My Daddy Hides His Power Chapter 334 - Side story Part 2 Chapter 30

“Huh, are you crying?” 

 

“Then why aren’t yuw cwying…? Haven’t you seen our little pwincess sobbing her heart out…? You bloodless, tearless human…” 

 

“Lilith, it’s because you think you’re parting with Jamie! But you’re not even being separated from your real daughter, so what are you crying for? You’re thirty-eight years old—have you lost your mind or something? Seriously!”

 

Disgusted, Ashley started taking off Jamie’s diaper again.

 

“Hhhuh… No, it’s embarrassing! Why are you takin’ off my clothes too…?”

 

“Who’d take it off just for fun! The transformation magic won’t last much longer, do you want him coming back wearing a diaper and looking like a door? Even if someone’s trying to help out on purpose…!”

 

“Hey!”

 

At that moment, a voice was heard. It was Axion, who had arrived late.

 

He looked at Ashley and Jamie, who were struggling on the bed, and said with a look of shock.

 

“I’m sorry, but this scene is so disturbing, like a newborn being abused by his own mother.”

 

“Oh, right.”

 

Ashley covered Jamie with a blanket, covering him from the neck down, and climbed out of bed.

 

When the transformation magic was lifted, the long hair shortened, the body grew, and he returned to his original form.

 

A twenty-eight-year-old man, Oscar Manuel, whose annoyed expression was perfectly normal.

 

…Though the skirt outfit remained unchanged.

 

“Whoo.” 

 

Oscar let out a sharp sigh and sat down on the sofa, his legs wide open.

 

Axion, embarrassed by Oscar’s shockingly bold posture, averted his gaze. Jamie, who had been watching, squeezed his eyes shut.

 

“If Jamie gets fowgotten by our pwincess, what gonna happen…”

 

Even with his eyes closed, Jamie spoke, tears streaming down like little drops of rain, and everyone fell silent in solemnity.

 

“Shall I just tell the twuth…?”

 

“No.”

 

Oscar shook his head.

 

“This is what Lilith wanted in the first place, and this is her problem to deal with. Jamie hasn’t completely disappeared, and even if she’s feeling empty right now, time will tell. She needs to learn to say goodbye.”

 

“Why you twyin’ to make da baby gwow up so stwong…? Jus’ thwow her off a cwiff, thwow her right off…”

 

“I need to raise her strong, of course.”  

 

Of course, Oscar wasn’t entirely at ease as he spoke.

 

Twenty days at most. It wasn’t much time, so he hadn’t expected Lilith to cry so deeply.

 

“Precisely because you’ve grown so attached, you must keep silent. If you say nothing, it’s a beautiful farewell—but the moment you speak, it becomes deception.”

 

“Hhhic, dat’s it! Daddy… snff Daddy sowwy, pwincess…”

 

“Don’t cry, Enoch.”

 

Axion sighed and sat down on the bed.

 

“It’s not like you deceived her on purpose. If anything, you went through hardships you didn’t even have to, just to grant Lilith’s wish.”

 

“I knew we’d say goodbye, but I thawt… I thawt I’d be abwe to say bai-bai wif a smiwe…”

 

Yeah, everyone knew that.

 

Who would cry as if the sky were falling, like Lilith did, when returning a neighbor’s baby after just three weeks of looking after them?

 

“It must be ’cause I’m da daddy. ’Cause I’m da daddy… it’s aww my fauwt…”

 

“No.”

 

Oscar felt sorry for the self-blaming baby, and said,

 

“Of course, Jamie might have felt more instinctively affectionate towards her since he was actually her father, but honestly, even if she had brought any other baby home, she would have had a hard time parting ways with him.” 

 

That’s simply Lilith’s unchangeable nature—warm-hearted and quick to give her affection. No matter who she had to part with, she would have wept just as sorrowfully.

 

In this life, Lilith had yet to truly experience parting or loss with someone.

 

So, her father, Enoch, might not know, but she…

 

“Uh, wh, where are you going…?” 

 

“Home.”

 

“Ah, ah! Haaaang! A, are you coming again?”

 

“…Mhm, see you tomorrow.”

 

 

Back in the tower. Even though she was an idiot, she knew Oscar would come back the next day, and yet she had such a hard time parting ways with him every day.

 

Even though she knew everything, she still asked where he was going and made sure to check if she’d see him again…

 

That sorrowful, tear-streaked face he had to leave behind day after day never left his mind, and so even Oscar, too, became a fool of a man who feared goodbyes.

 

* * *

 

Cheshire paused as he stepped into the house.

 

In the nursery decorated for Jamie.

