My Daddy Hides His Power - Chapter 132

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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
132
A stone, shattered beyond recognition in Oscar’s furious grip, crumbled to dust in his palm.
‘His temper really is savage.’
Enoch, taking in the scene with a wry expression, followed reluctantly behind Oscar.
The Ancient Ruin sprawled like a labyrinth.
Yet without branching passages to choose from, their pace never faltered.
They stopped at a dead end.
But both their keen senses immediately detected a peculiar aura.
Whatever the Sacred Object was, it had to be beyond this sealed wall.
‘Damn it. What a pain.’
Oscar furrowed his brow.
It looked like he’d need to cast Translocation Magic one more time beyond the wall.
But with stone walls on all sides, there was nowhere proper to inscribe a Magic Formula.
‘What is this thing they’ve locked away so tightly? If it’s not worth the trouble, I might just bring the whole place down and be done with it.’
Thinking this, Oscar bit his index finger, drawing blood.
He intended to inscribe the Magic Formula with it.
“Step aside, Tower Master.”
“……?”
Instead, Enoch pushed Oscar behind him and swung the Branch he held in a wide arc.
Whoosh—!
Blue mana slashed diagonally across the crumbling stone wall with tremendous force,
and with a deafening roar, it cracked.
“You’ve got to be kidding.”
Oscar’s jaw dropped.
The wall, which had been teetering precariously, collapsed in a shower of rubble, and dust and smoke billowed up like gauze from the debris.
“Excuse me! What—cough—what the hell was that crude move?!”
Oscar hacked and waved his hand through the murky haze.
“If the ceiling comes down entirely too, what then? Are you planning to be buried with the Sacred Object?”
“If this ruin could collapse from that, it would’ve fallen apart long ago.”
…He had a point.
The reason the Ancient Ruin had remained intact for millennia while hidden was the powerful Preservation Magic that sustained it.
He’d seemed like brute force alone, but his judgment wasn’t half bad, either.
“Jesus. Even so….”
Oscar clicked his tongue disapprovingly as he watched Enoch stride over the collapsed wall debris without hesitation.
His methods were hardly subtle.
“There it is.”
Enoch’s eyes lit up.
A circular altar rose to waist height.
Upon it rested a stone about the size of his fist.
‘A heart?’
On closer inspection, it wasn’t a simple stone. It was carved to resemble a heart—
Without hesitation, Enoch reached for it.
Crackle—!
A chilling pain exploded as a force of different nature collided violently against him.
Formidable resistance.
A barrier spell.
“Damn.”
Barrier Magic.
This kind was impossible to dispel by anyone but the caster, since they alone knew the cipher encoded into the Magic Formula.
The caster had likely been an ancient priest who’d died ages ago.
But.
‘It doesn’t matter. No one but me could’ve done it anyway.’
The advantage was that someone of Enoch’s caliber could forcibly break through by flooding it with an enormous volume of mana.
He had to break through.
Without a moment’s hesitation, Enoch reached with his left hand instead of his right—the hand that should have wielded a blade.
Crackle—!
The searing pain in his hand was excruciating.
But Enoch’s expression didn’t waver as he poured more force into it.
Just a bit more.
“Damn it, you madman!”
That was when.
Oscar, arriving late, yanked Enoch’s arm away.
“Whoa. Good grief. Whoa. Seriously.”
Oscar’s eyes, rarely widened in shock, threatened to pop clean out of his skull.
“Are you actually insane? Putting your hand in there? That’s not madness, that’s suicide!”
“There’s a barrier. I have to break through it.”
At Enoch’s calm reply, Oscar swallowed hard.
“…So you’re just going to walk away missing an arm?”
If anyone could force their way through, it would be Enoch—but his hand would certainly not emerge unscathed.
Watching the hand already half-charred and blackened, Oscar’s words caught in his throat and his eyes could only blink helplessly.
“I see…. You really are…. You really were planning to forfeit an arm and walk out with it…. I knew you were crazy, but committing to a lifetime of disability in just one second….”
Frustration boiled up inside him.
He genuinely disliked it.
“If they told you to die instead of the child, would you die without a second thought?”
The one thing that never changed, then or now.
“You would too.”
Enoch, who had been watching Oscar’s sarcasm with an odd gaze, spoke.
“It’s no different for you.”
…….
Oscar’s eyes sharpened as he looked up at Enoch.
Their gazes locked.
* * *
‘Gasp!’
My eyes snapped open and I instinctively reached up to feel my throat.
In that last moment, Cheshire’s blade must have torn through my neck.
‘Ugh, it’s all in one piece….’
I exhaled in relief and quickly checked the size of my hand.
It was back. My body.
‘But where am I?’
Books scattered across the floor.
A dizzying space around me.
As I looked around, I recognized the place despite having never seen it before—I knew exactly where I was.
Because Oscar was here.
‘The Magic Tower? Master’s study?’
Oscar knelt there, collapsed forward with an expression of defeat.
“Why isn’t it working, why….”
Beneath him, intricate Magic Formulas were scrawled haphazardly in white chalk.
I understood immediately.
This was after my death.
Oscar must have been preparing a Regression Magic to bring me back to life.
‘I thought I was having a disgustingly long dream…. But this isn’t so bad.’
I bolted upright.
I know Oscar used Regression Magic, but I’m not certain what price he paid for it.
But I’ll be able to figure it out from this dream.
“Wait a moment, Master. I’m sharp enough that I’ll definitely work it out.”
Books spread out openly everywhere.
Papers filled with Oscar’s handwriting.
There’s no way I won’t be able to understand.
“Ah.”
