Transmigrated as the villainess: I claimed five beast husbands!

Damn, he did hate her.

"What do you want, your highness?" Leon asked, his voice like rolling waters, the ’your highness’ spat out like venom.

"I um...well I...I was wondering if you’d like to go somewhere a bit more private?"

"Unfortunately, I can’t do that. We have an expedition outside the walls in fifteen minutes. Have a good day, your highness." He walked past her, and she caught a whiff of his scent. He smelled clean and dangerous, like a storm about to happen.

Damn, he’d be a total catch in the real world!

Anna grabbed his sleeve. "Wait! Maybe you should hear me–"

A loud smack went off in the air.

Silence.

Anna stood frozen. Did he just smack my hand off?

"Excuse me," Leon gritted, gripping his sword hard.

Anna swallowed. Instead of feeling offended, fear wormed into her heart. She clasped her hands close to her chest, rubbing the red spot where Leon had hit her. It stung. Such a small action filled with hatred.

He hates me! System what do I do?!

[...]

Time continued to tick.

Anna panicked. This man was a wall! What the hell did the original body do to him?!

"Leon!" Anna called out, her voice desperate. He paused, his mane bristling and standing on edge, as if it was alive.

Leon’s shoulders tensed. Did that woman just call his name? She never had a shortage of names for him, kitty cat, frosty, big bad...but she never called him by his name.

"A minute of your time, just one minute!"

Disgust filled Leon. Why was she so desperate! It was revolting. Without a doubt she had thought up another disgusting experiment to try on her people.

Her evil knew no bounds.

"That’s an order!"

Leon growled.

Anna jumped back, grabbing her heart which was about to burst. He’s scary! Should lions even be commanded?! I mean all the documentaries said they’re pretty proud! He’s gonna kill me!

"The kingdom’s safety comes first, your highness. Unless you’d like to explain the hundreds of dead bodies that will pile up by morning."

"Oh I...I understand that the mission is important, but come on! It’s just one cup of tea! And I bat a little eyelash and we both go about our days! How hard can it be?!"

Leon turned, his blazing amber eyes pinned on Anna. She squeaked, taking steps back the closer he advanced toward her. He paused in front of the tea table, picked up a tea cup and downed the entire hot tea without flinching.

"Good?" He gritted out, a snarl caught in his throat.

Forget it. Seducing this man will never work. I’ll have to suffer the blindness. After all, it’s only for a while.

[Hostie, what are you doing?]

"It’s okay," Anna said, her head bowed. Her orchid spores darkened till they no longer gave off any light, signaling her downcast mood. "Sorry I bothered you." She mumbled and walked away.

[Host! What are you doing?! You have to complete the task!]

"I can’t. He’s too intimidating. I peed my panties a little."

[Get back there and complete the task!]

"It’s just a couple hours of blindness. I’ll go to sleep so I don’t miss out on anything, you know like, my eye sight?"

The system went silent. Too silent. Anna had the idea that she had just crossed a line.

Meanwhile, Leon watched the Princess walk away, and a dozen emotions stirred in his cold heart. What drugs was she experimenting with this afternoon? She wanted to have tea? Spend some time together? The only time they spent together was when she needed fresh lab rats for her absurd experiments.

Leon clenched his fist. He wanted to rip her head right off!

That woman. After all she did, she dared flash a smile in his face and act like nothing happened. What a despicable person she was!

The only reason she was still alive was because of the King and Queen.

She apologized? That woman never apologized for anything. Surely this was a new tactic of hers.

She used people. That was her specialty.

With an annoyed huff, he turned on his heel and stormed off, heading to the royal army barracks.

On the other end of the palace, in a dark and damp room, a bat beastman hung from the rafters. Large, membranous wings covered his too thin body, and his thin but large ears twitched, listening to the sounds of the palace.

Conversations. Voices. Secrets. Heartbeats. He heard them all. Filing the information away in a secret vault in his head.

And then, one voice caught his attention.

"I’ve always wanted to know how blind people felt."

His eyes open, revealing entirely black eyes filled with stars.

That voice. It had to be that Flower Princess.

"Fifteen minutes till I’m blind. Heh. And I have to rule a kingdom and still be a villainess. Fuck my life."

Huh?

Why did that Flower sound so strange? Usually, she’d be barking orders at this time of the day, or holed up in her laboratory poring over rare specimens and samples. Or she’d torture some of her husbands for fun.

The beastman closed his eyes and listened harder. It was hard, but he drowned out all the noises of the palace until he focused on the Flower’s heartbeat.

He heard it.

A beat. Two. Three. The seconds passed as he timed each individual beat.

His eyes flew open, shock on his normally expressionless face.

Something was wrong with that Flower.

Her heartbeat which was usually 40bpm, rarely fluctuating no matter what happened, was now over 112bpm.

Strange.

This needed to be investigated.

He swooped down from the rafters, landing gracefully on his feet. Silver necklaces hanging from his neck glinted in the soft light. His black clothes hugged his body, making him blend into the shadows like he was one of them.

"Time to pay my Flower wife a visit."