Because the person protecting her was no longer hiding her voice, and at such close range, the girl had already realized her identity.
“Baiya?! Baiya-jie…”
“There’s no need to keep my identity secret now that the plot’s reached its climax, and I’ve achieved my goal.” The armored guard spoke while lifting her only remaining hand. As she turned to face the girl, she slowly removed her helmet.
As the helmet fell to the floor with a crisp clatter, everyone’s attention was drawn to the true face she had been hiding all this time.
“Jie…” The girl covered her mouth, stifling her sobs. She didn’t want Baiya to think she pitied her.
The face beneath the helmet belonged to a slave already declared dead—Baiya Ifil Chlorom. The appearance she now revealed seemed to tell the tale of one who had returned from the depths of hell.
“Alé alé, did I scare everyone with how I look? I actually thought I looked pretty dashing when I checked the mirror. Scars are the mark of a man’s wild spirit!” Baiya gripped her right arm, which ended where the hand should be, and laughed aloud, completely unconcerned.
The girl couldn’t detect any forced cheer in Baiya’s laughter. Suddenly, she couldn’t understand why, after such painful misfortune, Baiya-jie could still laugh like it was nothing.
Before escaping the prison, Baiya-jie had long, slightly wavy white hair tinged with a faint yellow—a result of rarely washing it. Baiya-jie’s cheeks were soft and delicate to the touch. Though smeared with dirt and grime, upon closer look she was a real beauty. Baiya-jie’s eyes sparkled like two pure rubies, reflecting colors others couldn’t see. Thinking back, Baiya-jie must never have given up hope.
But the Baiya-jie standing here now seemed like a completely different person, as if she’d suffered the world’s most terrible calamities.
Baiya-jie’s long hair was gone, replaced by short, singed, shoulder-length hair blackened and yellowed. Scars from burns marred her face, where patches of fair skin and blood-red marks combined into a grotesque, ugly visage. Thick layers of gauze were wrapped around her left cheek, completely covering her left eye.
Why? Why did Baiya-jie have to bear such pain? Why could she still laugh? Compared to her, how could the girl’s own misfortunes mean anything at all?
The girl’s gaze drifted from Baiya’s face to her right arm, where the wrist ended abruptly in empty air. Right, to protect her, to save her, Baiya-jie had lost her right hand.
“Uu, uu…” Unable to suppress her tears any longer, the girl burst out crying. Why did Baiya-jie have to suffer such cruelty?
“Baiya-jie! I’m sorry! I’m sorry! It’s all my fault! All because of me!” The girl sank into deep sorrow, wailing, “It’s all my fault! I’m the reason Baiya-jie’s hand was eaten!”
“My hand?” Baiya cocked her head in confusion, then gave an “Oh” of belated realization. Her clueless reaction made the girl cry even harder.
“You mean this?” Baiya waved her stump of a right arm in front of the girl. Seeing this only made the girl cry more, so a mischievous curve crept onto Baiya’s lips.
“Ahhhhh! My hand! My hand! My right hand! It hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts! I’m dying, dying, dying, dying! I can’t take it anymore! I’m definitely going to die of pain! Ahhhhh! Somebody save me! Doctor! I need a doctor!”
While the nobles’ cheers faded into silence from shock, Baiya’s screams rang through the entire arena. It was obvious she was deliberately raising her voice, and her exaggerated flailing and rolling on the ground made the severity of losing her right hand seem somewhat questionable.
Knowing the truth, Lunhui Tianqi looked up. Liumion’s face was flushed purple from holding back laughter; knowing the inside story, he couldn’t suppress his amusement at Baiya’s performance.
“What’s wrong with her?!” Liumion, after laughing, felt he’d lost face, so he vented his anger at Baiya. “How could she possibly feel pain? She doesn’t even have that part anymore!”
“It’s a prosthetic, a prosthetic.” Baiya stopped her wailing, flipped upright, and nimbly removed the armor from her right arm, revealing a limb that looked more like a club.
“My right hand has been gone for a while now. I’ve been handicapped for quite some time already. Don’t worry, what got eaten was just a prosthetic I attached to make moving easier.” Baiya let the crying girl see the scabbed wound at her wrist. Maybe this explanation would lift her guilt and stop the tears.
Baiya shook her left hand two or three times. Noticing the confusion in the girl’s tear-filled eyes, she added, “By the way, this one’s a prosthetic too. My left hand—including the arm and hand—was burned to ashes.”
She then pointed to the bandages on her face, tapping over her left eye. “Oh, and by the way, this is also a prosth… prosthetic eyeball.”
The girl had stopped crying, but now her expression was fearful. Baiya pressed on the bandages over her left eye; they sank in without resistance. She explained, “The fake eyeball is only for show, really useless otherwise, so there’s nothing here. I wrapped it with cloth so I wouldn’t scare people. Looking in the mirror, it kind of gives me a one-eyed pirate vibe. Pretty cool, right? Hehehehe!”
Baiya noticed the girl was nearly scared to tears again. There was nothing she could do—she really didn’t understand what girls were thinking.
By now, the shock of Baiya’s dramatic entrance was wearing off. The nobles were gradually recovering, realizing she was just another fighter to die—nothing remarkable!
“Baiya Ifil Chlorom, she’s still alive.” Arthur stared at Baiya on the field, his gaze dark. Liumion really valued this slave, even pinned his hopes on her. Did she really pose some unpredictable threat?!
Eat her! Arthur thought viciously. The Ogre was the closest to Baiya. Having already devoured her right hand, surely eating the rest would be no problem!
The nobles, ashamed and enraged at being startled by a lowly fighter, shouted for the Ogre to finish off its prey. At such close range, that detestable slave couldn’t possibly escape!
How Baiya had survived the Ogre’s earlier attack didn’t cross their minds, nor did they care.
But no matter how they shouted, the Ogre—who should have easily finished things—remained motionless, like a stiff statue.
What was going on? The Ogre, famous for its ravenous hunger, was suddenly indifferent to the feast before it. The nobles were baffled by this strange scene.
The observant noticed that ever since the Ogre bit off and swallowed Baiya’s right hand, it had lost all ability to move.
“Looks like everyone’s pretty surprised. Why haven’t you attacked yet? That’s what they’re wondering. Who knows, maybe you ate something unclean—say, eighteen explosive charges hidden in that armored gauntlet. That could cause a serious case of indigestion, enough pain to make you lose all strength to move.” Baiya, all the while stripping off her armor, turned to face the massive Ogre looming over her, an excited grin on her lips.
“Why else would I wear this cumbersome armor all this time? Aside from keeping secrets and collecting hidden trump cards, there wasn’t much other use.”
Thinking back to when Liumion tried to rush her with magic voice transmission, Baiya felt like rolling her eyes. Back then, she’d been busy collecting explosives from the musketeers who’d died around her. Where would she find time to listen to the clueless orders of that pampered young lord?
“I’ve always heard those noisy types brag about you being made of steel and iron. Sure, you’re steel and iron, but can your internal organs handle it? That seemed like a possible weakness—so I made some preparations.”
Suddenly, the Ogre’s impassive face began twitching violently. Its eyeballs bulged and shrank by turns, and its mouth poured out thick smoke.