My Daddy Hides His Power - Chapter 178

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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 Conceals His Strength
Episode 178
The moment everything went white.
Oscar tightened his grip on the hand he was holding with Lilis.
‘Stay still.’
That was what he meant.
Lilis, glancing down, kept her mouth firmly shut. Only her trembling hands betrayed the shock coursing through her.
“What is this commotion?”
Stay calm.
When he heard the Emperor’s voice drawing near, Oscar immediately pulled Lilis close and threw a shield around them both.
From now on, it was all performance.
“What kind of lunatic brings a weapon to a place like this? You didn’t sheathe your sword?”
He needed to show that Lilis hadn’t fallen into the Emperor’s hands—that she was safe.
“Do you have any idea where you are, waving that thing around like some fool?”
Oscar kept Lilis secure in his embrace, making a show of it, while fixing Cheshire with a glare.
Cheshire’s gaze remained fixed on Lilis.
There was no tension in his eyes, no fear—only the careful assessment of her condition.
“I said sheathe your blade. And you lot—what exactly are you doing with the imperial coffers while you’re at it?”
Oscar shot a bitter look at the Advisor, Ramon, grinding his teeth.
“Oh, a misunderstanding, Your Majesty. It was the inner doors opening suddenly that… Cheshire requested a private audience with Your Majesty and came here. As for the weapon, he was just about to return it and wait—”
“What?”
Oscar felt the Emperor’s presence shift closer.
The moment he saw Cheshire’s gaze turn toward the newcomer, Oscar held his breath.
That man was unpredictable—anyone could see it.
Would he sheathe his sword once he’d confirmed Lilis was safe?
A man who seemed willing to embrace death—what if he decided that dying here alongside the Emperor was the easier path?
“Ah…”
As if struck by the same thought, Lilis stirred in his arms, trying to break free.
If she were to stop Cheshire now…
“No.”
Oscar whispered quietly, pulling her tight against him.
I’ve done what I could.
Whatever choice that man makes…
You’ll survive. That’s what matters.
“Your Majesty!!!”
Just then, Axion came rushing in, breathing heavily.
“Please—grant immediate support from Ability Users to the Disaster Zone.”
“What?”
“Ah, Lord Axion? This is most irregular. To enter the imperial palace without proper procedure…”
Ramon gasped in shock.
The palace attendants who had followed Axion’s rushed arrival trembled, faces drained of color, in his wake.
“Hah. This really is something.”
The Emperor’s expression darkened.
Though everyone else shook at the sight of his displeasure, Axion stood his ground before Cheshire and continued.
“The cause was organized terrorism by unidentified persons. We must suppress it immediately and apprehend the perpetrators. If the Magic Swordmaster Order’s commander—”
Axion glanced down at the blade in Cheshire’s hand.
“—could be granted summary execution authority over those responsible, I would be most grateful.”
……
Silence settled over the hall.
Slowly, the Emperor’s gaze…
shifted from Axion who stood before him to Cheshire beyond, and lingered on the sword he held.
“Is that so?”
The Emperor stepped forward, closing the distance between himself and Axion.
“You came storming in because of that?”
“Forgive my rudeness.”
“Axion Libre.”
The Emperor pressed his face so close to Axion’s that their breath mingled, speaking with a cutting edge.
“Are you the Emperor?”
……
Everyone swallowed hard under the Emperor’s killing intent, but Axion alone stood firm, meeting his gaze unflinching.
A suffocating silence stretched between them.
“Well, fine.”
The Emperor let out a soft chuckle, stepped back, and spread both arms wide.
“I myself bestowed power upon you for the labor of protecting the realm with your life all these years, so I suppose I must turn a blind eye to this arrogance just once.”
……
“But if we let a commotion like this pass too quietly, my own dignity suffers, you understand.”
“I am sorry. I will accept any punishment you see fit to impose later.”
“Yes. We shall have the Palace investigate those who set the fire separately; you go and focus on suppressing the unrest.”
The Emperor turned away, muttering sharply.
“Everyone else, that will be all.”
* * *
I couldn’t remember why I’d left the Palace. My legs were trembling.
‘Is that… enough? The Emperor truly suspected nothing?’
No. It couldn’t be.
The Emperor I’d seen thus far was no fool.
Even if he’d sensed something amiss, he’d judged it wiser to let us go for now.
‘So then? How much did he see through? The fact that Cheshire came to kill me? And if he begins to suspect the existence of the Rebel Forces…?’
As I walked, lost in thought, I stumbled. Oscar caught my arm roughly.
“Hey, snap out of it.”
“Ah, yes….”
Then.
Axion, who had been walking steadily ahead, turned around. He walked over to stand before Cheshire, who had been following quietly behind.
“Why did you go?”
When he asked quietly, Cheshire fell silent for a moment before answering.
“…It is what you are thinking.”
“You bastard!”
Axion lunged forward, seizing Cheshire by the collar with bloodshot eyes.
“Uncle!”
I threw my arms around Axion’s waist and pulled him back.
“Don’t. This is—this is my fault….”
I bit down on my lip to keep from crying.
This whole disaster was entirely my doing. I could blame no one else.
‘Cheshire thought my identity had been exposed….’
He’d come to fight the Emperor.
And he’d done so knowing full well that he himself could not survive such a thing.
‘What have I done?’
I’d nearly killed him.
