My Daddy Hides His Power - Chapter 184

—————
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 184
What on earth are they doing?
Father and Oscar were tangled up together, bickering back and forth.
“Ugh, seriously. Your hands! Don’t touch me with those filthy things—you haven’t even washed them since you came back!”
“Be quiet! And you—you said you came to see me, right? What’s this about?”
Oscar soon wiped the cold sweat from his brow and changed the subject.
“Oh! My head’s not on straight today!”
I bounced on the balls of my feet impatiently.
“Father, we need to go find Uncle right now! He left the house!”
“What?”
Father’s expression froze in an instant.
“He left a letter saying he’d prepare for his expedition outside, and then he left.”
…….
As Cheshire explained, Father’s face grew even darker.
“Father, so Cheshire and I were looking for Uncle, but….”
“Don’t look for him.”
“Huh?”
“Why bother looking? There’s no danger anymore anyway.”
Father spoke coldly and walked past us.
“Wait, Father?”
“Come on. Let’s go home.”
I looked back at Oscar and Cheshire.
Oscar’s lips formed a silent question—’What’s wrong with him?’—as Father’s mood suddenly grew icy.
“Princess! Get over here!”
“Y-yes!”
I had no choice but to wave goodbye to the two left behind.
“Hey, you! Tomorrow… you know what I mean?”
“Ah! Yes, sir!”
Oscar stammered his reply in confusion, and I nodded before hurrying after Father.
* * *
Father, looking thoroughly angry, went straight to wash up and get into bed the moment we arrived home.
Of course, I couldn’t fall asleep so easily.
I noticed Cheshire return around four in the morning.
“You’re back? What about Uncle?”
…….
Cheshire looked surprised to see me coming down on tiptoe, then shook his head.
“Is the Duke very angry?”
“Well, it seems like it?”
Cheshire sat on the living room sofa and rubbed his face with both hands.
“He has every right to be. He was furious with me before too.”
“Before? Oh, when you went to His Majesty’s room with a sword?”
I sat down beside Cheshire and spoke hesitantly.
“I told you not to blame yourself because of me….”
“No, that’s not why.”
Cheshire let out a long sigh and continued.
“The Duke was angry because he was worried I’d go wrong, not because of the rebellion’s success or failure. If I had killed the Emperor back then….”
Cheshire trailed off.
Yes, if Cheshire had actually killed the Emperor then….
‘It would have been a double suicide.’
The rebellion might have succeeded in record time, but the crime of killing an emperor would have been impossible to overlook.
“The Duke wants to succeed in the rebellion without sacrificing anyone. But when your father left the house this time, it’s the same as him going off resolved to die, just like I was back then.”
“…I suppose so.”
“We could have at least discussed it together, but he left without saying a word.”
“You know why Uncle is like that. Your father didn’t know what was there until he went himself. Since everyone dies if they go, Uncle didn’t want to burden your father and you with guilt.”
“I understand your father’s heart. But I also understand the Duke’s. You two are closest friends, after all.”
…….
“If you hadn’t been there, he wouldn’t have even thought to subjugate the Moarte Archipelago beforehand, and your father would have just gone off to his death without a word of farewell.”
Cheshire bit his lip. He looked hurt.
“I got angry wondering if I’m not even worth relying on to him.”
“…….”
“When I think about it… I did the exact same thing. And while I was doing it, I couldn’t help but wonder what I was even hoping for. Stupid, really.”
If Father had left with nothing but a letter saying “Hello, princess. Take care of yourself”—resigned to death.
‘I’d be devastated too.’
Cheshire must be feeling something similar right now.
“Still… I’m glad you felt something. Please treasure your own life. We’ve made it this far, but if you’re not here, none of it means anything.”
“…….”
I watched Cheshire fall silent, his face heavy with thought, and covered the back of his hand with mine.
He looked at it for a moment, then turned his hand over and clasped mine in return.
“…I’m sorry. For being so foolish.”
His voice was hollow.
* * *
The next day.
The moment dawn broke, Cheshire went out searching for Axion again, while I found myself at the Magic Tower.
“Sigh.”
Because I’d negotiated terms with both the Emperor and Axion, there was no avoiding it….
My first day of work at the Magic Tower had arrived!
“All the students studying together live in dormitories within the Magic Tower. The residential level is the third floor, but your room has been prepared on the ninth floor at the Tower Master’s explicit instruction—quite lavishly, I might add. As it happens, it’s directly below the Tower Master’s own residence.”
Robel, the Advisor who had been showing me around the Magic Tower, said this.
I was horrified.
“But—but I was supposed to go home when the clock strikes six? I agreed with my teacher about this?”
I’d made it crystal clear to Oscar that I’d negotiated a nine-to-six schedule!
“Ah, of course I’m aware. But schedules, you see, rarely proceed without changes. If you ever feel tired, please use the dormitory anytime. We went to such trouble decorating it—at the very least, use it whenever you need rest.”
Just by looking at Robel’s pained expression, I could gauge exactly how relentlessly Oscar must have hounded him about furnishing my room.
“That wasn’t necessary. Thank you.”
“There are four other students who will be studying alongside you. All of them are commoners.”
“What? Commoners? Can commoners even apply to the Elite Education program at the Magic Tower?”
“No…. That is, he found them himself… one by one….”
