My Daddy Hides His Power - Chapter 5

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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 5
“Father…”
Holding my trembling father close, my thoughts grew heavy.
I understood him better than anyone else in this world, and I wanted nothing more than to give him what he desired.
But.
‘If Father doesn’t leave, this country is doomed.’
That was the truth.
Enoch Rubinstein cannot stay here.
According to the original story, he must return to the Knight Order with honey on his lips and a blade in his heart, there to take the male lead Chesher under his wing.
And he must prepare a rebellion from within the Knight Order before launching a revolution against this nation.
Because.
In roughly ten years from now.
‘All ordinary people will be slaughtered.’
The Imperial Court will enact the Non-Mage Extermination Policy.
A literal massacre—they’ll hunt down and slaughter anyone without magical ability, no questions asked, no exceptions.
And the one who stops it is my father.
‘I thought it had nothing to do with me. The main characters would stop the massacre anyway. The protagonists would protect everyone, so I’d just coast by as a background character.’
But then…
‘My father was the protagonist all along!’
Under the original timeline, I probably would have been kidnapped back then.
Playing the role that plants the seed of revenge in Enoch Rubinstein’s heart, robbed of his daughter.
But in that moment, wanting not to part from Father, I rewrote the original story myself.
Safe and unharmed, unlike in the source material.
And if Father were to flee with me alive?
He would never take the male lead Chesher as his student, never teach him, never raise his hand against the Imperial Court.
‘Then everything collapses. All the innocent background characters would die, wouldn’t they?’
I pictured Susan’s face and Jo’s face in my mind.
The moment I imagined them screaming in agony as they died.
‘No. No, I can’t let that happen.’
I shook my head hard, casting out the terrible vision.
“Father.”
“…Yes?”
“You don’t want me spending my whole life running from place to place, do you?”
“No, of course not, but—”
Father released me from his tight embrace and met my eyes.
“You said it yourself. That you wanted to live an ordinary life with me.”
“……”
“If we go back to Jedo? I’d have to live as an Ability User. Never an ordinary life.”
That’s true. I had said that.
But.
‘The moment Father became Enoch Rubinstein, my peaceful, comfortable life as a background character ended!’
Swallowing the urge to scream this out, I decided to play the role of a greedy seven-year-old girl.
“To be honest, since Father’s such an amazing person and I’m an Ability User… my feelings have changed a little.”
“What do you mean?”
“Ability Users are nobility, right? And if I’m Father’s daughter, that makes me the strongest noble of all. Doesn’t it?”
“……”
Father stared at my gleaming eyes with a dazed expression.
“Father doesn’t have to work himself to exhaustion cutting wood and selling it at the market anymore, and I don’t have to wait around for you all day. And… I don’t have to do laundry either!”
“Lilis, sweetie—Father already told you not to do laundry, but you keep—!”
“And there’s more! I can eat macarons every single day, and wear dresses with ribbons!”
Stomp, stomp.
I stamped my feet as if in anger.
Father’s eyes widened in surprise.
‘Oh no. Father, I’m sorry. I didn’t want to act like some spoiled Fire Attribute brat like this…’
“Why didn’t you tell me! Why!”
“Lilis!”
“You didn’t want me to live as an Ability User?”
With tears trembling on my lashes and my lip jutting out, I cried out.
“You never even asked what I wanted—whether I wanted to live as an Ability User, as nobility!”
“W-well, Princess….”
“I don’t like being called Princess only by Father! I want to be a real princess!”
Father’s eyes began to waver.
“I’m not Father’s daughter!”
“What, what did you say?”
The killing blow….
Father staggered backward once, his face struck as if by lightning.
“I won’t be James’s daughter! I’m going to be Duke Enoch’s daughter!”
I pointed firmly out the window with my tiny index finger and shouted.
“If Father won’t take me, I’ll ask those uncles to bring me!”
…….
Faced with my unyielding determination, Father fell silent.
His face clouded with confusion, he bit his lip and said nothing for a long while.
‘Oh no. I’m really sorry, Father.’
I truly feel sorry toward him….
But his deliberation won’t last long.
Right now, this daughter of his is what matters most to him.
* * *
The beloved Mountain Cottage, brimming with my childhood memories.
Before it, Father and I stood facing the knights, our belongings bundled and strapped tight.
I nestled against Father and stole a glance at the handsome face of the Knight Commander.
‘Black hair, violet eyes. That description seemed so familiar for some reason.’
His name was….
Axion Libre.
1. Rank: Dos.
2. Duke Libre.
3. Father’s comrade from their days entering the Knight Order—standing in as Commander after Father vanished seven years ago.
4. Father’s closest aide and ally who would become a fellow revolutionary.
He was indeed a major character in the Source Material.
‘Right, so that’s Axion. A handsome face like that couldn’t possibly be a background character.’
Having taken a solid blow to the back of my head from James Brown, I resolved to carve into my very bones a new principle: there is no such thing as a handsome background character.
“Shall we depart then, Enoch?”
“A carriage.”
Father recited in an indifferent voice, and Axion tilted his head in confusion.
“What?”
“We won’t go until you bring a top-tier carriage. My daughter’s bottom can’t handle long journeys on horseback.”
“Pardon me, what?”
The knight standing beside Axion (the one whose hand I’d bitten) nearly burst out in indignation at Father’s outrageous demand.
But Axion raised his arm lightly to hold him back.
“Sigh….”
He sighed and stared at me intently.
Look at that. Eyes as if regarding a lump of baggage. His expression made his thoughts painfully obvious.
