My Daddy Hides His Power - Chapter 234

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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 234
* * *
“Can’t you hold your arms straight?!”
Magic Tower, Oscar’s office.
“Dropping already?”
I knelt on the floor, my arms held out in front of me.
That wretched James Brown….
I’d had a bad feeling about it, but sure enough, he’d gone and spilled everything to Oscar.
That’s why I was standing punishment here, on a Magic Tower holiday no less.
“You snot-nosed brats, sneaking out overnight with not a shred of sense?”
Oscar stood before me, arms crossed, grinding his teeth.
I ventured a timid protest.
“It wasn’t intentional… How was I supposed to know the Gate would lose its charge at that exact moment?”
“Did you discharge it yourself?”
“No!”
“Hold your arms properly!”
“Ugh.”
“What are you looking so pleased about, jutting your mouth out?”
I pressed my lips shut immediately.
“If the Gate isn’t working, what was I supposed to do?”
I was muttering indignantly to myself when Oscar knelt down in front of me, moving like some street punk shaking someone down for money.
“You’re saying there’s no way to get back to Jedo without the Gate?”
“You know full well your feet are bound there. Should I just use Teleportation instead? I could wait for the Gate to charge, but my lifespan’s already short enough—why waste it?”
“Who asked you to worry about your lifespan? Why do you have Teleportation Magic if you’re not going to use it? Cheshire can use it too, can’t he?”
“…….”
“Worried about standing out to others? I built you a room in the Magic Tower for a reason. Set the coordinates there and come right in—who’s going to notice? The least you could do is come here and tell me about it.”
“…….”
“That bastard Cheshire deliberately kept you from going, didn’t he?”
I swallowed hard, caught off guard.
“No, I… When the Gate suddenly lost its charge, we panicked… Neither of us really thought about it that way….”
“You didn’t think about it, or you didn’t want to think about it?”
“…….”
Oscar smirked as I fell silent.
“Two-headed idiots, and neither of you thought of it? Give me a break. You probably just figured, ‘Since the Gate’s out anyway, why not make a baby?'”
“M-M-Master? What are you talking about? No! We didn’t do anything!”
“Locked in a room together all day long!!!”
“Eek.”
My eardrums felt like they were about to burst.
I covered my ears.
“How am I supposed to know what you were doing?!!!”
Oscar shouted indignantly, then stood up and made his declaration.
“I’m going to kill you.”
“Master…?”
“I can’t let this slide. Your real intentions are written all over your face.”
Oscar spoke firmly, pushing the sofa in the center of his office aside.
“Please, just kill me instead! Cheshire did nothing wrong! Take your punishment out on me!”
“Hahaha.”
Oscar laughed as if finding me absurd.
I held my extended arms forward, my expression resolute.
“Don’t touch Cheshire. Just cut off my arms. I admit I didn’t work hard enough to find a way back home.”
“…….”
“You can cut off both of them.”
“What a timid little thing you are.”
Oscar muttered under his breath and pushed the table this time. It was heavier than the sofa, so it didn’t move as easily.
“Damn it.”
Eventually, Oscar used magic to shove the table away, creating a wide space in the center of his office, and he stood there and spoke to me.
“Just kill me instead? You’ve got some nerve. You know exactly what I can’t bring myself to do, so you act all tough like this. Such a timid little thing.”
Hmm.
I looked at Oscar sheepishly.
“But why would I punish you just to make someone happy? Starting today, I’m implementing Guilt by Association. Every mistake you make will be paid for by that fool instead.”
“What?”
“It’s not just sneaking out.”
Oscar tilted his chin up, speaking like a demon.
“Even if you cause trouble on your own, he gets hit. Even if you sneak around and cause problems behind everyone’s backs, his arm gets cut off. Your punishment is simply watching him suffer because of your mistakes.”
“No, what?”
What kind of absurdity was this?
My mouth fell open.
“What you did this time—planning that sneaking out so carefully—there’s absolutely no room for leniency. I’m going to cut off both his arms and legs and have him crawl around on a board. Keep that in mind.”
How cruel!
Oscar pulled out white chalk from his robes. He looked ready to draw a Magic Circle and head straight to Argonia.
“Wait! Please, wait, Master!”
