On the coffee table, bottles of wine were placed in a line. Paper bags full of luxury goods from famous brands near the hotel were stacked on the sofa.

“Did I buy something like that?” Scarlett muttered in a trance.

She then fumbled through the paper bag to find a receipt to see if it might help her memory.

At that time, the door of the room swung open.

Scarlett turned around and saw the hotel staff with a key first. She frowned; how dare she enter the room? But soon, her husband Viktor Dumfelt walked in through the open door.

“Viktor.” As soon as she saw her husband’s face, Scarlett was relieved and ran to him and hugged him. “Oh my God, I’m glad.” Her husband was always blunt, and had never given her any relief for the two years he was by her side. They had married two years ago, but only now, could she feel like she could rely on him.

“I don’t know why I’m here. What happened?” Scarlett complained.

As she spoke, she looked up and noticed Viktor’s dark blue eyes looking down at her. Her shoulders, wrapped in thin clothes trembled. Anger boiled in the eyes of her husband, who was always indifferent, and rational.

“That’s a good excuse.” His low voice mixed with the sound of rain pelting the window made a chill run down her spine.

“What’s going on?”

At that time, Evan Wright, Viktor’s second in command, the vice-captain of the Rubied, called out to Scarlett. He had come in with Viktor, who was the captain.

“Mrs Scarlett.”

Scarlett turned around, with a nervous expression on her face. The sound of him calling her surprised her.

With a troubled expression on his face, Evan, who was usually a mischievous man, held up something. It was a black potion he had found under the bottle.

“This is a medicine from Pirate Island. It’s the magic drug that your wife has been looking for for a long time, to cure blindness.”

“Are you being serious?”

What he said terrified Scarlett. She rushed to grab the vial, but Viktor instead grabbed her elbow. Having always been gentle, he pulled Scarlett’s body roughly towards the table. Then he held up the newspaper in front of her face full of bewilderment.

On the front page of the newspaper, the headline screamed out at her in large, bold letters. It was the paper that Scarlett had left on the table after checking the date.

[Can Viktor Dumfelt, who imprisoned his royal mother in a psychiatric ward, become a member of the royal family?]

As Scarlett looked at the article with blank eyes, Viktor opened his mouth.

“You told the Royal Police. When they investigated those around me.”

“Oh, no. That cannot be true.”

“There are many more than this. Enough to fill a whole page.” Viktor opened the newspaper himself.

As he said, every detail of Viktor’s weaknesses was specified in the paper. They were the secrets of his, only Scarlett knew.  Among them, there was a slanderous column. It detailed a friend close to Viktor when he was a cadet, who was now an officer in the Vestinian Army.

What was not a big matter when Viktor was in school had now been made into a stake. The problem was a magnified insult, now that his relationship with Vestina deteriorated.

Reading the newspaper with a blank expression on his face, Viktor looked down at Scarlett.

“You sold me for that drug,” Viktor muttered.

Scarlett felt her head hurt even more at the sound of his cool voice. She wanted to explain something, but her head was blank, and nothing came to mind.

“Nonsense,” Scarlett muttered.

It was true that she was looking for that drug. It was for her older brother, Isaac Crimson, who became blind in an accident. Of course, Isaac was precious to Scarlett, but she could not have betrayed her husband for him.

Confused, she hurried to grab the collar of Viktor’s coat.

“You know how much I love you. Do you think I would betray you for Isaac, knowing how hard you worked to become royalty?”

“It’s not a thought, it’s a fact.”

“Because it’s not!”

“Then why are you hiding here instead of coming home?”

“That’s…you said… I don’t remember.” At her repeated insistence, Viktor, Evan, and his secretary Blight who’d also entered, looked uncomfortable.

Scarlett felt like she was going crazy for not being able to remember. But to those except herself, it seemed like she was trying to avoid the subject because she had betrayed her husband.

“Viktor, please. Trust me,” Scarlett said, reaching out to hug Viktor.

But Viktor pulled her arms down.

“Stop talking nonsense.” He spoke in a hoarse voice to contain his anger.

“Really…”

“Tell me if you were threatened. Or if there was torture.”

Even the thoughts that were barely coming to mind, subsided as his cold voice sank like the weight of a pendulum.

When Scarlett couldn’t open her mouth, puzzlement clear on her face, Viktor continued.

“It’s okay to lie, so say yes. Then I will try to understand.”

“That…”

Scarlett’s sweet wine-coloured eyes were wet with pain and frustration. As Viktor’s expression contorted in front of her, she even felt fear. Scarlett couldn’t resist the pressure and answered.

“Intimidation or torture… I don’t think there was any. I think…”

After stating so, seeing Viktor about to leave,  Scarlett raised her arms and hurriedly wrapped them around her husband’s neck.

“I must have lost my mind for a moment. I’m sorry, Viktor.”

Then Viktor laughed and muttered. 

“Should I send my wife to the monastery?” At his words, Scarlett froze; her movements slowed to a still.