CHAPTER 04
Even with the blueprints vividly imprinted in her mind, the tools and clockwork mechanisms were completely unfamiliar to her hands. Lacking experience, she worked slowly. By the time she had reassembled the clock she had taken apart around lunchtime, darkness had already fallen outside.
“Wow… it’s finished.”
For the first time in a long while, Scarlet’s voice was filled with genuine happiness.
To an outside observer, it looked as though she had simply opened the clock and closed it again.
But once it was reassembled, the clock that had been running far too slowly returned to keeping perfect time.
Even the rattling noise it had been making disappeared.
After hanging the clock back on the wall, Candice compared it with the wristwatch she was wearing.
“Oh my… you really fixed it…”
Just as everyone was marveling at it, the door flew open.
Scarlet’s father-in-law, Gregory Dumpfelt, strode inside.
The joy vanished from Scarlet’s face in an instant.
Walking straight toward her, Gregory glared at her with the same blue eyes he had passed on to his son Victor.
“I cannot understand how you can still smile at a time like this.”
Scarlet hurriedly stood.
Pointing angrily toward the window, Gregory barked,
“Are you aware that the gas lamps at the front entrance are still out?”
One of the maids who had been admiring the repaired clock gasped.
“I-I’m so sorry! I completely forgot…”
“Managing the servants is the lady of the house’s responsibility! My wife lies bedridden with a broken heart, yet instead of feeling any responsibility, you dare smile after ruining my son’s future!”
For most of his youth, Gregory had been followed by the label of the man who disgraced a princess.
Newspapers had once been filled with gossip claiming he had seduced the graceful Princess Marina through every deceitful trick imaginable.
Scarlet understood that Gregory was projecting his own inferiority complex onto her, making him all the crueler in the way he treated her.
Once he started scolding someone, he could continue for hours, exhausting not only Scarlet but everyone forced to listen.
By the time the luncheon, which had begun after a very late lunch, finally ended, Parlin returned.
He was about to knock on the dressing room door when Gregory’s furious voice rang out from inside.
“You’re no better than a beast! How can you smile as though you’ve already forgotten what you just did? Perhaps you’re simply too stupid to understand what you’ve done wrong!”
Believing herself to be at fault, Scarlet stood with both hands clasped together, never once lifting her head.
After a long stream of insults, Gregory finally revealed what he truly wanted.
“So stop being stubborn…”
“…and divorce him.”
In the end, the conversation had come back to this again.
Scarlet answered calmly,
“I’m sorry.”
“Why won’t you agree to a divorce? You’ve lived with Victor long enough to know that even he thinks you’re lacking. If you’re truly sorry for dragging him down this time, shouldn’t you step aside so he can marry a daughter from a better family?”
“If you truly want a divorce…”
Remembering Victor’s order not to let her appear at the party, Scarlet continued quietly,
“…then please give me a portion of the family assets.”
Gregory stared at her in disbelief.
“What did you just say?”
“My brother requires full-time caregivers, so his living expenses are enormous.”
“So… even a small property settlement…”
“You came into this family with nothing but the clothes on your back! No dowry whatsoever! And you dare ask for a share of our property?”
“In that case…”
“…I can’t divorce him.”
Although she bowed her head respectfully, Scarlet’s determination was unmistakable.
Even Parlin frowned.
Gregory’s voice rose with fury.
“If you aren’t possessed by a demon, then I don’t know what else could explain this! It’s as though you’ve devoted yourself to destroying our family!”
“I’ve heard enough.”
“You’re going to a convent immediately.”
“Go there and repent until your sins are forgiven.”
Unable to listen any longer, Parlin hurriedly opened the door.
“My apologies for interrupting.”
“I came to inform you that the luncheon has concluded.”
The moment the heir of the prestigious Redford family appeared, Gregory reluctantly stopped berating Scarlet in front of the servants.
After greeting Gregory, Parlin spoke.
“You’re sending the captain’s wife to a convent?”
“Didn’t she destroy my son’s honor, Sir Parlin? In the past, she would have been thrown out immediately.”
“Even so, cooperating with an investigation isn’t a crime.”
Parlin tried to reason with him.
Instead, it only reignited Gregory’s anger.
At the mention of the convent again, Scarlet’s clasped hands began trembling uncontrollably.
Gregory’s wife—and Victor’s mother—Marina Dumpfelt had spent nearly ten years moving in and out of psychiatric hospitals before eventually being confined permanently to a convent.
The thought that she might spend the rest of her own life there as well filled Scarlet with terror.
Parlin hurriedly said,
“I’m certain the captain wouldn’t want that.”
“I’ll go speak with him immediately.”
With that, Parlin left.
Still dissatisfied, Gregory eventually departed as well.
For a moment Scarlet could barely breathe from anxiety.
Then she noticed the maids watching her.
Forcing herself to smile, she said,
“Oh… if any of you have broken clocks…”
“…please let me know.”
“I’d like to practice.”
“I’m still terrible at it, so something that doesn’t matter if I fail.”
The servants exchanged uncertain glances.
Finally Polly, one of the kitchen maids, timidly raised her hand.
“I have a broken clock, my lady.”
“Really?”
