"AHHH!"
A shrill cry exploded through the air, snapping her out of her thoughts. Xuma retracted her gaze from the girl and turned in the direction the pained shriek sounded from.
A few feet away from the cage, a girl frantically scrambled on her fours. Tears and snot dripped down her chin as she scooted backward from the prowling golden beast. Even from such a distance, Xuma could see the terror in her eyes, and the tremors shaking through her body.
"He…Help!" She shrieked.
And the beast lunged.
The gruesome scene that followed drained the color from the girls' faces. Their legs wobbled as their knees turned weak. With listless eyes, they crumbled to the ground.
First came off the head.
Planting its paws on her arms and stomach, the beast clamped its maw on the girl's tender neck and ripped it off with a vicious yank. The spray of blood seemed to excite him. It threw back its head and roared towards the sky, causing the spectating nobles to erupt in thunderous cheers.
"Woohoo! One point for the Lion!"
"Come girls! Show some courage and fight for your lives! Don't lose this chance to become Prince Rimon's servants!"
"Haha!"
Amidst the rally of the nobles, the beast lowered its head and began to feast. From the girl's neck to her chest, all the way to her stomach…it clawed and bit off chunks of meat until the coiled mass of her intestines spilled on the ground.
By the time it was done, only stumps that represented her four limbs remained.
A similar scene unfolded on the other side of the cage. The girls who had slumped to the ground from terror became the target of the other beasts. Some returned to their senses in time to wave their stick in the creatures' faces. It took only a roar for their grip to loosen and the stick to slip out of their hands.
Those who lacked weapons attempted to run towards the hill. The nobles booed. Grabbing a handful of rocks and debris, they showered the girls in stones and dust, causing them to trip and roll back into the dome.
The scent of urine engulfed the air. The girls pissing themselves made the nobles laugh and slap their thighs.
"Haha! What is this? A pissing game?"
"Come on, guys. They are little girls. It is understandable for them to be terrified out of their minds when confronted with the ferocious appearances of those beasts."
"Damn it! I placed my bet on them!" Someone wailed, causing the surrounding nobles to erupt into wild laughter.
Xuma's heart clenched. A group of innocent girls ripped to shreds and feasted on by a pack of wild beasts. But the nobles showed no emotion.
No regret.
No panic.
No…empathy or pity.
From their reaction, it was as if what was happening before their eyes wasn't a horrific scene of people losing their lives, but an amusing sport. The girls before them meant nothing, and were nothing more than disposal goods, food to feed their hungry pets.
Perhaps, in their eyes, slaves from defeated nations had no worth at all.
The creatures roared. Under the boisterous cheer of the spectating nobles and the horrified shrieks of the slave girls, Xuma watched as a scene more gruesome than the first unfolded.
"Well…that was…savage." Naila stuttered, her face pale as a ghost.
Covered in blood with pieces of shredded meat sticking to their golden manes, the golden beasts raised their heads from the mangled carcasses of the girls, and set their sight on the cage.
She swallowed audibly, and turned to Xuma. "What do we do now?"
Xuma gave her a cold glance. "You ask me. Then who am I supposed to ask?" She shrugged, returning her attention to the beasts.
She had a plan. One she had been thinking of ever since she realized that events of the past could be changed. If Naila wasn't here, she might've never come up with this plan.
But since she was…
"We obviously can't stay in this cage. Eventually, those creatures will either break the bars or overturn the cage. By then, we would be the next meat on the chopping board." Naila paced in the cage, and her gaze fell on the unconscious girls. She stopped and looked at Xuma. "I don't want to die. And I'm sure you don't either. Since that's the case, why don't we…" She glanced at the girls, making her intention clear.
Xuma's heart shook. She raised her head and met the girl's gaze. "What do you mean?" She whispered.
In fact, she had an idea of what she meant.
Concubine Naila wasn't the type to wait for fortune to favor her. She carved her own fate. She did not believe in sacrificing herself for others. If it benefited her, she could even sell out her flesh and blood.
Xuma had seen this side of her in her previous life.
To win the sympathy of Prince Rimon and snatch favor from his favorite concubine, Concubine Naila had designed her own miscarriage and accused the favored concubine.
The girls in the cage had no blood relationship with her. Since it was a question of her life and death, why would she care about them?
Though Xuma knew…she still hoped.
Hoped for her to be wrong. Hoped for Naila to not be that cold-blooded. However…
"What else could I mean? Since they don't even know what's happening, we might as well throw them to the lions."
Her fist loosened, as her heart dropped.
It seemed…she had to change her plan.
She couldn't escape with such a venomous snake.