But I despaired before I could piece together even one thing.
The conditions for resurrection.
A forbidden magic—resurrection, the return to life.
To resurrect a subject…
It requires an Equivalent Exchange of life for life…
The magic Oscar was attempting right now.
Not Regression Magic. Resurrection Magic.
‘What on earth….’
I stared blankly at Oscar.
I may not know much about Regression Magic, but I know the conditions for Resurrection Magic with absolute certainty.
Life exchanged for life.
‘He didn’t attempt Regression Magic from the start—it was Resurrection Magic. And with his own life as the price.’
But for some reason, it seemed he had failed.
The moment the truth became clear, words abandoned me.
“Hah.”
Oscar collapsed onto the Magic Formula, which had been drawn over dozens of times, a hollow exhaustion in his frame.
His arm shielded his eyes.
His twisted lips came into view. He appeared to be weeping.
“…….”
I wiped away the tears trickling down my own cheeks and slowly lay down beside him.
“Master….”
“…….”
“I’m grateful it failed.”
If it had succeeded, it would have been truly horrible.
I would have lived on through his life, breathing with his breath.
Foolishly, I would never have remembered him—and that thought brought me relief.
“I’m really grateful….”
Before long, the scene shifted rapidly before my eyes, and I started up in alarm.
Time appeared to be flowing forward.
I caught sight of Oscar, still hurriedly attempting Resurrection Magic, and then—
“Father!”
I could see Father and Oscar facing each other across the space.
‘Oh, thank heavens! Father is alive!’
After I died, what would the world become? Whenever I imagined it, the one thing that worried me most was Father.
“How will you live after I’m gone?”
“How will I live? I cannot live.”
“I will miss you so much that I’ll follow you at once. I cannot possibly live without you.”
Those words had pierced my chest.
I had been continuously afraid—what if Father truly harbored dark thoughts?
‘I’m truly grateful.’
I rushed forward to examine Father’s face.
It had been so long since I’d seen him in that long dream that my heart clenched at the sight.
“Wait, Father. But why does your face look like that….”
His face had become half, half of half—diminished, hollowed.
There was no light in his eyes.
‘This breaks my heart.’
I reached toward Father, though my hands could not touch him.
“Save her.”
At those unexpected words, I froze where I stood.
“My daughter….”
What was he saying?
“You want to save her? To bring Primera back again?”
I turned to look at Oscar.
The repeated failures of the Resurrection Magic he had cast with his own life as the sacrifice.
In that moment, when I saw Oscar’s half-dead eyes flare with sudden brightness—
“Master? Wait, please.”
My heart dropped.
No. No, it couldn’t be.
For some reason my ears felt muffled; I couldn’t hear their conversation clearly.
No. This cannot happen.
“No, Father…. Please don’t do that.”
Why? Why don’t I understand?
If I were to live through Father’s life, I would find no happiness in it.
If such a thing truly came to pass, I would resurrect Father without hesitation, without a second thought.
So truly, truly this would be pointless. Absolutely pointless.
“Could you die in her place?”
Oscar asked.
“No!”
Even knowing it was useless, I screamed out before Father.
“Father! No! No! Don’t do it!”
“As much as you need.”
But Father’s answer came without a moment’s hesitation.
“No, this won’t do….”
My legs gave out beneath me, and I collapsed onto the ground.
* * *
For a brief moment, Enoch and Oscar’s gazes tangled together in a strange, heavy silence.
Oscar smiled mockingly.
“You’re no different.”
Right. There was no way this perceptive man wouldn’t understand.
Whether it was the fact that he’d regressed, accepting this wretched cycle repeating all over again for Lilis’s sake, or whatever else—he knew it all.
“I don’t have time to trade barbs with you.”
Enoch broke the tense atmosphere first.
“There’s no other way. How else would I break this? Only I can do it.”
Oscar grabbed Enoch’s wrist as he moved to thrust his left hand back into the altar.
“Wait, listen. If you’re going to be this crude about it, why did you come with me in the first place?”
Enoch’s eyes narrowed at the strange remark.
What was he saying?
Surely not…?
“Is there actually another method?”
“Didn’t you graduate from the Training Institute? You never learned how to dispel Barrier Magic?”
“You just draw the Magic Formula in reverse.”
“…? You know that much. But then?”
“How am I supposed to know what Magic Formula someone drew thousands of years ago? How would I know what cipher they used?”
“…….”
“…….”
Silence.
‘Ah, right. This man naturally wouldn’t know.’
Somehow.
Oscar blinked slowly, caught in that realization, then quietly averted his gaze from Enoch’s.
“What.”
Without a word, Oscar approached the altar and began drawing something with his index finger, which he’d already cut earlier.
“Don’t tell me….”
Enoch murmured from behind him.
“…Like with the Translocation Magic, is this another method only you know?”
There was no answer.
It seemed he was right.
Watching Oscar’s back as he concentrated on drawing the Magic Formula, Enoch asked, “Are you deciphering the Barrier Magic formula that’s on the barrier? Do you have some way of cracking the cipher of someone else’s Magic Formula?”
Oscar gave no response to Enoch’s sharp question.
This was correct too.
“Ha.”
“What, what. Why. What.”
Hearing Enoch’s derisive snort, Oscar muttered complaints as he drew the Magic Formula.
“Because some garbage human of a Magic Tower Master grimly shuts himself away in the Magic Tower and creates every useful spell imaginable, keeping it all to himself, I feel like I want to punch him out of pure spite?”
Enoch flinched, his lips quivering before he spoke quietly.
“…I hadn’t thought of it that way.”

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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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