Here I’d gone so far as to perform like a dutiful Fire Attribute daughter just to set Father in motion, and he doesn’t even acknowledge the effort!
“You men.”
Axion finally gave his command.
“Fetch a carriage…. A top-tier one, immediately.”
* * *
About an hour later.
We were traveling toward a southern city called Elphasha.
We were told we’d take a Warp Gate from a temple that exists only in major cities to go to Jedo.
“Wow. So soft and cushy, it’s lovely.”
I marveled at the comfort of the carriage, experiencing its smoothness for the first time.
It was a carriage that even Holy Knights—no less—had scrambled to procure like servants.
“Father! The carriage is absolutely—!”
I called out to him excitedly, then stopped.
Father sat with his chin propped on his hand, gazing out the window, and his profile seemed weighted with thought.
Perhaps he was angry that his daughter, whom he’d spent seven years carefully raising, turned out to have Fire Attribute—something he never anticipated.
‘Oh goodness. I’m really sorry, Father….’
I shifted my bottom nervously and pressed myself close against his side.
“Father.”
“Oh, Lilis.”
“I’m sorry….”
Father’s eyes widened. Then he studied me for a moment, his expression growing somber.
“My dear.”
He lifted me up and settled me on his lap, facing him.
“Were you frightened by father’s expression? I’m sorry. I was just thinking about something.”
……
“You’re right—father was wrong. Wrong to you, my dear. I never even asked what you wanted.”
He smoothed back my hair, stroked my cheek, and smiled to comfort me.
“Let’s do everything you want. Really, let’s go home, and you can wear pretty dresses and eat all the expensive macarons you’d like.”
……
“I’m sorry I couldn’t give you that until now. I didn’t know you wanted to live like that.”
“Oh, no, that’s not it….”
I had been happy living in the Mountain Cottage with James Brown.
Macarons were an expensive dessert, so I couldn’t eat them often, but eating them now and then was enough. Pretty dresses were nice, but in a mountain village, there was no one to show them off to….
Most of all, father had fed me, clothed me, put me to bed—he was a perfect father who had never left me wanting or deprived.
‘Oh, what a mess. This dutiful Fire Attribute daughter has gone and made father feel guilty.’
I spoke, my heart heavy with remorse.
“I’m sorry too—for what I said earlier, that I wasn’t your daughter. I didn’t mean it. And I understand you. You didn’t want me to go because the battlefield is scary, right?”
“That’s right. The battlefield is frightening. So our dear will not go.”
“…What?”
At father’s firm tone, I blinked.
“What do you mean? Didn’t I have to go to the battlefield to wear pretty dresses and eat macarons?”
“No, you don’t have to. Wear pretty dresses. Eat macarons. But you don’t have to go to the battlefield. Father will make sure you don’t go.”
I turned my head this way and that, listening for eavesdroppers.
Was he seriously committing draft evasion out in the open?
Father’s face had the look of someone who’d just finished thinking something terrifying.
“No, father—wait. Father, you…—ow!”
That was when it happened.
The carriage lurched to a sudden stop with a violent jolt, and my backside bounced up once before settling back down.
“Lilis! Are you all right?”
“Y-yes.”
What was happening? I turned and peered out the window.
“Um, father? What is that?”
In the distance, an enormous cloud of dust was rising.
Whatever it was, it was charging toward the carriage at a tremendous speed….
“Werewolves.”
The moment father opened the window to assess the situation, Axion, who had been riding alongside on horseback, spoke.
“You’re joking.”
Father startled, and I clung to him, finally able to make out what it was.
‘A… a wolf?’
It was a wolf with bared fangs and drool dripping from its mouth.
Walking upright on two legs, not four!
“I knew there was a habitat in this region, but I never thought they’d come down to civilization. Wait here. I’ll dispose of them quickly.”
“Damn it….”
Father glared at Axion as though he wanted to kill him.
He was furious that danger had found us practically the moment we’d set out.
“My dear.”
“Yes?”
“Don’t move an inch. Stay right here. Under no circumstances are you to come out. Don’t even stick your head outside.”
“Wait! Father, where are you going?”
Before I could grab him, father threw open the door and jumped out.
“You put a shield on the carriage. If my daughter gets even a scratch, you die.”
“You’re handling it yourself? There’s no need.”
“I’m not waiting around while you lot leisurely pick them off one by one.”
Gritting his teeth, father drew the sword from Axion’s belt with a sharp rasp.
“Wait, father? Father!”
Too frightened to open the door, I pressed my cheek hard against the window and cried out.
“Father!”
Toward the monstrous werewolves—easily thirty of them—father walked forward, armed with nothing but a single blade.
The knights accompanying him simply stood idle, watching from a distance.
“Hey, hey there! Uncle! You’re supposed to help! Why are you just standing around? How am I supposed to expect Father to catch all of them alone?!”
I rapped urgently on the carriage window, beseeching Axion.
He glanced back at me and muttered something.
“…He’ll handle it alone.”
“W-what did you say?”
In that instant.
Father swept his sword through the air.
A single horizontal arc, cleaving the void as if parting emptiness itself. Once. Clean.
‘What…?’
And at the same moment―
The monstrous werewolves rushing toward him at terrifying speed froze in unison.
The sight was like a video paused mid-frame, and I stared in bewilderment.
‘Why did they suddenly stop? He didn’t even hit them with the blade…’
The answer came immediately.
“Holy…”
After holding perfectly still for precisely three seconds, the werewolves split cleanly in two—as if the very space around them had been severed—and collapsed simultaneously, spraying blood.
“W-what… what on earth…?”
I rubbed my eyes furiously, still unable to believe what I was seeing.

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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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