My Daddy Hides His Power - Chapter 74

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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 74
I stood frozen in shock.
My uncle had scoured the world for any method whatsoever to save Theo.
He would surely have investigated Forbidden Magic as well.
Just as Cheshire had sought out Oskar in the original story to ask for his help.
“A… a life? If a life is needed, then… if Theo lived, my uncle would… my uncle would die instead?”
“That’s how it would be.”
I stood paralyzed for a moment, then shock hit me and I grabbed my uncle by the collar.
“No, no! That can’t happen!”
“Ahaha.”
Even knowing the condition for resurrection, my uncle had clearly been willing to sacrifice himself if there was no other way to save Theo.
To give his own life for that.
‘How can I bear this touching paternal love?’
My uncle pulled me close, seeing my shocked expression.
“This is maddening. But it’s all right now. You’ve healed Theo.”
“Even so… I can’t accept that my uncle would even consider such a thing. Theo would never have wanted that, not for a moment—”
“But that’s how a parent’s heart works.”
Parents truly are magnificent. My chest tightened, and I wrapped my arms around my uncle’s neck.
‘He never said so, but in the original story, with his temperament, my uncle definitely would’ve gone to the Mage Tower and caused a scene after Theo died. Since Oskar wouldn’t teach him the spell formula, he probably couldn’t save Theo in the end…’
As I was thinking this—
“Your father probably wouldn’t have hesitated at all if he’d been in the same situation. What wouldn’t he do for such an angelic daughter?”
I froze at my uncle’s words.
Father…?
In that moment, I remembered all of Father’s words that had made my heart skip with dread.
“When I thought you were dead, I didn’t follow you at once only because I needed to exact revenge.”
“After the revenge was done, I might have followed you in death.”
“I cannot live without my princess.”
“I would do anything for our princess.”
I had wondered.
What became of Father, who loved me so, after the original story ended.
I had desperately hoped he hadn’t actually followed me in death.
‘I wonder. What I don’t know…’
The original story—after that.
What became of this world in the days after I died.
* * *
Oskar, back at the Mage Tower, was remembering that lost time.
After Lilis had died.
The Empire had become peaceful.
The complete extinction of Premiela.
No more Ability-users would be born, and the class system would become meaningless.
People were happy.
All except one.
Enoch Rubinstein, the very architect of that peaceful Empire.
“Why did I fight for my daughter?”
His face, as he asked that, was ashen as a corpse.
The man had gone mad, and Oskar could understand his heart.
His daughter, whom he’d believed dead, was alive. And he’d just learned that she had been locked away suffering her whole life…
No one could have remained sane.
“I raised her. In your place.”
……
“The Emperor took away her self. It was easier to brainwash her that way. She remained an idiot from the moment she was locked at the tower’s peak.”
The Emperor had spared his own Life Force while spending hers freely.
She had aged in his stead.
“The first command the Emperor ever gave her was to place a shackle of obedience on me. It cost about thirty years of her lifespan.”
The reason the Mage Tower hadn’t helped Enoch, and why Oskar couldn’t reveal his daughter’s secret to him, lay in such circumstances.
“I taught her many things in secret. It wasn’t easy, since her self had already been erased.”
……
“A child who couldn’t even remember her own name. Yet there was one thing she would never forget. She said it to me every single day.”
Oskar spoke knowing that Enoch was breaking apart.
“Father will come to pick me up.”
At last, the man’s expression twisted.
“That child was precious to me too, just as much as to you. She had no one but me.”
Oskar’s face was no different. His smile, framed by reddened eyes, was devastated.
“But there was nothing I could do for her. Not while the Emperor lived.”
Among Premielas, a hierarchy of power existed.
An older generation could dominate a younger one’s Premiela, but never the reverse.
So the moment the Emperor discovered her identity, the child’s fate was sealed as surely as a puppet’s.
“Why did you let her be taken so foolishly? You bear some blame for everything she suffered.”
……
“Tell me. Her name. Please.”
Oskar had given the child dozens, hundreds of names to call her by.
But she had never answered to a single one.
So he wondered.
“…Lilis.”
Lilis.
A name he learned only after her death.
“Save her.”
“What?”
“My daughter….”
There was no light in Enoch’s eyes.
The eyes of a man already resolved to die.
In that moment.
Though he knew it shouldn’t be done, a terrible hunger rose in Oskar’s heart.
“You want to save her? A Premiela, again?”
“Yes.”
“You worked so hard, didn’t you? You built the nation you dreamed of. You saved people from suffering. Now everyone is happy because of you.”