He went out hunting for them in person!
As Robel seemed to be recalling those days of torment under Oscar, his expression suddenly crumpled.
I quickly changed the subject.
“S-so they’re Diez-rank? Are any of them Non-ability users?”
“No Diez-rank—they’re all Non-ability users. There are quite a few Non-ability users among the Magic Tower’s researchers. The Magic Tower isn’t a place where you implement magic; it’s where you create Magic Formulas. You can make a Magic Formula without ever casting a spell yourself.”
“Goodness! That’s fascinating. How do you even create a Magic Formula without the concept of implementation?”
“They manage to create Magic Formulas despite lacking that framework precisely because they possess such extraordinary intellect…. These are all geniuses who’ve passed the ruthless Tower Master’s examination to get in here.”
“I—I see.”
I felt my confidence shrivel.
The kids here were genuine geniuses with exceptional minds, while I was just a fake who’d done some advance studying thanks to memories from my past life!
‘Ugh, that’s why I didn’t want to come. Isn’t this basically fraudulent admission?’
But there was no way around it.
It was all for Axion, after all….
“Here we are—this is where you’ll be working… or rather, studying.”
[Elite Education Room]
A massive door with an elegant nameplate.
Robel stood before the Elite Education Room entrance, then immediately pointed to another door beside it.
[Elite Management Division]
“This is where I work. Though I’m constantly occupied cleaning up after the Tower Master, so I’m not always around. And this—”
Robel suddenly thrust something into my hands.
A premium leather-bound notebook and a fountain pen.
“……?!”
My jaw dropped.
The notebook cover was gold—and looking closely, I realized the leather hadn’t been dyed at all. Real gold had been ground down and layered over it.
And that wasn’t all….
The fountain pen itself was gold!
Even the ornate feather decoration attached to its tip, including every joint, was gold!
“His Majesty the Emperor sent this personally to the Magic Tower two days ago. As an expression of encouragement for your entry into the Tower.”
“Um, y-yes.”
My hands trembled as I accepted the Emperor’s gift, which probably cost more than my entire worth.
‘If you have this kind of money, go buy bread for someone starving to death!’
It was almost embarrassing to carry around.
“Shall we go, then?”
When Robel opened the classroom door, every child sitting at the wide table—busily scratching away with their pens—looked up at once.
These were the children, then….
‘Geniuses with their futures in professional careers already guaranteed!’
I approached them with a bright smile.
“Hi, everyone! Nice to meet you. My name is Lilis Rubinstein. I’ll be studying here with you from today on. Let’s get along.”
I greeted them, but for some reason, their response was lukewarm.
‘What’s wrong?’
The lanky boy among them pushed his glasses up with a sharp gesture and spoke.
“Teacher, did she take the entrance exam before coming here?”
“Hmm? Hans, didn’t I tell you? I’ve already confirmed her abilities before—”
“Her abilities? Where exactly is this ‘her’ you’re speaking of?”
Hans glared at me with obvious displeasure.
“Isn’t the Magic Tower supposed to be a strict meritocracy? The Tower Master himself said that rank and status mean nothing in this place, didn’t he? Then why are you speaking to her in formal language?”
…Wow, what is this?
I stood there in a daze, taken aback by Hans’s manner of speaking—which was just as unpleasant as Oscar’s—before I quickly whispered to Robel.
“Teacher, please just call me Lilis.”
“Ah, well then. Yes, that’s fine. Lilis, sit over here.”
Just as I was about to sit in the chair Robel had hastily brought over, Hans kicked it away with his foot.
“Are you her servant, teacher?”
“Now, Hans!”
“This is a place where you have to prove your abilities to get in. We’re treated well because we’re intelligent—we earned it. Unlike you, who got in here the easy way just by being born into the right family.”
As he said this, Hans’s eyes fixed contemptuously on the gold-plated notebook and fountain pen covered in money that I was holding in my hands.
Wait! I didn’t even buy those myself!
Embarrassed, I quickly hid them behind my back.
“Hans! What’s gotten into you? You promised the teacher yesterday that you’d all get along! Lilis didn’t get in the way you think—”
“Please be quiet, teacher. We’re displeased. We don’t want to be lumped together with some young lady who probably just played with dolls all day instead of studying, and still be called geniuses because of it.”
Hans and the others all fixed hostile stares on me.
‘So they think I got into the Magic Tower through family connections and have been waiting for a chance to vent about it.’
As I fumbled with this unexpected response, Robel leaned in and whispered to my ear.
“I’m sorry, Lilis. It’s because of the Tower Master’s ideological education.”
Ideological education, he called it.
It seemed he’d been boosting their self-esteem by teaching them that even commoners with sharp minds could be treated as well as anyone else.
“Huh.”
Just then, someone burst through the classroom door.
It was Oscar.
“The Tower Master!”
“Welcome, sir!”
“You’ve come?”
The children greeted him with sparkling eyes—quite unlike how they had treated Robel.
Their demeanor was almost fanatical.
“Mm.”
Oscar seemed to read the strange atmosphere in the room, let out a soft laugh, and walked toward me.
“Lilis Rubinstein.”
Had he anticipated the children’s attitude?
He waved a test paper in his hand and spoke.
“You need to follow the proper procedure too, yes? All these children took an entrance exam as well.”

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