I Became the Villainess, But My Beast Husbands Can Hear My Mind?!-Chapter 48: Freedom Is Not Always Gentle

To remove the crystal seals, Roxanna only had to say, "I release you."

With those simple words, the chains that had bound her husbands for an entire year finally disappeared.

Each time a seal was released, she gently rubbed their necks. Even though they could heal themselves again and again, the crystal seals had still left red marks on their skin. It would probably take about an hour before those marks faded completely.

It was clear just how tightly the seals had wrapped around their necks, especially Calen’s.

He had been the one who rebelled the most at the beginning, so his seal had clamped down on him as if it wanted to choke him to death.

Roxanna couldn’t help but cry a little. She couldn’t understand how he had kept working, moving, and acting normal while his neck had been under that kind of pressure every single day.

"I shouldn’t have asked you to dig the well before this," Roxanna said softly. She scratched her own arm and let a few drops of blood fall onto their necks, hoping it would help them heal faster.

[Congratulations, Host! Side Mission Complete: Remove your husbands’ seal crystals without them noticing.]

[Reward:

+7 days lifespan

+1,500 Spirit Points (SP)]

[Total Spirit Points (SP): 5,400]

Roxanna then tapped the system panel to check her current status.

[System Panel]

[Name: Roxanna Vixelle]

[Age: 23]

[Spirit Points (SP): 5,400]

[Race: Nine-Tailed Fox]

[Title: Leader of the Vixaria Tribe]

[Remaining Lifespan: 12 days]

[Nurture Life: 0]

[Affection Points:

Azul: 30%

Calen: 10%

Cyrus: 20%

Luan: 10%

Zeir: 10%]

[Main Quest: Stay Alive]

Twelve days...

Honestly, that felt like a very long time. Before this, Roxanna hadn’t even been sure she could survive more than a week in this world.

But then something caught her attention. Since when had Cyrus’s affection increased to 20%?

[The system already announced that before, Host,] the system suddenly replied.

[You were just too busy kissing Cyrus!]

"N-No, th-that’s not true!" Roxanna shouted, maybe a bit too loudly, because her husbands began to move around.

It seemed the effect of the sleeping smoke bomb had worn off. They immediately woke up after hearing the noise around them.

Calen was the first to open his eyes. He sat up straight at once, and his sudden movement startled Roxanna so badly that her heart skipped a beat. For a split second, he looked like a corpse coming back to life in a horror movie.

"W-What’s wrong?" Roxanna asked carefully. "Calen... are you alright?"

He didn’t answer. Instead, his hand went straight to his neck. The moment he felt nothing there, his eyes widened.

"Y-You... you released the seal?" Calen asked in a low voice.

Roxanna pressed her lips into a thin line. [Why does he sound so scary? W-Will he kill me after this?]

"Yes," she said aloud. "I removed your crystal seal. Calen, I... I won’t force you to stay here. If you want to leave, then you can go anytime."

"Why?" Calen turned toward her, looking at her with his golden eyes.

"What?" Roxanna stared at Calen in confusion. Shouldn’t he be happy, or at least trying to kill her now that he no longer had any obligation to protect her?

"I set you free. Isn’t that a good thing?" she asked in return.

Calen looked lost, as if too many thoughts were crashing into his head at the same time. His eyes kept shifting—toward her, then away—like he didn’t know where he should look.

He kept rubbing his neck, and Roxanna started to worry that it still hurt.

"Calen..." She reached out, but before her hand could touch him, Azul suddenly grabbed her wrist and stopped her.

"Why did you tell me to leave?" Calen asked in a low voice.

Roxanna frowned. [Did the sleeping smoke make him confused? I’m so stupid! Maybe that thing actually contained some kind of drug!]

"Calen, I didn’t tell you to leave," Roxanna said quickly. "I just said... you could leave if you wanted to."

She still tried to reach out to him, but Azul tightened his grip on her hand. When she looked at him, he shook his head, silently telling her not to touch Calen.

But why?

"No, no... you just want to hunt me again!" Calen’s golden eyes suddenly burned with fear and anger. Azul immediately pulled Roxanna back. "You did this to me before!"

"Calen, she’s not your old master!" Zeir and Cyrus moved at once, grabbing his arms to hold him still. Nearby, Luan clicked his tongue and shook his head. "I knew this would happen again."

"What? What’s going on?" Roxanna asked in panic, looking at Azul and Luan. "Did I... did I do something wrong? Please, I’m so sorry."

"You didn’t do anything wrong," Luan said firmly, trying to calm her. "Come on. Let’s get you out of here first." Then he turned to Azul. "Azul, he listened to you last time. Maybe he’ll listen to you again now."

Last time?

Did that mean this wasn’t the first time Calen had lost his mind? She knew it! This had to be because of the smoke bomb!

Azul let Luan take Roxanna from him. "Take care of her," he said before stepping closer to Calen.

Luan carried her out of the hut and only put her down once they were far enough away.

"Luan, Luan, I... I did something really bad to all of you before," Roxanna said in a slightly trembling voice. "I used magic to make you all fall asleep, so I—"

"Hey. Listen to me, Roxanna." Luan bent down and gently held her cheeks, forcing her to look at him. Her eyes were already wet with tears. "This isn’t your fault. You didn’t do anything wrong, and I’m glad you removed our crystal seals."

Roxanna frowned slightly, confused that Luan didn’t ask anything about the sleeping magic, or about the crystal seals.

"But Calen—"

"Calen isn’t acting like that because of the sleeping magic," Luan cut her off gently. "It’s just... the crystal seal carries too many painful memories for him."