Exiled Villainess: They Threw Me Out, Now Every Beastman Wants Me
Chapter 7: Double Trouble

Chapter 7: Double Trouble

Tera was speechless as she stared at Ermin’s stats. She understood his hatred, but minus fifty percent was crazy!

While she couldn’t blame him, how was she going to do anything about this and make amends when he wasn’t even here?

Xavi returned a few minutes later with pieces of hide and fur. He dropped it on the bank near her while also avoiding looking at her.

Tera picked them up and examined the pieces of clothing, surprised by how clean and soft they were. They were far better than the rags she had been wearing before.

She quickly put it on, and although it took a moment to figure out how to secure it properly, it stayed once it was in place.

"Okay. Decent again." She wrung out her hair one last time and turned to face him with her hands on her hips. "Thank you. See? That wasn’t so hard—"

Xavi’s eyes dropped to her midsection and frowned.

"That is wrong."

Tera looked down at herself. The hide was covering everything that needed covering. Nothing was falling out. Everything was secure.

"What do you mean by wrong? I am covered."

Xavi still looked at her like she was being silly. "That is not how you wear it."

Before Tera could protest, Xavi stepped forward, hooked his fingers into the leather strips she’d tied around her waist, and ripped them loose.

"Excuse me—!"

"Sit."

He pushed her down onto the flat rock with one firm hand on her shoulder. Tera landed with an undignified thump, her legs stretched out in front of her, the hide now hanging loose and completely unsecured around her torso. She grabbed at it instinctively to keep it from falling open.

"What are you—"

Xavi was already crouching in front of her. He took the leather strips from her unresisting hands and began wrapping them around her legs and calves before using the ropes to secure the hide into makeshift shoes.

His fingers were brushing against her skin as he did so, and his touch was surprisingly gentle. He smoothed the material flat against her skin, adjusted the fit around her ankles, and loosened the ropes before lacing them into place again.

His thumb brushed the inside of her knee as he finally adjusted the wrap, and Tera felt the tingling sensation happening in between her legs.

[Host’s heart rate has increased by 22%]

[(¬‿¬)]

’Shut up.’

"Hmm... I guess that twenty percent didn’t go to waste," she muttered under her breath, trying to regain some footing in her own brain.

Xavi’s hands paused, and he looked up at her. "What?"

"Nothing!"

Tera suddenly found the trees behind his head absolutely fascinating as she felt a slight blush rise up her cheeks.

This was ridiculous.

[Would Host like a reminder of Ermin’s current favorability rating while she’s having this moment?]

[It is -50%]

’OMG! Begone, you foul demon!’ Tera nearly shouted.

Xavi stood up, leaving Tera to look down at her legs and admire her shoes.

"Thank... you." She flexed her legs.

Before she could finish admiring Xavi’s handwork, what followed was the now-familiar indignity of being hoisted under his arm again.

Tera just gave up and let him carry her like luggage.

A few minutes had barely gone by when the dense forest opened again into different wide spaces, and it was worse than Tera had expected.

This wasn’t a proper settlement. It was barely even a camp.

Aside from the scattering of holes dug into the ground with leaves and branches thrown over them, a handful of shacks had been made from sticks and dried grass that looked like a strong breeze would easily flatten them.

A few beast-folk slept under trees or sat in the dirt.

The Jackdaw tribe had been advanced. Clean, organized, and built on a proper hill with some solid stone and straw structures, but this place looked like it had been thrown together by desperate hands and then barely maintained.

A number of beastmen were lean in a way that suggested food wasn’t abundant.

[New Location: Dow Clan!]

[Status: Critically Underdeveloped]

[Population: 34]

[Infrastructure: Nonexistent]

[Danger Rating: High]

[This is your new home, Host!]

[Try not to die]

[(◡‿◡✿)]

Tera blinked at the screen while dangling sideways. The population count stuck in her head. But that thought was pushed aside by another one.

’Wait. You called Xavi a tribe leader. But this is a clan. Shouldn’t he be a clan leader then?’

[That is a conversation Host should have with Xavi himself]

’What? Why can’t you just tell me?’

[This system is a guide, not an encyclopedia!]

Tera grumbled under her breath before concluding Xavi must have been a tribe leader somewhere before something had changed.

Her thoughts were cut short when Xavi walked into the settlement, and every single head turned.

Beast-folk of all types stopped what they were doing and stared. A fox-eared man near one of the shacks nudged the woman beside him and pointed. Two older males sitting by a fire pit squinted in their direction and started muttering. A group of young beast-men near the edge of camp openly gawked.

They were not staring at Xavi. They were staring at the small, hairless female dangling from his arm like a fresh kill.

"She truly has no ears!"

"Wait—is that the shiftless one?"

The murmuring spread like wildfire. More beast kin emerged from the holes, drawn by the commotion.

Did Xavi really have to unceremoniously bring her in front of everyone like this? Before she could voice her complaints, she recognised the unique flash of pink hair.

Ermin was sitting near a cluster of beast kin, looking irritated and bitter. He looked up, their eyes met, and Tera watched his expression shift to confusion and shock in about two seconds.

And Tera suddenly understood exactly where Xavi had gotten his information about the notorious troublemaker from the Jackdaw tribe.