My Daddy Hides His Power - Chapter 232

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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
232
* * *
Eight in the morning.
We were still in the priest’s quarters of the Argonia Temple.
Cheshire and I were getting ready to wash up and head out.
“You’re really not going to tell me what you dreamed about?”
I pestered Cheshire for details as I dried my hair with a towel.
“I didn’t dream anything.”
He was lying.
He must have dreamed something—I used my Ability before falling asleep, after all.
“But you called out ‘father’! Obviously you dreamed something. Why are you lying?”
“Let’s go check if the Warp Gate opened. And you need breakfast too. What do you want?”
“Don’t change the subject!”
…….
Cheshire sighed, then came around and sat behind me on the bed.
“Fine. You’re right.”
He took the towel from my hands and dried my hair for me as he spoke.
“I dreamed I became a father.”
“Ha! I knew it! A son or a daughter?”
“A son.”
“So you wanted a son! Was he still tiny? Is that why he called you ‘father’ for the first time?”
“Yeah. He was about a year old. I woke up this morning and went to change his diaper. I’d thought his mother always did it, but I’d never managed before—this time I did it for the first time.”
……?
Wait, he was giving that much detail?
I had to cover my mouth to keep from laughing.
Cheshire seemed embarrassed at how easily he’d been talking, and cleared his throat awkwardly.
“But you made me dream this, didn’t you?”
“Huh?”
“Yesterday night, before sleep, you asked me if there was a dream I wanted to have.”
“Oh, someone’s sharp today.”
“I thought so.”
“But here’s the thing, Cheshire.”
I turned to look at him, suppressing my smile.
“I did make you have a good dream, but since you didn’t tell me what kind of dream you wanted, I couldn’t have engineered all those specific details myself.”
…….
“If I’d created the whole dream content, I’d know everything. Why would I need to ask like that?”
Cheshire blinked.
“I just thought, ‘Please let Cheshire have a good dream.’ So everything you dreamed last night—all those details—came from your deepest, unconscious wishes.”
…I see.
Cheshire.
I poked him mischievously in the belly and grinned.
“So who was the baby’s mother?”
That was really what I wanted to know.
Whether his dream had included a wife at all.
And if so, who she was.
“What? Why aren’t you answering? It wasn’t me, was it?”
…….
“W-wait, really? It wasn’t me? But your expression—it looks like someone showed up. Who was it? Who exactly?”
“Are you going to marry me?”
Cheshire turned the question back on me.
…….
I went blank for a moment, then my face flushed hot and I started fanning myself frantically.
“Oh, come on! Ha! Good grief! Ha!”
…….
“W-we’ve only been dating for two months! Why would I already be thinking about m-marriage?! Ha!”
Cheshire just watched me for a moment, then touched his neck awkwardly and spoke.
“You were right. It was you.”
“Really…?”
Yeah.
What is it, what is it~!
This girl is even thinking about marrying me~!
She’s lost her mind, really~!
* * *
At that very moment.
Argonia Temple, first floor.
“Nngh.”
The High Priest was pouring sweat as he channeled Holy Power into the Warp Gate.
“The children… I should send them home quickly…”
He felt a twinge of guilt for treating the young lady so coldly when she’d been stamping her feet in worry about her father.
So he’d been laboring through the entire predawn, squeezing out Holy Power he didn’t have to spare.
“Nngh, there we are…! Phew!”
He rubbed his stiff lower back with both hands as he stood, and the moment he activated the Warp Gate.
Pop―!
“Lilis!!!”
“Hey, slow down! Slowly!”
The gate had barely opened when two dark-figured men came tumbling through from the other side.
“Good heavens!!!”
The High Priest fell back in shock.
“Ah, my apologies. High Priest. It has been a while. Are you well?”
“……?”
A familiar face.
Enoch, Commander of the Paladin Order of Jedo.
His subordinate trailing behind him.
“What brings you here so early in the morning?”
The High Priest asked Enoch, who looked terribly urgent but was nonetheless helping him to his feet with courtesy.
“My daughter came here on a school visit yesterday, and the gate went down before she could return home. I wondered if she might have spent the night here at the temple?”
“Ah! So that was your daughter?”
The High Priest clapped his hands together.
“Don’t you worry. We had her sleep in the priests’ quarters.”
“Oh, thank the heavens. I am grateful. Where is she now?”
“Still sleeping, I think… Nngh, she’s on the third floor. Go on up…”
“Thank you.”
“Um, High Priest.”
Enoch had been about to rush upstairs when he stopped at the sound of Axion’s tense voice.
“The girl…”
Axion swallowed hard before asking the High Priest.
“…She spent the night alone, yes? Without any… well, friends?”
“Huh? Oh!”
A heavy silence fell.
Enoch and Axion went rigid.
“No, no…?”
They stared at the High Priest’s mouth, waiting for the next words.
“No, she was with a very handsome young man! The two of you—aren’t you sweethearts? They went into the room together…?”
Both men’s jaws dropped in horror.
* * *
“Ahahaha~! This is really hilarious!”
With no vanity, she was sitting on the bed, roughly tying her hair while looking into a hand mirror.
