My Daddy Hides His Power - Chapter 256

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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 256
* * *
The Magic Tower.
Lilis Rubinstein’s laboratory.
“He can’t solve it himself, but he asks me to bring him problems. What am I supposed to do? That Hans has no conscience whatsoever.”
Standing with her back to the desk, Lilis had been complaining about her superior for the past thirty minutes.
“I revised it and brought it back, but he only approved questions twelve through fifteen? God, at least he’s got eyes. Those were excerpted from the entrance exam I took when I first came to the Magic Tower. My Master wrote them. They’re so hard that nobody could solve them. He must have no intention of hiring new recruits at all. Isn’t that unreasonable?”
“You’re right. It is.”
Cheshire, who had come all the way to the Magic Tower at Lilis’s SOS to solve math problems, nodded in agreement.
“How about you? Any luck?”
“Oh, the last question’s got me stumped. It’s tough.”
“Really? Then I should add that one too….”
Cheshire felt a pang at the exhaustion in Lilis’s voice, perpetually burdened by overtime. He set down his pen and sighed.
“Why don’t we go out on your next day off? Get some fresh air.”
“I forfeited my day off. The recruitment exam for new researchers is that day. I have to proctor it.”
Lilis shook her head and offered an alternative.
“How about the day after next?”
“I’m leading an Expedition to the Northern Territory then.”
…….
…….
They stared at each other in silence. It was as if the whole world conspired to keep them apart.
Yet young lovers burned all the hotter for it.
Lilis made a small beckoning gesture with her eyes half-lidded, and Cheshire smiled and rose to approach her.
Cheshire braced both hands on the desk to pin her in place, then lowered his head and kissed her first. Lilis’s arms naturally wound around his neck.
Three and a half years together by the calendar—lovers on their thirteen-hundred-and-sixth day.
By now, they understood what the other wanted to say from a glance alone.
Yet despite their rather suggestive posture, the couple was remarkably wholesome.
…….
…….
The form of affection Lilis had dubbed “Stamp Marking.”
They simply held their lips together, nothing more.
“Ah.”
When Lilis teased by slightly extending her tongue, Cheshire, as always, decisively pulled his lips away first.
Still clinging to his neck, Lilis broke into a bright smile.
“Let’s not go anywhere. Nothing ever happens anyway, so what’s the point?”
“Does something have to happen?”
It had been quite some time since Enoch lifted his ban on overnight absences, and they’d taken trips alone before—yet nothing remarkable ever occurred.
Lilis had asked him once:
“You don’t really know what comes after kissing, do you? I can teach you.”
And Cheshire had answered:
“No, I know. I know what comes next, and what comes after that too.”
Then what exactly was the problem with this man?
Cheshire reached into his embrace and drew something out.
A violet ring case.
Recognizing what it was, Lilis stiffened and lowered her arms from around his neck.
Click.
As Cheshire opened the case with one hand, a ring set with a sapphire-blue diamond came into view.
…….
…….
Cheshire removed the ring and slipped it onto the fourth finger of Lilis’s left hand.
Two weeks ago she’d received earrings; a week ago, a necklace.
So Lilis understood what this ring meant—it was Cheshire’s self-imposed boundary, the next stage after “Stamp Marking” that he’d decided he wasn’t ready for.
“…Did you really reincarnate from the Joseon Dynasty?”
“What do you mean?”
“Ha.”
Lilis laughed and held out her left hand, studying the ring for a long moment.
“It’s beautiful.”
…….
“Thank you.”
And then she turned to look at Cheshire.
With their eyes locked, the lovers fell into silence for a moment.
“…I’m sorry.”
After a long pause, Lilis sighed and answered.
As if he’d expected as much, Cheshire let out a soft laugh and pressed a gentle kiss to her forehead.
“It’s fine.”
* * *
“Unbreakable will! A conviction that never surrenders! There’s a man who clung to the hem of the princess’s skirt and stumbled forward three times, but unfortunately got kicked away all three times—didn’t he?”
In the Capital, at the Billy Black Pub.
A red-haired man raised his voice with booming clarity.
“The saddest man in the Capital, having been rejected on his third proposal and dragging himself back here! To Cheshire Libre!”
“To him!”
“To him!”
…….
The figure looked like a man at first glance, but was in fact a sturdy and valorous woman—Jemian Traha—and at her toast, three beer glasses clinked together in the air.
A reunion of classmates from the graduating class of the Ability User Training Institute, generation 1026.
Jemian, Rom, and Gerard stared silently at Cheshire, who couldn’t seem to raise his glass on his own.
…….
Cheshire swallowed his sigh and lifted his beer glass.
“…To them.”
Clink!
In the evening hour, a cheerful clinking sound rang out through the bustling pub.
“Woohoo!”
Jemian drained her beer in one gulp, wiped her mouth, and slung an arm over Cheshire’s shoulder.
“A tree won’t fall no matter how many times you chop it, Cheshire!”
…….
“If you’re truly a man, what’s ten times? Keep swinging until it falls! Your sister’s rooting for you!”
Gerard, listening nearby, furrowed his brow.
“Is that supposed to be encouragement? There’s not a shred of consideration for the person being chopped at ten times over.”
