My Daddy Hides His Power - Chapter 212

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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 212
* * *
Cheshire sat face to face with Selena, alone.
She trembled, but her complexion looked better than expected. The child in her womb would be safe.
‘You’ll never understand. Not in a lifetime. Never….’
The daughter who had turned away so coldly had saved her unborn child today.
How many years of her life had she spent this time?
My foolish angel.
The one who had never been held warmly, never called by name with tenderness….
All for a mother who was not even a mother.
“Please….”
A tear rolled down Selena’s tightly closed eyes.
Cheshire laughed.
Such ruthless maternal love.
A woman who sought out a near-stranger, someone she barely knew, to prevent her son’s military campaign—and could weep like this.
“That lies beyond my authority.”
“If you—if you could just… perhaps ask His Majesty for leniency once….”
“Why should I?”
Selena froze at the cold tone.
A strange… hostility.
Selena probably could not fathom Cheshire’s attitude.
“Look, Cheshire. Your father doesn’t know this, but I’ll be honest with you alone.”
Cheshire despised Selena.
Not simply because she did not love Lilis, did not treat her as a daughter—it was not so simple as that.
“It’s nothing now, but in truth, I once went to His Majesty with my mother, hand in hand?”
The pain of knowing alone, suffering alone.
The truth Lilis had confided only to Cheshire.
It was a shock. In the end, every tragedy within that ‘time of failure’ had sprung from this woman as surely as if she had caused it herself.
“Your son has merely received privileges thus far, and His Majesty now wishes him to fulfill the duties he has postponed. Follow his will.”
“No. I’m not saying I won’t obey. But this battle….”
This large-scale subjugation was among the most dangerous battles one could count on a hand.
A battlefield where even veterans feared for their lives—and a mother was being forced to send a twelve-year-old child who had grown like a hothouse flower, who scarcely knew what a demon beast looked like.
Yes, any human would pity this woman weeping so pitifully.
If I felt no such compassion, was my humanity lacking?
Cheshire laughed quietly, rising to his feet.
“His Majesty holds great expectations for your son. He will become a fine soldier.”
“Sir Cheshire…!”
Cheshire, turning to leave, stopped.
He saw Selena kneel without hesitation at his feet.
“Please… I beg you…. Have mercy on my son….”
…….
“Please….”
“Would you kneel like this for your daughter as well?”
Selena faltered. As she lifted her head, she saw Cheshire’s expressionless face.
“For that daughter you tried to push into this hell—would you kneel for her too?”
…….
Only then did Selena understand where Cheshire’s hostility came from.
He too was blaming her for the bargain with the Emperor, just as so many had cast reproachful eyes upon her.
“At the time, I was… that child’s… father….”
“Because she had a father to protect her? Did you think I would make a deal with the Emperor like you? What if you hadn’t?”
…….
“If the Duke of Rubinstein had not abandoned his convictions? Then your daughter would have become a soldier.”
“Enoch is not that kind of man.”
“How well do you know the Duke to be so certain?”
Cheshire bent his knees and crouched down.
“At the moment you made your bargain with the Emperor, you had already ceased to care what became of that child. Whether her father took up the sword in her place or not.”
Selena swallowed, rigid.
“Shall I guess why you won’t look at your daughter’s face?”
His eyes, those rippling crimson irises, were sharp—as if piercing through everything.
“You’re not refusing to see her—you can’t see her. That day, you sold your daughter for your son.”
“I, I….”
“You’ve been brainwashing yourself all this time to ease the guilt. Telling yourself you only sold your husband. That you didn’t sell your daughter.”
Cheshire spoke with absolute certainty.
In the lost hours of that former life, a woman had placed her daughter—Primera—into the hands of the Emperor with her own hands.
Primera was the finest offering one could present to the Emperor. Incomparably more valuable than the whereabouts of some deserter.
And so in her previous life, this woman wouldn’t have had to spend her days fretting over her son’s fate at the Emperor’s whim, as she did now.
“Because you know what you did with your own hands—you abandoned your daughter. Every time you see her face, you’re tormented by the memory of that revolting choice.”
……
“That’s why you’ve been trying not to face her, isn’t it?”
Selena went rigid with shock.
As though she’d been stripped bare.
Every truth she’d desperately tried to ignore and rationalize came pouring from this man’s mouth with merciless clarity.
“Of course, what choice you made is none of my concern. However.”
Cheshire gave a soft laugh and rose to his feet.
“I’ve lived my entire life as a soldier, and I find myself quite pleased to see an Ability User who’s enjoyed privileges through such sordid dealings finally heading to the front.”
Selena lifted her head weakly.
No hint of pity. No sympathy at all.
Eyes so coldly cruel they were almost beautiful—those crimson irises.
