48 · Chapter 48
Robin's eyes fell on Messiah with a smile: "Messiah, if you kick him again, he will lose too much blood."
Messiah looked away guiltily, trying to kick the members of the Court of Owls further away, trying his best to distance himself from them.
Robin sighed helplessly. After the excitement of learning that Messiah had found Batman faded, he looked at the members of the Court of Owls lying on the ground behind Messiah, and a headache struck his forehead.
"them……"
Messiah's face tightened, his expression serious and earnest: "I didn't kill anyone, they died on their own."
But the hurried voice still exposed Messiah's true emotions. Messiah was completely unaware that his explanation was full of hidden meanings.
Looking at Messiah who confessed himself, Robin felt both amused and helpless.
"I'm talking about them, not Claws." Robin pointed to the members of the Court of Owls behind Messiah. "They are members of Gotham's prominent families. If anything happens to them, Gotham will face great turmoil."
Messiah was stunned for a moment, then his tense face relaxed: "So that's how it is?"
"They're a prominent family in Gotham...that's even better."
Messiah smiled at Robin, the smile on his lips was pure joy, and said the most terrible words in the most innocent tone: "If they do bad things, it will be very painful, so they can only do good things."
"If all the prominent families did good things, Gotham would definitely be a better place."
Robin was stunned.
"If Gotham gets better, Dad and Dick won't get hurt anymore." Messiah's frustration from being scammed by the Claw disappeared. "I did a good thing."
"Oh, and there's the principle of confidentiality—"
Messiah remembered that Robin had first taught him the principle of confidentiality—even though he hadn't been listening at the time. There was a hint of pride in his tone as he said, "They can't reveal your and Dad's true identities."
"If they try to speak, they will be stopped by pain like a thousand cuts."
Messiah felt that he had done a perfect job. He neither killed anyone nor mentally manipulated them. He perfectly met Bruce and Jason's requirements of him and successfully restricted these bad guys.
"Am I doing okay?"
Messiah looked up at Robin, his golden eyes sparkling.
Definitely not!
Robin's expression turned into a shouting one, and his smile completely disappeared.
"Not killing them doesn't mean we can do whatever we want with their bodies," Robin said with a headache. "What's the difference between using our abilities to restrict their behavior and mental manipulation?"
Bruce should have said this.
Robin thought sadly, he didn't want to become like Bruce at all.
Messiah didn't understand. He looked at Robin in confusion. Of course, restricting behavior and mental manipulation are different. One is restricting behavior and the other is changing thinking. Why did Dick say that there is no difference between them?
Robin suppressed the urge to sigh: "We'll talk about this later. Go back to the Batcave first, and leave the cleanup here to me."
Let Bruce teach the Messiah, Robin thought wearily. I don't want to be disliked by the Messiah... or Jason.
"Aftermath?"
Messiah blinked, trying to understand the meaning of the word, and then he opened his ears to listen to the sounds around him, catching the key word "aftermath".
——After making many jokes due to his lack of common sense, Messiah has learned to listen to the sound and search for keywords before taking action.
In the simple-minded Gotham, Messiah captures the key word "aftermath" and the sounds he hears are either the destruction of corpses or the elimination of traces.
Messiah stopped listening and looked around the underground maze. His gaze focused on the fallen bodies of the Sharp Claws. He suddenly realized something and said, "So they want to get rid of the traces we left behind?"
The clawed corpse is also a trace left by him, so it should be included as well.
There was a hint of smug joy in Messiah's voice. It was obvious that Li Claw was not killed by him, but he made it seem like he had destroyed the body and removed all traces.
Robin was stunned for a moment: "That's not wrong, is it?"
Messiah's eyes lit up instantly, and Robin suddenly had an ominous premonition in his heart. However, before he could stop Messiah's actions, Messiah rushed out like a puppy off the leash.
"Wait, Messiah!"
No one knows why Messiah, who has super hearing, didn't hear Robin's voice. The truth is probably only known to Messiah himself.
The burst of golden light rushed straight into the underground maze. Messiah pretended not to hear Robin's shout and quickly destroyed the body that had fallen to the ground with sharp claws.
Golden light swept across the claws' bodies, turning them into dust.
The next second, the golden light that had been approaching and ready to destroy the underground maze suddenly stopped.
Batman looked at Messiah silently. The golden light stopped at his feet and the air seemed to solidify into substance at that moment.
Messiah's expression froze.
Batman still had a strong smell of medicine and blood on his body. After simply bandaging his wounds in the Batcave, he hurried over again.
Because he knew the Messiah.
Batman walked towards the Messiah, his tactical boots making a dull sound as they stepped on the ashes of Claw's body.
Every time Batman took a step forward, the golden light would take a step back, as if the golden light was being forced back inch by inch by Batman.
