Dad Came Back from a Deserted Island Chapter 26

“Uuugh…”

Bathed in the morning sunlight, Vivian curled herself up.

Then she suddenly shot upright with such force that Kiki, who had been sleeping beside her, jumped in surprise.

[Eek! Eek-eek! What the heck?! You scared me, Vivian!]

“I remembered!”

[Remember what?]

“Diti! It was Diti!”

[What are you talking about?!]

Unlike before, when Vivian had completely forgotten Diti’s existence, this time every memory was crystal clear.

Vivian didn’t know what had made the difference, but perhaps the important thing was that she remembered him.

“You know what, Kiki? I made a friend besides you!”

To Kiki, it felt like being smacked with a tray while sound asleep. Still, the divine beast was generous toward the person who had woken it.

In other words, it didn’t get angry and quietly listened to Vivian’s story.

[So you made a friend whom you meet and play with in your dreams?]

“Yeah! He had black hair and red eyes, just like you! And he was really, really pretty.”

But Kiki’s generosity quickly ran out. The baby monkey began squeaking angrily.

[I see. Then why did you have to jump out of bed and tell me about it first thing in the morning?! I thought something terrible had happened!]

“But last time, I couldn’t remember anything. I was just so happy that I didn’t forget this time.”

[Enough! You’ve completely woken me up. You haven’t forgotten your promise to let me eat a banana today, have you?]

The moment Kiki mentioned bananas, Vivian’s eyes began sparkling again.

“Okay! Bananas!”

Vivian dashed toward the garden, only to be caught by Jean.

“Nooo! You said it was okay to grow bananas here! Kiki says it absolutely has to eat a banana today!”

“I never said you couldn’t grow bananas, Princess.”

Still holding Vivian in his arms, Jean headed toward the rear entrance rather than the front door.

It was an area Vivian hadn’t been able to explore the previous day because she had run out of energy.

“If a banana tree suddenly appeared in the garden, people would be surprised when they saw it. So Daddy deliberately chose a house that already had a place for this.”

Jean opened the rear gate with a particularly proud expression.

Vivian’s mouth dropped open at the sight of the rear garden beyond it.

“Wooooow!”

At the center of the quaint, pastoral garden stood a glass greenhouse.

Naturally, many people in Vivian’s old village had never even known that glass greenhouses existed.

To a child who had only ever seen glass in windows and mirrors, an entire building made of it was bound to look incredible.

Vivian wriggled out of Jean’s arms.

The moment her feet touched the ground, she ran straight toward the greenhouse and pressed her face against the transparent glass door without even bothering to open it.

“Woooow…”

“I told everyone not to go inside unless necessary, so it should be fine even if a banana suddenly sprouts and grows in there. I also planted trees around the outside so people can’t see inside.”

[Hm. You managed to find a fairly decent place.]

Even the haughty Kiki seemed satisfied, sending Vivian’s excitement through the roof.

“Daddy! Hurry, hurry!”

Vivian bounced impatiently on her feet, urging Jean to come inside. The moment he approached, she flung the door open and rushed in.

Just as Jean had said, trees surrounded the inside of the greenhouse so that it couldn’t be seen directly from outside.

But the glass ceiling was much higher, leaving the interior feeling wonderfully spacious.

“Oh! That! That’s the one I grew up with, right?”

“Yes. Our princess grew it. Daddy carefully brought it here and planted it for you.”

The banana sapling Vivian had grown at their previous home had been replanted in a sunny spot.

[At last, I get to eat a banana!]

“Huh? You’ve never eaten a banana before, Kiki?”

[Obviously not. This great one was trapped inside an egg the entire time. How was I supposed to eat one?]

For that reason, Kiki’s face was filled with anticipation as well.

Back on the deserted island, it had secretly listened to the animals eating bananas and all sorts of other fruit and wondered what they tasted like.

Unable to resist Kiki’s silent urging, Vivian plopped down on her knees in front of the sapling.

Her clothes and legs became covered in dirt, but she didn’t care.

She placed her tiny hands over the soil where the sapling had sprouted and wished with all her heart.

“Banana! Hurry and grow big and strong!”

The sapling, which had already received Vivian’s power once before, responded immediately.

With every blink, the tree shot upward. It grew so quickly that Jean stood tensely behind Vivian, ready to snatch her away at any moment if it became dangerous.

As the tree flourished, long leaves unfurled and tiny fruits appeared. They soon grew larger and larger until they took on the familiar shape of bananas Jean knew well.

“My God…”

Even though Jean had already witnessed this miracle once, the sight was still enough to make him invoke the gods.

