My Daddy Hides His Power - Chapter 225

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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 Conceals His Strength
Chapter 225
Oscar suppressed a laugh with some effort and turned back to Leon.
“Yes, well, I understand your feelings perfectly.”
“Thank you so much!”
“But she isn’t here right now.”
“…Pardon?”
“Rosalind Veronica left two days ago….”
“Versace, Master!”
“Right, Rosalind Versace left the Magic Tower two days ago. She went to the Isolem Kingdom. The girl has great aspirations for learning, so I sent her to see and experience more of the world.”
“What?”
Leon’s eyes widened.
Oscar shook his head with a sympathetic air.
“It’s a journey with no set return date, you might say.”
“B-but that’s….”
“She even asked me to pass along a message if you came looking for her. She said that if fate brings you together again someday, you’ll meet.”
……
Thud.
The flower bouquet slipped from Leon’s hands.
Oscar exhaled deeply and helped the stunned Leon to his feet with his own hands.
“Boy, what kind of man kneels down in the middle of the street like this?”
His tone of consolation was gentler than Oscar’s usual manner—he seemed genuinely sorry for Leon.
“But… surely she’ll come back someday, won’t she?”
Leon was persistent.
“Perhaps. But here’s the thing.”
Oscar gripped his shoulder firmly and spoke.
“She has a boyfriend.”
* * *
“Brother…”
……
I must be insane.
Truly insane.
I should have customized myself as a burly, muscular man!
Why did I have to pick a beautiful female character!
I’d even saved Leon’s life, and now I’m stuck feeling guilt I shouldn’t have to feel!
“Brother!”
……
Oscar let Leon leave early to comfort him, so I followed him back to his aunt’s place.
Leon stumbled out of the carriage.
“That woman really isn’t my type. I don’t know why you liked her so much, but she’s stubborn and full of herself. I was so glad when she left the Magic Tower….”
“Hey!”
I’d been trailing behind him, earnestly cursing Rosalind, when I suddenly turned and yelled—startling myself as much as him.
“W-why…?”
“Don’t speak ill of her! I know what you’re trying to do, but don’t!”
Leon pouted for a moment, then turned sharply and kept walking.
“She’s my benefactor. So don’t curse her. I’ll sort out my feelings on my own—you don’t need to do all this for me.”
God, I’m going crazy!
Leon walked a few more steps, then suddenly stopped and gazed down at the bouquet in his hands.
Thud.
The rose bouquet—no, Leon’s first love—was discarded in vain.
“No! What a waste!”
I hurried over and picked it up.
“If you like it, take it.”
“Sigh, brother. Since I’m already off early anyway, want to go take a walk around the neighborhood and get some fresh air? We can grab something delicious and cheer you up. What do you say?”
“Forget it.”
Leon trudged into the house.
The moment I followed him inside, I spotted two familiar faces sitting on the living room sofa.
“Oh? Lilis came along?”
Theo and,
“My goodness, Lilis!”
It had been a long time since she’d seen Erika.
* * *
Erika Valerin, nineteen years old.
Special talent: unrequited love.
Preference in men: the bad kind.
For ten years—ever since she was nine and had fallen head over heels for Leon Antrace, her classmate at the Training Institute—she’d done nothing but trail after him like a lovesick shadow.
And today, Erika had come to finally put an end to that hopeless pursuit.
“Let’s get married. You and me.”
Silence descended over the table where four people sat.
Theo exhaled heavily; Lilis’s jaw fell slack in shock. But Leon, the one actually receiving the proposal, merely slumped in his chair with a hollow, lifeless expression.
“I’ve waited for you all this time. I’ve refused every marriage proposal that came my way—of course I have—and I haven’t so much as held another man’s hand at my age.”
……
“My parents are worried. They keep pushing me to hurry up and find someone, saying I’m running out of time. Now I have to tie the knot between us.”
……
“Leon Antrace. Let’s get married.”
Whether Leon heard her words or not was impossible to say.
Still reeling from the shock of his first love being trampled underfoot, Leon’s gaze drifted listlessly through empty air.
“I know you don’t have feelings for me. But you feel that way about every woman, don’t you?”
……
“I was prepared to step aside if you ever fell for someone else, but it hasn’t happened yet. Honestly, I don’t think things will change much going forward. I’m right, aren’t I?”
……
“Let’s get married first and become closer. Then we can get to know each other better. You won’t regret it. I’ll be good to you.”
“Stop.”
Only then did Leon look directly at Erika.
“That’s not true. I do have someone I like.”
“…What?”
“I… I do, I…”
Leon choked mid-sentence. The others gasped, watching him struggle to continue.
“No, no! Don’t cry! You can’t cry!”
*Gulp.*
Lilis rushed forward and held Leon, trying to comfort him. His large frame trembled as it collapsed into his small sister’s embrace—he looked ready to break down entirely.
Leon’s reaction was genuine.
