Dad is Back From a Deserted Island - Chapter 55

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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 55

His voice dropped to an uncharacteristic whisper, and there was a lethal edge to it.
“Squeak…? Chirp? Chirp! Screech!”
Kiki, still drowsy and blinking away sleep, snapped awake at the mention that Vivian had collapsed.
This was no time to demand an apology for the audacity of handling a divine creature’s body so carelessly.
“Squeak! Chirp! Chirp?”
Kiki wriggled free from Jean de Lamber’s grip with surprising agility and chittered urgently.
Frantic sounds tumbled out, but without Vivian to interpret, communication was impossible.
Still, what Kiki wanted to say was obvious enough, so Jean de Lamber quickly signaled to Anne that they needed to go inside, then drew back the curtain.
Within lay Vivian, her face still flushed crimson and glistening with perspiration despite Anne’s devoted care.
“Screeeech!”
The moment Kiki saw Vivian’s condition, she bounded upward.
“L-Lord Jean de Lamber. Now is hardly the time to have Kiki here—”
“…No. Wait, please step aside.”
Anne still didn’t know Kiki’s true nature. That Vivian possessed mysterious abilities was already exposed, unavoidable as it was, but there was no reason to reveal that Kiki was a divine creature.
“Pardon? Were you speaking to me?”
So to Anne’s eyes, the current scene was simply bewildering—a small monkey—or perhaps a fully grown one, given it had looked identical for eight years—suddenly scrambling across Vivian’s fevered body, examining her here and there. It was utterly absurd.
And Jean de Lamber, who treasured Vivian so dearly, was simply watching without removing the creature?
“Wait, wait! Kiki! This is not the time to fall asleep on the Young Lady’s body!”
Kiki curled up on Vivian’s abdomen and closed her eyes.
Looking as though she might drift off entirely, Anne couldn’t help but move to intervene, but Jean de Lamber stopped her.
“Lord Jean de Lamber!”
“…It’s fine. She’s not attempting anything dangerous.”
Anne, about to protest, met his earnest gaze and lost her nerve.
A father who cared for Vivian so deeply would never leave his daughter unattended in a critical state.
“I’ll wait outside. Please call if you need anything.”
“Thank you, Anne.”