Messiah stared at Batman's pale face, the golden light on his hand dissipated in an instant, and the golden light spreading on the ground also quickly faded away.
"I..." Messiah wanted to say something, but closed his mouth.
Messiah felt that he had done nothing wrong, but when he saw Batman's weak figure rushing over with injuries, an indescribable feeling surged in his heart.
Robin breathed a barely perceptible sigh of relief and took a few steps back, leaving space for Batman and Messiah.
A father and son with different ideas and beliefs.
In the silent underground maze of the Court of Owls, the sounds made by Batman were particularly obvious.
Messiah lowered his head unconsciously, but the heavy and steady footsteps, the crisp sound of iron armor colliding, and the slight airflow sound of the cape rising up all told him that Batman was approaching.
A pair of black boots stopped in front of Messiah.
Batman looked at the Messiah's tender face. Behind him was the dust turned into by the body of Sharp Claw. In front of him were the members of the Court of Owls with blood flowing from their chests, but their throats were blocked by Messiah, preventing them from even groaning in pain.
"Messiah," Batman began, "you are wrong."
"I don't."
Messiah's head shot up, and for the first time, he showed such intense emotion to Batman, and retorted: "They hurt you, and I just made them suffer the same punishment."
"And they can no longer do bad things." Messiah didn't understand. "Gotham will become better, and the bad guys will be punished."
Batman stared at Messiah's face, and slowly took off his hood in front of Messiah, revealing the face of Bruce Wayne: "No, this is your mistake, but it is even more my mistake."
Messiah looked at Bruce with his face exposed, and his first reaction was to knock out those members of the Court of Owls who were still awake, but Bruce grabbed Messiah's hand and told him not to move.
After being stopped by Bruce again, Messiah's tense face could no longer be controlled. He didn't understand. He just wanted to protect Bruce and his family. Why did Bruce stop him and say that they were all wrong?
"I'm not wrong, and you're not wrong either." Messiah said stubbornly, "It's these bad guys who are wrong."
Bruce looked at Messiah. His child looked aggrieved and confused, and his eyes were full of hurt when he looked at him.
His child, the child who did the wrong thing to protect him.
"Messiah..." Bruce called Messiah's name, his blue eyes looking at Messiah intently, "I know you want to protect me and prevent them from hurting me again, so you punish those who hurt me."
"But you forget that my life is life, and their life is life too. No one is more important than the other."
"But to me, you are the most important." Messiah refused to meet Bruce's eyes and said in a muffled voice, "Even if they had a hundred lives, ten thousand lives, they are not as important as you."
"I don't understand why I can't kill people... And I didn't kill them, I just made sure they couldn't do bad things anymore. I didn't even control their minds."
Messiah refuted Bruce seriously, not realizing how aggrieved he looked. "I've always been obedient."
Bruce suppressed the urge to sigh. How could he not know how important he was to the Messiah? How could he not know that the Messiah had been changing for him?
But the Messiah didn't need to change for him, all he wanted was for the Messiah to understand.
Bruce squatted down and looked Messiah in the eyes. He held Messiah's hand and slowly led Messiah's hand to cover his chest.
"Listen, Messiah." Bruce's chest vibrated as he spoke, and the vibrations were transmitted to Messiah through Messiah's hand on his chest. "You can hear and feel my heartbeat."
Messiah subconsciously followed Bruce's words and placed his hand on Bruce's chest. His sensitive perception allowed him to feel the beating under his palm even through the bat armor.
Boom, boom, boom.
Bruce's heart beat regularly, hitting Messiah's palm bit by bit.
Messiah subconsciously wanted to withdraw his hand, but Bruce held his hand tightly, allowing him to continue to feel his heartbeat.
He pursed his lips and looked up, meeting Bruce's gentle blue eyes.
"This is the weight of life," Bruce whispered. "Listen, the beating of your family's hearts represents their existence. It's the most beautiful sound in the world."
"But once they lose their lives, they can no longer be heard from."
Bruce looked into Messiah's eyes and said, "Messiah, you are my family, my son. And those people you want to kill or have already killed, they also have families and important people."
"Why can't we kill people? Why is life so important?"
Messiah felt Bruce's heartbeat and Bruce's voice flowed in his ears.
"Remember your desire to protect me when I was hurt." Bruce pressed his forehead against Messiah's, his body temperature passing through the point where their foreheads touched. He said gently, "You don't want to lose me, and their families don't want to lose them either."
Messiah curled his fingers together, and the sounds that he could hear in the past just by opening his ears now seemed to have weight.
"That's why life is so precious, Messiah."
Bruce's voice sounded like a sigh and a hum.
【Author’s words】
I shop, I shop——
Cherish the soft, long-mouthed bat you have now, because it will be gone when your child grows up [狗头]
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