In the League, Yet with the Taiwan Server System

"Meow~" The little female cat was snow-white all over, but her eyes were as azure as the sky. She carried herself with exceptional elegance.

She was quite clean and unafraid of people. She probably was not a stray cat—perhaps she belonged to some Resistance Army fighter.

"Do you want something to eat too?" Karma smiled and stroked the kitten. "But you can't. These are for Chen Ce and Irelia."

"Meow~" Cats could not understand human language. Cats only wanted food.

She nimbly jumped into Karma's lap and reached toward the stove with her front paws.

"Really, no." Karma stopped the kitten in time, lest she jump onto the stove and get burned—if she accidentally knocked over the clay pot, that would be even more troublesome.

"If you really want something to eat... um... I do have a little snack I can give you."

Karma took out a stick-shaped food item from her pocket.

This thing seemed to be called... a sausage? A seeker from Piltover had given it to her. It was pure meat, high in energy and easy to store.

She had kept it on her at all times, intending to use it as life-saving rations should she ever encounter danger and run desperately low on food. But now, she had changed her mind.

She planned to feed this sausage to the adorable kitten.

"Here, take it." Karma peeled back the wrapper at the top of the sausage, exposing a little of the meat.

The little female cat was startled by the suddenly appearing "big stick"—the sausage was enormous. Held up to her face, it was nearly half as wide as her little face. She had never seen anything like it.

At that moment, she finally realized her own "carelessness."

Perhaps... she should have left such a trivial task as coming out to forage to her other feline underlings...

Well, no matter what, since she had already come here and found food, the rest of the task naturally had to be carried out by her.

She cautiously sniffed it, then cautiously reached out with both front paws to touch it.

This smell... was a little fishy, like meat. It seemed edible...?

She began probing more boldly—her two paws clawed and scratched at the sausage, and she even seemed to be playing with it.

Yes, she had never seen anything like this before. After the brief surprise and fear, what filled her heart most was curiosity.

She wanted to carefully investigate this unfamiliar food she had never seen before—after all, it would not move, so if she wanted to learn more about it, now was the time.

She brought her face close again. This time, there was not much fear left in her heart. There was only curiosity.

She sniffed harder. The faintly fishy scent remained, even more distinct than before.

She gradually sped up her paws, rapidly scratching at it.

She even considered using her mouth directly—after all, taste buds were the best way to understand a food's properties—but... she still did not dare.

For someone with her cautious personality, touching it with her paws was already the boldest, most extreme thing she could do.

"Meow~ Meow meow meow~" The little female cat let out repeated cries of amazement.

Karma watched her with a smile, feeling delighted as well.

But because she was watching too intently, she failed to notice the faint movement behind her.

The clay pot on the stove was getting a little "restless"—the fire was too strong, and she had forgotten to control the heat.

Bubble, bubble...

The medicinal broth sprayed out of the clay pot's vent with bubbles, splattering everywhere.

Karma hurriedly went to deal with it, but she accidentally got splashed all over too—some even got into her eyes and mouth.

Fortunately, with her extraordinary body, mere boiling water could not hurt her. It was only somewhat uncomfortable.

"Cough, cough, cough..." She could not help coughing a few times, feeling as though someone had forcibly poured something deep down her throat.

At last, the little female cat stopped playing with the sausage.

The clay pot stopped spraying too.

Everything was over...

Irelia: The Moon Is Beautiful Tonight

Chen Ce had a very strange dream—a peculiar, beautiful dream.

The contents of the dream were chaotic and disordered. He could no longer remember them clearly, only vaguely recalling that it had been a beautiful dream.

But a dream was ultimately just a dream.

The more wonderful the first half of the dream had been, the more cruel the latter half was.

Chen Ce saw that terrifying poison gas, as well as blazing chemical fires... spreading through a village, corpses strewn everywhere... Everyone was wailing, dying amid scorching agony...

He saw a silver-haired girl wielding a greatsword... She knelt before an old man, begging him to break the greatsword stained with sinful blood...

The old man died. His most prized disciple returned... Everyone regarded him as the murderer who had killed his master... He began to flee... His most respected elder brother caught up to him, and they were forced to turn their blades against one another...

The wind continued to blow, but it was no longer the warm breeze of spring. It was a fierce wind that wounded...

There were more and more corpses... corpses killed by blades, corpses killed by poison gas, corpses killed by fire...

Irelia...

"Irelia—!"

Chen Ce abruptly sat up in bed, his forehead covered in cold sweat born of fear.

He instinctively felt his body. Fortunately, his limbs and torso were still intact. There were only a few insignificant wounds wrapped in bandages—they hurt a little, and he was utterly exhausted.

At the same time, he had another, more wondrous sensation—he seemed able to sense the Spirit Realm more clearly now—or rather, the Spirit of Ionia?

The sensation that had once only come through Meditation now seemed to give him the faintest connection even without meditating... a connection to the Spirit Realm.

"It's all right, Chen Ce... It's all right now..." At that moment, a woman's tired voice came from nearby.

