Chapter 85
“Sean Wastland! Come out!”
At the call from one of the navy men, Sean wrapped one hand around Scarlet’s throat, pressed his blade close beneath it, and stepped out of the factory.
Victor watched the scene with an expressionless face. He had thought that this sort of situation might come sooner or later.
He first checked with his eyes to make sure Scarlet’s body was intact. Fortunately, not a single finger was injured. He also knew that the real problem began now.
Pallin spoke at his side.
“At least Harold’s crew took her—that’s a relief.”
Pallin was usually oblivious, but Victor agreed this time.
From Victor’s point of view, it was almost a mercy that Harold’s group—who had played a big part in crushing pirates by pushing forward to save others—had been the ones to take Scarlet. If a more hardened pirate gang had taken her, Victor suspected he might have later received only parts of her body.
Evan headed straight for the newspaper office as soon as he learned this. He wanted to find out who had published Scarlet Crimson’s photo and location in the paper.
The advertisement article not only printed her photo, but revealed she lived on the second floor of a watch shop and that her surname at marriage had been “Dumfelt.” That was an indirect murder using pirates.
Unlike the leaders of other pirate bands, Harold valued his own life, and Sean Wastland had strength but was weak-willed.
Still, a hostage exchange was a long, drawn-out affair. It was the lesser of evils—pirates were pirates, and there was no telling when they might suddenly harm Scarlet.
Victor watched their actions in silence for a while. When Victor stayed silent, Sean shouted.
“Let us use the medicine too!”
“……”
“Otherwise this woman will never come back to you, Victor Dumfelt.”
Victor looked up at the precarious Scarlet as if she might fall. After a moment, he spoke.
“We also have hostages.”
“……What?”
At Victor’s gesture, an elderly man was dragged down from the carriage. Sean’s eyes widened when he saw the old man who had come from the island.
“Th-That’s an old man.”
“We’ll exchange.”
At Victor’s calm words, Sean pushed Scarlet further out beyond the railing.
“You think I’ll fall for a trick like that?”
“A trick?”
Victor pressed the gun to the trembling old man’s forehead.
“In my eyes, they’re all the same pirate.”
“V-Victor Dumfelt!”
“It’s the same whether I kill a few or many.”
A few more hostages were dragged down from the carriage. Sean recognized them as pirates who had been taken from their ship.
Of course, he hadn’t thought that the devil himself would just casually come and offer to do anything to take off all the masks. The problem was that they had failed to realize just how powerful Victor Dumfelt was—powerful enough to freely drag imprisoned pirates out for the sake of a hostage exchange.
Scarlet squeezed her eyes shut in fear of looking down from the height. When the cold steel of the knife grew too close in Sean’s shaking hand, she finally broke into sobs.
Sean spoke.
“I’ll cut her arm off.”
“Then we’ll execute one of ours.”
Victor didn’t move at all; Sean’s face went pale.
“Hostage exchange isn’t necessary. Do what we want.”
“There will be no negotiations other than a hostage exchange.”
The knife at Sean’s trembling hand cut Scarlet’s neck; blood began to flow. At the same moment, a gunshot rang out.
Sean looked down: a pirate lay in front of him, bleeding and collapsed.
Victor reloaded his gun and said, “Continue.”
“W-What have you done! The pirate’s sentence has already been decided by law! Killing a pirate here—this isn’t war, it’s murder.”
“I have no intention of entertaining moral debates about pirates.”
Victor answered and trained his gun on the next pirate.
Terrified, Sean shouted, “Only one, just one! Except for this article, let us have the medicine. That’s all we need. The ones of us who can work are all carrying this article, and if this continues we’ll all starve to death. Whether we starve here or die by your hands, it’s the same!”
Sean knew that Victor didn’t negotiate with pirates, but having come this far he had to get at least something.
Calmer now, Sean said, “Pick one, Victor. Accept our terms. Otherwise I’ll kill this machinist girl no matter how many of you die. I have to take at least one thing with me.”
Victor looked up silently for a long moment.
Scarlet’s face had gone pale as the blood flowed. She had already resigned herself to the idea that Victor would not agree to negotiate.
