CHAPTER 20: WAKING UP TO FIVE HANDSOME IDIOTS

Roxanna wasn’t entirely sure what had happened to her or where she was now. When she opened her eyes, everything looked blurry, and no matter how many times she blinked, her vision wouldn’t clear up.

She was lying on something hard and uncomfortable, probably a mix of straw and wooden planks. Her head was pounding so badly that she didn’t even need to check to know the bed wasn’t soft at all.

Faintly, she could hear several people talking around her.

"What if she never wakes up?"

"Cyrus, you’ve asked that question ten times already, and my answer is still the same, she will wake up."

"Tch, this is all your fault. Why did you listen to her request? You shouldn’t have stabbed her like that, Zeir."

"Azul did the same thing."

"That was an emergency! And why are you throwing the hot potato at me?"

"What potato? No one is throwing any hot potatoes at you."

As they kept arguing, Roxanna’s headache grew worse, and her throat felt incredibly dry.

After gathering whatever little energy she had left, she finally whispered in a faint voice, "W-wa... ter."

All of them immediately stopped talking and turned their heads toward her at the same time. Their eyes widened as if she had just risen from the dead.

"She’s awake!" Calen shouted, nearly tripping over his own feet as he rushed to her side.

"Don’t crowd her," Luan warned, though he also stepped closer. Even though he looked calm, his heart was actually filled with worry.

Zeir quickly grabbed a bamboo cup from the corner and poured water into it. "Here, slowly," he said as he helped lift Roxanna’s head.

The first sip burned down her dry throat, but it felt so good that a tiny sigh escaped her lips.

"Do you feel pain anywhere?" Azul asked.

"Are you dizzy? Do you need something?" Cyrus asked frantically.

"Pi... pillow..." Roxanna whispered. "I want a soft pillow."

"Pillow?" Cyrus frowned. "What is that?"

Calen chimed in, sounding genuinely confused. "Is that the name of a man?"

Roxanna stared at them for a moment, wondering if her headache was making her hallucinate. [They’re so noisy...] she sighed in her mind. [But... they look handsome...]

She honestly never imagined there would come a day when she’d wake up to find five good-looking men gathered around her like this.

"...No," she finally said softly. "It’s not a man. A pillow is something soft that you put under your head when you sleep."

Cyrus blinked in confusion. "Why would you need something under your head?"

"Maybe... so her neck doesn’t snap while she sleeps!" Calen said with full confidence.

"But why?" Luan added. "We can sleep perfectly fine without anything under our heads."

Roxanna didn’t even have the strength to argue. "Just... something soft," she pleaded weakly. "Anything soft."

"I’ll find something soft!" Calen shouted as he dashed toward the door.

"I’ll look too!" Cyrus yelled, racing after him.

Roxanna wanted to speak again, but instead she started coughing. Why was her throat still so dry? She had just drunk plenty of water.

"Don’t talk for now," Zeir said gently. "You might hurt your throat if you force yourself."

Azul then sat beside Roxanna. He placed a cool, damp piece of leather cloth on her forehead, cooling her burning skin. "I’m sorry," he murmured.

"Why?" Roxanna wanted to ask more, but her voice wouldn’t come out.

[Why is he apologizing? Why do they all look so guilty? It’s not like any of them made me sick...]

Technically, they were the ones who stabbed Roxanna and collected her blood. However, they only did it because she asked them to.

Truthfully, none of them wanted to hurt her. But somehow, they knew that if they refused, Roxanna would’ve stabbed herself instead.

And that would’ve been far worse, especially with her trying to use a stone knife with no experience at all.

"Because... we hurt you in order to save others," Azul said softly. "I know you won’t think badly of us, but still... it doesn’t feel right."

"I’m... fine." Roxanna tried her best to form a small smile on her face. "Don’t... worry."

Her voice was barely louder than a whisper, but the moment they heard it, all of them froze as if she had just given them the greatest reassurance in the world.

"You shouldn’t force yourself to smile," Azul said gently. "Just rest."

Roxanna wanted to close her eyes again, but then she heard faint footsteps approaching the house—well, the evil Roxanna’s house, she guessed. She didn’t really know. She only knew this was the room she was staying in.

At first, she thought it was just Calen and Cyrus coming back, but she soon realized the footsteps were far too many to belong to only two people.

"What’s going on outside?" Luan straightened his back and walked toward the door. "Are they coming to ask for blood again?"

He tried to shut the door, but before he could, a large group of people shoved it open so hard that it almost came off its hinges.

"Why are you all here?!" Luan shouted, his voice cracking with annoyance. "If you want more blood, the answer is NO!"

He started swinging a bundle of straw at them like an angry grandmother chasing chickens. "Go away! Go away!"

"Hey, Luan! Why are you trying to chase us out?!" the beastman at the front yelled, clearly irritated as Luan kept whacking his head again and again. "We’re not here to ask for blood!"

Zeir then stepped forward, standing between Roxanna and the group of beastkins in front of him.

"Then what do you want?" he asked, his eyes sharp and guarded.

If they wanted more blood, then he would be the one stabbing them because there was no way they would let anyone stab Roxanna again.

"We actually want to—" the beastman began, then stopped talking for a moment before trying again, "We want to—"

He kept pausing again and again until Luan finally grew irritated. "What do you want?! Just say it!"

The beastman’s lips trembled before he suddenly yelled with all his might, "WE WANT TO APOLOGIZE!"

In the next second, the entire group of beastkins burst into loud, messy tears, like someone had opened a floodgate.

"LEADER, PLEASE FORGIVE US!" they cried, voices shaking the whole house.

[Ding! Ding! Ding!]

The system suddenly chimed in.

[Congratulations, Host! Side Mission complete: Make the people in Vixeria Tribe cry because of you!]