A Quiet Night in Piltover

In the night, Ryan and Katarina walked across the white stone pavement toward the nearby Noxus Embassy.

As they walked, both Ryan and Katarina halted their steps at the same time.

"Piltover truly is a city with excellent public order," Ryan suddenly remarked with a sigh.

Katarina let out a snort of laughter. "A blimp was blown up at the Air Dock this morning, and now a building's been blown up tonight. Piltover's Enforcers are all just dead weight, only showing up to clean up the mess after the fact."

Not far from the two, firelight engulfed half the sky, and the roar of explosives rang without end. A low building burst apart like fireworks, and many surrounding structures were caught in the blast, their walls cracking audibly.

"Your Excellency, should we intervene and stop them?" Katarina asked.

Ryan lightly shook his head, his expression thoughtful.

The two simply stood there, watching a delinquent girl with twin blue ponytails swagger off into the distance. Before she left, she even made a face at them.

This girl had also appeared at the Air Dock earlier. According to the intelligence he'd received, she was one of Silco's people—the current ruler of Zaun. Her name was... Jinx?

And if he wasn't mistaken, Jinx was holding a Hex Crystal. The energy structure within it was completely different from the one he'd given Viktor—far more stable. It was likely a new Hextech invention that hadn't been demonstrated today.

"Is that the officer from this morning? Lucky, I suppose—the sole survivor. Her name seems to be... Kiramman?"

The two arrived at the scene and found Caitlyn still barely breathing on the ground. Katarina raised an eyebrow, a little surprised.

"Caitlyn Kiramman. Her mother, Madam Kiramman, is a councilor of Piltover. As for her, she insists on upholding justice and working on the front lines, which often leads to arguments with her mother."

Ryan spoke flatly as he strolled toward Caitlyn, the ring on his hand glowing blue.

Blue droplets scattered down from above Caitlyn's head, soaking into her body. Her injuries healed at a visible rate.

After doing this, he turned his head to the side. Jayce stood there, his expression tense. He was the first to arrive at the scene besides Ryan and his companion—the explosion had happened in his lab.

"This is all I can do. She should wake up in a little while," Ryan said calmly.

"Thank you for your help, Mr. Meredith."

Jayce bowed to Ryan, then hurriedly crouched down to support Caitlyn. By now, the late-arriving Enforcers had also started moving, cleaning up the chaotic aftermath of the disaster.

Seeing charred black bodies being carried out, Jayce's face filled with grief.

"Mr. Meredith, I've heard Mel mention you. But I'm truly sorry you had to see the worst side of Piltover."

Ryan's eyes showed no concern. His gaze passed through Jayce to fix on something behind him. In the shadows of a nearby building, Viktor stood hesitantly.

"The Valoran Continent isn't a peaceful place. Incidents like this happen all the time—even the Immortal Bastion in Noxus is no exception. Do you have any leads on the perpetrators?"

"It must have been people from the Undercity," Jayce said through gritted teeth. "We're all part of Piltover. I can't think of why they would do this."

Who's "we" with you?

Ryan shook his head inwardly. Facing this idealist before him, he asked, "How do you see Piltover and Zaun? This is my first time here, but from what I've heard outside and what I've seen with my own eyes, these two places don't feel like one city."

Jayce's arms tightened around Caitlyn. "My partner comes from Zaun. I don't have any prejudice against it."

Hearing that, even Katarina couldn't help but give him a strange look, let alone Ryan.

If he really had no prejudice, would he need to emphasize that?

Just as Ryan was about to say something more, Caitlyn weakly opened her eyes.

"Jayce?"

"Caitlyn, thank goodness you're okay." Jayce let out a sigh of relief, then shot Ryan an apologetic glance.

"How are the others?" Caitlyn struggled to get up, but her body was too weak to move.

"Miss Kiramman, my magic only healed your external injuries. The shock from the explosion will still take some time for you to recover from," Ryan said.

"You are... the Noxian from this morning. Why are you here?" Caitlyn frowned. She didn't have a good impression of Ryan and his companion.

"Caitlyn, Mr. Meredith saved you. As for the other Enforcers..." Jayce's face flickered with grief, and his gaze unconsciously drifted toward the corpses.

"How is that possible!?"

Caitlyn followed his line of sight and saw the charred bodies lying not far away. Her pupils shrank, and she nearly fainted again.

"Do you have any leads? This attack was very unusual. A Hex Crystal was stolen, and several important research documents were taken too."

Jayce's expression was urgent. The lost items were critical. If they fell into the hands of someone who could use them, it might spark a war.

Just today, he had assured Heimerdinger and Mel that there would be no accidents with Hextech. Less than a day later, an incident had occurred, and he felt a deep sense of shame.

It reminded him of something from a few years ago—the same theft of his Hex Crystal by someone from the Undercity, the same lab blown up, followed by a chain of events.

But that time, things turned out well. It led him to meet Mel and Viktor, and he succeeded in developing Hextech.

This time... hopefully, it would also end well.

Jayce's mind wandered as he waited for Caitlyn to recall what had happened.

"Let me think."

Caitlyn sank into thought, frowning one moment, troubled the next.

After a long while, she jolted, and blurted out excitedly, "I remember now! It was definitely people from the Undercity! The same group that blew up the blimp at the Air Dock this morning."

Jayce asked urgently, "Any suspects?"

Caitlyn shook her head in frustration. "All I know is the culprit leaves a monkey symbol—that same mark was on the airship at the Air Dock. And right before I blacked out, I vaguely saw a blue-haired woman. That's all I've got."

"Don't worry, that's enough to go on." Jayce tried to reassure her.

"You don't need to get involved in this. I'll investigate it myself. The Undercity is nothing but filthy rats." Caitlyn arched an eyebrow, a stubborn look on her face. "Even though I didn't get to interrogate the prisoner from that airship, I managed to squeeze quite a bit of information out of another thug Mr. Meredith captured."

"Mind if I ask where he's from?"

Ryan perked up with interest. He hadn't thought that green-haired guy was tight-lipped at all.

"Of course." Caitlyn didn't mind. "That one belongs to the Firelight Gang—supposedly the biggest gang in Zaun."

Hearing this, Ryan's expression gradually turned odd.

If Noxian intelligence was correct, the biggest gang in Zaun should be Silco's outfit. The Firelight Gang was barely second-rate; if not for their Hoverboards, they'd have been wiped out long ago.

"They believe Shimmer shouldn't exist in this world, so that operation was to destroy the Shimmer on the airship."

"Who's behind Shimmer? Mel told me that ship was full of contraband." Jayce's face twisted with disgust.

"He doesn't know that either. We actually captured a prisoner from the Shimmer-backed faction on the ship. But Councilor Medarda was busy shipping Shimmer to the Noxians, and the Sheriff wouldn't let me interrogate him, so there was nothing I could do." Caitlyn's face showed regret.

Seeming close with Jayce, she added, "But I'm not giving up! I'll investigate personally."

"Don't do anything reckless. The Undercity people are all dangerous. I'll propose a full investigation of the Undercity in the Council tomorrow. I'm sure Mel and Professor Heimerdinger will agree." Jayce's tone was firm.

Ryan listened quietly to their exchange, his amused gaze fixed on a shadow behind Jayce. At some point, the person in that shadow had vanished.

"Mr. Talis, Miss Kiramman. It's getting late. Have a pleasant evening."

Jayce nodded solemnly at Ryan. "Mr. Meredith, on behalf of Piltover, I thank you for your assistance today."

"Small matter. Hope Piltover has a peaceful tomorrow."

Ryan waved a hand and walked off without looking back, Katarina following.

Piltover. Things were getting more interesting by the minute.