The Spoilt Beauty And Her Beasts-Chapter 667: Something strange happened with the new hunters
By the time the first small problem reached Isabella, she was already sitting in the main room with one hand on her stomach, one hand holding a cup of warm fruit water, and the face of a woman who was trying very hard to enjoy one peaceful evening before fate came scratching at her door again like an ugly stray cat.
Kian was nearby reading through the day’s reports with that cold, serious face of his, while Cyrus sat at Isabella’s side peeling fruit with quiet care.
Zyran sprawled in a chair as though furniture had been invented solely to support his beauty, and Osiris stood by the window looking outside with the restless expression of someone who wanted to move even while doing absolutely nothing.
To be honest, the room had been rather nice for at least three breaths.
Then Luca came in.
He did not even have the decency to look guilty.
The moment Isabella saw him at the entrance, she closed her eyes and leaned back against the cushions as if life itself had personally disappointed her again.
"Why," she asked with deep suffering, "do you always appear when my mood is trying to recover?"
Luca stopped near the door and looked genuinely wronged. "That is very unfair, because I also dislike bringing you trouble, and yet somehow trouble keeps choosing me like I am its favorite servant."
Zyran clicked his tongue and leaned his chin on one hand. "Then perhaps you should stop looking so available."
Luca turned and pointed at him. "I am speaking to her, not to the decorative black cat in the chair."
Zyran gave him a lazy smile. "Decorative and still more loved than you."
Before Luca could answer, Isabella slowly lifted a hand. "Quiet."
The room went quiet at once.
That was one thing Isabella liked very much about her life now. When she was tired, people actually listened.
Well, most of them.
She opened one eye and looked at Luca. "Speak, before I decide your face is irritating."
Luca immediately straightened. "Something strange happened with the new hunters."
That got Kian’s full attention.
His eyes lifted from the report in his hands, and the air in the room shifted a little at once.
"What strange thing?" Kian asked.
Luca walked farther inside, then folded his arms. "At first, it looked harmless enough, and that was the annoying part. They were asking little questions while joining the hunting groups, and if someone had no brain, they might think the questions meant nothing. One asked which watchtower had the best forest view, then laughed and said he only wanted to enjoy the scenery after the hunt. Another asked which path stayed safest in heavy rain, then listened so carefully to the answer that I nearly wanted to clap for his acting."
Osiris frowned. "That sounds stupid."
"It was stupid," Luca said at once. "Just not the harmless kind."
Cyrus looked thoughtful. "What else did they ask?"
Luca’s expression turned even uglier. "One of them asked how far our patrols go at night, and when one of our local hunters answered without thinking, that fool repeated the words under his breath like he was memorizing them for a test."
Kian’s face slowly went cold.
Isabella, who had been slouching elegantly against the cushions, sat up a little and raised a brow. "Excuse me."
Luca looked at her. "Yes?"
She stared at him in disbelief. "Did these people come into my territory and start doing spy work with the grace of drunken goats?"
Zyran laughed so suddenly that Cyrus almost cut the fruit wrong.
Osiris snorted and looked away, though the corner of his mouth twitched.
Even Kian’s expression shifted for half a second before turning cold again.
Luca nodded with deep offense. "That is exactly why I came here with this face."
"This face?"
"Yes," Luca said. "This face of betrayal and disgust."
Isabella took a slow sip from her cup. "Continue. I want to know how much secondhand embarrassment they caused me today."
Luca looked almost grateful that someone understood his pain. "When the hunting group returned this evening, I saw one of the new men sitting near the catch with a stick in his hand, pretending to rest. At first I thought he was doing nothing, but then I looked closer and saw he was drawing marks in the dirt."
Kian’s fingers tightened slightly over the report.
Luca’s mouth flattened. "It was a map."
Zyran let out a low whistle. "So bold."
"No," Luca said sharply. "Bold would at least require skill. This was ugly. The man drew like his hand was personally offended by shapes. Still, it was clearly a map. He had marked paths, storage places, and one of the guard rotation points as though he thought the rest of us were blind."
For two breaths, nobody spoke.
Then Isabella slowly put her cup down.
Her face had gone very still.
"Tell me," she said, "that you stepped on it."
Luca looked at her, then smiled for the first time since entering. "I sat on it."
Zyran burst out laughing.
Cyrus lowered his head, his shoulders shaking softly.
Osiris looked impressed despite himself.
Even Kian’s eyes flickered with approval.
Luca lifted his chin a little. "I walked over smiling like I wanted to chat, then sat right on top of half the drawing and asked whether the hunt had been tiring. He panicked at once and wiped the dirt flat so fast that I almost pitied him."
"You did not pity him," Zyran said.
"Of course I did not pity him," Luca snapped. "He was drawing our village into the ground beside our meat pile. Who behaves like that?"
Isabella stared into the distance for one dramatic second, then placed a hand over her chest. "I feel insulted."
Luca nodded firmly. "You should."
"I built all this," Isabella said, now looking personally wounded. "I suffered, I planned, I got pregnant, I dealt with all of you, and this man came in here and thought he could map my walls in dust like some cheap little rat."
Osiris folded his arms. "Say the word and I’ll throw him out."
"No," Isabella said at once.
He blinked. "No?"
"No," she repeated, then leaned back again with slow, dangerous grace. "Because now I want him comfortable. I want him relaxed. I want him so secure in his own foolishness that he starts making even bigger mistakes."
