In the corner, Angron sat alone, eating in silence.
There was not even a stone he could sit on.
Angron sat on the ground, curled up with his knees pressed to his chest. One hand held his legs while the other held a cup of water, washing down the bread in his mouth.
Though he had no mood to appreciate food, Angron still lowered his head and savored the bread, because it was a novel taste to him.
Perhaps it was the only good thing in the Arena, compared to life in the mountains.
Compared with animal meat and plants mixed with blood of every color, the bread in his mouth was at least processed food.
After finishing the bread in his mouth, Angron raised his head and looked at Oeno.
"There isn't any more." Oeno shook his head. "We'll fast for two days, then we'll get a feast before the next match. Maggot Eye will come broadcast us eating when the time comes."
Angron lowered his head.
After eating, the Primarch entered a calm state. Yet once he calmed down, his senses of the surroundings became even sharper.
Pain, resentment, the yearning for freedom... these new emotions appeared within Angron's senses.
He disliked contact with people, because whenever he came into contact with them, he sensed these emotions. Having never received an education, he did not know how to deal with them.
Qin Xa did not know what Angron was feeling at the moment. He merely watched the Primarch.
During the Gladiatorial match called Tears of the Demon just now, Qin Xa had been watching Angron and noticed a flash of joy appear on his face the instant he won.
Then that openly displayed joy vanished, replaced by a confused expression.
Clearly, even Angron himself did not know why he had suddenly felt joy amid the overwhelming cheers after such a brutal slaughter.
That was not Angron's own emotion. It belonged to the spectators.
This Primarch would become a bloodthirsty, brutal killer in the future, but he was not one now.
Every Primarch possessed a gift, and Angron's gift was the ability to sense and absorb the emotions of others.
But judging from Angron's current state, this gift was a curse to him.
"How did you learn the language of Nuceria?"
As Angron felt lost amid the negative emotions of all the Gladiators in the cave, the sudden question was like being pulled out of the sea, shifting his attention.
The Primarch raised his head and saw Qin Xa, who had been staring at him, walk over and sit beside him.
Angron had noticed Qin Xa's gaze, but he did not know why this person was paying attention to him.
"I don't know..." Angron shook his head. "Maybe because I heard them talking."
"You're remarkably gifted. A master linguist." Qin Xa smiled and nodded. "Have you realized that you're different from the others? Have you ever suspected that you might be some kind of... special being?"
Angron was silent for several seconds, then shook his head blankly. "How am I different?"
"Nothing." Qin Xa shook his head. "That's good."
"Why are you asking him that? Before he arrived, you were the unique creature who looked different from everyone else."
The handsome Gladiator resting with his eyes closed cut in.
Qin Xa ignored him and began assessing Angron's state of mind.
The Primarchs had all been created by The Emperor, so naturally they possessed powerful abilities ordinary humans did not.
Angron being able to learn the language of Nuceria merely by hearing the Slave Catchers speak was proof of that.
And such abilities might cause a Primarch not to regard humans as his own kind.
Angron was not stupid. He should have realized by now that the emotions he felt did not necessarily come from himself. Since he had discovered that others possessed emotions just like he did, he judged them to be his own kind.
That was good. At least Angron would not mistake himself for a beast because of his savage life in the mountains.
After reaching his conclusion, Qin Xa spoke. "You should know that survival is a biological instinct. What happened in the Arena just now was not entirely your fault."
Angron was being consumed by the feelings that had temporarily been driven away when his attention was diverted. When he recalled one scene from earlier, sorrow, anger, fear, unwillingness, and other emotions surged toward him, causing him pain.
"I killed them." Angron shook his head. "I don't know whether it's real or an illusion, but I feel like I can sense every one of their emotions. When they were killed by me, when they were killed by others, I felt as though I myself had been killed."
Listening to this, Qin Xa recalled what he had learned about Angron before coming to this universe.
In the future, Tethys, Librarian of the World Eaters Legion, would probe the Primarch's memories. Tethys would discover that before the Butcher's Nails were implanted, Angron felt piercing pain every time he killed a Gladiator.
The Butcher's Nails were implants that tormented their bearer without pause after being installed in the brain. Only when the bearer was killing did he feel somewhat relieved.
So after the Butcher's Nails were implanted, that piercing pain became a temporary release brought by satisfying the urge to kill.
Angron had clearly felt the same way just now. He had wept as he killed.
"Everyone here has raised a blade against someone else in order to survive." Oeno walked over and spoke to Angron. "It's the same outside the Arena, in the slums. It may sound like we're casting off responsibility and guilt, but most of the sin of this killing should be blamed on the slave masters."
Qin Xa looked at Oeno in agreement, increasingly convinced that this burly man had a philosophical streak.
"I can roughly guess how you feel right now. You're very sad," Qin Xa said. "But sorrow is a luxury in your current situation. You need to learn to handle those emotions, at least don't let them drive you to suicide or self-destruction."
Angron nodded.
But it was a perfunctory nod. Qin Xa had not offered any constructive advice, because this was also his first time meeting Angron. He needed more information before he could help Angron deal with the problems caused by his gift.
"Hey, listen."
Qin Xa placed a hand on Angron's thick arm. His tone was low as he spoke slowly.
"I'm someone who likes acquiring knowledge. Very, very much."
"Because knowledge once changed my Destiny. When I was young, I lost my parents and lived in a Welfare Institute. That place was like an Arena without fighting. Everyone slept in one room every night."
"Later, through knowledge, I developed a technology. That alone made me a great deal of money at a very young age."
"Then I used that money to improve the Welfare Institute where I grew up and make it better."
As Angron listened to Qin Xa, his eyes filled with curiosity.
He could understand every meaning in those words. The roles played by nouns he had never learned within the context allowed Angron to grasp their meanings.
And he had never seen a world beyond the mountains and the Arena, so he was extremely interested.
But after listening and pondering for a moment, Angron asked, "I understand that you may be trying to teach me something through this story... but I truly don't know what connection this story has to my current situation."
"It has no connection at all." Qin Xa smiled and shook his head. "I just wanted to brag."
Angron showed a bitter smile.
Beside him, Oeno lowered his head and raised a hand to cover his mouth.
Not far away, the handsome Gladiator resting with his eyes closed laughed.
The other Gladiators in the cave were the same as those two. They had thought Qin Xa was about to offer some great truth, and the sudden turn caught them completely off guard.
Angron sensed the gloom in the cave break for that instant, and the laughter of the others. The negative emotions weighing over his head like dark clouds temporarily faded.
"Can't you at least play along and praise me a little?" Qin Xa looked at Oeno.
Oeno strained to keep a straight face, making his expression match his bear-like appearance, then nodded. "Very... very impressive. I mean it. You're obviously far better than people like us who can't even write."
"So what did you do before?" A Gladiator walked over and asked curiously. "I feel like someone like you shouldn't have ended up here."
Another Gladiator came over and asked, "Let me guess. You used to be rich, riding around the city skies on an anti-gravity disc until you went bankrupt."
The Gladiators all looked at Qin Xa, curious about his past.
Qin Xa's joke had livened the mood, while his story had piqued everyone's interest. Unseen, it brought the Gladiators scattered around the cave closer together.
For some simple people, becoming friends required nothing more than a sentence that could bring a smile.
But Qin Xa did not continue satisfying their curiosity. His expression turned serious.
"My past isn't important. What matters is that all of us are trapped in this damned place."
"So why can't we gather together, sit down on this freezing-ass ground, and talk? This damned place is truly far from comfortable, but at least we have one another, all suffering the same fate."
"Then tell me everything you know about the Arena. I'll gather the information. It will benefit every one of us."
Before you continue