My Daddy Hides His Power - Chapter 93

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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 93
* * *
Cheshire knew the Marquis would come again.
So when they met, he spoke the words he had prepared.
“Father.”
The Marquis brightened at the familiar address.
“Do you think of me as your child?”
“What kind of question is that? Of course you’re my child. My son.”
“Then might I ask one favor? The first and… the last.”
Cheshire hoped.
Remembering something Lilis had once said.
“Because she’s my mother. She didn’t raise me, but still—she gave birth to me.”
Yes.
Still, he is my father.
Even if he didn’t raise me, still…
Surely he could grant one sincere request.
“I’m happy living here now. I was never once happy living with my mother, or even at your house… but here—”
……
“I want to stay here. Is that not possible?”
Cheshire added with earnest eyes.
“If you would just leave me be. As if I never existed.”
……
“Until I die, I won’t forget you. I’ll live carrying gratitude for giving me life.”
The Marquis did not answer. He only stared at Cheshire.
After a long silence, words like frost spilled from his opened lips.
“Who made you born as a Dos? Who do you think gave you that blood?”
……
“Not Duke Rubinstein, who picked you up and made you his daughter’s plaything, and certainly not your lowborn non-ability user mother.”
……
“It was me. Me.”
The Marquis’s eyes blazed with madness.
“Have I ever laid a hand on you? Yet I still called you my child and kept you alive. I’ve even fed and sheltered you, haven’t I?”
……
“Is it your older brother at home that troubles you? If seeing his face makes you uncomfortable, I’ll cast him out at once. If you want repayment for what you’ve endured, do as your heart desires.”
Cheshire’s mouth fell slowly open.
His half-brother, Jonathan…
He had thought that to the Marquis, unlike himself—a lowborn illegitimate child—Jonathan was the true son.
Yet the Marquis spoke of casting Jonathan out without the slightest hesitation.
“You’re merely awkward with me because we have no bond. Time will mend that. Let us go somewhere pleasant and spend time together, talking.”
The Marquis quickly softened his expression and grasped Cheshire’s arm.
Slap!
Cheshire wrenched his hand away.
“I won’t go.”
The Marquis pulled something from his breast pocket as if he had anticipated this very refusal.
A paper stamped with the Imperial Seal.
“A certificate granting me the right to see you once every two days for three hours. Since the Duke has been hindering me from seeing your face, I had no choice but to request it directly from the Imperial court.”
Cheshire’s shoulders sagged helplessly.
There was nothing he could do against the Marquis, who had brought an official document.
He turned back slowly.
From a distance, Lilis was watching him.
“Come now. Let us go somewhere nice and share a meal.”
Cheshire finally swallowed his urge to cry and took reluctant steps forward.
That was when—
“Where are you going?”
Axion approached. The Marquis moved to show the Visitation Rights Certificate again with practiced ease.
“Ah, Your Grace the Duke. I apologize for the intrusion during training…”
“Hmm? Where are you going?”
But Axion, showing no interest, merely draped an arm across Cheshire’s shoulders and laughed softly as he spoke.
“My son.”
……?
Cheshire doubted his own ears.
The Marquis was equally stunned.
“What did you just say?”
“Oh, didn’t you hear? News travels slow, I suppose. I’ve decided to make him my son.”
“Pardon?”
The Marquis’s jaw fell open.
“What, you didn’t see that coming? The boy’s the talk of Jedo these days. A Dos who’s just emerged—and without a family name or house backing him, no less.”
“But—!”
“Do you know how many drooling nobles would kill for this? If it weren’t for Duke Rubinstein standing as his guardian, they’d all be circling like vultures. But I…”
Axion added with a thin smile.
“…we’re close. When I asked to take him under my roof, he gave his permission himself.”
“That’s absurd! This child’s father is me!”
“Oh? You have proof?”
“Yes, I do! I’ve already submitted a petition to the Imperial Personal Affairs Bureau! It’s under review!”
“I see. When do the results come in?”
“That is… well…”
Axion spoke with amusement.
“I’m heading to submit the adoption papers today.”
An adoption goes through in a single day once both parties consent and the paperwork is filed.
The color drained from the Marquis’s face.
“Why would you—why would you do this without permission? Without even asking the child’s opinion!”
“His opinion?”
Axion shrugged and looked down at Cheshire.
“You want to be my son, don’t you?”
Cheshire was taken aback.
He had no idea how to respond to this absurd situation.
“Ah.”
His lips moved soundlessly, and then he saw Lilis.
She’d heard the whole exchange and stood beside Axion with a flushed face, clutching his robe and peeking out eagerly.
Her large eyes glistened with tears, sparkling brightly.
“Yes…”
Still confused, he grasped one thing clearly.
What answer was needed now.
“Yes, father.”
Cheshire nodded.
“What? What did you just—Father?!”
The Marquis shrieked.
Seeing the Marquis gone corpse-pale, Axion smirked.
“This is—this is—!”
The flustered Marquis stammered for a moment, then swallowed hard and hurried away.
He was probably heading straight to the Bureau.
Like a bird with its tail on fire.
“U-Uncle!”
Lilis bounced on her feet in excitement.
