My Daddy Hides His Power - Chapter 44

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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’s Hidden Strength
Chapter 44
‘Surely he doesn’t mean to teach me to ride just because I mentioned I’d never been on a horse before?’
That did seem to be exactly what was happening.
My grandfather, cradling me as though I were still small, began walking through the Riding Ground beside the stables.
“Oh, oh my.”
One lap, two laps—giving me time to adjust as a first-time rider, my grandfather gradually increased the pace.
‘Not even a twinge in my backside? No bouncing at all!’
According to Cheshire, riding saddles were supposed to chafe terribly.
Yet for some reason, I felt as comfortable as if I were sitting on a plush mattress, and the motion was remarkably smooth.
‘Does this mean I have more talent than I thought?’
“I’ve placed a minor spell on the saddle to make riding easier. Later, when you ride alone, you’ll need to grow accustomed to the fatigue that comes with proper posture,” he said matter-of-factly.
Ah, I should have known.
My grandfather, recognizing that his granddaughter was already daydreaming about becoming an equestrian prodigy, sobered me with his blunt words.
“I see. Thank you. Hehe….”
My heart soared. Horseback riding was far more enjoyable than I’d expected.
After circling the Riding Ground for some time, my grandfather turned the reins toward the back of the Manor.
Behind the Manor rose a low mountain. The horse gradually picked up speed as we entered the gently sloping Mountain Path.
“Ahhhh.”
Along with the crisp morning breeze, the altitude climbed steadily, and the beautiful Manor’s panoramic view came into sight.
My heart raced with each beat.
“Oh, Grandfather! I can see all the way to the village from here!”
As our vantage point rose higher, Jedo came into view in its entirety.
At its heart stood the Imperial Palace, glittering magnificently.
The White Temple, both sacred and majestic.
The townhouses of the nobility, as fine as works of art, and the commercial district with its tightly packed buildings large and small….
“It’s so beautiful!”
My grandfather halted the horse to let me drink in the magnificent vista without distraction.
I stood there for a while, breathing in the cool wind, before speaking.
“Grandfather, but weren’t you supposed to come back tomorrow with Father?”
“The banquet attended by the nobility was yesterday. Today is when the Return Ceremony is formally held. But what good would it do me to stay there until then? I’ve already seen that tedious face of his every day at home—I had no desire to endure half a day more of it. I left early,” he said, tsking.
My grandfather added this with a dismissive click of his tongue.
“Coming back soon was the only sensible thing to do.”
“I understand.”
I glanced back at my grandfather and giggled softly.
Despite what he said, affection was plainly written across his face.
“What are you laughing at?”
“You look happy, Grandfather. That makes me happy too.”
“My expression looks happy?”
“Yes. Father’s come back, after all—you must be pleased. You’ve missed him all this time.”
“…Not in the slightest. I was simply relieved to be free of his troublemaking.”
“Come now, really? When Father was in Xenon, he spoke often about missing you.”
…….
“He said he was sorry he couldn’t tell you he was leaving, and that he felt terrible knowing you’d worry so much.”
I recalled what Father had said when I once asked him, “But don’t you have a father too?”—how his thoughts had turned to my grandfather.
“I myself feel sad when I’m even briefly apart from Father…. So I thought, Father must have been so terribly sad, missed you so much, and longed for you so deeply, being separated from you for all those years.”
As I spoke, I looked up at my grandfather again.
“So I insisted to Father that we return to Jedo. I know why he wanted to keep living hidden…. But here in Jedo, we could see you, and we could see Aunt, and….”
“So that’s how it was.”
My grandfather let out a soft chuckle and reached over to stroke my hair.
“It was because of me that Father and you were apart for so long. I’m sorry for that….”
“You’ve become awfully fond of apologizing, haven’t you? Your father caused the trouble, yet why are you always the one saying sorry?”
“But it’s all because of me…. It was because of me that Father left here in the first place, and now—now because of me, he’ll have to go back to the Battlefield.”
I lowered my gaze. I felt my grandfather stiffen.
“Father wouldn’t want to fight in a wicked war that harms innocent people…. But because of me, he might have to, wouldn’t he?”
“Child. Lirith.”
“Grandfather, I’m truly all right. So please, could you tell Father not to go to war? Please?”
My grandfather studied me for a long moment with eyes I couldn’t read, then let out a deep sigh.
“What I’m about to tell you may be difficult for you to understand, but life in this world does not always bend to our will. When we gain something, we must lose something else. When we wish to protect something, there is always something we must abandon.”
…….
“Your father never hesitated to lose or abandon things. When he was young, I stopped him more than once from going to the Emperor with that absurd demand to abolish the Class System.”
It sounded just like him. I couldn’t help but laugh despite my somber mood.
“But in the end, he conformed. He killed his own nature and lived that way. Because of me. He believed that not defying your parents’ wishes was his duty.”
“…….”
“This time will be no different. When the moment of choice arrives, that fool always abandons his convictions. He endured for me, his father. Now he’ll make the choice that lets you be happiest, his daughter….”
Grandfather understood.
To let me live as an ordinary noblewoman, not as a soldier.
That Father had taken up the sword, prepared to fight against everything he believed in.
“I’m truly sorry to have you live in a world like this. Sorry too that I cannot grant your request.”
Grandfather rested his hand heavily on my head.
