My Daddy Hides His Power - Chapter 111

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Father Hides His Strength
111
* * *
Willow, Duke of Chamber.
The strategist to Enoch Rubinstein—the man who publicly plays at “lending a hand.”
“Ah, young master!”
Joseph, on his way to Duke Chamber’s study, spotted Bruce Chamber, the duke’s son.
“Oh, Joseph! It’s been a while, hasn’t it?”
“I trust you’ve been well? You went out to suppress the Holy Water in Wurgen this time, didn’t you? You’re not hurt anywhere, I hope?”
As Joseph fussed over him, Bruce swelled with pride and laughed.
“Me? Ha! Joseph, you should’ve seen me that day. All the others were weeping and fleeing, but I alone stood at the front and caught every last one of them.”
“Remarkable!”
It was a lie.
Bruce was an adept of the Seongyeok System.
Inefficient against Holy Water, he’d been safely posted to the rear by Commander Leon.
Leon and Cheshire had handled it all, and the truth was Bruce hadn’t even drawn his weapon.
And Joseph was no fool—he knew it.
‘Tsk, tsk. The boy’s got that cocksure swagger down pat, just like his old man. How would a Holy Power user ever catch Holy Water? He’s no Enoch Rubinstein, that’s for certain….’
But outwardly, he played along beautifully.
“Just as expected of the young master! At this rate, won’t you be commanding the Holy Knight Order before long?”
“What? Haha! You think so?”
Pleased with himself, Bruce gestured toward his father’s study.
“You came to see Father, didn’t you? Let’s go together!”
“Of course.”
As the door opened, Willow, Duke of Chamber, waddled forward in his portly frame and greeted Joseph warmly.
“Oh, Joseph! Come in, come in!”
“I fear I haven’t called as often as I should of late. I’ve been occupied observing the atmosphere in Jedo.”
“Nonsense, nonsense. Do sit.”
Joseph’s choice of Willow was straightforward.
A high noble with tremendous power.
A beneficiary of the Class System.
This man desired the Emperor’s Absolute Authority and the Class System rooted in this realm to remain unshakable forever.
In other words, an obstacle to revolution.
And moreover, one who played at power among the center of such men.
Joseph needed to infiltrate their ranks.
Later, so they could offer no hindrance—very slowly, crumbling their standing and power from within.
‘Or so I thought. But this incident will give me the chance to put them to use.’
Joseph suppressed a sly smile.
He would sow discord between the Emperor and those of his faction.
It was Joseph’s Plan B.
“Duke, what is your assessment of this Holy Water crisis?”
“Hmm? Assessment of what?”
Joseph, about to speak, glanced instead at Willow’s young steward, who stood motionless in one corner of the study like a portrait.
Sensing Joseph’s gaze, Willow chuckled.
“Ah, Buell? Don’t worry about him. The fellow’s deaf as a post.”
“Is that so? That must be quite an inconvenience—why keep him at your side?”
The steward Buell, with his distinctive lemon-colored hair, looked young. His eyes seemed rather vacant too….
Yet he kept his gaze fixed unwaveringly on Willow’s face.
“You see how he stares at me? He watches my expression all day long, and without a word needing to be spoken, he simply knows what’s needed and brings it without fail. Since he can’t hear, there’s no risk of loose talk—I tell you, the man’s invaluable.”
“I see.”
So he truly did read expressions.
Buell, recognizing that Willow was praising him, smiled and lowered his head in acknowledgment.
“So, what is this crisis then?”
“Ah, yes.”
The meticulous Joseph, wary lest Buell read anything from his lips, covered his mouth with his hand and spoke gravely.
“It seems the Imperial Household’s position will become precarious.”
“Hmm? What do you mean by that? Because of the Octava conscription? That was unavoidable. There were no troops left stationed in Jedo.”
Willow added with a laugh:
“Yes, the defenses of Jedo did grow thin, which allowed this to happen, but what is there to worry about? Didn’t you see His Majesty himself charge barefoot into battle and hold the line at Jedo?”
“If the Holy Water hadn’t run rampant in the first place, none of this would have occurred.”
“Hm?”
“What are Holy Water beings? From time immemorial, they have been the messengers of the Lord, sent forth to contend with demons.”
Joseph clicked his tongue disapprovingly.
“And yet these Holy Water beings run mad, destroying the land and attacking Jedo itself?”
“Yes.”
“Divine Wrath, precisely. But that’s not all—the Imperial Household still hasn’t produced a Primera, and now the Old Doctrine claims to have received Divine Revelation.”
“…….”
“Even for someone like me, the counsel I can offer and the measures I can take for your grace’s authority are limited to matters between men. How can I stand against God Himself?”
“…You’re right.”
“No matter how omnipotent His Majesty may be, if an angered God has turned away….”
Joseph clicked his tongue again, watching Willow’s expression from the corner of his eye.
As expected.
Already wavering.
The Absolute Authority granted by God—in which the rigid high nobility had placed unshakeable faith.
Now he was introducing the smallest of cracks into it.
These cracks would only grow larger.
And they would threaten the Emperor.
“Already, whispers are circulating quietly through Jedo—that God has abandoned the Imperial Household, and His wrath will not cease.”
Of course, it was Joseph himself who had begun spreading those rumors.
“I see….”
“My lord. I fear that the Imperial Household’s once-unshakeable position will soon become a thing of the past. If you continue to follow only His Majesty, who knows what might befall you….”
Joseph shook his head slowly, as if in genuine concern.
At his words, Willow’s expression grew grave.
* * *
The headquarters of the Red Sparrow information guild.
Lico approached, her eyes fixed on the back of the man with the pale lemon-yellow hair.
