Chapter 6

Maybe it was because he had hit his head so hard, but he couldn’t even remember his own name.

For three years, he lived without remembering how he had ended up alone on such an island.

After surviving on the deserted island for three years, Jean was finally rescued by a passing ship.

“Here! There’s a person here! Help!”

It was fortunate that a ship happened to pass by an uninhabited island that wasn’t even part of its route.

But the fact that it was a slave ship was a terrible misfortune.

The handsome Jean caught the eyes of the slave traders, and he was sold off as a slave.

Jean was sold for such an absurdly high price that even the slave merchants couldn’t hide their grins. Fortunately, before he could be handed over to his new master, he was rescued.

The auction house was raided and destroyed.

But even after escaping slavery, the fact remained that Jean, who had no memories, had nowhere to go.

As he wandered aimlessly, a kind-hearted merchant took him in.

After hearing Jean’s tragic story, the merchant pitied him—of course, Jean’s appearance certainly helped—and kept him by his side while teaching him various things.

Jean followed him like a father and absorbed everything he taught like a sponge.

And so, ten years passed.

Then one day, accompanied by a splitting headache, Jean regained all his memories.

The trembling love in his heart.

The joy of holding his child in his arms.

The sorrow of losing the woman he loved.

And the responsibility he felt toward the child growing up without even knowing her mother’s face…

‘Vivian!’

His everything.

His world.

How could he have forgotten Vivian?

Even if he forgot his own name, he should never have forgotten Vivian.

There wasn’t even time to waste on regret.

Jean immediately went to the merchant, told him his memories had returned, and departed for his hometown to meet Vivian.

‘Our princess must’ve grown so much, right?’
‘When I get back, I’ll tell her I’m sorry… that I missed her so much.’
‘I wonder how beautifully she’s grown.’

God must truly be protecting him.

Jean sincerely believed that.

Otherwise, how could he have survived that violent sea alone? How could he have lived for three years on a deserted island with no memories? How could he have been rescued while being sold as a slave and then meet such a kind merchant?

But it had all been a misunderstanding.

All the good fortune God had granted Jean had merely been the price for the misery waiting for him ahead.

Jean never got to see Vivian again.

What greeted him was a shabby grave without even a tombstone.

It had been left so carelessly abandoned that anyone passing by would never even realize it was a grave.

The truth behind it was even crueler.

After Jean disappeared, Vivian had been treated like a maid by Ron and Mary. Then, as soon as she came of age, she was forced into marriage with Peter.

Vivian, horrified at being forced to marry the man who had abused and tormented her her entire life, stabbed her husband with a candlestick before their first night together had even begun.

Enraged, Ron and Mary beat her brutally and locked her away in a storage room.

By the time the collapsed Peter recovered—and horrifyingly enough, Peter still harbored feelings for Vivian, no, twisted desires for her—and tried to release her from confinement to act magnanimous…

She was already a cold corpse.

No one knew whether she had died from her injuries or starved because they barely even gave her water.

Ron and Mary secretly buried the dead Vivian by the roadside without even calling a priest.

If no villager had recognized Jean’s face, he would never have even heard this story.

The villager was shocked by Jean’s return, having believed him long dead, and begged for forgiveness with a face wracked by guilt for being unable to do anything while all of it happened.

Jean did not cry over what his daughter had suffered.

He merely quietly thanked the villager and stood up.

“A ghost has appeared!”

Jean set the Lambert estate on fire.

And he killed Ron, Mary, and Peter, who were still living there.

Because he killed them so brutally, the incident grew larger and larger until the entire Empire was in an uproar.

As a result, the trial of Jean—a mere countryside noble with no territory—was held in the capital, the heart of the Empire.

The merchant who had taken Jean in explained his circumstances and pleaded for mercy, but the overwhelming majority of people, who felt sick just reading the descriptions printed in the newspapers, demanded execution.

Jean’s situation was pitiable, yes, but they claimed it was too horrifying to release someone like him back into society.

After hearing the entire story, the Emperor himself—yes, the Emperor personally presided over the trial—sentenced Jean to life imprisonment.

Jean lived no differently from a corpse.

No, he merely remained alive.

Even if he had been sentenced to death, he wouldn’t have offered a single excuse.

The life that even storms had failed to take from him was absurdly persistent. Even though he barely ate properly, it refused to let him die.

Perhaps forcing him to continue living in this hell was Heaven’s punishment upon him.

After days, weeks, months…

Or perhaps years.

Jean, who had closed his eyes in prison while waiting only for death, opened them on a deserted island.

And the moment he saw his reflection in the water, he realized it.

He had returned to the past.

This was the story Vivian did not know—and never would.

Jean smiled as he carried hot chocolate and warm milk into the drawing room.

That future would never happen now.

“So sweet…”

Vivian placed a piece of chocolate and a sip of milk into her mouth, savoring them for a long while before pressing both hands to her cheeks and shaking her head happily.

Seeing her overflowing joy made Jean’s face melt foolishly into a grin.

Jean looked ready to bring out every snack in the house, but Vivian’s next words stopped him.

“I’ll stop eating now.”

“W-Why? You don’t like it anymore? Wasn’t it tasty? Vivi, should Daddy make you something else?”

“Nn, no. It’s delicious. Super, super delicious, so I want to save it. Chocolate is expensive, right?”

“…What?”

Vivian continued speaking in a mature voice.

Although she still couldn’t read, it was only because no one had taught her. Vivian was a clever child.

Everything Ron and Mary had said until now had quietly piled up inside her heart.

“Daddy left to make money because I like expensive things, right? From now on, I’m okay not eating expensive things or yummy things. No, um… I’m okay even if I don’t eat a lot.”

So please don’t go.

At the sight of the little hand slowly pushing away the plate of chocolate, Jean’s heart shattered once more.

“Who… who told you that?”

His voice trembled as he asked.

“Uncle Ron did.”

Forcing himself to smile, Jean lifted Vivian into his arms.

“Ron was wrong, Vivi. Daddy left because I made a promise with Mommy.”

“A promise? With Mommy?”

“Yeah. I promised her that when Vivi grew up into an adult, I’d buy her beautiful dresses.”

“I don’t need pretty dresses! I don’t have to wear them!”

Like someone starved for affection, Vivian burrowed into Jean’s embrace.

Holding her high enough for her little arms to wrap around his neck, Jean rested his chin on her shoulder.

“I’m sorry, Vivian. I never should’ve left you alone. I never should’ve entrusted you to people like them. Daddy… you…”

Jean couldn’t finish speaking.

Hot tears streamed from his eyes.

Though he gently pressed Vivian’s head against him so she wouldn’t see, there was no way Vivian, pressed so close against him, wouldn’t realize her father was crying.

“Daddy’s crying? Whyyy? Don’t cry, Daddy.”

When even Vivian’s voice became teary, Jean finally regained his senses and forced down the emotions surging inside him.

“You don’t have to worry about things like that anymore, Vivi! We’re rich now.”

“Hm?”

“Daddy brought back a treasure chest!”

“A treasure chest?”

Eyes wide with surprise, Vivian remained in Jean’s arms as he carried her upstairs to his room.

The chest he had disguised with straw and loaded onto the carriage so no one would steal it was still wrapped in cloth.

“Vivi, wait just a second.”

Jean carefully unwrapped the cloth, revealing an antique-looking chest marked by the passage of time.

Even the chest itself was valuable enough to fetch a high price if sold separately. Though to Vivian, it just looked like an old wooden box.

But the moment the lid opened, a gasp escaped Vivian’s lips.

“Waaah…”