My Daddy Hides His Power - Chapter 171

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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 hides his power
Chapter 171
“Father….”
Tears threatened to spill from my eyes, but I held them back and nodded with a smile.
“Okay, I understand.”
When the light withdraws,
the sacrifice will begin, as fate demands.
I gazed down at the lake glowing blue behind Father.
The “light” spoken of in the Revelation.
That must be….
the blue radiance enveloping the lake, visible only to my eyes.
‘Just as I thought… it’s grown so much fainter than before.’
That light will soon vanish.
The Revelation must manifest at the moment the pilgrimage departs.
“You know… Father doesn’t like it when people suffer and die either, right?”
“…Yes.”
“You do your work so that everyone can be happy and safe.”
“…….”
“So… I think this is the right thing.”
I nodded and spoke.
“God gave me a long lifespan, so if I can save many people with my time… then that’s what I should do, isn’t it?”
Father said nothing.
Complex emotions swirled in his eyes as he gazed at me intently.
1 year
The moment the fading light disappeared.
I asked what I needed to do, and God demanded one year of my time.
It was extraordinary.
Enough time for me to grow without my identity being exposed, and enough to save people.
It was the lifespan I had chosen in my heart.
“I don’t like living long and alone. Father, and Master, and Cheshire—you’ll all leave me behind. I’d be so sad and lonely.”
“…Yes.”
“I don’t need to live long, Father. I want to grow old together with the people I love, and die the same way.”
“…….”
Father’s lips trembled as he looked at me, then he pulled me into a tight embrace.
“Father, I’m proud of you. You’re my hero.”
“…Yes. I love you, our daughter. So very much.”
“Me too. I love you too, Father.”
1 year
Over the lake, a beautiful light rose again.
At the same time, a subtle sense of wrongness.
My bangs, now longer, obscured my vision.
“…….”
Father’s eyes, which had been watching me intently at close range, widened.
Soon, his trembling breath was released through parted lips.
“Ah….”
With a small whimper, Father embraced me again, so tightly it ached.
* * *
After completing the final prayer of the Holy Pilgrimage, the pilgrimage group was preparing to depart.
“I’ll only use it for one year. Any longer would be too dangerous. If we need more, then…. I’ll just pretend I don’t know and come back. Promise!”
Oscar, who had been waiting, spotted Lilis and Enoch returning to camp.
He started toward them, then stopped short.
“…Damn.”
A curse slipped out immediately.
Cheshire’s face, standing beside him, turned pale in an instant.
“Cheshire! Master…, Grandfather Oscar!”
Lilis ran toward them with her usual radiant expression.
To those who saw her face every day, the change was unmistakable.
Dangerously so.
“You.”
Oscar quickly approached and, under the guise of patting Lilis’s head, used Magic to tidy her hair.
Then he leaned in close, his voice dropping to something frightening.
“You did keep the promise, right? Exactly as we agreed?”
“Yes, of course. It took exactly one year.”
Yes, she’d likely kept her word.
But the reason the change was so visible, so unsettling, was…
The girl had spent a year of her lifespan to save Theo only recently.
Which meant she’d used nearly two years all at once, and since she was still growing, the transformation showed all the more starkly.
“I’m losing my mind, seriously. So—did it work? Is it resolved?”
“Yes, probably!”
Lilis cheered as she watched the villagers who had come to see off the pilgrimage distribute flowers.
“Wow! I need to get flowers too!”
Unable to see her own reflection, Lilis remained endlessly innocent.
Perhaps she was simply overjoyed at the thought of having saved these people who were laughing and talking so naturally.
“A true saint has arrived.”
Oscar watched Lilis dart into the crowd in her excitement, then spun on his heel.
“The lives of strangers you don’t even know were worth more than her remaining years? You could have at least tried to talk her out of it….”
As Oscar approached Enoch, who had been standing apart, he froze when he saw the man’s face up close.
“…Hey. What’s wrong? Are you all right?”
Enoch stood barely upright, his eyes hollow.
“No, I’m not.”
……
“I never meant for it to be like this….”
Enoch murmured vacantly.
“The truth is… every second of my child’s life is worth more than the lives of dozens of people. But I couldn’t bring myself to say that to her.”
……
“They say I’m a hero. It’s ridiculous.”
Enoch added with self-mockery.
“They think I fight for some grand cause. That I’m living out some noble father’s duty that doesn’t even exist.”
He was no saint.
