Dad is Back From a Deserted Island - Chapter 72

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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 72

It took Kiki a moment to recognize the owner of those glistening eyes as she stirred awake from sleep.
[Yawn. What’s wrong? Vivian. Who made you cry?]
“….”
Despite having melted my heart with over a month of slumber, Kiki maintained an utterly composed demeanor.
I had worried about her health since she couldn’t eat or drink while sleeping, but fortunately, she seemed unaffected.
Seeing her as though she’d merely taken an afternoon nap, my vision blurred with overwhelming emotion.
[Huh? Who cried? While this one slept, did someone bother you— wait? How did I even open my eyes?]
Kiki, who had been blinking drowsily through a long yawn, suddenly sprang up like a coiled spring.
The power Vivian had transferred to me was immeasurably vast and distant.
It was impossible to predict how long it would take for the divine beast Kiki to assimilate it.
That’s why I had steeled myself for the possibility that when I awoke, Vivian might already have departed from this world.
The farewell I had offered her, knowing it might be our last, had felt bittersweet.
[I thought I’d wake up as a wrinkled old woman, but that’s not it either. My face looks similar to before I fell asleep. Vivian, how long was this one asleep?]
“You were asleep for over a month!”
[Just a month?]
“Just a month?!”
Vivian’s anger spilled forth, tears streaming down her face.
But for Kiki, it was truly nothing but a fleeting moment. A divine beast’s sense of time differed greatly from that of humans.
I had even prepared myself never to see her again.
[A month is barely the time to close and open one’s eyes— no, wait. That’s actually a very long time.]
Kiki, who had been speaking dismissively about how much shorter the sleep had been than expected, suddenly changed her tone upon seeing Vivian’s tears flowing freely.
At those words, Vivian only pressed her lips together and gazed at Kiki with reproachful eyes.
[Oh dear, Vivian. This one was wrong. So please, stop— no more tears.]
Realizing the gravity of the situation, Kiki leaped from the bag and clung to Vivian’s shoulder.
She climbed onto Vivian’s head and gently groomed her hair while soothing the crying girl.
[Hmm? Stop crying! This one didn’t know you’d worry so much while sleeping— well, I knew, but anyway, now that I’m awake, everything’s fine, isn’t it?]
The familiar warmth and gentle touch gradually eased Vivian’s tears.
Seizing the moment, Kiki made an effort to steer the conversation elsewhere.
[Really, how did you wake this one? This one didn’t know you had such a talent, Vivian!]
“…It wasn’t, it wasn’t me. Sniff. Your Majesty did.”
[Huh? Not you? What do you mean? If not you, then who else on this land could dare wake this one?]
“No, there is. His Majesty. He helped me.”
Vivian spoke through her sobs, her shoulders trembling as she wiped her face clean.
Following Vivian’s gaze, Kiki’s eyes naturally turned toward Dietrich standing before us.
[That, that, that thing is…!]
Kiki’s round eyes widened.
Was it because Kiki, being a divine beast, could recognize someone of the Imperial Family?
Since it had said Dietrich gave off a feeling similar to the Dragon, perhaps it would be pleased?
“This is the person who—”
Kiki squeaked and clung to Vivian’s face just as she was anticipating an emotional reunion.
[How, how can such a thing be walking around!]
“Ptui, ptui, fur got in my mouth. Kiki! Such a thing, indeed. How disrespectful to His Highness the Prince!”
Kiki’s fluffy body pressed firmly against her face, and short hairs pushed into Vivian’s mouth.
As Vivian spit out the fur and tried to stop Kiki in alarm, she clamped her mouth shut.
‘Oh no! Since His Highness can’t understand what Kiki is saying anyway, if I just keep quiet, he won’t know!’
My failure to think of anything else in my surprise at Kiki’s rudeness was a critical mistake.
I glanced nervously, worried that Dietrich might have heard and taken offense.
‘Hmm?’
Dietrich was gazing at Kiki with a peculiar gleam in his eyes.
He didn’t seem surprised at seeing the animal called a monkey for the first time. Though he probably was seeing it for the first time.
The problem was that Kiki’s reaction to receiving that gaze was extremely intense.
Those crimson eyes resembling mine—whatever made them so unsettling—Kiki clung to Vivian’s head with small limbs, even wrapping its tail around her as it hung on.
That wasn’t all; Kiki trembled so violently that the trembling was transmitted to Vivian herself.
“Kiki, what’s wrong? Why are you shaking like that?”
[How can you speak to that thing so calmly!]
Kiki cried out to Vivian, who was worried that something had happened while it slept.
“What are you talking about? You slept just fine in His Highness’s arms the whole time.”
[In His Highness’s arms…? Wait, surely you don’t mean you handed me over to that thing’s hands?]
The terror in that voice was not something to be dismissed as a joke, and Vivian’s demeanor grew serious.
“What’s gotten into you, really?”
[What do you mean what’s gotten into me? Do you truly feel nothing upon seeing that thing? A corpse is walking around!]
“A corpse! Don’t speak like that!”
He’s the benefactor who awakened you!
And he’s His Highness the Prince, no less!
It was strange. Kiki had never been particularly favorable toward people, but this kind of outright rejection was unprecedented.
It wasn’t merely rejection—it was fear, as if Kiki had seen a ghost.
‘Kiki is frightened?’
This arrogant divine beast, frightened? In over eight years together, I had never witnessed such a thing.
‘Wasn’t it said that Kiki was created by the Dragon? Then why is it so terrified?’
I had thought that encountering someone who emanated a feeling similar to one’s creator might at least prompt some recognition, but this was a reaction I had never anticipated.
Vivian whispered to Dietrich so softly he couldn’t hear.
“Kiki, are you afraid of him too? Because he gives off a feeling similar to the Dragon?”
At those words, Kiki responded in utter shock.
[Similar to the Dragon? What are you talking about, Vivian? The aura that ‘it’ and ‘he’ emanate is nothing alike!]
“Huh?”
But the Ancient Tree had clearly said so.
When Vivian’s eyes widened and she didn’t flee, Kiki let out a frustrated whine.
[The Dragon is a magnificent being. A figure of such majesty that lesser creatures dare not even meet his gaze. Insignificant things would tremble in fear before such dignity—but this body was created directly by him. How could I ever fear him?]
Kiki had now flipped completely over Vivian’s head, clinging to the back of her skull. It seemed unwilling to even meet Dietrich’s gaze.
With each whine, Vivian’s hair became more hopelessly disheveled.
[I cannot even fathom how ‘it’ moves. A corpse devoid of any life force, yet mimicking human form.]
To Kiki’s eyes, Dietrich did not appear to be a living being at all.
The power that had once dwelt within Kiki’s own body through Vivian could be sensed emanating from ‘it’.
Yet even that force—the very power that had overwhelmed the divine beast Kiki and forced her into slumber—proved insufficient to fill that void.
If forced to compare, it was like a ruined relic. Or perhaps more akin to a sea drained completely dry, its bed exposed.
What emotion would a living being feel upon encountering such a barren, waterless sea?
It was an oddly overwhelming terror.

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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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