My Daddy Hides His Power - Chapter 246

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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 Conceals His Strength
Chapter 246
* * *
Jedo, Pavil.
“The Mage Corps, please support the Defensive Guard’s second unit in preventing them from seizing the Romwell Estate.”
Supreme Commander Cheshire issued swift orders to the Imperial forces that had regrouped.
“The Knight Corps will seize the residences of nobles who supported the Emperor’s massacre prevention force, and capture their heads of household. The Paladin Order will engage the Imperial Palace knights positioned throughout Jedo.”
The ability users who received their orders dispersed with perfect discipline.
“The Sacred Mage Corps will split up to support each unit, evacuate non-ability users caught in the fighting, and tend to the wounded. And the Magic Swordmaster Order will—”
Cheshire gripped his sword, his eyes blazing.
“March with me to the Imperial Palace.”
At that moment.
The Sacred Archery Corps Commander, Garion, trembled—forced to regroup under the Supreme Commander’s orders without warning.
‘A rebellion….’
A planned regrouping.
An order to stand against the Emperor’s army.
And now their Supreme Commander marching toward the Imperial Palace.
Every aspect of this situation pointed unmistakably to rebellion against the Imperial Household.
“Supreme Commander… what should we do…?”
The Mage Archer Commander standing beside Garion asked, his face ashen.
Cheshire regarded both archery commanders with steady eyes.
“The two of you are difficult to persuade. You’re not the Emperor’s inner circle, but neither are you the type to join a rebellion easily.”
Enoch had abandoned any attempt to win over the two archery commanders difficult to sway, fearing word of the rebellion plan would leak.
By the time all the other commanders had been brought into the Rebel Forces, the strength of the two archery corps had already become irrelevant.
Even without their support, the Rebel Forces possessed sufficient strength, and they could handle any resistance.
“I will go to the Imperial Palace and take the Emperor’s head.”
At Cheshire’s stark declaration, both archery commanders turned pale.
“Today, the Imperial House of Pavilion will be annihilated, and the Class System will vanish from this empire.”
The destruction of the Class System.
It was the ultimate goal of the Rebel Forces.
“From this moment forward, I am no longer the Supreme Commander of the Imperial forces. Therefore, should you refuse my orders, you will not be violating military law.”
There is no need to participate. However—
“If you attempt to stop me or oppose the Rebel Forces, I will cut you down here and now.”
Do not interfere.
Garion immediately understood that this was an extraordinarily lenient offer—his life would be spared.
Whether the rebellion failed or succeeded.
Either way, there was nothing to lose, nothing to deliberate.
Right. Nothing.
And yet….
“I will not interfere.”
As Garion hesitated, the Mage Archer Commander beside him answered swiftly, gripping his reins.
“…I wish you success.”
Then he departed.
A choice to remain uninvolved.
Garion watched his departing companion, his lips trembling silently.
…….
He felt Cheshire’s gaze upon him, waiting for his answer, his eyes fixed solely on Garion.
Garion could not bring himself to meet that stare and lowered his head.
A brief silence stretched on.
And the quiet deepened….
Understanding that Garion’s silence meant the same choice as the Mage Archer Commander’s, Cheshire did not hesitate further and turned toward the Imperial Palace.
…….
With wavering eyes, Garion watched Cheshire’s retreating silhouette grow distant.
* * *
Jedo, Commoner Residential District.
“Scatter! Individual Combat! Our target is the elimination of non-ability users! Focus only on His Majesty the Emperor’s orders!”
Defensive Guard third unit commander Bruce ran with all his might, shouting his orders.
Individual Combat, they called it—but it was simply fleeing from the gems and mercenaries.
‘Stay calm, Bruce. Surviving is what matters most.’
He dodged and evaded. But if he openly turned tail and ran, he would certainly face disciplinary action afterward.
‘I couldn’t have predicted the Dos forces would be this strong—we had no choice but to retreat. But if I can say I carried out the imperial order diligently even while falling back….’
