My Daddy Hides His Power - Chapter 37

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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 37
Enoch quickly gathered his wits and grabbed the Host, who was trying to step down from the stage.
“Hold on.”
“Yes?”
“My daughter—she’s not here.”
“Pardon?”
The Host glanced up at the stage and shrugged.
“Not here? Wasn’t she inside the iron cage?”
“Are you joking? You were watching the whole time, same as me.”
“I’m afraid I wouldn’t recognize your daughter even if I saw her.”
The Host’s wide-eyed, innocent tone left Enoch momentarily speechless.
“Now, would you mind letting go?”
…….
As the Host shook free and turned to leave, Enoch spun him back around and seized him by the collar.
“Stop playing games. Bring my daughter here. Now.”
“Ha. Is this man insane? Loses his daughter somewhere else and comes here to take it out on me?”
“What?”
“Guards! Guards!”
The Host whistled sharply through the air, and two burly men rushed forward to pin Enoch down.
What in the world was happening?
In his bewilderment, a conversation with Axion flashed through Enoch’s mind.
“It’s not so much disappearance as outright abduction. The method’s bold. Commoners report crimes all day and get nowhere with the law anyway.”
“They kidnap children without fear of the Public Security Force?”
“The Public Security Force has been hollow for years now. During those seven years you were away, this place rotted further.”
Within the same system, the Nobility and the Commoners lived entirely different lives.
The Commoner District was, quite simply, a lawless wasteland.
Enoch laughed hollowly and scanned the surroundings slowly.
A few participants who hadn’t yet departed trembled in the chaos.
They had clearly witnessed this absurd scene in its entirety.
Yet knowing they could find no legal recourse, they clung only to the relief that their own children were safe.
‘Damn.’
If he were a Commoner without an Ability…
There would be nothing he could do in this moment.
He’d stand there blind as a fool, watching his daughter vanish, unable even to accuse the criminals who so obviously spirited her away.
‘Still the same. This cursed country.’
Enoch laughed bitterly and walked toward the receding Host.
The guards reached out to block him,
“Agh!”
Bone snapped and crackled—their arms twisted backward.
With an expressionless face, Enoch subdued both guards in a single breath and advanced. The Host faltered.
“W-wait. What are you doing? Should I call the Public Security Force? What is this…!”
Seized by the collar again, the Host’s breath caught in his throat.
Enoch’s voice came sharp as a blade.
“Where is my daughter?”
“I don’t…!”
In that instant.
Enoch clenched his teeth and swept his disheveled hair back with one hand.
Whisper—
From the ends, his hair gleamed silver.
At the same moment, his eyes flashed blue.
“Where is she?”
…….
The Host’s mouth fell open slowly.
‘He’s an Ability User…’
Understanding struck him at an instinctive level.
If asked a third time, he might not live to answer.
“I-I’m sorry. I-I’ll tell you.”
* * *
The question: Can the daughter of the world’s universally acknowledged strongest Ability User, the protagonist himself, truly be kidnapped?
There had to be a way out.
‘This might actually work.’
A dark, narrow room.
I was trapped in something like a cage meant for small animals.
I’d been snatched up from backstage where I’d been preparing for the finals match, shoved into a burlap sack, and dumped here.
Who would have imagined it?
Brazenly spiriting a child away right in the middle of a system with dozens of watching eyes.
‘Chesher should be fine, at least. He’s with Father.’
Just then.
“Look at this girl. She’s not even crying.”
A man who’d been watching me with curious eyes as I sat quietly, hugging my knees, spoke.
His left eye bore a long vertical scar slashed across it.
“Hey, aren’t you scared?”
The man stuck out his tongue and ran the short sword he was holding upward along it with a whisper.
Ugh, gross. He clearly wanted me to be frightened.
“I’m scared…. Please send me home.”
“Krhahaha! No way, no way.”
The man tapped the iron cage I was trapped in with the blade, tap-tap.
“You’re never going home again.”
“Why? Why not?”
“You’re going to live somewhere else. But don’t blame me too much, okay? The day will come when you’re grateful to me.”
As he spoke, he lit a cigarette and pulled out a thick wad of notes from his pocket, beginning to count them with a rustling sound.
“I’m going to send you somewhere much bigger and nicer than the house you live in now. The noble lords will give you delicious food and shower you with affection, so don’t grieve.”
…A human trafficker. That was clear. He snatched pretty commoner children and sold them to aristocrats for hefty sums.
