Chapter 03 - Rex Magnus' Real Present

*****

The elderly matriarch no longer cares about her appearance or status.

She gestured frantically toward Rex Magnus with a burning desire to see him suffer.

Rex Magnus became further confused as he witnessed the intensity of his grandmother-in-law's reaction.

'Is giving someone money as a gift considered wrong?' he thought to himself, perplexed.

'Why then did those groups of young and elderly ones always become excited when I rewarded them with money back in the day?'

Rex Magnus couldn’t help but abruptly scratch his head, feeling more confused

Back when Rex Magnus was still in the position of the divine general, everybody under him was always mostly pleased with receiving monetary rewards from him. However, his maid had once informed him that none of the recipients had spent the cash, instead choosing to frame it and pass it down as a family heirloom. Interestingly, Rex Magnus himself had once overheard some soldiers boasting to their significant others about receiving a divine gift from the general, causing envy and jealousy among those who had not received one.

Rex Magnus had thought monetary cash was an awesome reward that could be given to others then.

Till now, he remained unaware that what his men worship and value then wasn't the gift, but rather, him that gifted them. This is similar to how people would do anything to possess even a small item from a famous person just to flaunt and worship it.

He didn't know that had it been someone else who had given his men the same presents, they definitely would never have acknowledged it, let alone considered it valuable.

While Rex Magnus was busy being perplexed, the old matriarch continued sending him tons of insults and curses upon him when suddenly, Ethan interrupted her.

"Grandma, you shouldn't stress yourself as today is your special day. Please take it easy and enjoy every moment of it."

Upon hearing this, The Old Matriarch instantly calmed down and gave her precious grandson a grateful look before apologizing to the people around her.

Seeing this outcome, Ethan became satisfied and smiled to himself before turning to Rex Magnus.

"This is the wrong place to crack a joke like that." "You know, right?"

This time around, even Rex Magnus' wife, Fiona Johnson, couldn’t help but raise her head to glance at Ethan, feeling bewildered.

'Why is he suddenly acting very nice to that fool?'

She wasn't that naive to think that Ethan's behavior towards her or Rex Magnus had changed. She knew that if that were truly the case, he wouldn't have initially called out Rex Magnus.

And just as she had felt, he continued.

"You should know that everybody would think you are just a stupid fool looking down on his grandmother-in-law if you continue like this, you know?"

Fiona instantly shut her eyes for a second when she heard this, losing all hope.

With this statement from Ethan, she realized what he was getting at.

She was fully aware that Rex Magnus had no gifts for her grandmother, making Ethan's statement seem to like her husband was deliberating insulting her grandma when everybody realize."

Fiona breathed in deeply before glancing at her grandmother, then suddenly, she felt a surge of fear as she noticed the intense hatred and warning in her gaze directed towards her husband. Her heart raced with anxiety and her skin broke out in goosebumps.

She understood well the look on the Old Matriarch's face and she knew well that it wasn’t only Rex Magnus that would receive its brunt.

While this was happening to Fiona, everybody in the hall right now could be seen gazing intently and unblinkingly at Rex Magnus.

It's as if they don’t want to miss anything making Rex Magnus become confused by the enthusiasm-filled eyes.

'Why are these people so excited about seeing my present?'

He couldn’t help but shake his head slightly before glancing at his wife who also happened to be gazing at him right now with eyes filled with pity and pleading.

Seeing this, Rex Magnus' heart constricted and skipped slightly.

Of course, he instantly guessed why she was giving him such a stare.

'Wouldn’t I be betraying her and my brother if I couldn’t even do such a small thing as give a present?'

Finally, Rex Magnus made up his mind.

He couldn’t help but glance at the old matriarch again.

Although he saw that she was currently gazing threateningly at him, he doesn’t give a damn.

He watched her face for a few seconds, before abruptly feeling pained.

'She doesn’t deserve this thing I’m about to give her!'

He shook his head softly before looking away.

'Would I be giving away this hard-to-find medicine?'

his hand abruptly trembled slightly.

‘Whatever. At least this medicine would be able to treat all the diseases known and unknown in her. This is what I should do anyway.'

With this, Rex Magnus finally made up his mind and inserted his hand into his shorts' pocket.

"Wow, so he does bring a gift?"

Everybody was instantly amazed when they saw his movement, then they turned their gazes hotly at the pocket into which he had inserted his hand, waiting to see what he would bring out.

'Sorry for giving away this medicine, May,' he sighed.

'Although I couldn’t imagine how much time, effort, and resources you invested before finding it, I have no choice but to give it away.'

