Dad has returned from the deserted island.
Chapter 17
“Pew! Pew-pew!”
“Young Miss, you need to purse your lips a little more!”
“Pew-pew! Puh. Ah. It tore again!”
Vivian, who had been attempting to play the grass flute for three days, held up the torn blade of grass with a tearful face.
“Hing. Anne, please show me how you play it one more time.”
“Of course! Now, watch my lips and my hands carefully.”
Anne slowly began to play Vivian’s favorite nursery rhyme.
While the two, who had become almost like cousins, were occupied, Kiki was staring intently at a white butterfly.
“Kiki-gik!”
Watching it flap its wings and making chattering sounds, it almost seemed like he wanted to hunt the butterfly, but—
[Vivian, go fetch your father!]
Seeing him run to Vivian and look for Jean the moment the butterfly fluttered away, it was clear that wasn't the case.
“Huh?”
Vivian didn't understand, but at Kiki’s insistence, she asked Anne for permission and went to find Jean.
“Dad!”
“What is it, Vivi?”
Jean, who had been organizing his luggage, poked his head out from the first-floor storage room.
“I don’t know. Kiki says to bring you to him!”
“The Divine Beast? ...Could it be?!”
Jean hurriedly put down the box he was holding and rushed outside.
Kiki was standing on the back of the sofa with an air of immense dignity.
[Worship me!]
“Worship? He says to worship.”
“Don’t you mean ‘pay homage’?”
“Oh! That’s right! How did you know?”
“If he’s calling me for what I think he is, then it’s something you really need to do, Dad.”
[Mwahaha! Your father knows a thing or two, Vivian. Now, convey my words without missing a single syllable.]
“Mwahaha! Your father knows a thing or two, Vivian. Now, convey my words without missing a single... syllable.”
[Not that part!]
“Not that part!”
Unable to contain his frustration, Kiki clawed at the sofa back before clearing his throat and forcing himself back into a dignified posture.
[Anyway, a butterfly from the northwest heard a story from a cockroach over there. It said there’s a mine that produces a powder that sparkles, though it’s neither gold nor silver.]
“From a cockroach...”
Jean had imagined he would communicate directly with the earth when he heard the creature could commune with nature, so he swallowed a laugh at the surprisingly realistic method.
[The minnows living in the nearby stream also said that glowing powder often washes down. Since there’s no news of such things being seen elsewhere, it would be best to visit the mine in the northwest.]
“If it’s the northwest, I think it was the Dohaju Mine... Ah!”
Jean, who had been deep in thought with his brow furrowed, suddenly opened his mouth.
“Ju! ‘Ju’ was in it. I think ‘Ju’ was in the name! Now that it’s narrowed down to one place, I remember!”
Kiki tilted his head.
'What a strange human.'
'The fact that he knew there was a diamond mine, and everything else.'
'He was a human who exuded an inexplicable certainty about the future.'
'Was there something he wasn't saying?'
The Divine Beast narrowed his eyes.
'Well, it didn't matter.'
'It was Vivian who had awakened Kiki, and Jean was a man who would never harm her.'
'Whatever his secret was, it didn't matter—'
[Kyaaaak! Let go!]
It did matter that he was lifting him high into the air with a face full of joy.
[Let go! You rude creature!]
Kiki shrieked, but it didn't reach the ears of Jean, who was too excited at the prospect of becoming the owner of a diamond mine.
It was a pity.
Buying the Dohaju Mine was laughably simple.
The mine owner, unaware that the mine held diamonds, even went so far as to offer Jean unsolicited advice, saying that such a mine wasn't something one should buy.
He had asked several times if he was truly sure he wanted to purchase this abandoned mine.
Jean, who knew the truth about the diamonds, felt a pang of conscience.
But he comforted himself, knowing that if it weren't for him, the mine would likely fall into the hands of a merchant rumored to trade in human lives.
Since the mountain couldn't spit out jewels on its own, he had to hire new miners.
His hands trembled as he paid for various incidental expenses.
He didn't lack the funds, as he had sold additional jewels, but this was the first time Jean had spent such a large sum of money of his own volition.
‘I never felt this kind of burden when I was making payments in the Elder’s name.’
