My Daddy Hides His Power - Chapter 82

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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 hiding his strength
Chapter 82
It wasn’t just Rank Slit’s badge that had changed.
Cheshire, who had worn a white badge on his chest all this time, now bore a gleaming gold rank badge.
“What, what? Dos?”
“Wasn’t he 6th Rank?”
“Hey, don’t say it like that. He’ll feel bad. Keep your voice down.”
The courtyard erupted in whispers.
The shock was greater than when I’d emerged with my 4th Rank badge.
‘Phew, that was a close call.’
After quickly assessing the situation, I scrambled to my feet and hid behind Cheshire.
And I stuck my tongue out at Bruce.
“W-what, h-how….”
The color drained completely from Bruce’s face.
His eyes wide with disbelief, he trembled and pointed a shaking finger at Cheshire.
“Why, why….”
“Your finger.”
Cheshire spoke.
“Should I break it?”
“Yelp.”
Bruce quickly lowered the hand he’d been pointing with and hid it behind his back.
I glanced around the courtyard again.
Cheshire hadn’t done anything yet, but all the children were trembling with fear.
The only thing that had changed.
Just his white badge becoming a gold rank badge….
…….
Cheshire walked steadily toward Bruce. I hurried after him, poking only my head out from behind his back.
“A-ah, um, that… Cheshire.”
…….
Bruce laughed awkwardly. Cheshire remained silent.
I sneaked a glance up at him.
‘Good grief, that’s terrifying.’
And immediately looked away again.
That look in his eyes—genuinely furious.
Cheshire seemed to be considering what to do with Bruce. Whether to let it go or frighten him the way he’d frightened me.
Bruce deserved it, but a blow from Dos would hurt badly. One wrong move and he might not survive….
“C-Cheshire.”
I was about to stop him, thinking this had gone far enough—
“Hey, everyone! Let’s go!”
“W-we, we’re done!”
Gem and Rom emerged from the measurement chamber, white badges affixed to their chests.
Unaware of the confrontation unfolding in the corridor, the two approached us with confusion, then froze in shock.
“What’s going on? Did you two swap badges?”
Gem tilted his head, staring at my and Cheshire’s badges.
Then, sensing the ominous tension between Cheshire and Bruce, he fell silent.
“Want to try what you like?”
Cheshire asked. His voice was chillingly low.
“Huh? Wh-what?”
He pulled me forward from behind him and positioned me in front of Bruce.
Then he spoke.
“Kneel.”
At that, children watching from various spots gasped involuntarily.
I turned back to look at Cheshire in shock.
“Why that face. You like this, don’t you?”
…….
“Whenever you’re in a bad mood, don’t you make Rom crawl around on his knees?”
I stood there stunned, alternating my gaze between Bruce and Rom.
Bruce was sweating heavily, and Rom was shifting nervously, at a loss.
Cheshire placed Rom beside me as well.
“Kneel.”
At Bruce’s urging, he glanced about nervously. Everyone around him avoided his gaze.
Finally, Bruce shuffled forward and dropped to his knees before Lilis and the Advisor.
……
For someone as proud as Bruce, it was absurd—his face showed not a trace of displeasure. He was actually smiling.
Any hint of resentment would offend Cheshire’s sensibilities.
‘I really don’t belong here, do I.’
Even forcing Bruce—who’d tried to attack me—onto his knees left me feeling utterly hollow.
“Open your mouth too.”
Cheshire gave the command.
Something felt wrong to me. I turned to him and protested.
“Listen, Cheshire. I’m done now….”
“I’m sorry, Lilis. I’m sorry, Advisor. I was in the wrong.”
Bruce opened his mouth as instructed.
I swallowed a sigh and turned back to Bruce.
* * *
“No, seriously—what is happening? Can things really change like this?”
“That’s, that’s incredible. B-but I thought, I mean, I knew Cheshire was 6th Rank, b-but wow, he’s r-really strong.”
The Courtyard pavilion.
Gem and Rom couldn’t stop marveling at Cheshire’s rank, which they’d never imagined.
The children wandering nearby all wore badges too, and they kept stealing glances at us, whispering.
More precisely, at Cheshire with his gold badge and me with my green one.
“Did you see Bruce’s face? He was actually smiling while kneeling? But whenever Lilis said anything, he used to grumble all the time!”
Gem added with obvious satisfaction.
“These badges really are something!”
“G-Gem. S-stop t-talking about it.”
“Huh? Oh!”
Rom elbowed him pointedly, and Gem clapped a hand over his mouth, looking at me.
I just laughed.
“Ha, come on. Why do you two keep watching for my reaction? I’m fine with it.”
“A-are you r-really okay?”
“Yeah, Rom. I really am fine.”
“B-but you’ve b-been kind of q-quiet since….”
“Oh, that’s just… nothing.”
Now that I was wearing the badge, I felt it again—a disillusionment with this rigid class system.
“Lilis.”
Just then, Cheshire spoke quietly, calling my name.
