# 8
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Seventh Street was located in the southeastern part of the capital.
Most Seventh Street stores were inherited family businesses, which made relationships between merchants strong.
Whenever a new store opened, their biggest fear was that a strange person would come in as a neighbor and disturb the peace. So, when furniture began to enter the finished watch store, Seventh Street merchants gathered in front of the building to get to know the store owner.
All summer long, people were coming in and out of there, and after nearly a year, it seemed like they had finally finished preparations to open the store.
The family who ran a bakery in the building next door were the most interested.
Liv, their daughter, was particularly interested in a woman her age who seemed to be the owner of a watch shop.
Leaf spoke to her friends from afar: “Isn’t that from the Crimson family?”
“It can't be her, can it? The woman who divorced the leader.”
It was known on Seventh Street that the daughter of the nearby Crimson family had divorced the captain of the Rubid Ship. For a while, Salantaire was full of talk about the Doomfelt captain who had his mother committed to a mental institution.
Scarlett Crimson.
In the capital, she became known for ling information about her husband and divorcing him. However, since there was nothing more to be excited about, interest faded after about a year.
“Is it really?”
“Oh, we can’t be sure, the newspapers didn’t publish her photos.”
There were pirates in the capital who considered Victor Domfelt a sworn enemy, and for fear of harm, pictures of his family were not published in the newspapers.
Because she was around the same age, her parents and neighborhood merchants pushed her to visit the store carrying a basket of bread. Liv entered, and there she saw the shopkeeper's face clearly for the first time.
'Oh my God, so beautiful...'
That was her first impression.
The owner of the watch shop had a charming beauty.
Her light blonde hair was braided and slung over her shoulder, her eyes looked sweet, and her slightly pursed lips made Liv, as a woman, feel admirable.
She was standing with her hands clasped, with a face that neither bothered anyone nor looked funny. Maybe in social settings this was acceptable, but as a neighborhood neighbor, it seemed a bit arrogant.
Liv approached her.
“Hello”
The shop owner turned and presented Liv with the basket of bread.
“I am your neighbor. This is a welcome gift. I am Lev Alec.”
“Ah...I'm Scarlett Dumfy-...Crimson.”
“Are you really that woman? The Commander’s wife?”
Liv asked in surprise, and Scarlett nodded.
She took the bread basket in her hand.
Liv wondered if it was appropriate to give plain bread to someone who lived in the prominent Domfelt family, but Scarlett smiled warmly.
“Thank you”
'Wow, so beautiful...'
Liv was shocked again by her smile. She had never seen a woman so beautiful in her life.
As they say about fine ladies, she always wore a wide-brimmed hat trimmed with a net, so Liv was the first to see her face clearly.
Scarlett fiddled with the handle of the bread basket with obvious joy, as if she was worried about how to greet the neighborhood people.
Liv asked, "You've been here all summer, haven't you? What have you been doing?"
“How did you know?”
“Don’t ask, this neighborhood is very small, everything becomes a rumor.”
“So then… ah, I used to make watches. I’m from the Crimson family.”
"Really? Can you make watches?"
“Just call me by my name”
When Scarlett said that in surprise, Liv quickly replied: “Okay, Scarlett.”
Scarlett smiled shyly and said regretfully, “I was hoping we could have coffee together, but things are still messy. Soon… Will you come over for coffee?”
“Sure. When you're done, open the window on the second floor and call me. My room looks right over there.”
“Really?”
Scarlett looked happier. She seemed cold at first, but then she laughed more than Liv expected.
After greeting Scarlett, Liv walked out of the store.
Her parents and the Seventh Street merchants were waiting outside for her, asking, “Liv, how was she?”
"Is she arrogant? Did she take the bread?"
Liv responded to the successive questions: “First, it is indeed Scarlett Crimson, who divorced the leader.”
"What? Why is someone so famous in our neighborhood?"
While everyone was wondering, Liv added, "And she's not a classy lady as they say. She says she made the watches herf. And she's really, really beautiful. The most beautiful woman I've ever seen in my life."
Before Liv finished speaking, the merchants who had given in to their curiosity rushed into the watch shop. Then they left with satisfied faces.
“Oh my God, I have never seen a girl so beautiful before.”
“Looks nice, doesn't it?”
“We worried all summer in vain. If I had known she was such a quiet girl, I would have talked to her from the beginning.”
The faces of the merchants, who were worried about a stranger coming to the neighborhood, looked reassured.
Liv looked at the store, afraid that her words would cause Scarlett to be disturbed by the influx of people. But Scarlett stepped out for a moment, raised her hand cautiously, and waved to Liv.
Liv reassured her and waved enthusiastically, and Scarlett laughed innocently.
***
While Scarlett was busy opening the watch shop, winter quickly arrived.
On a cold December Wednesday morning, Scarlett came down to the first floor wearing a thick woolen cloak.