'Had that person always carried this kind of weight?'
Thinking of his beloved benefactor, Jean fell into a brief, melancholy mood.
‘I have to succeed if I want to see him again.’
Edouard, his benefactor, was a merchant prince said to be the second wealthiest person in the Empire after the Emperor. In his current position, he couldn't even approach him to offer a greeting.
Once he held a respectable business card as a diamond mine owner, perhaps he could find a way to arrange a meeting.
Jean steeled his resolve for the future once more and dismounted his horse.
After stabling the horse and unloading the packages he had carried, he felt their heavy weight.
They were all snacks for Kiki and Vivian.
To think that a Divine Beast capable of finding a diamond mine could be satisfied with sugar lumps—he wondered if this was really okay.
‘I should treat him even better.’
Thinking that Kiki would praise him as a truly commendable human if he knew, Jean opened the front door.
“Dad’s home!”
“Daaaad!”
As the sun began to set, Vivian, who had been waiting in the parlor for Jean’s return, came running at full speed.
Her light pink hair, tied up in two high pigtails, bounced adorably.
“Why are you so late?!”
Jean walked forward with Vivian clinging tightly to his thigh.
“Dad was late because he was doing something important. I’m sorry, Vivi. Did you miss Dad a lot?”
“Yeah.”
“Oh dear. Dad was wrong. I’m so late even though Vivi was waiting for me.”
“That’s right. You were wrong!”
“Ahaha.”
Jean lifted Vivian up and rubbed his face all over her soft, warm cheeks.
“Ugh.”
Watching Vivian make a sound of protest while not actually pushing him away, Jean almost teared up.
'How long would she keep running to him like this, saying she missed him?'
'What would he do when the day came that she met a man she loved and had to leave his side?'
'He wanted to see Vivian grow up healthy and smiling happily, but he also wished that day would never come.'
“What did you do while Dad was away? Were you learning the grass flute from Anne again today?”
“Nuh-uh.”
Vivian shook her head.
She had said her goal was to play one song on the grass flute, hadn't she?
Vivian cupped her small hands and whispered into Jean’s ear.
“I was talking to the cat.”
“Huh?”
When Jean didn't understand immediately, which was only natural, Vivian added one more thing.
“Kiki’s gift!”
Jean still wore a puzzled expression.
Vivian realized it then.
‘Oh!’
She hadn’t told her dad what Kiki had promised her!
After Jean left to sign the contract for the mine.
Vivian stood with one leg bent and arms crossed in front of her little monkey.
[What is it, Vivian? What is with that disrespectful posture and look in your eyes?]
“Kiki! Why aren’t you keeping your promise?”
[What are you talking about?]
“You said you’d give it to me! That thing!”
[What thing?]
“Oh, come on. I want to talk to butterflies too!”
Hearing that Kiki had talked to a butterfly, Vivian had belatedly remembered the ability Kiki said he would give her.
Being able to talk to butterflies—didn't that sound just like a princess in a fairy tale?
However, Kiki was excessively shameless for a Divine Beast who hadn't kept his word.
He glanced at Vivian once, groomed his fur, and tossed out a remark.
[I already gave it to you, didn't I?]
“When?!”
[When I woke up, naturally?]
“Then why can’t I hear what the dog passing by is saying? It just sounds like barking to me!”
[That’s because you didn’t have the heart to converse, so you couldn’t hear it. You will only hear them when you truly wish to speak with them, Vivian. Wouldn’t you be confused if you heard their chatter all the time?]
“Huh? Is that so?”
[Yes! To think you’d accuse me without even knowing the depth of my heart... Vivian! Where are you going without listening to me?!]
As soon as she heard she already had the ability, Vivian ran outside.
Unfortunately, she couldn't see any butterflies, but there was a cat napping in a sunny spot.
It was a cat with an impressive tabby pattern, its fur sleek as if it had been well-fed.
“Kitty!”
The cat did not answer.
“Um... Cat?”
The cat did not answer.
“Kiki, you liar! It doesn’t work!”
“Meow!!” [Oh, be quiet!]
No sooner had Vivian stomped her feet in betrayal than the cat’s eyes snapped open and it shouted back.
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