My Daddy Hides His Power - Chapter 180

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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 true strength.
Episode 180
‘Going alone?’
The Moarte Archipelago.
Even knowing it was a place sent to die, he carried such confidence.
‘Well, I expected as much.’
The Emperor spoke with practiced smoothness.
“We’ll keep the destination secret for now. I’ll announce it as the Northern Region for the time being. Since it’s such a dangerous place, if word got out beforehand, I’d worry about the three legions deserting alongside you, wouldn’t I?”
“…Yes, Your Majesty. Quite right.”
“Axion.”
Axion, who had been turning to leave, looked back.
“The Moarte has been a thorn in my side for some time now, and I’m eager to conquer it. Though it shouldn’t come to this, should you fail—”
The Emperor smiled like a serpent.
“I’ll keep sending legions until you succeed.”
……
“Once you’ve made your preparations and set a departure date, inform me. I’ll send a cleanup force five days after you set out.”
Axion’s eyes widened.
An expression of mild shock.
“…I understand.”
He then left the conference hall.
* * *
The Moarte.
An archipelago that appears after traveling some three hours by sea eastward from the Central Region.
It was not imperial territory.
Rather, it belonged to no nation at all.
The island where Demon Beasts were said to have first emerged.
Of all those who had attempted to subjugate it, not a single survivor remained.
Not only was the type of Demon Beast there unknown, but since travel was possible only by sea, there was no way to escape in an emergency.
A place where even Enoch, said to be the Empire’s strongest ability user, could scarcely guarantee his own survival.
Therefore, it was the poisoned chalice the Emperor had offered—drink and die.
“…I’ll send a cleanup force five days after you set out.”
This meant he would confirm your corpse, a warning not to desert.
“I’ll keep sending legions until you succeed.”
This was a threat: desert, and he would kill other ability users in your stead.
‘As expected, he’s left no escape route unclosed. I’d always known the Emperor was no fool, but…’
Axion crossed the corridor and laughed hollowly to himself.
“There’s no way out of this.”
The Emperor had not ordered this expedition out of greed for that land.
No.
It was to eliminate Axion.
* * *
Dinner time.
“Where?” Father suddenly asked Axion as the four of us ate together.
It was a question stripped of preamble, but I understood and perked up my ears.
‘So he was summoned by the Emperor today. That was fast.’
Only two days had passed since the fire incident, yet the Emperor had apparently called for Axion.
He must have issued a retaliatory expedition order to Axion for his intrusion into the Imperial Palace.
“It won’t be an easy place. Time your departure to avoid mine. Come with me.”
“Ah, there’s no need for that.”
Axion spoke flatly while spooning his soup.
“It’s the Northern Region.”
“Is that so?”
Father raised his eyebrows in surprise.
‘Huh? The Northern Region?’
I was surprised too.
“Besides, you’ve already stirred things up everywhere lately, so I can just go through the motions of a smooth campaign. Don’t concern yourself.”
“Father.”
Cheshire set down his utensil and interjected.
“I’m sorry. Since this punishment is because of me, I should go with you.”

