CHAPTER 36: FEEDING MY HUSBANDS! (1)

"The meat is hot!" Calen leaned closer toward her, making Roxanna jump in surprise. "It’s hot and... tastes odd, I mean, oddly good!"

"Delicious?" Roxanna asked, suddenly looking just as excited as he was. They even held hands and looked like they were about to jump up and down together. "That’s the right word for food that tastes really good."

"Yes, yes! It’s delicious!" Calen repeated happily. "The meat tastes better than I expected, and... I’ve never tasted anything like this before! What kind of magic did you put in here?!"

Roxanna blinked several times, then turned her face away as she said, "L-love? I poured my love magic when I made this food. Maybe... that’s why it tastes really good."

Calen’s dog tail wagged rapidly from side to side, whacking the ground beneath him as he couldn’t contain the burst of joy in his heart.

His wife had just confessed that she loved him—wait, no, the love she meant was probably for all of her husbands, but whatever. The most important thing was that his wife loved him too!

"Then... can I taste your love again?" The fluffy dog tail behind Calen wagged even faster, just like a dog who couldn’t wait to eat its treat right away.

"No." Roxanna rejected his request immediately, making his tail droop down at once. "We have to eat together with the others. Just wait a moment, I will make the stir-fried mustard greens first!"

[He looks so pitiful, but I can’t pamper him alone!] Roxanna thought. [If one of them eats, then all of my husbands have to eat too!]

Even though Calen couldn’t stop staring at the grilled rabbit meat on the banana leaf, he still did as she said. He sat beside the food like an obedient dog and kept watching Roxanna the whole time.

Since she didn’t want the meat to get cold, she cooked the stir-fried mustard greens as fast as she could. She rinsed the pot, sautéed the garlic, then added water, salt, and pepper. It didn’t take long, so before the meat cooled down, she told Calen to call the other husbands to the back of the hut.

[Weren’t you going to hide your cooking pot, Host?] the system asked.

Roxanna waved her hand. [Ah, I wasn’t really serious about that. Like I said, I just wanted a reason to spend some private time with each husband, and Calen just happened to be my first pick!]

Besides, if the system gave her a magic refrigerator, she would still need to explain those strange items to them.

While she cooked, she had already thought about this. In the end, she decided she would just tell them that the items came from a magical portal.

[There are voids that spit out demon beasts, so... if I say there’s a portal that spits out magical items, they’ll believe me, right?] Roxanna asked the system.

As she continued speaking in her mind, all of her husbands had already walked to the back of the hut, and they heard everything.

Since their wife would try to convince them about these magical things they didn’t even know the names of, they would simply believe her.

Besides, magic seemed like the most reasonable explanation for all the strange things about her.

"Roxanna, I have brought these animals," Calen said.

Luan immediately smacked the back of his head when he heard him speak so rudely. "We’re beasts! Not just animals!"

Calen hissed and clicked his tongue. "We can also turn into animals, so what’s the difference?"

Once again, they started fighting like a typical cat and dog. Luan grew even more annoyed when Calen bragged that Roxanna had fed him meat earlier.

"Ah, don’t fight! Don’t fight!" Roxanna finally walked between them, and for some reason, she was able to push these burly men apart, or maybe it was because they moved aside on their own.

"Luan, Luan, I can feed you too!" Roxanna grabbed his hands, stopping him before he could pounce on Calen again. "Please, don’t be sad." She looked up at him with her big round eyes, and her voice was so soft, so warm, that Luan almost forgot to breathe.

Luan’s eyebrows pulled together. "I-I’m not sad!"

He was clearly angry at Calen, but why did Roxanna say that he looked sad?

[I used to feel sad too whenever I saw parents feeding their children,] Roxanna thought. [Since I couldn’t cry in public, I showed my sadness as anger. So... maybe Luan is the same.]

After hearing Roxanna’s thoughts, Luan swallowed all his anger at once. The words he had planned to throw at Calen disappeared. He shut his mouth tightly and slowly lowered his fist.

Within seconds, the angry cat beastman relaxed his whole body. Roxanna blinked, surprised that a few gentle words were enough to calm him down.

[Just as I thought, Luan is only sad! And now that I’m going to feed him, he isn’t sad anymore!] Roxanna said in her mind. [He even ooks like a cute kitty when he’s not angry.]

The "cute kitty" she meant was actually a six-foot-tall beastman with a claw scar over his left eye. But Roxanna still thought he was adorable because of his long, thick eyelashes, something she had always wished she had.

"There, there." Roxanna patted his chest softly, then took both his and Calen’s hands, pulling them toward the meat laid out on the banana leaves. "Come on, let’s eat together."

She looked back at Azul, Cyrus, and Zeir as well. "Come here! Come here! Let me feed all of you!"

Azul glanced at the others, then stepped forward first, his calm eyes softening a little. Cyrus followed right behind him, and looked as excited as Calen. Zeir came last, walking slowly as if he didn’t want to show how eager he actually was.

Roxanna smiled brightly as all five of her beastmen gathered around her like oversized, well-behaved pets. She knelt beside the banana leaves and lifted a piece of the grilled meat.

"Alright," she said cheerfully, "line up. I’ll feed you one by one."