I Became the Villainess, But My Beast Husbands Can Hear My Mind?!-Chapter 148: A Strange Thing

The fish was so delicious that Luan couldn’t stop eating. Still, before his greed completely took over, he always made sure Roxanna was eating with him.

"We should bring this damn fish home," Luan said, his eyes still shining. "We can keep it on ice so it won’t spoil, or..." He lowered his voice as he leaned closer to Roxanna. "You can store it in your portal magic."

Roxanna let out a soft giggle. "We can try that."

She never expected that simply giving him tasty fish could make Luan this happy. Once they returned home, she was sure she would learn how to cook fish properly just for him.

However, before thinking about going back, she still had another problem to solve: how to bring one of the reindeer doctors with them. No matter how hard she thought about it, she couldn’t find a good solution, unless they kidnapped the doctor.

[No, no, of course I can’t kidnap the doctor!] Roxanna lightly shook her head and scolded herself. [Anything that starts badly will surely end badly. If I kidnap the doctor, they might treat Calen carelessly, or worse... kill him.]

One thing Roxanna firmly believed was that she must not underestimate people who had extensive knowledge of medicine.

"Miss Fox! Miss Fox! Miss Fox! The leader and the elders want to see you!"

Roxanna turned toward the voice, and to her surprise, it was Aelin. The beastwoman smiled at her and even waved, acting as if she hadn’t just been scolded by someone earlier.

[Is the problem from before already settled?] Roxanna wondered. [She doesn’t look upset anymore. Maybe Elior didn’t take Aelin’s actions too seriously.]

After all, telling someone that she shared the same name as their ancestor wasn’t such a big mistake. Still, Roxanna noticed that Aelin avoided calling her by name. Maybe she was doing it on purpose?

Letting out a soft sigh, Roxanna decided to think about it later, after meeting Elior.

When she stood up, Aelin walked over and said, "But the leader only wants to meet you. Your husbands can wait here."

Luan spoke first. "We can’t leave our wife alone." He added calmly, "Please don’t take this the wrong way, but our wife is the most important person in the Vixeria Tribe. We have to make sure she’s safe."

Cyrus chimed in as well. "He’s right. It’s not that we don’t trust you or your leader, but we have a duty to make sure nothing bad happens to her."

The smile on Aelin’s face slowly faded. She lowered her voice as she said, "I understand your concern, but what the leader and the elders want to discuss involves personal matters."

She continued, "That’s why we can’t allow just anyone to hear it, including Miss Fox’s husbands."

Cyrus was about to respond, but Roxanna spoke first. "It’s alright." She turned to her husbands and smiled gently. "I’ll be fine."

Even though the Golden Tribe clearly seemed to be hiding something, Roxanna was certain they had no intention of killing her. No matter what kind of information they wanted to discuss, she believed they wouldn’t try to harm her.

"But I want them to come with me," Roxanna said firmly to Aelin. "At least until we reach the place where Leader Elior wants to talk to me. They can wait for me outside."

She truly believed they wouldn’t hurt her, but that didn’t mean she would let herself be completely separated from her husbands without caution. Besides, it felt insulting to treat her husbands like mere "strangers."

Aelin seemed to think about it for a moment. She looked a little hesitant, but after a while, she finally nodded. "I’ll talk to Leader Elior the moment we arrive there."

Roxanna immediately smiled and took her husbands’ hands. "That sounds good. Please lead the way."

Aelin nodded and walked ahead of them. They moved farther away from the main settlement, toward a quiet area where the huts looked almost like sacred symbols. Deer skulls hung above the doors, making the place feel strange and unsettling.

[Is this where Elior and the elders live?] Roxanna wondered. [This place is really creepy. Good thing I insisted on bringing my husbands with me.]

Roxanna wasn’t afraid of ghosts, or rather, she didn’t really believe in that kind of thing. Still, that didn’t mean she wouldn’t feel uneasy stepping into a creepy place like this.

"Where’s the woman who took you away earlier?" Roxanna suddenly asked. "I thought you were still with her."

