Chapter 45
45
Marina, with a satisfied expression, looked at herself in the mirror before turning to Viktor, who had grown so much and was standing behind her.
"Viktor, you know what?"
"I'll decide after I hear it."
Marina chuckled at her son's gentle reply.
"You can't be royalty. Even if someone allows it. No matter what you do, no one will acknowledge you."
It was the first time she had heard such words from Mother, who always said the same things every day.
Viktor paused with the glass in his hand.
"Why?"
"Everything here is new."
Marina gestured to the objects with an exceedingly elegant gesture and continued in a languid voice.
"There isn't a single thing with history. Everything is shiny and new. Even you are terribly young."
"......"
Marina shook off the hands of the maids trying to stop her, walked over, grabbed Viktor's neatly tied tie, and pulled it.
"Even your clothes are new. Are you going to replace your Mother and your wife with new ones too?"
Viktor grabbed Marina's wrist, which was thin and bony from constantly refusing meals.
He resisted the urge to use force and gently pulled her hand down.
"Then why did you discipline me so much?"
"Hmm... it was a way to vent. Because I hate you so much."
Viktor's expression hardened at her nonchalant words. Then Marina burst into laughter.
"It's good that I'm sane for once. I can say everything I want to say."
"......"
Viktor remained still for a moment before gesturing to one of the maids.
"Put her hair up. She might take it down and tear it out herself."
"Yes, Master."
"Make her look as normal as possible. It doesn't matter if it's fake."
Marina frowned at his words.
"I'm normal right now. You're the one driving a normal person crazy. Didn't you drive your wife crazy too?"
At her words, Viktor put down his glass and looked at Marina.
Marina sneered at the look in his eyes and asked.
"You look like you can't stand not killing me. You've already stained your hands with blood, but you can't bring yourself to kill your own Mother?"
"Since you claim to be sane, I'm speaking to you believing that we can have a conversation. If Mother doesn't think of me as her son, why would you think I would consider you my Mother?"
Marina frowned at his cynical voice.
Viktor rose from his seat, stood right in front of Marina, bent down, and made eye contact as if speaking to a child.
"If Mother were as strong as I am, I would have killed you a long time ago."
Marina's pupils trembled at those words.
Then Viktor stared at her with a cold face and continued.
"I was waiting to tell you when you were sane, but looking at your expression, you really seem to be sane."
When she wasn't of sound mind, he could dismiss Mother's words, but not now. Now, every word Marina said was sincere. And Viktor was sincere too.
Marina was quiet for a moment, but soon lost her mind again and caused a commotion. Eventually, she collapsed and fell asleep only after the doctor administered a sedative.
When all the twists and turns were over, Viktor finally got drunk as he had hoped and lay down on the bed.
Just then, someone knocked on the door from outside, and Viktor frowned and raised his upper body. There was no one among the servants in this house stupid enough to knock on the door without revealing who they were. Thinking that Mother might be awake and wandering around, Viktor opened the door.
"V, Viktor..."
Then, when he faced the woman standing in front of him with a frightened face, Viktor looked back on whether he had ever felt such a strange emotion in his life.
Scarlett was standing in front of him with a tearful face, and his emotions, like the sea, raged fiercely before calming down in an instant.
Before he could ask what was wrong, Scarlett took a step closer to Viktor and opened her mouth.
"I'm sorry I'm late."
"......"
He thought of all the things Scarlett Crimson, who had suddenly appeared and knocked on his door, might say, but the words "I'm sorry I'm late" were not among them.
She continued with a pale face.
"I don't know how today went. I remembered going to the department store, but I don't know when it became night..."
"I have no idea what you're talking about."
Scarlett glared at Viktor at those words.
"You don't remember again. You said you were going to pick out new cufflinks for you. You said you liked blue."
"I'm going to buy cufflinks, so what do you like? If you don't want anything, I'll get blue ones. It suits you well."
At her resentful words, Viktor recalled what happened around this time last year, a few days before Scarlett was investigated.
Around that time, Scarlett was meticulously ordering every detail of Viktor's attire for his speech at his alma mater's event, in order to be recognized as royalty.
"There was no blue. I looked for it all day long... But I'll definitely buy it for you before the event."
"Any color is fine."
"I know. Any color is fine with you. I like it, blue. If I buy blue, I feel like the sea will protect you. So strangely, when you go out, I feel uneasy if there's nothing blue. Um, it's like my own ritual."
