My Daddy Hides His Power - Chapter 216

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

Father Conceals His Strength
216
* * *
One week before the Subjugation Expedition.
Libre Manor.
I was playing a card-matching game with Axion.
“You go first, Uncle.”
“All right.”
Axion rested his chin lazily in his palm and began flipping over pairs of matching cards at an impressive speed.
‘Wow, wow… he’s fast….’
Then he paused.
His hand, about to flip another card, deliberately chose a wrong one instead.
“Ah, I made a mistake.”
“No way! Don’t let me win!”
How did he manage to make it so obvious when he was throwing the game? He really was just like Cheshire.
Were they truly not blood relations…?
Anyway, I eagerly moved my hands when my turn came around again.
“Lilis.”
“Yes? If you’re trying to distract me so I mess up, I should tell you I’m not that easy to rattle.”
I’d been playing card games with Cheshire for years, after all.
“Why have you been coming to our house so often lately? You’re here every day the Magic Tower has off.”
“…Excuse me?”
I froze mid-motion.
Glancing up, I caught Axion smiling knowingly.
What was with that expression?
“Why not? Is it a problem if I visit? Everyone knows I’m close with you, Uncle…. Um, is it because of Cheshire?”
I kept flipping cards, trying to sound as casual as possible, and added quickly.
“You don’t need to worry about that anyway, do you? Cheshire barely comes home. And the Emperor himself knows we spend time together like siblings. Since we almost never see each other in public, there’s really no need to worry about, well, business complications….”
“I’m not worried about business.”
“Then what?”
“It’s just that Cheshire shows up at the house whenever you have a day off—like you two made some kind of pact.”
“…….”
“A strange coincidence, wouldn’t you say.”
“Oh, Cheshire’s probably just stopping by today.”
“Yeah.”
“Oh, of course! What a coincidence!”
I kept my eyes on the cards, pretending ignorance.
Peeking up again, I found Axion watching me with an odd expression.
‘Oh no….’
I swallowed hard.
‘Is everyone going to find out we’re dating…?’
* * *
Libre Manor was the perfect place to meet Cheshire away from prying eyes.
“You’re here?”
I was waiting in my room when Cheshire entered. I rushed toward him immediately.
“Yeah.”
He smiled faintly and pulled me into his arms. I tensed, glancing nervously at the firmly closed door behind him.
“What about Uncle?”
“Father? I… I greeted him on the way in.”
“This is bad. I think Uncle is getting suspicious of us.”
“Father is?”
“Yes. We’ve been meeting like this for weeks now, so it’s only natural he’d start wondering. Let’s cancel the plan to see each other the night before the Expedition.”
Cheshire gazed at me quietly for a moment, then sighed.
“What does it matter if Father finds out?”
“It matters. Have you forgotten why we agreed to keep this a secret? Everyone’s busy preparing for the campaign. It looks bad if we’re dating in the middle of all this.”
“…….”
Cheshire looked displeased, but eventually nodded.
“All right. If that’s what you think.”
“I’ll stay for dinner tonight, at least!”
“Okay.”
We went to the sofa and sat down. Cheshire looked tired enough that shadows pooled beneath his eyes as he tilted his head back.
“Things rough lately? Not sleeping?”
“I’m fine.”
“Get some rest before dinner. Just a little.”
I patted my lap invitingly.
After a moment’s hesitation, Cheshire carefully laid his head across my knees. Our eyes met.
“I won’t fall asleep.”
“We’ll see. I think sleep’s already calling you.”
I stroked Cheshire’s hair slowly. He let out a soft laugh and took my other hand.
“That’s right—what happened with the Duke?”
“Oh!”
At Cheshire’s question, I grinned and made a victory sign with my fingers.
“Success! I called in a favor with my Master.”
Father had been so stubbornly against my staying out overnight that I’d had no choice but to send an S.O.S. to Oscar.
When Oscar said he’d let me stay at the Magic Tower soon, Father immediately agreed to my request—as if he’d never objected at all.
“Phew. I almost missed the battlefield.”
I let out a relieved sigh, but something in Cheshire’s expression felt off.
“I’m sorry, Lilis.”
“Sorry? For what?”
“For putting you in danger.”
“No, it’s not like that. I’m fine.”
Even as I tried to comfort him, Cheshire’s expression remained dark.
‘Sigh.’
In truth, as one might expect, Cheshire had opposed my going to the battlefield from the start.
“I understand what it means that the gods arranged fate. I know that because of the Duke’s schemes, many innocent people were fated to die.”
“But not my brothers. Their deaths have nothing to do with his schemes. When Theo nearly died before—that wasn’t fate. It was coincidence.”
When I insisted I had to go myself to save Leon, he’d fought me fiercely.