He turned and saw Irelia sitting beside the bed, her face filled with exhaustion and joy.

There also seemed to be... a hint of strange shyness?

"You're finally awake... Thank goodness, our efforts were not in vain... Thank the Spirit of Ionia for its guidance..."

"I..." Chen Ce shook his head in a daze, quickly remembering everything.

The encounter in Dragonspine Canyon, followed by his loss of consciousness, the beautiful dream and the nightmare... He remembered it all.

Looking at the girl before him, he did not need to think to know how he had escaped death.

But... now was not the time for words of gratitude.

"The Way of the Wanderer... Elder Souma...!"

He struggled to climb out of bed, but before his feet could touch the floor, his body heavily collapsed downward.

Fortunately, Irelia caught him in time.

"You're still very weak. You need more rest. Don't move around..."

"Now really isn't the time to rest..." Chen Ce tried to get up again, only to be pressed back onto the bed by the girl. "We have to save Elder Souma... Riven will get him killed...!"

Seeing this, Irelia said nothing more. She directly used brute force to pin him down on the bed—even though she was exhausted as well, she was still much stronger than Chen Ce.

To be safe, she even straddled him directly.

Just like... their previous position...

"Be good. You still need rest."

"..." Chen Ce finally began to calm down.

A moment later, he thought of a crucial question. "Irelia, how long was I unconscious...?"

"A full two and a half days."

"Then when did we return from Dragonspine Canyon?"

"Three days ago."

"In other words..." Chen Ce turned to glance out the window. Dawn had already arrived. "It's been exactly three days since those chemical weapons exploded...?"

"Yes." Irelia nodded.

Hearing that, Chen Ce stopped struggling.

It had already been three days...

Then... even if they chased after her now, Riven should already have asked Elder Souma to break her sword...

Nothing could be undone anymore...

"Don't think about anything for now. Rest is what matters most." Irelia did not press him about those names she did not understand. She only wanted Chen Ce to rest properly.

"Sorry..." Chen Ce realized he had lost his composure just now. "I just... thought of a way to deal with those weapons—or rather, someone who could."

"We can talk about those things after you've rested... Promise me, all right?" Irelia's face remained full of worry.

"Mm..." Chen Ce did not continue discussing the matter, but he had already decided on his next move.

He was going to find Yasuo... Yasuo, who was about to be falsely accused.

He would clear Yasuo's name, and in return, his "payment" would be for Yasuo to join the Resistance Army.

His Way of the Wanderer should be able to stop the poison gas from spreading—whether through the hurricane raised by his blade or the Wind Wall.

"Anyway, as long as you're all right, that's enough." Irelia slowly climbed off Chen Ce and lay beside the bed again, just as she had before.

Her sapphire-clear, beautiful eyes stared directly at him, making no attempt to hide the concern and... love in her gaze.

It was as if there were two little hearts hidden in her eyes.

Chen Ce sensed that deep affection as well and suddenly remembered something—the system notification he had heard when he obtained a fully stacked Tear of the Goddess:

[Current interaction level: 99.]

All at once, he seemed to recall something from the dream... That sensation had seemed a little too real...

Could it be...

Chen Ce swallowed and forcefully sniffed the air in the room.

It seemed...

"Are you hungry?!" Just as Chen Ce caught a whiff of something, Irelia suddenly stood up with a flushed face. "Do you want something to eat... I'll make noodles for you! All right!"

"Uh..." Chen Ce was already more than half certain.

An interaction level of 99, and all of it was affection...

That was basically affection strong enough to count as "giving herself to him"...

The remaining 1 was probably only because Irelia could not wholly devote herself to personal feelings before Ionia achieved its great revival...

"Stop sniffing, all right..." Irelia's fair cheeks reddened with embarrassment, and her eyes darted away. "Please... don't think about what happened before..."

"Cough, cough... Mm..." Chen Ce felt a little awkward as well.

For a time, neither spoke. An awkward atmosphere filled the room.

At the same time, something more ambiguous spread through the air.

Or rather... the scent of hormones.

Irelia still remembered that faintly fishy scent, along with that strange sensation and the temperature that had been noticeably higher than elsewhere...

Suddenly, she felt her body grow hot...

As though... she were yearning for something...

"Chen, Chen Ce..." She stared at the floor, her tone brimming with shyness. "Um... I want to discuss something with you..."

"Mm, go ahead..." Chen Ce scratched the back of his head, which was wrapped in bandages.

"It's just... um... I left something on you... Those things determine my... um... whether I can find a partner in the future..."

"Mm..."

"So... um... I wanted to ask... can you... stay with me forever...?"

This was already a roundabout confession.

But Irelia still felt that she had not made herself clear enough, so she added, "I mean... can you always stay by my side in the future... I want to see the sea of flowers on the Placidium Plains with you, and I want to see Rainbow Scourge Valley by the sea with you too..."

After a brief pause, she pursed her lips and spoke the final sentence: