My Daddy Hides His Power - Chapter 236
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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 236
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Final Day, D-20.
The day Father received a summons from the Emperor and went to the Imperial Palace.
I visited the Seraph Temple alone, as I always did with Father.
“Oh my! Your Highness, you’ve come?”
“Hello, Priest!”
Even in the midst of his busy duties, Zadkiel rushed out to greet me.
‘Soon to be the High Priest of the new nation!’
#A character embodying goodness, standing in perfect opposition to #the final villain Emperor who is evil itself—Zadkiel.
He had turned twenty-one this year.
Though he’d grown taller, his fluffy pink hair like spring blossoms and boyish smile were exactly as they’d been at our first meeting.
“I’ve missed you!”
“Me? Really?”
Zadkiel laughed sheepishly, scratching his cheek.
“Yes. Last month only Father came.”
“Ah, that’s right! It was because of the Magic Tower—Father and I couldn’t match our schedules. I told the Master of the Tower that I needed to see you and asked if I could have just one day off, but he refused outright, you know?”
“Ha, so that’s what happened. But Father didn’t come with you today, it seems?”
“No, today Father couldn’t make it either. He had business at the Imperial Palace. Wow, but there are even more people here than before, aren’t there?”
Nearly all the sick people of Jedo had gathered here.
Not just the poor without means, but nobles afflicted with serious illnesses came here to the Seraph Temple instead of the central temple’s treatment ward.
“That’s right. When people stay here, they recover completely through the grace of the Divine.
The grace of the Divine……
It wasn’t wrong.
My ability is what heals people, and this ability is indeed a gift from God.
“This person came a week ago, and I heard they’d been suffering for quite a long time.”
“Oh, is that so.”
As I always did when visiting the temple, I followed Zadkiel on rounds through the patients’ quarters like a physician on her rounds.
A middle-aged woman lying corpse-like with skeletal limbs, unable to even open her eyes.
‘She looks serious. Let’s heal her gradually over about two weeks.’
What I did was observe the patient’s condition and apply my ability at intervals.
1 second.
The Life Force consumed was precisely one second—no need to even check the Bracelet.
“This person……”
Zadkiel continued leading me through, examining the patients.
‘This one about two days.’
1 second.
‘This man a week.’
1 second.
For patients with internal injuries curable by modern medicine, I could always provide treatment.
Every so often there was a patient whose remaining lifespan flickered at several hundred years or barely registered, but those were people whose appointed time had come, or cases where even twenty-first-century medicine couldn’t help.
–
‘I hope at least they won’t suffer too much with the time they have left.’
1 second.
In such cases, I compromised by merely reducing their pain. Not everyone could be saved.
“You work so hard, Priest.”
“Not at all. It’s my joy.”
Watching Zadkiel care for patients around the clock, draining his mana to extract Healing Magic, a wave of guilt washed over me.
Since even internal injuries that resisted Healing Magic slowly began to mend when Zadkiel changed the wet cloth a few times, it was only natural that not just commoners but nobles too flocked here.
‘The truth is, the work never stops because of me. I’m sorry.’
The Seraph Temple—audacious enough in this empire to preach that “commoners are people too! They have the right to treatment when sick!”
To keep the Emperor’s hands off this place, establish the Old Doctrine’s foothold, and solidify Zadkiel’s reputation, there was no other way.
‘We need patients to keep appearing, fully recovered and ready to discharge, as if blessed by divine grace….’
Regular rounds that were acts of healing and yet unmistakably political in intent.
Perhaps because of that, whenever I watched Zadkiel happily observe people recovering, my conscience pricked at me.
“Are donations coming in these days?”
After finishing the rounds and entering the priest’s office, I asked. Zadkiel hesitated before answering, “Yes, of course!”
‘I know they’re not… sob.’
When the Seraph Temple’s standing had been rising, donations poured in readily, but as war’s shadow crept over Jedo, everyone had begun watching the Imperial Household’s mood again.
‘Now the Emperor has Cheshire. No matter who you ask, we’ll win this war.’
Continental Unification would elevate the Imperial Household’s standing to the farthest reaches of the universe itself.
The day when the Emperor would be praised as a ‘god’ once more was drawing near, so naturally the nobles could never afford to fall from his favor.
“I know you’ve been under a lot of strain lately.”
I picked up the Donation Certificate and a pen from the priest’s office and sat down at the table.
“Oh, it’s not so difficult. These days, many nobles visit us and they’re quite generous with their treatment fees.”
“But there are far more people without money, aren’t there?”
Unlike the state-run Temple Healing Center, the Seraph Temple—which followed the Old Doctrine—received no government support.
And yet it didn’t charge treatment fees to those without means either….
