Villainess is being pampered by her beast husbands

Chapter 470 --470

When she opened them again, her voice was calmer. Dangerously calm."I want," she said quietly, "for one of you to explain to me how two beastmen—two creatures with supposedly superior senses, superior instincts, superior ’everything’—cannot navigate a simple cave."

Veer and Cutie looked at each other.

Then back at Kaya.

Then at each other again.

Finally, Veer cleared his throat. "Well—"

"And don’t," Kaya added, "say it’s because you’re injured. Because Cutie isn’t injured, and he’s been just as useless."

Cutie made a small, wounded sound.

Veer sighed, running his good hand through his hair. "The truth?"

"Please."

"We’re not cave beastmen," he admitted. "Vultures are sky creatures. We navigate by sun position, wind currents, landmarks visible from above. Down here?" He gestured around them. "We’re as lost as you are. Maybe more."

"And you," Kaya said, turning to Cutie. "What’s your excuse?"

Cutie looked down at his feet. "I’m... I’m a sparrow. We don’t go in caves. Ever. It’s dark and enclosed and everything smells like stone and I can’t tell directions and—" He swallowed. "I’ve been trying to help but I have no idea what I’m doing."

Kaya stared at them both.

Then she started laughing again.

That same slightly unhinged laugh from before.

"Perfect," she said between laughs. "Perfect. So we’re all completely useless down here. That’s just... ’perfect’."

---

She stopped laughing abruptly and pressed the heels of her palms against her eyes.

"Okay," she said, her voice muffled. "Okay. New plan. We stop wandering aimlessly."

"What do we do instead?" Veer asked.

Kaya lowered her hands and looked around the passage, really ’looked’ this time, trying to see it with fresh eyes.

"We find water," she said. "Running water. Rivers flow downward. If we can find a water source and follow it, it should eventually lead outside."

"That’s..." Cutie paused. "That’s actually smart."

"Thank you for the vote of confidence," Kaya said dryly.

"But how do we find water?" Veer asked. "We haven’t heard any—"

"Listen," Kaya interrupted.

They all fell silent.

At first, there was nothing. Just the ambient sounds of the cave—their breathing, the occasional shift of stone settling, the whisper of air through cracks.

Then Kaya heard it.

Very faint. Almost imperceptible. But there.

A sound like... trickling. Flowing.

"There," she said, pointing down the left passage—the one they hadn’t taken yet. "Water. That way."

Veer tilted his head, listening. After a moment, he nodded. "You’re right."

"Of course I’m right," Kaya muttered. She started walking toward the sound. "Come on. And this time, we follow the water. No more random turns."

They fell into line behind her, and this time, there was a sense of actual purpose to their movement.

The sound of water grew gradually louder as they walked. The passage began to slope slightly downward. The air grew damper, cooler.

After about fifteen minutes, they rounded a corner and found it.

A small underground stream, maybe two feet wide, flowing steadily along a channel it had carved into the stone over countless years. The water was clear, reflecting what little light filtered down from somewhere above.

"Thank God," Cutie breathed.

Kaya knelt beside the stream, cupping her hands to drink. The water was cold, clean, and tasted faintly of minerals. It was the best thing she’d had in days.

After drinking her fill, she sat back and looked at the others. "We follow this downstream. Stay close. Watch your footing. And—" She fixed them both with a hard stare. "—no more confessions. I don’t care what else you’ve done. I don’t want to know. Whatever sins you’re carrying, take them to your graves. Understood?"

"Understood," Veer said quietly.

Cutie nodded, looking relieved.

Kaya stood, brushing off her hands. "Good. Let’s move."

And together, they began following the stream deeper into the cave, hoping—praying—that it would lead them to daylight.

To freedom.

To anywhere but this endless, suffocating darkness.

The stream was their lifeline now. Literally and metaphorically.

Kaya walked alongside it, one hand occasionally touching the damp cave wall for balance, the other resting near her knife. The water burbled and gurgled as it flowed over smooth stones, a constant companion in the oppressive darkness.

Behind her, Veer and Cutie followed in continued silence. The earlier tension had settled into something more bearable—not quite comfort, but not active hostility either. More like a truce born of mutual exhaustion and shared desperation.

The passage had narrowed considerably. In some places, they had to walk single file, pressing their backs against the wet stone to avoid stepping into the stream. In others, it opened up enough for all three to walk abreast.

Kaya’s boots were soaked through. Her feet felt numb and pruned inside them. Her clothes, which had finally started to dry earlier, were damp again from the humid air and the occasional splash.

She was cold. Tired. Hungry.

And still furious, though the edge of it had dulled somewhat.

---

After what felt like another hour of walking—though time had become meaningless down here—the passage began to widen significantly.

The ceiling rose higher. The walls pulled back. The stream, which had been a narrow trickle, started to spread out, fed by other small channels joining from side passages.

And then, suddenly, the passage opened into a cavern.

Kaya stopped at the threshold, her breath catching.

It was massive. Easily the size of a football field, maybe larger. The ceiling was so high it disappeared into shadow. Stalactites hung down like stone icicles, some of them easily twenty feet long. Stalagmites rose from the floor to meet them, creating natural pillars where the formations had merged over millennia.

And everywhere—’everywhere’—there was water.

The stream they’d been following joined with dozens of others, all converging into a wide, shallow pool that covered most of the cavern floor. The water was crystal clear, reflecting the faint phosphorescent glow coming from patches of moss growing on the walls.

It was beautiful.

Eerily, hauntingly beautiful.

"Wow," Cutie whispered, his voice echoing strangely in the vast space.

Veer moved up beside Kaya, his amber eyes scanning the cavern with a predator’s caution. "This is... unexpected."

Kaya didn’t respond immediately. She was too busy analyzing the space, looking for threats, exits, anything useful.

The water in the pool wasn’t stagnant—it was clearly flowing, fed by all those streams and draining somewhere. But where? She couldn’t see an obvious outlet. The far side of the cavern was too dark to make out clearly.

"We need to cross," she said finally. "The water has to be draining somewhere. If we can find where it goes—"

"We find the exit," Veer finished.

"Exactly."

Cutie peered at the pool nervously. "How deep is it?"

"Only one way to find out," Kaya said. She stepped forward, her boot breaking the surface.

The water was cold. Shockingly cold. It came up to her ankle, then her calf as she waded in.

By the time she was five feet from the edge, it was up to her knees.

"It’s shallow," she called back. "Come on."

Veer and Cutie followed, both of them making small sounds of discomfort at the temperature.

They waded across slowly, carefully, testing each step before committing their weight. The bottom was smooth stone, slippery but not treacherous.