My Daddy Hides His Power - Chapter 23

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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 23
“…….”
Rico, growing suspicious, slowly reached out and carefully parted the mouth of the bundle.
A blue powder was visible inside.
Mysteriously, it shimmered with its own faint luminescence—
Salvacion.
The universal antidote also known as the Fairy’s Tears.
“What is this.”
Rico’s voice sharpened the moment he recognized it.
“You need this, don’t you!”
In the original story, it was only years later that our father learned of Rico’s difficult circumstances and gave it to him—
The one and only way to save poor Rico’s younger sister.
“…….”
Tension hung in the air.
Rico let out a sharp laugh.
“I’ve spent my whole life following others, but this is the first time someone’s been on my tail.”
“…….”
“What’s your game? How did the Duke track me? Answer me.”
“Ah, Father knows nothing about this, I’m telling you…”
Rico’s sudden shift in demeanor frightened me badly.
He fell silent for a moment, then drew something from inside his clothes.
A short sword.
“Eek!”
I hastily curled myself into the corner of the sofa.
“P-please, let’s talk about this! Words! I-I can handle Cheshire myself, so you don’t have to b-bother with my request…”
“…….”
But contrary to what I expected, Rico simply removed his gloves and made a long cut across his own palm with the short sword.
Then he clutched a handful of Salvacion in his hand.
“Huh.”
The moment the blue powder clung to the blood trickling down his palm.
The wound sealed itself in an instant.
Rico went rigid.
‘Ah. So he wanted to verify it wasn’t a forgery, just in case.’
Quite the distrustful one.
I spoke carefully.
“It’s—it’s all for you. It’s yours….”
“…….”
“Well then. I’ll be on my way.”
“You knew what this was and smuggled it out.”
“What?”
“The damn Imperial family has a monopoly on this. You couldn’t get it with all the gold in the world. Your house might receive it by special privilege, but if you carelessly leaked it outside, there’d be no escaping censure.”
Well, I already knew all that.
I feigned surprise.
“Wow. Really? Then you just need to use it carefully so Rico doesn’t get caught, right?”
“…….”
“S-so I’ll really take my leave now.”
“Wait.”
At that moment, Rico suddenly raised his hand and removed his mask.
‘……?’
Silver hair and ashen eyes.
A small scar running vertically along the left side of his mouth.
When a youthful boy with an otherworldly beauty—as if drained of all color—revealed his face, I was genuinely startled.
“W-wait just a moment!”
I quickly covered both my eyes with my small palms and floundered.
“Y-you don’t need to show me your face!”
Rico, who made a living digging into the dirty secrets of nobles, had to conceal his identity absolutely.
With so many enemies, it was only a matter of time before he’d be cut down if his face ever got out.
In the original story, Rico didn’t even show his face to Father until more than five years later—only when he had come to trust Father completely.
Yet here he was, showing his face at a first meeting to a kid who was obviously suspicious at best?
“Look at me.”
“Ah, no. Wait—you’re not planning to kill me in secret, are you?”
If he’d revealed his face so easily, that was indeed a possibility.
I clicked my teeth together and carefully lowered the hand that had shielded my eyes.
Fortunately, he seemed kind.
‘Well, he must be an important character—he’s quite handsome.’
At that idle thought, I shook my head vigorously.
“I never break my principles in a deal. I must give you something of equal value in return.”
Rico set his mask down on the table.
“What you’ve purchased from me today is this.”
…His face shown to me.
His own weakness.
* * *
After taking the antidote, Rico smoothed down his younger sister’s hair as she slept peacefully for the first time in years, her expression finally at ease.
“One dose of antidote won’t be enough, will it? You’ll need more…. Ahem, just trust me! We’re friends, after all!”
The child who’d patted her own chest confidently with those small hands….
Rico let out a soft laugh.
“That’s not like you, Rico. What on earth were you thinking? Showing your face like that?”
Rico turned at the voice from behind.
It was Marina—a red-haired server at Rico’s Restaurant and an informant for the Red Hawk guild.
“Who did we plant inside the Rubinstein Duke’s Residence?”
“…The J sisters.”
“Have them relay information about the Onyx Marquis and his illegitimate child to Enoch Rubinstein.”
“Rico! Are you serious?”
“Yes.”
Rico stood and passed Marina, pulling back the curtain of the semi-basement window.
“You know how desperately I’ve needed Salvacion.”