A huge smile spread across her face as she wandered into the beautiful watch shop bathed in the morning sunlight.
First I lit the stove fire for Andrey, who hates the cold. As the warm fire began to burn, its clocks began to reflect an enchanting light.
On the wall, there was a large wall clock, and in a glass showcase, clocks were displayed.
The square pillows covered in purple silk, on which the watches were placed, were Andrei's choice.
These little pillows they made together became, Andrei claimed, a symbol of the “Scarlet Crimson Watch Shop.”
Scarlett swept the floor with a broom, dusted the dust outside the door, then placed a rug with “Hello” written on it in front of the door, completing her tasks.
At exactly ten in the morning, Andrei, the only employee, appeared.
He gave his bag to Scarlett, who carried it as he raised the curtain too high for her.
Scarlett put the bag behind the display in Andrei's place, then got on her bike and said, “I'll be back later.”
“Come back early and work.”
Andrei knew that Wednesday was the day of her visit to Issac Crimson, so he said the same thing he said last Wednesday, and entered the store to prepare coffee for the customers.
Is it good for an employee to have more ambition than his employer, Scarlett wondered, as she pedaled the bike toward the Crimson House.
As she passed Seventh Street every Wednesday at the same time, the merchants she recognized would wave to her, and she would wave to them with one hand, repeating their greeting.
After crossing Seventh Street and taking the streetcar route, I arrived at the Crimson family home.
Scarlett got off her bike, took a small handbag, and entered. On the balcony, she saw her cousin Marilyn and Arnold, with the brothers' friends, having a quiet lunchtime.
“If it had been me who had gone to the Domfelts, I wouldn’t have come back like this,” Marilyn said in a reproachful tone.
Scarlett ignored her words and tried to enter, but a piece of bread flew and hit her head.
She paused for a moment, then Arnold got up and closed the door.
He looked at her annoyed without turning to her and said: “A divorced woman walking around freely like this? I don’t understand how the world works.”
Scarlett had grown accustomed to Arnold's unprovoked teasing, so she tried to walk in without responding. But he grabbed her hair and the head scarf and pulled her back forcefully.
"Where? Are you ignoring people?"
“Stop”
"Stop? Stop what? What are you going to do?"
Arnold laughed sarcastically and ruffled her hair.
“Am I wrong? If you had abandoned your brother and run away, you should have at least kept your husband’s heart.”
Fearing that Isaac would hear, Scarlett closed her eyes tightly without screaming.
I heard slow steps, and Isaac came down the central stairs, leaning on the railing and a cane, his eyes covered with a clean cloth that the nurse always changed.
Arnold looked at Isaac, then released Scarlett and said, "I'm only leaving you because I pity this poor guy. Even with a sister like you, he can't do anything."
Isaac, whose face was very pale from his lack of going out, smiled and said, directing his words towards Scarlett’s voice: “Scarlett, let’s go up.”
Scarlett replied as she picked up her fallen head scarf and ran: “Why did you come down? I was going to come up to you.”
“I came to receive you”
Issac did not see the situation, so he smiled softly.
Scarlett carefully helped him and led him to the attic room where he was staying.
“It's very cold”
Scarlett muttered as she put down her bag and turned on the stove.
Isaac returned to his bed, and lay down, turning his head toward her voice.
Since the carriage accident that left him blind, Isaac, who was a year younger than her, had relied on his sister's care. Even after her marriage, it continued.
Scarlett locked the door, and took out from her bag a medicine she had bought with more than half the money she had received from Gregory.
The day she woke up after the investigation, she found this medication in her hotel room, along with a piece of paper in her wallet explaining how to get it.
It was a medicine that Scarlett had bought from a market where back-end deals were made with pirate items, braving the danger.
Isaac lay quietly as she dripped the medicine onto the cloth over his eyes, without moving.
“Will he really make you see?” said Scarlett.
When I started talking, Isaac smiled as if he had awakened from paralysis.
“I hope so. Otherwise, your money will be wasted.”
“I told you not to worry about it.”
With an amount similar to this drug, Scarlett opened a watch shop and bought a bicycle.
The price was high.
Even if most of the pirates were eliminated, going to their island to buy magic-infused medicine was not something anyone would accept without that amount. But Scarlett never regretted this investment.
No matter how much her uncle seized the fortune, Issac was the rightful heir to the Crimson family and Count Crimson. But in his childhood, he was very young, and now, due to his blindness, his uncle Evil Crimson claimed guardianship, preventing Isaac from disposing of any property.
If Isaac regains his sight with this medicine, his uncle will not be able to continue to claim guardianship. But this was only hope, as there were no guarantees that the medicine would restore his sight.
For half a year, she got the medicine with difficulty, and continued to give it to him for another half a year, but there were no signs of his eyesight improving. They may have been deceived, but they did not express it to protect each other's feelings.