“Was that just something you said to get rid of that awful Marquis? Just now?”
Axion stared at Lilis, whose eyes gleamed with hope, then turned to Cheshire.
“Son, get ready.”
“…Yes?”
“We need to hurry. We’re going too.”
* * *
What on earth is happening?
Me, Cheshire, Axion, and Father—all together.
We’re riding in our family carriage toward the Imperial Personal Affairs Bureau.
“I honestly have no idea what I’m doing right now.”
Axion stares blankly out the window, like a man whose spirit has left his body.
…….
Cheshire beside him doesn’t seem to understand this bewildering situation either.
“Haha! Let’s hurry, let’s go!”
Only Father’s mouth is stretched ear to ear with a grin.
The situation needed to be sorted out, but we didn’t have time.
“Run, run!”
The moment we arrived, Father snatched me up with practiced speed and carried me down from the carriage.
And then—we actually did run!
The Imperial Civil Affairs Department.
“Whoa! Dad, slow down…!”
“Hahahaha!”
Father hooked his hands under my armpits from behind and swung me up, holding me aloft as we ran.
Every staff member and visitor in the department stared at us in shock.
‘Mortifying! What is this!’
The time it took to reach the Imperial Personal Affairs Bureau: exactly twenty minutes.
Father skidded to a halt with a screech and claimed one of the service windows.
“We’ve come to register an adoption.”
After setting me down, Father quickly showed Cheshire and Axion to the bureau clerk.
“The child’s name is Cheshire. I am the child’s guardian, and this gentleman is the head of the house that will be adopting the child.”
At that moment, I happened to spot Marquis Onyx standing at the window right next to ours.
He saw us and dropped his jaw in astonishment, then hurried the clerk along.
“Listen here! Move faster!”
“Y-yes….”
The clerk, who looked worn down by bureaucratic toil—his eyes dark and hollow—slowly read through one of the documents in his hands.
“You mentioned you would be submitting additional supporting documents alongside the certificate of paternity you submitted previously… let me see here… the reason the child was hidden and raised was that the child was illegitimate, and due to signs of physical abuse, it was difficult to present the child to society….”
“No! Why are you reading that out loud?!”
The Marquis’s face flushed crimson as he cried out.
‘Ah. He’s decided to tell the truth in hopes of speeding up the verification.’
I understood the choice—when fire falls at your feet, image doesn’t matter.
“Enoch Rubinstein?”
Just then.
The female clerk at our window, her hair neatly tied back, smiled kindly and handed over four documents.
“Here are four documents: one guardian consent form, one adoption child personal information sheet, one adopting house head personal information sheet, and one adoption confirmation certificate. Please fill out and submit all four, and that should be all.”
“Will it go through immediately after submission?”
“Yes. Adoption requires only verification of the guardian’s identity—once the documents are submitted, approval follows automatically without any further procedures.”
“Thank you for your hard work. I’m impressed with how quickly you handle these matters.”
Father picked up a pen right there on the spot.
The Marquis, who had been staring dumbly at him, suddenly reached out—
“How charming.”
—but Father grinned wickedly and held the documents up in the air.
“Tsk, tsk….”
The fuming Marquis turned on his clerk.
“When will that verification be finished?!”
“Ah, please just wait a moment… you only just submitted those additional documents to the verification department….”
“I’ve already been waiting days!”
“Rushing me won’t make the verification go any faster.”
“This is ridiculous!”
I alternated my gaze between both windows, desperately stifling my laughter.
Our paperwork was completed in less than five minutes.
But then.
“Oh my.”
The clerk reviewing the documents offered an apologetic smile and spoke.
“I’m terribly sorry, Axion Libre—but we need your official seal stamped here instead of a signature.”
Two of Axion’s documents were rejected.
“Of course, you’re not an unknown figure, but since adoption is processed without additional approval procedures, we require only officially notarized seals on the documents for more certain identity verification.”
Father’s expression went blank.
We’d come straight from home in a mad dash.
Who carries an official seal with them?
Axion was wearing nothing but a single sweat-dampened black short-sleeved training shirt.
“Damn.”
While Father suddenly lost his composure, the Marquis watching us from the side lit up with hope.
I felt a chill of anxiety creep over me.
‘What if… what if the Marquis’s documents get processed first?’
A situation hanging by a thread.
Father made a quick decision and turned his body.
“First, let’s go to your place and get the Seal—”
But then, with a sharp motion, Axion stretched his arm out horizontally, blocking Father from moving forward.
Father’s face hardened instantly.
“You ungrateful wretch—you’re not about to tell me you’ve changed your mind now, are you?”
……
I watched the two of them tensely.
I couldn’t say for certain, but it seemed some kind of agreement had already been struck between them.
‘Uncle doesn’t want this, but did Father force him to adopt Cheshire?’
Axion looked deeply reluctant about the whole thing.
And Cheshire…
Cheshire had been watching the two anxiously, but the moment his eyes met mine, he looked away.
“There’s no need to go home for it.”
“What?”
Axion let out a sigh, then slipped his fingers into the front pocket fastened to the chest of his training clothes.
What he drew out was something small with a golden gleam to it—
‘A Seal?!’
Father’s eyes widened at the sight of it.

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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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