My Daddy Hides His Power - Chapter 249

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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 249
Everyone fell silent.
The vast hall held nothing but the Emperor’s laughter.
Advisor Ramon realized that laugh was profoundly, utterly hopeless.
Cheshire Libre…….
The man the Emperor had believed was his own blade had just openly betrayed him through action.
The fact that Cheshire had marched all the way here alone and unafraid meant that the countless Imperial soldiers he’d led away were equally worthless as a fighting force.
“This can’t be….”
Nicholas muttered in dismay.
Though his lips still held the shadow of a smile, he cut no figure of composure.
It was only a hollow laugh.
The detached smile of a man who had reached a dead end with no choices left.
“What have they made you into?”
“…….”
Nicholas tilted his head, asking Cheshire.
“What on earth gave you the nerve to bare your fangs at your own master?”
“…….”
“Is it that Enoch’s pitiful convictions? Or your own ambition to sit upon my throne as a conquering king?”
Nicholas stepped forward and began laughing again, his gaze fixed on the two men.
“Hahahaha….”
He tilted his head back toward empty air, and from between his lips came a sigh like whisper.
“I am Primera, and I am the god of this Empire. I gave you birth as Ability Users, and I allowed you to breathe atop this fortress’s highest peak.”
And yet you dare—
“You think you can tread upon me? You, my creations, my possessions, born from my power?”
Whoosh—!
Stepping forward ahead of Enoch, Cheshire scattered a dark Sword Aura in all directions.
The aura crashed against a blue Barrier that Nicholas deployed himself, dissipating without a trace.
“A brazen dog who doesn’t even know his master.”
Cheshire advanced toward Nicholas with an impassive expression.
Three Imperial Guard swordsmen rushed at him at once, bringing their blades down over his head.
Clang—!
Cheshire blocked the cascade of steel with a single sweep, then fired Sword Aura into the void.
Bang, bang, bang—!
The fierce wind pressure that followed the attacks sent all three swordsmen flying backward into the hall’s walls.
“Huh…, huh….”
Ramon, watching from the sidelines, could only groan at such astonishing power.
The Emperor’s Imperial Guard didn’t even come close to matching this man’s strength.
There was no way to stop him.
Yet the Emperor simply stood and watched as Cheshire closed the distance, doing nothing.
Clang—!
Cheshire’s blade came down upon the Emperor’s head, only to be blocked by a shield.
Cheshire pressed hard to pierce the Barrier, and his eyes locked with Nicholas’s at point-blank range.
“Who is it that granted you this power?”
“…….”
“It was me.”
Crash—!
The Imperial Guard mages unleashed their attacks on the spot where Cheshire had stood.
Yet somehow, Cheshire had already withdrawn a short distance in that instant.
‘How is he moving so fast?’
Ramon, holding his breath, rubbed his eyes as if he couldn’t believe what he was seeing.
It was too miraculous a movement to explain by mere legwork—as if he’d teleported in a single blink.
Even the Emperor’s eyes narrowed as he felt that subtle shift in an instant.
“……So. How much longer will you labor under that delusion?”
Cheshire spoke, staring directly at Nicholas.
This power that had been granted to him….
Every Ability User in this Empire was created by Primera, but there was one exception.
Cheshire alone was not.
When he closed his eyes and opened them again, the world slowed; time’s density bent to his will.
Long before he ever received his power from Primera, he had already been an Ability User.
“…….”
Nicholas watched as Cheshire drew closer once more.
If he fled, the throne would slip from his grasp.
It would be as though nothing remained to him.
That was an ending more terrible than death itself.
Cornered, with only one path forward, there was but a single choice left: to punish these insolent traitors with his own hand.
“So you’ve forced me to place the collar upon you with these very hands.”
It would be wiser to control Cheshire than to deal with Enoch, who bore grave wounds.
But the Life Force required to govern a Standard Ability User was staggeringly precious. Nicholas swallowed his regret and pressed his eyes shut.
‘……?’
And yet.
As Nicholas imagined how his form would transform while wielding the ability, he felt a shock of surprise.
Unlike when he had gone to bring Enoch’s daughter, his appearance remained unchanged.
Still vigorous and unaltered…….
‘Why?’
He snapped his eyes open, rushing to seize control of Cheshire’s mind, but—
“Haven’t I already asked when you’ll stop being mistaken?”
It didn’t take hold.
Only those without Holy Power—”Ability Users” devoid of it—could escape Mind Control under Primera’s dominion.
Cheshire Libre was surely an Ability User, so why….
“Ah.”
In that instant, understanding struck Nicholas like a thunderbolt.
An Ability User without Holy Power….
It was extraordinary.
In that moment, Nicholas felt as though Cheshire were a creature sent down by God himself to erase Primera from existence.
“…A monster, then.”
He laughed weakly at himself.
* * *
The Magic Tower.
The oversized robe had been draped over the child’s frame—too large by far—leaving her white shoulders exposed at the neck.
“Goodness, really.”