“Hey.”
“…….”
No response.
“Hey!”
Still nothing.
Lico tapped him on the shoulder and sat down across from him.
“Why are you pretending not to hear me?”
“Ah, you’re here.”
Buell—the young steward of Marquis Willow Champer.
He was an informant for the Red Sparrow.
“If you spend 365 days, 24 hours a day not listening, this is what happens.”
“That’s funny. So, did you pick up anything useful? Is Joseph Rütman really someone we can trust?”
Lico was always suspicious.
Though he was said to have become Enoch Rubinstein’s strategist….
Knowing Joseph Rütman’s past—how he once moved only for his own gain—she watched him constantly, wary of any hidden motive.
“I think you can stop doubting now.”
“Oh, why?”
“Every time I see him, he’s so busy fawning over the marquis and that Bruce bastard that I wasn’t sure we could really count on him.”
Buell chuckled as he recalled the conversations he’d overheard.
“All that flattery must have been part of his plan. He’s meticulous. He’s definitely on our side, I’m telling you.”
“What makes you say that?”
“This whole Holy Water incident—he called it Divine Wrath. He’s been subtly pushing the marquis, saying God has abandoned the Imperial Household and the Emperor’s position will soon crumble.”
“Ah.”
“He’s trying to use the high nobles he’d written off as useless—turning them into assets with this crisis, isn’t he?”
“That’s it.”
Lico felt considerably lighter.
“If the high nobles switch sides, things might move much faster.”
“They have to.”
Lico relaxed at Buell’s words.
And then her mind turned to Lilis.
Octavia, conscripted to the front….
Knowing the Emperor’s greed as she did, Lico had realized that his command was a scheme to put Lilis in danger.
This nation had to change.
But in the process, she had come to understand that Lilis could continue to be threatened at every turn.
So that’s it.
“As fast as possible.”
That child had to be safe.
At the end of this road, she had to survive and be able to smile.
* * *
The terrible Holy Water incident.
Two weeks had passed since then.
“Hehehehe!”
Libre Duchy.
The moment training ended, Cheshire sat across from Lilis and was in the middle of a card game.
“You get one minute to look!”
“Okay.”
“Ready~ go!”
Lilis flipped an hourglass for one minute and began studying the spread of cards with intense concentration.
Fifty-six cards—two of each image.
The game was to remember where each card was, then select matching pairs.
“Time’s up! Now turn them over!”
“All right.”
Lilis and Cheshire flipped all the cards face-down.
“My turn first!”
“Okay.”
Lilis quickly found four matching pairs and pulled them toward her.
On the fifth attempt, she missed.
“Oops. Your turn now.”
Lilis covered her mouth as she spoke.
“…You don’t need to cover it.”
“Huh?”
“I already saw everything.”
“Mmm.”
Lilis gave an embarrassed cough and slowly lowered her hand from her mouth.
Lilis had lost both her bottom front teeth.
Seeing that, Cheshire broke into a quiet laugh.
“You’re laughing?”
“No. You’re just cute.”
“Huh? Cute?”
“Yeah.”
Watching Lilis’s mood lift immediately, Cheshire flipped a card.
Then suddenly….
The events from Wurgen two weeks ago came back to him.
“Lilis.”
“Mm.”
“I’m sorry.”
“…For what?”
“In Wurgen. I said I’d protect you, but honestly, I wasn’t sure I could.”
……
“If the old man hadn’t come, I might not have been able to protect you at all.”
“Cheshire….”
Lilis’s voice was thick with emotion.
Their eyes met.
“Why do you keep saying things like that while carelessly flipping cards?”
“Oh.”
He realized he’d already collected over ten pairs while barely paying attention.
Startled, Cheshire hesitated, then deliberately reached toward a wrong match.
Lilis quickly grabbed his hand.
“Hey! Don’t let me win if it hurts your pride!”
“No, really. I think this one’s it.”
“Ugh!”
When Cheshire deliberately missed and handed his turn to her, Lilis puffed out her cheeks and began flipping cards.
Cheshire watched her quietly.
“You know what? What if… what if, and I mean really, really what if. I became a completely terrifying demon.”
“You just kill innocent people without a second thought. But you know what? You’re the only one who can stop me.”
“If you kill me, that’s all. So what will you do?”
Lilis had asked him that once.
And he’d answered in fear.
“P-please don’t kill me! Don’t kill me, and… absolutely, absolutely don’t kill me. Could you find another way instead?”
He hadn’t thought much of it then.
But during this Holy Water incident.
“Cheshire, listen… Keep me alive, okay?”
“I mean, no matter what happens, you have to keep me alive, right?”
“Don’t ever kill me….”
At the time, he’d thought she meant protection from the Holy Water users.
But the more he turned it over in his mind, the stranger it seemed.
“Please don’t kill me!”
“Never kill me….”
It really was strange.
It didn’t sound like she feared the Holy Water users, or any other enemy at all….
It sounded like she wanted to survive Cheshire himself.
‘Why does she keep saying things like that?’
Cheshire was puzzled.
“Lilis.”
“Sorry! I’ll flip it over quickly! Just, give me a second. Is this right?”
Thinking Cheshire was rushing her, Lilis flustered over the cards she’d been studying.
“Can I ask you something?”
“Yeah. What is it?”
“You said it to me yourself. That I shouldn’t kill you.”
Her hand, which had been wavering over the cards, froze completely.
Lilis lifted her head.
“You said it at the Training Institute too, and at Wurgen this time… similar things.”
“Oh, yeah.”
Cheshire stared at the startled Lilis and spoke.
“What exactly did you mean by that? Could I ask?”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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