 

Lilith lay limply in the very place where the baby had only been for about twenty days. 

 

“Lilith.”

 

“Mhm.” 

 

She lay there, resting her arm on one arm, absentmindedly rocking Jamie’s rattle.

 

She seemed to feel a deep sense of emptiness.

 

They hadn’t even known each other existed, and then suddenly met again, and hadn’t even been together for a month.

 

“Are you okay?”

 

“Mhm.” 

 

…She’s not okay, right? With a sigh, Cheshire walked over and sat down beside Lilith. 

 

He moved her head onto his thigh and gently stroked her, when Lilith spoke.

 

“I’m really okay. Jamie left after learning everything he was curious about.”

 

“Yeah.”

 

“When we said goodbye, he even taught me things I might never have known.”

 

The parting was painful, but there were things she came to understand through that farewell.

 

In the moment she said goodbye to Jamie, Lilith couldn’t help but recall herself and Oscar during the days they had been trapped in the tower.

 

Oscar had experienced that kind of parting every single day. Even if he said “See you tomorrow,” leaving behind a child clinging to him in tears must not have been easy.

 

Parting from someone you’ve given your heart to is this lonely and painful, even knowing you’ll meet again.

 

Oscar, too, had to say farewell to the child he had cherished and raised, standing upon the magic circle of regression.

 

And Enoch, who had his daughter—his entire world—taken from him, was forced to grip a sword with a heart torn apart…

 

Perhaps it was a feeling they had all experienced.

 

“I should be good to my parents.”

 

Lying flat and looking at Cheshire, Lilith said. At her sudden declaration, Cheshire let out a small laugh.

 

* * *

 

“True to saying they couldn’t be more like father and daughter, Lilith even takes after her dad in that.”

 

Axion thought, hearing that Lilith must have struggled with separation from anyone.

 

A battlefield where life and death were a daily gamble. Soldiers weeping as they dug graves for their comrades. Among them, the one most vulnerable to parting and loss was Enoch.

 

He couldn’t show weakness and endured without shedding a single tear, but Axion knew.

 

That Enoch, despite enduring dozens or even hundreds of farewells, remained a person who never quite grew numb to loss.

 

“That’s why he deserted…”

 

The deaths of his comrades were overwhelming, but Enoch must have known he wouldn’t be able to handle it if his daughter died in battle.

 

Even now, the sight of him sobbing in his infant form is heartbreaking.

 

“But, Lord Manuel.”

 

“Yes.”

 

Axion gulped as he looked at the adorable baby Jamie, lying with the blanket pulled up to his neck.

 

“He’s coming back…right?” 

 

“…”

 

There was no answer. Startled, Axion turned his head sharply and asked Oscar again.

 

“You’re sure?!”

 

“…He’ll come back, well.”

 

“H, hey!”  

 

Axion’s pupils trembled. Even Oscar, who always spoke with confidence, looked a bit nervous.

 

“Didn’t you say I could hold out for a month?”

 

“Of course I think he’ll come back. About a 99 percent chance.”

 

“What’s the 1 percent?”

 

“After all, this is my first attempt at this research. Since there’s no previous sample, I’m leaving the worst-case scenario—that 1 percent—to the side.”

 

No!

 

Axion was horrified.

 

“If Enoch has to continue living like this, who will take care of him? It’s only right for Lilith to raise him, right?”

 

The man worried about the future of his friend, who would become a baby.

 

“Are you crazy? You’re going to make a bright young kid start with childcare already? We should either send him back to his father’s house or contact the Duke of Antrase’s family!”

 

A selfish man—though his daughter caused the trouble, he couldn’t bear to see her clean it up himself.

 

“Enougwh! No neew at all! Even if you don’t help, just tell the pwincess! Don’t use your powers for no reason!” 

 

A man ready to restart his life as a baby just to avoid shortening his daughter’s lifespan.

 

“And my father is already owd! My swister just barely raised the twins, so she can’t be doing dis! You’re the one who caused the accident, you should raise me, Lod of Wizad Towew!” 

 

“Ugh, no! Are you crazy?! I still have my whole future ahead of me! And it wasn’t me who caused the trouble—it was your daughter!”

 

“Stop it! Everyone calm down!”

 

In the midst of this chaotic situation.

 

Suddenly, a tense silence fell.

 

Tick,

 

Tick,

 

Tick.

 

It had been exactly one month since Lilith had used her power.

 

The end was drawing near.

 

Everyone held their breath in nervous anticipation.

 

“Haa, haa!”

 

“Wow…”

 

With a sigh of relief from Axion and Oscar, the naked man who had been lying on the baby’s bed suddenly sat up and sprang to his feet.