"I finally found the perfect blue cufflinks, but I lost them somewhere... I'll buy them for you again next time."
Listening to her words, the emotions that seemed like they would never disappear even if he threw things and cursed at someone vanished in an instant.
She clearly didn't remember that the two of them were divorced. The blue cufflinks that Scarlett said she lost had been donated to a charity event by her own hand a few days ago.
Scarlett was not in her right mind right now.
*
Scarlett anxiously examined Viktor's expression.
It was already past midnight. When she arrived home, Viktor had been asleep for a long time.
She originally knew that a man who only knew his own success and fame wouldn't wait for her just because his wife came home late.
Still, the servants, including Blight, seemed somewhat surprised that she had returned home after midnight. However, Blight quickly regained his composure as usual, smiled, and said.
"You must be tired, but it would be good to see Master."
She didn't want to wake Viktor, who was already asleep. It was clear that Viktor wouldn't care much about when she came home. Nevertheless, Blight urged her so much that she had no choice but to knock on the bedroom door.
Viktor, who opened the door at the knock, was silently looking at her while Scarlett was explaining why she was late. As usual, Scarlett, who was talking to herself, reached out to Viktor's pajama buttons, which were half-undone, revealing his chest.
"More than that, you're cold. You'll catch a cold."
Anyway, her husband sometimes wore such thin clothes, trusting only in his healthy body. Of course, it was she who caught a cold while bundled up. Still, she couldn't help but worry.
Because of the height difference, she had to lift her heels to fasten the top button, and he put both of Scarlett's hands in one of his.
"You don't have to take care of me like Mother."
He usually mentioned Mother when he was in a bad mood.
Scarlett now looked up at Viktor, worried about him. Viktor didn't let go of her hands.
"Viktor, hands."
Only after Scarlett told him did Viktor slowly release her hands.
Scarlett felt embarrassed.
Of course, she had never come home late before, but she didn't think Viktor would care if she was late. But looking at Viktor's reaction now, it seemed like he was upset that she had come home late.
Feeling an inexplicable chill at his gaze fixed on her, Scarlett turned her head diagonally.
Then Viktor asked.
"Why are you avoiding me?"
Scarlett quickly shook her head at his question.
"I'm not avoiding you."
"It's late, go to sleep. We'll talk tomorrow."
As Viktor turned around after saying that, Scarlett unconsciously grabbed his arm, startled, and immediately let go.
He hated his Mother, but he was obsessed with the royal blood that Mother had given him. Therefore, like other royals, he hated being touched suddenly. But fortunately, perhaps because he was tired, Viktor turned to look at her without saying anything.
"Why."
"It's true that I'm late, but don't get angry about things like that. I can't sleep well when you go out to sea. I don't know what might happen at sea. I was anxious every day."
Viktor's hair and clothes, which he usually kept in a rigid atmosphere, were disheveled because he had woken up from sleep.
Perhaps because of that dishevelment, Scarlett kept revealing her inner thoughts as if she had seized some opportunity today.
When he was in the navy, Viktor belonged to the country, but in his pajamas like this, he seemed a little bit like hers. She continued, even though she thought of herself as whining.
"You can be late without saying anything for one day, right?"
"I know."
Unexpectedly, Viktor answered readily, which made Scarlett even more uneasy.
Perhaps reading some of that uneasiness, Viktor lightly hugged her and continued.
"But don't do that anymore."
"Huh? Ah, okay..."
Scarlett flinched and nodded.
She thought her husband's words and actions were unfamiliar and strange today. Had something happened?
Viktor was the kind of person who could be described as cold. He rarely gave his side to anyone and was always aloof.
Since there weren't many days when Viktor voluntarily hugged her, Scarlett buried her face in his arms as if she had seized an opportunity. Then, feeling a gaze constantly looking at her from behind, she turned her head and saw that all the servants, including the butler, had anxious expressions on their faces.
'Why are they doing that?'
At first, she liked Viktor's disheveled appearance, but seeing those gazes, she thought something was wrong.
Could it be that he was really angry, a state she hadn't discovered even after living together for two years?
While Scarlett was worried, Viktor covered her eyes with his hand. And when he took his hand away again, all the servants were gone.
Scarlett felt that something was wrong, but the wariness in her heart was scattered like flower seeds in the wind by Viktor's arms wrapped around her waist.
