The next day.
Sporadic engine noises broke the tranquility of dawn, and the entire city gradually awakened beneath the morning sun.
The Zaunite apprentices finally finished their night shifts and could head home to sleep.
Like a swarm of exhausted ants, they sluggishly poured out of the factory.
Small vendors, also hailing from Zaun, had staked out spots at the factory gates early on, setting up breakfast stalls that clustered together like flies.
The stalls sold cheap food that native Piltovans wouldn't even glance at: Gromp meat, Sump rats, stinky cheese spread sandwiches, and twice-fried bread slices. The only thing that mattered was large portions, filling stomachs, and providing enough calories.
Levi picked through the options and ultimately chose the cheapest, toughest piece of black bread.
Then, like his coworkers, he gathered in groups of two or three, found an empty spot on the curb, and sat right down, eating and chatting while breathing in the fresh exhaust fumes from the street.
"Levi, stop eating that garbage! The black bread they sell here is harder than rocks. Is that even meant for human consumption?"
Just as Levi sat down, someone patted him on the shoulder from behind.
He turned around to see his monkey-thin coworker, a fellow Zaunite named Baku.
"Get lost! Who are you calling not human?" Levi assumed he was just joking around. "If black bread is so bad, then why don't you treat me to something better?"
"I'm treating." This guy, who was incredibly stingy in the original owner's memories, actually agreed without hesitation.
Baku then genuinely sat down next to Levi and waved a piping hot, soft sandwich in front of his face.
"Holy shit, there's even egg and ham?!"
Levi was truly shocked by this luxurious meal.
A sandwich made with soft sliced toast, complete with egg and ham.
As soon as he held it in his hand, the gazes of the people around them noticeably changed.
"You're actually treating me? Have you lost your mind?" Levi suspiciously eyed Baku's head.
"Pfft! Your daddy is feeding you, and you still have so much to say." Baku laughed and cursed at him. "Just take it since I'm offering. Anyway, we probably won't have the chance to eat breakfast together like this again..."
As he laughed, the guy's smile began to fade.
"Listen, Levi," Baku forcefully shoved the meat-and-egg sandwich into Levi's hands, snatched the black bread away from him, and took a vicious bite out of it.
"Why the hell didn't you tell us you took out a loan from those loan shark bastards!"
"Now they've even come looking for you at the factory... With things like this, even Mr. Ivern couldn't possibly protect you!"
"..." Levi had nothing to say.
He knew why Baku had suddenly become so emotional.
Because in the world of Zaunite apprentices, anyone who got tangled up with Zaunite gang loan sharks was basically finished.
In Baku's eyes, once Levi left today, he would likely never be able to return to work at the factory.
"Don't worry, I have a plan..."
"Don't worry my ass! What kind of bullshit plan could you have! When have those sons of bitches ever gone easy on anyone? If you owe them money and can't pay it back, the outcome will be worse than death!" Baku exploded in curses.
Then he continued talking to himself, "Levi, are you a fucking idiot? Why are you even coming to work at a time like this? Hurry up, pack your things, and take your sister back to Zaun!"
"Going back to Zaun will at least let you hide from those bastards, otherwise..."
"I know, I know," Levi agreed, his feelings complicated.
He knew he couldn't convince Baku to believe that he could still turn things around.
So Levi simply assured him, "I'll be heading back to Zaun in the next couple of days... Don't worry about it."
"Yeah..." Baku lowered his head and took another bite of the black bread. This time, he chewed vigorously for a long time before speaking again. "Be careful when you go back to Zaun, too. Don't die down there..."
"Just stay alive. Who knows, maybe when I get my Piltovan citizenship in the future, I'll have the chance to bring you guys to Piltover too."
"Pfft, keep dreaming." This time, Levi was certain the guy was joking again.
How could official Piltovan citizenship be that easy to obtain? Even if he did get it, there was no way he could bring people over from Zaun.
The threshold for legal immigration from Zaun to Piltover was extremely high, and the expenses were astronomical. Let alone a Zaunite, even an average Piltovan family couldn't afford that sum.
"Well, about that..." Baku actually thought about it quite seriously. "I have a way."
"By then, I'll be a Piltovan. I can adopt you as my son and marry your sister as my wife. I'll call you brother-in-law, and you'll call me daddy. We can use the family immigration channel; it costs less."
"..." Levi was speechless.
"Fuck you!"
Across the street, next to the factory, stood a garden villa with its own independent courtyard wall.
This was the home of the factory owner, Mr. Ivern.
He was currently having breakfast with his wife, and his precious daughter was sitting right beside them.
The young girl looked to be only sixteen or seventeen years old. She had thin cherry lips, a delicate, upturned nose, and large, watery azure eyes that seemed capable of speaking. A waterfall of smooth pink hair cascaded over her shoulders, further accentuating her smooth, milky-white skin.
Coupled with her gorgeous, princess-like dress, the girl's entire aesthetic looked completely different from everyone else.
It was as if she had time-traveled from a mansion in a modern metropolis, coming here to star in a reality show about swapping lives.
"Ah, ah... open your mouth, be a good boy. Time for breakfast."
The girl held a piece of tender tuna on her fork, dotingly feeding the pet cat in her arms.
But the fat cat merely lounged lazily in her embrace, too indolent to even open its mouth.
"That's enough, Seraphine!"
Mr. Ivern set down his newspaper and called his daughter's name in exasperation.
"You've practically raised this cat into a pig! Stop feeding it and finish your own food first!"
