Seraphine's Transformation

"I'm willing!" Seraphine agreed with almost no hesitation.

She even took off the silk gloves beloved by noble ladies, revealing her soft, fair, delicate hands.

Then she reached out and clasped Li Wei's hand tightly.

A few seconds later, a cold sweat broke out across Seraphine's smooth forehead.

Her pupils contracted, her breathing grew heavy, and sweat quickly drenched her cheeks, leaving strands of hair stuck messily to her face. It was as though some crushing weight was pressing down on her body and her heart.

"Take a deep breath and recover." Li Wei let go in time.

He had expected Seraphine's reaction.

When he had first transmigrated here and encountered the original owner's memories, he had been just as pained and shocked.

Those memories contained almost nothing but despair and suffering. Even rapidly skimming through them as an observer had been enough to leave one unable to breathe.

And Seraphine was even more innocent and sheltered than he was. The shock she suffered would likely be even greater.

And that was indeed the case.

"Haah, haah—" Seraphine blankly pulled herself free of Li Wei's support and staggered until she found her footing.

She had seen many things she had never been able to imagine before.

For instance, Seraphine had never known what it was actually like to work as an apprentice in her own family's factory.

It turned out that everything she ate, used, and played with, every gold coin she casually spent, had been soldered together piece by piece by workers living in such misery.

And this—this work that Seraphine could not bear even to imagine—was considered a stroke of luck in the eyes of those Zaunite Apprentices. Because their memories of Zaun were even more tragic.

"Do you understand now?" Li Wei had only shared a few fragments with her, but that was enough.

"Yes." Seraphine nodded faintly.

She finally understood how foolish she had been before—she had always sympathized with the suffering people she encountered, yet she had never truly understood how much they suffered.

Li Wei did not seize the chance to lecture her.

Reality was more persuasive than any lofty principle. And Seraphine already had the courage and determination to face reality.

"Let's go." Those painful memory fragments had clearly placed a severe mental burden on Seraphine. Worried that something might happen to her, Li Wei wanted to take her away.

But Seraphine shook her head. "Mr. Li Wei, could we wait a little longer?"

"I still want to listen to the voices of the Zaunites." As she spoke, she turned toward the beggars.

They were still immersed in the beautiful music from earlier, their expressions as peaceful as holy men bathing in the Ganges.

Quietly enduring their suffering without the slightest complaint.

"May I shake your hands?"

Gathering her courage, Seraphine walked over to the beggars.

Perhaps her singing had truly moved them. Or, more likely, the effects of the magic had not yet faded—these beggars all felt an inexplicable reverence and admiration for Seraphine.

Like fans meeting a celebrity.

"Y-you want to shake our hands? How could that be? Someone as noble as you, how could you... how could you shake hands with us?" The beggars were all flattered beyond belief.

They instinctively worshipped Seraphine, yet felt ashamed of themselves and did not dare approach her.

"Please." Seraphine held out her hand first.

But the beggars became even more afraid to come closer—they themselves felt that touching the girl with their filthy hands would be a desecration of their "idol."

"I-I'll do it."

In the end, a female beggar stepped forward, hesitant yet excited. Her hands were somewhat cleaner than those of the rough men, making them the most presentable.

But even so, when that hand—covered in calluses and cracks, with dust seemingly fused into the skin and black grime blended with the nails, the hand of a poor beggar—

When that hand reached out before Seraphine, she still instinctively recoiled.

This felt completely different from shaking hands with Li Wei. Though Li Wei's hands also had calluses, they were kept clean; they were slender and long, with distinct knuckles and a natural beauty.

Even if it had not been for the sake of "experiencing life," Seraphine would have been willing to shake such a hand.

But this female beggar's hand...

It was simply too dirty.

Just one close look made the slightly germophobic Seraphine break out in goosebumps.

"N-no, I'm sorry, miss..." The female beggar seemed to sense something and blushed as she withdrew her hand.

Yet that gesture startled Seraphine awake instead.

"No! I'm the one who should apologize!"

Seraphine felt ashamed to the extreme.

She suddenly realized that she was being "hypocritical"!

She had sympathized with beggars since childhood and wanted to help the poor.

She had always considered herself half Zaunite. Whenever she heard her parents speak ill of Zaun, she could not help but defend that homeland she had imagined.

But now, standing before these poor Zaunites for real, Seraphine finally understood.

She had always despised them!

That disdain was something even she herself had been unable to notice.

Her father had been right. She was not Zaunite. She never had been!

"I'm sorry. I'm truly sorry."

Overcoming the discomfort in her heart, Seraphine guiltily took the female beggar's hand. With just that grasp, it felt as though a layer of dirt had clung to her own hand.

Seraphine did not let go. She simply held on firmly, then raised her head and asked the female beggar:

"Could you please remember how you came from Zaun to Piltover and ended up like this?"

There was no magic in that question, but it was like a needle that suddenly pierced the dream woven by magic.

"Ah—" Almost instantly, a painful memory flashed through Seraphine's heart.

She saw with her own eyes a girl struggling to grow up in Zaun by selling her parents' corpses and gnawing on sewer rats. After finally saving enough money to buy an apprentice position, she had come to Piltover to work with dreams in her heart, only to lose everything in a factory accident. She was fired by the factory, driven out by her landlord, and deported by the Enforcers. She fled desperately, yet could not find work after losing her legal status. The woman, reduced to such a state, had even dreamed of becoming a prostitute, but the alchemical toxic gas in Zaun had disfigured her when she was young, leaving no one willing even to buy her body. In the end, she could only become a beggar, surviving through petty theft, scavenging through trash, and begging for charity...

