My Daddy Hides His Power - Chapter 119

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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
Chapter 119
* * *
“Hurry, hurry!”
I bounced on my toes while waiting for Father, my Bear-shaped Bag secured firmly across my shoulders.
Three days had passed since the Emperor ordered my Rank reexamined.
On top of my “keep my identity hidden” mission, I’d developed another objective.
Namely:
“Uncover Master’s secrets!”
That’s right.
Now that I was certain Oscar was a Regressor, I had to discover what price he’d paid for his regression.
And if Oscar had wagered his life—or something even more precious—as the Cost of Regression….
‘Absolutely not. I have to save him. There must be some way.’
Even if there wasn’t, I’d create one. I was probably the only person who could.
“Princess! Did you wait long?”
“What took you so long!”
Father came sprinting over and scooped me up into his arms.
“I was preparing anyway. I was planning to visit the library myself, you know. I was so surprised when you asked to go!”
“…You too? Why?”
“Well, I want to read some books.”
Father brushed it off vaguely as he carried me into the carriage.
‘Hmm.’
I narrowed my eyes, studying his composed expression.
It had been three days since I saw Father’s extraordinary reaction when he entered the Mana Formula before the Emperor, making me wonder: could Father know my identity? I’d been turning it over ever since.
Every probe had failed, and I’d reached a conclusion.
The sharp-witted protagonist artfully dodges the subject.
Which meant….
‘Either he knows, or he knows.’
He knows, but absolutely doesn’t want to broach the topic openly.
Probably to spare me from turmoil.
‘Well, if I need to know, I’ll ask.’
I’d already left letters preparing for the worst-case scenario, and with Oscar’s help, I’d managed to stay quite far from the Emperor’s suspicion.
So I could breathe a little easier now.
“Let’s go! To the treasury of knowledge!”
Father looked thrilled.
I was heading there to learn about Forbidden Magic, but what could Father be curious about?
* * *
The National Library in the Central-South Region.
There was a library in Jedo as well, but….
‘The volume of information here is completely different!’
In the original story, when Cheshire searched for a way to save Theo, he learned much from this place.
‘I discovered that Forbidden Magic even exists from here.’
That’s why I’d gone to Oscar and asked him to save Theo.
“Wow, wow, wow. It’s really, really huge.”
“Pretty amazing, isn’t it?”
“Uh-huh!”
Father chuckled warmly watching me speechless.
‘It’s like some kind of magical academy!’
The rooftop of the building was only barely visible even when I craned my neck back all the way.
Spiral staircases climbed between the floors, each packed with bookshelves. There had to be thousands—no, tens of thousands of volumes.
‘There can’t be a book that doesn’t exist here.’
I exulted silently.
“But our princess, what book did you want to see that made you ask to come to the library?”
“Um, just to look around. If I find something interesting, I’ll borrow it.”
“All right.”
Father smiled and pointed toward the librarians bustling about with books in their arms.
“If you need to find a book, just ask the librarians. Got it?”
“Okay. What about you?”
“I need to find a book too. Princess, once you’ve picked your books, bring them here and read them, yes?”
Father tapped a spacious table and smiled before heading off to find his books.
I watched my father’s back until it was completely out of sight, then I caught hold of one of the librarians.
“Excuse me!”
“Oh my! Yes, yes!”
The librarian, who had been heading somewhere with an armful of books stacked like a mountain, stopped and smiled kindly at me.
“Do you happen to know where I can find books about the Magic Tower?”
“The Magic Tower? Are you looking for histories of the Magic Tower and research documents on it?”
“Yes!”
“You’ll find them on the tenth floor—go up the stairs on the right. They should be in section J-12. Would you like me to help you look?”
“That’s all right! I can find them myself. Thank you.”
“Ha, yes. Oh! But those books can’t be checked out right now—you’ll have to read them all here.”
“…Excuse me? Why?”
The librarian pressed her lips together uncertainly before answering.
“About a hundred of the related books are scheduled for disposal. The Master of the Magic Tower ordered it directly.”
“What?”
“He said they were old books that needed to be rewritten, but… well, I’m not sure why they’d need to be destroyed entirely. Anyway, that’s how it is.”
