My Daddy Hides His Power - Chapter 9

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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
Episode 9
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At last, we arrived at the townhouse in Jedo.
The moment I laid eyes on Father’s ancestral home, I couldn’t help but gasp.
“Wow. I mean, wow. It’s really, really massive.”
Beyond the imposing gates, the first thing that came into view was what must have been a ten-thousand-square-meter green garden.
A marble fountain with an Angel Statue with Water Pitcher stood at its center.
Spring flowers adorned archways that gave way to meticulously trimmed landscaping trees.
And beyond all that, a white mansion rose in a stately D-shape….
‘Is this real? A manor this size in land-scarce Jedo?’
I’d imagined it would be impressive, but—
the actual grandeur of the Rubinstein Duke’s Estate far exceeded even my modest imagination.
I would have thought even Father, who’d spent seven years in the countryside, might be taken aback, but his expression was perfectly composed.
He pulled the bell cord at the gate without hesitation.
“Wait, wait! Father, hold on!”
“What?”
“I need a moment to prepare myself…!”
Father laughed. “Come on now, don’t be nervous, Princess.”
Wasn’t he nervous at all? It would be his first time seeing his family in seven years.
Though they didn’t appear often in the original story, there were people here I knew existed—people I’d read about.
There was that kind butler who’d always been good to Chesire, Father’s adopted son, and those cheerful soldiers who sparred with him every day, and—
‘Grandfather.’
Nordic, Father’s own father, carried an aura so commanding that even glimpses of him in the text seemed to radiate authority.
A man of bone-deep nobility and, like Father, an Ability User of Dos Rank, Grandfather was imposing even on the page alone.
I was both anxious and curious about meeting him because in the original story, he had been genuinely kind to Chesire.
You know—the type who seems indifferent on the surface but secretly arranges everything behind the scenes.
‘I hope he’ll be kind to me too. Though I suppose that’s asking a lot.’
I was nervous.
After about three minutes of waiting,
the butler came rushing through the gates with about ten maids in tow and threw them open.
“Y-y-young master. You’ve truly, truly… returned to us.”
“Rem. It’s been a while.”
Yes! Rem, the butler!
The kind-faced Rem gazed at Father with tears glistening in his eyes.
Then he noticed me and jumped.
“Oh my. Oh goodness! So this is the young master’s…! Oh, it can’t be!”
I swallowed my nervousness and curtsied gracefully, spreading the hem of my priestess robes.
“Hello. My name is Lilis.”
“Oh! Ah, how do you do, Miss Lilis. I am Remian Santos. Please, call me Rem.”
Rem’s hands began to tremble as if seized by palsy, and he turned to look at the maids behind him.
Some had their hands clapped over their mouths; others clutched at their heads.
They all wore the same expression.
“My goodness. You’re like an angel.”
“You look just like the young master!”
“You’re so c-cute… hup!”
I watched their faces and felt a wave of relief wash over me.
I’d been worried, but their reaction seemed far more welcoming than I’d feared.
“How much longer are we going to stand out here?”
“Oh goodness, forgive me! Forgive us, Young Master, Miss Lilis. In fifty years, I’ve never felt such a moment of joy.”
“Don’t make such a fuss.”
Father chuckled and took my hand, following Rem’s lead inside.
It took a full five minutes to cross the vast garden. Rem chattered on without pause.
“We received word that the Holy Knight Order had accepted the royal mandate to bring you home, but truthfully, none of us—and the master himself—held much hope.”
“So my face will come as quite a shock to Father.”
“Of course it will. He’ll be overjoyed. I… I never thought I’d see you again before I died, and yet…”
Rem’s lips trembled, and he quietly sobbed.
“That’s right. Ordia is here as well.”
“My sister is?”
Father’s surprised question left my mind blank.
If she’s my father’s elder sister, then she’d be my aunt.
That much, at least, I knew.
“Yes. There’s a chance the young master might return, so we’ve been staying here with the young gentlemen for two weeks now.”
I’d known my father was the second of two children—one son, one daughter.
But in the original work, his sister never appeared as a separate character, so her name was entirely new to me.
‘Right. So this really is reality, then.’
The people who’d been mentioned only in passing—they were no longer mere text to me in this reincarnated life. They were living, breathing people.
Hearing my aunt’s name for the first time, the weight of that reality struck me viscerally.
“I’ll have the kitchens prepare this evening’s dinner more lavishly than ever before. This fills me with purpose.”