I scrambled to my feet and clung to Oscar’s waist.
“Don’t do this. Please calm down.”
“Move.”
“I—I’m asking you to think clearly. I’m not doing this because I’m worried about Cheshire.”
I’d realized something: protecting Cheshire would only inflame Oscar’s anger further.
“Punish him, Master. Go ahead and punish him—just not now, but later. If you make him crawl around on a board right now, what about the business?”
“…….”
“Master, please…. We promised we’d finish the business safely and then go have fun. We promised to go on a picnic with Hans and the others all together. That was good, wasn’t it? Right?”
“…….”
Oscar, who had been staring down at me with eyes devoid of mercy, suddenly hurled the chalk he was holding across the room.
‘Yes!’
Cheering silently inside, I trudged over to the sofa that had been pushed far away and quickly nestled up beside Oscar as he sat down.
“Hmph.”
“Hmph, you like that.”
“Master is the best….”
“I can’t save him for nothing. There’s a condition.”
“Yes?”
“Promise me something in exchange for sparing him.”
“Yes! I won’t sneak out anymore! Even if something unavoidable happens like yesterday, I won’t pretend not to know and will contact you no matter what!”
“Oh ho, just as I thought. You figured the Gate was depleted and thought that made it convenient, didn’t you?”
“…….”
…This man’s tongue.
Watching my lips tremble from the slip of tongue, Oscar chuckled.
“Obviously you can’t sneak out. But that’s not what I mean. Something else.”
“Yes? Something else?”
Oscar draped both arms over the back of the sofa and stared at me intently.
“Do me a favor.”
“A favor?”
“Yeah.”
“…….”
I gazed into his eyes quietly.
And after thinking for a long moment,
“Just go to Argonia.”
I shook my head.
“Cheshire’s capable enough that even without his arms and legs, he could probably take down the Emperor.”
“What, what? Are you serious?”
“Yes.”
Oscar fell silent with a dumbfounded expression, then spoke.
“…You’re refusing me without even hearing what the favor is?”
His voice was definitely taken aback.
I nodded.
“Yes. There’s nothing Master can’t do, so what could you possibly ask of me? Whatever it is, I’d struggle to deliver it.”
“No, it’s completely easy.”
“It doesn’t sound easy.”
“It is easy. You wouldn’t even have to lift a finger. Just promise to hear me out, and I’ll tell you. Promise you’ll do it.”
“I don’t want to. And I think I know what it is anyway, so you don’t have to say it.”
“What is it then!”
I swallowed hard and spoke.
“If my master suddenly vanishes one day, you’re telling me not to look for him?”
“…….”
Oscar stared at me blankly.
Then he scratched his forehead, turned his head the other way, fell silent for a long moment, and began bouncing his leg—
“Did you read my mind?”
—he asked.
“No.”
I turned my head and answered.
“Mind-reading isn’t cost-effective.”
“Then how did you know?”
“I’m not some thoughtless child. Right now, your affairs are the thing I’m thinking about most seriously—more than business, even.”
“Why are you worrying yourself over someone else’s problems?”
“Am I a stranger to you? If I could solve your problems with my abilities, I’d be content to turn into a withered crone this very moment.”
“…Damn it.”
“…….”
“Listen, if you want me to live, you can’t come looking for me. That’s the same as killing me. Understand?”
“I already told you. I won’t forget you. If I forgot you and then remembered again… yes, that would kill you. But if I never forget in the first place, it doesn’t matter.”
“Good grief, this girl is impossible. Are you a god? Everyone else will forget me, so how exactly do you think you’ll be the exception?”
“I really will keep remembering you, Master. Please trust me.”
Oscar let out a hollow laugh.
“Fine, let’s say you’re right—you can recognize me. But what about everyone else?”
“…….”
“Jedo is a minefield for me.”
A minefield….
It was true.
That was why I’d suspected Oscar might be thinking of leaving this place.
“Yes, I know.”
“You know? If you know, you shouldn’t be saying this to me. You want me to keep living among the people who’ve known me all this time in Jedo, stepping on mines until I die?”
The day he would pay the price for using Forbidden Magic—for daring to challenge Divine Authority.
Oscar would vanish without a trace.
