My Daddy Hides His Power - Chapter 72
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————
Father conceals his strength
Chapter 72
I trembled.
“You’ve grown! Are you planning to broadcast your identity all over the place?”
“W-what should I do then? Should I just watch the Master of the Magic Tower die?”
“Would he really have died?”
“I don’t know that… How can you be so sure…?”
“Hell, damn it all.”
Oscar collapsed onto the ground with a heavy sigh, legs sprawled, and ran a hand through his hair.
“Come here.”
I nodded obediently and stood before him.
Oscar brushed my bangs aside and examined my face from different angles.
“How long has it been?”
“About six months of growth, I’d say.”
“Not much shows. That’s fortunate.”
“Yes. Besides, I need to grow to seven years old anyway, so it’s fine.”
He chuckled and smoothed down my hair. Silver strands fell to the floor like silk threads and vanished.
The vision that had been slightly obscured by bangs opened up again, clear as before.
“Wow… Thank you for cutting my hair as well…”
“The body may be inconspicuous, but hair shows the most, so when you grow larger, trim it regularly. Don’t use your abilities to cut it because you’re lazy. Carry scissors with you and cut it with those. Understood?”
“Yes, I will.”
Oscar and I stared at each other in silence.
There was so much I wanted to ask.
But I couldn’t ask.
Because I had realized something from Oscar’s words just now.
“It’s a Prohibition.”
It meant he couldn’t speak the truth about how he knew my identity.
By uttering the word “Prohibition” itself, he had already given me a hint.
Probably as a backlash, I had glimpsed the threshold of hell just moments before.
‘I’ll have to deduce the rest myself.’
With that thought, I pulled up my sleeve and wiped the still-wet blood from Oscar’s lips.
“Pointless gesture.”
Oscar grumbled and grabbed my wrist, then used magic to wipe the blood from my white uniform.
“Why did you come, anyway?”
“Right.”
Oscar tilted his head back with a weary expression and let out a sigh.
“The Emperor summoned me personally today. He told me not to think of bringing you to the Magic Tower.”
“Ah, I see…”
It wasn’t particularly surprising news.
Oscar probably thought that even the Emperor couldn’t control him at will, being the Master of the Magic Tower…
‘But the Emperor is a man whose dream is to add the title “Conqueror” before his name before he dies.’
For that goal, it was far more advantageous for him to seize Father’s leash than to maintain a harmonious relationship with the Magic Tower, even considering future generations.
‘I already knew he’d choose Father over the Magic Tower.’
So it was exactly as I had anticipated.
“But I said I wasn’t going to the Magic Tower anyway, didn’t I?”
“Are you serious? You don’t mind if your father goes to war?”
Oscar’s eyebrows twitched.
“Well, not that I care what your father does.”
I watched Oscar grumble quietly.
He was worried about me.
Keeping my identity secret despite knowing everything about it.
Trying to prevent the Emperor from seizing Father’s leash by bringing me to the Magic Tower.
“It’s all right. Don’t worry. I have my own plans.”
“What plans?”
……
I didn’t answer, just stared at Oscar intently. He gazed into my eyes for a long moment.
Then he laughed softly.
“Right, well. You’re no fool, so you must have some way. I trust you.”
“You do.”
“Anyway, the funny thing is… You seem to remember everything, so why do you not know about me…?”
Oscar fell silent mid-sentence.
“…Father. Look, there. A butterfly flying past.”
……
The abrupt butterfly-spotting told me everything—he’d clamped his own mouth shut to keep from breaking another Prohibition.
“Damn it!”
Oscar raked his fingers through his hair in agitation, then lurched to his feet.
“I’m not coughing up blood again. I’m done here.”
“Master, wait!”
Oscar turned back.
I thrust out my lip and spoke.
“There’s something I want to say too, but… if I misspeak and you cough blood again like before, I can’t—”
……
“Instead, I’ll think about it a lot on my own.”
I held up the bracelet for him to see.
“I really do thank you for this. It’s not childish at all—it’s absolutely beautiful.”
Oscar let out a soft laugh.
“There we go.”
I watched his retreating figure until it disappeared from sight, my hand still waving goodbye.
* * *
Prohibition.
I’d seen that word in the original story.
Watching Oscar cough blood after trying to speak forbidden words… it seemed clear enough.
Just uttering the word “Prohibition” itself had violated it.
‘What on earth could it be?’
I recalled the Oscar from the original work.
Specifically, when Cheshire had come to find him.
‘When he was desperately searching for a way to cure Theo.’
「Cheshire had shown up out of nowhere demanding a solution to Theo’s illness, and Oscar had scoffed at the boy’s audacity. “What am I supposed to do? That sickness can’t be cured by anyone but the Empress herself. She’d never sacrifice her own lifespan to save your brother anyway.”
“I know the Magic Tower has researched Forbidden Magic extensively over the years.”
“Are you insane, you bastard?”
Forbidden Magic.
A magic that trespassed upon the domain of the divine—something ordinary users should never employ.
Only the Emperor, Prima, who was like a god in this world, held the authority to wield it.
“You’re out of your mind. Fine, what do you need? Resurrection? Regression? Creation?”
……
“All useless. Resurrect someone after they’re dead, and their congenital sickness stays exactly as it was. Turn back time, and all the suffering up to now just happens again, identically.”
