Dad is Back From a Deserted Island - Chapter 48

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Father has returned from the Deserted Island
Chapter 48

While Vivian attended her lessons, Jean de Lamber was far from idle. If anything, he was frantically occupied.
The prolonged confinement on the Deserted Island and his return from the future had granted him an advantage he’d squandered—save for acquiring the Diamond Mine—and he’d failed to fully capitalize on it.
But eight years had passed.
The era when Jean de Lamber flourished under Eduard’s patronage had arrived.
Armed with memories of the past and Eduard’s newfound support, Jean de Lamber had aggressively expanded his ventures, transforming himself into a merchant guild master whom none dared dismiss.
In the Trading Company Building, newly constructed on an estate purchased beside the Lamber Family Estate, people flowed ceaselessly day and night. Jean de Lamber himself spent more time at the Trading Company Building than at his mansion.
Seated in his Study Room wearing spectacles, Jean de Lamber now bore the unmistakable bearing of a respectable merchant guild master.
“Master of the Guild. An Explorer seeking patronage has appeared. Following your directive to report whenever an Explorer arrives, I bring this to your attention, though I must say, this particular individual seems rather…”
“A fraud?”
The Chief Secretary, who had been delivering his report in crude language, cleared his throat awkwardly.
“Yes, somewhat. His words are all gloss and no substance—”
“Excellent. Where is he now?”
Jean de Lamber straightened his attire and rose from his seat.
The Chief Secretary found it peculiar that his master seemed pleased despite the unfavorable report, yet he had witnessed Jean de Lamber succeed at ventures that defied ordinary comprehension on multiple occasions, and so he placed his trust in him.
“Yes. For now, I’ve had him wait in the Reception Room.”
“Understood.”
A smile played at Jean de Lamber’s lips. Though he neither knew the Explorer’s face nor name, he possessed absolute certainty.
At precisely this moment in time, there was an Explorer making the rounds of various merchant guilds and noble families in search of patronage.
A novice with no real accomplishments to speak of. A wastrel who squandered his family’s fortune at home.
His silver tongue was so polished it would suit a swindler better than an Explorer.
And his bearing inspired precious little confidence.
No rational person would invest a substantial sum in such circumstances.
He had once approached Eduard’s merchant guild as well, but naturally faced rejection. Jean de Lamber himself had been the one to meet him face-to-face and refuse him.
Yet the son of some merchant guild master had invested in him.
And a miracle had occurred.
The incredible claim of a treasure map passed down through his family proved entirely true.
The Explorer returned with treasures far more precious than the sum he’d been patronized with, laden upon his ship.
Naturally, high society erupted with excitement, and the Explorer became famous overnight—only to…
Meet a futile death.
The cause: sudden death from excessive drinking.
Since everyone knew he was a notorious drunkard, no one questioned the circumstances.
Except Eduard.
Eduard, who possessed the most intricate intelligence network save for the Imperial Family itself, had learned that the Explorer had recently come into conflict with the merchant guild master’s son who had patronized him.
The friction stemmed from the merchant guild master’s son demanding a larger share than what had been promised in their contract for financial backing.
Naturally, the Explorer refused, and the merchant guild master’s son flew into a rage, ranting that the man was ungrateful for his generosity.
Upon hearing this news, Eduard confided his true thoughts to Jean in a comfortable setting where they could speak freely.

‘Young, it bothers me.’
‘What troubles you, sir?’
‘Sudden death from excessive drinking. It’s certainly possible. Who could survive drinking like that? Yet it continues to weigh on my mind. The fact that he quarreled with that man just before it happened….’
‘Should we have an investigation conducted, perhaps?’

It was not blind flattery meant to curry favor with a superior. Eduard had become the Empire’s greatest merchant guild master precisely because his instincts wielded unparalleled power.
Jean genuinely believed that when he was troubled to such a degree, there had to be something behind it.
Yet Eduard shook his head.

‘No. They’ve already built his tomb. There’s no family left to appeal for the truth to be revealed. If we step forward, we’ll only be stirring up trouble for ourselves.’

Though it was a brief time, Eduard was a man with enough power to control entry and exit to the Capital—yet he had no choice but to be cautious of this opponent.
The father of the man who had clashed with the Explorer.
Henry de Bois. Eduard de Valmont’s greatest rival.

‘Your instincts have never failed you, sir. Since you’ve felt uneasy about that matter all this time, an investigation alone would have uncovered something.’