But even if people couldn’t perceive his existence, he would surely still be alive.
“Living in Jedo….”
If anyone recognized his identity, he would die. Oscar would have to live like a man who didn’t exist at all, treading carefully.
“…It must be difficult.”
But even if Oscar never opened his mouth and said “I am the Master of the Magic Tower,” there were countless ways people could recognize him.
His manner of speaking, his habits, his bearing…….
Even the slightest suspicion could trigger the geis, and he would die on the spot.
That was why Oscar’s grandfather, who had used Regression Magic before him, had abandoned the empire where so many knew him and spent his entire life hidden away in a place no one could find.
“To be honest, I can’t make other people forget you too. I don’t have that kind of ability. I’ll keep trying, but… I might never find a way, my whole life long.”
“Don’t try. Unless you’re a god, no amount of thinking will solve this.”
Oscar, buried deep in the sofa, added in an irritated voice.
“Just let me go. I thought I was dead, but since I’ve got this second chance at life, I want to disappear somewhere unknown and start over.”
“Alright. Let’s do it together.”
“What?”
Oscar frowned and jerked upright from where he’d been leaning.
“I won’t forget you, so it doesn’t matter if we live together. Let’s go somewhere where no one could possibly recognize you. We’ll start a new life there.”
“No….”
Oscar looked baffled. I fought back the tears rising in my throat and spoke brazenly.
“I understand you want a new life, but you can’t abandon me.”
“What?”
“If you raised me once, raise me to the end.”
“Wow, this….”
Oscar’s mouth fell open, and he let out a hollow laugh, running his hand through his hair.
“Are you insane…?”
* * *
After Lilis left.
“Hah, this is making my head spin.”
Oscar kept laughing emptily, over and over.
“…You can’t abandon me.”
“If you raised me once, raise me to the end.”
I knew it wouldn’t be easy.
But even if he left, he’d still be in the palm of Lilis’s hand—after all, she was Primera.
He’d tried to soothe her beforehand, hoping she wouldn’t chase after him and waste her life in some foolish search.
“…Maybe you could go somewhere no one would recognize you. We could live together there.”
He’d expected her to whimper, “Please don’t go…” at worst.
He’d never imagined she’d say something so mad—that she’d abandon everything to follow him.
Never in his wildest dreams.
‘Insane. Truly insane.’
Though he was taken aback by her fervor, it would’ve been a lie to say his heart didn’t swell at the depth of feeling behind her words.
At the bold declaration of a child still too young to grasp the full weight of the situation….
He’d nearly pretended not to hear and answered just as recklessly: “All right then. Let’s live together forever.”
“That would be madness.”
True madness, it would be.
Because in the end, Lilis couldn’t escape this cruel law any more than he could.
Her promise not to forget him—it was nothing but a child’s wish.
“I’m sorry. I had a moment of weakness just now.”
Oscar apologized, thinking of Enoch, who’d nearly had his daughter kidnapped, oblivious to what had almost transpired.
Slide.
Then he opened a drawer and pulled out a sheet of paper from deep within.
A complex Magic Formula was drawn across it.
‘If you run, your teacher will fly.’
From the start, he’d had a way to leave Lilis behind. He’d simply wanted to give her some warning beforehand—afraid that disappearing without a word would wound her too deeply.
“Wait a moment….”
What should he do now?
Oscar, lost in thought, picked up a pen.
When he thought about it, they’d spent quite a lot of time together, yet he’d never written her a single letter.
The child, who spoke embarrassing things easily and was so bright she had no hesitation in expressing her feelings, had often written letters to him without any special occasion….
“Ugh. My fingers are cramping.”
That his first letter would also be his last farewell—it hurt a little.
After scribbling with the pen for a very long time, he finally wrote the last line.
Goodbye, take care. My
‘My… what?’
What would be right to say?
It had always been difficult to define his relationship with Lilis.
A daughter? No.
Not family, not a friend, not a lover.
Master and student?
My student—would that work?
‘That sounds a bit cold.’
After much deliberation, Oscar found just the right word.
The greatest and most constant of all the many emotions he felt toward this child….
Among all the words that existed in this world, the one closest to what his heart held for her….
Such a word.
Goodbye, take care. My love.

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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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