Villainess is being pampered by her beast husbands

Chapter 466 --466

Kaya sat down on the cold stone floor, her back pressed against the damp cave wall. Her breathing was still uneven, her heart still pounding from the chase, but she forced herself to listen.Nothing.

The howling had stopped. The slithering sounds that had haunted them through the forest were gone. Even the distant echoes of movement—the scraping of claws, the rustle of scales—had faded into an eerie, stunned silence.

She waited, taking deep breaths, counting the seconds in her head. One minute passed. Then five. Then ten.

Slowly, carefully, an hour crawled by.

Kaya remained perfectly still, straining her ears for any sound that didn’t belong. But there was nothing. Just the steady drip of water somewhere deeper in the cave, the faint whistle of wind through unseen cracks, and the quiet breathing of Veer and Cutie behind her.

Then, slowly, almost without realizing it, she felt the tension drain from her body. Her shoulders sagged. Her grip on the knife loosened slightly. The adrenaline that had been keeping her upright began to fade, leaving behind only bone-deep exhaustion.

She collapsed fully onto the ground, lying on her back and staring up at the dark ceiling of the cave. Her muscles ached. Her clothes were still damp and uncomfortable. Her mind felt foggy, disconnected.

Maybe she was hallucinating. Maybe the danger was still out there, waiting. But right now, in this moment, she knew—*felt*—that whatever had been hunting them had left.

Why?

She didn’t know.

Who had sent them?

She didn’t know that either.

Why follow her specifically? Why this level of coordination, this intensity of pursuit?

No answers. Just questions stacking upon questions.

But one thing she knew for certain, with a clarity that cut through the exhaustion: she was getting too deep into this. She was reaching toward something—some core truth of this world, some mystery that others wanted to keep buried. And the closer she got, the more dangerous it became.

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Kaya closed her eyes and let out a long, slow breath.

She had no intention of becoming some smartass protagonist who tried to solve the world’s mysteries. She wasn’t interested in uncovering ancient secrets or saving civilizations or whatever nonsense seemed to drive people in stories like this.

If someone asked her right now—*Do you want to go back to your own world?*—the answer would be immediate and emphatic: *Yes. Absolutely. Without question.*

Why would anyone *want* to stay in this godforsaken place?

She could already hear the objections. She knew what other women—modern women, women from her world—would say if they found themselves here. They’d read the stories, watched the shows, consumed the fantasies. A beast world where handsome men followed you day and night, where they loved you unconditionally, where you were special and desired and protected?

It sounded like a romance novel come to life. Any woman would be jumping at the chance, right?

Wrong.

Kaya had been here long enough to see past the fantasy, past the surface-level appeal. Yes, these beastmen were beautiful. Objectively, undeniably gorgeous. Yes, they were strong, capable, advanced in some ways.

But if you asked her to *stay* here? To make this world her permanent home?

Absolutely not.

Because here was the thing nobody wanted to talk about, the reality that shattered the fantasy: this world was filthy.

Not in a metaphorical sense. In a very literal, very physical, very biological sense.

Yes, they could treat most illnesses with their herbal medicines and natural remedies. But thousands of them didn’t even know they were sick. They had no concept of germs, bacteria, viruses. No understanding of how disease actually spread.

Kaya shuddered just thinking about it.

She would not—could not—have physical intimacy with anyone here. Not easily. Not without serious precautions.

Okay, yes, Veer and Cutie were... they were different. She’d been ready to die when she made that decision, so she’d just done it without overthinking. But if you asked her now, with a clear head and time to think?

She probably wouldn’t have been ready.

Because who knew how many diseases these beastmen carried?

Listen—human bodies already carried countless germs, bacteria, microorganisms. That was just biology. But humans in her world had vaccinations. Antibiotics. Medical screenings. Standards of hygiene.

These beastmen? They’d never had a polio injection. Never received any kind of preventive medicine. Never had a blood test or a health screening in their lives.

They flew through the air constantly, jumped around in dirt, hunted in forests, rolled in mud, touched dead animals with their bare hands.

Just *think* about it.

If they got injured, either the wound healed or they died. If it didn’t heal properly, insects would get in. Infection would set in. And Kaya had *seen* that—seen wounds festering with maggots, seen beastmen die from what should have been treatable injuries.

It was disgusting.

And yes, she knew—yes, *she* bathed daily. Yes, Veer and Cutie maintained decent hygiene. Everything with them was... *okay*.

But she’d seen others.

She’d met other vultures who didn’t bathe daily because they didn’t want to carry water all the time. She’d encountered beastmen from various tribes who had wildly different standards of cleanliness.

And look, she wanted to be fair. Beastmen *were* gorgeous. They were like living sculptures, beautiful and powerful. If this world had been even *slightly* more modern—if it had advanced medical technology, or even just better medical knowledge—Kaya would have gladly stayed.

But seeing the actual conditions? The reality of daily life here?

She was *not* staying. Not at any cost.

She needed to find a way back to her own world. Back to her life. Even if that meant going back just to die from whatever illness had been killing her there.

At least it would be a *clean* death. A modern death. Not some medieval nightmare of infection and parasites.

The more she thought about it, the more reasons piled up.

Who knew when a simple cold could kill you here? When winter came and you froze because there was no central heating, no proper insulation? When summer became unbearably hot and you died of heatstroke because there was no air conditioning, no way to regulate temperature?

What kind of nonsense was that?

And then there was the summer practice she’d learned about recently. When water became scarce during the hot season, many beastmen—especially those who lived in drier regions—would cover themselves with wet soil to stay cool.

*Wet. Soil.*

Mud, basically. They’d coat themselves in mud and let it dry on their skin.

Okay, listen—Kaya wasn’t judging. Or rather, she was *trying* not to judge. She understood it was a survival adaptation. She understood they didn’t have alternatives. She wasn’t looking down on these beastmen as people.

But she had to say it: that was utterly, completely, horrifyingly *disgusting*.

Because unlike them, whose bodies had adapted to this world, whose immune systems had been shaped by generations of exposure—*her* body was not like that.

She couldn’t handle germs the way they could. Her immune system was designed for a modern world with antibiotics and vaccines and sanitation. Throwing her into this environment was like throwing a house cat into the jungle and expecting it to become a tiger.

What would people say if they found out how she died? *Oh, she survived a military career, survived combat, survived injuries and missions and impossible odds—and then died because she got parasites from living in the beast world.*

Just *thinking* about it made her want to vomit.