My Daddy Hides His Power - Chapter 112

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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 hiding his strength.
Chapter 112
Lilis swallowed hard with a gulp.
The panic was written all over her face.
From that reaction alone, Cheshire became certain that there was something more to Lilis’s strange remark.
“Uh, well….”
After a moment of deliberation, Lilis brightened and spoke.
“I mean, keep me safe! At the Training Institute when I’m taking the test! And when monsters show up, keep me safe from them!”
“…All right.”
Cheshire nodded.
‘She doesn’t want to say. Or maybe she can’t say it easily.’
If that was the case, he had no intention of pressing her.
“Whoops. Wrong again. Your turn now!”
“Yeah.”
Cheshire flipped over the cards one by one as he spoke.
“Lilis.”
“Yeah?”
“Killing is easier than subduing. I learned that from your father.”
“W-what?”
Lilis flinched.
“When fighting someone stronger than me. If you’re not strong enough to subdue them, you have to choose to kill instead if you want to win.”
“Why do you keep saying things like that while flipping cards…?”
Cheshire continued turning over cards as he added:
“So I’ll get stronger.”
For you.
“Huh?”
“I meant what I said back then.”
If you become a demon, instead of killing you, I’ll fall into hell with you.
Cheshire stopped moving his hand and stared intently at the speechless Lilis.
“I can’t kill you.”
……
The first light he had ever held in his life.
His sole salvation.
Whatever Lilis was worried about, whatever happened ahead.
Even if a situation came where his own life might be threatened.
Killing Lilis….
It was the one and only act Cheshire could never do.
“Heaven suits you.”
Cheshire gazed at Lilis, who blinked blankly.
Yes, you.
Heaven suits you.
Even though I could follow you to hell itself.
“…I’ll get stronger. Wait for me.”
So that you can smile in heaven.
* * *
“Heaven suits you.”
‘What kind of flirting is that, spouting it while flipping cards….’
I was standing blankly at the front gate of the Libre Duke’s Residence, waiting for Father, too distracted thinking about Cheshire with my mouth hanging open.
That’s when.
“Eek!”
A hand grabbed me from behind, and my body was suddenly hoisted up.
“Mmph~mwah!”
“Ahhhhh!”
It was Father.
Before I could dodge, I was snatched up and given a loud smacking kiss, and I nearly burst into tears.
“Don’t do that!”
“Mmph~mwah, what’m I gonna do~? What’m I gonna do~? Princess, did you have fun playing with everyone?”
“Tch, tch.”line>
“Hehe. Where’s Cheshire?”

