Dad is Back From a Deserted Island - Chapter 8

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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 8

Jean watched as Vivian cradled Egg throughout the evening and finally asked her about it.
No matter how precious that jewel was, at this rate she’d be bathing while holding it.
“Vivi, isn’t that heavy? Should Dad carry it for you?”
“It’s fine. It’s not heavy at all!”
In truth, it was rather heavy. But the moment Jean suggested taking it, Egg made such a fuss that I absolutely could not let it go, so I couldn’t show my discomfort.
Vivian, pouting her lips as she gazed down at Egg, suddenly recalled something and urgently called out to Jean.
“Dad, Dad! Come here. There’s something you need to do for me.”
“Hm? What is it?”
“Let’s go to my room first! I left it there.”
Vivian held Egg with one arm and tugged at Jean’s sleeve with the other.
“What on earth could it be? But Vivi, your room is downstairs, isn’t it?”
Vivian’s lips trembled. She hesitated to confess that Peter had taken her room, troubled by the expression she’d seen on Jean’s face that morning when she’d volunteered to wash the dishes.
‘If Dad knew how I’ve been living, it would make him sad. I won’t tell him!’
“…Um, I gave that room to Peter. This is my room now.”
…
Jean could not have failed to understand the circumstances. Yet, moved by Vivian’s consideration for him and aching with sympathy, he deliberately pretended not to notice.
Vivian opened the door and pointed to a corner of the room.
“Oh, Dad! Could you take out that painting over there?”
“A painting? What painting… Oh.”
What Vivian pointed to was a portrait of Jean and Vivian together.
Jean, who deeply regretted not having a painting left behind with his wife, had saved money and sought out a painter to create this portrait.
It had originally hung in a place visible the moment one entered through the door, but Ron and Mary had tried to discard it. Only through Vivian’s desperate pleas had they refrained from throwing it away, instead storing it in the room.
The painting was so large that an adult man needed both arms spread wide to carry it. Climbing the stairs with it had been so arduous that the scars from that effort still remained on her legs.
After gazing upon it until it grew worn and faded, the longing only deepened, and she could bear to look at it no longer. She had placed it in the corner and tried hard to forget it, so she hadn’t recalled it immediately.
‘But now that Dad has returned!’
It was time for the painting to find its rightful place.
“This painting… it’s still here…”
Jean, who had believed the painting had long been discarded, walked toward it with trembling emotion.
A young version of himself dressed as finely as on his wedding day, and a small Vivian cradled tenderly in his arms.
Thanks to the painter’s exquisite skill in capturing the way sunlight streamed through the window, merely looking at the painting made him feel the very air of that moment again.
How beautiful the day had been, how light Vivian had felt in his embrace, how endearing the sweet baby scent had been.
Jean, recalling every memory in full, wiped his eyes and embraced Vivian.
“Thank you, Vivi. You kept this painting all this time. Shall we hang it back where it belongs?”
“Yes! I wish you’d appear right at the entrance like you used to.”
“That’s right, and Vivian’s room is back to being your original room from now on. You understand?”
“Yes! But…”
Vivian cupped one hand to Jean’s ear—still cradling Egg in her other arm—and whispered.
“Can’t I keep sleeping in Dad’s room? I don’t want to sleep alone in my room.”
Before leaving, she’d thrown a tantrum about sleeping alone in her own room.
Jean’s heart melted at the sight, and he let out a soft chuckle before whispering back.
“Dad welcomes you anytime, Princess.”