Aelin turned back slightly and smiled. "She’s with the elders now. There’s something important they need to discuss."

Although it was subtle, Roxanna occasionally noticed the corner of Aelin’s lips twitch, as if she was trying very hard not to say too much, or, in other words, to avoid oversharing.

It seemed that Elior and the beastwoman from earlier had given her a clear warning not to speak carelessly in front of Roxanna.

"Where are we going?" Roxanna asked as Aelin led the way toward a narrow path instead of heading to one of the huts nearby.

"To the place where Leader Elior and the elders want to meet you," Aelin replied.

Before stepping onto the narrow path, Aelin suddenly stopped. She turned around and looked at Roxanna’s husbands, one by one.

"We’re about to enter an area that is very sacred to our tribe," she said firmly. "Only those who are invited are allowed to go inside. You can wait for Miss Fox here. Is that alright?"

Her husbands clearly didn’t like the idea, especially after seeing how dark and frightening the narrow path looked.

But before any of them could speak, Roxanna stepped forward. "It’s alright. If anything bad happens inside, I’ll scream right away."

Cyrus and Luan finally let out soft breaths. It was obvious they weren’t happy with this decision, but since they truly needed the Golden Tribe’s help, Roxanna couldn’t act carelessly.

Luckily, her husbands understood what she was trying to do. They agreed to wait outside, their senses sharp, ready to listen closely in case Roxanna cried out.

"Alright. We’ll always be here," Cyrus said softly, reassuring her.

Roxanna nodded, then turned around to follow Aelin, who had already started walking toward the narrow path. The path was barely wide enough for one person to walk through.

Tall stone walls rose on both sides, and since there wasn’t a single light source like a torch, Roxanna had to rely on her night vision to see.

Before long, she faintly noticed several small points of light that looked like a group of torches. When she looked more closely, she finally realized that it was Elior and the elders gathered together, some of whom didn’t even look that old.

"I’m sorry for suddenly calling you here, Miss Fox." Instead of Elior, the one who greeted her was an old reindeer beastman whose beard and hair had already turned white.

"But... we only want to confirm something," he added.

Roxanna frowned because she didn’t understand what he meant. However, as she stepped closer to them and turned her gaze toward the object placed beside them, she suddenly stopped.

Her eyes widened, and her entire body suddenly felt cold.

"Roxanna, do you know the name of this object?" Elior asked.

Roxanna fell silent for a moment. No, the thing she was looking at wasn’t something terrifying... or maybe it was? In short, it wasn’t a weapon or an object meant to kill.

In her world, it was something simple, almost unimportant. Well, it depended on how people looked at it, but most of the time, it really didn’t matter much.

"A picture," Roxanna finally said. "A picture inside a frame, and that’s... that’s a picture of me."

It wasn’t just any picture. It showed her when she was ten years old, standing on a school stage during a performance.

She remembered that she and the girls in her class had danced at a Christmas event held by the school. All the children there had parents—at least one parent—while Roxanna had no one.

The caretakers from her orphanage didn’t come either because they were too busy sorting through the donated gifts sent to the orphanage.

Even so, Roxanna kept smiling on the stage, but right after the performance ended, when she went into the restroom, she cried there all by herself.

It was a sad memory, but that wasn’t the most important thing to talk about right now!

"H-How can this picture be here?!" Roxanna asked, her voice rising without her realizing it.

What shocked her even more was that she didn’t remember anyone coming to watch her perform at all, so who took this picture?

No, more importantly, how could a modern photograph suddenly appear in this primitive world?

Roxanna’s mind raced as she stared at the picture. Her fingers trembled slightly, but she forced herself to stay calm.

This wasn’t just strange, but it was impossible.

This world didn’t have cameras. It didn’t have printed photos, glossy paper, or clean frames like this one. Even the idea of capturing an image like this shouldn’t exist here at all.

"Aelin did mention to you that your name is exactly the same as our ancestors’, but actually... it’s not as simple as that," Elior suddenly said.

He added, "One of our ancestors, Michaela, told us that she once had a daughter named Roxanna, and... she predicted that her daughter would come into this world sooner or later."