“So your assumption that Leon will die as originally planned is unfounded. It’s too dangerous there. Absolutely not.”
Faced with his stubbornness, I had no choice but to tell him the truth.
The reason the twins were fated to die wasn’t to make the rebellion easier to lead, but…
‘It was motivation—to make the protagonist willing to sacrifice himself for the rebellion.’
It was to awaken you, I’d told him.
“I worry about you too much.”
The hand holding mine tightened.
“Come on, don’t worry. We trained hard and prepared well.”
After learning the truth, Cheshire had been shaken, tormented by anguish for days on end.
Leon dying because of him.
Yet the only way to save Leon was if I went to the battlefield myself.
“I’m sorry.”
……
Before he finally agreed to let me go, he must have wrestled with it endlessly.
And now that he’d agreed, how much worry must be eating him alive.
“I really am fine, Cheshire. We’ll make it through safely.”
Understanding his pain made my heart ache.
“You haven’t forgotten the promise we made.”
Cheshire pressed a brief kiss to the back of the hand he was holding.
“If I fail to save Leon…”
Those crimson eyes looked up at me.
“…the moment you’re in danger, run. Don’t do anything else.”
Cheshire’s gaze held both his worry for me and his self-reproach for Leon.
“I will.”
Seeing me smile to reassure him, Cheshire smiled back ruefully, then closed his eyes slowly.
“…You have to survive. Promise me.”
* * *
The day of the Large-Scale Monster Subjugation Battle.
The 1st Combat Zone—the critical subjugation area in the southern Arthal Plains.
As a suicide mission prone to chaos, the 1st Combat Zone had assembled exceptional Ability Users, including Cheshire as Supreme Commander.
After setting fire to a Glepter habitat and waiting, Cheshire glanced toward the distant Leon.
‘How will he end up in danger?’
Cheshire and Leon had been in a cold war for a month.
After the day when opinions clashed over Kyle Ludendorf’s expedition.
Leon hadn’t spoken to Cheshire, as if his heart had been wounded.
“L-Leon?”
Then.
A startled voice reached Cheshire’s ears as he stood watch over the burning forest.
“…brother?”
Spinning around, Cheshire found Leon mounted on a horse. Their eyes met for a moment.
“Brother!!!”
There was no time to stop him. Leon seized the reins, wheeled the horse’s head around, and drove his heels into its flanks.
“Supreme Commander! L-Leon is suddenly—what’s happening….”
The ability users around them floundered at Leon’s abrupt withdrawal from the line.
“Ah.”
Watching Leon’s rapidly receding silhouette, Cheshire’s breathing grew ragged.
Fate…….
“You keep fighting while protecting your brother. But if he should, by any chance….”
The fate that Lilis had spoken of was proving true with terrifying precision.
“…try to withdraw from the line, don’t stop him. Just let him go.”
“Supreme Commander! It looks like Leon is heading toward the 5th Combat Zone!”
The 5th Combat Zone.
The rear section where remnants of Demon Beasts were being mopped up—where the child soldiers were—
“If my suspicions are right, Leon will definitely come to where I am.”
—where Lilis was.
“Supreme Commander! What should we—what do we do….”
“Let him go.”
He had to stay calm. Cheshire shook his head sharply, dispelling the haze clouding his vision.
With trembling hands, he drew two shell-shaped ornaments from his breast.
Magical Devices crafted by Oscar.
He’d used them before when summoning Lilis to save Theo.
“If your brother faces death at your side, call for me like you did when saving Theo—hide from the others’ eyes and break the white one.”
“But if your brother withdraws from the line, break the blue one to signal me.”
Cheshire recalled Lilis’s instructions and shattered the blue Magical Device.
At that instant, a thunderous crash echoed nearby.
Boom, boom, boom, boom.
The heavy tread of massive feet.
From the burning habitat, large and ferocious Demon Beasts came charging out.
‘Lilis….’
A fate bearing the name of death itself.
Leon, trailing the tail of that fate, had now gone to where Lilis was.
The 5th Combat Zone was supposed to be safe.
But the moment Leon arrived there, it would become dangerous somehow.
How?
In what way?
The thought that something might go wrong with Lilis, that terror gnawed at Cheshire’s mind and shattered his composure.
‘Get a hold of yourself.’
Cheshire drew his blade.
Shiiing—
A streak of dark Sword Aura flew toward the approaching horde of Demon Beasts.
There was only one thing he could do now.
“Never!!!”
Not create the slightest variable that could endanger Lilis.
“Not a single one of them gets past—send none of them to the rear!!!”
Even if his own breath should fail and his body crumble to dust.
No matter what.

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