Zaunites?
The co-inventor of Hextech, deputy leader of the Hextech applied research team—a top scholar who ranked among the top three in Piltover's scientific community—was actually a Zaunite?
"No, impossible!"
The two middle-aged women from Piltover gaped in disbelief.
Even many of the Zaunite students present found it hard to accept this shocking fact.
But Viktor was resolute. For the first time in his life, he stood before the public without hiding himself and openly declared, "That's right. I am a Zaunite!"
"You two should apologize," Viktor repeated, enunciating every word.
Yet the women still stood stubbornly where they were, as if some invisible force were propping them up, keeping them from relinquishing their pride as Piltover citizens.
But Viktor shattered their pride with a single sentence:
"Apologize sincerely—"
"Otherwise, I'll contact my teacher, Headmaster Heimerdinger, directly and have the two of you expelled."
"No!" The women instantly panicked. "We'll apologize! We'll apologize!"
"S-sorry!"
"Please be more sincere!"
"Y-yes, sorry! We were wrong!"
"Louder. No one can hear you." Rarely, Viktor deliberately made things difficult for someone.
But the two women had completely lost their earlier stubbornness. They were as obedient as Zaunite students.
No matter how Viktor pressed them, they only shouted harder each time, "Sorry!"
"You may leave!" Viktor finally spared them. "I'll have everyone collect the remaining stationery themselves."
"Yes!" The two women acted as if they had been granted a pardon. They immediately fled with their tails tucked between their legs.
Leaving behind a crowd of stunned, speechless Zaunite students:
They had won?
Piltover citizens had apologized to them?
The Zaunite students erupted.
Some cheered loudly, while others clenched their fists in excitement. Their reactions varied.
But all of them looked gratefully and admiringly at the person standing on the steps:
"Professor Viktor!"
So Zaunites were not inherently inferior to Piltover citizens. They were not born to be called "barbaric," "low-class," or "lacking in innovation."
Zaunites, too, had wise, civilized, great figures worthy of pride—people capable of leading scientific progress!
So all along, in the lofty circles of Piltover that they had never even dared imagine, Zaunites had been active there too!
"Professor Viktor, thank you!"
"Professor Viktor—"
"You truly are the pride of us Zaunites!"
Voices like these rose from the crowd.
Yet Viktor did not bask in the students' admiration. He merely asked, "Everyone, please quiet down."
"Why do you say I am the pride of Zaunites?"
"Huh?" The Zaunite students, whose blood had rarely run this hot, had not expected Viktor to ask such a question.
Why?
Of course, because among the countless Zaunites, and the countless Zaunites striving in Piltover, only one person like Viktor had become a top scientist with such achievements.
If they were not proud of Viktor's emergence, then who should they be proud of?
"No, you are mistaken." Viktor shook his head. "I can tell you a secret that isn't really a secret—"
"At Piltover University alone, among the scholars and professors you have seen, at least one-fifth are Zaunite immigrants from across the canal."
"W-what?" The students' eyes widened in shock.
There were actually so many Zaunites among the university's professors?
Then why had they never felt any care from the professors or the university? Why were they instead discriminated against and excluded at every turn?
Why did those professors from Zaun seem so much like Piltover citizens? Why had none of them stepped forward to admit it, to the point where no one could even tell who had come from Zaun?
"Because they, including me—"
"We may look like Zaunites, like your 'own people.' But in truth, we are not."
"So there is no need for us to speak up for you. I could have chosen not to step forward today—just as I had done for the past decade or so."
"Standing up for you brings me no benefit. On the contrary, it only harms my interests. That is because we ceased being 'our own people' long ago."
Viktor suddenly began saying things that were difficult to understand.
The students gradually became unable to follow him.
"Think about it again," Viktor patiently prompted. "Those two vulgar ladies believed themselves to be noble Piltover citizens. They believed that Piltover citizens should naturally stand above Zaunites—"
"But why, when faced with the deliberate difficulties and even rude humiliation from me, a Zaunite, did those two Piltover citizens completely lose their nerve and dare not say a word?"
