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

The first week nearly killed her.

Not in the dramatic sense. This was a slower, more humiliating kind of death, but the kind that came from trying to teach nearly thirty adult beast folk how to farm, build, and cook simultaneously while running on scraps of sleep and the lingering soreness from physically assisting with the farming and building.

The system shop had been a disappointment on day one.

Tera had opened it with genuine excitement, expecting—well, she wasn’t sure what she’d expected. Axes, maybe. Proper hammers. Something that would make construction easier than ripping branches off trees with bare hands.

However, the first tier only contained hoes, basic ropes, bone needles, scissors, a hammer, and a few other necessities that did not resemble a set. Everything had been relatively cheap, but there was something called soil softener that cost more nipples than she currently owned.

[This system understands Host’s disappointment]

[(◞‸◟)]

[But Host must crawl before she can walk!]

She had stared at the display of items for a full minute, waiting for a hidden tab or a secret category to reveal itself.

It did not.

’Where are the axes? The saws? The construction tools?!’

[ಡ ͜ ʖ ಡ]

[Tier 2]

’And what does Tier 2 cost?’

[Completion of your current settlement task?]

So she needed to build a settlement to unlock the tools that would help her build a settlement?! Tera was nearly infuriated. The system’s idea of progression was a circle that ate its own freaking tail!

The only thing she had decided to buy was a few copies of the hoes, hammers, scissors and bone needles, which she had immediately saved in the system space—a very helpful device that had been unlocked after her first purchase.

She had initially wanted to share the items with the beasts, but the last thing she needed was to hand sharp objects to beast-folk who still thought the best way to slice meat was with their claws. Someone would lose a finger, and then she would lose her mind.

They would come in handy later, and the only items she would willingly share later would be the hoes. As for the needles, she’d been wanting to make proper clothes, or at least clothes that didn’t require her to flash the entire clan every time the wind picked up. Hopefully, she would have to find some thread to accompany that.

That same day had also been dedicated to the foraging trip, and it had started off promising. Tera led a group into the forest, scanning everything the system flagged as edible while the beasts were wowed at her knowledge and faster way of checking what was safe to consume and what wasn’t.

After spending nearly the whole day foraging—the longest they had actually spent looking for food—they finally returned to the plateau with an armful of wild tubers, and small fruits and nuts that the system confirmed were nutritious, safe and would grow quickly.

Tera had felt accomplished for approximately six minutes before discovering that someone in the group had also collected a handful of bright orange berries that the system had explicitly told her were mildly toxic.

”Who picked these?!”

A young beast man shuffled forward. ”They looked tasty.”

[Looking tasty is not a recognised method of toxicology screening]

[ಡ ͜ ʖ ಡ]

The berries were confiscated, the beast man was banned from foraging unsupervised, and Tera added ’poison control’ to her growing list of things she apparently needed to manage.

But food remained a constant, gnawing problem beneath everything else.

Hunting was unreliable. Xavi went out every night and sometimes came back with meat, but other times he returned with nothing but exhaustion and a frustrated look. The animals in this region were still recovering from the Collapse, and they weren’t plentiful enough to sustain a clan of thirty-four on meat alone.

Fruits were not entirely sustainable for these beasts, either, and one could not just keep taking and taking from the forest.

Some days, the clan ate well. Other days, they stretched whatever scraps remained from the last hunt, rationing raw strips of dried meat.

And without a functioning farm yet, every meal felt borrowed from a future that hadn’t arrived.

It was not entirely convenient having some of the beasts run out to find food that wasn’t guaranteed.

Day Three was the first day of actual farming after the ridges had been set, and with some help from the system, Tera had shown them how to plant the various seeds and tubers.

And over time, despite the sluggishness and frustration of teaching the beast folk, they were finally getting the hang of things.

Most times.

Tera stood at the edge of the farmland, watching a beast man try to plant a seed upside down.

She had explained this twice, with demonstrations.

”Uri,” she called, her voice carrying the particular calm of someone who was one more mistake away from screaming into the nearest tree. ”The pointed end goes up.”

Uri looked at the seed in his palm, then at the hole he’d dug, then back at the seed. His brow furrowed with the intensity of someone solving a complex mathematical equation rather than putting a thing in dirt.

”Are you certain?”

”Yes.”

”It seems wrong.”

”Uri!”

Sometimes it felt like she was dealing with actual children!

”The pointed end looks like it should go down. Like a claw. You dig claws down.”

Tera took a very deep breath. ”The pointed end is where the sprout comes out. If you put it down, the sprout has to fight through the entire seed and then turn around and go back up. It’s like making a cub dig through a hill when there’s a perfectly good flat path right next to it.”

Uri considered this. ”Cubs like digging.”

[Host’s patience levels: 3%]

[This system recommends deep breathing exercises]

[(ᵕ—ᴗ—)]

’I will deep breathe you into oblivion.’

In the midst of all this, Tera had also started exercising. Her body was embarrassingly weak. She couldn’t keep up with the physical demands of directing construction and farming while also walking between the forest, the plateau, and the stream multiple times a day.

She had started with basic stretches each morning, then added short runs along the perimeter. Her legs screamed, her lungs burned, and she lasted approximately ninety seconds before doubling over and wheezing like an elderly cat.

Despite everything, progress happened slowly.

By the end of the week, the system had confirmed germination had begun, and the first shelter had been erected.

Because Tera had discovered two things in the forest that made her heart sing.