Free Web NovelChapter 2: Chapter 2 Asylum Bound
Elara’s POV
It wasn’t just the crowd gawking at me in shock—even Thorne, Vance, and the rest had their mouths hanging open like complete idiots.
Me? The worthless reject they’d just tossed aside? What the hell had I done to earn this?
The first match blazing across the system screen made my breath catch: Kaelen Draken.
The name meant absolutely nothing to me right now, but judging by the collective intake of breath around the room, it sure as hell meant something to everyone else in the Valerion Empire.
Kaelen. Air Force General of the Valerion Empire. SSS-class winged dragon beastman. Young adult age.
As the screen flickered and loaded more details, every woman in that ballroom shot daggers at me with their eyes—pure, undiluted hatred mixed with jealousy. Even Beatrix looked like she wanted to claw my face off.
That kind of elite bloodline? Had the system completely short-circuited, pairing someone like him with garbage like me?
But then... the next line appeared.
"Kaelen, young adult age. Spirit collapse level: 80%."
The entire ballroom erupted in gasps.
What the actual hell? The system had to be malfunctioning. An Air Force General who’d bled for the empire deserved infinitely better than this. How could it possibly match him with someone spiritually dead like me?
This was basically a death warrant. Everyone knew that once a male beastman’s breakdown level hit forty percent, he needed a powerful spiritual female to anchor him—to heal the neural damage, tame the savage instincts, prevent total madness. freewebnσvel.cѳm
"Eighty percent? He must be completely wild by now."
"Jesus, that’s horrifying. A beastman that far gone should be in maximum containment. At eighty percent, not even an S-class female could help him—you’d need SSS-level power. But the Valerion Empire hasn’t produced an SSS spiritual female in decades. Looks like General Kaelen is finished..."
The murmurs buzzed around me as the system screen continued scrolling.
"Alistair Weaver, Commander of Valerion Empire Ground Forces. SSS-class king snake beastman. Adult age. Spirit collapse level: 76%."
"Barrett Miller, General of the Valerion Empire Army. SSS-class silver wolf beastman. Adult age. Spirit collapse level: 75%."
"Dorian Halloway, youngest prince of the Valerion Empire. Snow leopard beastman. Classification: restricted. Young adult age. Spirit collapse level: 79%."
And there was still more.
"Julian Rivers, Navy General of the Valerion Empire. SSS-class merman beastman. Young adult age. Spirit collapse level: 73%."
All assigned partners currently housed at the Crown Elite Asylum in the Voidferal Feral Territory.
Dead silence filled the room while those profiles loaded. But the moment that final line flashed on screen? The quiet exploded into waves of cruel laughter.
Look, everyone honored what these warriors had sacrificed for the empire. But the Crown Elite Asylum? It sounded impressive enough, but everyone knew the reality—the Valerion Empire had already written them off as lost causes.
Why? Because it sat right in the middle of the Voidferal Feral Territory.
Anyone shipped there might as well start planning their funeral.
Beatrix released a slow breath, her shoulders relaxing. She’d been seething with envy for a hot second—every single man matched to me was the type females across the empire fantasized about.
But with spirits this shattered? Honestly, they were perfect for trash like me.
Absolutely perfect.
Thorne burst out laughing. "I actually thought you’d upgrade after dumping us, Elara. But even the system recognizes your true value—matched you with a bunch of walking corpses. Ha!"
"Oh, really?"
I smiled right back at that bastard. "Instead of laughing at me, maybe you should figure out where you’re crashing tonight."
The second a divorce finalized, the system automatically repossessed any housing or starships allocated to matched partners. And since I’d just been reassigned, I’d be getting new accommodations soon.
I’d actually felt hopeful—five decorated war heroes had to mean decent resources, right?
But minutes dragged by. No new system messages. No allocation notifications.
Instead, the system pinged me with an inventory of my personal items from the old place.
One beat-up suitcase. With actual holes in it.
Now it was their turn to crack up. "Looks like you’re homeless too. Worthless males rotting in a sanatorium, plus a spiritually bankrupt female with nothing—guess even the system figured letting worthless trash wander the streets was better than wasting resources on you."
"Mm-hmm."
My fingers twitched. But I remembered I wasn’t back to full strength yet and forced myself to stay calm.
Beatrix, though? She knew exactly how to twist the knife. She draped herself over those three losers and led them toward her villa. Just before vanishing inside, she turned back with that sickeningly sweet smile. "Sorry. My place doesn’t have room for everyone. I mean, they did all this for me, and a girl has to show some loyalty, right? So... you’ll need to figure something else out."
She transferred ten credits to my account and added with that same patronizing expression, "Here. This should cover a cheap motel for the night."
"Screw off. You think I’m an idiot?"
I’d never been one to just take abuse lying down. The last shuttle of the night was pulling up. I grabbed my pathetic suitcase, leaped onto the platform, and—before any of those jerks could react—slapped each one of them hard across the face. Then I slipped into the cabin and let the doors seal shut behind me.
Beatrix was furious. Through the window, she watched my lips move silently, forming words that were... extremely unflattering.
The other three got the same silent treatment.
——
Thorne just shook his head. Elara had clearly snapped. The old her would have groveled, begged, thrown money at them to prevent divorce—hell, she’d even bought them condoms for their hookups with Beatrix. Someone like that didn’t just walk away.
This had to be some pathetic reverse psychology game. Give it a couple of days, max. She’d come crawling back. Too bad for her. He had zero interest in recycling garbage.
The other two nodded in silent agreement.
With matches like the ones she’d just gotten, it wouldn’t be long before trash like her came begging them for help.
And then they’d settle today’s score.
—— ƒrēewebnovel.com
Elara’s POV
Meanwhile, once the shuttle lurched into motion, I finally had a moment to collapse back, breathe, and process the complete catastrophe my life had become.
I stared out at the endless field of stars streaking past the window and sighed. This was pure sci-fi insanity. Seriously, even the wildest web novels didn’t go this extreme.
One minute I was battling zombies in the apocalypse. The next, I got dropped into an interstellar beastman universe.
Single for many years, then suddenly married and divorced and remarried all within an hour—wait, no. Actually, judging by the profiles I’d just witnessed, all five of my new husbands were basically on death’s door.
Fresh arrival. Fresh divorce. And if those numbers meant anything, about to be fresh widow.
I hadn’t even processed the whole "five husbands" concept yet, and the universe had already cranked the difficulty to nightmare mode.
"Where are you getting off?"
The shuttle attendant’s voice snapped me out of my spiral.
"Huh? I have no idea."
The attendant stared at me. "Next stop is the sanatorium. If you’re visiting family, you can disembark there."
Visiting family?
"Where exactly is ’there’?"
I was in a completely alien world. Even with the original owner’s memories floating around in my head, this endless expanse of star-dotted void made me anxious.
What if some alien creature suddenly burst through a portal?
I was deep in ridiculous thoughts when the cabin doors slid open. A robotic attendant grabbed my suitcase, politely but firmly escorted me off the shuttle, and deducted ten credits from my account before I could even process what was happening.
This was... truly, genuinely, rock bottom.
