Dad is Back From a Deserted Island - Chapter 63

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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 63

He was like a withered tree in its death throes.
In a way, he was a figure perfectly suited to this desolate Castle.
‘Is this the man… the legendary Demon? But I don’t feel anything particularly ominous.’
There was no sense of the dread that would make birds flee and horses refuse to approach.
“Excuse me… do you live in this Castle? Are you alone here?”
“I am the Castle Steward of this fortress, but what brings you to seek us out?”
Vivian’s question only seemed to deepen the Old Man’s wariness. Jean de Lamber, observing him with suspicious eyes, answered in her stead.
“We’ve come to meet the person who resides in this Castle.”
“You’ve come to meet… that person?”
As if in disbelief, the Old Man’s wrinkled eyes widened considerably.
“Do you know who lives here?”
Jean de Lamber found himself at a loss for words, unable to answer immediately.
He knew neither the name nor which family this person belonged to. All he knew were unfavorable rumors—tales of someone called a Demon, someone even animals shunned. He could hardly admit they’d come seeking such a person.
“Well—”
“It seems you’ve come under some misunderstanding.”
Seeing the Old Man about to issue an eviction order, Vivian urgently thrust her foot through the doorway.
Jean de Lamber, alarmed at the risk of her leg being crushed by the heavy iron door, quickly seized it.
“We haven’t come to the wrong place! I can’t explain the details, but there’s a reason we absolutely must meet the person who lives here. Could you at least inform them that visitors have arrived?”
The Old Man’s clouded eyes regarded Vivian with a hint of bewilderment.
One might have expected him to at least relay the message given her earnest plea, but the Old Man shook his head firmly.
“I apologize, but that person is not receiving guests at present. It appears you’ve traveled far, so I shall provide you with a room to rest.”
Though he offered them a room, his demeanor suggested he believed no one would willingly remain in this Castle.
Fearing he would simply close the door if they hesitated, Jean de Lamber and Vivian hastily nodded in agreement.
“You truly intend to stay here? Very well then. Please, come inside.”
The iron door, rusted and heavy, creaked open wide.
“Neigh!” [I don’t want to go in!]
“Father, we must leave the carriage outside.”
“Ah, of course. We’ll leave the carriage and horse elsewhere and return shortly.”
It took some time to find someone to entrust the carriage and horse to, but at last the two of them crossed the threshold into the desolate Castle.
“Where does the master of this Castle reside?”
“That person does not come down from there.”
The Old Man gestured toward the building crowned by the highest Tower. Did the Demon gaze down upon the world through those windows?
Vivian, who had been looking up to see if anyone stood at the windows, finally moved to follow as Jean de Lamber called to her.

* * *

The Castle Steward had assigned me a room on the second floor of the building where he resided. Multiple beds were arranged inside, suggesting it had once served as quarters for the Servants.
“Cough, cough. Goodness, there’s so much dust!”
The room, devoid of any human warmth, was thick with dust. After hastily opening the windows to air it out and organizing the luggage I’d brought separately, evening had already fallen.
“It’s nothing fancy, but I’ve prepared dinner… would you care to join me?”
Despite my arrival without invitation, the Castle Steward treated me as a guest and called me down, mentioning he’d prepared supper.
In the Dining Room I descended to with the Old Man, there lay a sparse meal little different from what I’d eaten while traveling.
Hard bread and dried meat. The only saving grace was a thin stew, if one could call it that.
“My apologies… at my age, my appetite isn’t what it once was, and I lack the ingredients for proper cooking.”
Vivian, who had gone without even moldy bread during our journey, made no complaint about the meal, though she found herself wondering if The Demon living in this Castle actually subsisted on such fare.
Since no one else resided here permanently besides the Castle Steward, it was likely he did.
The Castle Steward, who had been nibbling at his thin stew as though it would sustain him through the night, hesitated before speaking.
“Are the two of you… truly unaffected?”
“Pardon? Unaffected by what?”
Vivian, calmly continuing her meal beside me, asked in return.
“I doubt you didn’t hear the rumors on your way here… everyone says this place is ominous, that it gives them chills, and they flee. Yet the two of you show no such signs whatsoever.”
“I… don’t particularly feel anything like that. Though I am rather tired.”
“Me neither!”
Father and daughter truly felt nothing. Jean de Lamber was weary from driving the carriage here, but Vivian had no such excuse.
“How extraordinary… ”
“Surely it’s because you yourself don’t feel it that you continue to guard this place, is it not?”
“No, I too… often experience inexplicable dread washing over me, or sudden breathlessness. It’s simply that my family has maintained this Castle for generations, and since I’m already waiting for death’s arrival, I haven’t found reason to flee like the others.”
The Castle Steward had chosen this place as his tomb and waited only for the day he would perish.
At his words, which carried the scent of death itself, Jean de Lamber found himself unable to continue speaking.
Vivian, filled with resolve to rescue Kiki, barely managed to press forward with her question.
“Is he… truly as the rumors describe?”
If he were truly as vicious, merciless, and cruel as the tales suggested—someone who killed animals and people without hesitation—even approaching him to speak might prove impossible.
“As I mentioned… being in the same space as him is already a burden, but-”
The Castle Steward answered hesitantly, reluctant to continue.
“I don’t believe he’s as frightening as the rumors suggest… or perhaps I simply don’t know. Very occasionally, when I encounter him, the way he looks at me is precisely as though he were observing an insect. He never addresses me directly. Because of that, I can barely recall the sound of his voice at all…”
“….”
After finishing the meal in that uncomfortable atmosphere, I returned to my room and gazed endlessly out the window.
‘I’ve come this far—I can’t simply turn back. Should I just sneak out and find him? What if we can’t communicate?’
As I sighed over such worries, the clear night sky gradually grew obscured by mist.
“Father. Mist is suddenly rolling in. Didn’t someone say that? That The Demon appears on nights when mist comes. If I go out now, could I meet him? Hmm? Father. Father?”
When I turned around to find no response, I saw Jean de Lamber had fallen fast asleep.
‘He said he was tired since evening—has he dozed off?’
His face was too haggard to wake him. After more than a month of caring for me and driving the carriage, how exhausted he must be.
Yet for Vivian to muster the courage to venture out alone was no simple feat.
The night was shrouded in mist so thick that she could not see even a hand’s breadth ahead, and the Castle itself seemed utterly devoid of life—not a single soul stirred within its walls.
‘Still.’
Watching Kiki sleep peacefully in the basket, Vivian steeled her resolve.
“Even if it truly is The Demon, I cannot simply turn back now that I have come this far.”
Vivian draped a heavy cloak over her shoulders and stepped outside, treading as softly as possible to avoid detection from the Castle Steward’s quarters, where a faint light still burned.
‘This mist… there is something oddly familiar about it.’
The door to the building where The Demon was said to dwell stood ajar.
“Is anyone here?”
Vivian carefully pushed the door open and announced her presence, but no answer came.
The interior was as dark as if the mist had seeped inside, yet strangely, she felt no fear.
Though she sensed no presence whatsoever, Vivian found herself ascending the Stairs as though entranced.
Climbing dusty, neglected steps that crumbled beneath her feet, she ascended higher and higher until she crossed the threshold into the Tower she had glimpsed from outside.
There, she met the gaze of crimson eyes fixed upon her.

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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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