“Th-thank you!”
I bowed and rushed up the stairs.
‘What?! This is completely suspicious!’
Why would Oscar order perfectly good books destroyed?
He must have something he wanted to hide.
Which meant I could salvage useful information from the books slated for disposal.
‘But why would he want to hide it?’
A sudden sadness washed over me.
I’d decided to investigate this way because even if I asked Oscar directly, the Geas would prevent him from speaking….
‘If I’d arrived even a little later, I would never have known.’
Was Oscar trying to carry everything on his shoulders alone?
I reached section J-12 and pressed my hand gently against my stinging eyes.
Then I revisited the ending of the original work that I’d recalled dozens of times over the past few days, turning it over once more in my mind.
「The severed head of the Emperor rolling across the ground.
With that, Cheshire Rubinstein believed it was all over.
But strangely, the tragedy did not stop.
The non-powered people protesting outside the palace gates continued to die under relentless spells.
“Why is Primera’s power still active?”
Cheshire demanded as he subdued the Master of the Magic Tower, Oscar Manuel, who had desperately thrown himself in his way.
The Non-powered Elimination Policy.
Primera, cornered on a cliff’s edge, the Emperor’s final thrashing.
Why did this tragedy—the spark that ignited the revolution—continue even after Primera was erased?
The answer lay with Oscar, who had shown no fear of death and resisted to the very end.
“Save… me….”
Pinned beneath Cheshire, Oscar gasped the words as his throat was crushed by those powerful hands, blood spilling from his lips.
Begging for his life at the very last moment.
Cheshire’s face twisted in disgust.
“Answer me.”
“If… you kill me… it’ll be over….”
But instead of answering, Oscar could only whisper desperately, pleadingly.」
“Damn it.”
I wiped my tears away roughly.
The more I came to know Oscar, the more the original work I’d read seemed to speak to me differently.
“Save… me….”
When I’d read it, I was certain that Oscar was begging for his own life.
But I was wrong.
The person he had so pitifully pleaded with Cheshire to save at the very end was not himself.
‘It was me.’
“If… you kill me… it’ll be over….”
Exterminate the non-powered.
It was likely the Emperor’s final command to me.
Whether that final command was brainwashing or a mark that had been nearly inscribed into me, I couldn’t know.
The texts had described complex hierarchies of power between Primeras multiple times….
In any case, even after the Emperor’s death, I could not escape his dominion.
“If… you kill me… it’ll be over….”
Once I’ve killed every last non-powered person, I’ll finally be free.
Did my survival matter more to Oscar than the lives of countless non-powered humans?
Why was I so precious to him?
I can only speculate. I’ll never know for certain—my narrative as the final villain never made it into the original work.
But I can’t just abandon this without trying.
‘No matter what happens, I’m going to save Master safely.’
Even if it costs me an enormous amount of Life Force.
Because Oscar must have turned back time for me alone….
“Oh!”
As I scanned the bookshelves in Zone J-12 with blurred vision, I spotted a book with quite a promising title.

Delighted, I pulled it down hastily—
“Good grief!”
—my heart nearly stopped.
Father was standing right behind me.
“Huff, huff, huff.”
I clutched my startled chest and caught my breath.
Father was staring hard at me—no, at the book in my hands.
“Were you planning to read that?”
“Huh? Oh, um, it looked interesting….”
As I fumbled for an excuse, I caught sight of the books Father had tucked under his arm.

Just skimming the visible titles, I could tell they were all….
‘Looking for the same things I am?’
My mind raced.
The reason Father and I had run into each other in this vast library.
Surely we were both searching for the same books.
But why Father?
My heart hammered in my chest.
“Looks interesting, does it?”
“Not really. I came here specifically to find this one.”
I answered quickly.
“Why?”
“Because of Master. Why did you find that one?”
Father looked taken aback. He fell silent, blinking slowly as if lost in thought.
“…I was looking for something about your Master too.”
At his answer, which came after a long pause, my mouth fell open.
‘Father knows that Oscar used Forbidden Magic?’
How could he possibly know?
Oscar, who wanted to destroy all the books to hide his secret, would never have told Father directly.
