Roxanna also honestly didn't know why they wanted to defend her that badly. Their sudden change in attitude was truly strange. Did their souls also get swapped with someone else?!
No, that didn't make sense.
Even if the souls inside their bodies were different, they should still know that the evil Roxanna was a terrible person based on their memories.
Maybe… they were just too sweet and too kind for their own good.
"You can't replace me!" Roxanna finally shouted, hoping they would stop pushing each other. "I'm the one who made the mistake, so I'm the one who has to take the punishment. If you replace me, then it's not called making up for what I did."
[Am I being too preachy?] Roxanna wondered nervously in her mind. [My ex-husband didn't like it whenever I tried to teach him a lesson. Will they also get mad at me?]
But honestly, she was ready if they did get mad at her. After all, the evil Roxanna had done so many awful things to them, so if they wanted to yell at her, she wouldn't blame them.
However, none of them said anything, and when Calen tried to speak, Zeir suddenly covered his mouth with his hand.
He knew better than to let that loud dog say something stupid when Roxanna was already scared they might be angry at her.
Zeir cleared his throat and said softly, "We're only trying to help."
Roxanna nodded slowly, surprised they weren't shouting at her. "That… That's really kind of you. But I still have to do this myself."
She turned to Carla. "Carla, you can do it now." Roxanna closed her eyes, ready to feel a handful of mud hit her face.
But Carla, on the other hand, suddenly looked unsure. Roxanna had apologized so sincerely… and even insisted on taking the punishment.
She even began to feel like she was the villain here instead of that fox!
She was so confused that she dropped the lump of mud in her hand and instead used her dirty finger to smear a bit of mud on Roxanna's cheek.
"There!" Carla said quickly, turning her face away in embarrassment. "Now we're even!"
Roxanna blinked, touching the tiny smear on her cheek. How could this count as revenge? Carla didn't even throw anything, but she only dabbed a tiny bit of mud on her!
Before Roxanna could say anything, Carla spoke again. "I forgive you for now, but if you ever try to seduce our men again, I'll bury you alive in the mud! Remember that!"
A bright smile spread across Roxanna's face. "I understand!" She nodded with full energy. "I won't seduce anyone else. My husbands are more than enough for me."
[Carla is such a sweet woman! She must have forgiven me easily because she's just so kind!] Roxanna thought happily. [That evil woman was really terrible for messing with Carla's marriage!]
All of her beast husbands, however, thought the opposite.
The reason Carla forgave her so easily was because Roxanna looked too kind and too soft, so soft that the ox beastwoman didn't have the heart to throw a handful of mud at her face.
They couldn't describe it well, but it felt like Roxanna had some kind of charm, a warm softness that made people unable to be angry with her.
Honestly, only someone truly heartless could ever hate this little angel!
"Let's get out of here!" Carla called to the other ox beastwomen. She lifted her axe onto her shoulder, then turned around to leave. But before taking more than a few steps, she glanced back at Roxanna and reminded her, "Don't forget what I told you!"
Roxanna nodded quickly and waved both hands at them. "Take care on your way!"
Carla almost tripped over a rock the moment she heard that. After all, the old, evil Roxanna would never say something so polite. The previous one would've wished misfortune on everyone instead.
Now Carla was completely sure that Roxanna had to be a doppelganger! But since this one was kind, soft, and a thousand times better than the real evil fox, Carla decided not to question it too much.
"L-Leader!" The mouse beastman—Skiv—stared at her with wide eyes, unsure and a little scared. Deep inside, he wondered if this woman was really his leader… or a demon beast pretending to be her. "A-Are you alright?"
To be honest, what he really wanted to ask was whether her head had hit a rock, because her behavior had changed so suddenly it felt like looking at a completely different person.
On the other side, Roxanna nodded. But just as she was about to smile, she remembered something terrible from the evil Roxanna's memories.
Just yesterday, the evil Roxanna had done something terrible to Skiv. She had taken his forest cat, hidden it in the basement, and tied its legs with roots so it couldn't run away.
The evil Roxanna did that simply because the forest cat had bitten her leg, and she didn't like it.
Roxanna's face turned pale at the memory. [Damn it, you evil Roxanna!]
Without saying another word, Roxanna broke into a run. She sprinted past the settlement huts without even looking around and headed straight for the basement.
Honestly, she still didn't know why these beastmen used words like "dungeon" and "basement" when the thing they built didn't look like either at all.
The so-called basement was nothing more than a large dug-out hole covered with wooden logs and heavy stones. It was usually used to store root vegetables.
But the evil Roxanna also used it to lock up her husbands at night whenever they did something she didn't like.
"What are you doing?!" Calen asked the moment he saw her struggling to lift the heavy stones stacked above the logs.
"The cat…" Roxanna's voice trembled, and tears pricked her eyes. "I… I locked Skiv's cat in here since yesterday. What if… what if he already died because he didn't get any food all night?"