* * *

A week had passed. Vivian no longer doubted Jean’s existence. Now that the child knew her father wouldn’t leave again, she’d become much brighter.
And that week had been enough time for Jean to grow accustomed to his daughter carrying Egg everywhere.
But not now. Jean spoke in a rather stern voice.
“Vivi. I told you not to hold Egg while eating, didn’t I?”
“Yes…”
[No! Don’t let me go! I think I might be able to wake up soon!]
“But you’ve been saying that for a whole week.”
[No, this time it’s really true! Just five minutes, just five minutes!]
“Ugh.”
“Vivian.”
Caught between Jean’s stern gaze and Egg’s tantrum, Vivian dragged the chair beside her over and placed it right next to her, then set Egg on it.
[Just give me five minutes! Hmm? Hmm. Okay. This seems acceptable.]
Once Vivian sat down with her hip and side pressed so tightly against the chair that she could barely reach her utensils, even Egg, who had been noisily chirping, seemed satisfied and quieted down.
“Dad, Egg keeps throwing a tantrum wanting me to hold her, so I have no choice. She says she’ll come out soon, so just be patient a little longer!”
When Vivian spoke like someone exhausted from childcare, even Jean’s stern expression couldn’t help but soften.
“Just this once. Starting tomorrow, you need to sit properly and eat, understood?”
“Yes! I want to sit properly and eat too, Dad!”
[How dare you speak of caring for this precious being as if it were such a bothersome chore!]
Vivian made a gesture of scratching her ear. Seeing this, Egg trembled indignantly, shaking with what sounded like a giggle.
“Huh?”
It moved?
Vivian froze mid-reach for her fork, mouth agape.
Indeed, Egg was moving. Unable to contain itself, it wobbled on the chair like a tumbler, and then—
Crack—
A fine fissure appeared across the luminous surface of Egg.
“Oh! Dad! Egg! Egg is hatching!”
“What? The jewel actually cracked?”
“It’s not a jewel, it’s an Egg!”
[Little human! I was inwardly impressed that you helped me, and yet you dare treat my words like garbage?]
“This is not the time for that! Egg is hatching! Can it come out now?”
[What? The Egg is hatching? Wait, wait. Is this real? Light, there’s light! Eeee-hehehehe! I am free!]
As Egg trembled several more times, the cracks became increasingly vivid. More than half of it was fractured, and soon the creature that had been speaking to Vivian from within the Egg revealed itself.
[Eeee-hehehehe!]
“What… is this?”
Wearing the Egg’s shell like a hat on its head was.
A monkey.
A small monkey with black fur and crimson eyes.
“A, a monster! Vivian, c, come here!”
Jean, startled at the sight of the monkey that had hatched from Egg, rushed across the table and scooped Vivian into his arms.
The monkey, which had been stretching its sluggish body, heard the cry and shrieked indignantly, making a sound of protest.
[How dare you call this noble form a monster! Ignorant human!]
“Dad, is that a monkey?”
“Monkeys don’t hatch from Eggs, Vivian!”
[I am not a monkey. I am human!]
“It says it’s not a monkey?”
Vivian pressed her index finger to her lips as she answered. Since Jean couldn’t understand the words of the monkey that had emerged from Egg, it only appeared that Vivian was spouting nonsense to him.
But by this point, Jean could no longer dismiss Vivian’s words as mere childish delusion.
Jean, who had been on the verge of grabbing a knife from the table to attack the monkey, tempered his aggression at the sound of Vivian’s voice.
“… You really were having a conversation with it, weren’t you, Vivian?”
“Did you think I was lying all this time, Dad?”
As Vivian fixed him with a sharp glare, Jean stammered out a long “noooo,” looking flustered.
Regardless, the monkey stretched its body and climbed onto the table, confidently puffing out its chest as it spoke.
[The outside air is refreshing! Human. And small human. Allow me to introduce myself properly. I am a divine beast left behind by a Dragon.]
“It says it’s a divine beast, Dad.”
“A, a divine beast?”
“Left behind by a Dragon, you say?”
In the Empire where Vivian and Jean lived, there was a legend passed down that a child born between a Dragon and a human had founded this nation.
But in a world where monsters and magic had hidden their traces.
People had thought of it only as a fairy tale they’d heard since childhood, and Jean was no exception.
Yet now, before the eyes of these two, legend had taken form.
[Kneel before me and show your reverence!]
‘I have no idea what it’s saying, but I don’t think I need to translate that for Dad.’
Vivian ignored the monkey’s words.
Jean, unaware of how frivolously this young monkey was speaking, asked with a cautious expression.
“Um, excuse me. Divine beast…? Would it be alright if I asked just one thing…?”
[Yes! Human. Unlike the small human, you know how to show me respect! Speak!]
“It’s fine, Dad.”
“Why… is it a monkey, exactly?”
Silence fell.

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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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