Saving The Monster Race Starts With Breeding The Elf Village

Chapter 359: Zero Survival Instinct

"Ahn..." Poppy let out a soft wimper at the sudden physical contact, her face flushing as she felt the sensitive neural sensation through the horn.

Still, she forced herself to stand still to prove her innocence.

Luca ran his hands down the structure. Up close, the horn felt incredibly delicate and smooth, almost as if it was made out of seashells.

It also felt remarkably brittle; Luca instinctively knew that if he applied a little bit too much pressure, it would just break on the spot.

He didn’t dare to be reckless with it, but nonetheless, he commented.

"Wow, it’s really nice to touch. I’ve never felt something that’s both solid and soft at the same time."

Poppy’s chest swelled with instant happiness, a proud smile breaking through her blush.

It was the first time the human had actually complimented her!

"The tip is also very sharp too." Luca added. "You could definitely use this as a weapon."

As his hands ran down further, he noticed it wasn’t entirely smooth. Instead, it felt like a bunch of rings were stacked tightly on top of one another all the way to the tip.

"Hey, there’s a whole lot of rings around the horn."

"That’s actually the number of ages I’ve lived!"

Poppy explained proudly, her voice returning to its high-and-mighty tone.

"Every time a unicorn ages a year, a ring will be added to her horn. Right now I’m twenty-four years old, so that’s why I have twenty-four rings."

Luca quickly made a count with his thumb.

"One, two, three, four...twenty-three, twenty-four. Wow, there really are twenty-four rings."

"See?! I told you!" Poppy cheered, completely vindicated. "I told you, didn’t I? I really am a unicorn!"

Before Luca could respond, Sigrid rushed forward, her face pale.

"Lady Poppy! You can’t let just anyone touch your horn like that!"

"The core of your mana circuit is located right in your horn! If any malicious person were to do something to it and snap your horn..."

Poppy’s face went completely pale.

"You’d lose your purification magic permanently! It could even be life-threatening!"

Hearing the terrifying reality, Poppy instantly jumped out of Luca’s reach.

"Noooo! I don’t want to lose my purification magic!"

She shrieked, sprinting back to Sigrid at full speed like a child running to her mother.

She quickly jumped onto her back, hiding behind her before peeking out and glaring at Luca.

"It’s his fault! He’s the one who did something to me!"

"What?" Sigrid blinked, thoroughly baffled.

"He did some sort of black magic on me!" Poppy yelled, her voice thick with hysterical defense.

"Normally I’m so smart and full of wisdom. But for some reason, his words mesmerized me and I had no choice but to go over"

"He has black magic, Sigrid! Arrest him! Throw him into the deepest dungeon for high treason! Immediately!"

Despite her frantic royal decrees, not a single centaur moved.

They merely looked at their monarch with expressions of exhausted helplessness.

Sigrid also rubbed her temples, completely exasperated by her lady who would casually risk her literal life just to win a petty argument.

Meanwhile, Luca stood in silent amazement at the sheer magnitude of Poppy’s naivety.

He recalled his conversation with Nyx, where she had compared Poppy’s intellect to Lulu’s.

At the time, Luca had thought that comparison made sense.

But right now, he realized that was not true at all.

Lulu, for all her strangeness, was actually quite sharp. She knew her situation, understood the world around her, and made calculated decisions.

She was free-spirited, not simple-minded. Some would even say she was cunning.

Poppy, on the other hand...

He watched her being scolded by both Sigrid and Thea, cowering under their words like a small child caught stealing cookies.

’She’s genuinely naive.’ He thought. ’If her knights weren’t constantly protecting her, she’d probably die within a day.’

It was a miracle she had survived her solo trip at all.

The Goddess of Luck must have been working overtime just to keep her alive.

—

Now that all the fun and games were out of the way, Luca decided it was time to take things a bit more seriously and actually explain himself.

He cleared his throat, commanding the area.

"First of all." He began, which instantly snapped everyone’s attention right back to him. "If you really were that unicorn that day...then yeah, I actually did see you bathing."

A collective wave of utter shock rippled through the centaurs.

None of them could believe Luca had just up and admitted it out loud without an ounce of shame.

Poppy, on the other hand, practically puffed up with pure satisfaction.

"Ha!" She sneered, holding her head up high in a totally haughty, self-righteous manner. "I knew it! I knew you’d finally admit it! What you did was way too heavy on your conscience to keep lying!"

She folded her arms, nodding sagely. "No one can get past the great Queen Poppy. I see through everything. Every lie. Every deception. Every—"

"But at the same time." Luca interrupted. "I think I did nothing wrong."

The shock returned, this time mixed with outrage.

"Nothing wrong?" Poppy’s voice cracked with indignation. "You—you—"

"Hold on, hold on." Luca held up his hand. "Let me explain."

Poppy looked ready to explode, but something in his tone made her pause.

Sigrid and Thea exchanged glances, their expressions shifting from defensive to curious.

They had been waiting for this moment—for Luca to lay out his side of the story.

Luca composed his thoughts. "The reason I went to the lake that day was simple. I wanted to take a bath."

He gestured around at the forest. "That lake isn’t private property. It’s not owned by anyone. Anyone can go there to bathe, wash their clothes, or just relax. It’s a public space."

He pointed at himself. "So I went there to take a bath. That’s all. And by pure chance, I happened to encounter you."

"That’s impossible!" Poppy immediately shot back, shaking her head aggressively.

