I Became the Villainess, But My Beast Husbands Can Hear My Mind?!

Chapter 268: Hunting Down the Birds’ Population

In the end, Roxanna and Azul quietly moved to the back of the settlement instead. There, only a few people were taking care of the farms, so Roxanna could still focus on practicing her archery skills.

"You need to form a good stance first," Azul explained. He then helped Roxanna adjust her posture so that it would be more stable.

Azul stood behind her, carefully guiding the position of her arms and shoulders. His movements were gentle, but firm enough to keep her from losing balance.

"Relax your body a little," he said softly near her ear. "If you stay too tense, the arrow will not fly properly."

Roxanna let out a slow breath and tried to loosen her stiff muscles. The bow still felt heavy in her hands, and keeping it steady was much harder than she expected.

"Like this?" she asked.

Azul nodded. "Better."

He reached for her right hand and adjusted the way she held the string. His fingers brushed lightly against hers, making Roxanna instinctively glance back at him for a second.

"Do not pull using only your arms," Azul continued calmly, completely focused on teaching her. "Use your back and shoulders too."

Roxanna followed his instructions and slowly pulled the string back. The tension immediately spread across her arms, making her realize just how much strength archery actually required.

"So troublesome..." she muttered under her breath.

It was so troublesome that she almost did not want to continue, but then she realized that if she did not do this, she probably would not be able to protect herself properly in the future.

She was going to become a mother soon, and the last thing she wanted was to be unable to protect her children well.

"There, look at the dark spot on that tree," Azul whispered beside her. "We will practice shooting that first."

Roxanna nodded. She held her breath and did not even dare blink as she focused all her attention on how to shoot the target.

"You can release it when you’re ready," Azul said.

Roxanna slowly tightened her fingers around the bowstring. Her arms trembled slightly from the tension, but this time, she tried her best not to panic.

She narrowed her pink eyes at the dark mark on the tree before finally releasing the arrow.

Whoosh!

The arrow shot forward much faster than before.

Thud!

It struck the tree trunk several inches away from the dark spot.

"Ah, I missed!" Roxanna said with clear disappointment in her voice.

Azul quickly tried to comfort her. "It’s alright. Really, it’s alright. This is your first time, so missing is completely normal."

[But I can’t even hit something that isn’t moving... what if the target is moving really fast?] Roxanna thought worriedly.

"Hey, it’s really okay," Azul said softly when he noticed her pouting. He gently caressed her cheek, trying to cheer her up. "You can keep practicing." Then he placed another arrow into her hand. "Here, try again."

Even though Roxanna still was not confident she could hit the target properly, she continued trying again and again without giving up.

For a long time, every arrow either missed the mark completely or landed far from the dark spot on the tree. Still, Azul stayed beside her the entire time, patiently encouraging her after every failed attempt.

"Better than before."

"Your stance is improving."

"Try relaxing your shoulders a little."

Little by little, Roxanna started to calm down. Her hands became steadier, and she slowly began understanding how to control the bow better.

Then, around two hours later, it finally happened.

Whoosh!

Thud!

The arrow flew straight forward and struck the dark spot on the tree perfectly. For a second, Roxanna simply stared at it in disbelief, then her entire face lit up with excitement.

"Azul! Azul!" she called happily while jumping up and down and pointing at the tree. "I did it, Azul! Look! I didn’t miss!"

Azul looked toward the tree, and a proud smile slowly appeared on his face. "You really did it," he said softly.

Her hands felt a little sore after practicing for so long, but since her healing ability would recover them quickly anyway, Roxanna did not worry too much about it.

"Can I try shooting the birds now?" she asked excitedly.

Azul glanced up at the sky. "Let’s see..."

His eyes moved from one side of the forest to the other, searching for flying birds. But strangely enough, he could not find a single one.

"Where did all the birds go?" he muttered with a small frown. "I swear there were still plenty of them flying around earlier."

