Chapter 50
50
*
Scarlett, who had barely slept, woke up at dawn and finished her breakfast and newspaper reading as usual.
"I couldn't sleep a wink because of that bastard."
Scarlett grumbled as she got up. He came in the middle of the night, dripping blood and scaring her half to death, and then disappeared as he pleased.
She cursed Viktor for a while, but when she looked at the clock, it was still early. She tried to focus on her work right away, but she was bothered by Viktor's strange appearance yesterday.
On the one hand, she wanted to warn him not to come to her shop without permission again, but on the other hand, she remembered the wound on his white neck and the blood that was flowing. And the bitter expression he had on his face.
Scarlett went to Liv's bakery to buy bread for lunch, and unknowingly picked out dry breads that seemed like they would soak up alcohol. Then Liv ran over and asked.
"What's wrong, Scarlett? Did you drink or something?"
"No, not me..."
"Count Isaac?"
Liv asked with a bright face, so Scarlett shook her head.
"My ex-husband came to me drunk."
"What?"
"I'm not, not going to give it to him. I just suddenly wanted to eat it..."
Liv's eyes widened as Scarlett spoke.
Scarlett asked with a serious face.
"Why are you making that face?"
"You still have feelings, you still have feelings."
"...What?"
"You! You still have feelings for your ex-husband, don't you?"
"No, no. Why would you say such a scary thing? I can't have feelings for him. Not after what he did to me."
"Then why are you buying bread you never used to eat?"
"I'm really going to eat it."
Scarlett said, quickly handing Liv the money for the bread. Then she hurried out of the bakery like she had committed some kind of crime.
She opened the paper bag and smelled the bread, which smelled delicious from the freshly baked bread. It was potato bread.
"It smells good. I'm going to eat it."
Scarlett said to herself as if making a promise, and headed home. She stopped in her tracks when she saw Viktor standing in front of the building. After causing such a ruckus yesterday and disappearing, it was like Viktor to come back to apologize.
Scarlett unknowingly hid the bread bag behind her back, and Viktor leaned towards her slightly and asked.
"What are you hiding?"
"...Bread."
"Bread?"
"I thought you might take it."
After saying that, Scarlett bit her lip in embarrassment.
Viktor Dumpelt was the kind of person who wouldn't touch someone else's plate even if he was starving to death. He probably wouldn't even understand the idea of stealing bread. No, he's probably used to plunder since he's seen so many pirates...
"Bread for you to eat?"
As expected, Viktor asked, dumbfounded.
Scarlett panicked and blurted out.
"W-Well, you suddenly came yesterday. So you might suddenly want to steal bread... or something?"
Okay, that sounds convincing.
Scarlett looked at Viktor, satisfied, but he was smirking. It was definitely a sneer.
"Why are you laughing? What's so funny?"
"I apologize for my behavior yesterday. You seemed very surprised."
As expected, he apologized, and Scarlett nodded. Then she tapped her neck with her hand and asked.
"What about the wound?"
When Scarlett asked, Viktor took off his scarf. It was well treated with clean muslin.
Scarlett asked again.
"Why did you do that?"
"Mother stabbed me."
"What?"
Scarlett was speechless at the answer, and Viktor gestured to the bread bag in her hand.
"Why don't you share?"
"...I don't have a silver platter or anything. No aperitif either. I can offer you coffee."
She said and led the way into the shop.
Viktor said.
"It smells good."
"It's freshly baked. Try the potato one. It's really chewy."
Viktor took a loaf of bread out of the bag, looked at it for a moment, and then opened his mouth and started eating. At the sight of this, Scarlett also took out a loaf of bread. Then she tore it apart and put it in her mouth, chewing as she said.
"It's warm and delicious."
Viktor didn't answer. He just leisurely put the bread in his mouth like he was eating tree bark. Come to think of it, Scarlett had never seen Viktor say that anything was delicious.
"Doesn't it taste good?"
"It does."
"Does it taste good?"
"I don't know."
"Just okay?"
"Yeah."
He seems to think most food is just okay.
Always the perfect environment, servants who bring anything with a few flicks of the wrist, looks that anyone would covet.
She had thought that maybe everything felt just okay to him because he himself was too perfect.
Scarlett, who had been looking at Viktor for a while, took out a chess set from the shelf. And placed it on the table.
The two began to play chess without a word. Scarlett quickly adapted to it, and won two games in a row. And when they got to the third game, Scarlett finally opened her mouth.
"How about losing a little more creatively?"
"I didn't try hard enough."
"Don't lose at all in the first place."
Scarlett scolded, and then asked.
"Why did you come?"
"It would be weirder if I acted like that yesterday and didn't show up."
"Why did you come yesterday in the first place?"
When she asked, Viktor replied in a nonchalant voice.
"I missed you when I was drunk."
Scarlett's expression hardened at his words. And after a long silence, she opened her mouth.
"You said you were so drunk that you didn't even ask why we were getting divorced."
"I've grown too, you know."
"Why would I miss you when I'm drunk? Did you have something to say?"
"Is it so strange to miss someone you used to love?"
Scarlett said in a cynical tone at his indifferent words.
"Viktor, I was the one who loved, what you did wasn't love."
"Oh dear. We talk about love so easily."
"I'm over it, and you don't even know what the feeling of love is. That's why it's easy."
As Scarlett was saying that, the bell rang, indicating that a customer had arrived on the first floor.
