My Daddy Hides His Power - Chapter 149

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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 149
‘He bears such a striking resemblance.’
Nicholas studied the duke’s face as the thought crossed his mind.
Eyes that gleamed with piercing intensity.
The sharp brilliance radiating from that gaze unmistakably marked them as father and son.
“What brings me here today?”
“Oh, there’s no rush. We can talk at leisure. The night is long.”
Nicholas smiled.
* * *
Two days had passed since the inauguration ceremony.
Mid-March, on an ordinary day.
‘So Theo’s death would have happened around now, wouldn’t it?’
I was heavily burdened with worry.
「Clear blue skies and the sweet scent of warm breezes.
At the end of spring, when all the world seemed achingly beautiful, Theo Antrase finally closed his eyes.
A misfortune, or a mercy?
Over his corpse lay the blue cloak of the Paladin Order—the very mantle he had so desperately longed to wear.
His life had been a ceaseless succession of illness and suffering, yet in death as a knight, he found a happiness he had yearned for….
Cheshire Rubinstein, swallowing back scalding tears, forced himself to believe exactly that.」
According to the original narrative, Theo dies only after formally becoming a Paladin.
The cause of death was Mana Collision.
It was a congenital disease he had suffered from his whole life, the attacks growing more violent with time until one finally claims him—or so it should have been.
‘But I’ve already fixed that.’
Ever since I came to Jedo and gave Theo that Demonic Beast Core, he hasn’t suffered a single attack.
So it’s resolved.
It ought to be resolved….
“Brother, brother, brother!”
“Agh, Lilis!”
Theo spun around and pinched my cheek hard.
“You’re really, truly, honestly fine! Attacks? What are you bringing up something from years ago for? Huh?”
“Mmph-mph-mph!”
“Not a single thing wrong with him, eating well, keeping his Demonic Beast Core with him at all times! Your Highness!”
“Oh my, overdoing it!”
After badgering me for over an hour since morning, even Theo couldn’t take it anymore.
“So stop worrying! You hear me?”
Releasing my cheek, Theo laughed softly and ruffled my hair.
“But still—”
“Stop.”
Theo pressed his index finger to his lips.
“I’m heading to training. You know there’s a Subjugation Expedition in four days. It’s my first deployment with the Elite Force, so I’m incredibly nervous. I need to prepare seriously.”
“Mm. Sorry for being a nuisance.”
“No, I’m grateful you worry about me. But it’s such a random concern.”
Random it certainly was.
Bringing up an illness from years ago that I hardly even remembered anymore—of course it would seem out of nowhere.
“I’ll be back! Let’s have lunch together later!”
Theo grinned at me, pulled me into an embrace, rubbed our cheeks together playfully, and headed out toward the Training Grounds.
“Sigh.”
I turned away from the entrance with a breath.
‘It’s probably needless worry, right? So why does it feel so unsettling?’
Theo is someone whose fate I’ve directly altered myself.
So there’s no reason to worry—and yet, as the season approaches when he was meant to die in the original story, an uneasy dread creeps in.
Like those horror films, you know.
What was it called—Destination something or other….
The one about how humans can never escape their predetermined fate.
Though a premonition dream twisted their destined death, death’s shadow ultimately returns again and again, no matter what—finding its way back!
‘Ugh, it scares me. Just to be safe, I should stay right beside Theo and watch over him until we safely get through this spring.’
Better to err on the side of caution than carelessness….
With that resolve, I turned toward my room—
“Please reconsider!”
“Is that really the best we can do?!”
Two male voices erupted in a roar.
“Good heavens….”
The loud commotion spilling from Father’s study made me jump out of my skin.
* * *
Enoch’s study.
Four men had gathered to conduct a strategic war game ahead of a massive Magical Beast Subjugation.
“I’m asking you to reconsider!”
“Is that really the best we can do?!”
Axion and Enoch had been at each other’s throats for hours now, spread maps between them.
“Gentlemen, please. Compose yourselves. Axion, shouldn’t you defer to the Field Commander’s orders? Enoch is hardly ignorant of warfare.”
A younger man who had been mediating between them spoke up.
His name was Julian—a man with long blue hair loosely tied back.
As Order Commander of the Dos Holy Mage Order, he was a key executive in this Magical Beast Subjugation force.
“Father, I too believe the Field Commander’s strategy is sound.”
Cheshire, who had been listening in silence, chimed in as well. This was his first strategic war game as Commander of the Magic Swordsman Unit.
……
When both commanders sided with Enoch, Axion’s gaze wavered as he stared down at the map spread across the table.
“…It’s Cheshire’s first time as Field Commander.”
“I know. You’re not the type to rail against something just because you don’t understand the situation. Why not just say outright that you’re worried about the boy?”
Enoch rubbed his face wearily, pushing his hair back.
The strategy called for four command units to advance in four cardinal directions from the central combat zone, annihilating the magical beasts.
Axion was worried about his son taking on his first command.
“You and Commander Julian will each take forty in the east and west. I’m taking twenty to the north. And Cheshire will have eighty in the south. I’m fully aware this is his first command, and I’ve accounted for all of it.”
The southern sector—the easiest to subjugate—had the most troops deployed.
This troop distribution was a strategy that showed overwhelming consideration for Cheshire in his first command.
Of course, Axion knows this too.
If the Field Commander were anyone but Cheshire….
He would have followed without objection.
“Even so, it’s too much. Handing over command the moment he takes the rank of Commander? Cheshire still lacks experience. I’ll go with him.”
“What are you talking about? Then what do we do about the east?”
“Can’t we request reinforcements from His Majesty? The Holy Fist Order Commander’s not doing anything.”
