Setting Out

"What the hell are you doing, going crazy in the middle of the night? Do you have any idea how many days it's been since I've had a decent night's sleep?"

Shen sat in the carriage Li Ke had practically forced him to buy, looking thoroughly displeased. Li Ke had even made him stick talismans all over it.

He'd finally gotten to take a hot bath and go to bed, only for Li Ke to keep him up until the middle of the night. Then, while he was half asleep, Li Ke had kicked his front door in. Anyone would be pissed!

Li Ke merely put on an inscrutable expression. He gently stroked Yone's wife... his sword, and answered Shen.

"Because I sensed something bad was going to happen. The Spirit of Ionia is warning me."

Do you think I wouldn't know if the Spirit of Ionia had blessed you?!

Shen looked at Li Ke, who didn't have even a hint of magic about him, and let out two cold chuckles.

"What a coincidence. I received a revelation from the Spirit of Ionia, too. It told me to beat you up later."

Li Ke rolled his eyes. He knew Shen was in a bad mood, so he kept up his act as a mystic.

"I have a feeling that along the road ahead, there's a group of Noxians planning to massacre a village. I can't shake this feeling, so I have to go there."

At that, Shen's annoyance vanished at once. Jokes were one thing, and horseplay was another. When it came to a swordsman's intuition—even the intuition of a swordsman without magic—Shen had decided to trust it.

As Li Ke said this, his heartbeat and breathing hadn't changed at all. He was obviously telling the truth.

So Shen silently recited an incantation and stuck a talisman on the carriage. In an instant, the mediocre carriage reached the speed of a fine one. The roads of Ionia became even bumpier, but there was no denying that they were moving faster.

Li Ke looked at Shen, but Shen merely folded his arms with an air of restraint.

"I'll trust you this once!"

Li Ke smiled at him, and Shen gave a cold snort.

This actually went against the teachings of the Balance Order, but for some inexplicable reason, Shen felt closer to Li Ke. He even checked for magic, but found nothing unusual. The protective charm his father had given him hadn't reacted either. Clearly, this wasn't the effect of some kind of magic.

He simply got along with Li Ke.

"Thanks. Also, there's a book in my bag. You can read it, but under no circumstances can you tell anyone about it."

Li Ke thanked him, then focused on driving the carriage. The book in his bag was what he'd received for choosing the second option: the Ionia Five-Year Plan.

Choosing vitality could have made him stronger, but this was different. The Ionia Five-Year Plan could help him a great deal. It could even turn Ionia's two-year war into a one-year war.

This time, he didn't plan to rely on Zed's power, so he'd chosen the plan to avoid any oversights.

"What's with all the secrecy..."

Shen didn't think much of it. If Li Ke didn't want him to tell anyone, then he wouldn't. He casually picked up the book from Li Ke's bag and flipped through a few pages in the first rays of dawn.

He read the first few pages.

"This is weird. What kind of wild fantasy is this? It's ridiculous. If you did this, we'd have to eliminate you. You'd better not do anything stupid..."

He read a little more.

"Wait. This actually makes some sense?"

He read a few more pages.

"How did we never think of such a simple solution before?!"

Shen slapped his thigh and cried out.

His father and the people of Ionia at large had been troubled by the relationship between humans and the Vastaya for a long time. There had never seemed to be any way to resolve it.

But if the Five-Year Plan in this book could be put into practice, then the problems between the Vastaya and humans would no longer be problems.

The problem for the Vastaya was that places where humans lived couldn't have too many magical elements. Those elements could make humans act strangely or even cause them to be attacked.

But the Vastaya grew stronger because of those very elements.

Li Ke's book laid out in detail how to use the magic in nature by dividing it into separate zones. The method wasn't very different from the traditional practice of containing magic through rituals. There were only minor differences, but that was precisely what made it brilliant.

The book didn't try to contain all the excess magic that was harmful to humans. Instead, it used the layout of residential areas and farmland to guide the magic into specific parts of the city.

There was no artificial construction involved. It simply guided the forces of nature.

If Vastaya lived there, the magical power would automatically adjust and reach a stable balance. Any excess magic would still be contained using the old method, forming a power source to drive other things.

Put simply, this new method added a series of smaller dams and reservoirs around a dam that could only open and close.

Those smaller dams and reservoirs were the areas set aside for the Vastaya. In the overall design, these areas were divided into parks, training grounds, office districts, and farmland.

All of them happened to be places that needed plenty of magic.

Poor Vastaya could live on farmland or in the suburbs, while wealthier Vastaya could live near plazas, parks, or office districts.

It naturally served to divide them into different groups.

"But there's one thing..."

"This would take a powerful organization, wouldn't it? Do you want to become king, Li Ke?"

Shen looked at Li Ke with a complicated expression. He didn't want to see his friend corrupted by power, but if Li Ke really could make this happen...

Then maybe it wouldn't be so bad.

"Not at all. The first thing someone like me would do as king is impose the right of the first night throughout Ionia."

Li Ke answered Shen's question with complete seriousness. Shen...

He listened carefully to Li Ke's heartbeat and breathing.

Li Ke was serious!

But before he could say anything, Li Ke twisted the knife.

"And I'd only take the pretty ones. I wouldn't even look at the ugly ones."

Shen's lips trembled twice before he finally spoke.

"That's just like you..."

"Right!"

Li Ke laughed. Being king sounded like too much trouble.

Just then, they passed a village. Shen quickly put the book away so no one would see it.

At that moment, he and Li Ke both spotted a beautiful young noblewoman with refined features, dressed in brocade. Shen recognized her and spoke without thinking.

"Irelia? Are you already out practicing your dancing this early?"

He knew about Irelia's circumstances, so he recognized her.

But the next moment, he was stunned.

The moment Li Ke heard him, he drove the carriage straight at Irelia. While she and Shen stared in shock, he reached out, grabbed the beautiful young noblewoman, and hauled her into the carriage!

"There's no time to explain! Get in!"