Chapter 191: Heartless Bai Ya

Sunlight streamed through the tall, stained-glass windows, and motes of dust danced in the beams of light.

The large clock on the wall showed the time as 11:07 AM. There were far fewer Adventurers in the hall than there had been in the morning, and the pervasive smells of sweat and body odor had thinned.

In front of the quest board, a few rookie teams were picking out quests, quietly discussing the “value” of each one. Their voices were filled with longing and excitement for the adventures to come.

But the next time they showed up here, they probably wouldn’t be in the same mood.

They might even be short a person or two.

Everyone knew that adventuring always came with the risk of death.

But most rookies felt that was a distant problem.

“As long as I’m careful, make a good plan, and prepare thoroughly, then everything will be fine.”

Ninety percent of all rookies thought that way on their first adventure.

Little did they know that real danger was never part of “the plan.”

Nor would it give them enough time to prepare.

What determined life and death was often a split-second decision.

Advance or retreat, go left or right, fight or flee.

Even whether or not to trust the teammate in front of you—all of these things could decide your fate in an instant.

Bai Ya knew this from deep personal experience.

“You… you two…”

Looking at the two men before her, her eyes widened in a stunned gaze, a mixture of surprise and panic.

The two men exchanged a quiet glance before one of them cautiously asked in a low voice:

“You don’t remember us?”

“…Of course I remember.”

Bai Ya recovered a bit of her composure. She pursed her lips and coldly spoke two names:

“Silas, Watson.”

“That’s right, it’s us.”

The short, stout man named Silas nodded and sighed with a bitter smile.

“Sigh, we thought we’d never see you again.”

“Is that so? I thought the same thing.”

Bai Ya glanced at him, her expression now calm.

After more than a month of “tempering,” especially after the encounter with that Bandit Group, her personality had changed somewhat.

So, she had no desire to get entangled with them, nor did she want to waste her breath cursing them out. She simply expressed her feelings with a cold tone.

“I’m busy. Please leave.”

With that, she lowered her head and went back to her book.

‘Ugh… In this situation, there’s no way I can focus on studying.’

In reality, she was just pretending, staring at the pages and praying the two of them would leave quickly.

But things didn’t go as she wished.

Not only did Silas and Watson not leave, they sat down on the bench across from her.

“You…”

Bai Ya immediately looked up, her brow furrowed, just as she was about to say something.

But Silas cut her off first.

“Just a few words. We’ll leave as soon as we’re done.”

His face was full of guilt, his tone extremely sincere.

And because of this, the words on the tip of Bai Ya’s tongue were stuck there, unspoken.

Seeing this, Silas quickly began to explain:

“What happened before was our fault. We misjudged the number of Kobolds and put you in danger.”

“But please believe us, we never thought about abandoning you.”

“At the time, we were planning to wait for the Kobolds to spread out a bit, and then we were going to rescue you right away.”

“But we didn’t expect it to get so dark… Sigh, forget it. There’s no point talking about this now.”

“We let you down.”

Looking at Bai Ya, Silas’s expression was incredibly sincere.

And beside him, the tall, thin Watson chimed in at the right moment:

“Actually, we looked for you all night, but we never found you.”

“It was the same for the next few days, and in the end, we only… left after we ran out of supplies.”

“That’s enough, Watson. Don’t say any more.”

Silas frowned and suddenly cut him off.

“No matter what, this was all our fault. Otherwise, the Divine Spirit wouldn’t have punished us again and again.”

“Punishment?”

Bai Ya froze for a moment, then blurted out instinctively, “What punishment?”

“Well…”

Silas hesitated for a moment before shaking his head with a self-deprecating smile.

“Sigh, to be honest with you, our luck has been terrible ever since that day.”

“Every quest fails for one reason or another, and even Brook…”

Brook. Bai Ya remembered that name.

He was the other man who, along with Silas and Watson, had invited her to join their team.

“What happened to him?”

Bai Ya’s eyes widened slightly. “Was he injured?”

“He died. About half a month ago.”

Silas looked out the window with a grief-stricken face. “We were spending the night under a stone cliff when a giant boulder suddenly fell and crushed him in his sleep.”

“…”

The sun was still bright. The group of rookies in front of the quest board was gone, and only a few scattered Adventurers remained in the hall, talking in low voices.

Staring blankly at Silas, Bai Ya didn’t speak for a long time, her thoughts unreadable.

Silas paused for a moment, then continued with another sigh.

“Sigh, actually, it’s better that he’s dead. At least now he doesn’t have to go through any more pain.”

“You see how Watson and I are now. To be honest, we don’t even have enough money on us for lunch.”

“It probably won’t be long before we also… Ah, sorry, I shouldn’t be telling you this.”

Suddenly, as if realizing he’d said too much, Silas shot to his feet.

“Anyway, we’re just relieved to see that you’re okay.”

“We don’t expect you to forgive us, but if we’re lucky enough to live a while longer, and even manage to save up a little money, we’ll definitely compensate you.”

“As for now… we’re completely broke.”

“Sorry to have bothered you. Watson, let’s go.”

After his final words, Silas gave Bai Ya another nod, then he and Watson started walking towards the main entrance.

Bai Ya, however, remained seated behind the small wooden table, staring blankly at their retreating backs. She unconsciously reached up and touched the deerskin pouch at her waist.

The pouch wasn’t very full. It contained only two silver coins and some copper coins.

“…”

Biting her lip, she watched the two men walk further and further away, seemingly torn.

But even as they walked out of the hall, she never said a word.

The hand resting on her coin pouch slowly relaxed, then silently clenched into a fist against her knee.

‘I’m sorry, I can’t help you.’

‘Because I really don’t want to be deceived again.’

…

…

“Heh, didn’t you say she would definitely give us money?”

Meanwhile, just as Bai Ya was silently thinking ‘I’m sorry,’ Silas and Watson, who had already walked out of the hall and seen no reaction from her, had their expressions instantly change.

“I told you already, how could a fool like her have any money?”

Watson said with a look of contempt, “A complete waste of effort. In the time we spent on this, we could’ve earned tomorrow’s rent.”

“Shut up. Didn’t you see that Short Sword at her waist? That’s worth at least two silver coins!”

Silas’s tone was extremely irritated. “Her shoes and Cloak are new, too. If she has no money, where did she get all that stuff!”

“For real?”

Watson was taken aback. “Then what do we do now?”

“What do we do…”

Silas narrowed his eyes and looked back with a sinister gaze. Through the glass window, he could faintly make out Bai Ya’s figure, still sitting where she was.

“Hmph. We were her teammates, after all.”

“Now that we’re at a dead end, she can’t just stand by and watch us die.”