I Became the Villainess, But My Beast Husbands Can Hear My Mind?!

Chapter 269: The Quiet Storm (1)

Tak!

The moment Cyrus’ arrow pierced the bird flying high in the sky, the creature instantly stopped flapping its wings and fell straight to the ground at a frightening speed.

The three of them quickly ran toward it and found the bird twitching violently on the ground.

"What happened? It’s not dead yet," Calen said in confusion.

Cyrus calmly looked down at the suffering bird. "That poison isn’t only meant to kill," he explained. "It’s also meant to torture the target first."

He paused for a moment, his eyes still fixed on the bird. "They’ll feel like their entire body is burning from the inside," he continued. "But no matter what they do, they won’t be able to stop the pain until they finally die. At least... that’s what Azul said."

Calen stared at him in disbelief. He clearly hadn’t expected the poison to be that terrifying. All this time, he had assumed Azul was only making the usual poison.

"Cyrus," Calen suddenly called out.

"Yes?"

"I’m sorry for being too harsh on you earlier," Calen muttered while lowering his head. "I’ll try to be more patient from now on."

Roxanna blinked several times because she hadn’t expected Calen to say something like that. Besides, why did it feel like he was apologizing because he was scared?

"Please keep that poison far away from me," Calen added seriously.

Roxanna pressed her lips together. [Is he actually scared of Cyrus?]

She didn’t want to believe it, but honestly... it really looked that way.

Cyrus was calm most of the time, almost too calm. But somehow, that calmness felt dangerous, like a quiet storm waiting to swallow everything once it was unleashed.

Just like Jarva once said, a predator would always recognize another predator and know better than to provoke them.

"Calen, you are indeed annoying," Cyrus suddenly said. "But don’t worry," he continued casually. "I’m not going to kill you. You’re still my annoying family, after all."

For a moment, Calen didn’t know whether he should feel offended or relieved. Still, since Cyrus had just confirmed he wouldn’t poison him to death, Calen decided to feel relieved instead.

"T-That’s good to hear," he replied awkwardly. Trying to escape the strange atmosphere, Calen quickly turned toward Roxanna. "Wife, how about you try shooting the birds now?"

Roxanna immediately nodded with a smile. "I want to try!"

After practicing with Azul for quite a while, she had been confident she could at least hit one bird.

But unfortunately, she missed every single shot.

"The birds keep moving around too much!" Roxanna complained while stomping her foot on the ground. She puffed her cheeks angrily. "I swear my aim isn’t this bad!"

"Wife, wife, don’t get upset," Calen quickly tried to comfort her. "Beginners are usually bad at things at first."

His attempt to comfort her somehow only made Roxanna even more annoyed.

"But I’ve practiced for a while," Roxanna said softly. She sighed before realizing that she was being ridiculous. "Well... only for two hours, though."

Cyrus finally spoke up. "No one becomes perfect without failing first."

He gently took the bow from Roxanna’s hands before carefully rubbing her slightly injured palm. "That’s why learning new things takes patience."

Roxanna was still pouting. "But it would be better if I could at least shoot one bird..." she continued softly. "I thought I could finish my mission today."

Cyrus looked at her calmly. "Did the voice inside your head give you a deadline to shoot five birds?"

She shook her head. "No. It doesn’t give me any deadline."

"That’s good," Cyrus replied with a small smile. "That means you still have plenty of time to practice."

Then he added gently, "But I think that’s enough for today."

Roxanna lowered her gaze toward their intertwined hands and noticed the painful blisters on her palm were slowly disappearing.

[But I’m really fine, though...]

Reading her thoughts, Cyrus softly said, "Your body might still be able to continue training, but your mind also needs rest."

Roxanna quietly stared at him for a moment.

For some reason, hearing those words from Cyrus felt strangely comforting. Unlike Calen, who was loud and expressive, Cyrus always spoke calmly, almost coldly at times. But whenever he paid attention to her, it somehow felt very gentle.

"Alright," she finally muttered.

Cyrus gave a small nod before letting go of her hand. "Let’s head back before it gets dark."

Calen immediately stretched his arms above his head. "Finally! I’m starving." Then he suddenly turned toward Roxanna with sparkling eyes. "I hope Azul has already roasted some birds."

"I believe he already prepared something," Roxanna said with a soft chuckle.

After all, there was no way Azul would let her stay hungry after practicing for so many hours.

===

As the night grew later, Roxanna still hadn’t heard anything from Zeir and Luan. She sat quietly on the terrace, staring at the empty path in front of the hut.

"Wife, what are you doing?"

Calen walked over to her and dropped down beside her on the terrace. He tilted his head slightly before asking, "Are you waiting for Zeir and Luan? I don’t think they’ll come back tonight."

Roxanna smiled faintly and hummed softly. "Mhm. I don’t think they’ll return tonight either, but... I still want to wait a little longer."

Calen quietly stayed beside her after that.

Earlier, Azul and Cyrus had already cleaned the hut and prepared the floor mattresses for everyone to sleep on later, so they simply let Calen accompany Roxanna outside for a while.

Still, unlike Zeir or Cyrus, Calen was never the type who could sit quietly for long periods of time.

At first, he tapped his fingers against his thigh. Then, when that clearly wasn’t enough to keep him busy, he started tapping against the wooden floor instead, creating soft but nonstop knocking sounds.

Roxanna tried to ignore it at first.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

But after several minutes of hearing the constant noise, the corner of her eye twitched slightly.

"Calen."

"Hm?" He looked at her innocently while still tapping the floor.

"You’re noisy."