Dad Came Back from a Deserted Island Chapter 33

Elize was originally a very shy girl with a rather sharp personality.

She wasn’t the type to open her heart to someone she had just met, but in front of Vivian, who was as innocent as a little rabbit, she couldn’t bring herself to put up any walls.

Elize nodded with an expression that made it look as though she wanted to bite Vivian’s cheeks on the spot.

“Of course! Then I’ll call you Vivi. You can call me Lizzie, too.”

“Wow. You tell me not to act so familiar when I call you that.”

“You call me Jerry.”

Elize snapped at the boy who was grumbling nearby, then immediately turned back to Vivian with a gentle expression.

“Now, Vivi. Sit here. Hmm. Your feet don’t reach the pedals. Well, you’re not at the stage where you need to use them yet anyway.”

“Pedals?”

“There are things like that. I’ll teach you later. If you try to learn too many things at once, your head will hurt and you’ll end up not wanting to play.”

“Okay!”

Elize lightly pinched Vivian’s cheek affectionately before placing her hands on the keys.

Vivian followed suit.

 

***

 

As they watched the sky darken after the sunset had completely faded, Eduard spoke.

“The children haven’t come back. I suppose it’s about time for dinner…”

“Indeed. We have to go to the dining room anyway. Shall we go and fetch them ourselves?”

At Clemence’s suggestion, the parents finished their conversations and rose from their seats.

Jean casually joined the group as they walked.

Eduard, walking at the back of the group at a leisurely pace, stared coldly at the back of Jean’s head.

There had been nothing unpleasant or rude about Jean’s behavior.

If anything, the two of them seemed to work together as though they had known each other for a very long time.

Whenever Eduard needed a moment to think during their conversation, Jean would naturally draw attention elsewhere, or if the sunlight became too bright, he would lower the curtains just enough to block it.

He acted as though he had spent ten years observing Eduard from right beside him.

Is he a spy?

The thought was enough to cross Eduard’s mind.

Eduard was the owner of the greatest merchant company in the Empire, but recently, another merchant company had risen rapidly and was closing in on him.

It wasn’t that Eduard hated having someone threaten his position.

In fact, he welcomed the appearance of a competitor. Without competition, a business would stagnate and rot.

The problem was that this particular competitor came with all sorts of unsavory rumors trailing behind it.

Someone like that was certainly capable of sending a spy. Eduard had even planted his own informants within that merchant company, which made the possibility all the more likely.

Jean was so agreeable in every respect that unless he had been meticulously trained to approach Eduard, it would have been easy to believe their meeting was simply fate.

“Here we are. Elize!”

“Oh, you’re here—eek! All the adults came too. Is something wrong?”

“Nothing like that. We stopped by on our way to the dining room. How long have you been playing the piano?”

“Vivi—no, Vivian got really interested in the piano.”

“Vivi?”

Jean, who had been walking behind them, reacted to his daughter’s name.

His gaze naturally turned toward the piano, where, just as expected, a familiar head of pink hair was sitting.

Beside her, Eduard’s grandson Luca was leaning against the piano with a smile.

The two looked so warm and affectionate together that they could have been real siblings.

“Flutter… thump… No…”

Jean muttered something strange under his breath.

Behind him, Eduard also looked toward his grandson.

“Hmm.”

It had been a long time since he had seen that expression on Luca’s face.

Eduard had never pressured his grandson into inheriting the merchant company, but Luca, mature beyond his years, had already felt that pressure on his own for a long time.

Because almost everyone he met had some kind of business relationship with his family, Luca had begun paying attention to every expression he made and every word he said at such a young age.

Eduard found it admirable yet heartbreaking.

Yet for some reason, Luca looked completely at ease when he was with Vivian.

Eduard quietly took note of his grandson’s expression before casually bringing up the matter during dinner.

“Do you have any other plans in the capital?”

“Oh, no. None at all. I was told we could stay for a few more days, so I was planning to look around the capital with my daughter before heading back.”

“That’s good to hear. In that case, why don’t you stay at my mansion?”

Everyone who had been pretending not to listen suddenly stopped eating.

There was no question that Eduard was the central figure of this gathering.

As the man who led the greatest merchant company in the Empire, he maintained cordial relationships with everyone while always keeping a certain distance.

Whether someone had been allowed inside that circle could be judged not by whether they attended his parties or gatherings, but by whether they had received a personal invitation to his mansion. There were even people at this gathering who had never received such an invitation.

He was certainly an appealing young man, but already?

What exactly does he like so much about him?

Eyes darted around as everyone exchanged glances.

Amid all those gazes, Jean calmly answered with proper courtesy.

“If you would be so kind as to invite us, I would be delighted to accept.”

“My apologies to Eponine. It seems I’ve stolen your guests.”

“Haha. Not at all. You’re always welcome to visit my mansion again.”

Clemence, who was practically Eduard’s right-hand man, accepted the situation without hesitation.

“Eeeh. I want to learn more piano from Big Sis Elize.”

“We have a piano at our house too, Vivi. It’s bigger, and it’s white. I can teach you as well.”

Vivian overheard the adults’ conversation and began to whine, so Luca quickly soothed her, gently coaxing her.

Elize, meanwhile, puffed out her cheeks.

“That’s not fair, Luca. I want to play with Vivi more too.”

“You can come over too.”

“Really? Can I come tomorrow?”

“Do whatever you want, Lizzie.”

“Really? Then I’m coming tomorrow! Vivi! Let’s play together again tomorrow!”

“Okay! I’d love that!”

Luca chuckled as he watched the girls giggle happily.

 

***

 

Inside the carriage heading to Eduard’s mansion.

Luca rested his chin on his hand and stared out the window.

The carriage was lined with cushions stuffed with the finest, most expensive fabrics and goose down, so smooth was the ride that he could barely feel the carriage shaking.

Across from him, Eduard crossed his legs and spoke.

“You seemed to like the child you met today.”

“So did you, Grandfather. You invited someone you just met to your mansion. You normally don’t do that.”

Despite being grandfather and grandson, the two did not have the warmest relationship.

Luca always tried to appear mature in front of Eduard, while Eduard had never been particularly pleased with seeing his grandson behave that way.

“I thought it might be necessary to keep her a little closer and observe her. What did you like so much about that child? She’s far too young for me to pair the two of you together.”

At those words, Luca’s face turned bright red.

“Pair us together? What on earth are you talking about? She’s just a child.”

Not Elize, either.

Luca grumbled inwardly, but he was so dumbfounded that he accidentally let his honest thoughts slip out.

“Vivian is just… Well, she’s a child. Just a child. All the other kids know who you are and either watch themselves around me or try to be nice to me because of it. But she didn’t do any of that. I felt comfortable around her.”

Luca was also quite comfortable with Elize, but she was old enough to understand the need to be cautious around him. She was in much the same position as Luca.

More importantly, Elize had also been conscious of the fact that Luca was Eduard’s grandson when they first met.

Vivian, however, had no idea.

It was only natural. Jean had never educated Vivian like the other noble children, nor had he even told her who Eduard was.

To Vivian, Luca was simply a cool older boy.

No—more accurately, he was the son of one of Daddy’s friends.

That was precisely what made Luca’s heart, already burdened by responsibilities he had taken upon himself, feel lighter than it had in a long time.

Remembering the time he had spent playing with Vivian, a smile naturally appeared at the corner of Luca’s lips.

“That’s why I liked her.”