CHAPTER 263: AS ROTTEN AS HIS FATHER

In her first life, she had considered Silas like her own father, someone she trusted so deeply that the very first thing she thought of after returning to this lifetime was,

"I need to give Dr. Silas something precious, as a token of my gratitude for staying by my side until the end in my past life."

Unfortunately—though perhaps, fortunately—before she could carry out that heartfelt intention, she discovered a cruel truth: The man she had once seen as a father figure was nothing more than a coward who had secretly murdered her.

"The beast ..." Silas gritted his teeth, struggling to speak as his voice cracked. "... they deserve to die. And you ... you’re a traitor."

[She’s human! Why is she siding with the beasts? Why is she smiling and playing house with her beast of a husband?!]

[All of them should die! They took away the one thing I loved! My precious son!]

[And that monster of a king, how dare he let those animals go free even after what they did?!]

[He didn’t even remember who I was ... just because I changed my name!]

Silas’s mind was consumed with bitter, hateful thoughts.

Primrose calmly asked Callen to push her wheelchair until she was close enough to face Silas directly.

"The beast deserves to die?" Primrose shook her head and leaned forward so that Silas could hear her more clearly. "No, Doctor ... the one who truly deserved to die was your son."

Silas’s eyes widened in disbelief. His fists clenched so tightly that his knuckles turned white. He stared at Primrose like he wanted to set her on fire.

"You ..." he tried to speak, but the words stuck in his throat.

"Your son was just as rotten as you, maybe even worse," Primrose began calmly. "Did you really think I wouldn’t be able to dig into your past? You were clever to change your entire identity, but as you know, Doctor ... no secret lasts forever."

"Your son, Elias Morcant." Primrose paused for a moment and picked up a scroll that had been sitting on her lap. As she untied the ribbon, she clicked her tongue several times. "Tch. Tch. Your son really was a professional scumbag, wasn’t he?"

"Let’s see ... he once broke into a widow’s home, stole her jewelry, and even molested her while she was asleep. He had a violent tendency toward both animals and people, and once nearly killed a group of children by pushing them into a river."

Primrose narrowed her eyes and sharpened her voice as she read one of the criminal records related to the beasts.

"Nine years ago, Elias and a few of his friends molested a thirteen-year-old girl from the beast clan and killed her by mutilating her body."

Primrose gritted her teeth, then threw the criminal record at Silas’ face. "Your son was a thief, a murderer, and a fucking rapist, but how dare you still think that you have the audacity to blame the beast clan for taking revenge on your son!"

"Have you ever wondered how much pain that young girl’s parents felt when they found out that their precious little girl had been raped and mutilated by humans?"

Primrose clenched her fists. "You never thought about that, did you? Just because she was a beast doesn’t mean she didn’t have feelings like humans!"

Ever since Primrose found out that Silas had killed her because he hated the beasts, she couldn’t help but wonder about the reason behind it.

What had the beasts done to him?

Did they hurt someone he loved so much that he ended up resenting their entire kind?

So, Primrose asked Salem to dig up information about Silas—though that honey badger never stopped complaining that it wasn’t his job—to do it discreetly.

Salem had served in the military for years, so he definitely knew people who could help him uncover secrets buried that deep.

It took him a long time to gather all the information, but last night, he handed everything over to Primrose because she needed to be sure she wasn’t killing an innocent man.

The truth?

Yes, Silas had lost something precious. The beasts had killed someone he loved.

But that "precious" person of his had also taken something priceless from the beast clan, something that could never be replaced.

Silas’s son, Elias Morchan, brutally murdered and raped a young girl named Cecilia Moretz from the bear clan. The little girl was still too young to transform into a beast, so she was unable to fight off a group of men who drugged her.

According to one of the soldiers who testified at the trial, a doctor who performed the autopsy on Cecilia’s body broke down in tears in the middle of the courtroom because she felt sorry for the poor little girl.

That case sparked a wave of fury in the hearts of the beastkin. Some of them even urged Edmund to raise the flag of war and declare battle against the human kingdom.

Primrose could guess that her husband had been under enormous pressure at that time.

He couldn’t stay silent when one of his people had been hurt so cruelly by humans, but at the same time, if he chose war, the loss of lives would be far greater.

Many people called him a coward for not retaliating with force.

But the truth was, Edmund simply didn’t want to start a war if the matter could be solved through diplomacy.

War never benefited anyone, and even though he had won countless battles before, Edmund had also lost countless of his comrades’ lives.

He didn’t want to lose more.

So instead, he went to the Emperor of Vellmoria with a different offer.

He asked for justice, not revenge.

He asked to let the beastkin carry out a public execution for Elias and his friends, as punishment for what they did to the young girl named Cecilia.

Naturally, the Emperor rejected the request at first.

He felt that allowing such an act would be no different than letting the beasts humiliate humanity.

But Edmund didn’t back down.

He gave him no other choice, either accept the deal or prepare for war.