After thinking till here, Rex Magnus abruptly shut his eyes tightly and took out his arm which has formed a tight fist.

Nobody noticed his tightly shut eyes, though, because their eyes were only focused on his tightly clenched fist and nothing more.

Just as they couldn’t wait anymore to find out, Rex Magnus eventually opened his fist, and then instantly, everybody became dumbfounded.

"Hun!!!!"

The crowd's eyes widen.

They couldn’t believe what they were seeing at all.

"My eyes must be playing pranks, right?!"

"This definitely can’t be what I thought it is!"

"Holy sh*t! "My eyes are starting to malfunction!"

"Hai!!!"

Not even Ethan, the perpetrator of this whole thing could believe his eyes right now.

Open-mouthed, he watched for a while before he ultimately sighed slowly, then a wide grin covered his face.

"Fool!" he spat behind his breath as he also stared intently at the object in Rex Magnus' palm.

Even Fiona hadn’t foreseen Rex Magnus to pull off a stunt like this.

Instantly, her eyes became teary, and her body trembled.

'Brother, why did you do this to me?' 'I thought you loved me?' 'Why did you order me to marry this life wrecker?'

Her body winces further the more she sees the object in Rex Magnus' hand, and slowly, a thick hatred and painful expression began to cover her face.

The second person who has also finally lost it completely is Rex Magnus' mother-in-law, Sally.

She currently is amongst those thinking they were seeing wrongly.

No matter how much she looked, she couldn’t believe the information being transferred from her brain to her.

After a while, she eventually couldn’t control her urge anymore.

"That wouldn’t be part of the leftover garlic used for preparing mother's birthday feast, right?" Her voice suddenly rang, and because the place is presently completely quiet, everybody heard it.

"Shit!!!! "It really is what I saw!"

"Father, Lord!" "That truly is a clove of garlic!"

"Shit! " "Is this boy stupid or crazy?"

"How could someone be this stupid for fuck's sake?"

"I've certainly learned something new today, giving a clove of garlic as a birthday present!"

No longer caring about anything and forgetting where they currently were, the crowd continued to murmur and exclaim amongst themselves.

As for Rex Magnus, his eyes were gaping right now from the concussion.

It wasn’t because of what the crowd was murmuring, because he simply doesn’t care. The reason is because of his mother-in-law's sudden and unexpected question.

'Did she just call a clove of garlic a godly medicine for normal human beings?'

Rex Magnus wasn’t only shocked to his bones, but to his very core.

After so much hardship, Rex Magnus finally snapped back into the present and chuckled dryly.

"Mother, you must be mistaken." "This thing in my hand isn’t garlic whatsoever, but a godly medicine that is extremely difficult to find."

Everybody, "_"

They couldn’t believe their ears at all.

They continued gaping at Rex Magnus intently with all sorts of expressions as if he were the greatest fool of all time.

"Did he just call a clove of garlic a godly medicine?"

Someone couldn’t help but mutter in disbelief.

Wow! "I finally met the fool god of all shameless people today."

Even Ethan couldn’t find any words to express himself again.

"Who would have thought that this fool isn’t useless after all?" Shamelessness is also a gift.

He sighed before turning to glance at his grandmother, and seeing her present look, he gave Rex Magnus a pitiful look.

"You are so dead!"

The moment he thought this, a furious roar suddenly reverberated within the hall, frightening everybody to the core.

"YOU BASTARD!!!" "I can't take this anymore; you are leaving this family tonight!"

Hearing this angry roar, Rex Magnus' eyes widen.

"Don’t... don’t tell me she just looked down on my present again."

"YOU USELESS PIECE OF SHIT, HOW DARE YOU LOOK DOWN ON ME TO THIS EXTENT?" "GIVING ME A CLOVE OF GARLIC AS A GIFT AND CALLING IT A GODLY MEDICINE, DO YOU TAKE MY OLD SELF AS A FOOL?"

Everybody finally couldn’t do anything else but watch the unfolding movie.

"But, grandmother, I wasn’t lying." "This really is godly medicine for normal human beings," Rex Magnus insisted.

"You… you… you…"

The old matriarch finally became so chaotic to the extent that she couldn’t form any words in her mouth again other than stutter and point extremely furiously at Rex Magnus.

Just as everybody was waiting to see what would happen next, someone suddenly rushed inside.

"Madamé… Madamé, the young master of the Bottoms family, is here to visit you!

Hearing this, everybody's eyes abruptly widen, and their mouths form huge "o" shapes.