My Daddy Hides His Power - Chapter 247

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Father Hides His Strength
Chapter 247
* * *
A blade carving a sharp arc through the air.
Swift, piercing strikes that cut straight through the enemy.
Dwein, captain of the Imperial Knights Order, stood motionless amid the chaos, watching the graceful movements of a swordsman dancing through the mayhem.
Enoch Rubinstein.
There was no doubt that no one would ever surpass him—
the Empire’s greatest Ability User.
That blessed man had now invaded the very seat of poder granted to him by Primera.
‘How did it come to this?’
According to the Emperor’s plan, Dwein should not have encountered this man so quickly here in the Imperial Palace.
Right now, outside, commoners were being slaughtered, and surely Enoch would have tried to stop that catastrophe first.
“Even for Enoch, there is no way to save all the civilians. He will either die, or surrender in exchange for sparing those Vermin. One of the two.”
“Yet Enoch’s conviction would never allow innocent blood to—”
“He can never reach me. In the end, there is only death.”
The Emperor’s words held no flaw.
Though Enoch possessed the power to extinguish life in an instant and destroy this realm, he had never once wielded that strength in such a manner.
To stand against the Emperor’s armies, Enoch would inevitably drag innocent people into danger as well.
‘Could he have foreseen this and abandoned the commoners entirely?’
If not, he could not have reached the Imperial Palace so soon after the Emperor had ordered the massacre.
‘He annihilated the Diez forces outside in one stroke and charged in?’
The Emperor had prepared every possible obstacle to stop Enoch.
Yet he had not anticipated that Enoch would make the choice to disregard all that sacrifice.
‘No. That can’t be it. He wouldn’t fight like this.’
Enoch was facing the Imperial Knights one by one, each of the Septima Rank.
Clang!
“Ugh!”
……
Clang—!
Avoiding vital points, ensuring they could not rise again to draw their blades.
Each strike rendered an opponent completely incapacitated.
A movement born of the resolve to create no casualties.
‘That man could sweep through all of us right now and advance to the Emperor without hesitation.’
Ten years had passed since Dwein’s reassignment as captain of the Imperial Knights Order.
During his prior service in the Elite Force, he had come to know Enoch’s true depth intimately.
At fourteen, already mastering the Way of the Sword, crafting the Elevado—the Instant Death Technique—capable of mass slaughter.
And yet now, paradoxically, Enoch’s blade moved ‘to preserve life.’
‘But why?’
Dwein understood the restraint—refraining from Sword Aura to avoid casualties—but fighting without even a defensive barrier seemed odd.
Enoch had already bled profusely.
Each wound was potentially fatal.
‘Every one of those attacks could have been avoided. Yet he moves as though deliberately courting injury….’
To the untrained eye, Enoch appeared to be foolishly accepting every blow on his own body, but Dwein, who had gripped a sword for decades, understood.
A master of incomparable skill was deliberately taking lethal wounds while dodging only the killing strikes.
And so Dwein, as Enoch’s bleeding only intensified, came to a single, undeniable certainty.
‘These knights are nowhere near his level. I cannot possibly stop him.’
Sooner or later, Enoch would reach the Emperor.
And he himself….
“You must dedicate your lives to defending the Imperial Palace.”
“Should Enoch ever come before me, your corpses must lie in his path.”
He would have to obey the Emperor’s command.
Dwein gazed quietly at the sword in his hand, then at his subordinates facing Enoch.
“Die with honor.”
To defend with their lives a master who demanded their death,
“Yet Enoch’s conviction would never allow innocent blood to—”
while fighting an enemy who sought only to spare them.
Standing before this contradiction so piercing it cut to the bone, Dwein laughed.
“Everyone!!!”
And then he cried out.
Several knights hesitated, glancing back at Dwein.
“Lay down your swords and surrender!”
All of them froze at the unexpected command from their superior—including the knight who had just locked blades with Enoch.
Every eye turned to Dwein, breath held.
Clang!
Dwein cast his sword to the ground, his gesture a clear declaration of surrender.
Then, slowly, he turned his body aside and opened the corridor he had been blocking.
It was the path that led to the Grand Hall where the Emperor stood.
“Go, Enoch Rubinstein.”
Silence fell in an instant.
Within the Imperial Palace, the very commander of the Imperial Knights Order—sworn to protect the Emperor with his life—had openly committed Imperial Disobedience.
Among the knights, a murmur of shock began to ripple through the ranks.
“…….”
Enoch, who had been staring intently at Dwein, dragged his battered body forward with deliberate slowness.
No one moved to stop him.
Not even as he took his first step toward the Emperor’s chamber.
Imperial Disobedience.
