Dad Came Back from a Deserted Island Chapter 1

“C-cough—”

The man who had been lying motionless on the sandy beach suddenly began coughing and vomiting seawater.

Cough, cough.

After emptying his stomach noisily for quite some time, the man looked around.

All he could see was a small stretch of sandy beach with a forest spreading out behind it.

In the opposite direction, there was nothing but an endless expanse of sea.

There was no sign of human presence anywhere. This was undoubtedly a deserted island.

A perfect case of being stranded.

The man should have been overcome with despair, yet as he stared at the scenery, he suddenly—

“Ha, haha, hahahaha!”

He began laughing like a madman.

Hot tears streamed down from the man’s blue eyes.

It wasn’t because he was in denial about reality.

It was simply because this was not the first time the man had seen this scenery.

“God, thank you!”

The moment he instinctively understood what was happening, the man lowered himself to the ground and bowed his head, offering a prayer of gratitude to God through his tears.

He didn’t care in the slightest that sand was unpleasantly sticking to his wet body.

His tears fell onto the beach, soaking the sand that had been baked dry under the blazing sunlight.

Sand trickled down between his tightly clenched fists, the veins bulging as though they might burst.

Suppressing a beast-like sob, the man, Jean de Lambert, repeated the promise he had ultimately failed to keep.

“Daddy will be there soon. Daddy will be there soon, my little girl….”

 

***

 

Two years later.

“Hey! Vivian, there’s still a stain on the plate!”

“I-I’m sorry! I’ll wipe it again right away!”

Vivian, who had been wiping dust from beneath the dining table, hurriedly raised her head and answered.

After finishing the floor she had been diligently scrubbing, Vivian stood up. Her face was a mess, covered in sweat.

“Uff.”

Her cotton-candy-soft, pale pink hair clung in strands to her flushed, heated cheeks.

But Vivian didn’t even have time to brush it away. She hurried over, washed her hands, and finished wiping the plates with a dishcloth.

“Why are you so slow! You need to finish your work quickly so I can put the plates away!”

“Y-yes… I-I’ve finished wiping them!”

The girl held out the plate, polished so thoroughly that her face was reflected in it, with a proud expression.

The woman, whose forehead was deeply creased with displeasure, carefully inspected the plate before tossing a single piece of hard black bread at Vivian.

“Thank you, ma’am!”

Vivian carefully accepted the bread, which was so hard that it had to be soaked in water for a long time before it could even be eaten.

Her starving stomach was crying out for food, but Vivian swallowed her saliva and carefully placed the bread into the pocket of her apron.

This was her only food for the entire day.

She still had work left to do, so she needed to eat half after finishing her chores and save the other half for dinner if she wanted to make it through the day.

“It’s half a palm bigger than yesterday’s bread! Yay! I have to make it last!”

It was the sort of thing that would have broken any parent’s heart to hear, but this was Vivian’s reality.

A young child left all alone in the world, with no one on her side.

Still, things had been fine back when her father, Jean, had left on a ship to make money.

‘You only have to sleep a hundred nights, and then you’ll be able to see him again, Miss!’

‘Is that longer than ten nights?’

‘You just have to sleep ten nights ten times!’

‘Uhhh. I don’t get it.’

Until then, Ron and Mary, the butler and his wife, had treated Vivian kindly and called her “Lady,” while the villagers had always greeted her warmly whenever they saw her.

But the two of them changed after rumors spread that the ship Jean had left on had encountered a storm, and no more letters came from Jean.

‘You think he’s probably dead, right?’

‘He doted on his daughter so much. If he were alive, there’s no way he wouldn’t have sent even a single letter.’

‘Then….’

His absence awakened the greed that had been sleeping within Ron and Mary.

A month after all contact was lost, Vivian was thrown out of the room she had been living in.

Their son, Peter, took over the room.

‘You should be grateful that you met people like us, Lady. Someone else would have kicked you out without a second thought.’

