The Poles Connect, A Gift from the Twin Cities

Outside Sejuani's house--

Donna didn't know that Li Ke had gone with her Warmother, but even if she did, Donna wouldn't follow. At that moment, she was squeezing into the crowd with shining eyes, her right hand clutching a row of freshly sealed lamb chops, and her left hand tightly gripping a package containing about eight skewers of sausages. The silly girl was drooling and wouldn't let go.

"No, please don't do this!"

The tribal priest shouted loudly. The elderly priest had a ruddy complexion and was no longer the hunched and weak figure he used to be. At this moment, the old priest was strong and healthy. He was just short of grabbing the shoulders of the Winter's Claw warriors, climbing on them, and squeezing into the center.

"Don't grab! Don't fight! This food is for everyone in the tribe, so get out of the way! Let's count the food!"

A group of old priests shouted loudly from behind!

Donna heard the old priest's voice, but she pretended not to hear it, stuffed the packaged sausage into her bosom, then puffed out her cheeks and reached in forcefully, rummaging around for it.

The area around the dozens of containers was already crowded with Winter's Claw warriors, with thousands of people scrambling for food; the scene was, of course, incredibly chaotic.

"Don't fucking touch me! Who is it?! Are you touching the packaging or my penis?!"

"Damn it, who's touching my butt?!"

The warriors of Winter's Claw were completely unable to calm down. In the tribe, the priests held a higher status than the warriors, second only to the Warmother. They were the ones who sought the direction for the tribe. Sometimes, these old guys could even decide the Sejuani Warmother's decisions, although they would follow Sejuani if she insisted on going her own way.

However, in the Winter's Claw tribe, where Sejuani holds absolute power, these old men have the authority to refuse the Warmother's orders, which shows how high their status truly is.

But what's the use?

At this moment, nobody is paying any attention to them at all!

"Hmm~"

Humming a little tune, Wei, standing outside the crowd, watched the scene unfold with a smile. After a while, she patted Ekko on the shoulder beside her.

Ekko was dressed very warmly, wearing a wool sweater over his law enforcement coat. A girl wearing goggles and a thick cotton-padded coat stood next to Ekko. It was Zeri, her green, firework-like hair peeking out from under her goggles as she stared wide-eyed at the scene before her.

"Shouldn't we do something about it?" Zeri said after thinking for a moment. She had a feeling that a stampede might happen if things continued like this.

"What do you care?" Wei said with a smile. She stretched and looked at the house in the distance. It seemed that Li Ke had just gone to that place.

Thinking of this, Vi said to Ekko, "Let's go see what Li Ke and Jinx are doing."

Ekko hesitated for a moment, then nodded.

A short while later, Vi, Ekko, and Zeri arrived outside, and then they heard Jinx's voice.

"Are you kidding me!"

"Watch out or I'll blow you up!"

Vi raised an eyebrow upon hearing Jinx's irritable voice, wondering what was wrong with her sister again.

Reaching out and lifting the animal-hide curtain, Wei stepped inside, and this is what she saw.

A woman even taller than Caitlyn was frowning at Jinx, while Jinx, held tightly in Li Ke's arms, was baring her teeth and claws at the tall woman, spewing out vulgarities—well, the kind of slang familiar to Zaunite.

Besides these three, there was another man with long hair, shorter than Vander, but with a similar broad and Vander build. He was looking down, pretending not to see anything in front of him.

"What's going on?" Wei whistled and asked.

She glanced at the tall woman a few more times. To be honest, the woman was quite beautiful, especially with her cold demeanor. For a moment, she resembled Caitlyn, but the difference was that Caitlyn was cold on the outside but warm on the inside, while this woman was different. She looked like a large human ice sculpture, and the coldness in her eyes made it impossible for anyone to meet her gaze.

"It's nothing, just a misunderstanding." Li Ke looked at Wei with a wry smile, giving her a pleading look.

Wei saw through it and looked at Li Ke with amusement. She stood there gracefully with one hand on her hip and said loudly, "There's still a day when you'll ask me for help?"

Despite saying that, Vi still walked up to Jinx, rolled her eyes at her, and said, "Alright, Jinx, stop being unreasonable."

"Me, joking?" Jinx was so angry when Vi said that to her that she spat on Vi's face.