Today Father had even watched over the troops under Axion’s command with their swords.
These days, Father’s routine never varied.
Uncle Axion’s commute to work.
Training Cheshire and the soldiers.
And then coming home after showering at someone else’s house, reeking of soap.
“Cheshire has to go to the Training Institute today. He left by carriage just now.”
“Huh?”
Father tilted his head.
Father didn’t know?
The Magic Tower was replacing the Mana Measurement Device they used at the Training Institute with a new model.
“You know that thing that measures mana levels, right? The magical device? The Magic Tower made a new one.”
“Ah, really?”
“Yeah. But apparently Cheshire’s last measurement didn’t come out clearly, so they want him to come in and get measured again with the new device?”
“Didn’t come out clearly?”
“Who knows? I don’t really understand what that means either.”
“Hmm.”
Father fell silent for a moment, then suddenly exclaimed, “Ah!”
“I’ve got it!”
“What? What is it?”
“The old device they used to use probably had a maximum measurement threshold. That’s right, that’s right—I remember now.”
Father’s eyes narrowed.
He seemed to be recalling his days attending the Training Institute.
“I bet it couldn’t measure anything above a million? Since they called Cheshire in, the new one must have a higher maximum threshold.”
…A million?
I stared blankly.
‘So there are Ability Users with mana levels exceeding a million.’
For reference, anything over six hundred thousand is classified as Doss.
They seemed common enough with them posted all around me, but Doss was actually an extraordinarily rare rank—only just over fifty people in the entire Empire.
“So did you also? Your measurement didn’t come out because you exceeded a million?”
“Yeah, that’s how it was. Wow, twenty years already. Back then they just told me to go home as a Doss without making a fuss….”
Father grumbled.
“And now they’re making a whole new device just to measure Cheshire again. Is the Magic Tower allowed to discriminate like this?”
“Come on, you’re not saying they had to make a new magical device just because of you, right? That’s a waste of resources.”
“True. I’ve heard making one takes an enormous amount of time and is incredibly finicky….”
Father, who had been murmuring as he carried me toward the carriage, stopped and added:
“…I guess a genius really is a genius.”
“Who? Master?”
“Yeah. The Head of the Magic Tower must’ve made it.”
“Hehehehe!”
I laughed, thinking of Oscar.
“That’s right! Master is the most brilliant person I’ve ever met! And super kind too! He even makes new magical devices!”
Father gave me a pointed look.
“Who do you like more—your father or your master?”
“Oh! Sir, what kind of childish question is that?”
“What? You’re dodging the answer?”
“Sir…. I’m almost twenty-eight years old now. What would Leon say if he heard me talk like that?”
Father’s mouth fell open. Then he hoisted me up into the air.
“You’re really avoiding the question?”
“No, no! It’s you, it’s you! Father! Put me down!”
“That’s what I thought.”
Satisfied, Father cradled me in his arms again and climbed into the carriage.
Goodness. I can’t live like this.
* * *
Oscar Manuel.
He was a genius, but not a kind one.
He’d known about the limitation of the old Mana Measurement Device, which could only register up to a million, and could have updated it to the new model whenever he wished….
But he hadn’t.
Why bother with such tedious work?
If it hadn’t been for Lilis this time, he would never have made a new Mana Measurement Device.
“Hehehehe.”
The Imperial Ability User Training Institute.
Oscar had come to the Mana Measurement Device chamber in person to verify the replacement unit.
“Kehehehe!”
With each step toward the device room, Oscar paused and laughed like a villain.
The Mana Measurement Device that Oscar’s ancestor had originally created was, in truth, a magnificent magical artifact.
Even the Emperor himself, the Primera, could have no concrete knowledge of the Ability Users’ true power—he had no choice but to rely entirely on this device.
‘Now, even if the Emperor came himself, he’d never discover what my child really is!’
Oscar laughed into the empty air.
“Ahahahaha!”
“Ahem, Master of the Magic Tower, sir. There are many eyes watching. Please, might we attend to your public image?”
Robel, the Advisor following behind, whispered awkwardly, glancing around at the onlookers.
But whether Robel hinted at it or not, Oscar beamed with satisfaction.
“Ah, truly. This genius mentor of mine is so devoted—the child should know it.”
Only Oscar could access the biometric data of the Ability Users stored in the Mana Measurement Device.
Based on Lilis’s data recorded in the old device, Oscar had already made adjustments to the new one.
There was no need to forcibly seize the child and retest her Ability Power—
But should any unforeseen situation arise,
Lilis would need no manipulation of the artifact to be confirmed as an unmistakable Octava.
“Good evening.”
As Oscar entered the device room, the waiting researchers greeted him.
…….
Among them, Oscar’s gaze found a familiar face, and he froze.
Lilis’s biological mother.
Selena.
‘Right. I hadn’t thought I might see this woman’s face.’
Oscar, the one who had returned.
Time had already passed beyond recovery—
And yet there were two people Oscar could never forgive.
Selena was one of them.
“Now then, shall we check? Is the device functioning properly?”
If he lost his temper and threw a punch, it would be catastrophic.
Oscar tore his gaze from Selena and sank into the prepared chair with calculated arrogance.
“This is the record status of Ability Users from the eight hundred fifty-second through one thousand twenty-sixth cohort who underwent Ability Power measurement since the Mana Measurement Device was first implemented. The Ability User scheduled for retesting with the new device is Cheshire Libre, and on the first page—”
“Yes, yes.”
Selena happened to approach him with the record file, offering explanation.
“I can review it myself. Your face isn’t beautiful enough to warrant standing so close, and I’m not so dim-witted as to need your explanations to understand a simple readout.”
Oscar waved his hand dismissively, pushing Selena away as though brushing off an insect.
“Hmph!”
“Ahem.”
Arrogant behavior, regardless of his station as Master of the Magic Tower. All the researchers present disapproved.
“Tsk.”
Oscar flipped to the first page of the record file and clicked his tongue.
At the very top were the names of two Ability Users whose power vastly exceeded the device’s measurable maximum capacity.
Cohort 1006, Enoch Rubinstein: 999999
Cohort 1026, Cheshire: 999999
“This, this one here.”
Oscar clicked his tongue and pointed to Enoch’s name.
“This bastard needs retesting too—”
In a way, wasn’t Enoch Rubinstein’s insane Ability Power the very origin of all this tragedy?
However charitably one tried to view it,
the man was despicable—he’d given nothing, offered nothing, yet was infuriatingly contemptible.
“When is this bastard arriving? Does he really dare make me wait?”
As Oscar’s eyes fell on Cheshire’s name next, he bristled and rose to his feet—
“Hello.”
—just as the door opened and Cheshire entered.
From across the room, Oscar’s and Cheshire’s gazes locked.
‘You son of a bitch.’
Oscar, the one who had returned, could never forgive him.
Cheshire was one of those two.
Oscar dreams every night.
Not dreams—memories of time already lost.
In his nightmares, it was always Cheshire who appeared.
No matter how hard he tried to forget, he couldn’t.
“Father, I’m sorry.”
“Wait. Hold on, please….”
With a single gesture, she erased the non-Ability Users without a trace—Lilis, who had finally become a demon.
And Enoch Rubinstein, watching his daughter, wept.
And before him.
“Even as you hesitate, people are dying. If Primera doesn’t disappear, the future you longed for will never come.”
“Cheshire!”
“Forgive me.”
A man of unbending coldness.
‘Damn it.’
In the narrow space, Cheshire and himself.
It felt as though only the two of them existed.
Oscar’s breathing grew ragged.

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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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