He was a selfish father, more than anyone.
He’d taken up the sword not for the sublime reason his daughter believed, but for something far more desperate.
“I only picked up this blade to save my daughter, to keep her alive….”
The confession spilled out without shame.
“My daughter is proud of me. And I can’t betray that hope in her eyes, no matter what I do.”
Oscar, who had been listening quietly, nodded.
“You’re right. Ever since you became a father, you’ve been the most selfish man alive. But children never understand their parents’ hearts.”
……
“Your daughter—she’s not spending her lifespan for something as simple as feeling sorry for people.”
Oscar looked directly at Enoch.
“She’s protecting her father’s conviction.”
Enoch exhaled sharply.
He covered his eyes and laughed at himself again.
“Until a blade touches the Emperor’s throat, she just doesn’t want there to be innocent blood spilled along the way—blood shed for a cause that’s different from her father’s belief.”
“It’s painful, having to hide what a worthless father I am so carefully.”
“Keep hiding it. Don’t say anything weak and disappoint the girl.”
Oscar glanced toward Lilis in the distance before continuing.
“And for her sake… we can’t afford to fail.”
* * *
“Huh?”
Before Lilis could even slip into the crowd, Cheshire caught her.
“Why?”
Cheshire pulled the hood of her pilgrim’s cloak down over her face.
“Just stay still here. I’ll collect the flowers for you.”
……?
Only then did Lilis notice that Cheshire’s face had gone completely pale.
“Oh… Did I grow a lot?”
Cheshire bit down hard on his trembling lips.
He had never felt this anxious before.
Surely no one would connect a gifted commoner to Primera.
So everyone would just think a girl in her growth years had simply grown taller….
He was seized by the fear that someone would uncover Lilis’s true identity at any moment.
“C-Cheshire. Your expression is… intense.”
Lilis, catching the alarm, clutched at her own cheeks and stammered.
“What is it? How much have I grown, really…?”
“Ah.”
He’d made her anxious.
Cheshire shook his head with effort.
“No. It’s fine. Nothing’s… nothing’s wrong.”
……
Yet Lilis’s face remained pallid.
Cheshire stared down at her in a daze. And then….
“…Cheshire?”
Unable to contain the surge of emotion, he pulled her into his arms.
“Wh-what?”
“You’ll be safe.”
The anxiety that hunted him daily would never cease.
Not until the Emperor was dead.
Yet even with all preparations complete, Cheshire could still do nothing.
That damned pretext….
They said he had to wait, even after severing the Emperor’s head, for the act to be deemed justified.
Why?
When Lilis’s identity could be exposed at any moment.
When he had to endure each day on this precarious, frozen surface of fear.
When the shackles clamped around your ankles must be melted away slowly.
I could shatter it right now, this very instant.
“Don’t be afraid.”
Though no one knew it….
He was not under anyone’s control.
The moment something holding him back snapped, he could act however he chose.
If Enoch failed?
Even if he succeeded, but too late?
Lilis still had to live.
Because he’d promised.
“No matter what happens, you’ll be safe.”
……
“I’ll make sure of it.”
A simple answer was right before him.
Even if he struck down the Emperor with an unjustified blade and stood upon the scaffold….
She would be beyond harm.
He and the demon would simply fall into hell together.
* * *
Jedo, the Libre Duchy.
The day the son returned from completing the Holy Pilgrimage escort.
“What’s this, then?”
Axion’s eyes narrowed as he stepped forward to greet them at the entrance.
Cheshire, whom he hadn’t seen in two weeks, had returned with two unexpected extra mouths.
“Father, I’m home.”
“Well enough. But what’s this?”
“What do you mean? My closest comrades. How’ve you been?”
Enoch shuffled in, lugging a large duffel bag.
“It’s just… there are so many people at our house right now, it’s getting a bit crowded. Could we impose on your hospitality for a while? A month? Two?”
“What? Since when hasn’t your house been full of people? What’s suddenly become a problem?”
“Mm. Uncle, hello.”
Lilis trailed in behind Enoch like a duckling.
“Ah, yes.”
He nodded at her greeting absently, then turned back to Enoch—and froze.
‘What…?’
Axion spun back to look at Lilis.
“Goodness, how much have you grown in that time?”
A casual question, thrown without much thought.
Yet for some reason, Cheshire, Enoch, and Lilis all froze in place.
Axion blinked his eyes.
“What? Why are you all standing like that?”

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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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