"!" Vi wiped her drool while grinning maliciously at Jinx.

Realizing she might have gone a bit too far, Jinx felt a little guilty, but immediately looked stubbornly at Vi and said, "She said she's going to marry Li Ke. It's one thing if you don't speak up for me, but how can you say I'm being unreasonable?"

Vi was taken aback, then looked at Li Ke was holding Jinx, Li Ke nodded.

This really can't be blamed on Jinx.

She's petty and can't stand the slightest grievance. Call her hypocritical or unreasonable, but Jinx has always been this way. Her environment in Zaun, her past experiences, and Hilcor Vander's pampering shaped her personality. Expecting her to reason with you is like expecting Mordekaiser to explode and die in the underworld tomorrow.

"Was there something wrong with what I did?" Sejuani's voice rang out. She looked at everyone with great confusion and continued, "Handsome men are only for the strong. I can see that too. Jinx, you and Li Ke are a couple, right? But that's okay. Li Ke can be my blood ally while being with you."

"?" Li Ke looked at Sejuani with a twitching mouth.

No, sis, do we really want to go that far?

A blood pact is like marriage, so what does Sejuani mean by that?

Does that mean Li Ke can be her husband while simultaneously dating Jinx?

Putting aside whether Li Ke could accept it or not, let's talk about Jinx. She would absolutely never accept something like that.

After listening, Vi figured out what had happened, but she wasn't Jinx. After thinking for a moment, she looked at Sejuani and asked suspiciously, "Are you Freljord so barbaric?"

"What do you mean?" Sejuani was taken aback.

"It means, they're already a couple, why are you trying to steal their man?"

"Aren't men meant to be fought over?" Sejuani frowned again.

"Those are your Freljord rules, not our Zaun's," Vi said speechlessly. She looked at Sejuani and added, "Don't impose your rules on outsiders, just as we won't break your rules."

Sejuani seemed to understand.

Vi means that the outside world is different from Freljord; it's not necessarily a male-dominated society, but the marital relationship is definitely different from that in Freljord.

Seeing this, Sejuani fell silent.

She would act like a bandit against anyone else, but not against Li Ke. This winter, the Winter's Claw will not suffer any losses because the warriors will no longer have to risk their lives hunting in the harsh winter. In the future, the Winter's Claw will also need to rely on Li Ke to exchange for supplies to get through the winter. Therefore, in the end, Li Ke seems to be even stronger than her.

Respect for the strong is in the nature of the Freljord people.

"Let's talk about the important things, okay, Jinx." The Big Sister is the Big Sister, after all. Vi has been Big Sister for many years, and having served as the Sump enforcement officer in Zaun for so long, she's long been adept at handling all sorts of troublesome matters. After all, Zaun doesn't have any major problems right now, but there are still a ton of minor interpersonal disputes and such, which is quite a handful.

Don't assume that just because Zaun has undergone reforms and changes, the average quality of its people has improved significantly. Compared to Piltover, the irritability and rudeness of Zaunite are ingrained in their bones; the word "civilization" has not yet appeared in this city-state of Zaun.

After Li Ke released Jinx, she angrily sat down in a corner, her back to everyone, head down, seemingly lost in thought.

Li Ke looked at Wei and asked, "Did you bring the documents?"

"Hey, where's Ekko?" Vi Nunu.

After watching the show for a while, Ekko came up and handed a stack of sealed documents to Li Ke, Li Ke took them, opened them, and looked at them.

Okay, no problem.

This document was prepared by Li Ke and Silco. It mainly outlines the various rules of the friendly alliance Twin Cities and the Winter's Claw. In other words, the Twin Cities will support the Winter's Claw, but the Twin Cities' support will not be free.

Twin Cities didn't come to Winter's Claw specifically to help them. The document details what Twin Cities needed Winter's Claw to do, such as collecting special ores, like True Ice Shards and other special magical products, as well as various animal pelts, handicrafts, and local vegetation. Twin Cities would also invite some Winter's Claw people to learn and provide them with jobs and corresponding wages.

However, Sejuani couldn't understand the Valoran script, and speaking it and being able to read it are two different things.

Therefore, Li Ke had Zeri read it to Sejuani, and Sejuani listened very attentively.