……
“And you think Forbidden Magic just works like that—snap your fingers and it’s done? If so, wouldn’t everyone be a god?”
……
“There’s an enormous price, yes, but once you use it, I get shackled with a Prohibition. Break that Prohibition even slightly, and I’m done for. Why the hell would I do something like that?”
Oscar clicked his tongue and tossed a worn Ancient Book in front of Cheshire.
“As you say, a record my ancestors left behind from their dangerous Forbidden Magic research. There’s maybe a line or two about that sickness in there. Search if you want, or don’t.”」
I scrunched my face and pressed hard at my temples.
From that scene in the original, I could infer three things:
1. Forbidden Magic includes resurrection, regression, and creation.
2. Using Forbidden Magic demands an enormous price.
3. Anyone who uses Forbidden Magic gets bound by a Prohibition of some kind (and breaking it means death).
‘And Oscar has a Prohibition now. He must have used Forbidden Magic for something.’
Oscar knows my true identity.
Then perhaps… had he witnessed the end of the original story?
‘Regression?’
I was mulling this over seriously when—
“Shouldn’t we stop that?”
“Leave it. They’re just commoners, anyway…”
“What if they die?”
“How is that our problem?”
Catching the tail end of that dangerously reckless conversation, I jerked my head up.
[Martial Arts Division—Fist Division]
The Fist Division shared the Outdoor Practical Training Ground with us today.
I spotted children in the middle of various one-on-one sparring matches, and among them I could make out Bruce and Gem.
“Hahahaha!”
“Ugh…!”
Bruce was gleefully swinging his fists through the air. Wind pressure erupted ceaselessly from his Fist Gauntlets.
Gem, who couldn’t use magic yet, could only take the blows helplessly.
“Hey!!!”
I shouted and stepped in front of Gem, blocking her. Bruce flinched.
“Are you insane?”
In that instant, I saw an expression on Bruce’s face that looked exactly like what I was thinking.
In other words.
‘You again?’ kind of look.
Whoosh—!
Blue mana stretched from Bruce’s gauntlet like a fist, hurtling toward me.
“Watch out, Lilis! It’s dangerous!”
At the same moment, Gem shoved me aside and took the hit instead. Her body tumbled and flew about two meters back.
“Gem! Gem, are you okay?”
“Yeah! I’m fine. What about you? You’re not hurt, right?”
Despite her split and bloodied face, Gem was too busy worrying about me. Blood began to trickle from her startled nose.
“Ah.”
Fury surged up in me, and I rushed toward Bruce.
“What’s your problem, exactly?”
“Oh, sorry. I was aiming for her, but you suddenly jumped in so I didn’t see you.”
A lie. Bruce had clearly made eye contact with me before attacking.
He’d seized the chance to take a swing at annoying me.
“Were you trying to kill your friend?”
“Huh? Friend? Who? Her?”
Bruce scoffed.
“I’m not friends with her.”
“Fine. Let me rephrase: were you trying to kill a person?”
“What?”
Bruce sneered again.
“She’s not even a person….”
“What did you just say?”
“How can a commoner be a person?”
…….
I was left speechless by Bruce’s casual declaration.
Gaping at him blankly, he came closer as if he had more to say.
“Look, I’ve just been taking it this whole time, but now I’m going to talk.”
Bruce gestured to the children around us. They were all watching us.
“There are a lot of kids who hate you. You didn’t know that, right?”
…….
“Ever since you got here, the kids with white badges have been refusing to listen. They won’t do what they’re told, and they talk back when we say anything.”
“Did you employ the commoner children as servants? If that’s not the case, then the kids with white badges don’t have to listen to you.”
“No, you’re wrong.”
Bruce shook his head.
“Commoners aren’t people. They’re like the cattle, horses, and pigs we raise at home. Just livestock that can talk.”
“What?”
Wow, this kid really received some spectacular parenting.
“That’s not right. Commoners are people too. You can’t think of them as cattle, horses, and pigs just because they’re lower in rank and can’t use magic.”
I turned to look at the children watching us and continued speaking.
“The same goes for all of you. Get your heads straight. They look exactly like you and they talk just like you. You can’t curse at them, hit them, or treat them like slaves! Is that so hard to understand?”
The children averted their eyes from mine and grumbled. Though they didn’t openly object, they all seemed full of displeasure.
Nobles. And the gifted.
These children had learned about class from the moment they were born.
There was no way my sudden words would do anything but confuse them.
‘This is so frustrating….’
If the original goes as written, the revolution ahead would take another decade.
Without killing the Emperor immediately and rooting out the class system, there was nothing I could do right now.
Paradoxically, all I could do was use that very system’s power to threaten them.
“That’s enough. You need to listen to me. From now on, don’t start trouble with the kids who have white badges. And don’t hit them while pretending to spar. If I catch you doing this even once more, I’ll burn all your hair off. Understand?”
“…….”
Bruce didn’t answer. His eyes dropped, and he ground his teeth with visible rage.
Then it happened.
“Commoners are people too…. How amusing.”
Someone approached Bruce and me.
A large shadow fell across us. I looked up to see a man in a white uniform.
‘Who is that?’
Brilliant blond hair and blue eyes.
His lips curled upward in a sneer directed at me.
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————