My Daddy Hides His Power - Chapter 116

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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 Conceals His Strength
Chapter 116
Oscar let out a hollow laugh.
A beloved daughter—one precious enough to drive him to desertion.
Enoch Rubinstein had surely raised his child with a love so profound that no one else could fathom it.
‘He’s truly mad.’
The Emperor had not given up.
He had simply been crafting Enoch’s leash all this time, with infinite patience.
“I wonder if she knows. The Marquise von Ludendorff—the child’s own mother.”
……
Oscar stared blankly at Selena, his mouth hanging open in bewilderment.
Selena von Ludendorff.
Despite possessing considerable ability, she had become a researcher at the Training Institute during what should have been her active years of service.
Her young son had even received an exemption from military conscription.
An unprecedented imperial privilege.
Everyone had wondered why.
And in that moment.
‘She knew. She knew where Enoch Rubinstein was.’
Oscar understood the reason at last.
The safety of himself and his son—purchased with the price of revealing Enoch’s location.
“Your Majesty, I have something urgent to report.”
Selena spoke through pallid lips.
For some reason, she was watching Oscar carefully.
“What is it? Something important?”
The Emperor noticed and sent Oscar out, bidding him to wait beyond the door.
As he left, Oscar found himself recalling the child’s face, the moment their eyes had met.
‘This has become complicated.’
For the Emperor, it was an opportunity without equal.
With his daughter taken as hostage, Enoch Rubinstein would have no choice but to take up the sword once more.
He had only heard rumors, yet they spoke of him as extraordinary.
If he returned to the fray, even if Oscar refused to cooperate…
“The war will proceed as scheduled, with or without your assistance.”
“Damn it.”
Blood would rain down.
After a long wait, Oscar encountered Selena as she emerged from the Emperor’s office.
Unlike when she had entered, she was alone—no child at her side.
Her eyes were red, whether from misfortune or something else.
“How cowardly.”
Oscar spoke with a frown creasing his brow.
“You’ve sold out your husband and your child, and slept soundly on your back all this time? What right have you to whimper now? What are you crying about?”
Selena was trembling with a sickly intensity.
“You should have kept quiet and pretended ignorance. Is your life the only human life that matters? Are all other lives worth less than an ant’s?”
……
“Do you even understand what you’ve done? Because of you, hundreds—thousands—will die now.”
Unable to answer Oscar’s bitter words, Selena fled like a hunted thing.
“Truly a selfish woman.”
Oscar muttered, watching her retreating figure.
Until that moment, he had assumed Selena was trembling from fear of the bloodshed to come.
‘If she felt any guilt, she should have felt it when she sold her daughter. Why now, all of a sudden?’
And when he faced the Emperor again.
Oscar felt a creeping unease as he beheld the Emperor’s bewildered face and the child cradled in his arms.
A danger his body had sensed instinctively.
“…It seems we finished our conversation earlier. Is there something else you wish to say.”
“Yes, Master of the Magic Tower.”
The Emperor nodded slightly.
At the same moment, the air within the office warped with unease.
No one could leave, enter, or overhear.
The space sealed in an instant by Primera’s power.
“What is this? Are you planning to beat me while I’m locked in? Whatever you do…”
“Your mind will not change, I know.”
“Yes, sir. But you already know that.”
The Emperor said nothing, merely stroking the trembling child’s hair.
Then he spoke.
“If you want to see your father again, what did I say you had to do?”
……
The child shut her eyes tight.
Then she gazed quietly at Oscar.
“Ah.”
At that same moment,
a powerful force constricting tight around his heart.
That was the instant the inescapable shackle descended upon Oscar.
* * *
“Hell!”
“Ack!”
Robel, who had been draping a blanket over the sleeping Oscar, started violently.
“What on earth are you doing?!”
“W-what? I was just trying to cover you with a blanket so you wouldn’t be cold!”
“Damn it.”
Oscar wiped the cold sweat from his clammy brow.
“Another nightmare?”
“Yeah. God, it’s infuriating.”
“Sigh.”
The rage he’d felt in the dream clung to him still, torturing him in the waking world.
Selena’s receding figure….
That sudden wave of remorse she’d felt back then—it was because of Lilis.
She must have foreseen what fate awaited Primera in the Emperor’s hands.
‘Should I have just killed her?’
But the moment had already passed, lost to time, so he had no grounds to blame her.
‘So what am I supposed to do about feeling this way?’
Only Oscar remembered everything, only Oscar burned with this fury.
The Emperor hadn’t killed Selena—the only one who knew Lilis’s true identity—nor had he brainwashed her.
It would be inconvenient for the Emperor himself to kill a high-ranking Ability User without cause.
As for brainwashing her, it would have cost considerable Life Force, which would have been wasteful.
The Emperor, knowing full well the fear that gripped Selena, had simply bent her to obedience with a few words.
‘If only that woman had changed her mind sooner….’
This was why Oscar could never forgive Selena.
Though she hadn’t been forcibly bound by Primera’s power as he was,
Selena had said nothing—not a single word—through all that long tragedy.
* * *
The next day, the Imperial Palace.
Stepping into the Emperor’s study for the first time, I was struck by its extravagance.
‘Our home was modest in comparison….’
Did an office really need to be this ornate?
From the doorknobs to the walls, the desk, every decoration gleamed with gold and jewels.
And on one wall, a vast continental map hung in all its grandeur….
‘I knew the Emperor would do anything for the title of Conqueror, but seeing it now, I really grasped how mad he was.’
And that wasn’t all.
‘Why on earth are there rows of military portraits hung right beside it…?’
Portraits of the fallen decorated the walls.
I noticed Father, sitting beside me, deliberately trying not to look that way.
Every time he came to pay his respects to the Emperor, Father would visit this study.