Not someone else, but by my own hand.
Cheshire.
‘Why didn’t I think this through to the end?’
Cheshire had changed.
His obsessive goal had become not the success of any revolution, but my survival alone.
Perhaps long ago, he’d already resolved to die alongside the Emperor.
“It’s my fault….”
……
Soon the strength drained from Axion’s hands where he held Cheshire.
Axion closed his eyes and drew a few steadying breaths, then turned away sharply and left.
“Damn it all.”
Oscar, clicking his tongue at the sight of Axion’s departing back, followed after him.
When only the two of us remained.
Cheshire looked at me with an expression of perfect calm and asked.
“Are you all right?”
……
His face held only relief at the fact that I was safe, even a faint smile.
It was then that I realized something had gone deeply, fundamentally wrong.
“Cheshire….”
……
“I… I made a mistake.”
I was as trapped in obsession as Cheshire was.
I had lived believing that there must be a reason I was born as Primera, that there was something I must do….
Because I was Enoch’s daughter, I believed I had to act for the protagonist’s justice.
But then?
What if those actions kept tightening the noose around my neck?
And then Cheshire would throw himself into the fray?
A justice meant to save countless lives was threatening not just me, but my people as well.
“I’m… I’m just like you.”
Peace built atop their graves is worthless.
Because I’m not a righteous protagonist.
“One person I know matters more than a hundred strangers I don’t. If that choice came, I wouldn’t hesitate.”
I threw back the words Cheshire had once spoken to me.
“You matter more than all the countless people I don’t know. So from now on, I’ll just… pretend I don’t see. I promise. I won’t let you suffer because of me anymore….”
…….
“…that you….”
“No.”
Cheshire cut me off mid-sentence, my words unfinished.
“People with power are supposed to use it for the weak. That’s what you were taught, isn’t it? You’re not wrong.”
…….
“I know you’re right. So do what you want.”
Cheshire’s gaze was serene.
The confrontation with the Emperor seemed to instill no fear in him whatsoever.
“Whatever you do, you’ll be safe.”
Rather—
He carried the ease of someone who had just confirmed that the very thing he’d dreaded so much meant nothing to him at all.
“Because I’ll make sure of it.”
* * *
“I… I sincerely apologize for the disturbance. It was my oversight.”
Ramon bowed his head.
The Emperor, Nicholas, who stood by the window with his back exposed, sighed.
“I will rescind the order allowing certain exceptions for free entry into the palace. Anyone wishing to have an audience with me shall henceforth follow proper procedure.”
“I acknowledge your command.”
Ramon left, and Nicholas continued gazing out the window in silence.
Despite his composed expression, the hand he kept hidden trembled visibly.
‘What was that?’
The flash of Cheshire’s gaze in that brief moment.
That predatory ferocity.
Nicholas had never once received such a look from an inferior.
Of course not. Who would dare bare their fangs to an Emperor?
All the power of the Ability Users belonged to him as Primera. With a single gesture, Cheshire would fall to his knees.
Yet the fact that he dared show no fear before him meant….
It was the same reason as Enoch.
Because he possessed an ability too formidable to subjugate, even Primera would have to bear considerable cost.
“Such insolence!”
The mere boy knew this fact all too well.
And so he had come with some purpose, prepared to threaten Nicholas himself if things didn’t go his way.
His eyes made that unmistakably clear.
‘Then what has he so angered, and what does he seek?’
Axion said Cheshire had come demanding aid to the Disaster Zone and immediate execution of the terrorists….
‘No, that can’t be it.’
Nicholas had kept his eye on Cheshire since his days as a child soldier.
It wasn’t for nothing that he’d considered making him a new blade. There was good reason.
Cheshire was unmistakably a different breed from Enoch, who wielded his sword out of principle and sense of duty.
‘Then why?’
Nicholas clenched his trembling hand, grinding his teeth.
Now, he who was like a god….
Was actually trembling before a mere Ability User?
Nicholas bit down on his clenched jaw.
‘What exactly….’
There was no reason for Cheshire to bare his fangs to him.
He’d thought he was managing him well enough through his biological father, the Marquis Onyx.
“What am I missing?”
What infuriated Cheshire, in all of this, was precisely….
“Ah.”
In that instant, an exclamation burst from Nicholas’s lips.
“Lilis Rubinstein…?”
The child he’d brought along thoughtlessly, merely to keep the Magic Tower’s Master in place.
It had been an unconscious gesture, yet there were surely those whose hearts sank the moment they realized the child had vanished without warning.
“Ha, haha….”
But was it truly something to rage over to such a degree?
“How amusing.”
He’d never given much thought to the bond between them….
Lilis, Enoch’s daughter, and Cheshire, raised under Enoch’s tutelage.
When he considered it, they must have been as close as siblings.
“That’s right, you….”
The Empire’s greatest Ability User, Enoch Rubinstein’s daughter—cherished as dearly as his own life.
An exceptional talent whom Oscar Manuel, the Magic Tower’s Master, obsessed over in a manner entirely unlike himself.
A figure held so near to his heart that Cheshire Libre, the rising power of a new generation, bared his fangs to the Emperor for her sake.
“So you remain, after all….”
One person held the leash of Ability Users whom he could not so easily command.
“A rather valuable card in my hand, it seems.”
Speaking the words in a murmur, Nicholas’s eyes gleamed with fresh hunger.

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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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