Villainess is being pampered by her beast husbands-Chapter 94 - -

Now standing tall, or at least floating like she meant business, Kaya faced the full force of her newly acquired army.

Ten mer-soldiers, one extra in the form of the ever-annoying little lord—eleven in total.

Enough, at least on paper, to make this work.

The problem?

She had no damn idea how to make it work.

She knew the theory. She could recite the science behind underwater frequencies, shark sensitivity, and compressed air systems in her sleep.

But turning that into actual mechanics? Into real traps that buzzed like hornets and irritated sea predators?

That part... was fuzzy.

Really fuzzy.

Kaya rubbed her temple, then dropped her hand and looked straight at them.

"You guys live here," she said bluntly. "You know the terrain. You know what materials are around. You can help me make a vibrating trap, right?"

The words were barely out of her mouth before it happened.

Silence.

The kind of silence that makes your ears ring under water.

Every soldier turned to the other, then looked back at Kaya.

Blank expressions.

Some squinting.

Some mild blinking.

One tilted his head like a confused seal.

Even the little lord, standing a bit off to the side, blinked at her like she’d asked them to build a rocket out of algae.

Kaya’s eyes narrowed.

"...What."

The tallest of the soldiers raised a cautious fin. "You want us to... trap air?"

"Yes."

"On purpose?"

Kaya’s voice dropped flat. "Yes."

Another mermaid whispered something behind her webbed fingers to the one beside her. Something about "air" and "sounds" and maybe "the surface cooking fish again."

The little lord let out a soft groan and rubbed his face like he had a secondhand headache.

Kaya crossed her arms, staring them down. "Don’t tell me not a single one of you knows how to make a sound trap?"

"Um..." one finally said. "We usually just stab things, ma’am."

Kaya inhaled sharply through her nose.

For a second, just a second, she closed her eyes.

"Of course you do," she murmured under her breath.

Then she clapped her hands. "Alright. New plan. Someone show me where I can find hollow shells or caverns with trapped bubbles. Something I can turn into a sound trap."

The soldiers nodded quickly this time—relieved she wasn’t going to make them invent science.

One even perked up. "Oh! There’s a coral basin near the old shipwreck! It makes noise during high tide."

Kaya opened her eyes again. "Perfect. Lead the way."

It had been over four hours.

Four whole hours of swimming back and forth across jagged ridges, uneven coral beds, and fields of sand that all looked the same.

Kaya was exhausted.

Her muscles ached, her eyes stung from the salt, and her head throbbed—not from the depth, but from frustration.

She had examined nearly every stone, every shell, every hollowed-out coral that even slightly resembled what she needed. She tapped, tested, knocked, and held her ear to the ones that hummed faintly in the currents.

None of them were right.

None of them could hold enough trapped air to create the kind of vibrating sound she needed. Not to scare one shark—but several. Beastmen, no less.

She had even tried gathering some shells herself, lining them between stone crevices and blowing air into them to test resonance.

Nothing. Just dull gurgles and the occasional angry fish flopping out like she’d disturbed nap time.

Her fingers scraped lightly over a moss-covered rock. Her reflection shimmered faintly on the surface of a nearby bubble pool.

Her brows furrowed.

What am I even doing anymore...?

She glanced around.

The soldiers had started losing steam, too. Most of them were floating nearby, confused or pretending to be helpful. The little lord was trying to act busy by poking a shell with his spear.

Wait a minute.

Kaya squinted toward the little lord, her eyes narrowing suspiciously.

How did he even get a spear?

She stared for a moment longer, watching him try to poke a shell like he was on some epic quest, then sighed.

"Forget it," she muttered, waving the thought away like a mosquito. Her brain had bigger problems.

After hours of combing through corals and scouring stone formations, her determination had finally worn thin. She dropped herself onto a nearby flat rock—one of the few stable surfaces in this slippery, spinning ocean world.

And just sat there.

Tired.

Frustrated.

Disappointed in the ocean.

Everything around her glowed faintly, too blue, too bright. Like the water itself was trying too hard to be beautiful while she sat in the middle of it, drenched in exhaustion.

And then, of course, came the real annoyance.

Fish bait.

Not literal bait—but the stupid, clingy little fish that never seemed to leave her alone.

When they’d first arrived, she’d been scared for about ten seconds—something about the way the shadows moved made her skin crawl.

But now?

Now it was just irritating.

They floated near her arms, flicked their tails past her ears, and circled her like she was some underwater monument to confusion.

Small, curious, glowing things with big innocent eyes and no concept of personal space.

She swatted gently at one. It dodged. Came back.

Another flicked past her shoulder like it was trying to start a conversation.

"I am not fish food," she muttered.

They didn’t care.

They seemed to like her. Or maybe they liked her heat. Or the scent of her anger. Who knew?

All she knew was, wherever she went, they followed—like overly friendly jellybeans.

Kaya slumped forward on the rock, resting her chin on her hand.

"I swear," she mumbled, "if one of you swims into my hair again, I’m inventing sushi."

One of the little black fish swam close to Kaya and whispered something strange in her ear.

"We know where the captured stone is," the fish had said.

Then, out of nowhere, they tossed something at her head. It didn’t hurt—it was small and black, like a pebble.

"You knew?" Kaya asked, still confused.

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