For him, this place must be no different than hell itself.
“Hello there….”
Just then,
the boy sitting across from us stood and greeted Father and me with a shy smile, bowing to his waist.
A child with the Emperor’s golden hair and green eyes.
Franz von Papillion.
The thirteenth prince—and soon to be Crown Prince.
“Hello!”
I quickly rose and offered the same formal bow in return.
“Heh heh.”
Franz, grinning sheepishly at me, soon grew shy and nestled into the Emperor’s arms beside him.
The Emperor laughed warmly.
“The boy seems quite taken with the princess.”
“…….”
Unlike the Emperor, whose smile stretched from ear to ear, Father’s expression darkened noticeably.
He really ought to work on his poker face.
“Well, we’ve made our introductions—shall we be off?”
The Emperor rose, cradling Franz in his arms.
Father hesitated.
“…Where are we going, Your Majesty?”
“Ah, we should visit the Ability User Training Institute.”
“Pardon?”
In that instant, Father stiffened, and so did I.
The Training Institute?
“Why not? I need to check the boy’s rank, after all.”
“Is there truly a need, Your Majesty? Surely you can discern his abilities simply by observing how he uses them.”
“Well, that’s true enough, but there are protocols to follow.”
The Emperor added with a smile.
“Besides, everyone’s been so anxious waiting for Primera to manifest—how long has it been?”
“…….”
“That’s why I summoned you today, in fact. It would be lovely for you to witness this glorious moment when Primera is born, wouldn’t it?”
My heart hammered so violently I thought it might burst from my chest.
The Training Institute….
There were magical artifacts there that could measure one’s rank.
I hid my trembling hands.
‘Act natural. If I lose control of my expression now, it’s all over.’
I took Father’s arm and smiled.
“Let’s go, Father! It’s been so long since we’ve seen our teachers!”
“…….”
For some reason, Father’s face had gone pale.
But soon he smiled, lifted me into his arms, and rose to his feet.
* * *
‘Wow, but I didn’t think about Mother.’
The Imperial Ability User Training Institute.
The Mana Measurement Device room.
The 13th Imperial Prince, Franz, was undergoing his rank assessment.
All the Institute researchers were observing, and Mother was among them.
I glanced back and forth between Father, speaking with the Emperor, and Mother, standing at a distance.
They wouldn’t even meet each other’s eyes….
To anyone watching, you’d never know they knew each other at all.
“By the way, I hear the princess performed remarkably during the Wurgen incident.”
The Emperor regarded me with a benevolent smile.
My breath caught.
‘Surely he doesn’t suspect? But it’s done now—there was no other choice.’
In Wurgen, I’d deployed an A-Class Shield before hundreds of Octaves.
A-Class defensive formulas are difficult for a seven-year-old mind to memorize.
‘But I’d already learned it, so it’s fine.’
I hid my tension and smiled like a child pleased to be praised.
“Without the princess, I doubt all the Octaves would have survived. I won’t forget your contribution, and when you come of age, I shall see you properly rewarded.”
“Thank you so much!”
The Emperor smiled contentedly.
Then Franz’s rank was measured.
! Error !
No Mana Detected
Non-Ability User
An ability user with unmeasurable mana.
Primera.
The researchers’ expressions brightened.
“Ah, at last—Primera has…!”
The Emperor nodded.
“Well done.”
I suppressed an inward laugh watching him.
‘What an actor.’
He orchestrated everything himself yet not a flicker crossed his face.
Father’s expression had gone rigid.
‘At this point, with Primera showing up, his mind must be reeling. Poor Father. I’ll have to slip him a hint later that it’s fake.’
As I was thinking this, the Emperor clapped his hands together.
“They replaced the Mana Measurement Device, didn’t they? Since we’re here to verify it anyway, why don’t the Princess undergo a rank inspection again?”
“Pardon?”
Father froze.
And so did I.
‘…Just like that?’
My mind raced.
‘Is he suspicious of me because of the Wurgen situation and deliberately brought me here? Or is he genuinely just asking me to step in without ulterior motive?’
Thump-thump—my heart hammered.
But I had to stay composed.
This was expected.
Even without the Wurgen incident, I could fall under the Emperor’s suspicion at any moment.
‘It’s fine, Lilis. You already knew this, didn’t you? Whether today or some other day, the moment suspicion falls on you, they’ll drag you back into the Mana Measurement Device one way or another.’
There’s no other way to check rank.
I grabbed Father’s pant leg and spoke with feigned ease.
“Of course! I’ll do it again, Your Majesty!”
“Ha, good.”
I walked into the Mana Measurement Device with a light step, acting unbothered.
Of course, my heart felt ready to burst.
‘It’s fine, it’s fine. Stay calm. Control your face. Act as natural as possible. Just manipulate it like last time.’
Everyone outside the glass tube watched me.
I could see the Emperor.
‘But. What if. Just what if.’
The Wurgen Seongsus incident.
What was the Emperor thinking that day?
‘If this—if he brought me here because he suspects me….’
If I were the Emperor, what would I do?
What if he had already used his ability to prevent me from manipulating the Mana Measurement Device?
The law of force between Primerae.
Because of it, I cannot pierce the Emperor’s ability.
“Here I go!”
White Flame bloomed from my fingertips.
With only the glass tube between us, the Emperor and I faced each other.
The measurement gauge began to rise.
White: 6th Grade Diez.
Black: 5th Grade Nubeno.
‘Like last time… Octave….’
I swallowed hard, my throat dry.
That moment.
While watching the Emperor, I caught him tilting his head slightly.
A bad feeling.
I looked down at my right hand, slick with sweat.
‘Octave, Octave….’
The bracelet glowed.
—
Oh no.

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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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