Life for Lina and Claude went smoothly for the next few days. The item she had consigned to the auction was successfully sold, purchased at a high price by a swordsman from the Divine Sect. As usual, she received eighty percent of the total proceeds.
The days passed so peacefully that Lina forgot one small but crucial fact.
Someone had seen the scales on her son's left shoulder.
"Lina! Lina! Hurry to the school!" Bess rushed into her house with a panicked expression, startling Lina in the middle of washing vegetables.
"What happened?" Lina asked immediately, her heart pounding as she silently prayed that nothing terrible had befallen her son.
"It's Claude. They said… he hit Milo."
"What?"
Without another word, Lina ran alongside Bess toward the school.
Claude was a gentle and obedient child. He would avoid even stepping on an ant, so how could he possibly hurt a classmate?
If Claude had been an ordinary child, Lina would have assumed that Milo, who was twice Claude's size, had been the one to cause harm. But Claude was not ordinary. He carried mixed blood, and his spiritual roots were already maturing, subtly strengthening both his body and mind.
It would not be impossible for him to overpower a child larger than himself. She wouldn't have been surprised if she'd heard her son was capable of defeating a young wolf.
Therefore, Lina was not worried about Claude losing. She was worried about the opposite.
If Milo had been severely injured, it would have brought endless trouble upon her son. She prayed silently that nothing irreversible had happened.
Meanwhile, at the school…
Claude stood outside the infirmary, his face pale and bloodless. At first, he had only intended to push Milo away when the bigger boy grabbed his arm tightly. He had never expected that such a simple push would send Milo flying backward with such force that he crashed through the wooden wall of the school building.
Milo was now unconscious and rumored to have suffered a broken bone.
Claude felt immense guilt. Tears shimmered in his golden eyes, and his small body trembled violently with fear.
"You monster's brat!! What did you do to my son?!" A thunderous voice exploded near the school entrance.
The owner of the voice was a large, muscular man with a fierce and terrifying face. This was Milo's father.
"Sire, please calm down. There must be a misunderstanding between the boys," the principal said nervously, cold sweat forming along his back. Facing Milo's father felt like standing before a raging fortress.
"Misunderstanding?!" the man roared. "I heard that this devil's child threw my son so hard he destroyed the school wall!"
"That cannot be," the principal argued weakly. "How could such a small child throw someone larger than himself?"
"I—I saw it myself!" another boy shouted from behind. "And—and he had black scales on his shoulder!"
Claude instinctively grabbed his left shoulder, fighting back tears.
"What?!" Milo's father stepped forward aggressively. "A damn monster's child! You don't belong here! We should drive him out before he becomes a threat!"
The principal wanted to step in and protect Claude. The boy was always polite and kind, and his mother was gentle and helpful to everyone. But… if the scales were real… if he was really a monster...
"Move aside!!" Milo's father shoved the principal roughly and marched toward Claude. "Come here, you freak!"
Claude closed his eyes. Tears streamed down without resistance as the large man grabbed him and dragged him outside. The moment they reached the courtyard, Milo's father roughly tore open Claude's collar, exposing the pitch-black scales covering his entire left shoulder.
"It's true!" the man shouted triumphantly. "You are the child of a monster!"
Murmurs began spreading through the crowd. The gazes directed at Claude shifted from uncertainty to disgust, fear, and hostility.
"Monster child."
"Get out of our town."
No one knew who started it, but a stone was suddenly thrown, furthering the poor boy's fright. Just as the first rock was about to strike Claude's head, time seemed to freeze. Every stone was suspended mid-air for a brief second before falling harmlessly to the ground.
Lina appeared silently behind Claude. In one swift motion, she wrapped him in a warm cloak, carefully covering the scales on his shoulder.
"Lina!! You must explain yourself! That monster child—!"
"Sir, I am certain this is a misunderstanding. Milo is fine," Lina said calmly. There was no longer any gentleness in her expression. Her jaw was set tightly, and her eyes were sharp and piercing—yet her voice remained steady and controlled.
"Misunderstanding?! My son is still unconscious! His spine—"
"Dad? What's going on?" A familiar voice interrupted him.
Everyone froze to see Milo walk out of the infirmary at a relaxed pace, scratching his head in confusion. He even yawned widely as though waking from a short nap.
"See? Your son is fine," Lina said quietly, releasing a silent sigh of relief. One of her contracted beasts had healed the boy in time.
"What… impossible!" Milo's father turned to one of the boys nearby. "Didn't you just say you saw this monster child throw my son?"
"Me?" the boy blinked in confusion. "I never said that."
Milo and his friends all looked bewildered, as if they had no memory of making such accusations.
"Principal! You were there too, weren't you?"
The principal vividly remembered what had truly happened.
Just as Milo's father was forcing Claude away, a green-haired woman with delicate wings had appeared out of nowhere. She wore a feathered dress that shimmered faintly. Without revealing her identity, she had immediately healed the unconscious Milo.
A moment later, a black shadow with a weird white human mask had emerged as well, quietly erasing parts of Milo and his friends' memories.
"You… who are you people?" the principal had asked in shock.
"We are Mistress Selene's contracted beasts."
Selene? The principal's heart had nearly stopped. "You mean… Lady Lunar Frost Sovereign?"
"Yes. You probably know her better as Lina."
The principal, a man in his seventies, had long heard tales of that legendary figure. Never had he imagined that the gentle mother who always helped anyone in need was that very legend.
Claude was currently seven, and Selene had disappeared eight years ago.
Could it be…?
Whatever the truth was, the principal understood one thing clearly. No one in this town could survive angering her.
"Sir, the Mistress orders that her identity remain secret." The masked shadow warned the elder principal.
"But—"
"No one must know that Lady Lunar Frost Sovereign resides here."
Understanding that revealing the truth would destroy the town's peaceful life, the principal nodded obediently.
Now, standing before Milo's furious father, he acted as if nothing unusual had occurred.
The principal adjusted his robes calmly. "What are you talking about? Didn't I tell you earlier it was a misunderstanding? Yet you became angry and dragged Claude outside."
"You?!" Milo's father shouted in frustration. "Fine! But the scales are real! That child is still a monster!"
The principal sighed inwardly and wondered what the legend would do next.