"Getting ready to leave?"
Jinx tilted her head as she watched Caleb pack up his things.
"Yeah. I'm helping the Professor take Ziggs back to Bandle City."
Caleb did not look back. He was still bent over the table, continuing his research.
Most of the land south of the twin cities was dry, dominated by desert terrain.
Other regions were mostly rainforest, which was not much better for a long journey.
So what Caleb was preparing now was practical gear.
The wild was nothing like the cushy comfort of Piltover. Once he was out there, he might even have to hunt for himself.
For that exact reason, Caleb had specifically gone to Viktor for advice, and together they had ended up designing this masterpiece.
The Hextech multipurpose bow.
It could function as a bow and fire energy arrows for combat.
At the same time, it could also serve as a hiking staff, a camp knife, a shin guard, and even a tent frame.
Of course, Caleb had also sweet-talked the council into giving him five Hextech Gemstones as his retirement package.
Looking at the multipurpose bow in his hand, Caleb folded it back against his left arm.
Since it had been custom-made, even lying flush against his skin, it did not interfere with the movement of his arm at all.
Caleb could not help sighing at the thought that even with a system on his side, he still could not match a genius like Viktor.
It was ridiculous.
Caleb considered the knowledge poured into his head enough to let him make something of himself in this field.
And that was true. With practical chemtech strategies and a grasp of hextech, a technology still in its infancy, he could manage well enough on his own.
But if both he and Viktor designed something like a Hextech shield, the one Caleb made would still fall far short of Viktor's in functionality and adaptability.
Winning a fortune in the lottery really was not as stable as building the same wealth from scratch.
"Need to say goodbye?"
Caleb slung his backpack over one shoulder. Inside was this world's universal hard currency, gold coins.
On the continent of Valoran, precious metals were just as scarce.
Still, with the gear Caleb had on him, even if he were broke, he could always go pick a fight with some bandits.
Caleb would be traveling south with a Piltover-Zaun merchant caravan.
Once the caravan reached its destination, Caleb would take Ziggs on his own and go search for the place yordles loved to settle in, Bandle City.
Aside from yordles, and people carrying tokens tied to demigods or Aspects, almost no one could ever find that city.
And with this trip, Caleb would also be saying goodbye to the twin cities.
The military strength of the twin cities was still too weak.
Even if they threw themselves into an arms race and mass-produced Hextech Gemstones without stopping, the mechs they built in the end would probably only reach the level of demigods or Aspect-bearers.
And right now, there was already a demigod stationed in the twin cities.
Hextech was still a newborn technology. Compared to Shurima's Ascension, or the power that allowed Aspects to descend into the mortal world, it was still far behind.
The Void lurked in silence. The Darkin ran rampant.
Demons roamed free. The Ruination was coming.
This world was not nearly as beautiful as it looked on the surface, Caleb just usually tried not to think about things like that.
Now that he had finally set out on his journey, the brow he had intended to relax had instead remained tightly furrowed for days.
...
Caleb was leaving.
Ordinary people did not know that, but the council and Viktor did.
The councilors and Viktor sat around a gear-shaped round table.
"How long do you think it'll take him to come back?"
Viktor was honestly flustered too. Only now did he understand why Caleb had returned the Hex Claw to him.
He had been handing the burden over to Viktor all along.
"At least two months."
Heimerdinger frowned as well, but in the end this heavy responsibility had still fallen on Caleb's shoulders.
After all, none of the other yordles in the twin cities could keep Ziggs under control, but they also could not let him keep staying there.
His explosion experiments were just too dangerous, and he loved starting them whenever the mood struck him.
Even though he ignored other people's opinions, before every blast he did at least loudly warn the nearby residents.
A chaos-aligned yordle like that really did belong shut inside Bandle City.
If they locked him in an ordinary prison, he would probably blast a huge hole through the outer wall within a few days.
"For the time being, Viktor and the Firelights should keep things under control."
As for Caleb's departure, the other councilors each had their own thoughts.
By his own efforts, that man had effectively put four council seats under his influence and forced equality between the twin cities.
If anyone wanted to profit from Zaun now, then Zaun's new top figures, Ekko and Viktor, were the people the councilors wanted to start winning over.
By then, even if Caleb never came back, or even if he did, he might not be able to make much of a splash anymore.
Cassandra was a little displeased. Even though her family had flourished while the whole city suffered losses, Caleb leaving still gave her the strange feeling that the powerful support she had been leaning on was disappearing.
Still, with Caitlyn and her iron-fisted friend controlling the security forces of the twin cities, House Kiramman did not have too much to worry about.
"All right."
After hesitating again and again, Viktor finally accepted the proposal.
After all, Caleb's departure was already impossible to stop, and Caleb himself had shown more than once that he had no intention of staying in the twin cities for long.
"Still no prison record for Caleb from Stillwater Hold?"
Mel's narrow eyes turned toward Morey as she questioned him.
"...No." After a long silence, Morey finally answered in a low voice.
Caleb's appearance was a mystery. No one knew how he had ended up in prison in the first place.
It was said that certain mages could teleport people thousands of miles away.
The Hexgates created by Jayce and Viktor had also been based on the teleportation magic Jayce had witnessed from a mage when he was a child.
And judging by Caleb's intelligence network, he did not seem like an ordinary person either.
Was it possible he was the disciple of some great mage, sent into the world for experience?
During the Black Mist of the Harrowing, Caleb had also displayed astonishing power.
In the council's private discussions, that possibility had ranked the highest.
After all, a man whose very name did not sound like someone from the twin cities had walked out of prison, then climbed all the way to the peak of power in both cities.
Even more astonishing than the speed of it was the fact that the tense relationship between the two cities had finally eased under his influence.
After the riot at the breach in the wall, the council families had been living in constant unease.
Jayce's Hexgates had calmed them somewhat, and then Caleb had forced them to treat the Undercity as an equal.
Most people who reached the top of power would put their own interests first.
But after Caleb took office, not a single coin of the funds sent to Zaun ever passed through his hands.
He had spent so long in the Undercity that he barely even came up to Piltover a few times.
Even the councilors, when they wanted to build a relationship with him, had to carve out the time and endure the stench the Undercity had at the time.
In the end, only House Kiramman and the Ferros family could really be said to have become close with Caleb.
And the Ferros family, which had once looked so weak, had suddenly transformed and opened a factory that mass-produced Hextech crystals.
What did that mean?
It meant nearly all future hextech development would be impossible without the Ferros family.
...
That night, the stars filled the sky.
Caleb sat leisurely in the middle of the caravan.
He had not arranged any special private carriage for himself. Beside him was the iron cage holding Ziggs.
"No need to see me off."
He waved behind him with easy swagger.
There, gathered together, stood the champions.
Zac, Warwick, Vi, Jinx, Jayce, Ekko, and Viktor all watched that slightly slender figure disappear into the distance.
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