"I just heard you say you came to the Twin Cities to see Logan?"

Master Yi had only just signed his name on the paper when he heard the white-haired boy in front of him ask the question.

Looking up, Yi nodded to the boy with a gentle expression, then probed carefully, "Yes. There’s something I’d like to discuss with Mr. Logan, so if possible, could you pass along a message for me? I’d like to meet him."

"I mean no harm. I’m from Ionia. My name is Master Yi, the current head of the Wuju School."

After hearing him out, Ekko realized Yi was much easier to talk to than Jax. He smiled at the request and said, "Sure, no problem. Give me a second, I’ll find someone to cover for me."

With that, Ekko got up and left, while Yi remained where he was, quietly waiting for him to return.

A little over ten minutes later, Ekko came back.

"Come with me. I’ll take you to see Logan. But fair warning, I don’t know if he’s in the council building at this hour. If you don’t get to see Logan, you’ll probably at least see Councilor Silco. Honestly, whatever it is, telling him would work too."

As they walked, Ekko spoke to Yi.

Yi noticed that he was not heading in the same direction as Jax. Jax had been taken toward Zaun’s new district, the one built beyond the mountains. As for him, he was now heading toward Zaun itself.

They crossed a bridge and boarded a strange machine. Then the little railcar began moving along its track. Looking out the window, Yi realized they were heading toward the strait.

The mountains on both sides were damp and warm, their rock walls carved through with ridges and ravines. Most striking of all, Yi saw people working on those cliff faces, as if they were building something directly into the sheer walls.

"Can I ask what you need Logan for?" Sitting in the railcar, Ekko finally gave in to his curiosity.

Yi hesitated, then said, "I’m hoping to receive the Twin Cities’ help. My homeland is called Wuju. It was devastated when Noxus launched its invasion. The earth was scarred, the forests destroyed, and because of that, the local spirits of nature were corrupted. Even now, they remain trapped in chaos.

"I heard that the Twin Cities restored Noxian land, so I hoped the Twin Cities might be willing to help restore my homeland’s soil and replant its forests, so the local spirits of nature can awaken from that madness."

"I kind of don’t get it..." Ekko blinked, struggling to understand what Yi meant.

What did he mean, the local spirits of nature had been corrupted and were still trapped in chaos?

If the land was damaged, then couldn’t you just take the time to restore it normally? But the way Yi was talking made it sound like the local environment had a mind of its own.

No, seriously, if the land had self-awareness, then what the hell did that even make it?

Yi gave a bitter smile and explained, "Ionia is a land of magic. The spirit realm and the material realm coexist there, like two sides of the same leaf. To use a simple example, if one side of the leaf is eaten away by insects, the other side is damaged as well. When the balance of one side is broken, the other side is affected with it."

"It is a place... utterly different from your Zaun."

Yi spoke to Ekko with complete seriousness.

"So right now, you want us to help repair the material side of your homeland, right?" Ekko asked, seeming to grasp it at last.

Yi nodded, then took a deep breath and said earnestly, "I don’t know what price I’ll have to pay for that... but I’ll do everything in my power."

Ekko laughed and waved a hand. "If it were Silco, he’d probably turn you down. You might not like hearing this, but you really do look broke."

An awkward look appeared on Yi’s face.

It wasn’t that he was poor. It was that Ionia was poor. Abundant natural resources did not mean abundance in every other area. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝙬𝙚𝓫𝒏𝓸𝓿𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝓶

But what Ekko said next made Yi relax.

"Still, if it’s Logan, then you can stop worrying. I don’t know exactly what Logan wants to do in the future, but he’s got a lot of respect for strong people like you. Actually, he seems to be collecting..."

"Collecting what?" Yi asked curiously when Ekko abruptly stopped talking.

After all, the whole reason he had come to the Twin Cities was to meet Logan, so of course he was deeply interested in anything related to him.

But Ekko suddenly shook his head. "Pretend I didn’t say anything. Once you meet Logan, you’ll understand what I meant."

Yi did not press the issue.

If this were the younger Yi, perhaps he would have kept digging until he got an answer. But the Yi of today would not. Because of him, the Wuju School had been wiped out. Guilt and regret had forced him to grow.