The fact that the opponent was de Bois only strengthened his conviction. Men who would do anything for profit.
Those who thought nothing of human lives.
‘Perhaps it’s fortunate. Thanks to this, I feel no guilt whatsoever.’
Rather, he felt a thrill at the prospect of seizing the wealth that would have gone to de Bois for himself.
Jean smiled as he opened the door to the Reception Room.
“It is an honor to meet you. I am Jean de Lamber, master of the Lamber Trading Company.”
“Oh my! The pleasure is mine!”
Eyes with a base and cunning gleam, a lower jaw that inspired not the slightest trust.
It was a face he remembered.
The smile at the corner of Jean’s lips bloomed like a flower.

* * *

“Then I’ll be on my way!”
“We shall guard the Mansion with utmost care.”
The journey to the Capital for Vivian’s petit debut.
Having spent years departing for the Capital or traveling to distant provinces, brief separations had become routine by now.
Of course, since I planned to stay longer this time than before, the number of accompanying wagons was somewhat greater.
Vivian, seated in a luxuriously cushioned carriage and waving to the Servants who remained at the Mansion, noticed Jean de Lamber reading a newspaper and asked him a question.
“Father. Now that I think about it.”
“Hmm?”
“You know, when I was kidnapped as a child.”
Seeing Jean de Lamber’s face stiffen instantly, Vivian playfully poked the corner of his mouth with her finger.
“Oh, come now. Don’t make such a frightening face. I’m just curious about something.”
“…What is it you’re curious about, Vivian?”
“How did you handle it?”
Jean de Lamber’s lips, which had forced themselves back into a smile, stiffened once more. Was she asking how I dealt with the perpetrators?
Why would she suddenly be curious about something that happened eight years ago? Could she have had a nightmare today?
Contrary to the swirl of worries that assailed me, Vivian’s mind was refreshingly simple.
“No, I mean, Kiki became this enormous wolf and was wandering all over the Capital. You must have seen it so many times. How did you clean that up?”
The newspaper delivered every morning. Though transportation limitations still prevented it from carrying news from across the entire nation, incidents that became issues in the Capital eventually became known, even if it took several days.
Unsolved cases would be mentioned again whenever news grew scarce, and the Capital wolf outbreak was precisely such an unsolved case.
“Ah, that. Well, my teacher handled it.”
“Grandfather did?”
I now called Eduard my teacher. Before my return, I had called him Elder, but given my position as a noble with a title and a merchant guild master, such a form of address was inappropriate.
Eduard had said I could address him more casually—after all, Vivian already called him Grandfather—but I, who regarded him as my benefactor and life’s mentor, could not abandon the title of teacher.
“Indeed. Since so many people witnessed it—from Capital Guard members to ordinary citizens—it was a situation we couldn’t simply overlook.”
Merely recalling that time caused pain, and my brow furrowed. Vivian made a small sound and gently pressed my furrowed brow with her fingers.
“My teacher handled it as an escape of a large fierce dog he had been privately raising.”
“A large fierce dog?”
“Yes. Of course, Kiki appeared far too enormous to be considered merely a dog, but no one had made any drawings of it. Besides, she moved locations quickly. The dog, avoiding people as it wandered, discovered you, and her protective instincts were activated, so she didn’t attack—that’s how it was framed.”
“That actually worked…?”
Ordinary people who hadn’t properly witnessed Kiki’s wolf form readily accepted and moved on, but the Capital Guard had clearly seen the wolf bringing a small child.
“It did.”
But it worked nonetheless.
Eduard distributed substantial sums of money to the Guard members, and the follow-up measures didn’t end there.
At a drinking gathering arranged to thank them for their hard work, people Eduard had planted there continuously fed the Guard members stories about having seen such a dog in their hometown, or about witnessing that dog themselves and being certain it wasn’t a wolf.
The Guard members, thoroughly intoxicated, gradually began to think—was that so? Did I misunderstand?—and since everything had worked out well anyway, they could simply brush it aside with “all’s well that ends well.”
The Capital newspapers naturally bore Eduard’s influence. Not a single character about child abduction or fierce dog escape appeared in print.
Stories without precise records, passed down only through word of mouth, are easily exaggerated, and as time passed, even those who had directly witnessed it then came to remember it merely as something that had happened.
But I had no wish to reveal to Vivian, who was only fifteen, the truth that money and alcohol had resolved the matter.
“In our Hometown Village too, many people told such stories. When I was young, some claimed I had fought a bear one-on-one and won.”
“Oh, who would believe that.”
Jean de Lamber nodded as if to say that was indeed the case.
“…!”
Vivian arrived at a revelation. The world was… a place that spun along far more haphazardly than one might have imagined!

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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