All I have to do is kill every Non-ability User I encounter on the way, and destroy their settlements.
‘……?’
After turning down a couple of alleys and reaching the main street, Bruce froze as he came face-to-face with someone.
‘What the hell—what’s with this size?’
A frame well over two meters tall, rippling with muscle.
A heavyset middle-aged man with an orange beard.
Behind him, Non-ability Users were scattering in panicked flight.
‘Jemien Traha—is this bastard one of that dog’s mercenaries?’
Bruce, who had been trembling, quickly read the confusion on the man’s face and his spirits lifted.
“Ah, so it’s not~?”
Hardly the gear of someone well-armed.
No weapons to speak of, just a large frame that might be worth something.
“A Non-ability User, then?”
Bruce let out a cruel laugh.
“…Well, I suppose. But my fists are quite famous in these parts.”
The heavyset man, an operative of the Red Hawk Information Guild, Billy Black, managed a smile despite himself.
He feigned composure, but panic was rising in him.
Billy’s orders had been to prepare for the Dos mercenaries’ defeat.
If the enemy broke through the defenses and pushed deep into the residential district, he was to stake his life on holding them back while evacuating the commoners.
‘But… how did they get here so fast?’
Unaware that Bruce had fled alone, Billy tensed.
“Hey, don’t come any closer! You bastard insect!”
Billy moved forward anyway, trying to block with his body,
Whoosh—!
Wind pressure erupted from Bruce’s Gauntlet Strike.
An attack aimed squarely at the head.
Billy’s head tilted sideways just in time, but a deep gash opened across his cheek.
‘Damn it—if I took that head-on, I’d be done for.’
Billy swallowed hard.
Bruce chuckled watching the despair spread across the man’s face as he registered the power gap between them.
“That’s right—now we’re talking!”
Bruce began swinging his Gauntlet Strike indiscriminately, careful never to close the distance with the imposing Billy.
Whoosh, bang—!
Whoosh!
A relentless barrage of attacks scattered across the street.
“Ahhhhh!”
“Kyaaahhh!”
Commoners fleeing in terror and tears.
Among them, a sphere of blue Mana flew toward a young girl frozen in shock.
“Watch out!”
Billy turned his back and wrapped himself around the child.
“Urgh!”
At the same moment, his eyes widened and blood spilled from his mouth.
A searing pain like his spine was being torn, and his insides roiled.
“Heh… cough… hack….”
In his darkening vision, he glimpsed Lico, urgently herding people to safety.
“Billy!!!”
“Gack… the… the child… run… quickly….”
Billy pushed the child he’d shielded toward Lico. Lico hesitated.
“Hurry! Don’t… don’t waver….”
We agreed not to hesitate, Lico.
There’s no victory without sacrifice.
The words Billy couldn’t quite speak seemed to echo in her ears. At last, Lico’s eyes welled up, and she pushed past her brief hesitation, fleeing with the child.
‘Damn it… this much strength….’
Billy wiped the blood from his mouth and turned around with difficulty.
“Phew! Big frame, but you’re still just an insect, aren’t you?”
From a distance, Bruce sneered and gestured between them.
“You see? This distance right here—it’s the gap between me and vermin like you that can never be closed.”
“…Ack… cough.”
Billy collapsed again, spitting blood.
His vision swam.
A single blow had left him combat-incapable.
But even if his body had held, Billy could never have closed the distance between them.
A gap that could never be bridged….
The words rang true.
Ability User and Non-ability User.
The disparity in power was too vast to call them the same species.
“Jamien, that damned X was getting on my nerves, but this took the edge off.”
Bruce watched with satisfaction as Billy knelt before him, blood streaming from his mouth.
“Since that helped, I’ll send you off cleanly.”
One attack had left him without even the strength to run.
‘I should’ve at least been useful somehow, before the end….’
Even opening his eyes was agony. Through the blur, Billy saw his enemy’s fist hurtling toward him, and he went calm.
