I Became the Villainess, But My Beast Husbands Can Hear My Mind?!-Chapter 74: A Lie to Save a Life

Honestly, no matter what Skiv said, it still pointed to one painful truth; he believed his life was useless, so he thought it would be better to just disappear.

It was probably because Skiv was a weak beastman, so he thought saving his life was a foolish thing to do, and that guess was proven right by what he said next.

"Many people told me you almost died trying to save me," Skiv said, clenching his fists as he lowered his head again. "They said you lost so much blood, and you were unconscious for hours. I... I just don’t understand."

His eyes softened, and he looked as if he was fighting back tears.

"I’m... really confused right now," he whispered. "Why did you save me? Was it just to make me feel guilty, so I wouldn’t leave this place?"

From anyone else’s point of view, Roxanna’s actions were indeed confusing. In only a few days, she had gone from the cruelest woman in the settlement to someone who smiled kindly and helped everyone she met.

Forget pretending to be a mimic, people would probably believe her right away if she said she was the evil Roxanna’s secret twin.

[Wait... that excuse actually sounds pretty good,] Roxanna thought. [Maybe I really should use it.]

"No, you’re wrong, Skiv." Roxanna softened her expression and bent down a little so she could speak at his eye level. "Alright, this is a secret. I’ll probably tell the others later, but for now, this stays between us."

She leaned closer and whispered into his ear, "I’m not a mimic. I’m Roxanna’s hidden twin sister." Then she added, "So the reason I saved you wasn’t driven by any ill intent like my evil sister usually has. I truly just wanted to help you, that’s all."

Admitting she was a mimic would be too dangerous. Her husbands had accepted her, but other people? They would never stop doubting her.

So it was better to say she was Loba’s other daughter, the one he had hidden somewhere in the forest after a seer predicted that the evil Roxanna would bring good luck, while she would only bring disaster.

On the other side, Skiv instantly jumped back, his eyes widening so much that Roxanna worried they might pop out.

"W-What?! Are you... are you joking?!" he asked, barely able to form the words.

"Joking?" Roxanna shook her head. "No, no, no. I would never joke about something this serious. Haven’t you noticed how different I’ve been since I returned from the cursed forest?"

Skiv stared at her for a long moment, eyeing her from head to toe. "Y–You still look the same."

Zeir let out a soft sigh. "It’s not about her appearance. It’s her behavior."

Roxanna turned toward him in surprise, not expecting him to support her lie so smoothly.

"Actually, something happened in that cursed forest," Zeir continued calmly.

His words captured Skiv’s full attention. The boy even stopped breathing for a moment. "What... what happened?"

Zeir leaned forward and spoke in a low voice, as if sharing a great secret, and honestly, that was exactly how it sounded.

"Our leader, the real Roxanna, died."

This time, Skiv looked completely stunned, his face turning as pale as a corpse. "W-What?! She died?!"

"Shh... shh..." Roxanna quickly hushed him. "I’ll announce this to everyone later, but for now, let’s keep it between us."

She was sure a few warriors guarding the gate had already heard everything, and that the rumor would spread across the settlement by morning.

[But honestly,] she thought, [everyone would probably celebrate that kind of news.]

"Listen carefully," Roxanna said. "Loba, my father, locked me inside the cursed forest ever since I was little. It was because a seer once told him that I would bring disaster, while Roxanna would bring him great fortune."

"What nonsense!!" the warriors guarding the gate shouted at once. "That evil woman brought far more misfortune!"

Their sudden outburst startled her so much that her fingers tightened around Zeir’s arm on reflex. The men behind the gate quickly cleared their throats and pretended to resume their guard duty, but it was already too late because their reaction said everything.

"At least some people still have common sense," Zeir muttered under his breath.

Roxanna coughed lightly, trying to regain her composure before continuing, "Anyway... because of that prophecy, my father hid me away. No one ever knew I existed, and the Roxanna you all knew—the cruel one—she was the real Roxanna. But during the cursed forest incident, she... died."

Skiv turned to Zeir, as if asking him to confirm the story.

Zeir nodded. "Yes. There really was an accident. When we were trying to save Azul, the real Roxanna disturbed a moth nest, and the moths ended up eating her head."

Roxanna shivered the moment he mentioned the moths. She still remembered how many sharp teeth they had inside their mouths.

She then continued the story. "After that... they found me in a cave while they were looking for shelter from heavy rain." She added softly, "And that was the first time I learned that my father actually had a settlement."

Roxanna turned her face to the side and sobbed softly. "All this time, he told me he had to spend days hunting, which was why he rarely came back to the cave."

Skiv gasped. "So... you didn’t even know you had a mother and a twin sister?"

Roxanna slowly shook her head. "No. My father told me they had already died."

"But... how did you live if you never left the cave?" Skiv asked, his voice full of worry.

"I didn’t live well," Roxanna sighed sadly. "Since my father almost never came back, I could only eat once every five days."

"THAT’S INSANE!"

"I’LL GO TO THE AFTERLIFE AND KILL THAT MAN MYSELF!"

The warriors who had been hiding behind the gate finally couldn’t hold back anymore and now openly stepped out in front of her.

There were at least three warriors there, and all of them looked as if they wanted to drag Loba out of the afterlife just so they could send him back again.

Well, since Loba had allowed the evil Roxanna to torment so many people, he truly deserved all this hatred.