Oscar clicked his tongue in disapproval, adjusting the girl’s robe.
“I can’t slip in like you can, so if anything goes wrong, call for me. These—break the blue one and I’ll come running.”
Oscar handed over two shell-shaped Magical Devices he had crafted for Lilis.
“And when it’s all over safely, let me know. Break the pink one.”
“Yes!”
“…….”
Oscar studied the girl’s eager face intently.
“That’s really all it takes to break the Mind Control on your father? You’re not lying because you figure I’d have no way to know?”
“No, it’s really true. The God said it was a gift because I’ve been doing good things. It used to take way more, but it’s been getting less and less.”
She wouldn’t simply fabricate such a thing.
After all, it made no sense to begin with—a young Primera, who couldn’t overcome the laws of power itself, breaking through the Emperor’s ability.
But the Sacred Object embedded in the child’s heart, which made it possible….
In all the coincidences that had led to this moment, there must surely be the hand of God, withdrawing the tainted power from within himself.
“Let me… hold you once more.”
“…….”
The child’s eyes widened as Oscar suddenly opened his arms.
“Mm.”
With an awkward quirk to her lips, Lilis scratched her head, then padded forward and nestled quietly into his embrace.
“Master, do I have to stay right here and wait? You won’t go anywhere?”
The girl rubbed her face against his chest, speaking with childish dependency.
Oscar avoided answering.
“When you come back, you’ll be grown.”
“Not quite grown yet…. Oh! There was a world I visited briefly before, and they counted twenty as adult.”
“Try not to use it.”
“Alright. I’d rather stay a little longer as a child anyway.”
Oscar let out a silent sigh, peeling Lilis from his arms and kneeling before the Magic Circle.
“Time’s running short. Prepare yourself.”
“Yes!”
Lilis answered with a tense expression, then her figure faded from view, leaving only the robe hovering in the air.
“Fool! Take your clothes with you!”
“Ah, right!”
Flustered voices echoed before the child vanished without a trace.
“If anything comes up, call for me right away.”
“Yes, I will!”
Oscar chuckled at the bright reply, pressing his palm to the ground and channeling Mana into the Magic Circle.
A blue light seeped across the surface, and slowly the Magic Circle faded away.
…….
The spot where Lilis had stood moments before. Above it, a man’s hand lingered for a long time, as though reluctant to part.
It was a fight whose outcome had been decided from the start. The child would have no reason to call for him.
And so, just now.
That had been their last goodbye.
“…Farewell.”
He bid her a sorrowful farewell with a sad smile.
* * *
All five members of the Imperial Guard lay sprawled on the ground, their wounds fatal.
Though they were bound to fight for the Emperor until death, their bodies had reached their limit—no amount of will could force them to rise again.
Nicholas let out a hollow laugh as he watched Cheshire, who had subdued the entire Imperial Guard while keeping them alive.
If Primera’s neck were severed, the Mind Control would break—which was why he’d spared them.
Ah,
what arrogant mercy this was.
Clang!
Cheshire’s blade came down at the Emperor’s head once more.
With only a single Barrier between them, the two locked in a brutal test of strength.
“Since when?” the Emperor asked.
Nicholas spoke into the strain.
“Since when have you been sharpening your claws to tear me apart?”
Cheshire sneered openly at the question.
“From the moment you harbored the arrogant delusion that you’d given me rebirth as an Ability User.”
…….
Primera, which birthed Ability Users—the Imperial Training Institute, where countless small servants bowed their heads in obedience to him.
“Hahahaha!”
Nicholas laughed like a madman, trying to recall the young Cheshire he’d scarcely met.
“Magnificent!”
Blood vessels burst across his eyes, pushed to their limits.
“Truly, truly magnificent! So you’ve been living all this time to drive a blade into my heart!”
The facade of rejecting Enoch’s principles.
Those emotional eyes that could be controlled with nothing but the shortest leash.
That bowed head, so obedient.
All of it—every bit of it had been a blade being sharpened to cut him down.
“Truly magnificent….”
Nicholas trembled as his lips curled into a smile.
…….
…….
A piercing silence settled between them.
And in that same instant.
……!
Cheshire’s eyes widened.
The Emperor’s face was changing before his eyes.
Brilliant golden hair turned white, and countless wrinkles bloomed across his once youthful, beautiful face.
His straight spine curved,
“Hack… cough….”
and his exhausted body—drained to its limits of Life Force—gasped with dry, rasping coughs.
‘Finally.’
Cheshire quickly repositioned his blade and spun around.
Whoosh!
A blue Sword Aura came hurtling toward him with devastating force.
Crash!
Even as he blocked it in a fraction of a second, the destructive attack sent Cheshire flying backward into the wall.
From the shattered debris, smoke rose and obscured his vision.
“…….”
Cheshire staggered to his feet, spitting out blood-tinged saliva.
Beyond the slowly dissipating smoke―
Enoch stood alone.
His unfocused eyes, barring the way as if shielding the Emperor.
At last beginning,
the final battle.

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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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