Back then, he could not tolerate the sight of Noxians setting Ionia ablaze. Ignoring the warnings of his elders, he had resolutely taken up his blade and gone alone to face the Noxian armies, destroying an entire Noxian coastal legion on the battlefield by himself.

From that day on, he won the title of the youngest sword master, and he had taken pride in it. Honored by it, even. Later, Yi began encouraging the disciples of his school to join the war as well.

Everything had seemed to be improving.

But what followed his sudden rise to fame was Noxus’s ruthless retaliation.

That event made him the true inheritor of the title of Wuju Master, because he had become the last disciple of the Wuju School. His homeland was reduced to ruins, the land deeply corrupted, and the spirit of Ionia abandoned Wuju. Yi withdrew from the world and lived in solitude.

He did not regret resisting Noxus.

What Yi regretted was allowing himself to be blinded by fleeting pride. He had not acted with caution. He had failed to consider the consequences his actions would bring upon the Wuju School.

And now, as Yi stepped out from Wuju once more, both his spiritual strength and his swordsmanship had grown. He had become stronger than before, but his temperament had changed as well.

A true master is an eternal student.

Sitting there in silence, Yi closed his eyes and entered meditation.

Inside Zaun’s council building, Logan suddenly shot to his feet, his face full of surprise. Across from him, Silco could not help rapping his fingers against the table.

"What? Logan, are you saying you’ve got a problem with Jinx coming in on my arm?"

From nearby, Vander muttered under his breath, "Why isn’t it me? First you stole the boss’s seat from me, and now you’re stealing the father role too. For fuck’s sake..."

Silco heard him and let out a cold laugh. "Do you think there’s even a suit that fits you? And Jinx walking in on your arm? Vander, are you sure that’s what it would look like? You really think she wouldn’t just end up dangling off your arm while you drag her down the aisle? Think about it. Does that sound remotely presentable?"

"Or what, were you planning to crawl on all fours and let Jinx lead you in?"

"Fuck, Silco, that’s over the line! Am I a pet? I’m her dad!" Vander snapped.

What the hell did he mean, let Jinx lead him in?

Silco, you bastard, that was too much. Just listen to yourself. Did that sound human to you?

What was he, a damn dog?

Of course Vander knew his image made him totally unsuited to escort Jinx in, but still, wasn’t he allowed to complain a little?

As Silco and Vander started bickering, Jayce sat to the side watching with a cheerful grin.

With Logan back, the Demacia and Noxus situation had been dealt with. After all, Logan’s stance was the Twin Cities’ stance. Now that both Demacia and Noxus had bowed their heads, and with quite a few Demacians currently sitting in prison, what other country would still dare stir up trouble in the Twin Cities?

So Jayce’s schedule had relaxed again.

And once he had free time, he loved running down to Zaun.

To be honest, over the past two years, Jayce had spent far more time in Zaun than he had in Piltover.

"I don’t have a problem. What problem could I possibly have? I just... I just realized something feels off," Logan said, coming back to himself.

"Off? What’s off? The date was picked perfectly. Janna already said it’ll be a beautiful day with calm winds and clear skies, and it even lines up with Jinx’s birthday. What’s supposed to be off about that?"

"I’m not talking about that. Forget it, I can’t explain it to you." Logan looked at Silco with complete exasperation, then lifted a hand and tapped the table. At the same time, he called out, "Janna."

"What now..." A tiny green bird materialized on the table, sounding deeply aggrieved. She covered her head with one wing, looking like she had been asleep.

And whenever Janna got sleepy like this, it meant she had overeaten faith again lately and was busy digesting it.

"What was that just now? For a moment, I felt a powerful sword intent, like someone was facing off against another master. I was about to lock onto it when it vanished. You should know what happened, right?" Logan asked Janna.

At that, Silco and Vander stopped arguing and looked over as well.

The goddess lifted one wing, opened her little beak in a yawn, then mumbled drowsily, "Two very strong people came to Zaun."

"They snuck in?" Logan’s expression sharpened.

"No. I think they’re here for your wedding too. They listened to the enforcers, stood in line properly, and didn’t cause trouble, so I didn’t interfere. But Logan, even if I wanted to deal with those two, I probably couldn’t. They’ve already entered Zaun." After thinking it over, Janna answered with unusual seriousness.

