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Chapter 24
Evan greeted him cheerfully and spoke to Palin, who was blocking the way between the unconscious Evil and Victor, who was trying to lift him up.
“Junior, let the captain go.”
“If you do that, he’ll die! Please, senior, come over and stop him!”
“I respect the lady’s enjoyment.”
“The captain’s in trouble, right now!”
He was a man who had lived his whole life for honor alone. Even when choosing a marriage partner, Victor Dümfelt avoided anyone who would stir scandal, never debuting a woman in society. So, while this situation was surprising, it wasn’t something that would cause Victor any serious trouble. As Palin had said, it might be a headache, but at most, that’s all it would be.
Scarlet watched him without taking her eyes off him and muttered softly.
“Trash.”
At that, Victor, who had been about to shove Palin aside with a fierce momentum, froze. He turned to look at her.
In the meantime, Palin hurriedly dragged Evil away, and Victor walked toward Scarlet. When he mounted the seat beside her and closed the door, Scarlet leaned back until her spine touched the wall.
Victor bent closer with a mocking smile and asked.
“Who is it?”
“Huh?”
“Trash.”
“My uncle.”
Victor smiled at her response and continued his questioning.
“What made you laugh?”
Sometimes, when it was just the two of them, Victor would call her “you” instead of the formal “you, madam.” Scarlet muttered quietly as if talking to herself.
“It really is ‘uncle.’”
“I’ll have to do that every time you’re feeling down.”
“……”
Scarlet wanted to feel guilty but couldn’t. She thought she should scold these violent elites who acted as if the law were beneath them, but even that wasn’t possible.
She just kept laughing. She hoped his comment about cheering her up when she was down wasn’t a joke. She felt a twinge of self-loathing.
“That… can’t happen.”
Scarlet thought Victor probably had no idea how barely she had managed to say those words.
He raised one corner of his mouth, grabbed her chin with a gloved hand, and sneered.
“A saint, huh? Your heart is vast as the ocean.”
When Scarlet tried to remove his hand, he gripped tighter and continued.
“What if I couldn’t find you, and you ended up dying there?”
Scarlet glared into his eyes.
“I’m not that kind of person.”
“Not that kind?”
“I was often locked in the basement. I wasn’t going to be killed… They just… wanted to train me.”
“……”
“Punishment. They wanted to use me.”
Victor’s lips twisted oddly at Scarlet’s words. She stared at him quietly.
He was just and cruel. Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth. Sometimes he was like a scale of justice. She had betrayed him, so of course, he wouldn’t forgive her. Isn’t betrayal like shattered glass?
Relaxing slightly, Scarlet blinked her eyes. At some point, as she was about to collapse, Victor caught her in his arms. The carriage carrying her, unconscious as if asleep, headed toward the Dümfelt estate.
When Scarlet came to, she hurriedly sat up.
Looking out the window, it was the Dümfelt mansion. Apparently, Victor had brought her there on his own when she had fainted. She wasn’t going to complain—he had saved her and treated her. She only worried that Andrei might scold her for not working.
Scarlet sighed and stepped off the bed. Standing in front of the full-length mirror on the wall, she saw her pale pink nightdress with wide sleeves. She had thought she’d lost all her belongings when she left empty-handed, but that wasn’t the case.
This was the main building, not the annex where she had lived with Victor. And it was Marina Dümfelt’s room, which she had only been in once or twice. A sofa sat where she stepped out of the canopy bed, and the walls displayed the crest of Victor’s mother’s royal Iren family.
“I don’t think I should be here.”
Muttering to herself, she sat on the sofa, knees drawn up, hugging herself.
“It’s cold…”
Even with the fireplace burning, her body shivered.
At that moment, the large door across from the sofa opened, and Victor entered with the staff.
When he met Scarlet’s gaze, he furrowed his brows and approached the sofa.
Hesitant, Scarlet turned her head a beat later.
“Thank you.”
The staff left after placing medicine and lukewarm water beside her and bowing.
Victor, habitually taking out a cigarette, remembered she was a patient and went out to the balcony. Unable to smoke, he crumpled the cigarette, and Scarlet, wrapped in the blanket the maid had brought, spoke from inside through the glass.
“Why aren’t you smoking?”
“There’s a patient.”
“…That’s unusual.”
Leaning her head against the doorframe, Scarlet spoke again.
“How did you know to come?”
Victor didn’t answer. Resigned, Scarlet continued.
“Thanks for helping me today, but don’t do that again.”
“Then leave it be?”
“You can’t help if you don’t know when I’m in trouble. That’s why. So do it that way.”
“You need my help.”
Scarlet let out a hollow laugh.
“I know what you think. That I’m in some terrible predicament. But no. You may be from a great family, but that doesn’t mean I was born into hardship. I was loved enough growing up.”
Scarlet had lived all her life relying on the love she had received until age twelve. It was so precious and brilliant that she had once assumed Victor would be happy if he received such love too.
Only recently did she admit she couldn’t give Victor what he wanted. He wanted her help, but her love wasn’t the type of assistance he desired.
Feeling colder thinking this, she tightened the blanket around herself.
“Anyway, I’ll take care of my own business. I really am grateful for today.”
Victor stayed silent for a long moment at her calm words.
The atmosphere felt awkward, so Scarlet changed the topic.
“Did you come here to sleep in this room?”
“Why?”
“Because that’s all you want from me.”
Muttering, she closed her eyes briefly, exhausted. She looked like a wild animal, caught and resigned.
Victor’s voice sounded irritated.
“You think I want to sleep with you, don’t you?”
Scarlet looked up at him with a pitiful expression.
“Yeah.”
In Salantie, it was believed that if a couple had a child before either turned twenty, the child would be born weak.
Victor had followed that rule, so Scarlet had been careful to avoid pregnancy until her twentieth birthday. Yet he occasionally sought intimacy, meaning it wasn’t only for having children.
At her words, Victor’s expression twisted in disbelief.
“If it’s just that, you’re not the only woman in the world.”
Scarlet hesitated, and Victor laughed dryly.
“I’m not that strict, you know.”
He looked at her leaning against the door, lips pale and dry. Then he approached, bent down, and tried to kiss her.
Scarlet flinched and turned her head.
“…Don’t.”
“I asked if you wanted to sleep here. Didn’t that mean you consented?”
Scarlet bit her lip.
Victor turned her chin toward him and asked.
“Or… is this repayment for saving you?”
“If it counts as repayment, I might have considered it.”
“Oh, so that’s how you repay.”
Victor teased, then kissed her.
He thought it was annoyingly cute that she trembled in surprise after saying that. His large, cold hands wrapped around her back.
As their lips met and parted with a soft smack, Victor whispered close to her ear.
“Will you repay other guys like this too?”