Scarlett looked for her shawl and put it on, saying.
"Stay here. Leave when the customer leaves. Okay?"
Then Viktor replied.
"Don't worry. I'm a soldier, so I listen to orders well."
"......"
The man who had always been far from joking was joking every time he opened his mouth today. It was even stranger and more uncomfortable because the man who had been the most difficult in the world was acting like that.
Scarlett glared at him one more time and went down the stairs.
When she went down, Jane Daylewis, who owned several buildings on this street, was standing there with her daughter, Ida Daylewis. And they were also the owners of this building.
"Mrs. Daylewis?"
"Miss Scarlett."
Jane Daylewis said, putting her daughter forward.
"You know our daughter, right? She's seventeen this year."
"Yes, I've seen her a few times."
"The Crimson Family is still a noble family, so I was hoping you could take our daughter to the ball tomorrow."
"......As a chaperone?"
Jane Daylewis continued.
"I know Scarlett is too young to be a chaperone. But the noblewoman we barely managed to get this time is sick in bed. I'll pay you well."
Usually in Salantie, chaperones were women who would no longer meet men and marry. Most of them were noblewomen who had been married for at least 20 years.
But it was a famous story that Scarlett Crimson had incurred Viktor Dumpelt's wrath and was kicked out of the Dumpelt Family. People already thought that no one would take that anger and remarry Scarlett. Romance, maybe, but marriage to her was not appropriate.
Jane Daylewis looked at Scarlett's old dress and asked worriedly.
"I don't know if you have a dress. Were you kicked out without alimony?"
"Why wouldn't I have alimony? I even opened a shop."
"But you have to work, right?"
"Making clocks is the Crimson Family's family business."
Even at Scarlett's words, Mrs. Daylewis had a suspicious expression.
Scarlett continued.
"But I lived in the west of the capital during my marriage, so I might not know anyone in the eastern social circles. Maybe you should look for someone else?"
Since she was the owner of this building, it was difficult to refuse outright.
From Mrs. Daylewis's point of view, she didn't want to miss the opportunity to send her daughter to the ball with a noblewoman like Scarlett Crimson.
Mrs. Daylewis said.
"How much difference can there be in the same capital?"
"......I'll think about it a little more."
"You better think about it carefully."
Perhaps because she was getting impatient, her last words sounded a bit like a threat.
Scarlett thought she was the kind of person who would do that.
Scarlett barely managed to appease the Daylewis mother and daughter and sent them away, then closed the door and turned around. And after sighing, she went up the stairs, but stopped in front of the door for a moment.
Viktor was leaning back in his chair, sitting like a statue and looking at her workbench. His profile was so breathtakingly beautiful that it felt like she was looking at a work of art.
Scarlett still felt choked up every time she saw him. It had been a year since they divorced, but she still felt that way.
Scarlett said.
"You can leave now."
Then Viktor changed the subject.
"Let's divide the villa. As alimony."
He must have heard everything they were talking about downstairs.
Viktor continued.
"There's a vineyard and a villa on the way to Lüssen Falls. Let's make it co-owned."
"You had a vineyard?"
"I bought it and gave it to Mother, but now she's incompetent and I'm her guardian, so it's mine."
Viktor got up from his chair.
"I'll send a carriage, so tell me the date."
Then Scarlett belatedly said.
"We signed a prenuptial agreement. Your property is yours, and mine is mine. I've already received too much just by opening this shop."
"That's not alimony, it's a backroom deal with my father, without my knowledge."
"......"
A backroom deal. It wasn't wrong, but saying it like that made her feel like she had committed a major crime.
Scarlett said.
"It's okay."
"Think of it as the minimum cost of maintaining your dignity. I can't believe my ex-wife is hearing such things."
"Such things?"
"Being asked to introduce a woman from a family I've never even heard of to society. You were a woman of the Dumpelt Family. Even if you gave me all your wealth, it wouldn't be enough to ask for such a favor, and they're asking like that?"
In fact, Scarlett thought that Viktor would eventually question her way of life. She even secretly praised him for his improved understanding for only saying it now.
She wasn't confident that she could change his mind, and if she owned a vineyard and a villa in the countryside, she wouldn't receive offers like the one Mrs. Daylewis had made earlier.
The social season in the capital was over, and being invited to a party held at a villa in the countryside was something that anyone who had set foot in society desired. It goes without saying that the person who could throw that party had influence.
Scarlett reluctantly asked.
"......So, co-owned?"
"If there's any profit from the vineyard, we'll split it in half, and whoever wants to use the villa there can use it on the day they want."
"What if we want to use it on the same day?"
When she asked, Viktor chuckled.
"You haven't even been there yet and you're worried about it overlapping? Are you going to go that often?"
"I'm trying to be precise. I don't want to run into you, just in case. What if I go all the way there and it overlaps?"
"Then of course I'll step aside. For the lady."
......Well, yeah.
Viktor was definitely not the kind of person who would insist that he came first in that situation. Besides, he probably wouldn't go to the vineyard that he had for 2 years without her knowing.
Scarlett, who had been hesitating for a while, said.
"Around Wednesday next week... no, Wednesday. Just Wednesday."
"Okay, Wednesday."
Viktor said and got up. As he headed for the door, Scarlett said.
"Be careful on your way."
Viktor replaced his greeting with a smile.
