I Became the Villainess, But My Beast Husbands Can Hear My Mind?!-Chapter 180: The Friendly Dog (1)

Roxanna slowly steadied her breathing so she could calm herself. After a moment, she finally took Azul’s hand and walked toward the basement.

Calen followed closely behind her, gently holding her other hand as if he didn’t want to lose her in the darkness.

The basement was very dark since there was not even the slightest source of light there, whether from electricity or sunlight. Fortunately, unlike the strange dark mist outside, Roxanna could still use her night vision here.

"Did you use this room to imprison people?" Calen asked as he looked around cautiously.

"What? No, of course not." Roxanna quickly shook her head. "This room is also used to store things, just like the underground storage rooms in our tribe. Back then, I usually used this basement to wash clothes because I put the washing machine here."

Azul frowned. "You didn’t wash clothes in the river? Or draw water from a well?"

Roxanna shook her head again. "We used a water pump. It can move water through pipes, and it works with electricity."

"Electricity?" Calen and Azul looked at her with confused expressions.

Roxanna opened her mouth to explain, but then she paused. Explaining how electricity worked would probably only make them more confused.

"It’s like magic," she finally said. She nodded to herself, satisfied with that explanation. "Yes. You can think of electricity as a kind of magic energy."

Azul and Calen exchanged glances. After a moment, they slowly nodded, finally understanding what she meant now that she had explained it in a simpler way.

Roxanna was about to chuckle but suddenly fell silent the moment she noticed something that caught her attention.

"Since when was there such a big cage in my basement?" Roxanna murmured in confusion. "I swear I didn’t have a do—wait... did I have a dog?"

[Why do I suddenly feel unsure?] she wondered. [I’m sure I didn’t have a dog before...]

No, wait.

That was right. She really didn’t have a dog before because she had always preferred raising cats.

But her ex-husband, Leon, had brought a large dog home just a few days before they entered the underground shelter.

Then why didn’t she remember it?

The dog had even gone into the shelter with her, so why did it feel like that memory had been erased?

[There are many things you don’t remember, Host.] the system suddenly spoke.

[It’s not because you have a bad memory. Your brain simply tries to protect you from remembering too much pain from your past life.]

Roxanna quietly stared at the large cage in front of her, her thoughts slowly becoming heavier.

Before Roxanna could think about it any further, the table in the corner of the room suddenly moved on its own. Slowly, it slid aside and revealed an iron door hidden underneath.

Roxanna’s eyes widened. That door... It was the entrance she used to get into the underground shelter. The door was always hidden under a carpet, so no one had ever noticed it before.

[If you walk into that place, you might remember more things from your past life.] the system warned her. [But those memories might be very painful for you, Host.]

[Then... maybe I shouldn’t go in there,] Roxanna thought.

She didn’t even want to take a step closer to the iron door. Just looking at it made her chest feel heavy.

"Woof! Woof!"

Mr. Fenrir started barking loudly again and again, as if he was urging her to go inside the underground shelter.

Before anyone could stop him, the giant wolf pushed the iron door open.

The moment the door moved, the inside of the underground shelter became visible. Strangely, the lights inside were still working, softly lighting the hidden space below.

"Is this the place where you lived with your ex-husband during the apocalypse?" Azul asked softly. His voice was careful, as if he was afraid of hurting her. "The place where... he did many terrible things to you."

Roxanna slowly nodded. She didn’t say anything else and only let out a soft hum as a response.

"We don’t have to go there if you don’t want to," Calen said gently. "Maybe we can find another way to leave this palace."

"Woof! Woof!"

Mr. Fenrir barked even louder this time. The giant wolf even bared his teeth at Calen, as if he was trying to tell him that this was the only way out.

Roxanna took a deep breath. "I can do it," she said softly. But the words sounded more like she was trying to convince herself. "I can do it... yes. I believe I can do it."

For some reason, Azul and Calen also didn’t like that place.

At first, it was because they didn’t want Roxanna to remember the painful things from her past and they didn’t want to see her hurt again.

But for some strange reason, a deep feeling of unease slowly grew in their hearts, as if they also had terrible memories connected to that shelter.

But that didn’t make sense.

They had never even existed in this world before, so how could they possibly feel something like that?

"But... can you go in first?" Roxanna suddenly asked Calen.

Her voice was hesitant. She wasn’t completely sure why she said it, but she knew one thing: she was too afraid to step inside first.

"I... I’m kind of scared."

As soon as the words left her mouth, Roxanna lowered her eyes. She gently bit her lower lip, feeling a little embarrassed for asking something like that.

"Alright," Calen replied immediately, without even thinking twice.

"I’ll go in first," he said calmly. "Then you can follow behind me."

Calen stepped closer to the iron door without hesitation. The dim light from the underground shelter spilled out, casting long shadows across the basement floor.

"Stay behind me," Calen said.

Roxanna nodded. She tightened her grip on Azul’s hand before slowly following Calen toward the entrance.

Mr. Fenrir had already jumped down into the shelter and was waiting below, its body standing near the bottom of the stairs. Its tail swayed slowly, as if it was encouraging them to come down.