Cheshire had seized the chance to recount the dream story from start to finish.
“I even cooked for you on your birthday, you know? Wow, honestly, there’s no wife like me. Right?”
“Yeah, you’re right.”
“Did you taste it? How was it? I cooked well, didn’t I?”
“……”
Cheshire was quiet for a moment.
“What? Was it not tasty?”
“No, I didn’t actually taste it, but it looked delicious. It must have been delicious.”
“Right?”
Back when they used to live in Jenon.
She’d once made stew herself because she felt so sorry for James Brown, who would return exhausted after chopping wood all day only to have to prepare dinner as well.
Her touched father had tasted it and then told her never to set foot in the kitchen again.
I don’t remember the taste, but it was certainly because my skills were pitiful back then.
‘But I was only seven!’
Now that I’m grown, I’m sure I’ll do well.
“Hehe, the night before the operation, I should cook something special for Dad to cheer him on!”
I made up my mind.
“But Cheshire, why did a son appear in the dream instead of a daughter? Do you want a son more than a daughter?”
“It’s not that I prefer one or the other, but I have thought that a son might be easier to raise than a daughter.”
“Huh? Why?”
“Well, daughters tend to worry you more than sons.”
Cheshire sighed while looking at me.
“Your father must be anxious right now. If you stayed out without calling, I think I wouldn’t be able to sleep from worry.”
“Yeah, you’re right.”
Even knowing I’m with Cheshire, he’d still worry a lot, wouldn’t he?
“Hmm. I want to leave soon, but the Warp Gate still isn’t fully charged.”
Even if it charges, I should eat breakfast with Cheshire before heading back.
Thinking that, I pushed Dad out of my mind for a moment.
“Let’s eat breakfast at that restaurant we went to yesterday. The food was good there.”
“Sure. But….”
“Yeah.”
I struggled as I picked up and set down the hand mirror while trying to braid my hair. As I floundered, Cheshire spoke.
“…I want to have a daughter too. I saw a son’s face in the dream, but I’m curious what a daughter would look like.”
“Pfft!”
What, you? You’ve been thinking about children this whole time?
Wanting to tease Cheshire, I asked playfully.
“With who are you going to have her?”
“…….”
“Could it be… me? But I haven’t said yet that I’m marrying you. If I don’t marry you, who are you planning to have a daughter with?”
Cheshire stared at me, then quickly turned his head away as if hurt.
“Then I won’t have one.”
“Ahahaha!”
How cute.
“Cheshire, you’re going to be just as good a father as Enoch. Enoch is the best father I know, so that’s seriously high praise, right?”
I thought of Dad as I struggled to braid my hair alone.
“It must have been hard raising a baby by yourself, changing my diapers, making baby food from scratch, braiding my hair every single day….”
“Want me to practice?”
“Huh?”
“I’ll braid our daughter’s hair when she’s born.”
Cheshire reached over and took my hair tie.
“You’re going to do it?”
“Yeah. Let me try. Turn around and sit.”
Cheshire took my hair and began braiding it. I held up the hand mirror and laughed as I watched his careful expression.
‘What…?’
Twin braids woven neatly down.
‘Has he done other women’s hair before?’
The skill was so perfect it made me wonder.
The protagonist truly could do anything.
“It’s so pretty!”
“Do you like it?”
“Yeah!”
I kept gazing into the mirror.
Then.
Thump, thump, thump, thump, thump!
“What’s that?”
A booming sound began echoing from outside.
It sounded just like the heavy footsteps of a Demon Beast.
“Are they doing construction somewhere? It sounds like footsteps, but… the elders are so frail I wouldn’t think they’d make a sound like that. Wait, could it be… a Glepta?”
Since I’d learned about Gleptae on this trip to the war front and was now bringing it up, Cheshire laughed out loud as if amused.
“Why would a Glepta be here. And even if it were, it’s fine.”
“Huh?”
“No matter how many come, I’ll protect you.”
Oh my….
I lowered the corners of my mouth and wrapped my arms around Cheshire’s neck, nestling against him.
“Really~? You’ll catch me if I fall?”
“I will.”
Cheshire held my waist and nodded, smiling. I gave him a quick kiss on his lips as they drew near.
Then.
Thud, thud, thud, thud, thud!
I had a feeling Glepton’s footsteps were drawing closer.
Creak—!
The door swung open.
Still in Cheshire’s embrace, I spun around in shock.
“Oh no.”
…Father?
At the same moment, Cheshire jolted upright.
“Your Highness…!”
Crash, bang.
Panicked, Cheshire stumbled trying to jump down from the bed and tumbled over.
“Cheshire! Are you all right?”
In the next instant, he sprang back up like a rocking doll.
“Your Grace….”
What in the world is happening?
I stared at Father, my mouth hanging open.
His face had gone pale as though his soul had fled his body.
From behind him emerged Axion, his expression just as shocked as Father’s.
‘What! Uncle came too?’
Trembling, Axion pointed an accusing finger at Cheshire on Father’s behalf, speechless as he was.
“You… you bastard… are you… insane…?”

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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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