My Wife is a Dead Villainess, and I'm Her Living Weapon-Chapter 113: Remember

"Mistress Velvet, can we please take a step back for a moment? Entrusting such a big task to a mere child is..."

Bianca turned to Marcus, "Please be silent."

"Mistress Velvet, I apologize for the disrespect, but I cannot. This is completely ridiculous! What does this keepsake even prove? That young Ned here knew Elian Reed when he was only human? He is no longer a mere boy!"

Marcus glared at Elian with fierce eyes, "Elian Reed may have started as a young boy, but he has become a powerhouse comparable to the Big Three." He scoffed while crossing his arms, "He should grow up and use his strength for the betterment of humanity!"

Despite Marcus’ passionate words, neither Bianca nor Elian react. Bianca in particular kept looking at only Ned, as if urging him to speak. But the young boy kept glancing at Marcus, waiting for his command.

After a few moments, Ned sighed and looked at Elian.

"This Crown was very important to Elian. It held a promise."

"And what was that promise?" Bianca inquired.

"That he would never let anyone determine his own value." Ned inspected the coin and traced along the nicks and cuts. "If I remember correctly, it was something his dad asked him to never forget. Anytime I saw Elian with this, he was cutting a piece of this coin off."

Elian flinched. All of a sudden, a voice began to play in the back of his head. He saw his father sitting with him on the porch of their house against the sunset.

"Remember, Elian. You are who you believe yourself to be. This crown. No matter how much you beat it up—you can still use it to buy a piece of candy or even a house. Don’t listen to what they all tell you. You are not a Defect. You are not a failure. You are my son."

The Tyrant then felt his insides shake. As if he suddenly regained parts of himself. The wave of memories ran through Elian’s mind. Suddenly, he saw himself cut and nick the keepsake Ned held.

"And I am proud of you, no matter what you become."

Each time, it was when his heart broke. When the world became too unbearable, Elian took whatever he could get his hands on to injure the Crown. As Elian saw these visions, Ned’s voice played in the background.

"I think he saw it as therapy. When he had a particularly bad day, he would find a nail or sharp edge and stab this coin with it." Ned then pointed to a particularly large cut. "This gash? He made that the day Tyler tied him to a tree and left him there. This one... was when."

Ned recounted the hardships that he knew Elian suffered through. Most were about being poor or weak, but the deepest marks on the Crown were all related to bullying.

Bianca’s face warped the more she heard. The room’s temperature dropped bit by bit till the tea in their cups began to freeze.

But then, Elian’s hand gripped Bianca’s. He also sent her a warm thought.

Bianca, please calm down. I am fine.

"Elian... I’m sorry... I didn’t know..."

Smiling, he leaned down and kissed Bianca’s head.

You were right; this is a part of me I needed to remember. Thank you.

The room began to warm up. Bianca gazed at Elian and nodded in silence. She turned to Ned and smiled affectionately, "Thank you, Ned. Thank you for being his friend and thank you for remembering."

Ned, overwhelmed by Bianca’s beauty, flushed and brushed the back of his head in embarrassment. "Uhm, it’s nothing, Mistress Velvet, I just shared what I knew of Elian. He is a good guy, and I am glad he has you by his side now."

"Is that so? Thank you for your kind words."

"Mistress Velvet, I am sorry for having to break the sappy mood, but I fail to see how reminiscing about that coin helps us in any way. Your declaration earlier places the entire world at stake," Marcus interjected.

"This bowling ball-headed bastard."

"Daughter, may I please kill him?"

"I call dibs. You all can have whatever is left."

"But Dad!"

"Lord Bastion, might we swap places?"

Elian could see the vein in Bianca’s temple about to burst. Considering how intense she could be, her rage at Marcus’ words seemed to be at their peak. But somehow, the witch’s face remained stoic and elegant.

"And what would that be, Marcus Steel? The fact that apart from Ned and his parents’ humanity abandoned the very Tyrant you are trying to manipulate?"

Taken aback, Marcus grimaced, but before he could counteract, Bianca continued.

"Most of what Ned recounted? It happened in schools. On field trips. In places designed to protect children."

"That’s..."

Bianca turned to face Tessa, "And you. How could an A-Ranked Breaker allow such things to happen? Was Trevor Rogers such a treasure that you allowed him to terrorize people and left him unchecked?"