“If you had to cross the battlefield every day… I simply could not bear to see that. Your father must feel it even more deeply than I do.”
“…….”
“I can only hope that someday, this world will change.”
With those words, Grandfather fell silent.
The dawn wind had turned cold, sharper than before.
* * *
The Imperial Palace of the Pavilion Empire.
Enoch stood motionless in the solemn atmosphere, taking in the splendor of the grand hall.
At the end of the corridor lined with a crimson carpet.
The dazzling golden throne.
Upon that seat of absolute authority sat an Emperor unchanged by the seven years that had passed—eternally young, eternally vital.
Enoch began walking slowly toward the throne.
On the day of the Return Ceremony, carefully prepared as Enoch wished, only a handful of familiar faces were present.
The Emperor, Nicholas von Pavilion.
And the Holy Knight Order members kneeling before him.
Enoch stood among them and looked up at the Emperor.
“The Sun of Pavilion, Your Majesty Primera—I, Enoch Lubin Stein, your servant, greet you.”
“Welcome home. The great sword of the Empire, my loyal servant.”
The Emperor descended from his seat, his beautiful face graced with a warm smile.
“To see my servant returned after resolving his long wanderings and coming back to dedicate himself to the Empire fills me with boundless joy.”
“I am deeply sorry for the trouble I have caused.”
“Why would I hold past failings against my loyal servant? I merely wish that you take up the sword again according to my will, to fulfill the Holy Knights’ true purpose—peace.”
Peace.
Enoch swallowed his contempt and knelt before the Emperor, prostrating himself.
“All things shall be as Your Majesty Primera wills.”
* * *
The Emperor’s chambers.
The Emperor turned from the wall map he had been studying with hands clasped behind his back.
“You should have brought your daughter as well. I was looking forward to meeting her today.”
A hairline fracture appeared across Enoch’s otherwise statue-like face.
The Emperor caught this subtle shift and swallowed his inward laughter.
“As blood of the Lubin Stein line, her abilities need no verification. I am delighted to add one more talented soul willing to shed blood for the Empire.”
Enoch’s hands clenched into fists. To mention her conscription the moment they met….
Even as the Emperor read the anger behind that expressionless mask, he merely smiled.
“Come here and see something.”
Enoch rose slowly and approached the Emperor’s side, looking upon what he saw.
A map of the continent, nearly swallowed whole by the Empire.
The Emperor swept away the cloth concealing something beside it.
“……!”
Enoch’s eyes widened.
Portraits of fallen comrades.
“You recognize many faces, don’t you? How could I not honor those predecessors who sacrificed themselves so willingly for the Empire?”
A devastating shock washed over Enoch.
The countless moments of gathering the bodies of comrades with whom he had wept and laughed.
Terrible memories that, even as time passed, never faded in the slightest.
“I too am saddened. For the peace of the Empire, yet I must drive my servants into the jaws of death.”
“…….”
“War is brutal. In that chaos of carnage, none can be certain of survival.”
Enoch’s breathing grew ragged as his eyes moved across each portrait of his fallen comrades.
“And yet, for this nation, for my people, we must not falter.”
“Your Majesty.”
“Yes, Enoch.”
The Emperor replied with genuine warmth.
“Is there something you wish to say?”
His voice carried an edge—he had caught the scent of baser motives.
The Emperor’s reasons for dredging up those memories of war’s terrible carnage were transparent enough.
“A daughter so precious that to kindle her is to watch her burn, to grasp her is to see her shatter, and even to leave her untouched feels a waste—wouldn’t you say?”
……
“How could you possibly send such a daughter to the Battlefield?”
Enoch’s eyes closed slowly, deliberately.
The Emperor observed this gesture, then placed his hand gently on the other man’s shoulder.
“If I had my way, I would wish only that your daughter grow up in peace. I could use my power to grant her every comfort. But you know this already.”
……
“I am not the only father. Countless parents across this land cry out against injustice. Who among them would willingly send their child to war?”
The Emperor’s own children were no exception.
Neither was Lirith.
She carried Lubin Stein blood, born of parents both at the apex of the Class System—Dos rank.
Without needing to test her abilities, she bore an inescapable duty as a high-ranking mage.
“But you possess strength, Enoch. The strength to protect your daughter. Should you shoulder her obligation in her stead, no one would dare voice complaint—you have that much strength.”
The Emperor’s voice, serpentine and smooth, seeped into Enoch’s ears.
“There have always been wars between us where our interests diverged.”
Meaningless invasions, nothing but the bestial hunger for conquest, territory hunger stripped of purpose.
“You have long argued that dominion over the continent is futile, and yet…”
……
“Everything I do is for my cherished people of the Empire. I will make this realm stronger—so formidable that none would dare challenge it.”
“You are preparing an invasion.”
Enoch asked the question as though a noose tightened around his throat.
He had already foreseen what demand the Emperor would make, using his daughter as leverage.
He had steeled himself to place his own leash into the Emperor’s hands for her sake.
And yet.
The moment when he must turn away from his own convictions, driven to the cliff’s edge, was exquisitely torturous.
“Yes. You have been consistently steadfast, but this time I hope for a different answer. As the Empire of seven years ago differs from the Empire of today…”
……
“You must have changed as well.”
The Emperor leaned close to Enoch’s ear, his laughter contemptuous and low.
“Now that you have become a father.”

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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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