"How is that possible! I'm just a defenseless young girl!"
Lux tried to ease Chen's suspicions.
"Still playing innocent? Light Mage."
Chen narrowed his eyes slightly, looking at Lux before him:
"Forget it, you won't survive in Demacia if you don't transform. What exactly do you want to do here?"
There was a hint of apprehension in Lux's eyes, and a touch of awe in her gaze towards Chen.
Because her identity as a Mage, hidden for so many years, had been revealed by him in a single breath, and Chen even knew clearly that she could control Light Magic.
In her eyes, Chen was powerful and mysterious, and he had managed to make her own brother, Garen, suffer a great loss in just one round!
Lux exerted all her usual negotiation skills:
"I need your help. Just now at the wedding, your words, your actions, they moved me. I don't want to be a pawn of the Crownguard Family either. I want to be myself..."
Chen could see a hint of sincerity in Lux's eyes; at least, she wasn't making this up:
"I know you don't want to marry Jarvan. Don't worry about that, Jarvan won't force you to marry him. After all, your relationship is no different from siblings. Jarvan will handle it, you don't need to worry..."
"You know that too?"
In Lux's eyes, Chen became increasingly mysterious. The secret agreement between her Crownguard Family and the royal family, known to only a few, Chen knew even that!
Lux believed in Chen's ability. She believed that someone who could say such things and who had rescued Fiora would surely understand him:
"You know everything, so you should also know that I don't want to follow the path my family has laid out. I want to travel all over Runeterra, I want to go on adventures..."
"Yes, I know."
Chen said calmly:
"Soon, you will also meet an adventurer named Ezreal. He's also a yellow-haired kid, just like you..."
Lux looked at Chen with a hint of Terrify:
"Wait... soon... you can even know the future?"
Powder nodded vigorously from the side, then tugged at Chen:
"Yeah, even though you always say strange things, why can you predict the future? Since Zaun, you've been able to foresee many things, even many people you've never met! Quickly, teach me, teach me!"
Chen clasped his hands behind his back, pretending to be a master:
"Heaven's secrets must not be revealed."
Powder dismissed Chen with a 'Tch!':
"Tch! If you don't want to say, then don't. Whatever."
Chen in Lux's eyes became even more mysterious, but in her heart, she thought:
"Could it be that he knows Time Magic?"
So Lux stated her second reason for coming:
"Alright, I came for one more thing, it's indeed for Sister Fiora."
Powder stood in front of Fiora:
"She didn't marry into your family, she's not your sister!"
But Lux sighed:
"It doesn't matter anymore whether she is or not. We are both women in the same predicament. Under the current family system, there are no free women. We are kindred spirits."
Powder looked at Lux curiously, tapping her chin as she asked:
"So, little rich girl, you didn't come to kill her?"
Lux didn't mind the term 'little rich girl.' She replied firmly:
"I came to save her. I want to escape with her, escape the family's control, and live our own lives together."
Lux's tone was very firm; she genuinely thought this way, and she even had a plan:
"I secretly bought some properties in Demacia, with Supporting facilities industries. Self-sufficiency isn't a problem. As long as we change our names and hide, they won't find us..."
Chen turned to look at the dazed Fiora, and replied to Lux:
"You have to wait for her to give you an answer. I can't just hand her over to you. We rescued her, so we must be responsible for her."
"Okay, then let's go to my property first. We can rest there and wait for Sister Fiora to wake up."
This was Lux's suggestion, and Chen didn't refuse. There was indeed nowhere else to go for now.
Lux was not like those people from Noxus, who were all treacherous and cunning. Compared to them, she was too naive.
...
Early the next morning, outside Demacia, in Jandaal, a private estate.
Powder groggily got up, hugging her rabbit doll, and walked out:
"Who's practicing swordplay so early in the morning? It's so noisy!"
Bathed in the morning light, a handsome, short-haired lady was drenched in sweat, her rapier thrusting out repeatedly, leaving the wooden dummy in front of her riddled with holes.
Chen followed closely behind, watching the revitalized Fiora. He didn't rush to speak, letting her thrust her sword, also letting out the resentment in her heart.
Not long after, Lux also came out. She hurried to Fiora's front:
"Sister Fiora..."
Fiora didn't show any strange reaction because Lux was from the Crownguard Family. Instead, she looked at Lux with a stern expression:
"Is there something?"
Lux said anxiously:
"I want you to come with me. We'll leave Demacia and forge our own future..."
Fiora was expressionless, looking at Lux with a cold demeanor:
"Although I wasn't in my right mind yesterday, I heard all your conversations. But my choice is that I must go back."
"Hmm?" Chen, standing nearby, was stunned. What kind of act was this? She had just fallen out with her father yesterday, and today she wanted to go back?
Lux said urgently:
"Why are you going back?"
Fiora said with a cold, unfeeling expression:
"To reclaim my honor."
Chen hadn't seen this script before. He was dumbfounded. Shouldn't she elope and run far away? Why would she go back?
Fiora then turned her head to look at Chen and Powder:
"My friends, thank you for saving me, but I must go back!"
Chen truly couldn't understand her:
"Why are you going back?"
Fiora gently raised the sword in her hand, and the blade trembled slightly, emitting a humming sound:
"With my sword, I will reclaim my honor."
Chen completely didn't understand. Honor over life? If she went back now, the Crownguard Family would definitely pursue her relentlessly...
"Friends, I'm sorry to have involved you, but this is my mission."
After speaking, Fiora picked up her sword and slowly walked out of the courtyard, heading towards Demacia.
Lux watched Fiora's retreating figure, and once again fell into contemplation. She had thought Fiora was just like her, and now she was a little unsure of the meaning behind everything she was doing...
"Jinx, Jinx, come out for a moment."
Chen didn't stop her; he called out to Powder.
Jinx immediately ran out:
"What is it?"
Chen asked in a low voice:
"Do you think she's also crazy? You have the right to speak on this."
Powder flicked Chen on the head:
"I'm not crazy!"
Then she actually answered Chen's question:
"She's not as crazy as I am..."
Just then, a voice emerged from the nearby bushes:
"Fiora isn't crazy..."
Two people jumped out of the bushes outside the courtyard. Chen focused his gaze:
"Oh! Isn't this two of the three bush buddies?"
Garen and Jarvan IV jumped out of the bushes.
Lux looked at them in disbelief:
"How did you know about this place?"
Before Garen and the Prince could speak, Chen quickly answered:
"Do you think you could hide it from them?"