……
“You know as well as I do that the fundamental problem is Premielas themselves. If they exist again, this nation will rot once more, sooner or later.”
An insurmountable wall rises between those with Ability and those without.
Those without Ability become no different from ants—insects easily crushed beneath those who possess it.
Those with Ability will despise those without, and it won’t be long before the forgotten hierarchy is reborn.
“And yet?”
“Save her. Please….”
The man who had been unfailingly selfless for the greater good was gone.
What remained was only a selfish father, unswerving in his desire to bring his daughter back.
“Then I ask. For that child’s sake….”
But Oskar was selfish too.
“Would you die?”
The answer that came held not a moment’s hesitation.
“Without question.”
* * *
“Ha-ha! Lilis, look at this! Mana’s finally flowing through my Gauntlet Armor!”
The Training Ground in the late evening.
Gem threw his fists about with glee.
Through my Grade 1 mathematics tutoring and Cheshire’s intensive training, Gem had learned to channel Mana through his weapons.
“Well done, well done! Our Gem is doing so well!”
I sat atop the Pagoda, watching Cheshire train with Gem.
“You know, Cheshire, you’re really something. We’re the same Class—6th Class—but how are you so good?”
Cheshire demonstrated his Sword Energy, and Gem whistled in awe.
Cheshire’s progress was astounding.
He looked ready to dispatch four or five Demon Beasts at once without breaking a sweat.
‘He really does grow stronger by the day.’
Watching Cheshire, I suddenly felt a strange heaviness settle over me.
“What’s with that expression?”
Cheshire came over to my side, pulling his shirt up to wipe the sweat beading at his chin.
“Huh? My expression? What about it?”
“You look like you’re about to cry.”
Wow. Even though I was forcing a bright smile as hard as I could, he read me like a book.
Truly, he was the protagonist.
“Mm.”
I met Cheshire’s steady gaze without flinching.
Cheshire.
The protagonist who kills me.
‘Can I survive this?’
Suddenly I found myself wondering.
To kill the Emperor, we need time.
Enoch needs time to build a legitimate cause.
Cheshire needs time to grow strong enough to kill the Emperor.
‘How much longer can I hide from the Emperor’s notice?’
For now I can conceal my identity, but….
Sooner or later, the Emperor will find it strange. The next generation’s Premiela won’t appear.
‘Then I could get caught, couldn’t I? If I do, things will go just like in the original.’
It felt like playing a game with a time limit.
I had to prepare for the possibility that my identity might be exposed.
“Cheshire. Hey, can I ask you something?”
“What is it.”
I don’t want to die, but I can’t afford to die.
If I die, my father….
I can’t predict what he might think.
“What if… what if, hypothetically speaking….”
“Yeah.”
“I turned into a completely terrible demon.”
I searched Cheshire’s eyes nervously.
His expression was unreadable; he simply stared at me.
“And I just started killing innocent people. But… you’re the only one who could stop me like that.”
“….”
“If you killed me, that would be enough…. So what would you do?”
The moment I asked it, I dreaded hearing the answer.
So I grabbed Cheshire’s arm and hurried on.
“Don’t kill me! Don’t kill me, and… absolutely, absolutely don’t kill me. Could you find some other way instead? Some way to….”
“Lilis.”
By then I was trembling.
Cheshire took my hand firmly and pulled it away as he spoke.
“I’m sorry, but I’m not as kind as you are.”
“What?”
At his blunt answer, I went blank.
“Don’t be afraid.”
He added this as he interlaced his fingers with my trembling hand and sat beside me.
Then he began to speak.
“Your father said that a human life has no measurable weight. But he told me that when a moment comes where you must choose between the lives of a hundred people and one person, no matter how much it pains you, save the hundred.”
It was so much like Enoch.
“I said I understood. He fed me and gave me a place to sleep. But I couldn’t truly comprehend it. I’m not as good as you or your father.”
“….”
“One person I know is more important to me than a hundred strangers. If that moment comes, I won’t hesitate.”
Cheshire turned to face me.
“Lilis.”
“….”
“Can you stay beside me? Always?”
“…Yes?”
“Will you not abandon me?”
Cheshire’s eyes were wavering.
Even he, who had only ever been abandoned, was trembling as he waited for my answer.
I wiped my stinging eyes roughly and nodded with all my strength.
“Yes, I’ll never abandon you. I’ll stay right here beside you.”
“Okay.”
Cheshire smiled softly.
“Me too.”
“….”
“I’ll never be the first to let go.”
He raised the hand he was holding up for her to see.
“If you ever become a demon…”
His grip tightened around her hand.
“I’ll fall into hell with you.”

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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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