Udyr, who was behind her, stopped pretending to be invisible and listened to the treaty along with her.

After a while, Zeri finished reading and stood gracefully to the side.

Li Ke looked at Sejuani and asked, "How is it?"

"It's very good, but I don't quite understand, Li Ke, why are you doing this? What benefit do you get from it?" Sejuani looked at Li Ke and asked with some confusion.

This contract is too good for Winter's Claw, so good that it's practically like Twin Cities are giving Winter's Claw a free ride. But that's precisely why Sejuani doesn't understand it.

There's no such thing as a free lunch in this world. Sejuani understood this when she was very young. There's also no such thing as unconditional kindness in this world. This was a lesson her mother taught her.

And Li Ke and his Zaun, good, too good, so good that none of these conditions Sejuani could refuse, yet so good that she dared not agree.

She was worried there might be a conspiracy involved.

"Yes, of course there are benefits," Li Ke nodded in reply.

He didn't hide anything from Sejuani, saying, "Before Winter's Claw, I had already established diplomatic relations with the three city-states of Ionia, Noxus, and Bilgewater. After you send the Noxus prisoners back, Noxus's Grand Chancellor Swain will sign a treaty of cooperation with the Twin Cities. Ionia has already signed it, and Bilgewater's situation is a bit more complicated, but it will also establish diplomatic relations with the Twin Cities in the future."

"Heading west, Demacia is also our target, and we will establish diplomatic relations with the various small countries along the way."

"You ask why Twin Cities did this?"

Li Ke took a breath and said seriously, "For the future, Sejuani, what I, and my city-state are doing now is for the future."

"The future?" Sejuani was still puzzled.

But Udyr stepped in behind her.

He looked at Li Ke and said in a deep voice, "You've been in contact with Lissandra?"

"They contacted me last night," Li Ke replied with a smile.

Jinx, who was in the corner, shuddered, and her fair ears twitched amidst her blue hair.

Udyr continued, "So... what did you and Lissandra talk about?"

"Some things you already know, Udyr, some things about what's beneath the Howling Abyss."

Udyr listened without saying anything, but reached out and patted Sejuani on the back. He closed his eyes, lowered his head, and made sure no one could see his expression.

But at this moment, Udyr's heart was in turmoil.

Is this outsider, Li Ke, trying to unite Runeterra and fight against the Void?

But that's a problem even Ornn couldn't solve. Can humans really do it alone?

Udyr didn't know, but Udyr was willing to give it a try. He had always known the secrets hidden beneath the Howling Abyss Udyr, but knowing it didn't mean he could do anything about it. He was struggling to even help Sejuani lead the Winter's Claw through the winter, and he couldn't even handle Volibear. He could only watch helplessly as Sejuani fell step by step into the giant net woven by the Ursine.

However, Li Ke's appearance gave Udyr a glimmer of hope.

If the witch really reaches an agreement with Li Ke, then if Volibear turns against them in the future, then he, Li Ke's backer, and Lissandra —ha, they might not be a match for the Bear God!

With that in mind, Udyr gestured for Sejuani to agree.

After receiving Udyr's hint, Sejuani nodded without hesitation.

"Okay, I agree."

"How am I supposed to sign this contract?" Sejuani, looking at Li Ke.

Li Ke smiled and waved.

Zeri quickly took out an inkpad from her bosom and went to Sejuani.

"This will do. Just press it on, and then print it on the paper," Zeri said to Sejuani.

Sejuani hummed in agreement, stretched out her hand, pressed her thumb onto the red inkpad, and then stamped it onto the paper.

Seeing this, Li Ke smiled and said:

"Welcome to the Twin Cities Federation, Sejuani. I'll introduce you to the current head of the Twin Cities Federation later."

Li Ke smiled and said that he was very happy at the moment because he had officially taken the first step in what he was doing.

Later, he would contact Janna and ask Janna to find the other leaders of the Twin Cities Federation and hold a private meeting.

Hmm, I wonder what it will be like when Sejuani and Lissandra meet.

He is no longer committed to building Zaun and Piltover.

What Li Ke wants now is to connect the whole world.

Which areas are still not connected?

Um.

Shurima, Demacia, Mount Targon.

Li Ke squinted, his thoughts drifting.