"Ah, they're fighting!" Before Seraphine could clearly see her father's constipated expression, her attention was drawn to the sudden change in the situation outside the window.
The two people who had been confronting each other across the street suddenly started fighting.
Levi struck first.
He smashed a piece of bread into the fat Aubrey's head, drawing blood.
Driven by humiliation and pain, Aubrey quickly and furiously struck back.
His strength was clearly superior to Levi's, and his bloated figure was not as clumsy as it looked. Thus, the situation quickly became one-sided.
The fat Aubrey knocked Levi down time and time again, but Levi stood back up every single time.
Soon, both of them were bleeding. Blood spilled all over the ground.
Yet they did not stop.
"Th-This..." Seraphine watched, her small face turning pale.
She had never seen such a savage and terrifying scene before. In Piltover, this was a very rare occurrence.
The two people fighting were as mad and bloodthirsty as wild wolves from a storybook.
Why did people have to hurt each other like this?
Seraphine did not understand.
"Dad." She instinctively turned to her factory-owner father. "Go get someone to help Levi! It looks like he's going to be beaten to death by that fat guy..."
'Let me save that brat?'
The old father's face was still dark with displeasure.
"This is none of our business, Nini. It's just two Zaunites fighting, there's no reason to save him," he said.
"Besides, it's not like you didn't see it. Levi struck first. Since he started this mess himself, he should be the one to suffer the consequences."
He deliberately hid part of the truth, solemnly lecturing his overly naive daughter.
In truth, Ivern knew exactly who that fat guy was and why Levi had hit him first.
If it were twenty years ago, and he was the one standing there, he would have bitten back like a wild beast too.
But things were different now.
He was a Piltovan business owner, and a father.
As a father, he only wanted Seraphine to stay far away from that Zaunite boy.
As a business owner, he absolutely did not want to offend the Iron Fist Gang boss's younger brother, that obnoxious fat Aubrey, all for the sake of a lowly apprentice.
If Levi simply didn't have the money to pay back a loan shark, he might have softened and helped out after his daughter's pleading and coaxing.
But now Levi had been forced to hit the fat Aubrey, the brother of the Iron Fist Gang's boss, offending the other party to the bitter end.
Although this was Piltover, and Zaunite gangs couldn't turn the world upside down here.
As a Piltovan business owner protected by Enforcers, even if he was just a small business owner, Ivern had absolutely no reason to fear any Iron Fist Gang or Iron Foot Gang.
But even if a pile of filth couldn't hurt you, stepping in it was still sickening.
What if those thugs sent people to cause trouble every few days, making it impossible for him to do business? He was only a small business owner; he couldn't just have Enforcers on beck and call to fend off harassment like those massive Piltovan conglomerates.
The cost of stepping in to save Levi had already far exceeded the psychological price he was willing to pay to satisfy his conscience.
"I don't have the ability to save him. Seraphine, stop looking!"
"You don't even know what kind of person Levi is, so don't just blindly sympathize with him."
"Maybe..." Looking at the tragic battle across the street, Ivern hesitated.
But he still grabbed his daughter's hand and hesitantly lectured, "Maybe he brought all that trouble upon himself. Zaunites love to drink, gamble, and borrow from loan sharks. He deserves to be beaten."
Although lying was wrong, teaching his daughter to stay away from Zaunites was absolutely right.
This was his experience as a Zaunite.
So Ivern said it anyway.
"But..." Seraphine still couldn't bear it.
Her gaze occasionally drifted toward the Zaunite boy, whose cheeks were covered in blood but whose expression remained resolute.
"No buts, come back and finish your food!" The old father deliberately emphasized his tone.
"Child, come to Mom," her mother also gently persuaded. "Talk to Mom about the new song you wrote yesterday."
"Okay..." Seraphine bit her lip lightly, her expression pained. Her slender fingers gripped the windowsill, refusing to let go for a long time.
But having lived solely under her parents' protection since childhood, she ultimately silently obeyed their wishes, just as she always did.
She let go and drew the curtains. Pretending nothing was happening outside, that she hadn't seen anything.
But right at that moment...
"Wait!"
Seraphine had turned to leave, but her footsteps halted in front of the window.
"What's wrong?" The couple was very confused.
"I hear it..." she muttered, as if possessed.
"What?"
"Singing, I hear him singing again!"
Seraphine excitedly turned around and threw the curtains open.
"It's him—"
"He's the one singing!"
Levi had been furious this entire time.
But he hadn't impulsively attacked the fat Aubrey out of anger or humiliation.
He struck because he knew that while it looked like he had a choice at the time, he actually didn't.
When the fat Aubrey cornered him on the street, he was already out of options.