Not a lie invented to reject the proposal, but true.
Erika stared at him in shock.
“You… you’re seeing another woman without telling me?”
“I want to!”
Leon shot to his feet.
“Who are you to tell me whether I can or can’t see a woman? I’m already a wreck right now, and you’re asking me to marry you? Me? Marry you? Are you insane?!”
“Leon Antrace!”
Erika refused to back down, surging to her feet and screaming right back at him.
“How could you do this to me? How could you?”
“Stop it. Just stop. I’m so sick of this! Even if I never fall for anyone else, I will never marry you! So stop tormenting me!”
Fighting back tears, Leon sucked in a sharp breath through his teeth, then roughly tore off the cravat that had been strangling him and hurled it onto the table.
“Please find someone else!”
Then he thundered up the stairs and disappeared.
“Brother!”
Lilis cried out in alarm and hurried after him.
Left behind, Erika…
…collapsed, deflated.
“E-Erika.”
What could he even do? Theo squeezed his eyes shut.
Theo Antrace.
For ten years, he had been comforting their childhood friend Erika—the girl who’d chased after the twin brothers like a duckling—whenever her heart might break.
Usually, Erika didn’t seem bothered by Leon’s blunt coldness.
But this time, the blow would be devastating.
“I… I… uh… uh…”
“Erika?”
Erika turned back, voice trembling with sobs.
She was weeping now—openly, without restraint. Her carefully applied makeup smeared, black tears streaming down her face.
“Don’t cry. You did your makeup so beautifully. Why are you ruining it?”
Theo sighed heavily, gently wiping the tears from Erika’s cheeks with his own hands.
“I—how? I—I’ve l-loved you for so many y-years, and h-how could you—how could you do this to m-me?”
“Oh, sweetheart.”
Theo held the sobbing Erika close, patting her back softly. She wept against his chest for a long time.
Thus ended the first love of them both on this day.
It was a cruel spring afternoon……
* * *
“Ah, I’m dying of laughter.”
After Leon had stirred up quite a commotion and departed.
Oscar finally composed himself after laughing for a long while and collapsed into his chair.
……
For some reason, the smile gradually faded from his face.
“…One month left, then? Really?”
It didn’t feel real. He’d thought there would be at least another half-year remaining.
The day when everything would end.
That day was—
“This is driving me mad…”
The day Oscar had resolved to depart alone.
‘I haven’t even prepared myself mentally. A month is just too soon.’
He tilted his head back, staring blankly into the void. As heavy hands covered his eyes, his exposed lips twisted in anguish.
The price exacted from those who cast Regression Magic.
It was Erasure of Existence.
A state where everyone who had known him could no longer perceive him as ‘Oscar’.
A single word, or even one action…
The moment someone discerned even the slightest trace of ‘Oscar’ from him through some careless mistake, the Geis would claim his life.
So to avoid death, he had to flee from all who knew him.
‘And yet…’
At least he wouldn’t die.
Watching over the child from a distance would be enough.
—Or so he had thought.
‘Humans are truly deceitful creatures. We’re beasts that know no contentment.’
Oscar laughed bitterly to himself.
Somewhere along the way, desire had taken root in him.
Even if my true name fades from memory…
I wish I could face the child directly, speak with her, and have her know of my existence.
Merely watching from the shadows is far too agonizing and pitiful.
—That was why Oscar had resolved to travel far away.
To meet the child again while still alive, he had to abandon the existence of ‘Oscar’.
His manner of speech, his actions, his habits, his memories…
He would have to thoroughly excise all traces of the years he spent as ‘Oscar’ and approach her as an entirely new person.
Not even the child, but any among the many who had known him—not a single one could sense even the faintest echo.
The moment his existence was recognized, everything would crumble to dust.
‘It won’t be easy.’
He had lived an extraordinarily long life, spanning even his previous existence.
Erasing every ingrained trace that might cause others to recall ‘Oscar’ would be far more than the work of a day or two.
So he would depart…
Return as someone different, someone who could meet her again without concern, speak to her, and laugh with her.
‘One month.’
Though he had always anticipated this parting.
Now that the hourglass had truly begun to run, his heart felt heavy with contradiction.
“No. Actually, this is better, I suppose.”
Oscar gave a hollow laugh.
“Finishing things quickly is good, isn’t it? Now you have nothing to worry about—only happiness ahead.”
“Master, just as we promised, we’ll go to nice places and eat delicious food. We’ll build so many, many memories together…”
But it would be cruel to leave memories with the child as ‘Oscar’, a being destined to vanish.
She would spend her whole life haunted by those memories, tormented by them.
So, truly, he was sorry.
It was better not to leave meaningless recollections behind.
‘One month…’
Oscar laid his head down on the desk, exhaling a weary sigh.
It was a day that had to come for the child’s sake, a day she had longed for with desperate hope.
And yet she wished it would never arrive at all.
―Caught in such a contradiction, she thought.

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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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