Would you like some?”
“I told you to bring alcohol.”
When Viktor spoke without even looking in his direction, Blight couldn’t stop him any longer and lowered his head.
“Yes, I will have alcohol brought.”
He needed alcohol to listen to the story he had heard about a thousand times as if it were the first time, but today it was too much.
Blight left the place with a worried expression. Then, a maid appeared with a bottle of alcohol and a new glass and said, “Ordinary people would die if they drank like this…….”
“Young Master isn’t an ordinary person.”
“Still. Your sense of taste is weak anyway, so shouldn’t we give you water?”
“He’s not that tasteless.”
Viktor Dumpelt was an indifferent employer. Among employers, indifferent employers were at least above average. And even if they used violence, employers who paid on time were about average. So, no employee wanted Viktor to die from alcohol poisoning.
Viktor had very picky tastes, so if he chose a dress, he would say he didn’t like the shoes, and if he chose shoes, he would say they didn’t match the hat.
No matter how much she had wanted a social event, Marina Dumpelt was tired of changing clothes all day and slowly began to act violently.
“Are you trying to kill me by strangling me with clothes?”
“Is that even possible?”
“I’m tired.”
“Just a little more.”
“Yes, I shouldn’t trust you. You’ve always hated me terribly.”
As Marina spoke with unfocused eyes, Viktor drank the remaining whiskey in his glass at once and replied, “That’s not true.”
“You devil.”
Viktor stared at his Mother, who was glaring at him, and opened his mouth.
“You’re beautiful.”
It was true.
Viktor’s outstanding face was thanks to perfectly mixing and harmonizing his Mother and Father. His Mother still had a dazzlingly beautiful appearance.
After his long rejections, Marina’s madness was barely concealed.
