# 23
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“The weight...is the same.”
"If the weight is the same, that's a bigger problem. That means the material is different. Isn't there a watch that has the fifth version older?"
Tom and Anna paused for a moment. Tom then rushed to call for Sten, one of the other craftsmen.
There were seven craftsmen in the first factory, three of whom had worked since the days of Scarlett's parents.
"Didn't I tell you? We knew there was a mistake," Sten said calmly.
The three had noticed that the producing parts of the main room had changed since Evil took over as director.
Anna said to Scarlett: "Sten found out first, so we, the three oldest, went to confront Eiffel. We said the parts were wrong."
“The four seniors besides us were expelled,” Tom added sadly. “They advised us not to say anything...”
The three's expressions seemed filled with shame and sadness.
Scarlett said: “I will enter the main room. The materials must be examined. I remember the password.”
They knew that entering it might put her in danger, but they couldn't stop her. Her eyes sparkling with curiosity were very similar to her parents, and they knew that Crimson's passion for exploration could not be stopped.
This light in her eyes was something they had not seen in a long time.
Scarlett took a deep breath and asked: “Do you know when my uncle will return from his trip?”
“He said he would be back tomorrow”
She didn't know when the chance of Evil and Arnold not together would come again.
Scarlett suppressed her fear and headed towards the main room.
Anna, the oldest among them, gave Tom and Sten quick instructions: “Make sure the other workers don’t see her.”
“Okay”
The two rushed to check the other workers' locations.
Meanwhile, Scarlett calmed her breath in front of the main room.
She felt as if she was standing in front of a huge wall. This was the room of Evil Crimson, who had been exploiting her since she was twelve years old.
Her face turned pale with fear.
But she needed to know. Her passion for knowledge was the greatest motivation, followed by her sense of duty to prevent the sale of faulty parts.
If you don't act today, another opportunity may never come.
To overcome the fear that bound her feet, she thought of something else.
She remembered Victor Domfelt, his calm face as he dismissed her or said she was uess. These memories drove away her fear.
Since her childhood, Scarlett often thought that she could not bear the thought of having and raising children. She was confident in her ability to love them, but she could not bear to see them face the cruelty of the world. The thought that her children would face life's hardships was breaking her heart.
Therefore, letting down the one she loved was more terrifying to her than violence.
She was sad that she could not make them happy.
With these dark thoughts, her fear was gone. Scarlett remembered the lock of the main room, which looked like a puzzle, opened it, and entered.
***
The main room was tidier than it had been in her parents' days.
After a long search, Scarlett found the way to make the fifth version of Crimson.
The materials and weight were noted, including the part that she said differed from her memory. The material was “Lucy Waterfall gravel”.
Scarlett quickly saved the content so she could create it later.
While inspecting it, she discovered a pile of pebbles on the wall.
“Here he is”
This gravel was collected from the Lucy Waterfall in South Salantaire, which empties directly into the sea.
I grabbed a pebble and looked at it for a long time. I wondered why the quantity was different even though the weight was the same.
She remembered her mother's voice:
Scarlett looked at the pebble. But it is impossible to distinguish whether it is from inside or outside the water.
While she was examining it, she heard a voice from outside: “No, sir!”
It was Anna's voice.
Scarlett felt goosebumps. When she turned around, she felt a flash and fell.
She raised her head with difficulty, and saw Evil standing. He got rid of the workers who tried to stop him, closed the door, shouted insults, then looked at her and rolled up his sleeves: “You seem to have lost your mind, you thief.”
“The parts... are wrong.”
“Shut up!”
Evil's eyes were filled with anger.
“Who will prove which one of us is right? Me or your parents?”
Scarlett was angry too. Her eyes, which had always been docile, glowed. This was a matter of her parents' dignity.
“Every part my parents made has a reason! There is no justification for changing it without improving! Crimson parts are designed for watches that will last a lifetime...”
“Shut up! I said shut up!”
Evil shouted angrily.
After illegally seizing his brother's property, he had to prove that he could manage the factory to become completely his.
Making the fifth edition was proof of his competence as a manager. If proven wrong, its legitimacy will be challenged.
The biggest problem is that revealing defective parts will lead to requests for refunds of the watches, which could lead to Evil Crimson's bankruptcy.
***
Scarlett regained consciousness hours later.
She looked around, but the darkness prevented her from seeing anything. She felt around the walls, turned around, and discovered a staircase. She goes up it, but there is a wooden board, which means she is in a basement.
Scarlett knocked on the board: “Is there anyone?”
But no response.
“There is someone here... Uncle, please... I'm sorry.”
No response. The darkness and the closed place were enough to cause panic even in the strong.
Scarlett knocked on the door with trembling hands.
When no response came, her voice trembled: “Save me...”
She covered her mouth with her hands and started crying.
I felt a lack of air.
She cowered on the stairs, unaware that the plank had opened. She didn't notice until someone grabbed her by the arm and helped her up.
Raising her head, she saw Victor Domfelt.
“Come”
He said that, then he picked her up gently without giving her a chance to move, and put her head on his shoulder and said: “Close your eyes. The sudden light might hurt you.”
Scarlett almost calmed her breath, but she could not nod, so she clung to his neck.
They went out to a basement that ran water from a fountain in the garden of the first factory.
Evil, who was approached by Victor's men, was still angry and said, "That girl broke into a place that contained trade secrets! She should be grateful that I didn't kill her!"
Scarlett trembled at his voice, so Victor stroked her as if he were calming a small animal, and sat her in the carriage.
Scarlett sat, hugging her knees and burying her face in them, trembling. Victor took off his jacket and covered her with it.
The men of the Crimson family were tall and stocky, due to their origins as blacksmiths.
Evil tried to attack again, but was surprised by Victor's strong body under the carefully tailored jacket. He angrily thought that Victor, giving orders from behind, would not be a fighter.
But when Victor approached him, Evil instinctively realized it was an enemy he had never faced before.
Victor hit Evil's face with the back of his hand. Evil tried to hit him, but Victor easily dodged him, grabbed his right arm and easily broke it.
Scarlett, trembling under the jacket, heard the sound of bones breaking and Evil's screams. She raised her head cautiously.
She saw Evil, who seemed like an impenetrable wall in her childhood, being brutally beaten by Victor using unarmed naval combat techniques.
Even when Balin, one of Victor's men, caught him, Evil couldn't touch him. Victor knocked him down with a punch to the stomach, knocking him unconscious.
Scarlett looked at Evil lying at Victor's feet, and gradually came out of her panic. She felt a strange release, as if the shackles that bound her as a slave were being released.
I laughed softly.
The men turned to her at the sound of her laughter.
“Our miss seems to like this,” said Ivan, who was watching the fight leaning on the carriage.