* * *

[…Vivian.]
In that dazzling world, brilliant fireworks of light erupted and scattered. The overwhelming power surged through me like a raging torrent, threatening to shatter the fragile vessel that contained it.
[Vivian!]
Curled up against the agony of my own body threatening to tear apart, I had squeezed my eyes shut and barely endured—until that voice calling my name forced them open again.
“Kiki?”
A voice I had grown infinitely familiar with by now.
Yet what stood before my eyes was a form I had never seen before in my life.
Wings of a raptor fashioned from black feathers and a face resembling an eagle. The body bearing the shape of a lion was covered in black fur so dark it barely reflected light—nearly matte.
Had it not been for those vivid crimson eyes, I would never have recognized Kiki, no matter how familiar the voice sounded.
“Kiki, is that really you…?”
[Yes. This is my true form.]
Confronted with a visage that seemed plucked from legend itself—so mystical and majestic—I forgot my pain entirely and gaped. Kiki had been magnificent in wolf form too, but this was truly something else.
Normally, Kiki would have preened shamelessly at my reaction, but instead, after a single rumbling growl from deep in the throat, Kiki moved to the matter at hand.
[…but that’s not important right now. What on earth is happening? Why has such tremendous power suddenly manifested within you? Your fragile body cannot possibly endure it.]
“I, I don’t know either. I just arrived at the Imperial Palace and was enjoying the Ballroom. At first, I thought it was just excitement and an abundance of energy, you know? But then my breathing grew more and more labored, and my chest became unbearably tight.”
I had first noticed something amiss after the second dance ended. It was a group dance with an unusually high number of leaping sections, and while many girls around me were catching their breath lightly, I was gasping as though I had sprinted at full speed.
When people asked with worried faces if I was alright, I forced a smile and tried to step back, saying I needed to rest for a moment.
“But then I lost consciousness, and when I opened my eyes, I was here.”
A place brimming with mystical light. This space, which even felt sacred, held a power that could not possibly belong to the mere inner world of a human.
Kiki gazed at me with an indescribable light in those eyes. My face, contorted with pain, was reflected in those crimson irises.
[This place is not unfamiliar to me.]
“Huh?”
[It feels very familiar. As though I have returned to the primordial space itself. And this power that fills this place, threatening to overflow—it is not unfamiliar to me either.]
I had found it strange from the very beginning. How could an ordinary human like Vivian possess a power capable of awakening me?
Could imperial blood flow through Vivian’s veins?
Yet that could not be it—Vivian was clearly struggling. If she were the true master of this power, she should have been able to control it.
[This power is far too great for you to bear, Vivian. I have come to receive that power from you.]
“Really? Then I’ll be alright again?”
Even through the pain, I brightened at the prospect. Thank goodness. I had instinctively known that if things continued as they were, I would die. I had been so worried about Jean being left alone, but now there was a chance I could survive.
But my smile soon faded.
“But, what about you, Kiki? You’ll be fine, right? You’re a divine beast, so you can endure something like this, can’t you?”
[….]
Kiki did not answer.
I reached out and grasped Kiki’s face.
“If you die in my place, what good is that!”
Eight years already. I had slept beside Kiki and awakened beside Kiki, sharing every moment together. By now, Kiki was family to me—no, Kiki simply was my family.
Kiki wrapped me in those great wings, cradling my body as I held that beloved face.
[I will not die. However, this power is far too immense even for me to receive—I fear I shall fall into a very deep sleep.]
“Sleep? Then, when will you wake up?”
[I cannot say.]
What difference is there between sleep without end and death?
Vivian’s expression contorted. Soft feathers brushed against her in comfort, but it was no use.
[I have something to ask of you, Vivian. Do not set foot in the Imperial Palace again. …And do not cry.]
Kiki carefully pressed her face against Vivian’s, tears streaming down her cheeks.
[Considering what you have endured, I cannot fathom what other power might slumber in that place. I do not know by what fate you came to harbor such power, or how you are able to receive the power of that place.]
As Kiki moved to wipe away Vivian’s tears, she realized her form was different from usual. Indeed, the shape of a monkey suited her best.
Because divine beasts were fundamentally a different species from humans, Kiki felt no stirring at the tears shed by other mortals.
But Vivian was a special existence—the one who had allowed her to break free from the egg.
Just as a chick imprints upon its mother hen upon hatching, Kiki had imprinted upon Vivian.
The tears Vivian shed sent ripples through Kiki’s heart.
[If something should befall you after I fall asleep, I wonder if there will be anyone left to save you.]
At a tenderness in Kiki’s voice unlike anything before, Vivian wept, gasping and struggling to breathe.
[Stop your tears. It is merely sleep, nothing more.]
“But. Kiki, I, I—”
[…Time grows short. Your fragile spirit will shatter if it lingers in this space any longer. Now, you must return.]
The moment Kiki finished speaking, she pushed Vivian away without mercy. The warm wings that had enveloped her receded, the warmth that had caressed her face grew distant, and Vivian reached out her hand.
But this place was a space where the laws of reality held no sway. Kiki’s form only continued to drift further away.
[Thanks to you, I was able to breathe the outside air. It was a joy.]
With laughter lingering in her voice, the world before my eyes grew brilliantly bright—
“Gasp.”
A familiar ceiling came into view. At the sound of Vivian’s breath, Jean de Lamber and Anne, who had been dozing fitfully at her bedside, stirred and immediately rose.
“Vivi!”
“Young Lady!”
And upon Vivian’s body, a small warmth was felt.
Kiki lay curled upon Vivian’s body, sleeping soundly.
A long sleep whose awakening was unknown.

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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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