‘Could this man be the culprit in that child abduction case Axion was investigating?’
It seemed highly likely.
Even so, open kidnapping and confinement like this—how is it possible?
‘Right, in this place it is possible….’
In normal circumstances, parents whose child vanished would report it to the police.
Then the police would arrest and interrogate anyone suspected of involvement.
But.
The commoners of this insane country couldn’t expect any such standard measures.
‘In this twisted world, the position of non-ability users—commoners, that is—is exactly this.’
Two alley cats fight, and one attacks the other and steals its kitten.
In such a situation, the police wouldn’t call the two cats in to mediate, nor would the cats who failed to reach a peaceful settlement ever go to court and stand trial.
It was precisely that kind of logic.
‘Sigh. If I were really a commoner’s daughter, there’d be no way out of here safely, would there?’
That realization sent a chill down my spine.
“Hey, Crek!”
Just then someone kicked the door open and burst in.
He had a drooping chin and a slack belly. A man so fat he could barely keep his body upright.
“No time! We have to get out of here now!”
“Why, what is it?”
“The Holy Knight Order commander is on the move. Seems the Commoner District has been so noisy lately that he’s decided to personally come arrest us.”
“What? You mean Duke Libre?”
The man Crek’s expression hardened.
“Yeah. Why would a duke of all people concern himself with this business anyway? Doesn’t he have anything else to do?”
“Tell me about it. Ah, this is such a pain. I was supposed to hand this girl over to Baron Blimen. I could’ve squeezed out another ten thousand Terl for her.”
Crek looked at me, biting his lip.
“No time. How long would it take to reach the baron’s place? Your face is blown anyway, so let’s lay low until things calm down. I’ve got a boat ready—let’s head straight to the harbor.”
What? Smuggling?
I’d figured Father would come rescue me soon, so the smart thing was to just sit tight and not get hurt.
But if these panicked men decided to attempt smuggling and take me with them before Father arrived, that would be a disaster.
“Um, um… Mister!”
Growing desperate, I grabbed the iron cage.
“What do we do about her, then?”
When Crek asked, the fat man who’d been frantically gathering his things looked at me.
“Wow, she’s really beautiful, isn’t she? It’d be a shame to kill her or abandon her, so let’s put her on the boat too. We’ll sell her off once we’re out, simple as that.”
No!
What could a seven-year-old Lilis do here to buy herself time?
…What could there be? Beg.
“Um, um, couldn’t you just let me go?”
“What? Why should I?”
“You should let me go. Because my dad is…!”
I stopped short, about to trade on my father’s name.
Wait.
If I revealed myself here as Enoch Rubinstein’s daughter?
Whether they’d believe me was already questionable, but even if they did, that was the problem.
My face was already exposed to them. For people who’d dared lay hands on nobility, there was no path to survival.
Even if they released me unharmed and begged desperately, it would still be death—certain and absolute.
And they would know that very well.
‘If these men wanted any chance at life, they’d either kill me quietly where no one would know, or absolutely hide me away and smuggle me out, wouldn’t they?’
“What? Who’s your dad?”
Crek laughed, watching me clamp my mouth shut.
“M-my dad is, well….”
“Spit it out.”
“…a very, very frightening person.”
“Puhahahaha!”
I felt like crying.
‘Dad, when are you coming….’
A helpless seven-year-old could only wait for her father.
I trembled, watching the two men busily pack their things in preparation for smuggling me out.
‘What if these guys actually escape before Dad gets here?’
When I was first kidnapped out of nowhere, I was frightened, yes, but only briefly.
My father—the strongest being in this world, the protagonist himself—surely he wouldn’t fail to rescue me. That’s what I’d thought.
But now, watching the situation rush forward without time for him to come….
‘I’m, I’m terrified. What do I do.’
My heart pounded, and tears threatened to spill.
I pressed my lips tight and wiped at my blurring eyes.
“Hey! Once you’ve got everything, let’s go! Out the back door, quietly!”
As the heavy-set man shouted, Crek hefted the iron cage I was in as casually as if it were a suitcase.
“Wait, please! Sir….”
Then.
“Damn it all.”
The heavy-set man, who’d stepped out first with his baggage, spat the curse and stopped dead.
Someone blocked his way.
“Who the hell is this?”
It was Father.
The moment our eyes met from across the room.
I burst into tears.
“Daaad! Waaaah!”

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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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