Meanwhile, the moment the bananas ripened to a bright yellow, Kiki leaped from Vivian’s shoulder and climbed up the tree.

Since the tree had grown through the power bestowed by a divine beast, every fruit was large and plump. Kiki carefully selected the best ones, picked them, tossed several down into Jean’s arms, and peeled one for itself.

[Hyaaa…]

The divine beast’s eyes grew teary as it finally tasted the bananas it had coveted for decades, perhaps even centuries, while trapped inside the egg.

[It’s so sweet and soft…]

This wasn’t the first time Kiki had tasted something sweet since hatching.

Jean had already offered all sorts of delicious food, and after moving into their new home, the skilled cook prepared not only every meal but snacks as well.

But there was something special about finally tasting something it had desperately longed for.

Kiki’s red eyes grew cloudy with tears, and soon big teardrops began falling one after another.

The moment its vision blurred with tears, Kiki climbed high into the tree, preserving its lofty dignity.

A divine beast could never let humans see it cry.

Clutching the banana carefully in its tiny hands as though it were a precious treasure, Kiki slowly savored every bite.

From below, Vivian’s voice could be heard marveling at the taste of her first banana.

“Huh? Water fell from above!”

“What? But the ceiling is covered with glass.”

Vivian didn’t have time to dwell on the mysterious droplets for long.

Of course she didn’t.

She had just grown an entire tree with her own hands. How could anything else hold her attention?

She took a bite of banana and marveled at the taste, then looked at the tree right in front of her and marveled all over again.

Her mouth felt itchy with the urge to tell someone.

She wanted to run outside and proudly show everyone she met what she had accomplished.

“Uuugh~!”

But Vivian managed to hold herself back.

Because she had promised Daddy!

She looked up at Daddy with a little smile, only to find him staring into the distance as though lost in thought.

When their eyes met, he gave her a gentle smile, so it didn’t seem like anything serious.

Vivian quickly relaxed. She played with her banana peel for a moment before suddenly remembering a question and asking Jean.

“Daddy, Daddy!”

“Yes? What is it?”

“You know how sometimes, when you look someone in the eyes, your chest feels all ticklish and your heart goes thump-thump? Why does that happen?”

Jean’s mind, which had been tangled up in thoughts about the future, went completely blank.

He felt the blood drain from his body as he looked down at his daughter, who was far too young to be asking such a question.

He slowly bent down to meet Vivian at eye level, but his legs nearly gave out beneath him.

“W-What do you mean, Princess? You mean our princess felt that way? …When?”

Vivian’s circle of acquaintances was incredibly small.

The only boy around her age she knew was Peter.

Surely she didn’t mean Peter?

Jean barely managed to suppress a scream at the thought of that piece of human garbage, even if he had to bury his face in dirt for eternity to make it happen.

Completely unaware of her father’s emotional roller coaster, Vivian cheerfully twisted her fingers together.

“Well~ I made a new friend, and every time I see him, I feel like that. And he says he feels the same way!”

“My Vivi had a friend Daddy didn’t know about…?”

“Why does your voice sound like that, Daddy? It’s funny! You sound just like a sheep!”

Finding Jean’s desperately trembling voice amusing, Vivian finally revealed the identity of her friend.

“It’s Diti! He’s my friend who appears in my dreams! He’s really, really pretty. Almost as pretty as you, Daddy!”

“Haaaaaaah…”

A sigh of relief escaped Jean’s mouth.

The strength drained from his legs, and he simply sank onto the ground.

“Daddy?”

“No, no, Princess. I see… So when you see a pretty friend you meet in your dreams, your chest feels ticklish and your heart starts beating fast?”

“Yeah!”

Vivian answered with a bright smile, and Jean smiled as well.

Anne had apparently been reading her fairy tales quite often lately, so perhaps Vivian had dreamed about one of the princes from those stories.

“That happens because you like that person. Daddy felt exactly the same way when he looked at your mother.”

And so Jean ended up making a statement he would regret for years to come.

Even long afterward, whenever he remembered this moment, he would silently shed tears of blood.

“That’s the kind of feeling princesses and princes in fairy tales have when they look at each other.”

“Is that why the princess and prince live happily ever after?”

“Yeah. When you meet someone you want to live happily with for a long, long time, that’s how you feel.”

“I see! I have to tell Diti, too. Oh, Daddy, Diti is one year older than me, and…”

Vivian began chattering away about Diti.

A boy waiting for Vivian in a mysterious garden.

No matter how many times Jean heard the story, it sounded exactly like an imaginary friend Vivian had created after becoming too engrossed in fairy tales.

Jean completely relaxed.

He shouldn’t have.