"You're old enough, yet you still need to be told how to eat."
"Yes, Dad." Seraphine playfully stuck out her tongue before finally setting down the already overstuffed fat cat.
Two maids waiting nearby immediately stepped forward. One took the cat from her arms to care for it, while the other cleared away the remaining half-plate of tuna, taking it back to the kitchen to throw away.
As for Seraphine, she reluctantly picked up her knife and fork, hesitating and picking at the quinoa chicken breast salad, oil-free scrambled eggs, Black Forest smoked ham slices, and caviar nigiri sushi in front of her.
In the end, she only managed a few bites of chicken breast and vegetable salad before listlessly setting her utensils down.
"Child, you need to eat more!"
"Look at you, you've gotten so thin."
Mrs. Ivern scolded her daughter with heartache, but Seraphine merely rubbed the corners of her eyes with a haggard expression.
"I'm sorry, Mom. I didn't sleep well last night... I really don't have much of an appetite."
"This..." Mr. and Mrs. Ivern's expressions both grew tense. "Seraphine, did you hear those 'voices' again?"
"Yes." Seraphine nodded wearily.
She was born with the awakened special ability to listen to the 'voices of souls,' allowing her to hear the 'melodies' of others' souls.
This magical talent, similar to mind-reading but far more profound in its effects, was undoubtedly the greatest gift bestowed upon her by the heavens.
But unfortunately, Seraphine lacked the ability to control her talent.
Thus, this gift had instead become a curse.
She would uncontrollably hear the soul melodies of the people around her. Yet those melodies were neither elegant nor rhythmic; instead, they were filled with darkness and pain, heavy with torment.
These chaotic noises constantly tortured Seraphine, gradually making her too afraid to even step out the door. Otherwise, the more people she saw, the more agonizing melodies she would hear.
But even hiding at home day and night like this, those voices still haunted her like a shadow.
"Sigh..." Seeing that her daughter couldn't even sleep well, Mrs. Ivern's heart ached terribly.
She turned to her husband. "Honey, how is the research going on that method you mentioned before?"
"You mean the Hextech Magical Auditory Suppression Device?"
"It hasn't been successfully developed yet... The magical energy density of the synthetic Hextech crystals isn't high enough, so it always fails to power the device properly... Right now, I'm still researching how to solve this problem."
"What's there to research?" Mrs. Ivern frowned. "Since it's an issue of magical energy density, if synthetic Hextech crystals don't work, just try using a raw Hextech crystal."
"It's not something you can just try on a whim." Mr. Ivern sighed. "Honey, you know exactly what raw Hextech crystals are."
"Those things are so rare and expensive that money often can't even buy them! We've worked hard for half our lives just to open this small factory. If we really went and bought one, I'm afraid we'd have to sink our entire factory into it."
"Then sink it in!"
"Is your factory more important than our daughter?"
"I..." Mr. Ivern looked pained. "Don't we need to consider this a bit more!"
"Consider what! We fought tooth and nail to stay in Piltover back then, wasn't it just so Nini could live a good life here? But now she's suffering so much every day that she can't even leave the house. What use is all this money to us then!"
"You can't say it like that. How is money useless... Haven't we suffered enough from being poor in the first half of our lives?"
Even though they had been wealthy for over a decade, whenever he thought of the past, he still couldn't stop himself from wanting to shed tears.
Dreaming of those things in the middle of the night, he would wake up with a soaked pillow.
"Poverty is the hardest disease to cure..." Ivern smiled bitterly.
"Pfft!" His wife, however, had a different view. "You stingy old geezer, you only remember your own 'disease'! What about our daughter?"
"Do you want money, or do you want Seraphine?"
"I... I just want to wait and see a little longer... Our audio equipment business is booming more and more. Even Noxian nobles have started coming to Piltover to place orders with us. I want to take a gamble. If we can expand the factory in the next two years and earn more money, then we'll be able to afford a raw Hextech crystal!"
"To hell with that! We can afford it right now! You old bastard, I think you just want money over your daughter!"
As the couple argued, they even started using the Zaunite hometown dialect they hadn't spoken in years.
"Dad, Mom, stop arguing!"
Seraphine tried her best to break up the fight from the sidelines, but to no avail.
In the end, it was only when she suddenly shuddered for some unknown reason and fiercely clutched her head that her parents, who were about to be at each other's throats, finally calmed down.
"Nini!" The couple immediately crowded around her in a panic. "What's wrong? Did you hear those 'voices' again?"
"Yes..." Seraphine clutched her head in agony.
Her talent had been triggered uncontrollably once more.
Countless voices of souls converged from all directions. Some came from the factory, some from the streets, and some from the distant ports, shops, and apartment buildings...
Some were happy, some were joyful, but the vast majority were heavy.
"Ugh!" Mrs. Ivern glared at her husband in exasperation. "What are you standing there for? Hurry up and play some music!"
Beautiful music could alleviate Seraphine's symptoms and help ease her pain.
This was also one of the reasons she loved music so much.
"Wait—" Just as the couple frantically tried to help ease her pain, Seraphine suddenly lifted her head.
"What is it?" the couple asked worriedly.
"I hear singing."
"Singing?" They hadn't even started playing the music yet.
"Yes, there's singing!"
Seraphine suddenly stared blankly out the window.
"Over there, right over there!"
She walked excitedly to the window and threw open the curtains.
"There is a very special soul over there—"
"His soul is singing!"
"Singing a song I've never heard before!"
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