Rem clenched her fist with renewed determination and ushered my father and me into the sprawling estate.
‘Wow.’
This time, not wanting to look foolish, I swallowed my exclamation silently.
‘Good grief. It’s practically a palace.’
It was magnificent.
There was simply no other way to describe it.
Contrary to the somewhat austere white exterior, the interior was suffused with warm wood tones.
Across the expansive hall lay plush carpeting, while on either side sweeping staircases curved gracefully upward in grand arcs.
Craning my neck back until my spine ached, I could see each floor, and every corridor was adorned with costly tapestries, paintings, and jeweled frames.
Even the gilded candelabras hanging throughout looked expensive.
‘Is that… is that actually gold? It has to be gold, right?’
I felt oddly out of place, and the sensation made me shrink inward slightly.
When I tightened my grip on his hand, my father glanced down at me.
“What is it, princess?”
“Oh, nothing at all.”
James Brown—concealing not just strength, but wealth as well.
“Shall I inform the elder master first—”
“No, no. I’ll manage. He’s in his usual study, isn’t he?”
“Yes.”
“Good. Off with you then. Thank you.”
My father took my hand and climbed the staircase on the right without hesitation.
‘I’m so nervous. Save me!’
I gnawed at my dry lips repeatedly.
Upon reaching the first room on the right of the second floor, my father flung the door wide open with a decisive swing.
“Wait, Father! Just a moment—!”
I hadn’t had time to steel myself.
The door swung fully open.
Behind a fine mahogany desk sat my grandfather.
And beside him stood a woman, speaking animatedly about something.
Both of them turned their heads toward us.
“Oh, that’s impossible. Enoch? Really?”
The startled woman’s eyes went wide, and she pressed her hand to her mouth.
Silver hair swept up like a noblewoman’s, eyes a vivid blue.
She was unmistakably my father’s sibling.
There was no doubt—she was my aunt.
“I have returned, Father.”
My father spoke as if he’d simply left the house yesterday and was now coming back.
To this absurd greeting, my grandfather responded without expression.
‘The presence… is overwhelming.’
My grandfather, who bore a striking resemblance to my father, carried himself with a robust frame despite clearly being in his sixties.
Every hair was precisely in place; even sitting still, he exuded an unmistakable aristocratic dignity.
‘He’s frightening.’
Unlike my aunt, who kept her hand over her mouth with tears glistening in her eyes as she studied me, my grandfather’s expressionless face terrified me.
Slowly, he rose to his feet and approached my father and me.
As he drew nearer, his expression became clearer, and I realized something.
His jaw trembled faintly, his eyes burning with barely contained fury.
And his gaze—it didn’t spare me a single glance.
Unlike the members of the Duke’s household, my grandfather did not seem pleased to see us at all.
“Now you dare to—”
He must be angry. Of course there was joy too, but anger would come. Of course it would.
Regardless of the reason, my father had abandoned his post and fled for seven years without so much as a word.
“I hadn’t seen you in so long. You’ve aged so much. It breaks my heart.”
“You insolent fool!”
“Father, there’s a child right here!”
Grandfather’s hand shot up as if to strike Enoch, but in that instant, my aunt behind him shrieked.
At her cry, Grandfather’s arm froze mid-air.
Then, for the first time, his gaze descended upon me.
I had been clinging to Father’s pant leg, trembling, and the moment our eyes met, I instinctively dropped my head.
He was just like a tiger.
If a tiger were to take human form, this was what it would feel like.
“This is your daughter?”
“This? You speak of our Lilis like that?”
“Seven years without a word—whether you were alive or dead—and you managed to raise her all alone.”
I could hear it in his tone.
Grandfather resented me, exactly as I’d feared he might.
‘Of course. He thinks Father was separated from him for seven years because of me.’
It wasn’t hard to guess why Enoch Rubinstein had abandoned wealth, power, and a noble’s life so suddenly. He had vanished with his newborn daughter in his arms.
To keep me from becoming an Ability User.
Solely for my sake.
Solely.
‘If I were grandfather, I’d despise a child like me too. Though, honestly, I did anticipate he might react something like this.’
A granddaughter who had consumed seven precious years of his son’s prime, years that had cost him his family as well.
To Grandfather, my existence was surely unwelcome.
‘Lilis, you fool. Don’t be disappointed. This is only natural. It’s natural. I don’t want to be hated, but…’
Feeling as though I had to say something, I barely managed to open my trembling lips and whisper.
“I… I’m so… sorry….”

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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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