"Think carefully. Between me and them, me and you, them and you, me and those great figures of Piltover—who truly belongs with whom?"
"Th-this..." It was a little convoluted.
But the Zaunite students, who had personally witnessed what had just happened and were generally good at thinking, gradually began to grasp something:
Why were they afraid of those Piltover women?
It was because they feared causing trouble and being expelled by the university's higher-ups, not because they were truly afraid of some women.
Why were the women afraid of Professor Viktor?
Because Professor Viktor himself was part of the university's upper ranks. Before him, the women were ants he could crush at will.
"I understand." Someone among the students had an epiphany.
"Tell us?" Viktor encouraged the student to speak as if he were teaching an open class. "What did you realize?"
The student answered, "Professor Viktor, you are teaching us that we do not need to feel inferior because we are Zaunites."
"As long as we study hard and devote ourselves to research, rise to prominence and climb to high positions like you, then even Piltover citizens will have to look at us with respect!"
Viktor: "..."
He hesitated, wanting to say something, but before he could speak, someone else offered an answer.
It was Lina.
Thinking back on everything she had experienced and considering the questions Viktor had raised, she finally sensed something faintly:
"Professor Viktor, perhaps you mean to tell us this:"
"Whether people are close, whether they are one of us, may not be divided by where they come from, but by... status?"
"The professors from Zaun usually refuse to speak for us or show their Zaunite identity because... they have long since become Piltover's rich, rather than Zaun's poor."
"The discrimination Piltover citizens direct at Zaunites normally does not fall on them. Even if it did, it would not have much impact on their good lives."
This viewpoint was remarkably novel and immediately sparked a wave of discussion among the crowd.
Soon, however, someone noticed a problem:
"Lina, according to what you're saying, shouldn't we be closer to those two Piltover women?"
"Then why was it Professor Viktor, a great figure, who stood up for us, while the ones making things difficult for us were Piltover women who were not much better off than we were?"
"Uh..." Lina was instantly speechless.
She could not yet answer a question of that level.
"You answered quite well already, Lina." Viktor suddenly smiled encouragingly at her. "It seems you really did carefully read the article in your notebook."
"Huh?" Lina's heart jolted.
Then Viktor slowly opened his briefcase, took out a notebook, and solemnly returned it to Lina.
"This is... my research proposal?" Lina finally remembered the important matter. "Professor Viktor, are you... here to inform me of the result of last night's discussion?"
Viktor suddenly fell silent.
And that silence said everything.
Lina's face immediately went pale, and the hope that had just lit up in her eyes went out with it.
But Viktor told her, "Don't lose heart, Lina."
"You were not chosen by the professors in the research team, but it was not because your research proposal was inadequate."
"It was because of the article in your notebook—the article we were just discussing."
"Th-this..." Lina pressed her lips together indignantly.
"Why?"
"Because that article frightened them all."
"Huh?" Lina did not understand.
And the Zaunite students present, whose attention had long since been drawn to Viktor, also became curious:
The research team he meant should be Professor Jayce's research team.
That team had gathered some of the world's top scientists and brightest geniuses.
What kind of article could make even those geniuses afraid?
"Do you want to see it?"
As if he had guessed their thoughts, Viktor turned to ask them.
Everyone nodded. Their curiosity had been thoroughly aroused; of course they wanted to see it.
"Then we can find a classroom—"
"And properly go through this article."
As he spoke, Viktor took a stack of bound documents from his briefcase.
"Th-this is..." Lina's eyes widened.
Wasn't that a photocopy of the article?
Judging by the thickness of that stack, there had to be dozens of copies.
Viktor had actually carried dozens of copies of her brother's article around with him, as casually as handing out flyers?
"Professor Viktor, why...?"
"I had originally planned to find an opportunity to share this article with everyone."
Viktor looked at the Zaunite students, whose anger had been stirred and who had begun to think, gathering together in a tight cluster.
"Now, the opportunity has come."
Before you continue