Dad Returned from a Deserted Island
Chapter 1
“Gah, gack—”
The man, who had been lying on the sandy beach as if dead, suddenly began to cough and spit out seawater.
Hack, hack.
After violently emptying his stomach for a long while, the man’s eyes took in the sight of a small beach and the forest stretching out behind it.
In the other direction, there was nothing but the vast, open sea.
With no sign of human presence, this place was clearly a deserted island.
A perfect shipwreck.
The man, who should have been plunged into despair, suddenly looked at the scenery and—
“Ha, haha, hahahaha!”
He began to laugh like a madman.
Hot tears streamed from the man’s blue eyes.
It was not that he had fallen into a state of denying reality.
It was simply because this scenery was not something the man was seeing for the first time.
“Oh God, thank you!”
Instinctively realizing the situation, the man wept, prostrated himself low, and offered a prayer of gratitude to God.
He did not care at all that the wet sand was clinging uncomfortably to his body.
The man’s tears soaked the beach sand, which had been parched by the scorching sun.
Sand trickled through his fists, his knuckles bulging as if they might burst.
Swallowing a beast-like sob, the man, Jean de Lambert, finally spoke the promise he had failed to keep.
“Daddy, Daddy will be there soon. My daughter…”
Two years later.
“Hey! Vivian, there’s a smudge left on the plate!”
“I’m sorry! I’ll wipe it again right away!”
Vivian, who had been wiping dust from under the dining table, snapped her head up and replied.
After finishing the floor she had been diligently cleaning, Vivian stood up, her face a mess of sweat.
“Oof.”
Soft, pale pink hair, like cotton candy, was stuck in strands to her flushed cheeks.
But without even a moment to brush it away, Vivian ran to wash her hands and busied herself wiping the plate with a dishcloth.
“Why are you so sluggish?! You need to finish your work quickly so I can put the dishes away!”
“Yes, yes… I’ve finished wiping it now!”
The child, who had polished the plate until her face was reflected in it, proudly held it out to the stern-faced woman.
The woman, her brow deeply furrowed, inspected the plate meticulously before tossing a piece of hard black bread toward Vivian.
“Thank you! Ma’am!”
Vivian received the bread, which was so hard it would take a long time soaking in water just to be edible, as if it were something precious.
Her starving stomach was screaming for her to put something in it immediately, but Vivian gulped down her saliva and carefully tucked the bread into the pocket of her apron.
This was her only food for the day.
Since there was still work to be done, she had to eat half after finishing her chores and the other half in the evening to survive the day.
“It’s half a thumb larger than yesterday’s bread! Yes! I have to eat it sparingly!”
It was a thought that would have broken a parent’s heart, but this was the reality Vivian faced.
A young child left all alone, without a single person on her side in the world.
Still, it had been fine until the day her dad, Jean, boarded a ship, saying he would go earn some money.
‘You’ll be able to see me again after a hundred nights pass. Young Miss!’
‘Is that longer than ten nights?’
‘You just have to sleep ten nights ten times!’
‘Hmm. I don’t really get it.’
Until then, the butler, Ron, and his wife, Mary, had treated her well, calling her “Young Miss,” and the villagers had greeted her warmly whenever they met.
The two of them changed only after rumors spread that the ship Jean had boarded had encountered a storm, and not a single letter arrived from him.
‘He must be dead, right?’
‘He was a man who doted on his daughter so much; if he were alive, there’s no way he wouldn’t have sent a single letter.’
‘Then…’
His absence awakened the dormant greed in Ron and Mary.
A month after the news stopped coming, Vivian was kicked out of her room.
That room was taken over by Peter, the son of Ron and Mary.
‘You should be grateful that you met people like us, Young Miss. Anyone else would have just kicked you out.’
‘That’s right. Do you know how hard wandering orphans have it? You should be thankful just for the fact that you aren’t freezing to death.’
Ron and Mary began to use the family’s wealth as if it were their own, claiming it was the price for taking care of the orphaned Vivian until she grew up.
‘I’m sorry, Young Miss.’
‘We have to make a living, too.’
The villagers all owed Jean debts, whether large or small, and because Ron held those promissory notes, they had no choice but to ignore poor Vivian.
Since Jean had designated Ron as his agent before leaving, there was no way to challenge the matter legally.
If Vivian, who was only five years old, had even one decent relative, things might have been different, but Vivian had no grandparents, no uncles, and no aunts.
She didn’t even know what family her mother was from. Apparently, she had run away from home the moment she fell in love with her dad at first sight, and the connection had been severed ever since.
In truth, Vivian didn’t know about these adult matters. To Vivian, her mother was simply someone who had left for heaven the moment she gave birth to her.
Even in this situation, Vivian was trying her best to live bravely, but—
“Hey! You ugly brat!”
The world simply wouldn’t help her.
It was Peter, Ron and Mary’s son. He was two years older than Vivian, and ever since Jean left, he had been desperate to torment her.
Vivian pretended not to hear the mean voice calling her.
“Are you pretending not to hear me? Hey!”
“…Right. I had to do the laundry, too! So busy, so busy. I have to go do the laundry!”
“Oh? So you’re going to keep ignoring me?”
“Ouch!”
Peter pulled on Vivian’s hair. He pulled so hard that Vivian’s body swayed.
“Let go!”
“Then why did you ignore me? You should answer right away when you’re called—”
“When did you ever call me? My name isn’t ‘ugly brat’.”
“If I say you’re ugly, then you’re ugly. You idiot.”
“I’m not an idiot! Who do you think you are?!”
“Who do I think I am?”
He smirked.
Seeing Peter’s smile, Vivian instinctively felt a sense of foreboding.
Peter twitched only one corner of his mouth, barely holding back his laughter. The way he even blushed made it feel truly ominous.
Whatever it was that Peter was so happy about, it certainly wouldn’t be anything good for Vivian.
“Well, you know. Heh, heh-heh. Hey. Never mind, forget it. A little kid doesn’t need to know yet.”
Laughing unpleasantly to himself, Peter disappeared.
“What’s wrong with him?”
Vivian stroked her arms, where goosebumps had risen.
It felt deeply unsettling, but finishing the laundry was the priority for now.
Carrying a heavy load of laundry to the stream, Vivian began to wash with practiced movements.
The pain in her fingers, which were frozen red and felt as if they might fall off, soon made her forget that unsettling feeling.
Gurgle.
Vivian clutched her hungry stomach and opened the door.
Since she had already eaten all the bread she received in the morning and there was nothing left, she intended to fill her stomach with water at least.
Ron and Mary didn’t go so far as to complain about her drinking water.
After leaving the room in the furthest corner, just below the attic, and heading down one flight of stairs, she heard voices.
“…Vivian…”
‘Huh? Me?’
Vivian’s feet stopped when she heard her name coming from the room that used to be Jean’s, but was now occupied by Ron and Mary.
‘Hah. Are they trying to kick me out?’
Vivian felt her heart drop, and she carefully stood on tiptoe, approaching the door.
Vivian’s blue eyes trembled slightly as she peeked through the slightly ajar door.
“It would be better to have them engaged first, wouldn’t it?”
“But the child is only seven years old, how can they get married?”
“There won’t be any need for a separate engagement ceremony.”
‘Engagement? What’s an engagement? I know what marriage is. It’s a promise to live happily forever with someone you love.’
Vivian tilted her head. So why was her name coming up?
“If Peter marries Vivian, we won’t have to worry about anything anymore!”
“Ack.”
Oh no. Startled, Vivian made a strange noise and clamped her hand over her mouth.
0 Comments