“I know. But you should be careful. That person knows who you are, what condition your sister is in—everything. Even the precision with which she sent her daughter. The Duke must have some hidden agenda!”
“Well. We all know the Duke cherishes his daughter like his own life. So why did he send her here alone?”
……
“He wouldn’t. It’s more likely the girl’s story is true. She really came by herself. The Duke has no idea what’s happened.”
“How does a seven-year-old even manage that?”
“I don’t know either. She won’t explain. But whatever secret that child holds, whatever she’s scheming—it doesn’t matter to me.”
Rico turned back to Marina and added:
“Even if that little lady were a demon, I’d gladly sell my soul. My face is cheap compared to what I gained.”
“I understand how desperate you are, Rico. What I’m saying is—why did you hand over your own weakness when she never even asked for it?”
“Think back to her request. All she wanted was for me to pass the Onyx Marquis’s secrets to her father. I could’ve handled that through someone else. But she came to me specifically. For one reason.”
……
“Only one: she wanted to give me the antidote.”
It was undeniably right. Marina’s words caught in her throat, and she bit her lip.
Rico gazed out the window again, murmuring:
“I’m going to trust her. Just once.”
Rico was waiting.
The reason he ran an information guild and collected the secrets of nobles.
It was this: if someone were to appear who could shine light into this rotting cesspool….
He wanted to lend his strength.
“Perhaps she already has.”
The hero he’d been longing for.
* * *
‘I really made the right choice finding Rico.’
I thought this as I drew a crooked picture on sketch paper, just like any other seven-year-old would.
“I have placed guild members as spies in every noble house across Jedo. I’ll contact the guild member positioned at the Onyx Marquis’s residence, so coordinate with them as you proceed.”
After the transaction, Rico even provided perfect after-sales service.
He’d even given me a plan to obtain Chesire smoothly.
The guild member planted in the Onyx Marquis’s residence had agreed to help me.
“But, Rico, I think I can probably get to the Onyx Marquis’s house somehow…. Once I’m there, how do I find out who your guild member is?”
“Ah, how to identify them…. Well, once you return home, our guild member planted at the Rubinstein Duke’s Residence will contact you.”
“What, what did you just say? We have a spy in our own house too?”
“…? Isn’t that obvious? How else could I have learned everything about your situation when I’ve only been in Jedo for four days?”
“Wow.”
I trembled as I recalled my conversation with Rico.
A frightening person indeed….
In any case, now that I’d cast my lot with Rico, I needed to meet the Guild Member hiding within our household as soon as possible.
‘They’re probably among the servants, aren’t they? If I’m to keep communicating with Rico, it would be convenient to have them assigned as my personal attendant.’
I sighed, scribbling haphazardly across the drawing paper with a crayon.
‘Sigh, I’ve already grown quite close to Zeti and Jun….’
It was a shame, but once I found Rico’s Guild Member, I’d need to request a change in my personal attendant.
“My, our young lady draws so beautifully.”
Just then, Zeti approached from the other side of the bed where I’d been lying and sat down beside me.
“Is this a jellyfish? Has our young lady ever seen a jellyfish?”
“This is my father, actually….”
“Oh! No, no, no, really? Ah! Now that I look again, it’s so clearly the Duke! So very much so!”
Zeti laughed awkwardly, caught off guard.
Just then, Jun approached from the opposite side and picked up a crayon.
“Hehe, young lady. May I draw something too?”
“Of course.”
Jun began drawing something with eager expression.
‘A person.’
Brown hair reaching down to the waist, dressed in a maid’s uniform….
‘A maid?’
It was a portrait that skillfully captured even distinctive features—the slightly upturned eyes and the beauty mark at the corner of her mouth.
“Wow, you really draw well. Who is it?”
“A friend of mine. Her name is Richel.”
“My friend too. Richel works as a maid as well.”
Zeti added, stroking my hair gently as she spoke.
“At the Onyx Marquis’s Residence.”
……!
In that instant, I went completely rigid with shock.
‘…What, what did she just say? Out of nowhere, a friend? And she works for the Onyx Marquis?’
I examined Jun’s drawing carefully once more.
A maid with brown hair and a beauty mark at the corner of her mouth, working at the Onyx Marquis’s Residence.
At this very moment, what this meant was crystal clear.
Rico’s Guild Member stationed at the Onyx Marquis’s Residence—it was her.
‘Wow….’
I stared at Zeti and Jun in turn, my mouth hanging open.
They smiled back with innocent faces.
‘Wait, they were my sisters all along?’

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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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