He either had to fight back and carve out a bloody path, or surrender without a fight and be reduced to a slave controlled by the gang.
That fat guy was never going to give him a third option and let him leave freely.
So Levi struck first.
He tried to establish an advantage through a sneak attack, then escape in the chaos.
But this fat guy could take a beating, and his movements were much more agile than expected. Not only did Levi fail to escape, but he was also dragged into a battle with a massive disparity in strength.
"Bastard—"
A fist smashed into his face like a morning star, colliding with Levi's head, which wasn't much larger than the fist itself.
Aubrey, his head busted open by the bread, flew into a humiliated rage and screamed like a madman:
"How dare you!"
"How dare you lay a hand on me, Aubrey!!"
Levi hit the ground again but forced himself up, blood gushing from his nose.
Baku watched sorrowfully, but he didn't dare to move.
Janna shrank back in his pocket, completely unable to help either.
Just as Aubrey had cursed... how did he dare?
"Of course I dare!" Levi wiped away the blood and stood back up.
Because right now, he wasn't without a cheat.
He still had the original owner's memories, the memories of a Zaunite.
As long as he immersed himself in these memories, he could "transform" into a true Zaunite.
Zaunites didn't surrender; they only bit back at their enemies like madmen, no matter how strong or terrifying the enemy was.
Because other than their lives, they had nothing left to lose. If the enemy wanted to take even this life away, then there was truly nothing left to fear.
"Die!" Aubrey raised an arm as thick as a pig's leg and swatted down heavily like a bear's paw.
Yet Levi didn't even dodge.
He met the slap head-on.
'Hilarious, it doesn't even hurt.'
Compared to the stab in the back from his own uncle in the original owner's memories, the damage was so low he couldn't feel it at all.
Even the leather whips of the mine overseers packed more of a punch than this.
So not only did Levi not dodge, but like a rabid dog that had lost its mind, he took the slap head-on, then turned his head and bit down hard on that arm.
"Ahhhh!" Aubrey hollered in pain.
Without changing his expression, Levi tore a chunk of flesh from his arm and casually spat it onto the ground.
"Ahhhhh!" The burly Aubrey was still howling.
Levi, who was several sizes smaller and weaker than him, had already gone back to using his teeth and nails, savagely tearing at his flesh and blood.
"Y-You're asking for death!!" Aubrey glared with a vicious light in his eyes from the pain.
He was ultimately burly and possessed extraordinary strength, so he quickly plucked Levi off his body like a little chick and slammed him heavily onto the ground.
But Levi immediately climbed back up.
He got up and launched into another suicidal frenzy of biting and tearing, like an unkillable zombie.
Knocked down by another punch.
He staggered back to his feet again.
Floored by another punch.
He climbed back up again...
It was as if he had eaten the Nika Fruit, doing infinite sit-ups.
"Ahhhhh!" Even though Levi had sustained far more injuries, the fat Aubrey was the only one screaming miserably.
Gradually, he actually became afraid.
Seeing Levi walking toward him covered in blood, Aubrey even subconsciously took two steps back.
"B-Bastard..."
"How the hell can you take such a beating!"
"Because I am a Zaunite." Levi clenched his blood-soaked fists. "And you are not."
Aubrey was merely born in Zaun and dressed like a Zaunite, nothing more.
A true Zaunite wouldn't howl so pathetically just from having a chunk of flesh bitten off, nor would they subconsciously want to retreat after shedding such a small amount of blood.
This guy had long since gone soft soaking in Piltover's honeypot, forgetting who he was.
Levi cast a disdainful glance at the fat guy, who had already been beaten to tears, then turned around, picked up the piece of black bread with a chipped corner, dusted it off, and prepared to leave.
"Y-You don't even think about running! Wait until I call my brother over, he'll definitely hunt you and your sister down and tear you to pieces!" Aubrey roared in a wretched state.
But Levi completely ignored him, his eyes even holding a hint of contempt.
"Hahaha..." Someone in the crowd laughed, though it was unclear who.
"Who's laughing? Who's laughing!"
Aubrey's face flushed red as he looked around.
No one was laughing, yet it seemed as if everyone was laughing.
They were looking at him as if he were a piece of trash.
Even if he was the brother of the Iron Fist Gang's boss, he was still a piece of trash.
Or rather, it was precisely because he had such a formidable brother covering for him that he appeared even more like trash.
"Levi, stop right there!"
Aubrey's roar suddenly turned beast-like.
"Hmm?" Levi had a bad premonition.
He turned around, only to see Aubrey pull a small glass vial from his pocket.
The stopper had already been removed, and inside was a faint purple liquid.
"That's..." Levi's pupils shrank.
"A Shimmer potion?"
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