Enoch let out a hollow laugh as if he found the idea absurd.
“Don’t you know the majority of the beasts we’re facing this time are flying types? You’d take the fist fighters as one body and create a graveyard for them?”
There was a reason the fist fighters—who couldn’t unleash Sword Aura and specialized in close-range combat—had been excluded from this subjugation.
Axion, of course, knew this too.
It was simply that he worried about Cheshire.
“This is maddening. Really.”
Their disagreement showed no sign of narrowing.
This strategy session, begun at dawn, had already stretched past six hours.
* * *
‘Are they fighting?’
I was standing with my ear pressed to the study door, trying to eavesdrop.
“Oof!”
Suddenly the door swung open from inside.
My tilted body tumbled straight into someone’s arms.
I snapped my head up—it was Cheshire.
“Shh.”
He startled, then quickly glanced back, noticed the situation, and stepped out, closing the door behind him.
“Is it over?”
When I asked, Cheshire shook his head.
“…It looks like it’ll take a while longer.”
“Does it usually take this long? You’ve been at it since dawn, and it’s already lunchtime?”
“Well….”
Cheshire hesitated before speaking.
“Uncle and Father… they don’t quite see eye to eye.”
Father and Axion?
In the original story, they’d been like two halves of one whole, so this surprised me.
“What’s the disagreement about?”
“…What about the others?”
Cheshire continued exhaling long, heavy sighs as he asked about the whereabouts of the twins.
“They both went out to train.”
“I see.”
Cheshire studied me for a moment, then tilted his head subtly toward the door.
“Want to step outside for a bit?”
* * *
“…That’s how it came to be.”
“Hmm, I understand.”
Cheshire set down the twig he’d been holding once he finished his explanation.
He’d even drawn careful diagrams in the dirt of the Training Grounds to make sure I could follow along.
“So in short, Uncle keeps second-guessing the strategy Father came up with, right? And the reason is because he’s worried about you?”
“Yes.”
“I completely understand where Uncle’s coming from, honestly. You commanding without any adults around—that’s your first time doing it.”
“Calling it ‘commanding’ is embarrassing. The southern front is easiest to subdue because of the terrain, and it’s the safest.”
“Still, with people you never know what might happen. Who knows when some unexpected situation could arise?”
“That’s why he’s stationing eighty soldiers in the south. Even though he knows it’s wasteful—because of me.”
Cheshire hugged his knees and let out another deep sigh.
“…I just don’t understand it. Why Father would go against the Field Commander’s orders just to worry about me.”
Axion’s overprotectiveness seemed to genuinely baffle him.
“Am I really that untrustworthy?”
“No, Cheshire. I know you’re strong—everyone does. But actual combat is different. That’s why experienced people take command positions, isn’t it?”
“True, but I have to take on that role someday. You have to build that experience somehow.”
That was fair too. Which is probably why Father had given Cheshire such a significant responsibility.
‘Both Father and Uncle—I understand them both.’
I patted Cheshire’s shoulder and found myself thinking of Axion.
‘The best father there is.’
Truth be told, I never expected him to care for Cheshire quite this much.
In the original story, the two of them didn’t really have any deep connection.
But perhaps it was because of everything that had happened between them?
Axion treated Cheshire like a true son born of his own blood, and I found that sight truly beautiful.
So honestly, I wanted to take Axion’s side over Father’s.
Because his feelings made so much sense to me!
A child in your arms will always seem like a child, no matter how grown they become, and you worry about everything they do.
And sending them to a battlefield where life and death hang in the balance….
“Anyway, let’s go back inside. My stomach’s growling.”
“Oh, all right.”
I’d grab a bite and think about it more carefully then.
Just as Cheshire and I were stepping back into the house,
“Hey, that’s right! You go ahead and do as you see fit!”
“Finish what you’re saying and then go!”
We froze solid in the entryway, startled.
Downstairs, Axion and Father were locked in a furious argument, veins standing out in their necks.
“So you’re saying I’m nitpicking every little thing? I only asked you to reconsider this once—just once—because I think he’s too young for it.”
“Is there another way? I’ve drawn soldiers from every available source, and Cheshire is the most capable among them, so I made him Field Commander. Cheshire has proven his ability more than sufficiently. Surely you don’t think I’m sending him there to die?”
“You can’t be sure of that. He’s not your biological son, after all.”
“What?”
Oh….
The temperature of their words kept rising….
I clamped my jaw shut and cast a sidelong glance at Cheshire beside me.
His expression was complicated.
“How can someone who’s rolled around and lived like that show such a lack of rational judgment? You know yourself you’re spouting nonsense here.”
“I apologize for being irrational. But can you always be so rational? Is that why you deserted?”
“What?”
Wow….
This was intense. Too intense….
“Would it be the same if she were your daughter?”
“Why are you bringing Lilis into this all of a sudden?”
“Think about it. If she were your daughter, would you have sent her to command an Elite Force right after she earned the badge at such a young age?”
“How are the two of them the same?”
“Exactly. That’s just what I thought you’d say.”
Axion, who had been laughing uproariously just moments before, suddenly froze. His expression hardened, and he turned away.
……
Only then did he notice me and Cheshire standing in the entrance. He hesitated.
“Stay put. That’s an order.”
“…You’re one to talk about orders when you’re the one deserting.”
With that, I walked out, dripping with sarcasm at Father’s words.
‘Wow, this is a mess….’
Father stared after Axion through the open door, then turned sharply on his heel and stalked toward his office.
“Um, what do we do…?”
……
Cheshire looked equally helpless.
How on earth were we supposed to fix this?
So much for loyalty….

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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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