“Even the clock shop couldn’t repair it, so I’ve just kept it.”
“It’s actually a Crimson clock.”
“May I take a look?”
“Of course!”
Seeing Scarlet show genuine enthusiasm, Polly beamed.
Even after all the servants had left, Scarlet remained standing where she was.
The humiliation still clung to her, refusing to fade.
Then…
The ticking of the repaired clock caught her attention.
She slowly turned toward it.
“At least today wasn’t a complete waste.”
She stood there quietly, staring at the clock for a long time.
Her heart had been so heavy…
…yet seeing something she had repaired with her own hands soothed her a little.
It felt almost as though…
…her parents themselves were comforting their grieving daughter.
The title Duke of Dumpfelt had originally been granted to Marina Iren after her expulsion from the royal family.
It was also the name of the desolate wasteland at the edge of the capital that had once belonged to the crown.
Using the enormous fortune Marina brought with her, the Dumpfelt family transformed the barren hills.
They leveled the land.
They restored the grand manor.
Then Victor’s immense wealth was added to it.
By naval law, everything seized from pirates—after taxes—belonged to the captain.
High upon the hill overlooking the sea, the sailors of House Dumpfelt were busy training in the family forest.
Most practiced with rifles.
Victor alone concentrated on mastering the silver-and-diamond pistol the royal family had awarded him alongside his medal of honor.
Wiping his face with his left hand, Victor muttered,
“It’s just decoration.”
Victor possessed exceptional natural talent, and through relentless effort he consistently achieved overwhelming results in every subject and every form of training.
Seeing him struggle with something for once, First Mate Evan laughed.
“Decoration?”
“Come now.”
“It’s a sacred relic with centuries of history.”
In truth…
It was both.
A sacred relic.
And an ornament.
Victor raised the pistol once more to continue practicing.
Then he noticed Parlin approaching in the distance.
Without lowering the gun, Victor aimed with his right hand.
Despite dismissing it as decorative, every shot struck the exact center of the target.
As soon as Parlin arrived, he blurted out,
“Captain! Sir Gregory says he’s sending Lady Scarlet to a convent!”
Gregory had inherited no noble title.
As the second son, he had received no peerage, nor had he gained one through marriage.
Strictly speaking, the title people used for him was incorrect, but they addressed him with the same honorific reserved for military officers and senior police officials.
Hearing Parlin’s agitated report, Victor calmly loaded another round into the pistol.
“A convent isn’t a prison.”
“But still… that’s going too far.”
“Why?”
“Do you think I’ll lock her away forever like my mother?”
“…I never said that.”
“You were thinking it.”
Even while speaking so casually, Victor fired again.
This time, his pistol pointed beyond the target.
Two shots rang out in quick succession.
A deer hidden behind the target collapsed.
Parlin, who could tolerate seeing people die but hated seeing animals killed, turned away in distress.
Victor continued,
“That won’t happen.”
“My wife betrayed me.”
“She isn’t insane.”
After firing one final shot into the target, Victor lowered the pistol.
The gamekeeper carried away the deer’s lifeless body.
Watching blood pour onto the ground, Parlin squeezed his eyes tightly shut.
When he finally opened them again, Victor had already walked away.
Behind him, Evan grabbed the back of his neck.
“Don’t interfere in another man’s family affairs.”
“You’re meddling where you shouldn’t.”
“I know that,” Parlin sighed.
“But it’s true the captain has never brought Duchess Marina out of the convent.”
“Well…”
“I’m sure he has his reasons.”
“But she’s still his mother.”
Parlin let out a long sigh.
Running both hands through his bright red hair until it became a mess, he couldn’t shake the feeling that something about all of this was terribly wrong.
That evening at dinner, Scarlet quietly watched Victor sitting across from her.
Just as on the day they had married, he ate in immaculate formal attire.
In the early days of their marriage, she would lose herself simply watching how gracefully he dined.
Nothing had changed in two years.
Whether Scarlet laughed with joy…
Or sat across from him weeping silently…
Victor always continued eating with the same composed expression.
Now Scarlet had unconsciously adopted the same habit.
Keeping her face expressionless as they ate, she finally asked,
“Victor…”
“Parlin told you about the convent, didn’t he?”
“Go.”
His indifferent reply startled her enough that she accidentally dropped her spoon onto the plate.
Leaving it where it fell, she asked quietly,
“…How long will I have to stay?”
“I don’t know.”
“It can’t be too long.”
“If it’s too long…”
“…I might run away because I’ll miss you.”
She laughed softly after saying it.
Victor gave no visible reaction.
Still smiling gently, Scarlet continued,
“Would one month be too short?”
“Do as you like.”
“It can’t be any longer than that.”
“Come get me after a month.”
“All right.”
“Victor.”
She waited until he finally looked at her.
When their eyes met, she smiled warmly.
“I love you.”
“So do I.”
Except when Victor wanted something from her, it was almost always Scarlet who said “I love you” first.
Occasionally, Victor would answer with, “I love you too.”
Most of the time, however, he simply replied in quiet agreement.
Even so…
Receiving that much from him always filled Scarlet with both happiness…
…and a faint, lingering loneliness.
