CHAPTER 02
The Crimson family, Scarlet Dumpfelt’s birth family, was a house of legendary master clockmakers. Even among that remarkable lineage, Scarlet’s parents—who had died when she was twelve—had been unparalleled geniuses.
Even now, after marrying Victor Dumpfelt and living a life overflowing with wealth, one lingering regret remained in the corner of her heart: she had never learned the clockmaking techniques that formed the very foundation of House Crimson.
Yet now, just after her twentieth birthday, memories resurfaced of her earliest childhood—of sitting atop her parents’ workbench while they became so engrossed in their work that they lost all sense of time.
The millimeter-precise world inside the clocks they crafted… her parents becoming so absorbed in discussing new techniques that they even forgot to feed their child… countless memories of those two extraordinary geniuses suddenly came flooding back.
“It’s because of the drug mixed into the tea.”
Lost in those happy memories, Scarlet snapped back to reality at the calm voice of Royal Police officer Hughgan Hunter.
She was sitting in an interrogation room at Royal Police Headquarters. Through the wide window, Lilson Square stretched below.
Still somewhat dazed, Scarlet asked,
“A drug…? What do you mean…?”
As Hughgan suddenly rose and walked toward her, Scarlet fell silent.
Nodding toward her teacup, Hughgan drew the handcuffs hanging from his belt.
“The tea you drank contained a drug infused with forbidden magic that sharpens one’s memories. It’s manufactured on Pirate Island, making it almost impossible to obtain within the kingdom. Why, isn’t the medicine you’ve been searching for—the one that can restore Count Isaac Crimson’s optic nerves—also made there?”
“…Ah… so that’s why…”
The realization slipped out of Scarlet’s mouth before she even realized it.
A mocking smile spread across Hughgan’s face.
“And one more thing. If this drug is overused, the brain instinctively protects itself from having its memories forcefully unearthed… and the result is amnesia. The human brain is quite fascinating.”
“…Amnesia?”
“Yes. Which means that no matter what I do to you from this point onward, by the time you leave this police station… you won’t remember any of it.”
At his businesslike tone, Scarlet’s eyes trembled ever so slightly.
Hughgan seized her left wrist, removed her wristwatch, and fastened a handcuff around it.
Suppressing her fear, Scarlet yanked her arm back.
“I am Victor Dumpfelt’s wife. How dare you—”
“Of course I respect Captain Victor as well,” Hughgan interrupted. “But you’re a different story. You’re an easy target.”
Ignoring her resistance, he pulled the other end of the handcuffs toward the wall and locked them onto a metal ring.
Then he drew the curtains shut, blocking the window.
“Your parents died young, and your uncle raised you afterward, didn’t he?”
“W-What does that have to do with anything?”
“Count Isaac Crimson, the current head of your family, is blind. I’ve heard that your uncle, who effectively runs the household, uses Count Isaac as a hostage and treats you like a slave. Which means… you have no one who can truly stand up for you.”
“My husband won’t let this go.”
Hearing the firmness in her voice, Hughgan glanced at her.
“Lord Victor doesn’t cherish you that much.”
“Don’t talk nonsense. My husband loves me.”
“You know that’s not true.”
His mocking words left Scarlet speechless.
Victor was simply… rational.
He hated losing control.
She had always believed that because of that, he was incapable of loving anyone other than himself.
If she didn’t believe that…
…then the love that had made her willing to die for him over the past two years would seem pitiful and utterly wasted.
Clicking his tongue at the loneliness on her face, Hughgan continued,
“So why stay loyal for no reason? As I said, this is an incredibly difficult drug to obtain. The fact that someone was willing to use it during this interrogation means there are powerful people who desperately don’t want Lord Victor Dumpfelt joining the royal family.”
Reaching into his inner pocket, Hughgan produced a slip of paper with an address written on it.
“And I’ll even introduce you to someone who can obtain the medicine you’ve been searching for.”
Scarlet’s eyes instinctively shifted toward the note.
Satisfied, Hughgan smiled.
“Lord Victor is a man of principles. He refused to find that medicine for you, didn’t he? He betrayed you first.”
He leaned forward slightly.
“So then… shall we hear it? Tell me anything that would disqualify Lord Victor Dumpfelt.”
Scarlet let out a long sigh before turning her face toward the window.
Her husband had lived his entire life burdened by guilt and an inferiority complex because his mother had been expelled from the royal family for giving birth to him.
Part of Scarlet believed that if he finally became royalty himself…
…perhaps even a tiny crack would appear in the seemingly impenetrable walls surrounding his heart.
That selfish desire outweighed even her wish to help her brother.
Thinking herself unbearably selfish, she slowly closed her eyes.
She knew they wouldn’t leave any visible injuries on her body.
No matter how little the Royal Police thought of her, they would still fear Victor’s wrath.
So all she had to do…
…was endure until her husband arrived.
All she had to do was keep her mouth shut until then.
People in Salantier called November the Month of Pirates.
With fierce sea winds and rain falling almost every day, November had once been the perfect season for pirate ships to evade the navy and raid the coast.
But that was now a thing of the past.
Her husband had nearly exterminated every last pirate.
Sitting on the bed, Scarlet stared out at the cold November rain while thinking about that.
But she couldn’t keep avoiding reality forever.
With a hazy mind that still felt as though she hadn’t fully sobered up from drinking, she forced herself to stand.
“My head hurts…”
Pressing a hand against her throbbing forehead, Scarlet left the bedroom.
The place felt familiar.
It was the luxury suite in the hotel where she and Victor had held their wedding.
Everything else, however, was a complete blank.