"... it was for the best at the time. Trevor Rogers was believed to be someone who could become a strong breaker. Elian Reed was declared a defect. It was for that end that..."

Bianca chuckled, "How convenient; fifty years have passed, and you still use that insufferable lie."

"Miss Velvet, the Defects are..."

"A lie. Rather than have the population respond to the arrivals of Ascendants, you used your institutions to rewrite history. And marked the Ascendants as normal and true humans to become the Defects. I was there when they made this request, Tessa Potts. Do not lecture me!"

What? Defects are true humans?

Bianca then elaborated in righteous fury, "It was a proposal to reframe the arrival of the Ascendants. Rather than tell humans that they were evolving into something else, it was spun that the activators only unlocked a human’s true potential."

"What?" Ned gasped in surprise, "But why would they do that?"

"What else, to turn every human into an Ascendant. By creating the Defect social class and enforcing harsh penalties on them, it was not Ascendants versus Humans, but Humans versus Defects. To ensure the greatest integration, they sacrificed part of the population."

Tessa glanced down, unable to utter a reply; Marcus just stared at Bianca, unmoving.

"Yes, it’s a lie. To ensure the minimum resistance to the Activators, the narrative was reframed. We even sabotage some poor saps to artificially create Defects. But it was all to ensure that humanity stood a chance to fight the crucible," Marcus explained in a cold voice.

Elian looked down at the coin. The truth hit harder than any punch. He hadn’t been the failure—the world had.

"You weren’t there, Mistress Velvet. When Vulkanus arrived and tore the Earth apart—I saw entire cities vanish. If sacrificing a few children prevents that from ever happening again, then yes, I’d do it again. Gladly."

Bianca cheered in an exaggerated manner, "Oh my! What a patriot! Willing to make the harsh choices to save the many a true hero!" Then her eyes turned sharp like daggers and her words were full of venom, "Tell me Marcus, did you or any of those you loved get branded as defects?"

"No."

"So it’s fine to sacrifice someone so long as it is not among your own?"

"... I didn’t say that."

Bianca leaned back and tilted her head, "Did you forget which mask you were wearing, or do you just lie by instinct now?"

"We did what we had to. We saved as many as we could," Marcus growled.

The witch grimaced but raged back, "How does it feel to bleed every word with poison and call it integrity? Silver-lipped mongrels with the hearts of rotting swine. Souls like yours should’ve never left the womb. Even Hell would spit you back out." freēnovelkiss.com

"Mistress Velvet, there is hardly any reason for insults..."

"Listen here, you bitter excuse for sentient life. The only reason I asked about the coin was to give us a reminder of the good in humanity. But your lies only dig your grave ever deeper."

"Elian Reed is no longer a boy. He’s a force of nature. And a force belongs to the world—not to some deluded lich who thinks she’s his wet nurse."

In that instant, the table in front of them all shattered into tiny pieces. The expensive tableware and cutlery flew around in the chaos. Ned and Tessa remained in their seats, both unable to comprehend what had just happened.

With a mighty crash, Elian drove the giant man against the wall. He then summoned Pile Revolver into his arm and moved to stab Marcus in the face.

But he was restrained by a web of Living Metal that bound his right arm in place. The tangle of bindings began to snap, failing to hold him even a second longer.

"Look, I hate him too, but stop trying to explode people, you lunatic."

"Son-in-law, please do not lose your head."

"We will kill him later, Elian. For now, stow your anger."

Marcus gulped as he stared at the onyx nail mere an inch away from his eyeball. He tried to move his body but couldn’t.

It was only then that Bianca walked up to Elian and lightly touched his arm, "Dad, is right, please return to your seat. I am fine, thank you for worrying."

Elian backed off.

Bianca continued, "It is truly hilarious, Marcus Steel, like fate is playing tricks on you. The same people you threw away are the very ones you need to appease."

"He needs to help us; we have his..."

"His parents? No. What you have are excommunicated crusaders I hired long ago. You don’t have anything. Apart from Ned, humanity no longer has anything to anchor Elian to you vile, irredeemable, deceitful, pot-bellied leeches."

"W-What?"

Marcus then turned to Elian, although he regained control of his body, he lost his confidence. His trump card turned worthless—and everyone present knew it.