My Daddy Hides His Power - Chapter 165

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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 165
Oscar peered out the window with anxious eyes.
Then he glanced once at the guards blocking the doorway.
His mind worked quickly.
“Excuse me.”
He whispered to Enoch.
“I’m leaving in five minutes.”
“What are you planning to do?”
“If the magic unravels in front of them, we’re finished. They’ll discover the impersonation. We can’t let these old men who lent us their identities take the fall for us.”
“True. Do you have a way?”
“The magic needs to break where no one’s watching. I’ll have to slip away in this body—when Cheshire arrives, you’ll need to smooth things over.”
“Understood.”
Enoch nodded, and Oscar immediately raised his hand.
“I need the restroom.”
The guards scowled.
“What’s the problem? I need to go—should I soil myself instead?”
“Ahem. If you could wait just a moment for the captain of the guard to arrive…”
“When’s he coming? Am I supposed to go in my pants right now?”
……
“One of you two can just come with me. I’m not going to cause trouble. Surely two young men can handle one decrepit old body?”
The two guards exchanged uncertain glances.
Soon, one of them nodded.
“Very well. Let’s go.”
“That’s what I thought.”
Oscar left with one guard in tow.
The moment they stepped out, he clenched his fist, then spread his fingers wide, gauging his remaining Mana.
‘Binding the man beside me takes about ten thousand. That’s almost everything I have left. I’ll have to make my escape on my own two feet.’
Every second felt desperate.
If the magic unraveled in front of witnesses, it would be catastrophic.
With Mana burning away relentlessly every second, deliberation was a luxury he couldn’t afford.
“…Huh?”
Oscar immediately immobilized the guard’s legs beside him. The guard stiffened in shock.
But only for a moment.
“S-Stop right there!”
Watching the elderly cleric sprint away, the guard grasped what was happening.
“The vice-prelate is fleeing!!!”
Oscar bolted at full speed.
As he rushed down the stairs―
‘No eyes watching.’
―the magic unraveled right on cue.
Feeling his body transform, Oscar ground his teeth.
‘My Mana depleted twice. Twice in one life.’
Oscar Manuel.
Rank: Dos.
Not only blessed with a keen intellect, but also born with nearly a million Mana—a prodigy of the storied Manuel family.
Naturally, total Mana depletion should have been something he experienced perhaps once in a lifetime, if ever.
And yet!
He’d gone through it twice already!
Once before the Regression, facing Cheshire.
And now.
Remarkably, both times!
‘It’s all because of you! You wretch!’
Lilis Rubinstein!
At this rate, my entire life is mortgaged to you!
The moment he left the lodging house, Oscar quickly stripped off his Pilgrim Cloak and discarded it on the ground.
Now that his height and build had returned to those of a young adult man, the swift knights tracking him wouldn’t catch him easily anymore.
But still…
‘How many people in this place know my face?’
If the Magic Tower’s Master suddenly appeared here, it would raise suspicions no matter what.
Oscar kept his head bowed low, quickening his pace away from the lodging.
‘Five high-ranking priests in the Pilgrimage Group, maybe. Plus Cheshire and Lilis. No nobility I recognize among them. Once I’m clear of this place, there’s no way they’ll find me.’
Thump—!
Lost in thought, someone’s shoulder collided with his left side.
“Damn it!”
“……?”
Damn what?
Oscar stopped short, staring at the stout man before him.
Flushed face. Glazed eyes. The reek of alcohol.
Some drunkard who’d wandered out of a nearby tavern with a good bit of drink in him.
“Hey, you bastard. Hic. Aren’t you gonna apologize? You look so scrawny~ Hic! Couldn’t even throw a decent punch, could ya~?”
“……?”
Scrawny?
Something inside Oscar’s mind snapped like a twig.
Ever since that day when Enoch and his daughter Lilis had treated him like a weak pen-pusher short on muscle.
Oscar had carved out an hour every single day of the past year for strength training, without fail.
All those grueling days of sit-ups leading into push-ups flashed before his eyes.
“Which way did he go!”
“Check over there!”
Behind him, the voices of pursuing guards erupted.
His Mana was nearly spent and couldn’t hold them long, but even accounting for that, they’d caught up remarkably fast.
‘They’re already here.’
Oscar bowed his head again, slipping into shadow.
The guards quickly called out to companions, and three or four more began dispersing to search.
The old man they were hunting was clearly short and gaunt in frame….
Fortunately, they paid no attention to Oscar and moved on.
“I said apologize, you damn fool~!”
The real problem was this drunken bastard.
He kept jabbing Oscar’s shoulder with his index finger, deliberately provoking him.
“What, are you mute? Tsk. Your face though~ Hic! So damn handsome and pretty~!”
Next, the drunk grabbed Oscar’s chin and yanked his head this way and that.