Roxanna blinked in confusion and looked up as well. The sky above the settlement suddenly felt strangely quiet.

Then, about a minute later, they finally got their answer.

"Wife, look what I got!" Calen’s loud voice echoed from afar.

Roxanna and Azul turned at the same time, only to see Calen running toward them with an extremely proud expression on his face. A bunch of birds hung from both of his hands, making him look more like a hunter showing off his trophies.

"I caught so many birds!" Calen said happily, practically glowing with pride.

There were probably ten birds or even more in Calen’s hands. But when Roxanna looked past him, she saw Cyrus walking behind him while carrying even more dead birds in both hands, and the number was probably close to... thirty.

Roxanna’s eyes widened in shock. "Aahh!" she cried out loudly. "Why did you hunt all the birds?!"

Calen immediately stopped walking and blinked at her in confusion.

"Huh?" Calen lowered the birds in his hands slightly, looking genuinely confused. "Because... we wanted to see who could hunt more birds."

Roxanna immediately puffed her cheeks in frustration. "But now I can’t hunt any birds anymore because you already shot all the birds here!" she complained.

[Now how am I supposed to complete the mission?!] she screamed internally.

Calen blinked at her several times before slowly turning to look at the pile of birds in his hands, then he looked at Cyrus and Cyrus looked back at him calmly.

The two of them fell silent for a moment, as if they had finally realized the problem.

"Oh," Calen said awkwardly.

Roxanna pressed a hand against her forehead. "You two really hunted every single bird you could find?"

"Cyrus was the one who hunted so many birds!" Calen immediately pointed at Cyrus without hesitation. "He killed the entire bird population!"

Cyrus looked at him calmly. "You were competing with me."

"That’s different!" Calen argued loudly. "I was only trying to win!"

Roxanna stared at both of them with disbelief. "How does that make it any better?!"

Calen opened his mouth, clearly ready to defend himself again, but no words came out this time.

Meanwhile, Cyrus glanced at the pile of birds in his hands before quietly saying, "In my defense, they were very easy to catch."

"That is definitely not helping," Azul said while rubbing his forehead.

Roxanna let out a deep sigh and crossed her arms. "At this point, the birds around the settlement are probably warning each other to stay away from this place forever."

Calen’s dog ears drooped slightly after hearing that. "So there won’t be any birds left for Wife to practice on?"

"Of course not!" Roxanna cried out. "You two hunted them like your lives depended on it!"

For a brief moment, silence filled the area, then Calen suddenly lifted one finger, looking serious.

"What about squirrels?"

"I need to hunt birds!" Roxanna immediately looked horrified. "And do not start hunting the squirrels too!"

===

In the end, Cyrus and Calen decided to take Roxanna to an area farther away from the settlement so she could continue practicing without disturbing the few birds left nearby.

Meanwhile, Azul volunteered to cook some of the birds they had caught earlier.

"Wife, I’m really sorry..." Calen lowered his head, and even his dog ears drooped sadly. "I didn’t mean to make things difficult for you."

Seeing him look so guilty, Roxanna could not stay upset for long. She let out a small sigh before gently patting his back.

"It’s alright," she said softly. "I’m sure there are still plenty of birds outside the settlement."

Then she suddenly remembered something. "But we still haven’t tested the poison yet," Roxanna said. "Maybe we should try it now?"

Cyrus nodded calmly. "That’s a good idea."

After walking for a while, the three of them finally stopped near the edge of the forest. Tall trees surrounded the area, and bird cries could still be heard from above.

Cyrus carefully took out a small vial of poison that he had brought with him. Azul had only allowed them to bring one because he did not want them wasting too much poison carelessly.

"Alright, let me do it first," Cyrus said calmly. "But don’t worry, I’ll only shoot one bird, not more than that."

Roxanna sighed. "I know. I know." Then she smiled and tried to cheer him up. "Now, do it! Try the poison out!"