Villainess is being pampered by her beast husbands

At the end of the day, these people were nothing more than hired hands. Mules sent to kill, kidnap, or create trouble. The real mastermind behind all of this was likely sitting comfortably somewhere far away.

For all she knew, these idiots might not even know who had hired them.

Kaya clicked her tongue in annoyance.

What a waste of time.

She rubbed the back of her neck and stared at the groaning pile scattered around the cave floor. One was clutching his stomach. Another had somehow managed to wedge himself between two rocks after she threw him there.

Pathetic.

The irritating part wasn’t the attack itself.

She had expected that.

The irritating part was that she still had no idea which snake was hiding behind the curtain this time.

One enemy could be dealt with.

Ten enemies could be beaten.

But an enemy you couldn’t see?

That was the kind that gave people headaches.

Kaya let out a long sigh.

"Should’ve hit them harder."

A few of the hyenas immediately stiffened.

Seeing their reaction, her irritation eased ever so slightly.

Well.

At least that part was satisfying.

Veer looked at Kaya, glancing between her and the thrashing hyenas in the pool. "Well, I have to ask... your idea to flush these guys out was certainly creative, but what the heck is this mess, ’wife’?"

Hearing that, Kaya whipped her head around, her eyes narrowing into slits. "Who the hell are you calling ’wife’, huh?"

Veer didn’t even flinch. He just smirked. "You, of course. After all, I only have one wife."

Kaya stared at him dead in the eye, her voice dropping to a dangerous, flat tone. "The last person who called me his wife is currently resting about ten feet under the ground."

Instead of being intimidated, Veer’s smile somehow grew brighter. "Oh my God, really? So you mean my competition is already dead? Excellent."

Kaya stared at him in utter annoyance, completely exasperated by his shamelessness. "You... ugh. ’Whatever.’"

Deciding to channel her mounting irritation elsewhere, she turned her blistering anger back to the hyenas.

"So," Kaya snapped, stalking toward the edge of the water. "Are you guys completely useless, or does at least one of you have actual, useful information about who sent you here?"

One of the hyenas—the one Kaya had stomped on earlier, whose mouth was already severely swollen and bruised—puffed out his chest. Despite his pathetic state, he spat haughtily, "We’re not gonna tell you a damn thing! Even if we know!"

Kaya paused. Slowly, her annoyed scowl melted away, replaced by an absolutely terrifying, radiant smile.

"Ah," she sighed happily. "And here I was, so worried that I wouldn’t get the excuse to torture anyone today. ’’You’re done.’’"

The other hyenas froze in the water. They slowly turned to look at their defiant companion with wide, horror-struck eyes. ’Are you an absolute fool?!’ their expressions screamed. ’Why would you openly admit you know something and provoke her?!’

They found out exactly why it was a bad idea.

For the entirety of that day and deep into the night, the agonizing screams of that single, foolish hyena echoed relentlessly through the cavern walls. Kaya was ruthlessly creative, and the sheer volume of his misery made the remaining hyenas violently tremble in the cold.

By the time she was finished, the psychological and physical terror had completely broken the rest of the pack. They didn’t even wait for her to ask a second time. They practically fought each other for the chance to confess, desperately throwing their hands in the air.

’’"It was the Snake Tribe!"’’ they wailed, practically tripping over their words. ’’"The Snake Tribe from the West!"’’

Kaya wiped her hands on a cloth, raising an eyebrow. "Keep talking."

"Their leader!" another hyena sobbed, eager to save himself. "The Snake leader gave us the money! He paid us a fortune and told us to capture you, even if we had to use any dirty trick in the book!"

Kaya stared at the shivering, broken hyena mercenaries, her expression completely unreadable. The cavern was silent save for the dripping of the stalactites and the occasional pathetic whimper from the pool.

"The Snake Tribe," Kaya repeated, tasting the words. She slowly turned away from the water, her heavy leather boots crunching against the stone floor. A low, dark chuckle began to vibrate in her chest, eventually bubbling up into a full, echoing laugh that sent a fresh wave of chills down the hyenas’ spines.

Veer leaned against the cave wall, wiping the last of the blood from his blade. He watched her with a mixture of deep amusement and genuine curiosity. "Care to share the joke, wife? Because from where I’m standing, having the wealthiest, most venomous tribe in the West put a bounty on your head usually isn’t a laughing matter."

Kaya finally caught her breath, wiping a tear of mirth from her eye. "Oh, Veer. You don’t get it. They didn’t just fall for it. They swallowed the bait, the hook, the line, and the entire fishing rod."

Veer raised an eyebrow, folding his arms across his broad chest. "Fell for what, exactly?"

"The Free Clan," Kaya said simply, waving her hand dismissively in the air. "The great, prosperous, independent utopia I’m supposedly building to rival the established tribes. The grand political movement that has the Snake Tribe so terrified they’re emptying their treasuries to hire bottom-feeding assassins."

She stepped closer to Veer, dropping her voice so the hyenas couldn’t hear the specifics. "Veer... the Free Clan is ’nothing’. It doesn’t exist."

Veer blinked, his predatory eyes widening a fraction. "Excuse me?"

"It’s a complete fabrication," Kaya admitted, a wicked, unapologetic grin spreading across her face. "It’s a honey trap. A giant, glaring bullseye I painted on my own back. I knew that if I just sat around trying to survive, the enemies hiding in the shadows would eventually pick me off one by one. I couldn’t see them. I didn’t know who wanted me dead or who was plotting against me. So, I decided to make them come to me."

Veer stared at her, the realization slowly washing over him. He had seen ruthless warlords and cunning strategists, but the sheer, audacious scale of this lie was staggering.

"You started a rumor of a rising superpower," Veer deduced, his voice laced with a newfound, terrifying level of respect. "You intentionally leaked fake plans of a unified tribal alliance to force your hidden enemies into the light."

"Exactly," Kaya nodded. "I used wandering merchants and gossiping tavern-dwellers to spread the word. I made the ’Free Clan’ sound so incredibly lucrative, so dangerously appealing to the common folk, that the established powers—like our scaly friends in the West—would panic. They saw a threat to their monopoly, panicked, and made a sloppy, aggressive move. And now..." She gestured to the battered assassins. "...I know exactly who is holding the knife in the dark."

Veer let out a low whistle, running a hand through his dark hair. A smirk played on his lips, his eyes gleaming with dark delight. "Gods, you are utterly terrifying. I love it. But wait..." He frowned, pointing a thumb toward the cave entrance.

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