So Father must be suspecting it based on intuition alone.
Well, this is the protagonist who managed to guess through intuition that I’m even Primera. Nothing surprises me anymore.
“Lilis.”
“Yes?”
Father took my hand with a look of determination and headed for the stairs.
I guessed at once that Father was going to ask me questions about Oscar.
‘What…? My heart feels lighter somehow.’
Father is the protagonist.
He never failed at anything in the original story.
Though he couldn’t save me, if he had known my true identity….
I have a strong conviction that he would have saved me no matter what.
‘Father seems like someone who could make the impossible possible.’
Perhaps Oscar is the same way.
“Lilis, from now on, I need you to answer honestly if you know anything about what I ask you. Can you do that?”
“Of course I can.”
Father asked me as we descended the stairs.
“Does your teacher ever tell you secrets? Just between the two of you? If there’s anything like that, couldn’t you tell your old man just a little bit?”
“No, Dad. My teacher didn’t tell me any secrets. But I ended up finding out something on my own.”
I spoke without hesitation, keeping my voice low so only he could hear.
“My teacher’s on their second life.”
Father’s eyes widened.
My throat tightened. I clasped my hands together and spoke.
“Dad, Dad…. You can do anything, can’t you? Please. Save our teacher. Please?”
The protagonist who needs no unnecessary explanation to understand everything.
Father stopped and stared down at me, then broke into a broad grin.
“Of course.”
And then he quickened his pace.
“First, I don’t know much about Forbidden Magic. So let me go home and read up on it a bit….”
“Dad! But this book can’t be borrowed!”
“Huh? Why not?”
It was just as we reached the first floor.
“I said discard it immediately—why are you dragging your feet like this?”
“We’re supposed to keep it on display until mid-next month. The Imperial Household still hasn’t given approval….”
“Ugh, seriously. The Magic Tower Master says he’s discarding Magic Tower texts, and you’re asking him to wait for Imperial Household approval?”
Oscar emerged, trailing behind him a line of flustered librarians like sausages on a string.
He spoke irritably as he entered, then stopped short upon seeing me and Father.
“What.”
“Well, hello there, Tower Master.”
Father waved casually.
Oscar’s blinking gaze landed on the books tucked under Father’s arm.
‘Gasp.’
The titles were suspicious to anyone’s eye—clearly prying into his affairs.
“Are you Stocup, perhaps?”
Oscar, visibly flustered, rushed forward to snatch the books.
“Nope!”
But Father was faster.
“Oof!”
Father, who had me slung under one arm like baggage, deftly dodged out of the way.
Oscar’s face went pale.
‘Jackpot! That reaction…. There’s definitely a goldmine in these books!’
Father stood locked in a standoff with Oscar and the three librarians.
“Hehehehe…. The books are already in my hands. You really think I’m going to hand them over quietly?”
“Whoa, whoa. Calm down, calm down.”
Oscar tried to placate Father, who was speaking like an excited bank robber.
“Those books have a lot of incorrect information—that’s why we’re disposing of them. And stop carrying the child like she’s luggage; you’re making her dizzy. Listen to me. Put the child and the books down.”
Oscar approached Father step by step, as if he were a police negotiator speaking gently to a criminal holding hostages.
“Don’t come any closer, Tower Master!”
“Now, what are you trying to do? You just said those are Non-borrowable Books?”
Father’s expression hardened as he found himself cornered.
One of the librarians added their voice.
“That’s right. I’m sorry, but all the books you’re holding cannot be borrowed.”
“You heard her? Hand them over, now.”
…….
“Oh, Dad….”
Father’s eyes wavered.
Enoch Rubinstein—the protagonist of true character who had never committed a single offense in his life except for one instance of desertion.
#Order #Justice #Morality #Goodness
―An father filled with such grand but rigid keywords.
He couldn’t do anything wrong, sure, but he would never act against his core character.
Oscar, knowing this well, grinned wickedly.
‘I need those books!’
How on earth was I supposed to get around Non-borrowable Books in this situation….
“Wait! Hold on right there!!!”
What?
……?!
Father spun around and bolted!

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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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