Masteria Online: Shattering the Dark God's Grand Scheme-Chapter 147 - Innocence

"I will not kill you." Lumi confirmed.

The Deer King let out a breath of relief. Good, it would not die! Even if it meant losing everything, at least it kept its life.

Lumi turned to Lena and lightly gestured to her. "Lena," he spoke in a neutral tone. "Kill him."

Lena’s face broke into a wide grin. Her body trembled in excitement as she replied in a high pitch. "’Kay~!"

"Wha-" The Deer King scrambled to move back, but it barely had the strength after the previous beating. "But you sai-"

Lena raised her wand and pressed it to the Deer King’s head. "Bye!"

Red.

Blood splattered everywhere as its flesh painted the walls. "Hmm~" Lena lightly hummed, seeing the result.

"Hehehe~" Her eyes traced every single inch of the scene. Her grin went wider. "Wow..."

Lumi had no moral hesitation about any of it.

The Deer King was a serial child kidnapper. There was no version of this where Lumi considered letting it go. The threat he had used to convince it to comply was always going to end the same way. It had simply not been told that.

Its end was entirely deserved.

Though.

He looked at Lena.

She was staring at the result with a trembling, ecstatic expression. It was extremely obvious looking at her eyes and expression that she was loving every single second of it.

Lumi already knew how she was. Though she hadn’t explicitly stated it, it was obvious from her previous actions.

He knew she would like it. He had known going in.

He let her have her moment.

He gestured towards her with his hand. "Come on, let’s get a move on."

"Oh!" She suddenly broke out of her spell. "Right, right. Sorry. We can go." She took one look back at the dead beast. "Though..."

"Got it." Lumi already knew what she meant, and grabbed onto its leg. The fairies would not be satisfied if there was no evidence that they had dealt with it.

...

They dragged it back through the tunnel, retracing the path until they emerged back at the tunnel entrance.

Headmaster Ney and Deputy Headmistress May were waiting there. Both fairies looked at the two humans as they emerged, with a small curious expression.

Ney nodded at them. "We located and rescued the children. We already delivered them back to the academy. You were gone for quite some time." His tone was measured, but the implication was plain. The Deer King shouldn’t have been that strong.

Lena stepped forward, "The fight ended up being a bit more complicated than expected." She didn’t elaborate. Lumi presented the carcass.

Ney looked at the body and didn’t ask further questions.

May gave them a small nod. Whatever had taken them longer than anticipated didn’t matter. The result was in front of them. She turned toward the path back. "Then let us return."

They traveled back to the academy together. What waited for them was not the quiet building they had left.

The courtyard in front of the academy had filled up. Word had spread quickly, and a crowd had formed.

First and foremost, there were the rescued fairy children. Two dozen of them. The moment they spotted Lena, the cheering began.

Their squeaky voices filled the air as they all celebrated her arrival. They knew she had left to deal with the beast. If she returned, it must be dead! Several of them were already running toward her before the adults nearby could do anything about it.

Lena crouched down and opened her arms. Many of them jumped on her, hugging her, some even crying as they expressed their gratitude.

"Thank you!" "You came back!" "We knew you’d do it!"

Lena giggled, surrounded. "Oliver, don’t cry~"

She patted a different kid. "It’s alright, Alice. You won’t be hurt anymore."

She turned to another latched onto her leg. "Oh dear, you’re alright, no need to tremble."

It was obvious she had gotten to know them over the course of the mission.

Lumi stood slightly back and watched. This had nothing to do with him.

In the crowd, staying back, were others who had evidently ended up involved in the situation at various points. Adults, students from the academy, fairy instructors who had been present throughout. All of them watching, a number of them adding their own expressions of gratitude to the general noise.

More importantly, there were humans too. Just a few, but it was remarkable that they were here at all.

A short man with scientific equipment strapped across him. He almost resembled Susie, the way he kept countless unnecessary things on him regardless of the situation. Next was a man clearly from Entei, given by his features, and more importantly, the Resistance emblem on his chest. Last was a young magician from Elenora, standing around awkwardly.

Lumi didn’t know any of them. That didn’t matter. Lena clearly got to know them all through her mission.

The noise gradually settled. The children, having gotten their greetings in, reorganized into a loose group again.

One of the older girls stepped forth. She was slightly taller than the others. She looked at Lena directly, giving her a gentle smile and presented a small white box to her.

"We wanted to say thank you properly. All of us. Together we wanted to show it."

She opened the box, revealing a bracelet woven from flowers. It was clear that they had made it themselves, given the various imperfections. It was uneven in places, some of the flowers pressed slightly crooked, the weaving inconsistent.

Despite their lack of technical prowess, it held all their sentiments. The hope, gratitude, and love of two dozen fairy children had gone into the making of it, and that was not meaningless.

In Masteria, strong emotions could manifest in one way or another. Especially when it came from many people, and especially when they came from fairies.

Upon inspecting the bracelet, the following stats were revealed.

[Guardian of Innocence]

[Allstat +10%]

[Charm +50]

[MP Recovery +20%]

[HP Recovery +20%]