Victor reloaded and looked at the pirates he had dragged over.
Refusing to negotiate with pirates had been his moral decision. How many subordinates had he lost up to now?
If he negotiated now, it would mean losing his honor, his pride, and the loyalty of his men. Moreover, removing that article would contradict the will of the royal family.
After standing there for quite a while, Victor holstered his gun.
“Bring Scarlet Crimson here. I will negotiate.”
Everyone present stared at Victor in shock.
A pirate and a navy man met in the middle and completed the negotiation. Afterwards Scarlet stepped out of the warehouse. She only managed a few steps before she faltered and the navy men ran to support her.
Victor lifted Scarlet into the carriage himself. He pressed a handkerchief to the wound on her neck, and she, her lips as pale as milk, asked in a trembling voice.
“Did you… kill the pirate whose sentence was already decided?”
“No. I didn’t. But he might die soon.”
Victor said flatly, then continued.
“I always intended to negotiate. I just needed something to bargain with.”
“But you don’t negotiate with pirates.”
“I had no occasion to negotiate for you until now.”
Victor said this as he set the breathless Scarlet on his lap and held her, soothing the woman who was having trouble drawing breath from pain.
“Stay alert. I’m afraid you’ll faint and won’t get up.”
“You’re the one who’s scary….”
“You heard me. I said you might faint and not get up.”
Victor said it like a joke, kissed Scarlet’s hair, and then added, “I’m sorry.”
“For… what?”
“For leaving you with incompetent escorts.”
At his words, Scarlet broke into a cold sweat but let out a weak laugh.
“I didn’t even know I had escorts. Maybe I’m just clueless….”
“The royal policeman next to you was decent escort, too.”
“Was he?”
Scarlet trembled. She felt cold as the blood drained from her. The carriage sped to the nearest hospital.
Scarlet soon passed out; fortunately, her hands and neck were not life-threateningly injured. The doctor still recommended she rest for a while, and Victor took the urgent measures and brought her back to the Dumfelt residence.
When Isaac heard that Scarlet had been taken by pirates, he rushed straight to the Dumfelt house. He ran frantically to her side but stopped short, worried she might wake. He breathed in shaky breaths as he looked at Scarlet.
“Scarlet.”
He trembled as he took her hand in both of his and buried his face there. That long moment made them look far from an ordinary sibling pair.
Isaac’s breath stammered. He glanced at Victor, then back to the still-sleeping Scarlet, and said, “Don’t you sometimes think Scarlet smiles too much? She smiles when she should not—like she’s ignoring the situation. It appears that way.”
Isaac’s remark matched what Victor had felt about Scarlet during their married life. Victor had been convinced that Scarlet lied after the interrogation—she smiled even when it wasn’t a situation to smile; to Victor, it often seemed like evasion.
“She’s always been like that.”
“It’s not that she wants to be malicious or avoid things. Since I can’t see well, Scarlet thought that if she just smiled in front of me, I wouldn’t notice anything. She thought if only she hid her pain and smiled, I would smile too, so she smiled in front of me even if she was full of wounds.”
“…….”
“From the age of twelve until marriage, she smiled to reassure me; after she fell in love with Sir Victor, she thought that smiling was how you received love. She’s terrible at lying.”
Isaac said this, then laughed a little oddly and quietly added, “If there’s a role that only requires fake smiling, there’s no one who could do it better than she could.”
Victor fell silent for a long while after those words.
After some time he spoke.
“She used to do raft work.”
At Victor’s remark, Isaac answered, “She stopped that a while ago and is learning perfumery.”
“Ah—perfumery.”
Victor nodded, then continued.
“You may have heard from Scarlet—both of the previous Crimson couple were in the air force.”
“Yes. Scarlet told me. She talked about making engines too.”
“Whether navy or air force, there is a place for her. If she wants it.”
“That would be fine, but…”
Isaac added, “If you intend to attack those who harmed Scarlet, I can cooperate with that.”
“I’ll request it.”
“Thank you.”
They exchanged thanks, and Isaac kissed Scarlet’s hand several times before settling nearby, not moving and waiting only for her to wake.
Victor watched that scene a moment, then left the hospital room.