‘Without donations, this place goes under.’
But soon, even this financial struggle that plagued the angel Zadkiel would come to an end.
“Father told me to bring a donation today. I actually came here specifically for that reason.”
“…Thank you, my lady.”
I watched Zadkiel smile awkwardly as I filled out the Donation Certificate. Then I hesitated at the blank amount field.
‘Father does this all the time, so I’m confused. What would be a reasonable amount?’
Father hadn’t specified how much I should donate. So, troubled, I simply scribbled zeros carelessly across the blank.
“Um, um, um… my lady?”
“Yes?”
Oops. I’d overdone it. Zadkiel’s face had gone pale.
“Did I write too much?”
“Yes. It has one more zero than the amount His Grace usually donates.”
Zadkiel brought a fresh Donation Certificate and offered it to me, as if to say I should redo it.
I nodded in acknowledgment.
“I see. Let’s just go with this one. It’s only one extra zero, after all.”
“I beg your pardon?”
Zadkiel blinked.
“It’s fine, Priest. Please accept it.”
“No, but this is far too—”
Hehe….
It’s Mr. James Brown who rolls around on the battlefield making money, so why would he think his daughter thoughtlessly squanders the money he’s earned?
But it’s okay!
“Our family is loaded!”
This was righteous extravagance, after all!
* * *
Inside the carriage on my way home.
I recalled how many people I’d healed and returned today.
‘Around thirty people, I think?’
In the end, it was an act that saved many lives, but I couldn’t say its intention was pure.
To be precise, the reason I came to the temple today was to upgrade my Ability with excellent cost-effectiveness.
‘No, Lilis. Don’t feel guilty. You did something good. Besides, honestly, even if upgrading my Ability hadn’t been helped, it only takes a second anyway, so you would’ve done it regardless, right?’
Primera’s Ability.
I now wielded the Ability with great freedom, and I’d also come to understand the secret of this power—a secret the Emperor could never know.
What’s the secret?
‘First, Primera’s Ability is altruistic.’
I’d suspected this all along.
If I used the Ability for killing and destruction, the cost-effectiveness was abysmal. But saving and healing people came cheap.
Going further than that, what I’d awakened to was this: the lifespan consumed by using the Ability wasn’t a fixed value.
‘When I first came to the Seraph Temple and started healing people, even small uses of Life Force had quite variable costs….’
My body was one that had to burn lifespan to grow anyway.
As I repeatedly used my Ability for healing, I couldn’t help but realize.
The more people I saved, the less it cost to heal them.
Now, regardless of how severe the illness was, if it was a disease modern medicine could cure, it never took longer than a second.
It was far too clear what God intended this Ability to be used for.
‘Tsk, tsk. He gave it to use for good, but I’m using it recklessly—that makes me a villain! Stupid Emperor!’
And then there was the second secret of this Ability.
There was one more case where the consumed lifespan kept decreasing.
‘The Emperor’s Guard—specifically, that sword master among them. How much Life Force does it take to break his brainwashing now?’
1 month
“Yahoo!”
Before, breaking the Emperor’s Guard’s brainwashing had demanded 3 months of Life Force.
But now it’s been a month.
Yes.
The Life Force she spent saving the innocent lives destined to perish for the revolution was slowly dwindling away.
At this point, it was as if God was speaking plainly.
Use Primera’s Ability to save as many people as possible!
That’s what it was saying.
‘Come on, tick-tick-tick. So to break the brainwashing that will grip James Brown in twenty days…?’
I covered my mouth in shock as I looked at the bracelet.
‘A whole year came off!’
Today’s work—saving thirty people—was worth it.
‘Good! If things stay like this, even if something unexpected happens….’
The Final Day. The last thing I would have to do.
I had finished all my preparations for it.
‘I can do this.’
Steeling my resolve, I thought of the Emperor.
What was he thinking right now?
Blinded by war and Continental Unification, was he laughing to himself alone before getting soundly backstabbed by the Rebel Forces and making his exit?
Really?
Him—the Emperor?
‘Hmm, something feels off….’
* * *
“There’s something I need you to do for me,” Nicholas said.
The Emperor, Nicholas, spoke to the man sitting across from him.
“Around the time of the military campaign’s launch, I’ll need you to hold someone in custody for me.”
“…Who, if I may ask?”
“Who else?”
At the man’s wary tone, Nicholas gave a thin smile, as if he’d expected exactly this.
“Enoch’s daughter.”
The man’s expression hardened at once.
Nicholas barely suppressed his laughter at the sight.
The confusion that suddenly crossed that face, which had been so arrogantly composed throughout, was a joy to behold.
“There’s no better card than that girl.”
Nicholas’s eyes gleamed like those of a viper coiled around poison.
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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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