My Daddy Hides His Power - Chapter 153

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Father Hides His Strength
Chapter 153
* * *
‘Please, please….’
He could feel the body on his back growing cold.
Cheshire ran without pause through the Ravine, cutting through the underbrush, carrying Theo on his back.
‘I was a fool.’
Axion’s concern about the young commander had become reality.
“Just a little longer, just hold on a little longer….”
This was his mistake.
That Theo had ended up like this.
And now, in this moment, after claiming Lilis’s help was unnecessary, he was going to call for her anyway.
A bitter self-reproach weighed on him.
* * *
“If anything dangerous happens, break this.”
A sky-blue shell-shaped Magical Device.
Cheshire had thrust it toward Lilis without a second thought.
“I don’t need it.”
“Take it with you. You never know what might happen.”
“If I break it? That means you’ll know there’s danger? Then you’ll come to me? Or use your power? Is that what you’re saying?”
“Yes. That’s exactly what I’m saying.”
Lilis—whose identity had to remain hidden.
Didn’t she understand what dangers she’d have to face if this thing broke?
No, she had to understand.
She was saying she didn’t care if she had to sacrifice herself in the worst-case scenario.
“No matter what happens, don’t break it.”
That infuriated Cheshire.
I keep holding my sword, hoping you survive to the very end, hoping you live….
Everyone is striving desperately to protect you alone….
So why do you treat your own life so carelessly?
“If this requires Primera’s power, then there’s nothing but a death crisis waiting. In that case, I’ll just die. So don’t break it.”
“Wow, you’re really saying that—”
Lilis had flared up instead.
“Why do you talk about dying so easily? Don’t you think about how I feel hearing that?”
“You’re angry?”
“Of course I am!”
“Lilis.”
Cheshire spoke, his fists clenching.
“…I feel the same way you do right now. I’m furious too.”
…….
“What kind of meaning is there in breaking this in the middle of the battlefield and calling you? Do you really think I’d sell your life to save my own?”
Lilis was taken aback, watching Cheshire—who rarely grew angry.
“Please, don’t be like this.”
Cheshire suppressed the surge of emotion.
And avoiding Lilis’s gaze, he spoke an earnest truth too shameful to reveal.
“Do you know what your survival is to me?”
Only,
your existence.
“…You’re not saying you don’t know that.”
…….
In the end, Lilis, after thinking hard for a long while, spoke.
“You’re not worried about me. I didn’t want to say it in case it troubled your heart, but I have a bad feeling something’s going to happen to Theo.”
…….
“I know you won’t die. You’re strong. But I’m worried about more than just you. Theo is one of them. Since they said you and Theo would stay together this time….”
Lilis seemed desperate to press the Magical Device into her own hands.
“I hope it doesn’t break either. Don’t break it. Never break it. But just in case, truly just in case….”
…….
Cheshire gazed at the Magical Device that Lilis had finally placed in his hands.
Every word I said was sincere.
Even if I have to die, I won’t let you fall into danger.
―That’s how it is.
* * *
“Cheshire. Still, I’m a fighter too…. I don’t like hiding in the back. I want to fight up front with you.”
“Brother, I’m not sending you back to hide. There are so many troops, and I can’t command the entire rear by myself. So I’m leaving the back lines to you.”
Cheshire spoke carefully so as not to wound Theo’s pride, but they all understood.
Theo, whose body harbored equal parts Holy Power and Mana in perfect balance.
His constitution meant he could trigger unforeseen disasters on the Battlefield at any moment—and Cheshire, aware of this danger, wanted to keep him somewhere safe.
“Ha, ha….”
Why had he done it?
Unaware of his own exhaustion, Cheshire retreated into the depths of the Ravine and wondered.
It would have been better, dangerous or not, to keep his brother in front of him where he could watch over him and fight together.
Foolish. Why had he made that choice?
He had spent years hearing, ad nauseam, that the Battlefield was a place where the unexpected could happen at any moment.
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry, brother….”
He had wielded a blade for four years now, yet he had never experienced the death of a comrade close to him.
Cheshire needed to find his composure, but he could not.
“Please, just a little….”
The weight of Theo’s body on his back grew heavier with each step.
Whether from his own exhaustion or from Theo’s strength failing and his body going slack….
He could not tell.
…….
Far from his own forces.
Cheshire found a fortress that looked like a cave wedged in a quiet section of the Ravine and laid Theo down at once.
Broken armor. The gaping wound in his abdomen was grave.
Theo stood at the threshold between life and death—a line he could cross in less than a minute, perhaps in mere seconds.
