The Reward for Saving The World is a Husband - Chapter 11
The poisonous frog nodded, as if it was in my best interest.
“Fine. I’m only going to tell you once, so listen carefully.”
I leaned forward, narrowing the distance between our gazes.
“The oracle says…”
Whatever he said didn’t matter. I had no expectation that this creature would speak the truth.
My real target was the poisonous frog-like creature’s ‘memories’ in the first place.
Woosh…
My mana flowed through the pupils of the frog-like creature, beginning to sift through his brain.
This method wouldn’t work on Elias, whose body and soul were impeccably fortified, but for a frog-like creature with evidently weak mental defenses, it posed no challenge.
As expected.
His memories, starting from his earliest years, transmitted to me without much resistance.
‘So, this creature’s name is Beric.’
Beric’s family, the Tenaclade, enjoyed power nearly rivaling that of royalty. While sifting through his childhood memories, I stumbled upon an unexpected discovery.
Elias, too, appeared to have been born into that family, but for some reason, he seemed to have been tormented by Beric and other cousins.
With no one to stop them, their methods grew more cruel.
They beat him until he couldn’t move and threw him into a pigsty. He was also locked in a dark, cold food cellar for three days.
The laughter of Beric, gleeful at his deeds, and the sight of a young, silent Elias in disarray twisted my emotions.
What might have started as pranks became driven by jealousy over Elias’s emerging talents in various fields, pushing Beric to actions that could lead to death.
‘He’s far worse than I anticipated.’
The more I delved into these malevolent memories, the more my desire for vengeance surged.
The horrors I had endured in the laboratory overlapped, reigniting a quelled thirst for revenge.
Yet, the reason I refrained from tearing him apart right then and there was driven by a single thought.
‘He doesn’t deserve an easy death.’
I had to repay him many times over for the pain Elias had suffered.
If Elias was confined in a pigsty for half a day, then Beric rightfully deserved to roll in there for at least ten days.
He should live in fear of violence until his dying day, struggling in a cramped space against nightmares born of cold and darkness.
Those who stood by and watched Beric and his cousins abuse Elias couldn’t be spared either.
‘Their family.’
The Tenaclade family was the root of all these events.
‘I’ll clean them out and present them as a gift to Elias.’
Even as I contemplated this, Beric’s memories continued to flow into my mind.
Significant memories from his upbringing sped by, and the timeline gradually approached the present.
‘It’s about time for the oracle to come up.’
The more recent the memory, the more it tends to be cluttered with unnecessary details, slowing the process. Finally, the part where Beric inquires about the oracle from his father appeared…
“Beric!”
Just at that moment, Elias burst into the room, forcefully swinging the door open.
Internally sighing, I disconnected the mental link with Beric. Had he arrived just five minutes later, I could have gleaned everything, a frustratingly missed opportunity.
“What…?”
Elias seemed perplexed, perhaps not expecting this scene.
“You’re here?”
I looked towards him standing by the door and gave him an innocuous smile as if asking what had happened.
Fortunately, Beric’s focus also returned, albeit slightly delayed.
After a moment of bewilderment, realizing the cause of the interruption came from outside, Beric jumped up, glaring at Elias, and yelled at him for disrupting our conversation.
“What are you doing?!”
Elias quickly grasped the situation and responded calmly.
“What are you doing, hyung-nim*? Bursting in without notice is one thing, but to mistreat knights who were merely following my orders and executing their duties…”
(T/N: hyung-nim is a term that men use for older men who are of a higher position than them, and is more formal. It’s different from simply ‘hyung’ which demonstrates a more familiar and friendly relationship.)
Perhaps he found it difficult to outargue Elias, who was making nothing but sense.
Beric strode over and slapped Elias across the face.