By the time Janna noticed those two powerful humans, they had already arrived in Zaun aboard a hextech airship. At that point, even if she wanted to intervene, she could not.

Janna was a demigod, yes, but direct destructive power had always been her weak point. Her strength lay in turning one plus one into three. She excelled as support. In a one-on-one fight, she was usually the one forced onto the defensive, which meant she could keep herself from getting hurt and tie the other side down, but it also meant the other side would not get hurt either.

So after sensing them and realizing both were very strong, it was not that she could not beat them, she was not the little weakling other gods used to bully anymore, all right?

Now she was a god worshipped across the coasts. With the Twin Cities backing her, even Nagakabouros’s followers could not compare to a single feather of hers.

It was just that if a fight broke out in Zaun... Janna would never be able to go all out.

Logan understood what Janna meant, and a worried look crossed his face.

What did Janna mean?

She meant that even if they wanted to deal with those two powerful people now, they no longer could, because once they were already inside Zaun, trying to handle them would put countless Zaunites in danger.

After all, demigods were basically humanoid nuclear weapons.

Once they started fighting, heaven and earth changed. In the Freljord battle, Ursine Mountain had been erased, and the level of the Ice Sea had dropped. That was not figurative. It was a true world-altering catastrophe.

So Logan became genuinely concerned.

But just as he was trying to figure out who the newcomers were, he suddenly turned his head, and Janna lifted hers too, looking toward the window.

Logan crossed the room in a couple of steps and went to the window. Silco and the others followed after him.

At that moment, at the western window on the third floor of Zaun’s council building, the most powerful group in Zaun were all crowded around the frame.

Logan was in front. Silco stood beside him. Janna was perched atop Logan’s head. Jayce was just behind Logan. Vander was squeezing his huge wolfish head in from the side.

And then they saw Ekko below, smiling as always, and beside him...

A middle-aged man in long robes, with a weapon on his back that looked half like a curved saber and half like a longsword.

"..."

The moment Logan saw him, his expression turned strange. Then he lifted a finger and poked the little green bird perched on his head.

His fingertip sank into Janna’s soft, plump, warm belly, and she let out an irritated sharp cry. "What?!"

"You can go back. It’s fine now. I know this person."

"Tch!" Janna flapped her wings and smacked Logan across the forehead to vent her annoyance, then vanished in a flash, most likely going right back to sleep.

Logan pushed the window open and called down below,

"Welcome to Zaun, Master Yi."

Yi looked up and saw a black-haired young man with a few superficial similarities to himself, especially the mark at his brow. Yi had a mark at the center of his forehead, and the other man had one as well.

It looked like... the faint shape of a Spirit Blossom seed. It was not very obvious, but with Yi’s eyesight, he could still make it out.

"I never expected you to come to Zaun. Come on up," Logan called to him.

Beside Yi, Ekko waved and said, "Yi, that’s Logan, the man you wanted to see. I’ll take you up, just..."

Before he could finish, Yi lifted one foot and lightly tapped the ground with his boot.

Then he... flew up.

Yi rose toward the window.

The sight left Silco and the others staring in disbelief.

What the hell, another one who could fly?!

Logan had been able to fly before too, but back then he had only borrowed the power of Goddess Janna. This time, after returning from the Freljord, he could do it on his own, and now some middle-aged man could fly too!

Then the others stepped aside, and Yi lightly landed on the window frame and entered the room.

Despite having just displayed that skill, he remained extremely polite. He gave the group a warm bow.

"Wuju School, Yi," he said simply, introducing himself and offering goodwill.

"Zaun, Logan." Logan smiled and extended his hand to Yi.

If it was Yi, then there was nothing to worry about.

Master Yi was the very picture of the righteous and benevolent sort.

Still, there was one problem.

He had found the source of that sword intent from earlier. The one who had released that powerful sword intent had to be Master Yi, because it was far stronger than the wind sword intent Logan himself had grasped.

But that only made the real question even bigger.

Who exactly was the other person, the one who could stand against a Master Yi like this, and even draw from him such intense fighting spirit and sword intent?

Logan’s expression turned strange as the thought crossed his mind.

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