My Daddy Hides His Power - Chapter 142

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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 142
The crowd trembled at the Emperor, at Primera’s power.
A single gesture—and a life snuffed out.
He looked like a god himself.
“G-great Primera!”
“Your Majesty!”
Axion let out a hollow laugh watching the crowd revere the Emperor.
‘So that’s why he came in person—to put on a show.’
Axion’s gaze wandered listlessly before he froze.
Cheshire’s expression, standing beside him.
‘…What’s that look?’
Unlike the others who shrank back in awe and fear at the Emperor’s power, Cheshire seemed to be drinking it in with elation.
It was no misconception.
He was trembling at the surge of emotion roiling through him.
‘Lilis, now I think I understand why you were so afraid of him.’
Even Enoch, the strongest person Cheshire had ever known, and Lilis herself, who was Primera.
They both feared the Emperor’s power unnaturally.
Cheshire, who had never experienced it himself, found it hard to understand even while knowing of it—but after Lilis fell into that madness, he felt it acutely.
A being so powerful he could threaten you with a single gesture.
A demon who could seize an angel’s wings without mercy and break them.
Cheshire gazed at his face, wanting to engrave it upon his heart.
Killing Intent.
The engine that would drive him forward.
* * *
The High Priest was dead.
Jedo was thrown into chaos, and two months had swept by since.
“Sigh.”
The year had changed, and I’d turned eight.
‘Still, I’ve been working pretty hard since coming to Jedo more than half a year ago….’
Naturally, the Emperor wasn’t the easygoing sort, so I’d been feeling rather gloomy lately.
Of course, trying to pull off in half a year what took ten years was the thinking of a thief.
‘Ugh, this isn’t easy….’
I slumped down listlessly and worked through the homework Oscar had given me.
“Why won’t you sit up straight and solve it?”
“Oh! Master!”
Oscar appeared, dropping a textbook thick as a club right in front of me with a thud.
“What is it?”
“Is that the homework I gave you last week? Stop that and start on this instead, from today.”
I opened the book.
And I was stunned.
‘…P-projective geometry?’
That’s something you learn in university math!
Even if I wracked my brain and dredged up my past life, I couldn’t solve this.
I wasn’t a math major back then.
“M-Master….”
“Let’s get through thirty pages today.”
Oscar spoke coldly, crossed her legs, and settled into her own book.
“Do I really have to solve things like this…?”
“Yes. I said I’d teach you the Teleportation Magic Formula. You need to understand this to use it.”
“Oh, I see. But do I really have to know the Teleportation Magic Formula? Nobody else knows it anyway, so what good is it if only I understand it…?”
“Listen. What if something dangerous happens later? If you use your ability to escape, it’d be convenient. But if you use magic that doesn’t exist, won’t people get suspicious?”
“…Now that you mention it, you’re right.”
“Get started.”
She’s telling me to solve it without explaining anything.
Though she probably knows I understand it all anyway.
“Master, I need to confess something.”
“What?”
“I was a humanities major….”
“What? What does that mean?”
“I wasn’t a math major.”
“…?”
Watching Oscar’s puzzled expression, I smiled sheepishly.
I wasn’t a genius—I just had many memories, so I solved the problems. Oscar probably understood that much already, but….
It felt awkward coming from my own mouth.
“Well, you see… in the world where I lived before. I studied Vector well enough because I was tutoring the children, so I knew that much….”
“….”
“This thing you gave me today, Projective Geometry—that’s something only math majors at university study, so I don’t really know it. I’ve never learned it….”
It was half-gibberish, but Oscar seemed to catch the gist of what I was saying—his lips curved upward.
“Ah, so what you’re saying is, unlike what you’ve been doing so far, you need this teacher’s proper instruction now?”
“T-teacher.”
Oscar laughed wickedly.
He looked all too eager to put me through my paces.
“Wait!”
Fortunately, I had a bribe.
I pulled out the pretty gift box I’d stashed in the corner of the desk.
“It’s a present!”
“What is it?”
“Open it and see.”
Oscar tilted his head curiously and opened the box.
Inside was a beautiful Quill Pen.
“Whoa! This is super expensive! I saved up my allowance bit by bit to buy it!”
“…Why are you suddenly giving me this?”
“Because today’s your birthday! February eighteenth!”
Oscar’s eyes widened.
I grinned.
“I don’t have anything left to learn about you anymore~!”
“….”
Oscar regarded the gift with an odd expression for a long moment.
He seemed to like it, thankfully.
“Happy eighteenth birthday. I’ll celebrate your birthday for you next year, the year after, and ten years from now when you’re twenty-eight, thirty-eight, forty-eight, fifty-eight….”
“That’s enough, that’s enough.”
“…Anyway, I’ll celebrate your birthday for you for the rest of your life!”
Oscar looked down at me with deepened eyes and said, “All right.”
I giggled and whispered.
“Teacher, teacher! On your birthday, how about we don’t study and just play instead?”
Oscar laughed and leaned in close, then flicked the tip of my nose.
Then he said:
“Open your book, princess.”
“…Fine.”
* * *
Central Domain, Baltrak Temple.
A man sat alone and motionless in the spacious prayer hall, his back visible.
As Joseph approached, the man who had been praying—Enoch—turned around.
“You came.”
“It’s been a while since we’ve met here. It was the first place I ever saw you, after all. How did your Poker skills fare?”
“Not at all. No talent for it.”
Joseph, holding Poker Cards in his hand, sat beside him with a snicker.
Then, as if he had never smiled at all, his expression sharpened and he began to speak.
“The Temple’s power has diminished. The Emperor lost something significant in this affair.”
The High Priest, who had spread False Prophecy and deceived the Divine, was dead.
The Emperor had punished him directly, putting on a performance to demonstrate his authority and escape the crisis, but….