Innocent Seraphine had never imagined that, for a woman, even becoming a prostitute could be an extravagant dream.

That memory...

It hurt. It hurt so much!

"Ah—" She really was in pain.

"What's wrong, Seraphine?"

"My ability... it was stimulated. It's out of control." Seraphine clutched her ears as if her head were splitting apart. "Voices... they're everywhere. Voices full of pain! Aaaah!"

This was the Zaunite Community. Of course, painful melodies were everywhere. In fact, there were almost nothing but painful melodies here.

Mr. Ervin had forbidden her from coming here because he feared her ability would spiral out of control in a place like this.

"Seraphine!"

Seeing that she was nearly in so much pain that she would faint, Li Wei finally began to panic.

No longer caring about anything else, he immediately caught the swaying Seraphine and lifted her into his arms. Seraphine weakly tilted her head against his chest, seeming about to pass out.

"Hold on. I'll get you out of here right now!"

Li Wei picked her up and tried to leave quickly.

But Seraphine forced herself to retain her last bit of consciousness and looked hazily at the beggars.

"You can... go to the Factory District and find Mr. Ervin of the Hextech Sound Factory. Ask him to give you work and help restore your apprentice status. Don't... don't forget to mention my name. I'm..."

"Seraphine!"

Seraphine awoke from the darkness.

When she opened her eyes, she was already on Piltover's clean, bustling streets.

The sky here was so clear, and the sun was so bright. It was as if everything she had seen in the Zaunite Community had merely been an illusion from a nightmare.

As for Seraphine herself, a man was carefully supporting her, carrying her securely on his back. His shoulders were broad, just right for her to sleep comfortably against.

"Oh, it's Mr. Li Wei..." Seraphine groggily recognized him, then relaxed and lay back down against his shoulder.

Only then did she vaguely "hear" it: Li Wei was singing for her in his heart. He had been singing all along.

The melody was soft and sweet, its rhythm gentle and graceful, filling her with an indescribable sense of peace.

It was not a Piltover song. It was another song she had never heard before.

"Mr. Li Wei?" Seraphine woke up excitedly. "What song is this?"

"You're awake? Good. You weren't unconscious for too long." Li Wei breathed a sigh of relief.

And at last, as Seraphine wished, he began talking to her about music.

"This is a 'Lullaby'—you said your father's nursery rhymes could ease your pain. I thought this song might be able to do the same."

"Yes." Seraphine carefully felt the gentle melody, and her mind did indeed feel much lighter.

The melody of this song really could help her.

"Thank you, Mr. Li Wei."

"Was this 'Lullaby' also your work? Your style is so rich and varied. It feels as though you can handle any genre. You're a true genius!"

"No, I didn't write this song—it was composed by Schubert."

"Schubert?"

"You don't know? But can't you read minds?"

"No, Mr. Li Wei. Your soul seems to be 'protected' by some kind of power. There are things I simply cannot read."

"I see." It seemed Seraphine could not read memories that might expose his identity as a transmigrator.

In that case, his earlier desperate efforts to concentrate and show Seraphine only some of the original owner's memories had been completely unnecessary.

"So, who is Schubert?"

"...That's hard to explain. Just consider it my composition. Anyway, just listen to the music. No matter what style you want to hear, I can 'play' it for you."

"You mean you know many, many more songs that sound this good?" Seraphine's eyes sparkled.

"Yes." Li Wei nodded. As an amateur enthusiast, his music library was quite extensive.

"Would you be willing to teach them all to me?"

"Of course."

"Thank you, Mr. Li Wei! You're so good to me!"

"Uh... good?" He had no idea how many times he had called her an idiot.

"Better than before." Seraphine smiled contentedly.

That was true.

Seraphine was willing to admit her immaturity and innocence. She was willing to step down from the clouds and communicate directly with those at the very bottom. She even reflected on and felt guilty over her previous ignorance.

And at the very end, she had still forced herself through her near-breaking mental state to point the beggars toward a path forward.

She had not simply moved herself to tears and run away, nor had she tossed them some charity and slipped off. She certainly had not offered some absurd poverty-relief method like, "Let me sing you a song."

Instead, she had thought practically and given them what they needed most—apprentice status and a job.

Everything Seraphine had done exceeded Li Wei's initial expectations. After all, he had completely regarded her as a fool at first.

So, without realizing it, Li Wei's impression of this innocent young lady had changed quite a bit.

"Not just changed, you know..." Suddenly, Li Wei noticed that Seraphine's breath against the side of his face was growing warm.

Lying against his shoulder, she stammered:

"Mr. Li Wei, you... you seem to..."

"...be starting to like me a little."

Li Wei: "..."

"Nonsense! I..."

Fuck! He hadn't even noticed it himself, and she already knew.

This girl was terrifying.

There was no privacy at all. Whoever married her would be serving a prison sentence!

"M-Mr. Li Wei, how did you jump straight to marriage? That's... that's not very gentlemanly. We've only known each other for less than half a day!"

Li Wei: "..."

"Seraphine, this is where you fall short compared to Sona."

"Sona?" Li Wei's memories about the game's story were also things Seraphine could not read. "Who is Sona?"

"A girl with an ability similar to yours."

"Huh? Then how am I inferior to her?"

"She's mute. She can't talk."