She had no memory of why she was lying here…
…or how long she had been here.
Even the nightgown she was wearing seemed completely unfamiliar.
Her last memory was sitting across from a man from the Royal Police while drinking tea.
Even that memory already felt vague, as though it might disappear at any moment.
She couldn’t even remember the man’s face clearly.
“What happened…?”
Looking around, she spotted today’s newspaper lying on the table.
After checking the date, all the strength drained from her body, and she collapsed into a chair.
She had been summoned to Royal Police Headquarters on November 7 to determine whether there were any moral issues that would prevent Victor from becoming a member of the royal family.
The newspaper, however, was dated November 14.
An entire week of her memories had vanished.
Empty liquor bottles were scattered across the coffee table.
Shopping bags filled with luxury goods from famous boutiques near the hotel were piled onto the sofa.
“Did… I buy all this?”
Murmuring to herself, Scarlet searched through the bags, hoping to find receipts that might help recover her memories.
Just then—
The hotel room door suddenly burst open.
Turning around, she first saw a hotel employee holding a master key.
She frowned at the thought of someone entering the room without permission.
Then Victor Dumpfelt stepped through the doorway.
“Victor.”
The moment she saw her husband’s face, relief washed over her.
She ran straight into his arms.
“Thank goodness…”
Victor had always been stoic.
In two years of marriage, he had never once given her the reassurance that she could completely rely on him.
Yet at this moment…
…he was the only person she could depend on.
“I don’t know why I’m here,” she pleaded. “What happened?”
As she looked up at him—
She froze.
His dark blue eyes, staring down at her, blazed with barely restrained fury.
The gaze of the husband who had always been coldly rational—almost indifferent—was now filled with rage.
“That’s a convenient excuse.”
His low voice, mingling with the pounding rain against the window, sent chills down Scarlet’s spine.
“Did… something happen?”
At that moment, Evan Wright, first mate of the Rubid, the ship Victor commanded, called out to her.
“Lady Scarlet.”
Already on edge, Scarlet startled at the sound of her name.
Evan, who was usually easygoing, now wore an expression full of frustration.
He held up a black vial he had found beneath one of the liquor bottles.
“This is a medicine from Pirate Island.”
He looked directly at her.
“It’s the forbidden medicine you’ve been searching for all this time—the one said to restore sight to the blind.”
“I-Is that really true?”
Terrified moments before, Scarlet hurried toward the vial.
Victor suddenly grabbed her by the elbow.
The man who was always the perfect gentleman roughly dragged her toward the table.
Then he thrust the newspaper in front of her bewildered face.
Across the entire front page, in enormous letters, was the headline:
Can Victor Dumpfelt—who confined his own mother, once a princess, to a mental asylum—truly become a member of the royal family?
Scarlet stared blankly at the article.
Victor finally spoke.
“They say you told the Royal Police.”
“During the background investigation.”
“N-No… I couldn’t have.”
“That’s not all.”
“There was enough to fill an entire page.”
Victor unfolded the newspaper completely.
Just as he said—
Every weakness Scarlet knew about Victor had been listed in painstaking detail.
One article even criticized the fact that a close friend Victor had made during his military academy days was now an officer in Bestina’s army.
Back then it had meant nothing.
Now, with relations between Salantier and Bestina deteriorating, it had become political ammunition.
Looking down at Scarlet as she silently read, Victor muttered,
“So… you sold me for that medicine.”
His icy voice made her headache grow even worse.
She desperately wanted to explain herself—
But her mind was completely blank.
Not a single answer came to her.
“That’s impossible…”
she whispered.
It was true that she had been searching for that medicine.
It was for her older brother Isaac Crimson, who had been blinded in the accident.
Isaac meant everything to her.
But she would never have betrayed her husband for his sake.
Panicking, she grabbed the lapel of Victor’s coat.
“You know how much I love you.”
“You know I understand how hard you’ve worked to become part of the royal family.”
“Do you really think I’d betray you for Isaac?”
“It’s not what I think.”
“It’s what happened.”
“No!”
“Then why didn’t you come home?”
“Why were you hiding here instead?”
“I… I told you…”
“I don’t remember.”
At her repeated insistence, not only Victor but also Evan and Victor’s secretary, Blight, exchanged uncomfortable looks.
To Scarlet, losing her memories was maddening.
To everyone else…
…she simply looked like a woman refusing to talk about betraying her husband.
Stretching out her arms to embrace Victor, she pleaded,
“Victor… please.”
“Believe me.”
Instead, Victor caught both of her wrists and lowered them.
His voice was hoarse from suppressing his anger.
“Stop saying ridiculous things.”
“I really…”
“If nothing else, tell me you were threatened.”
“Or that they tortured you.”
His cold words dragged even the faint thoughts beginning to surface back into darkness.
Unable to answer, Scarlet stood frozen.
Victor continued,
“I don’t care if it’s a lie.”
“Just say that’s what happened.”
“Then… at least I’ll try to understand.”
“I…”
Her wine-colored eyes gradually filled with tears.
Seeing the pain twisting Victor’s expression only made her more frightened.
Unable to bear the pressure any longer, she finally answered,
“I… don’t think…”
“…there were any threats.”
“Or torture.”
“Probably…”
The moment the words left her mouth, she feared Victor would leave.
In desperation, she wrapped both arms tightly around his neck.
“I must have lost my mind for a while.”
“I’m sorry, Victor.”
Victor let out a bitter, humorless laugh.
“Perhaps I should send my wife to a monastery as well.”
At those words…
Scarlet’s movements slowed, as though her entire body had turned to stone.