‘Emily…. My daughter…. She’ll make it home safe, I promised….’
…A promise he had made.
Facing death, his mind turned to his daughter, now a proper young woman. The girl who’d said Princess Lilis was childish these days, that all she wanted for her birthday was a bouquet of flowers.
He’d hoped to give her that bouquet, and with it a world finally happy and at peace….
‘No, no.’
Even if he died here, his daughter would surely receive that beautiful world as a gift.
‘Enoch Rubinstein.’
The man who stood highest, yet willingly drew his sword for those at the lowest.
If it were him, he would surely succeed.
“It was fun, young man. I run a pub in the alley next to here. Come visit sometime. I’ll buy you a cold beer.”
“Yes, sir. I had fun too. I’ll come by sometime.”
A man who’d gone to the festival posing as a commoner, daughter in tow.
Billy had been captivated at once by his unaffected manner, so at odds with his noble birth.
And he had been certain then:
This man,
could truly wash clean this stained land with the force of his conviction.
“Farewell, insect.”
…….
One eye closed, Billy watched as Mana gathered in his enemy’s fist, trained on his skull.
‘We were going to have that beer together…. A shame.’
Once everything was over, he’d wanted to sit with that kind man, talk of inconsequential things, share a quiet cup.
“Bang!”
And then, with a mocking shout, death came flying.
Billy squeezed his eyes shut.
In that moment.
Whistle—!
A Mana-shrouded arrow shot through the air. It struck Bruce’s incoming attack head-on, canceling it,
Thunk!
and embedded itself sharply in the ground.
“……?”
Bruce’s head snapped toward the source of the arrow.
On a rooftop.
A figure standing backlit by the afternoon sun.
Bruce squinted, making out the face, and his expression brightened.
“The Sacred Archery Corps Commander!”
Garion Hoffman—who had left Jedo for the Kingdom invasion!
The Imperial Forces had returned!
Likely he’d read the Dietz mercenaries’ suspicious movements and rushed back.
“Perfect timing, sir! I don’t know what trick those Dietz mercenary bastards pulled, but they’ve shown impressive depth!”
…….
Garion’s expression remained blank as he nocked a second arrow and drew the bowstring taut.
“So now that the Imperial Forces are back, these vermin will soon…!”
Bruce’s excited voice caught in his throat.
The bowstring, drawn to its limit.
“……?”
The Sacred Archery Corps Commander’s arrow—the one Bruce expected to fly toward the dying insect—was instead aimed at him.
* * *
[Imperial Calendar 1786, May 18th.
Garion, Supreme Commander of the Dos Sacred Archery Corps, returned to Jedo and joined the great revolution.]
* * *
Whissh!
The arrow flew viciously through the air,
“…Ugh, gasp!”
A Blue Arrow lodged in the enemy’s chest.
Thud.
Billy, who had been staring blankly at Bruce as he fell to his knees, slowly lifted his gaze.
He did not know who this man was—the one who had appeared before death itself and saved his life.
Billy did not know.
But from the fluttering Blue Cloak, he could divine one thing.
That he was ‘Dos’.
* * *
[Among countless nations and their untold histories, the Pavilion Empire Revolution was uniquely revered as monumental precisely because it was a reform from above.
Of the fifty-nine highest-ranked individuals in the empire at that time, forty-five joined the revolution.
These greatest beneficiaries of the Class System themselves championed its abolition, fought to overthrow the imperial tyranny, and struggled for the liberation of Non-ability Users—a fact worthy of profound attention.]
* * *
Dos—standing at the very apex of the Class System, those whom one dared not even glance toward.
His arrow was
loosed for the lowest rung of the oppressed Class System, for the Non-ability User.
An arrow buried in the enemy’s heart.
In that moment, he felt the small movement that would at last purify the bloodstained earth.
Billy trembled, tears streaming down his face.
* * *
[……And thus, to the imperial household, this great revolution was none other than
the ‘Dos Rebellion’.]

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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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