[TIDK] 100 – His Ex-Wife’s Dignity

The two started playing chess without saying anything. Scarlett quickly adapted to it and won two games in a row. And when they got to the third round, Scarlett finally spoke up.

“How about losing more creatively?”

“You didn’t try hard enough.”

“Don’t give up in the first place.”

Scarlett looked down and asked.

“Why did you come?”

“It’s weirder to behave like I did last night and not show up.”

“Why did you come last night in the first place?”

When she asked, Viktor answered in a calm voice.

“I missed you because I was drunk.”

Scarlett’s expression hardened at his words. After a long silence, she spoke.

“You were drunk and said you didn’t know why we got divorced.”

“It’s called growth.”

“Why did you miss me when you were drunk? Did you have something to say?”

“But we were in love. Is it so strange that I want to see you?”

Scarlett said in a cynical tone at his blunt words.

“Viktor, I loved you; you did not love.”

“Hmm. We talk about love so easily now.”

“My heart is cold now, and you don’t even know what it feels like to love. So it’s easy.”

As Scarlett was talking, she heard the bell ringing on the first floor, indicating that a guest had come.

Scarlett said as she looked for her shawl and put it on.

“Stay here. Leave when guests leave. Do you understand?”

“Don’t worry. I’m a soldier, so I’m good at following orders,” Viktor answered.

“….”

A solemn man who had no sense of humour his whole life told a joke with his own mouth today. It was weird and uncomfortable because the world’s most indecipherable man was acting that way.

Scarlett glanced at him one more time, then went down the stairs.

She reached downstairs and saw Mrs Jane DeLouis, owner of several buildings on the same street, standing with her daughter Ida DeLouis. They were also the owners of this building.

“Mrs DeLouis?”

“Miss Scarlett.”

Mrs Jane DeLouis said, ushering her daughter in front of her.

“You know my daughter, don’t you? She is seventeen years old this year.”

“Yes, I’ve seen her a few times.”

“The Crimson family is still an aristocratic family, so I would like you to take my daughter to the ball tomorrow.”

“…As a chaperone?”

Mrs DeLouis explained.

“I am aware Miss Scarlett is too young to chaperone. But at the moment, the lady we initially requested is sick and resting in bed. I am in quite a predicament.”

Usually, in Salantier, the role of a chaperone was taken on by women who would not be getting married in the future. Most of them were ladies who had been married for at least twenty years.

However, it was well known that Scarlett Crimson was thrown out of the Dumfelt family after incurring Viktor Dumfelt’s wrath. People already thought no one would be willing to get on Viktor’s bad side and remarry Scarlett. Their relationship was unclear, but marriage to her would be inappropriate.

Jane DeLouis looked at Scarlett’s old dress and asked anxiously.

“I don’t know if you will have an appropriate dress,” she said.

“Did you get kicked out without alimony?”

“Why is there no alimony? She even opened a shop.”

“You have to work, don’t you?”

“Making watches is the family business of the Crimsons.”

Despite Scarlett’s words, Mrs DeLouis wore a sceptical expression.

Scarlett continued.

“But I got married in the west of the capital, so I may not know anyone in the social circles of the east. How about finding someone else?”

Since she was the owner of the building, it was difficult to refuse flatly.

Mrs DeLouis did not want to miss the opportunity to send her daughter to the ball with a noblewoman as famous as Scarlett Crimson.

“How different would it be from the west?” Mrs DeLouis said.

“… I’ll think about it a little bit more.”

“You’d better think about it carefully.”

Perhaps her words came out a little threatening at the end because she was in a hurry.

She thought Scarlett was the right person for the task.

Scarlett managed to placate and send back the mother and daughter of DeLouis, then shut the door and turned around. Then, after sighing, Scarlett went up the stairs and stopped at the door for a moment.

Viktor leaned back in his chair, sitting like a statue and looking at her workbench. His side profile was breathtakingly beautiful, and she felt like she was looking at a work of art.

Scarlett was still stunned every time she saw him. A year after the divorce, it was still the same.

Scarlett said.

“You can go out now.”

Viktor then changed the topic.

“Let’s split the villa. As alimony.”

She realised he had heard everything that was said below.

Viktor continued.

“There is a vineyard and villa on the way to the Ruse Falls. They can be jointly owned.”

“You have a vineyard?” Scarlett repeated, surprised again.