Villainess is being pampered by her beast husbands

Chapter 475 --475

Kaya’s stomach growled loudly, reminding her they hadn’t eaten in... she’d lost track. Too long."Tomorrow," she said quietly, "we hunt. Or forage. Whatever we can manage."

"There are fish in the creek," Cutie murmured sleepily. "I saw them when we were looking for the plant."

"Fish. Good. We can work with that."

"And there are berry bushes about a quarter mile downstream," Veer added. "I smelled them earlier."

"Even better."

Kaya shifted slightly, trying to find a more comfortable position. Her entire body ached. Her clothes were still damp. She was cold, hungry, and exhausted.

But they were alive.

They had shelter. Water. A plan for food tomorrow.

And for tonight, that had to be enough.

"Kaya?" Cutie’s voice was very small in the darkness.

"Yeah?"

"Do you think... do you think they’re still looking for us?"

Kaya was quiet for a moment, considering how to answer. She could lie, offer false comfort. But that wasn’t who she was.

"Yes," she said honestly. "They’re still looking. We embarrassed whoever hired them. Made them waste resources. They won’t give up easily."

"Oh."

"But," Kaya continued, "they also don’t know where we are. We came out miles from where we went in. They’ll search the cave system, check the area around the entrance. It’ll take them time to expand the search radius to here. And by then, we’ll be gone."

"Where will we go?"

That was the question, wasn’t it?

Kaya stared out into the darkening forest, watching shadows lengthen and merge.

"I don’t know yet," she admitted. "But we’ll figure it out. We always do."

Behind her, she heard Cutie’s breathing even out, sleep claiming him quickly despite his fear.

Veer was quieter, but she could tell from his breathing pattern that he was still awake.

"You should sleep too," she said without looking back.

"So should you."

"I will. After my watch."

"Kaya."

"What?"

"Thank you."

She didn’t ask what he was thanking her for. The crushed leaves on his shoulder. The shelter. Not abandoning them. All of it. None of it.

"Go to sleep, Veer."

"Yes, ma’am."

She heard him shift slightly, settling in. Within minutes, his breathing deepened as well.

Kaya sat alone in the entrance of their makeshift shelter, watching the forest darken to true night.

The drake’s words echoed in her mind: *The world does not care what you want. But it will force you to choose what you are willing to fight for.*

She pushed the thought away.

Tomorrow. She’d think about it tomorrow.

Tonight, she just needed to keep watch.

Keep them safe.

Keep them alive.

One night at a time.

.

.

The forest at night was different from the forest during the day.

Kaya had known this intellectually—had been trained in night operations, understood how darkness changed terrain and visibility and tactical considerations. But knowing it in her old world, with night vision equipment and thermal scopes and radio communication, was different from experiencing it here.

Here, the darkness was ’alive’.

Every rustle in the undergrowth could be a predator. Every snap of a twig could be an approaching enemy. Every shadow could hide teeth, claws, intent.

Kaya sat perfectly still in the entrance of their shelter, her knife resting across her knees, her eyes constantly scanning the limited area she could see.

The moon was obscured by clouds, offering only occasional glimpses of pale light that filtered through the canopy. It was enough to create shapes but not enough to identify them clearly.

A branch moved to her left.

Kaya’s hand tightened on her knife handle, her body tensing.

The branch moved again. Then a small creature—something rodent-like with luminescent eyes—scurried across a fallen log and disappeared into a hollow.

Not a threat.

Kaya exhaled slowly, forcing her muscles to relax.

This was going to be a long night.

---

In the quiet darkness, with nothing to do but watch and wait, Kaya’s mind began to wander.

Back to the drake’s words. Back to everything that had happened. Back to the questions she kept trying to avoid.

’Why’ was she here?

Not just in this forest, in this moment. But ’here’. In this world. Pulled from her deathbed—or whatever had been happening to her—and dropped into a reality that made no sense.

The drake seemed to think there was a reason. A purpose.

Kaya had spent her entire adult life following orders, serving a purpose defined by others. Her military career had given her structure, direction, meaning. She’d been good at it. Maybe the only thing she’d ever been truly good at.

And then it had ended. Court-martial. Disgrace. Disease or poison slowly killing her from the inside.

She’d been ready to die. Had made peace with it.

So why bring her ’here’? Why not just let her die cleanly?

Unless...

Kaya’s thoughts stuttered to a halt, unwilling to follow that path.

No. She wasn’t going to entertain the idea that this was some kind of second chance. Some cosmic do-over. That was fantasy bullshit, the kind of story people told themselves to make sense of chaos.

She was a soldier. A pragmatist. She dealt in facts, evidence, tangible reality.

Fact: She was in a different world.

Fact: She was being hunted by organized forces.

Fact: She had no idea how to get home.

Fact: Two beastmen had, for reasons she still didn’t fully understand, chosen to stay with her despite the danger.

That last one bothered her more than she wanted to admit.

---

A sound to her right made her focus snap back to the present.

Footsteps.

Slow, deliberate, getting closer.

Kaya’s grip on her knife tightened. She shifted position slightly, ready to wake Veer and Cutie if needed.

The footsteps continued. Not trying to be stealthy, which was either very confident or very stupid.

Then a shape emerged from the darkness—four-legged, low to the ground.

A fox. Just a fox. Normal-sized, with reddish fur barely visible in the dim light.

It paused when it saw her, its eyes reflecting what little moonlight there was.

They stared at each other for a long moment.

Then the fox turned and trotted away, disappearing back into the undergrowth.

Kaya let out a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding.

’Get it together’, she told herself. ’You’re jumping at shadows.’

But that was the problem with the darkness and the quiet. It gave her too much time to think. Too much space for doubts and fears to creep in.

She missed the simplicity of military life. The clear chain of command. The defined objectives. You were told what to do, you did it, mission accomplished.

Here? Everything was ambiguous. Every decision felt like it could be the wrong one. Every choice had consequences she couldn’t predict.

She’d chosen to help Veer. Chosen to stay with Cutie. Chosen to run instead of fighting.

Were those the right choices?

She didn’t know.

Wouldn’t know until it was too late.

---

Time crawled by with agonizing slowness.

Kaya marked its passage by the gradual shift of shadows, the changing positions of stars visible through gaps in the clouds, the subtle alterations in forest sounds as nocturnal creatures gave way to early pre-dawn animals.

Eventually—finally—she judged enough time had passed.

She turned carefully, trying not to make too much noise.

"Cutie," she whispered. "Your turn."