My Daddy Hides His Power - Chapter 191
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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 Strength
Chapter 191
* * *
The next day.
I’d returned home after a full month and two weeks away.
Not to Axion’s House, where I’d stayed to hide how much I’d grown, but to my real home—the Rubinstein Duchy!
“Little one!”
“Lilis!”
The moment I stepped inside, two dark-haired young men came rushing at me.
Who were they? They were definitely twins before…
“Oh, brothers! This is—mmph! Wait!”
“Hey, Leon! Stop! You’ll hurt her!”
Theo grabbed Leon, who’d suddenly scooped me up and was rubbing his cheek against mine.
“What have you been doing all this time? You wouldn’t even visit us!”
“I’m s-sorry. But brother, why…?”
I stared back and forth between the two blond beauties, my mouth falling open in shock.
“Why are you both so grown up?!”
“What? Our height grew! We’re three centimeters taller!”
“That’s not what I mean! You’ve become completely adult!”
Were they sixteen? Right in the thick of their growth years?
It felt strange not seeing them for just over a month.
‘So hiding was pointless after all?’
Compared to how much they’d grown, my own growth barely showed.
Maybe that was a blessing.
“Mother and Father said they’d come by soon to see you. And we’re planning to stay here for a while,” Theo said, lifting me out of Leon’s embrace and setting me down on the ground.
“Why?”
“Why? We haven’t seen you in a month. We want to spend time with you.”
Theo pouted for a moment, then broke into a grin.
“Want to go horseback riding tomorrow? The weather’s been nice lately. Let’s play and then get something delicious to eat.”
“Nice weather? It’s been scorching—I’m practically wilting. Let’s go to the valley instead and catch some spiders.”
“Ah, but…”
I was scratching my cheek uncertainly when Father suddenly interjected.
“Didn’t you boys hear? The Princess has to go to the Magic Tower starting a few days from now—she needs to attend lessons during the day.”
“I heard, but the whole day?”
“Well, pretty much. You’re finished by six.”
The twins’ faces fell.
I quickly tried to cheer them up.
“Brothers, I have one day off each week. Not tomorrow, but let’s play then!”
They still looked disappointed, but there was nothing to be done about it.
“Oh, Grandfather!”
Just then, Grandfather came down to the first floor. I ran to him happily and hugged him.
“How have you been, little one? You haven’t taken ill?”
“No! How about you, Grandfather?”
“Oh, I’m much the same as always.”
“Hehe! I missed you. Can I sit next to you at dinner tonight?”
Grandfather smiled and stroked my hair.
‘Hmm.’
Unlike my twin brothers, who were growing robust and healthy, Grandfather seemed to have grown a bit thinner, and it worried me.
* * *
“What exactly are you doing out there?”
Enoch, summoned by his father Nordic, feigned ignorance at the sudden question.
“What do you mean, what am I doing? I’m attending to business, aren’t I?”
“This boy and his wordplay. Do you not understand what I’m saying, or are you pretending not to?”
Nordic clicked his tongue disapprovingly.
“You take the child out and leave her inconveniently at someone else’s house. Hide her from sight. And as if that weren’t enough, now you suddenly send her to the Magic Tower.”
……
“You’re acting so strangely that I can’t pretend not to notice anymore.”
“Father.”
“I won’t stop you from doing what you want. But if I find that child caught up in your affairs, I won’t stand for it.”
“…….”
“Tell me the truth. What are you doing, dragging a child into all this?”
Enoch swallowed a sigh.
Nordic’s words weren’t entirely wrong—the child was being pulled into dangerous business.
“…Please don’t worry. Surely I wouldn’t involve the princess in anything dangerous.”
“Dangerous or not.”
Nordic added the words with a sharp edge to his voice.
“I want you to tell me what you’re hiding right now.”
“…….”
Enoch had nothing to say to Nordic’s frustration.
It was all for his father’s sake.
Those who knew Lilis’s true identity lived in constant dread, didn’t they?
Oscar. Cheshire. Both of them.
If Nordic were to find out as well….
“I’m not hiding anything. And even if I were, I’d never let anything happen to the princess.”
“You stubborn wretch!”
“It’s all for my father’s sake.”
Enoch turned away with resolve.
“Just trust me and wait, please.”
* * *
The next day.
Oscar was receiving an unexpected visitor at the Magic Tower.
It was Enoch’s father—Nordic.
“I’m sorry to drop by so suddenly when you must be busy.”
“No, it’s quite all right.”
Nordic tilted his teacup to his lips.
Oscar found it remarkable—the nobleman’s bearing flowed from every gesture, every movement as he sat. The man bore a striking resemblance to his son Enoch, yet the atmosphere between them was polar opposites.
The elegance and composure were night and day.
“I’ve come because I have something I’d like to ask the Magic Tower Master.”
“What would that be?”
Nordic set down his teacup and met Oscar’s eyes. The intensity was formidable.
“I’m kept informed of most of what my son is doing, and I’m grateful that you’ve been of such great help to him. But there’s one thing he won’t discuss with me, and I need to know it. I’ve come to ask if you might tell me what you know.”
