Chapter 78
78
"S-Shirley!"
"Do you know that horrible feeling? I remember even the sound and shape of a bug crawling by. I remember everything vividly, every word people said, every look they gave me! Aaaaaah!"
Shirley screamed, collapsing and tearing at her hair.
Scarlett flinched, then cautiously sat in front of Shirley, examining her face.
"Since when?" she asked.
Shirley, trembling, looked up. Then, looking at Scarlett, she asked, "D-Do you believe me?"
"Yes. I've been there too."
"...What?"
"Not as bad as you, Shirley... but I've been there. Suddenly, things I couldn't remember all came back to me..."
Shirley blinked at her words. Then she leaned closer to Scarlett and asked, "Really?"
"Yes."
Scarlett nodded, and Shirley wore a blank expression.
Shirley seemed a little more stable. Although madness still flickered in her eyes, the fact that they could communicate was a success.
Scarlett said, "Then let's go get the supplies."
"Since when?"
As Scarlett tried to stand up, Shirley grabbed her shoulder and pulled her back down. Scarlett answered with a slightly surprised expression.
"L-Last year..."
"Summer?"
"Early winter."
"Mine's summer."
Shirley moved her head strangely and said to Scarlett, "I went to the police station."
"...Police station?"
"Yes. I ran away after eating at a restaurant. I got caught... I was at the police station for about a month."
"..."
"But I don't remember that. Then suddenly, I started remembering everything except that day. Everything in the world. Vividly!"
At her words, Scarlett froze, and after a moment of silence, she asked her, "Didn't you go to a place like the Royal Police?"
"I don't know... I did go to the capital police station."
Relief and fear flashed across Scarlett's face.
"I see."
"Do you know something?"
"No, it's not that I know something..."
"Tell me anything, please. Save me. I can't live like this. Tell me anything!"
Scarlett flinched at Shirley's urging.
Scarlett opened her mouth. "I went to the Royal Police. After that, I don't remember about a week."
At her words, Shirley stammered and hugged Scarlett tightly.
"To think there's someone who believes me..."
Scarlett, embarrassed by the trembling in her voice, patted her back.
Perhaps because she had met someone who understood her, Shirley trembled but found some stability.
Shirley asked, "Do you... happen to have any alcohol?"
Scarlett was thinking for a moment when she saw a hand reaching out from the side. Scarlett turned her head and saw Andrei offering a hip flask. Shirley took it and gulped it down.
Andrei scolded Scarlett, "I thought you said you'd stop causing trouble?"
"I didn't cause any trouble."
"Going to find crazy people is causing trouble."
Scarlett shushed Andrei, but he didn't care, and Shirley, after drinking all the alcohol in one go, returned the hip flask and said, "I got a drink, so this is fine."
Andrei discovered the bottle was empty and laughed dryly. Shirley, after being drunk, became more lucid.
"Thank you so much. It's been a while since I haven't heard the buzzing."
Then she looked at her messy state and was disgusted. "I need to take a bath."
"The people who came with me are boiling hot water so you can use it."
Scarlett replied, thought for a moment, and said to Shirley, "Do you happen to have an address where you can receive things?"
"Are you going to send me alcohol?"
"You can't keep living like this. But I won't send it often."
At Scarlett's words, Andrei looked at her as if surprised. Scarlett wrote down the address, and Shirley promised to receive the goods through the community center.
Leaving the place, Andrei said, "I didn't expect you to say you'd send alcohol."
"I just... I think I know how it feels to want to be sane, even for a moment."
Andrei nodded at Scarlett's words.
*
After that, Scarlett sent alcohol to Shirley for a while. Then Shirley would write a letter of one or two lines. Most of them were about her symptoms, and occasionally she added that alcohol helped her remember what happened at the police station.
Meanwhile, Scarlett went back and forth between Salantie Polytechnic and the watch shop. And as it started snowing again, Salantie Polytechnic froze.
