My Daddy Hides His Power - Chapter 230

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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 hiding his strength
Episode 230
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Argonia Temple.
When I returned around nine o’clock, the two elderly priests were busily charging the Warp Gate.
I could’ve done it myself, but the way they stubbornly insisted and kept me from going home felt rather inconsiderate.
‘There’s nothing to be done about it.’
They looked too frail to walk easily, yet they labored to extract Mana, which tugged at my heart—so I decided not to press the matter further.
“Not bad at all!”
The priests’ quarters that the Vice Priest had offered me weren’t unpleasant either.
True, the room had gathered some dust from disuse, but Cheshire opened the windows for ventilation and shook out the blankets thoroughly, so it seemed clean enough to sleep in comfortably.
I washed up, borrowed a comfortable priestly robe, and dove onto the bed.
“Sleep well, Lilis.”
“Huh?”
Cheshire turned back to look at me in confusion, his hand already on the door handle.
“What?”
“Where are you going? Didn’t you say you’d stay with me?”
“Yeah. I’ll keep watch outside without sleeping, so don’t worry.”
“No, I mean—”
He was actually going to stand guard?
“Do you really need to guard my room? Who’s even here? Just those two elderly priests downstairs charging the Warp Gate?”
“Still, I can’t leave you alone in here to sleep.”
“I know. But you need to sleep too. This isn’t a warzone or anything, and you don’t need to pull an all-nighter standing watch over my room.”
……
“You have training again tomorrow—what happens if you lose sleep?”
“It’s fine. I don’t need to sleep.”
“No, you don’t! Go to sleep!”
Cheshire rubbed his forehead, looking troubled.
“Fine. I’ll sleep sitting outside the door.”
“Why would you sleep on the floor when there’s a perfectly good room?”
“Because I need to watch over you.”
“No, absolutely not!”
This is infuriating!
“Sleep here!”
……
Seeing my stubborn refusal, Cheshire’s lips twitched slightly before he gave in, dropping himself heavily onto a simple chair set further away.
“Wow…”
“Sleep well.”
“Am I going to eat you?”
“That’s not the issue…”
“What, am I some kind of beast? Have you ever seen a creature as small and harmless as me?”
……
“Have you?!”
“No, I haven’t.”
I threw my dignity to the wind and patted the bed enthusiastically.
“…That’s really not it.”
Cheshire flatly refused.
I sighed and sat up.
“If you insist, then you sleep in the bed. You have training tomorrow, but I have a day off at the Magic Tower, so it’s fine—I’ll manage sleeping a bit uncomfortable instead.”
“Lilis.”
“What?”
……
Cheshire closed his eyes tightly for a moment.
After a brief pause, he finally said, “Alright,” pushed me back toward the bed by my shoulders, and then sat down beside it.
I fell back and watched his hunched back as he sighed deeply, unable to bring himself to actually lie down.
“How did the gate even…? The discharge…? Why today of all days…? Ugh, how did this happen…”
“…?”
“It doesn’t make sense…”
Cheshire, who was usually taciturn, muttered ceaselessly, which left me speechless.
“What are you talking about?”
“What?”
“I’m telling you, I didn’t do it?!”
I bolted upright, indignant.
“When you asked me to play longer, I was genuinely planning to head home. The Gate Discharge just happened—completely by accident. What, am I a god? I don’t have the kind of Ability to control Gates like that—!”
“…….”
Except I do.
There’s nothing I can’t do, really.
“That’s right, I can do it, but I’m telling you I didn’t this time! It’s unfair!”
“I know. I never said you did. Why are you getting so worked up?”
“Because you keep looking at me like something’s wrong!”
“I’m not.”
“…….”
“Well, insisting I sleep in bed instead of on the floor is a little odd.”
“I just hate seeing you sleep on the ground! And you—”
I felt hurt by how much Cheshire was pushing back.
“You hate me? You don’t even want to just lie down next to me? We used to nap together all the time when we were younger.”
“No, I don’t hate you. It’s just… we were kids then. Now… Father worries, and I feel like I’m doing something wrong.”
“What’s wrong about it? We’re boyfriend and girlfriend. Did I ask you to do anything strange? I just want to hold your hand and sleep!”
I grabbed Cheshire’s hand and flopped back onto the bed. He followed awkwardly as I pulled him down beside me.
“Sigh….”
“Now go to sleep!”
We lay side by side, hands clasped, in proper form. Silence settled over us.
When I glanced over, Cheshire had turned his head away, avoiding my gaze entirely.
“You’re being too much. When you act so touchy like this, it makes me feel like I’m doing something worse.”
“I’m not doing anything wrong. Don’t worry.”
“Between lovers, it wouldn’t be wrong.”
“We’re still too young. It would be.”
