CH 18

18 – Naval Watch

“What? What do you call it?”

Andrei took out the nameplate that he had hidden.

“A naval watch with sapphire.”

Scarlett asked, nervously unfamiliar with the word naval.

“Why is that a naval watch?”

“It’s a nice watch that the navy would wear. Who do the people of this capital love the most? Aren’t they Captain Viktor Dumfelt and the naval elites of the Rubied? That’s what marketing is all about.”

Andrei, who casually took advantage of his boss’s ex-husband for that marketing, seemed to be a very natural businessman in Scarlett’s eyes.

Andrei was dissatisfied with the way Vikor treated his boss. Still, he was a brilliant salesperson when dealing with the aristocrats, and he handled the overall operation too skilfully for his tight salary.

“Boss, just make your watches. When are you going to finish the exhibition again?” Andrei said calmly.

“I will do it now.”

Scarlett spoke and went up to the house and workshop’s second floor to make a watch.

Although it was called a house, the only thing that felt lifelike was the bed and the closet.

Her studio was full of chests of drawers with parts for making watches. With so much work to be done with her bare hands, her fingertips, which had maintained a lady’s smoothness over the past two years of her marriage, were tattered in less than a year after her divorce.

She took off her hair tie, and her golden curls loosely fell to her waist.

Scarlett sat down at her workbench after tying her hair in a single braid.

This watch, which came to be called ‘sapphire studded’, contained twelve tiny sapphires.

Scarlett began to dig a groove for the sapphire delicately. Her work continued until early sunset, when the officers lit the street gas lamps.

Meanwhile, two neighbourhood kids rushed into the watch shop, and Andrei was displeased and beckoned them.

After being repeatedly scolded by Andrei, the children walked up the stairs with a meek gait they had learned.

Upon reaching the second floor, there was another locked door with a wooden grate. The two children, who knew Scarlett had no idea of the surrounding situation once she focused, called out to her loudly at the door.

“Scarlett! Please fix it!”

“The tram is broken again!”

They called so loudly, but there was no answer, so the children looked dissatisfied.

The children called her simultaneously with all their might, hoping for a response.

“Scarlett!”

Only then did Scarlett pause and turn around.

The Tram Driver’s Guild children, Charlie, and Susan, lit up as soon as Scarlett and their eyes met.

“The tram broke down again.”

“It’s been a while, so it’s broken. Scarlett has to fix it.”

Scarlett hesitated with a puzzled expression at the children’s words and shook her head.

“You said a tram is over once it breaks down. It is illegal to fix it.”

The year prior, in July, the king and the high priest agreed to ban the repair of trams and bicycles.

The main reason was that trams and bicycles caused people to go out on weekends to play. It was said that it was against the god Lesquia.

The nomads who founded Salantier were people who were immersed in nature, so they tended to reject technological advances. But they weren’t foolish enough to agree to such a bill.

At first, citizens found this bill absurd. However, when the actual harsh punishment began, they feared the law and began to follow it.

In recent times, extremists have even murdered some engineers based on the words of the king and the high priest.

Since then, no one had tried to fix trams, but the prejudice that a young and frail noble like Scarlett couldn’t possibly repair a tram let her secretly repair it.

The brother and sister murmured, unaware that this could put Scarlett in her jeopardy.

“If the tram breaks down, my dad loses his job.”

“Then we have to starve.”

The last time she heard this story, and the time before that too.

She was reluctant to fix it.

That was why she shouldn’t have started in the first place. Even if the tram she was riding had not stopped...

As she sighed and they looked at her with bright eyes, Scarlett finally reluctantly got up from her seat.

“You stupid idiots.”

“We’re not stupid!”

“That’s right, the person who calls someone stupid is the stupid one!”

The seven-year-old brother and sister were very good at talking. She didn’t say anything.

It was spiteful, but these kids couldn’t go hungry.