“Ah, no, that’s not it.”
Axion waved his hand dismissively.
“You know as well as I do—this was just a convenient excuse. Sooner or later, another expedition order would have come down anyway.”
“But it’s still ultimately because of me.”
At Cheshire’s words, everyone fell silent.
‘He’s right. It is because of Cheshire.’
The truth was, Axion had been the Emperor’s target even without this incident.
Why?
Joseph, our Rebel Army’s strategist, had explained it plainly.
“If the Emperor has made up his mind to take Cheshire into his grasp, I’m afraid Lord Axion will be unable to see our rebellion through to the end.”
Axion—Cheshire’s adoptive father and the man closest to Father.
So if the Emperor wanted to completely sever Father and Cheshire from their allies and claim him for himself….
‘Axion is the obstacle.’
“If the Emperor means to eliminate Lord Axion, using military authority would be the swiftest path. He will create an opportunity to drive him into a deadly predicament.”
That, Joseph said, would be the moment Axion would have to withdraw from the Rebel Army.
“He cannot die, so he must accept the expedition order and then desert. From that point until everything is finished, Lord Axion will have to live in hiding.”
If the Libre Duke’s House withdrew from the Rebel Army—unlike what happened in the Original Story—
‘It would be a catastrophic loss of fighting strength.’
Joseph knew this well and had lamented it deeply, but there seemed no way around it.
But!
‘I might be able to stop it.’
That was why I’d thought of this fire incident as a blessing in disguise.
Unintentionally, I had become someone who could negotiate with the Emperor.
‘But why the Northern Region?’
Against my expectations, the expedition order the Emperor had issued this time was to the Northern Region.
I had thought there was only one place he would send Axion if he meant for him to die.
As I struggled with this unexpected turn of events—
“Stop fussing. It’s not like I’m going off to die. You just look after the house.”
Axion stood up first, tapped Cheshire on the shoulder, and left the dining room.
* * *
“Little one, did you brush your teeth?”
“Still doing it….”
After eating, I’d spread out a map and was brushing my teeth when Father approached from behind.
“What are you doing?”
“Geography study.”
“Geography study? All of a sudden?”
[Moarte Archipelago]
The Moarte Archipelago—one large island and several smaller ones clustered together.
‘No, he won’t send Axion there, even though it would be such a perfect chance to eliminate him? Is the Emperor more stupid than I thought?’
That place was a deadly predicament from which no ability user could escape alive.
‘Well, except for Enoch Rubinstein.’
In the latter half of the Original Story.
The Emperor, sensing ominous movements among several powerful figures before the rebellion, grew frightened.
Fearing not only the loss of continental unification but a threat to his own throne, the Emperor devised a scheme to eliminate Enoch Rubinstein.
He summoned other ability users except Father and ordered the subjugation of Moarte.
“Little one, how much longer are you going to brush? Rinse and spit it out, quickly.”
“Mm.”
I watched quietly as Father handed me the toothbrush cup.
‘Enoch Rubinstein… what a monster.’
As the Emperor intended, Father declared he would take up arms in place of the ability users who had received the expedition order.
And he would do it alone—without a single soldier.
‘It was an expedition undertaken with the resolve to die.’
Moarte was such a deadly predicament that even Father couldn’t guarantee success, so he chose the path of minimal sacrifice.
At that point, Cheshire would have been more than capable of leading the revolution to victory even without him.
‘Honestly, I thought he was going to die.’
As I read, I had silently screamed at him not to go, but he went anyway—to his death, or so I believed.
And… he didn’t die.
He cleared the entire Moarte Archipelago alone, planted the Imperial Flag there, and came back.
“Father, I have a question.”
“Yeah? What is it?”
“This island nation… why is it so close to the continent but not part of the Empire?”
“Ah, that place.”
I pointed to Moarte Archipelago on the map and asked, and Father scratched his head as he explained.
“Because it’s dangerous. So far, no one who went there has ever come back alive.”
“I see.”
“So there’s no information about what kind of monsters live there. All we know is….”
Father paused thoughtfully before continuing.
“…it’s incredibly peaceful during the day? I’m guessing that when night falls, monsters emerge. But that’s only speculation.”
Okay, confirmed. I already had the basic information down.
I nodded and spoke.
“So I need to subjugate the monsters here too, right?”
“No need. No one lives there. The monsters don’t even cross the sea to reach the continent.”
“Even so, I should subjugate them.”
“Huh? Oh.”
Father let out an exclamation.
“You’re worried about your uncle, aren’t you, princess?”
“Yeah. Joseph said that His Majesty might send Uncle to a scary place like this.”
“Even the Emperor wouldn’t openly order him here unless Uncle did something seriously wrong.”
“Right? That’s why it feels strange to me, Dad. Why didn’t they send him here this time? I’m sure His Majesty said he’d punish Uncle openly?”
This time, there had been justification for sending Axion to this place.
So why hadn’t they?
…….
At my question, Father fell silent in thought for a moment.
“But Dad, we do need to subjugate the monsters here quickly.”
Moarte Archipelago had to be subjugated eventually.
Even if not now, I didn’t know when Father might send Axion there.
And just like in the Original Story, if Father commanded the subjugation of Moarte, he could take others as hostages too.
“Dad should go secretly. You don’t even need to take a ship—just mark the coordinates and use Teleportation Magic….”
I folded the map briskly as I spoke.
“…Even tomorrow if necessary! As fast as possible! If the Emperor changes his mind in the meantime and sends Uncle here, it’ll be a disaster. Before Uncle sets out… huh?”
For some reason, Father stood there with his mouth slightly open, his eyes wavering as he stared at me.
“Why do you have that expression?”
“You….”
Father called me in a choked voice.
“What?”
“What do you mean ‘what’! What?”
Father grabbed my shoulders and shook me back and forth roughly.
“I don’t even know what monsters live here!”
“So….”
As I stared at Father, bewildered by his sudden excitement, I belatedly realized what I’d overlooked.
‘Oh! I cut off everything before and after, didn’t I!’
Father’s exploits—conquering Moarte Archipelago without a scratch and returning safely—only I knew about.
Even knowing his own strength, Father hadn’t been able to guarantee success, which meant it was a place where, in the Original Story, he’d gone prepared to die, wasn’t it?
So I should have spoiled the Original Story first!
“Wait, Dad! It’s a misunderstanding! I didn’t tell you the important part! This is actually….”
I rushed to explain, but Father already looked shocked.
“Does the princess… not need Dad anymore?”
Oh no.
“No, it’s not like that…. I’m sorry, James. That’s not it at all.”
I’d made a mistake….
I hurried into Father’s embrace.
“Dad, if I hurt you, I’m sorry…. The truth is, I knew you’d be safe even if you went there. That’s why I thoughtlessly told you to go and come back.”
…….
“What I meant is, you conquered every monster there all on your own later. For you, it was nothing.”
“I see.”
Despite my explanation, Father’s mouth hung open like he couldn’t close it.
Yeah, it was fair to feel slighted.
Knowing the future was one thing, but it was only natural that Father would be hurt when his daughter suddenly told him to go into a deadly predicament.
“I really am sorry. You must be scared too, Dad.”
“That’s right. I’m terrified. Back then, I wasn’t scared of anything, but now… dying scares me so much.”
“Y-yes, that’s right? Dad’s a person too, after all….”
“It’s because of you. I’m worried about you being alone without me. I’m scared of losing the person who protects you.”
“Huh?”
At Dad’s words, my mind went blank for a moment.
In the Original Story, the protagonist had feared nothing because there was no one to protect, nothing to lose.
But that was no longer the case.
“That doesn’t mean I won’t go, though. Truth is, Dad hadn’t given that island a thought at all—but you mentioning it made me realize I’d overlooked it. Of course I’ll go, since I’m worried about your uncle.”
“Dad….”
“It’s just, Dad, you see….”
Dad spoke as if joking, trying hard to hide his disappointment.
“Dad loves you sooo much. But it seems like you don’t love Dad very much, so that’s why I’m feeling a little sad.”
“That’s not true! I love Dad more than anyone in the world!”
I grabbed Dad’s neck and clung to him.
“I can’t live without you….”

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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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