No different from the Emperor’s own.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t be of more help.”
And just as Cheshire was turning to leave Selena to her despair—
“Hey, Cheshire. You in here? You….”
Someone burst through the door without knocking, entering in urgent haste.
It was Leon.
“…What is this.”
A woman on her knees before Cheshire, her heavy body shaking as she wept.
Leon’s expression grew oddly guarded at the sight that greeted him the moment he opened the door.
* * *
Gerard’s refusal to obey orders.
Leon, who had died saving Cheshire from the danger that resulted—
But now that Cheshire had eliminated the probability of Gerard disobeying orders, how would Leon find himself facing a death crisis?
‘Until today, I had no way of predicting it.’
There had been no variables in sight.
Theo, who was dead by that point and thus absent, had mysteriously dropped out of this expedition as well.
Everything was unfolding exactly as in the Original Story.
There was no angle from which Leon should have to die.
‘But… I found a variable.’
It wasn’t a welcome discovery, but I’d gotten a hint from Mother nonetheless.
Kyle Luden Dorf’s expedition.
This variable would likely become the shadow of whatever fate was bearing down on us.
‘It bothers me a little—using the boy like this….’
I could have asked Cheshire to stop Kyle’s expedition, but I chose not to.
If the variable called Kyle disappeared, another would emerge to push Leon toward death.
So it was better to at least dimly foresee what situation Leon would face.
Better to keep Kyle—the variable I could ‘control’—in the picture.
‘Now the question is….’
I ran through countless possibilities in my mind.
If Kyle is indeed the variable as I suspect—
Exactly how will he become entangled with Leon in a way that leads to his death?
* * *
“Take him off the roster.”
Leon spoke, recalling the departing figure of Selena’s back.
“Why?”
“Why, you ask?”
Leon’s voice rose.
It was absurd. Incomprehensible.
A twelve-year-old child with no expedition experience being deployed to a battle far more dangerous than any ordinary Subjugation.
It was no different from telling him to die.
“Why should I agree to that.”
“Look, is this really the time to be asking why?”
Seven years ago, during the Sacred Water Incident, even the Octavas—non-combatants who had never properly held a sword—were mobilized in their entirety.
Leon, who had been Supreme Commander then, could barely breathe for worry about Lilis, stationed in the rear.
That day’s memory had remained a terrible nightmare in Leon’s mind.
“So the kid’s had a military service exemption all this time? And now he’s supposed to pick up a sword? Fine, fine, I get it. Orders are orders. But sending him into this battle—that’s where I draw the line.”
“It’s an Imperial Decree.”
“So what if it’s an Imperial Decree! You can override it!”
Leon’s voice rose.
“The Emperor listens to everything you say! Right now, you’re the only one who can exempt him from this. Everyone knows it—even a rolling stone knows it. That’s why the boy’s mother came looking for you.”
“I’m sorry, but I have no intention of doing that.”
Cheshire rose to his feet without a moment’s hesitation. Leon followed and stepped in front of him, blocking his path.
“Why are you like this?”
“Brother, the finish line is in sight. I’ve staked my entire life on this.”
The day when the Emperor would fall was not far off. Cheshire and many others had wagered everything on the rebellion.
“I’ve been crawling on my belly to win the Emperor’s trust. But what good would it do to show concern for a child who has nothing to do with me?”
“Would one small gesture from you really cause the whole plan to fail? We haven’t prepared this carelessly.”
“I don’t want to introduce even the slightest variable.”
Was it because Kyle was Selena’s son?
Because he wanted to see her suffer as she waited for her departing child?
No. He wasn’t deliberately turning away from a mere child for personal reasons.
Whether it was Kyle or anyone else, Cheshire would have feigned ignorance and followed the Imperial Decree all the same.
Because it was precisely that cruelty and cold calculation that the Emperor believed in so absolutely.
“What on earth has made you this way?”
Leon let out a bitter laugh.
He was well aware of how Cheshire had lived to infiltrate the Emperor’s inner circle.
There were times when even Leon wondered at the desperation driving him.
“Please. Think about it again. Look at how far you’re going.”
But this time, he looked as if he’d lost his humanity altogether. It was painful to witness.
“What if that child dies in this battle? Can you feel no guilt? Can you truly be indifferent?”
Leon grabbed Cheshire by the collar, his voice urgent.
‘Guilt?’
Cheshire’s mind conjured the faces of Kyle and Lilis.
The finish line truly was within reach.
The day when he would sever the devil’s neck and lay it at the feet of his angel.
The day when he would break the shackles bound around her feet.
“Yes.”
Cheshire met Leon’s gaze with empty eyes and pulled his hand away.
Then, stepping close enough to brush against the shocked Leon, he spoke with glacial calm.
“What does it matter to me.”

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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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