Enoch understood what Dwein had done—he had accepted his own death to let Enoch through.
“My thanks.”
As he passed, Dwein smiled at Enoch’s quiet gratitude.
“There’s nothing to thank me for. We couldn’t stop you anyway, and if we tried, the Emperor would have us killed. But if—if this man truly performs a miracle and defeats Primera…”
Then, perhaps, they might actually survive.
“I’m a man who values his own life, so I chose the option that offered even a slim chance of living.”
A faint smile crossed Dwein’s face.
“…….”
“…Succeed. I wish you victory.”
With that, Enoch moved forward.
* * *
The Magic Tower.
Oscar was drawing a Teleportation Magic Circle.
“I’ll mark coordinates on the Private Chamber to the right of the Grand Hall corridor. By now there’s probably chaos everywhere and no one around, but just in case—use your Ability discreetly so no one sees.”
“Goodness! Master, have you even been there? How do you know the Imperial Palace layout in such detail? How can you mark coordinates so precisely?”
Oscar’s brow furrowed as he observed Lilis’s wide-eyed astonishment.
“What are you on about? Your father smuggled out detailed architectural blueprints of the Imperial Palace—secret passages, escape routes, everything—and handed them to me ages ago.”
“What?! Wow, Father…. He never told me! I thought he just played around all day and never prepared for business at all! When on earth did he steal those?”
“If I’d told you beforehand, you’d have gone blabbing about it somewhere. Look—you’re already trying to pry into it now, aren’t you?”
“…….”
Lilis fell silent, and Oscar released a deep sigh.
“Do you really have to go? Don’t you trust your boyfriend?”
“I trust Cheshire. It’s James I don’t trust. He’s a monster, after all….”
…Yes.
The child had a point.
Enoch and Cheshire, locked in their final confrontation, weapons crossed.
Before the Regression, Oscar had watched that battle with his own eyes.
‘Though Cheshire did manage to subdue him in the end.’
It had been touch and go—a razor’s margin.
Enoch had been grievously wounded for Cheshire’s sake, deliberately taking on fatal damage. Yet despite that, his reserves of power had been staggeringly immense….
Even Cheshire’s ability to subdue him without killing him had seemed almost absurd at the time.
It was, truly, a battle between monsters.
‘There’s no guarantee he’ll succeed this time the way he did then.’
Too much had changed.
And so the greatest variable was whether Cheshire would succeed in subduing Enoch in that final clash—or fail.
If Cheshire judged that subduing him would be too difficult, he would choose to kill Enoch instead.
‘That would be catastrophic.’
Enoch had to live. No matter what.
Because otherwise….
‘This girl would sacrifice her own life to save her father again.’
Oscar had no desire to witness that scene a second time—her weeping, insisting she’d die in her father’s place.
Better to prevent death from occurring in the first place than to expend centuries of Life Force resurrecting the dead.
And if Cheshire could end things so overwhelmingly that there was no need to burn his lifespan at all, that would be ideal.
But now, with nothing certain, nothing to trust.
Lilis’s decision to slip in herself and handle any unforeseen crisis was, by any measure, the best choice available.
‘Still… is this really right?’
Oscar’s face twisted with anguish as he gnawed at his lip. The hand holding the white chalk faltered again and again.
* * *
The Imperial Palace, Grand Hall.
Enoch strode through the corridor, silent as a tomb.
He had bled heavily, yet his mind remained sharp. Despite wounds that would have been fatal to any ordinary man, strength still burned through his limbs.
He had pushed his body to the brink, burning through his reserves to weaken himself before facing Cheshire—and yet.
That inexhaustible body of his, the final obstacle he would have to overcome, struck him as bitterly cursed in that moment.
But.
There was no more room to retreat, no time left to hesitate.
At the end of the corridor,
the massive doors of a fortress, sealed shut.
Shiiing—!
Without hesitation, he unleashed a Sword Aura. The ornate golden doors split cleanly in two and collapsed inward.
Enoch surveyed what lay within.
The Imperial Advisor, who had rushed in to report, now trembled prostrate before suddenly snapping his head up.
And,
five members of the Imperial Guard, their minds enslaved, bound to fight unto death for their Emperor.
Among them.
The demon he had yearned so long to face stood before him now—Nicholas von Pavilion.
Enoch walked forward slowly.
He came to a halt at a distance where the Emperor’s face, his expression, became clearly visible.
“…….”
“…….”
The Emperor, who had been watching Enoch silently, broke into laughter.
“Enoch Rubinstein.”
Then, his expression hardening with terrible swiftness, his voice cut like frost.
“So you’ve come at last to lay siege to my fortress.”

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————