What is this Joseon-era mindset?
Could it be that he, like me, was reincarnated here from a Joseon scholar family?
“Are you a scholar?”
“What?”
“Never mind. But do you know Sir Raul from the Paladin Order? He just had his second child.”
Father told me. Sir Raul is eighteen, the same age as Cheshire, and a member of the Paladin Order.
“……?”
At my words, Cheshire sat up abruptly, eyes wide.
“I’ll just sleep over there.”
And he tried to get back to the chair.
“Oh, come on.”
This was fun to tease about. I chuckled and grabbed his arm.
“I was just messing with you, you bachelor! Why so serious~?”
“…….”
Cheshire glared at me as if I were some scheming old woman, then sighed and lay back down reluctantly.
I rolled toward him and stared at his face intently.
“Hehe.”
“…….”
“Cheshire.”
“…What.”
“Thank you.”
Cheshire turned his head toward me, away from the ceiling he’d been watching so rigidly.
“For what?”
“Mm.”
There was something I’d wanted to say for a while.
This felt like the right moment.
“You’re risking your life working with Father for me. You’re putting everything on the line.”
“…….”
“But I don’t want to just be grateful to you.”
Cheshire looked at me, puzzled.
“Tell me—why do you want to kill the Emperor?”
“…….”
“Because I’m Primera? Because if the Emperor stays alive, I can’t survive?”
“Yes.”
“Is there no other reason? If you weren’t Primera, you wouldn’t have gone through with the business at all?”
Cheshire fell silent for a moment before answering.
“No, I would have. Just having the Emperor disappear is reason enough for a better world.”
“Do you truly desire that? Tell me honestly. Creating a world where everyone is happy—that’s why James is doing this business, isn’t it?”
Cheshire had learned the sword in the beginning to repay the debt he owed to the man who had taken him in.
Later, he had become obsessed with revolution, even wagering his own life—driven by the compulsion that ‘the Emperor must be eliminated.’ Because I had learned I was Primera.
“I don’t want to be indebted to you. I wish you had another reason besides me.”
The path Cheshire had walked over these seven years.
No matter how much I thought about it, there was nowhere in that journey a will of Cheshire’s own.
Not for some greater cause, nor did he have a vision of the world he wanted after the revolution succeeded.
That always troubled me.
“Everyone has their own reasons. Mine is you.”
“Of course it is, but I wish you had another reason—something other than such blind, simple devotion. Think about it. What do you truly desire?”
“The goal of keeping you alive is enough for me to throw away my life. So accept my reason as it is. If you ask me to think of another one right now, I don’t know what that would be.”
I swallowed a sigh at his unhesitating answer and nodded.
“All right….”
“…….”
“Cheshire.”
“Yes.”
“Do you have a dream you’d like to see come true?”
“A dream?”
“Yes. Think of a situation that would unfold before you right now and make you happy.”
“…….”
“Like eating something delicious until you’re full, or lying in bed doing nothing for a whole year, or petting a cute cat….”
I leaned forward on my elbows, propped my chin in my hands, and smiled at Cheshire.
“Just imagine it and tell me.”
“I don’t know.”
“Good grief, is this so hard? I’m just asking you to imagine something.”
“It’s not something that will actually happen anyway, so I don’t see why I should imagine it.”
“…….”
Sigh.
I gave up and simply lay back.
“Then forget imagining—just tell yourself to have a good dream as you sleep. That way, you might dream of something you’ve been wishing for without realizing it.”
“…….”
“Hey! You can do at least that, can’t you?”
“All right.”
Cheshire nodded and closed his eyes.
I watched his face for a while as he drifted off, then slowly snuggled up beside him, pressing close.
“Just hold hands.”
A sharp breath.
Cheshire, whom I thought had fallen asleep, pushed me away firmly and took my hand instead.
“Let’s just hold hands, you and I….”
“Tsk.”
“…….”
A celibate monk, that one.
In the end, I gave in and offered my parting words.
“Sweet dreams, Cheshire.”
1sec
* * *
Chirp, chirp, chirp.
The sound of birds singing.
In the warm sunlight streaming through the window, Cheshire’s eyes opened.
It was morning.
“Honey, how much longer are you going to sleep?”
A familiar voice.
Still lying down, Cheshire turned his head toward the sound.
Beyond the open door, he could see the kitchen.
The aroma of delicious food.
The silhouette of his wife, standing before the fire with her back to him.
‘What is this.’
The scene was familiar, and yet today it felt unexpectedly new.
Cheshire rose with a smile and moved toward his wife.
The person I love most.
With each step closer, his heart quickened.
“Sleep well?”
From behind his wife, Cheshire wrapped his arms around her waist and pressed a soft kiss to her exposed neck.
“Yeah, slept great.”

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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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