Scarlett, listening to a lecture in the classroom, wiggled her frozen fingers in her gloves several times. Otherwise, it was weather to get frostbite.
Professor Gustav also wore a fur hat despite his dignity, and wore layers of gloves, looking like someone trying to take bread out of the oven.
The laboratory Scarlett used was warm because there was a stove, but there was no fireplace, so she always had to wrap herself in a blanket and stick close to the stove.
Even while carefully trimming the wood to create the shape of the airplane according to the drawn blueprints, Scarlett's eyes were half-closed due to lack of sleep.
Scarlett, who was dozing off in that state, was startled by the burning smell and raised her head. While she was dozing, her long hair had gone into the stove and was burning.
Scarlett screamed without realizing it and beat out the fire in her hair with a blanket. Several students, including Kirsten Roscher and Bill Klingers, ran in at her scream.
"Scarlett! What's wrong!"
"Don't tell me you found a bug in this harsh land? If so, capture it alive. If supplies don't come because of the heavy snow, we might have to use it as food..."
Then Scarlett held up her hair, the ends of which were burnt.
"It's not that, I fell asleep and my hair caught fire, you know?"
"Oh, is that all?"
"I said, is that all?"
What kind of situations are they going through, everyone reacted as if what's the big deal about hair.
Scarlett looked at the students who had adapted to this harsh situation with a serious expression and stood up.
"This won't do."
"Huh? Why?"
Scarlett walked down quickly and headed for the telephone, the pride of Salantie Polytechnic. Because the university had no support, it was the most luxurious luxury item in the school, made by students by hand and laying the lines.
When Scarlett actually tried to make a call, Pavel Maxwiry, one of the polytechnic students, asked in a nervous voice.
"Y-You're not actually going to use that phone, are you?"
"Yes."
"You have to use a coin every five seconds?"
One coin could buy twelve big, fresh apples. This was a place where you couldn't buy apples even if you had coins, and there were no coins.
Scarlett nodded and picked up the receiver.
'I have to finish what I have to say in 5 seconds if possible...'
While Scarlett was thinking, the phone rang, and the butler, Wilkins, answered.
-This is Dumpelt Mansion.
"Mr. Wilkins, this is Scarlett. If Viktor is home, tell him I'll use the villa."
-Ah, I see.
She had to hang up in 5 seconds, but Wilkins, who was seventy years old this year, continued in a kind and slow voice.
-The young master is here now. I will connect you soon, miss.
"Yes? No, you don't have to..."
While she was talking, the phone was already hung up, and Scarlett sighed deeply.
Pavel said anxiously next to her, "30 seconds have already passed..."
Scarlett, who had confidently picked up the phone, finally hung up the phone just before a minute. Pavel said, "144 apples have disappeared..."
Scarlett bit her thumbnail and waited for a moment, then the phone rang. Scarlett hurriedly answered the phone.
"Viktor?"
-The phone was disconnected.
"144 apples disappeared while I was waiting for you."
-Apples?
"It costs the price of 12 apples every 5 seconds to make a phone call... Ah, I'll do it again. It costs money to call."
-Just say it. I don't even know how much a phone call costs anyway.
The fact that her ex-husband was rich was a bit annoying at the moment. Anyway, Scarlett continued.
"It's not the time to talk about this, I'm going to take the mechanical engineering students and professors to the villa. It's too cold here."
-You don't have to get my permission for everything. Use it as you please.
"The food supply will be greatly reduced. Everyone loses their minds when they see food."
-Then you should have bought 144 apples with that money instead of calling here.
"...Hang up."
Scarlett said and hung up the phone. When she turned around, the students who were nervous about Scarlett's long call were acting strangely.
"Scarlett is going bankrupt now... I'll do anything, Scarlett! Even this meager labor!"
"S-Shall I cut my hair and sell it?"
Scarlett shook her head and pointed to the door with a proud face.
"Let's go."
"Where?"
"South."
The students tilted their heads at Scarlett's words.