Exiled Villainess: They Threw Me Out, Now Every Beastman Wants Me novel Chapter 10

Chapter 10: Seasoned

Tera’s meat had finished cooking by the time all the slabs of meat at the main fire had been done. However, even as the gathered beast folk continued to eat, Tera noted how they kept staring at her meat.

One male in particular bit into his piece and chewed with the resigned expression of someone who had given up on joy a long time ago.

One by one, Tera could feel their gazes on her—curious, suspicious, hungry. They were unsatisfied with their own food.

Holding back a smirk, she finally poked her meat with her stick, and when it was soft enough, she carefully pulled it off the heat and set it on a leaf, tearing off a piece to pop into her mouth.

It wasn’t restaurant quality, but it shocked Tera how nice it tasted.

It was tender and salty, and had subtle hints of seasoning she had tasted before. But compared to the charred lumps the others were chewing, she was practically having a delicacy.

Tera glanced at the sky. The clouds were thicker now and darker than they had been when Xavi left. She looked around the settlement at the burrows dug into the low ground, the shacks with no drainage, and the complete absence of any elevated storage.

If it rained, every single one of those holes was going to fill with water. Did they have any plan to migrate to higher ground when such a thing happened?

She was halfway through her meal when two beast women walked over. They tried to look casual about it, but their eyes kept darting to her meat.

’Oh! So now they want to mingle.’

One of them, a fox beast woman, crossed her arms, her expression caught somewhere between pride and desperate curiosity.

"That smells different," she said stiffly.

"Good different," the taller one asked. She had deer-like ears and a dusting of freckles across her nose. "What did you do to it?"

"I seasoned it."

They frowned. "Seasoned?"

Tera refused to accept that they didn’t understand what that meant. Then she realised she could not think up any memories of the food in the Jackdaw tribe being seasoned either.

Had these people been eating such bland food all this time?

"I just smeared those leaves all over the meat."

Silence. The two women exchanged glances.

Tera tore off a strip of meat from hers and held it up. "You can try it first. I am eating it, so it isn’t poisoned."

They took it hesitantly, as if expecting it to turn into a snake. When they tasted it, their eyes went wide in wonder.

"It is so soft!"

"If the leader brings back more meat, will you show us how to do this?"

Tera smiled. "Yes."

The fox female looked like she would rather swallow her own tail. The deer female, however, was already nodding eagerly. "Please. That was the best meat I’ve ever tasted. Please show us."

"Yara, don’t beg," the fox female hissed.

Yara looked like she wanted to ask more, but the other one dragged her away and quickly retreated back to their group, whispering to each other.

Then a few of them started poking around the areas Tera had gotten the herbs from. Tera could not believe what she was seeing. Nothing was stopping them from asking her.

She didn’t notice how Ermin was watching the entire exchange from his spot. He was so confused as to how Tera was behaving.

’Am I hearing things right?’

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