With trembling hands, Cheshire withdrew the Magical Device from Lilis from his breast and shattered it.
* * *
‘Something’s wrong.’
Enoch thought this as he urged his horse forward swiftly.
Why?
Though the Subjugation had begun, the number of beasts in the eastern sector under his command was far fewer than expected.
Moreover, several of them seemed to circle in midair, observing the movements of the Subjugation forces rather than attacking.
‘They were definitely on guard. As if they were protecting something.’
The group of beasts, hovering at a distance, merely flapped their wings.
An ill feeling crept over him.
Ever since the dream he’d had yesterday….
‘If the beasts have something they must protect, it would almost certainly be their young.’
There could be a Breeding Ground nearby.
Since its location could not be determined in advance, it was a contingency that arose frequently during Subjugations.
‘But it should be fine.’
Even if a Breeding Ground existed in the south, Cheshire would be more than capable of handling it.
“C-Commander, sir!”
When he arrived at the southern Subjugation sector.
Enoch caught his breath at the sight before him.
‘As I thought.’
The hollow interior of the Cave Fortress.
A Breeding Ground lay exposed before him.
Yet hundreds of eggs, it seemed, had been bisected all at once and lay shattered; corpses lay strewn about the area.
Already subdued.
Fortunately, nearly all of the Subjugation troops appeared unscathed.
“Commander, sir, how did you—ah, I’m Rayan, a Holy Mage of the Healing lineage, serving with the Dos Holy Mage Order.”
“I see. So there was a Breeding Ground here.”
“Yes. But the commander….”
“He took care of it?”
“That’s right. Cheshire executed the Elevado….”
Rayan still muttered in disbelief.
Elevado.
A technique wielded by Swordmasters who have reached the pinnacle of the blade.
Cheshire had perfected Elevado only days ago.
That was precisely why Enoch, even as he had ridden here half-doubting, had inwardly believed everything would be fine.
“But Commander.”
Rayan added hastily.
“We’ve completed the Breeding Ground Subjugation, but the Commander ordered the troops to stand by and abandoned the front lines.”
“What?”
Enoch’s chest, which had only just begun to settle, dropped like a stone.
“What do you mean? He’s not here? Where did he go?”
“We don’t know either. He ordered us absolutely not to follow, so we had no choice but to obey.”
“You should have at least asked why!”
“My apologies. But he took Theo with him.”
“…Theo?”
“Yes. In fact, Theo was the one who first discovered the Breeding Ground. He was stationed in the rear of the army, but he insisted on doing something, so he personally searched through the Ravine thoroughly.”
“I see.”
There must have been a mother guardian the Breeding Ground. Usually the strongest specimen among them.
Enoch grasped at once what must have happened to Theo.
“You don’t mean Theo was wounded? Was he healed?”
“That… I’m sorry. It was beyond my ability.”
Rayan bowed his head.
“He was in Mortal state—beyond the reach of Healing Magic, with fatal internal wounds, hovering on the edge of death.”
“…What did you just say?”
Enoch’s vision swam.
If a Holy Mage of Dos rank, mastered in Healing Magic, had diagnosed him as beyond saving—
Then death was certain.
Even if breath still clung to him, there was nothing to be done.
“That’s…”
Of course Cheshire couldn’t save Theo either. But then why would he abandon the front lines so abruptly, taking Theo with him?
He ordered the troops not to follow under any circumstances, moving alone in secret…
“Ah.”
Enoch gripped his head.
Cheshire must have been trying to save Theo by any means possible.
There had to be some method—otherwise he wouldn’t have moved alone with a mortally wounded man.
But what method could there be?
Who but a god could save a man standing at death’s threshold?
Yes. Only a god could.
Someone with the power of a god…
Only Primera.
“Surely not…”
Enoch’s breathing turned ragged.
He couldn’t fathom what Cheshire meant to do, but one thing was certain.
If he was seeking help, it could only be Lilis.
‘How could…?’
The ominous dream that had robbed him of sleep night after night surfaced in his bleached mind.
A battlefield wreathed in smoke.
My child, Lilis, trembling among the roaring beasts.
Enoch thrashed with all his remaining strength to reach her.
And then.
Just as he came close enough to grasp her small hand—
“Father!”
He lost her.
The Emperor materialized in an instant, his serpentine, nauseating smile spreading wide, and pulled her away.
The child was dragged off helplessly.
“No, I can’t…”
Once again, the fear that rendered even the strongest man infinitely weak coiled around his throat.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————