‘That’s right. Do you know how hard orphaned vagrants have it? You should be grateful that you’re at least not freezing to death.’

Ron and Mary began using the family’s wealth as if it were their own, claiming it was payment for taking care of the orphaned Vivian until she became an adult.

‘We’re sorry, Lady.’

‘We have to make a living, too.’

Every villager owed Jean money, whether a little or a lot, and Ron held those IOUs in his hands. Because of that, they had no choice but to turn a blind eye to poor Vivian.

And because Jean had appointed Ron as his representative before leaving, there was no legal way for anyone to challenge the arrangement.

If five-year-old Vivian had even one proper relative, things might have been different. But Vivian had no grandparents, uncles, or aunts.

She didn’t even know which family her mother had come from. Apparently, the woman had fallen in love with her father at first sight, run away from home, and then completely severed ties with her family.

In truth, Vivian knew nothing about these complicated adult circumstances. To Vivian, her mother was simply someone who had gone to heaven right after giving birth to her.

Even in such circumstances, Vivian tried to live bravely—

“Hey! Ugly girl!”

But the world seemed determined not to let her.

It was Peter, Ron and Mary’s son. He was two years older than Vivian and had been itching to torment her ever since Jean left.

Vivian pretended not to hear his spiteful voice calling for her.

“Sheesh, you’re pretending not to hear me? Hey!”

“…Oh, right. I still have to do the laundry! I’m so busy, so busy. I have to go wash the clothes!”

“Oh, really? You’re going to keep ignoring me?”

“Ouch!”

Peter grabbed Vivian by the hair and yanked it. He pulled so hard that Vivian’s body staggered.

“Let go!”

“Then you shouldn’t have ignored me. When someone calls you, you’re supposed to answer right away—”

“You never called me. My name isn’t Ugly girl, you know!”

“If I say you’re Ugly girl, then you’re Ugly girl. Idiot.”

“I’m not an idiot! Who do you think you are?!”

“You’re asking who I am?”

Heh.

Seeing Peter’s grin, Vivian instinctively sensed that something was wrong.

Peter twitched one corner of his mouth as he struggled to suppress his laughter. His cheeks even turned red from holding it in, which made him look all the more ominous.

Whatever it was that had Peter this happy, it certainly couldn’t be anything good for Vivian.

“Well, that’s because… Heh, heheheh. Hey. Never mind, never mind. The little brat doesn’t need to know yet.”

Peter laughed unpleasantly to himself before disappearing.

“What’s wrong with him?”

Vivian rubbed her arms as goosebumps rose across her skin.

It felt unsettling, but for now, finishing the laundry was more important.

Carrying a huge bundle of heavy laundry to the stream, Vivian began washing the clothes in her usual manner.

Before long, she forgot all about the unpleasant feeling as the pain in her fingers, red and stiff from the cold, took over.

 

***

 

Grrrrr.

Vivian opened her bedroom door, clutching her hungry stomach.

The bread she’d received that morning was long gone, and she had nothing left to eat, so she planned to fill her stomach with water instead.

Ron and Mary didn’t complain about her drinking water, at least.

As she left the room in the farthest corner, directly beneath the attic, and descended one flight of stairs, she heard voices.

“…Vivian….”

Huh? Me?

Vivian stopped when she heard her name coming from the room that had once belonged to Jean but now belonged to Ron and Mary.

Gasp. Are they going to kick me out?

Vivian felt her heart drop as she carefully tiptoed closer.

Her blue eyes trembled slightly as she peeked inside through the partially open door.

“Wouldn’t it be better to have them engaged first?”

“Then how are they supposed to get married when the child is only seven?”

“There won’t be any need for a separate engagement ceremony.”

Engaged? What’s an engagement? I know what marriage is. It’s promising to live happily ever after with the person you love.

Vivian tilted her head in confusion. Then why had her name come up?

“If Peter marries Vivian, we won’t have anything to worry about anymore!”

“Gasp.”

Vivian was so shocked that a strange sound escaped her. She quickly covered her mouth with both hands.