“But a mute’s a shame, really.”
He tapped Oscar’s cheek and made a disapproving sound.
‘What in the world is happening to me right now?’
Was this actually real?
* * *
The Pilgrimage Group arrived safely at the Village, and I unpacked my things in a lodging where I could finally enjoy proper sleep.
Before washing up, I slipped outside.
‘Cheshire said he’d detained those old priest grandfathers, right?’
Those two who said they’d drag me away the moment we reached the Village.
Once Cheshire finished assigning quarters for the Pilgrimage Group, he’d come out to interrogate the two priests, and I came out to join him….
“This is driving me crazy! We have to catch him before the Guard Captain finds out! He couldn’t have gone far!”
“Hey, you idiot! That Assistant Priest was ancient—how did you let him slip away?”
Four guards came rushing out of the Inn where the two priests were being held.
Slip away? An Assistant Priest?
‘Oh no! Don’t tell me Grandpa Oscar ran away?’
I froze, clutching my cheeks.
Losing him was bad enough, but if he actually escaped….
‘There’s definitely something going on. He was the kind of person with hidden motives after all.’
The guards scattered quickly, trying to contain the situation before Cheshire could reprimand them.
“For crying out loud!”
I just stood there bouncing on my toes, helpless.
‘Will I even be able to find him if I join the search?’
The Village streets at night were fairly crowded.
People had come to receive blessings now that the priests had arrived, others clustered outside the various eateries and taverns….
‘Ugh, I’m going crazy.’
Now that I knew a criminal had escaped, I couldn’t just stand by doing nothing.
I looked at my Bracelet.
If he’d hidden somewhere, I’d be able to detect him.
Life Detection’s range scales with the user’s ability Level.
Mana monsters like James Brown drain Life Force at a staggering rate—I wouldn’t even attempt it….
‘But Oscar’s an old man.’
As people age, their Mana depletes.
‘It shouldn’t take much, right?’
Probably five minutes of Life Force per person….
5 years
Huh?!
I stared at the Bracelet, doubting my own eyes.
Really? Five years just to detect an old man’s location?
I can’t possibly spend five years of my own Life Force….
“What, what—what is this….”
How could this be?
Unless… he was hiding his strength like James Brown?
“What on earth are you?”
I clutched my head, reeling in shock.
* * *
“Hey, hiccup! Spit it out, why don’t ya~! You some kinda mute? Damn it, if you can’t apologize with words—hic!—want me to beat it outta ya, huh?”
The Drunkard had Oscar by the collar now, shaking him like a rag doll.
Oscar was completely depleted of Mana.
Even a Master of the Magic Tower, learned in every spell, was helplessly vulnerable in this moment.
He knew full well that the wisest move would be to back away with a quick, even if insincere, “I’m sorry!”—but….
“Your mouth….”
His stubborn pride refused any compromise.
“Oh, what? You can talk?”
“Does a rag grow from your mouth, you idiot? You think you’re the only one who can curse? If you’ve been drinking, go home like a decent person, wash your feet, and sleep—so why drag an innocent stranger like me into this? You got a death wish?”
He leaned in close, spoke quietly, and delivered the words with razor precision.
The Drunkard fell silent, stunned.
“What are you gawping at now, you fool? Eyes not working? And what did you call me before? Scrawny? Did you trade your eyes for a drinking snack? Where exactly am I scrawny, you ignorant bastard?”
If words had destructive power, the man would already be dead.
Even in his stupor, his ears were open—and under the relentless barrage of cutting remarks, fury climbed to the crown of his head.
“You—you—you little bastard!”
Whoosh—
The man’s thick arm swept in a wide arc, hurtling toward him.
But Oscar simply tilted his head back and dodged, sneering.
“There. Just as I thought. That’s the mark of brutes like you—throw a punch first, ask questions later.”
“You, you! Don’t you know who I am, hic!~?”
“Should I care? Who are you? Some failure whose greatest life achievement is being born and breathing?”
…….
“Or maybe all you learned was how to drink yourself senseless at night and pick fights with decent people through that filthy trap of yours?”
Oscar chuckled darkly.
“Which is it?”
There was a weight difference, true….
But Oscar was confident he could dodge the drunken man’s sluggish movements.
Until the half-mad Drunkard pulled a blade from his coat.
……?
He hadn’t expected this.
A knife. Out of nowhere. Not just fists.
Having lived his whole life in Jedo, where basic decency was guaranteed, he’d never accounted for this.
Just then.
“Master?”
At the familiar voice, Oscar spun around in alarm.
What? What’s the girl doing here?
Seeing Lilis’s mouth fall open in shock, Oscar reacted without thinking.
“Hey! Get out! Get far away! This madman’s completely insane! ……Oh.”
Thud.
In a flash, the man lunged and drove his Short Blade deep into Oscar’s left shoulder.

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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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