Even so, he had clearly taken a blow.
“It’s been revealed that Divine Will seeks peace. So the Emperor cannot hastily create an atmosphere of war right now.”
“That would be true.”
Enoch felt, at least somewhat, as though a weight had lifted from his chest.
“From now on, the Emperor will redeploy the Temple’s personnel, rebuild its tarnished authority, and work to stabilize the mood in Jedo.”
“….”
“It’s a moment to hold one’s breath and lay the groundwork for a comeback.”
Joseph added with a smile.
“This is rather a favorable opportunity for us. Your Excellency needn’t trouble himself with warfare for some time yet.”
“All the more reason we must move without pause.”
“Precisely. Our final objective isn’t to sever the Emperor’s head, but to shake and ultimately dismantle the Class System that forms the very foundation of the Empire.”
The two men exchanged their plans in earnest tones for a long while.
As Enoch was about to leave,
“Don’t you ever stop that?”
He laughed, gesturing at the cards that had been fluttering brilliantly in Joseph’s hands the entire time.
“Ah, it’s been ages since I’ve been to the Central Domain—I thought I’d play a hand before I go. You can’t pass a mill without stopping to gamble.”
“People really don’t change, do they.”
“At least I quit smoking.”
Enoch chuckled. Joseph, who had been laughing alongside him, suddenly grew serious and added,
“Your Excellency.”
“Hmm.”
“I don’t bet on games I can’t win.”
……
“It will be a long struggle, certainly, but I entered it because I’ve foreseen a future where we triumph. So steel yourself and don’t give in to doubt.”
Joseph smiled thinly.
“In the end, it will be you who laughs last.”
Every conversation with Joseph left Enoch reassured.
A man to be grateful for.
“Though,”
Enoch nodded and deliberately cast off the anxiety from his face, speaking with forced levity.
“Are you really certain you jumped into this because the odds favored us? You didn’t decide to help me just because of our little princess, did you?”
“Well, I wouldn’t say it was entirely unrelated….”
“Ha ha ha!”
They laughed together for a while.
Joseph rose and shuffled the cards.
“Since you’re here after so long—care for a game?”
“No. You play alone.”
Enoch gave a slight shrug.
“I can’t do it without our princess.”
* * *
With the High Priest dead and the Emperor now lacking one arm,
this window while he struggled to recover was opportunity for Enoch.
A moment to kindle the winds of revolution.
“Princess!”
Enoch gazed up at the blue sky and called out to his daughter almost idly, then smiled.
What it meant to become a parent.
It seemed like a miraculous thing, now that he thought of it.
That for one’s child, one could do anything, become stronger in any way….
“Dad loves you! So, so much!!!”
His words, spoken from the heart, rang out across the peaceful sky as though carving themselves into the air.
The man renewed a vow he had made countless times before, speaking it silently once more.
Princess.
For your sake,
Dad will do anything.
* * *
The Year of the Empire 1783, the third month.
On a certain day in early spring, when new life stirred.
The Antrace household was bustling with activity from morning.
“I really am devastatingly handsome.”
Leon Antrace lingered long before the mirror.
Once he’d tidied his hair—which Lilis complained about every day, saying he ought to keep it neat—it genuinely looked different.
“Heh heh. The little one isn’t going to fall for me just because of this, is she?”
Leon ran his hand through his neatly swept bangs and laughed with conceited pleasure.
Perhaps because his facial lines had grown subtly sharper as he matured, unlike his twin brother Theo who bore their father’s features,
he appeared more mature than his years.
“Butler, my cloak!”
“Yes, young master!”
The butler waiting behind him draped a crimson cloak across his shoulders.
A crimson cloak and black armor bearing the Imperial Army’s seal sat regally upon him.
The very symbol of the Magic Sword Unit.
“Looks sharp,” he said.
Leon grinned, fastened the Ruby Earring to his right ear, and buckled his sword at his hip.
“Well then, let’s head out—wait, hold on!”
Leon, who had been about to leave the room, suddenly pressed himself flat against the wall.
“Butler, check this for me.”
“Of course, sir.”
The butler’s eyes trembled as he studied the wall behind Leon. Etched into it were measurement marks, clearly a height chart.
“Young master, if you’d just take your heels down…”
“I wasn’t standing on my toes this time!”
“Of course not, sir.”
The butler shook his head slowly as he examined the markings.
“178 centimeters, sir…”
“Nooo!”
Leon wailed in despair.
“Young master, please don’t lose heart. At your age, where could you possibly find someone as tall as you? You’re two centimeters taller than Young Master Theo, after all.”
“Cheshire! That bastard! He’s already over 180!”
“Well, that’s just because Libre is unnaturally developed, sir.”
Perhaps it was all the excessive physical exertion and warfare at an age when he shouldn’t have been subjected to it. The boys had grown at an abnormal rate during their formative years.
The butler could not fathom how the young master, who had already grown to a height that everyone envied, remained dissatisfied.
“I eat two bowls at every meal, so why won’t I grow? Why!”
“You’ll still grow, sir.”
“What do you mean I’ll still grow! Boys are fully grown at sixteen! Father himself said my height now is the same as when he was sixteen!”
“That’s not true at all, sir. You really will grow more. If you’re truly worried about it, starting today, have three bowls instead of two. But it’s already late—you should depart at once.”
The butler tried to soothe Leon.
Voices calling from outside grew more insistent.
“Son, come out here!”
“Leon, what in heaven’s name are you doing? Hurry up! We’ll be late!”
The voices of his father Aleksei and his twin brother Theo.
“I’m coming! Let’s go!”
Leon exhaled sharply, threw the door open wide, and flashed a grin.
Leon Antrace, sixteen years old.
Today was his formal Knighting Ceremony.

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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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