“Well, if he’s held back, there must be a reason for it. And I don’t know everything he’s involved in, either.”
“No, you’d certainly know this. It’s about my granddaughter.”
Oscar tensed.
Lilis?
“Why did Lilis suddenly enter the Magic Tower?”
Oscar understood now.
‘The part he won’t discuss is about her.’
Enoch had apparently not revealed to Nordic the fact that his daughter was Primera.
If he shared every detail of the rebellion but left out his daughter’s identity, the explanation would feel gapped and scattered—naturally, Nordic would be puzzled.
That made perfect sense.
“I know my granddaughter well. She’s clever, certainly, but she’s still very much a child at heart. She prefers playing with her brothers and friends to studying. She would never have chosen to enter the Magic Tower of her own accord.”
Nordic’s sharp observation made Oscar swallow hard.
‘This is difficult. There’s nothing good that comes from him knowing her identity.’
Once one learned Lilis’s true nature, it became nearly impossible to act rationally.
Cheshire had made a grave mistake this time because of her, and Oscar himself was no different—troubled by worry over the child, he found himself plagued by nightmares.
‘He’s not telling you because your blood pressure will skyrocket and he’s afraid you’ll keel over and meet your maker early.’
Oscar tsk’d inwardly and offered an explanation.
“It seems you may have underestimated your granddaughter. She did enter the Magic Tower of her own desire. Everyone who comes here wants to be here—what’s not to like?”
“But why now, of all times?”
Nordic pressed further, his tone sharp.
“My granddaughter isn’t subject to Military Service, so there’s no pressing reason for her to rush into the Magic Tower. That’s precisely why you never sought her out to teach before.”
“…….”
“If you suddenly sent her to the Magic Tower at this particular moment, doesn’t it suggest some political calculation? That’s my suspicion.”
Oscar was taken aback.
‘Why is his perception so sharp?’
He’d known the man was no simpleton, but this was the keen insight of someone who’d led the empire’s foremost house for a lifetime.
“I support what my son is doing, but I will never allow my granddaughter to be used as a tool for it.”
“…….”
“Tell me the truth. I’d like to think it’s a reason I can understand.”
The truth is exactly what Nordic suspected.
Lilis’s entry into the Magic Tower.
There had been a political intention behind it—to pry Axion, who commanded Rebel Forces, from the Emperor’s grasp.
‘Hmm, but if he’s tracked me down this far with his eyes blazing like that, saying the truth outright will cause real trouble….’
There was no help for it.
Oscar, who had spent a moment turning the matter over in his head, now leaned his elbow against the back of the sofa and let out a small, amused laugh. With a soft click, he crossed his legs.
“To speak frankly with you.”
“Go on.”
“The moment I first laid eyes on your granddaughter, I found her absolutely charming. So I’ve spent a very long time carefully winning her over.”
“……?”
Nordic’s eyes narrowed to slits.
“Well, in the end, I succeeded in my seduction, and so the child came over.”
“…….”
“Frankly, I didn’t think her father or grandfather would have approved if I’d asked.”
Nordic’s lips began to part slowly as he absorbed Oscar’s words.
“Isn’t that right? They wouldn’t have approved.”
“That is—what are you even—”
“So I won her over in secret. I’ve raised you so well, and now I simply wanted to have you sit beside me once….”
“You shameless scoundrel!”
“Oops.”
In an instant, Nordic shot to his feet.
His face had flushed crimson, burning with fury.
‘What, how did he grow so large?’
Oscar looked up at Nordic in surprise, his hand pressed to his chest.
A menacing presence.
His shoulders were broad enough to belie his age, and his eyes gleamed with an edge that cut like a blade.
Standing before him, Oscar found it impossible not to shrink back.
“I knew you acted arrogant as though there were no one above your head.”
Nordic trembled with clenched teeth, each word ground out slowly and deliberately.
“But I never knew you were the sort to act with such utter lack of decorum.”
“…? What do you—”
Had I made such a mistake to deserve hearing this?
Oscar reflected.
No, surely the Master of the Magic Tower might wish to recruit talent for the Tower’s prosperity.
Why should this provoke such anger?
“Your tone is rather—”
Oscar’s mouth snapped shut as he tried to speak.
Until just moments ago, the black Walking Cane held elegantly in Nordic’s hand had now come to resemble a weapon.
Oscar quietly uncrossed the legs he had been brazenly folded in.
“…Let us discuss this with words.”
“Would you prefer words?”
Just then.
The door opened with fortuitous timing.
“Master! I’m here! Your adorable little—!”
Lilis stepped naturally and familiarly through the study door.
Nordic turned to look at the child.
“…G-Grandfather?!”
“…….”
A hollow laugh escaped Nordic’s lips as he stared fixedly at his granddaughter, before his gaze swept back to Oscar with renewed sharpness.
At the force of that look, Oscar—
“Yes, words. I would prefer words….”
—swallowed hard and raised both hands in surrender.
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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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