“…Was something bothering you?”
“Huh?”
“Bruce. Making him kneel to you.”
“No? It felt great! Ugh, that bastard! He was actually planning to kill me, so…”
……
Even though I was trying to sound bright about it, Cheshire’s eyes seemed to see right through me.
“Hmm.”
So I told him the truth.
“Bruce needs to be taught a lesson. So it’s not that I’m unhappy about it… but it does feel strange. All of this.”
All the children stared at me.
“Until yesterday, everyone was ignoring Cheshire. But now, the moment they see his face, they tremble and scatter.”
I looked up at the children moving about the Courtyard.
Most of them were both amazed and terrified by Cheshire’s rank.
They were probably worried he’d retaliate for how they’d tormented him when he wore the white badge.
“Actually, until now I hadn’t really… understood what it means to fear rank.”
I was the Dos’s daughter, and everyone thought of me that way. So I was never treated poorly.
And almost everyone I’ve met since becoming nobility has been on my side.
Good people who don’t despise others based on rank.
“The butlers and maids who work at our house are all non-ability users and commoners, and Grandfather, Aunt, Father—they’re all kind to them.”
I clutched Cheshire’s arm and went on.
“My twin brothers are like that too, right? Among their friends there are 2nd Rank, 3rd Rank, 4th Rank, but my brothers treat them all the same.”
“That’s true.”
When Cheshire agreed, Gem and Rom nodded with wonder in their eyes.
“But coming here… getting ranked myself… I realized that my family is just… unusual.”
“…….”
“I wish everyone could be like my family.”
“Lilis.”
“Hmm?”
Cheshire called to me.
“It’s not strange. I thought the same way at first.”
He gazed quietly ahead and continued.
“Your father said it—this country that crushes people under the weight of rank is the strange one. Never let yourself grow accustomed to it.”
“Right. Dad’s always right about these things.”
“Yes. And someday, everyone will stop thinking your family is strange.”
Cheshire looked at me.
Had Father already told him something? Or was Cheshire simply convinced on his own that Father would accomplish something?
Either way, the protagonist’s victory was assured—the ending already written.
I smiled and nodded.
“If you’re bothered about Bruce earlier, I’m sorry.”
“Huh? No, no! Honestly, Bruce had it coming! Right, you guys?”
“Right, right!”
“I-I-I know this i-isn’t s-supposed to happen, but it f-felt good. Th-thank you, Cheshire….”
Gem and Rom chimed in.
Cheshire let out a soft laugh and gazed up at the sky.
“He probably learned something today. He knelt for a single badge.”
“Yeah, that’s right.”
I agreed.
“It’s that something here is wrong. Bruce felt it too.”
We stood in silence for a long moment, gazing up at the achingly blue sky.
“Lilis Rubinstein?”
Researchers in white coats came rushing over to find me right around then.
“What is it? Why are they looking for Lilis?”
“Uh, huh?”
I rose calmly among the bewildered children.
“See you in a bit, guys.”
There was no way they wouldn’t demand a retest—not when Enoch Rubinstein’s daughter came back with a 4th Rank.
So I’d already expected it.
They’d bump me up to 4th Rank multiple times over.
* * *
The Emperor, Nicholas von Pavillion, stood as always gazing at the continent map hanging on the wall of his Imperial Office.
That kingdom clinging to the continent’s edge like an insect would be gone before the year ended.
At the hands of his loyal vassal, Enoch Rubinstein.
“Your Majesty, it is Ramon.”
The Advisor had arrived.
Bringing the report he’d been waiting for.
“Come in, come in!”
Nicholas greeted him warmly.
How remarkable—Enoch’s daughter graduating from the Academy in just a month.
How long he’d anticipated receiving word of that girl’s rank today.
“Your Majesty….”
“Well, did we get anything useful this month?”
As he settled into his seat and asked, the Advisor stepped forward and bowed, reporting.
“This month, twenty-one received ranks, Your Majesty. Nine Diez, one Nubeno….”
“Ramon.”
Nicholas cut off the Advisor and gestured toward the stack of papers in his hands.
“I don’t need a report on every bit of vermin. Just show me the front page.”
It was then that Nicholas sensed something odd.
If this were his usual Advisor, he would have begun with Enoch’s daughter the moment he entered.
“How many Dos came through?”
“T-two, Your Majesty.”
Nicholas, who had briefly tensed at the expected answer, relaxed.
There had been no anomaly.
Two Dos.
The youngest of Duke Schmidt’s house and Enoch’s daughter.
“What is this?”
And yet.
Nicholas’s face hardened as he examined the roster of the two Dos that he’d taken into his hands.
A chilling reaction.
The Advisor fell into a daze, his head bowed, trembling violently.
Slowly, Nicholas lifted his gaze from the roster.
“Lilis Rubinstein.”
“Your… Your Majesty…”
His voice cut like a winter wind.
The Advisor scrambled and threw himself prostrate before the enraged Emperor.

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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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