"You couldn’t have just walked up to the lake like that I put up a barrier around the whole area before I even got in the water!"

"Anyone who came near it would’ve been bounced right back off, and they would’ve known for sure that I was inside!"

Luca blinked, totally taken aback. "A barrier? What barrier?"

Sigrid stepped in with the calm tone of someone used to filling in gaps for her queen.

"One of Lady Poppy’s blessings allows her to erect a barrier around a given area. It’s an extremely useful ability—particularly for travel, since it keeps monsters from approaching her by chance."

"It can also extend to shield others nearby. And breaching it isn’t simple."

"In an age where mana no longer exists, there’s no spell that can cut through it, and raw physical force alone typically isn’t enough either."

Luca considered this, then shook his head with an easy, almost apologetic shrug.

"I genuinely didn’t feel anything like that. I just walked up and went right through."

"You’re lying!" Poppy insisted. "I absolutely set up a barrier! I know everyone already thinks I’m not exactly the sharpest fruit in the basket—"

"No, wait. Not that. Sharpest...Sharpest..."

"She faltered, glancing toward Sigrid.

"Sharpest tool in the shed." Sigrid supplied with a small sigh.

"Right that! I know I’m not exactly the sharpest tool in the shed!" Poppy said, nodding as if this were simply a fact of life rather than an insult.

Several of the other centaurs exchanged looks, torn between exasperation and fondness, while Luca found himself quietly impressed that she at least had the self-awareness to know her own reputation.

Poppy raised her chin defensively.

"Point is, I’m not stupid enough to forget to set up a barrier when I’m taking a bath! I’m a girl, okay? I like my privacy! And I’m a queen on top of that—not just anyone gets to lay eyes on my beautiful body!"

"I’m really not lying to you."

Luca said, shaking his head again.

"I swear I didn’t feel any barrier."

He then paused for a second, his expression shifting. "Wait...hold on a minute."

Everyone leaned in a little closer, hanging on his next words.

"Before I got to the water, I did feel something weird." Luca recalled, tapping his chin. "It felt like something was gently pushing back against me for a fraction of a second. Like a soft breeze or something."

"That’s it!" Poppy’s eyes lit up instantly. "That’s my barrier!"

"Yeah, but it lasted for like, one second." Luca continued casually. "I just pushed past that weird feeling and kept walking. It wasn’t a big deal at all."

The entire valley went dead silent.

"Wait." Sigrid said slowly, her voice barely above a whisper. "You...You just pushed through it?"

"Yeah." Luca shrugged. "I just walked forward. It felt like pushing through a thin layer of soft butter."

"After that tiny bit of pressure at the start, there was nothing holding me back."

Thea stared at him in complete disbelief. Every centaur knew just how ridiculously strong Poppy’s barrier was.

They could hack away at it with their heavy broadswords for hours and not even leave a scratch.

Charging at it at full speed would just throw you backward onto your tail.

Yet this guy was standing here telling them he just walked right through it like it was nothing.

"That’s impossible." Thea breathed. "That barrier has withstood attacks from monsters that could level entire buildings. We’ve seen it repel charging trolls and rampaging beasts!"

"How could you possibly just walk through it?!"

But Luca was insistent. "I really did pass through it. Honestly, it was no big deal."

"And if you want..."

He smirked, a hint of arrogance creeping into his voice.

"...you can create the barrier right now. I’ll go through it again. Right here, right now."

Poppy’s eyes flashed with challenge. "Fine! I’ll do exactly that!"

Her horn began to glow, a soft, ethereal light pulsing from its tip. The air in front of Luca shimmered, and a translucent wall materialized—faint, barely visible, but undeniably there.

Luca looked at the empty space, genuinely fascinated. He reached down, grabbed a long wooden stick lying on the ground, and poked it toward where the shimmer had been.

Sure enough, the tip of the stick hit a hard, invisible wall. No matter how much weight he put into it, the stick wouldn’t budge an inch.

The wood groaned under the pressure, bending slightly, but the barrier held firm.

He tossed the stick aside, drew his sword, and swung it at the space with a decent amount of power.

CLANG!

The air flickered violently, and the force of the impact repelled his blade, pushing his arm backward.

Sparks of white light danced where the blade had struck, then faded.

"See?!" Poppy declared proudly, placing her hands on her hips. "I told you it’s not easy to break through my barrier! So how could you possibly just walk through it at the lake, huh?"

But Luca simply smirked. "Watch this."

He took a step forward.

Then another.

The centaurs held their breath, their eyes fixed on him with intense anticipation.

He reached the barrier.

And then, to their utter horror and disbelief, he simply...walked through!

There was a brief moment of resistance, a faint pressure against his skin, like pushing through a sheet of thin ice, but it vanished almost instantly.

He stepped out the other side as if the barrier had never existed!

The murmuring erupted into chaos.

"How is that even possible?!"

"He just walked right through it?!"

"Did the barrier collapse?"

"No...the magic is still active! It just didn’t stop him at all!"

Even Sigrid, Thea, and the older, battle-hardened veterans were rubbing their eyes like they were seeing things.

Back in the golden age when mana existed, even high-level spellcasters couldn’t break through Lady Poppy’s defense without a massive ritual.

Sure, the barrier had lost some of its potency since mana vanished from the world, but it was still an absolute fortress against physical force.

Yet this human had just walked through it like a hanging curtain!