Luan pressed his lips together, guilt flashing across his face because back then... he really had wanted to kill her without hesitation.

"It was because I thought you were the evil Roxanna," he said softly. He turned to look at her, his gaze serious. "But I promise... I won’t scare you like that again."

Roxanna let out a small chuckle. "I know. I’m just remembering the past." She lifted her head, looking around at the forest.

"But it still feels a little strange," she added softly.

Luan raised a brow. "What’s strange?"

Roxanna fell silent for a moment before saying, "I never even said that I was a different person, but... from the moment I came here, you all treated me well."

For some reason, she felt Luan’s hand turn a little cold in hers, as if he had suddenly become nervous.

After a short pause, he said, "We just... felt that you weren’t the same because the ’real’ Roxanna would never apologize to Azul... or save him."

Roxanna replied in a softer voice, "I can understand that after I saved Azul, but even before that... it felt like you already knew I wasn’t the ’real’ Roxanna."

Maybe it was just her imagination, but back then, after she kept saying in her mind that she wasn’t the evil Roxanna, her husbands had started looking at her differently, and they stopped shouting at her.

All this time, Roxanna had pushed that thought aside because there were too many things she needed to deal with. But now that she finally had time to think about it calmly, she couldn’t help but wonder again... could her husbands really read her mind?

"After we helped Calen when he tried to jump off the cliff, he said something strange," Roxanna said, stopping in her tracks. Luan stopped with her. "He asked me if my ex-husband had also abused me, like the way the evil Roxanna did to all of you."

Luan frowned. "He did, didn’t he?" he said. "What’s strange about that?"

Roxanna looked at him in silence before answering, "At that time... I never told any of you that I had an ex-husband."

The moment those words left her mouth, Luan felt like cold water had been poured over him. He even started wondering why, out of all her husbands, he was the one who had to deal with this question.

Zeir would probably be much better at answering something like this, so why him?!

"Maybe... he was just guessing," Luan said after a moment. "His mind wasn’t stable back then. He might not even understand what he was saying."

"Maybe..." Roxanna replied softly.

[Am I just overthinking this?] she wondered.

Her fingers tightened slightly around his hand. [If only Luan could hear my thoughts—]

[—DAMN IT, THERE’S A HUGE TARANTULA ON LUAN’S HEAD.]

Right after she thought that, Luan immediately lifted his head and gripped his axe tightly, only to find an empty tree branch.

There was no tarantula.

"I knew it!" Roxanna’s eyes widened as she pointed at him. "You can read my mind!"

At that moment, Luan knew he had made a terrible mistake.

He really didn’t expect his sweet, innocent-looking wife to trick him like that.

"What... what do you mean?" Luan slowly lowered his head, looking at her with uncertainty. "I didn’t do anything."

"You lifted your head!"

Luan blinked, then shrugged calmly. "I just wanted to check if there was something strange above us. Is that wrong?"

Roxanna puffed her cheeks and stomped her foot a few times. "But you did it right after I thought there was a big tarantula up there!"

"Is there a big tarantula?" Luan asked again, lifting his head once more.

"No! I was lying!" Roxanna raised her voice. "Stop teasing me like that!"

"I’m not teasing you," Luan replied calmly, even though he was panicking inside. "I just wanted to make sure there really wasn’t a tarantula above us. Besides... why would you lie inside your own thoughts?"

Roxanna shot him a sharp look, and he immediately knew that his wife didn’t want to play around anymore.

"Don’t change the topic," she said firmly. "If... if you keep lying, I’ll be sad!"

Her voice softened a little at the end.

In her past life, she had lived surrounded by lies. If her husbands did the same, she wouldn’t be able to trust them completely.

After all, not knowing the truth was very frustrating for her.

"Please... I just don’t want to be lied to anymore," Roxanna murmured, her expression turning downcast. She lowered her head and stared at the small stones near her feet.

The forest suddenly felt quieter than before.

Luan looked at her in silence, and for the first time, he didn’t know what to say. After all, Roxanna’s words weren’t loud, but they hit harder than anything else.

"I didn’t mean to make you feel like that," Luan finally said, his voice lower than usual.

Roxanna didn’t lift her head. "Then tell me the truth."

Luan’s fingers tightened slightly around the handle of his axe.

For a moment, he hesitated. If he told her... would she be angry?

Wouldn’t she be scared if she knew that her husbands could read her mind?

Luan and the others had agreed to keep it a secret because they didn’t want to frighten her, and they didn’t want her to feel like she had to watch every single thought in her head.

But now... If he stayed quiet, he wasn’t sure she wouldn’t feel betrayed instead.

His eyes drifted to her lowered head, and to the way her shoulders looked so small and fragile.

"We can’t hear everything," Luan said at last.

Roxanna froze the moment she heard that.

"We only hear it when your emotions are strong," he continued softly. "Or when your thoughts are very loud."

It wasn’t the full truth, of course.

They could still hear her even when her thoughts weren’t that loud. But if he told her everything, she might start panicking every time she thought to herself.

Roxanna was the kind of person who talked to herself often in her mind, so Luan couldn’t imagine what would happen if she lost that small freedom.

It wasn’t right to lie like this, and he was not proud of this behavior either.

But sometimes... when the truth could hurt more than it helped, a small lie felt necessary.