“Yeah, Jemian. Is Lilis a tree? What are you even talking about?”
Rom shook his head in disapproval as well.
“Oh, you just don’t understand.”
Despite her friends’ disapproving reactions, Jemian grinned widely.
“After seeing my success story, you say that? Look at me. Alfredo, I chopped exactly ten times, right? I still managed to bring him down in the end, didn’t I?”
Alfredo Burven, attached to the National Military Seonggwon Division, and Jemian Traha were getting married next month after three years of passionate courtship.
“What, didn’t I just tell him—like a proper woman, with vigor—’I swear not a drop of blood will stain your hands for the rest of your life,’ and he just melted right then and there?”
“Your engagement was always a foregone conclusion from the start. Alfredo kept delaying nine times because you were pushing too hard and too fast.”
Gerard corrected Jemian’s account and glanced sidelong at Cheshire.
“But Lilis… why does she keep refusing?”
“Look at that sly look in your eyes!”
Jemian gave Gerard’s hand a sharp slap.
“If those two’s wedding falls through, you’re just going to swoop in and seduce Lilis, aren’t you?”
“What are you talking about?!”
Gerard’s face flushed red as he protested.
“Stop saying weird stuff like that and ruining our friendship!”
“If you don’t want to hear weird stuff, then go get yourself a girlfriend, you fool! Don’t waste that beautiful face of yours!”
“Whether I date or not is none of your business. Why do you get more like an old man with every year that passes?”
“Enough, enough!”
Rom, defusing the rowdy atmosphere, turned to Cheshire with a question.
“Cheshire, I’m curious too. I won’t pry into the reason Lilis refuses if it’s something you’d rather keep private, but….”
Rom cleared his throat and added thoughtfully.
“…if she’s refusing, why did you propose three times? That’s not like you at all.”
…….
“No, wait. It’s not that Lilis dislikes him and is refusing.”
In place of the silent Cheshire, Jemian clicked her tongue and answered.
“She’s not against marriage—she’s just not ready to have a wedding ceremony yet.”
Rom and Gerard exchanged puzzled glances at Jemian’s addition.
“You know, the whole bride’s entrance thing…! You walk in with your father’s arm linked through yours, right? Into the ceremony hall like that! She wants to do that, but she can’t, so…!”
……?
……?
The more explanation I hear, the harder it becomes to understand.
“Lilis….”
Rom, who had been lost in thought for a moment, carefully opened his mouth.
“…Father isn’t here?”
His question was met with silence from everyone present.
They all stared at Rom’s face without a word.
“Good grief, what a way to phrase that.”
“Father isn’t here? That’s harsh, Rom. Think before you speak.”
Jemian and Gerard took turns shooting him reproachful looks, and Rom flustered in alarm.
“No, that’s not what I meant! I didn’t mean it like that! Lilis, your father is alive! The Duke is perfectly well!”
“Right.”
“But what exactly isn’t prepared? Why can’t you take Father’s arm for the Bride’s Entrance?”
Jemian scratched her cheek and glanced sideways at Cheshire before speaking.
“I don’t know all the details myself, but apparently two people are supposed to do it. One on the left, one on the right—both arms linked for the Bride’s Entrance, or something?”
“What kind of thing is that?”
Rom’s brow furrowed.
“Does Lilis’s father have two of them or something? Some kind of secret about her birth?”
At Rom’s words, Cheshire, who had been listening in silence, suddenly burst out laughing.
“Something like that.”
Then.
“Pfft!”
A man sitting alone at the table directly behind Cheshire apparently choked, spraying out the beer he’d been drinking.
Everyone’s attention snapped toward him.
Those who had been watching the white-haired man’s back without much thought
“By the way, Jemian—are you wearing a dress for the wedding?”
“Are you insane?”
“Aha! I can’t even imagine it! Jemian in a dress!”
They began chattering again.
“If you don’t mind… please use this.”
Cheshire produced a handkerchief from his pocket and handed it to the man. The man, startled, turned halfway and accepted it with a nod of gratitude.
“…Thank you.”
Cheshire rejoined the lively conversation of his friends.
And….
‘What? Taking Father’s arm on both sides for the Bride’s Entrance?’
Oscar Manuel, the man who had happened to sit behind Cheshire after stopping by the pub, was astounded by what he’d overheard.
‘So they’re saying one arm should be mine, then?’
It was absurd….
He found himself pitying Cheshire, who was being turned down for marriage for increasingly ridiculous reasons.
‘That foolish girl, really!’
Oscar grabbed his own head.
When the child married, he could watch from a distance, but he wouldn’t be able to walk down the wedding aisle with his arm linked through hers.
Lilis must know that too.
Yet here she was, being stubborn about it anyway.
He’d told her to forget the person who’d gone and live happily, but instead she was just sitting around feeling sorry for herself.
‘I’m losing my mind over this.’
Oscar gripped Cheshire’s handkerchief tightly and let out a sigh.
That man had always been irritating, but seeing his face cast in shadow like that because of this situation… it made his heart complicated.
‘You bastard….’
Oscar turned to look at Cheshire with a gaze full of pity.
‘You’ll never get married at this rate….’

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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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