Morning, University of Piltover.
Lina arrived at school early, though not to attend class, but to go to the library. She wasn't going to the library to read, either, but to line up at the entrance to receive a free notebook and fountain pen—
Every month, the University of Piltover regularly distributed free notebooks and fountain pens to its students.
This tradition had supposedly existed since the university was first established three hundred years ago.
However, the original intention of the school administrators back then was merely to hand out cultural souvenirs stamped with the University of Piltover's crest, serving as a status symbol for these privileged prodigies.
But later, with the division of the Twin Cities and the growing wealth gap, the students at the University of Piltover gradually split into two distinct factions: the Piltovan locals and the Zaunite exchange students, the rich and the poor.
The paupers from Zaun naturally wouldn't pass up these free pens and paper.
Meanwhile, the wealthy Piltovan students were unwilling to lower their status for such petty gains, refusing to line up with the Zaunite mud-legs they looked down upon.
Thus, without anyone realizing it, a campus cultural program originally intended for all students turned into a targeted poverty alleviation project for Zaunites.
The morning mist had just dissipated, and a long line of students had already formed in front of the library.
They were all wearing the University of Piltover uniform, dressed in sharp suits and leather shoes, looking quite respectable.
But everyone knew they were Zaunites.
Only Zaunites would line up here.
"Seriously, can they hurry it up?" Such mutters occasionally drifted from the line. The voices were filled with resentment, as well as embarrassment.
Everyone felt embarrassed.
Lina was no exception.
Because people were constantly coming and going at the library entrance, with other students and teachers frequently passing by them.
Standing in this "Zaunite" line, shame washed over Lina. Even if the passersby weren't looking at her, she always felt as though countless eyes were watching her.
What's more, there truly were many pairs of eyes looking at her, looking at them.
"Lina?" someone called her name in surprise.
Lina reluctantly raised her head and looked toward the voice.
It turned out to be a senior student she had crossed paths with a few times recently.
This senior had been quite polite during their previous encounters, but she had never known that Lina was from Zaun.
However, the senior definitely knew now.
"Lina, why... why are you lining up here too?"
She looked Lina up and down, taking in her delicate face that perfectly matched the Piltovan aesthetic, and then looked at the line full of Zaunite students. Her expression was initially shocked, then quickly became complicated.
This complexity was hard to describe.
But it was ultimately uncomfortable.
"S-Senior," Lina responded, bracing herself. "Did you need me for something?"
"No, nothing." The senior smiled and shook her head, saying nothing else.
She simply walked away with that smile.
It was somewhat like the faint, hesitant smile on a top student's lips when a struggling classmate asked them an incredibly idiotic question.
Except it was far more malicious.
"This snobby bitch... why even talk to me if you have nothing to say! Nobody plugged the asshole on your face, if you want to talk shit, just do it!" Lina cursed viciously in Zaunite slang.
But after cursing, she felt a wave of powerlessness. She looked at her fellow Zaunites around her, lining up for "relief" just like she was. Everyone was the same, keeping their heads down, terrified of being recognized by passing acquaintances.
But no one would leave.
A Zaunite's dignity was only worth a fountain pen and a notebook.
"Just hurry up... sigh." Lina only wanted this torture to end sooner.
Fortunately, she had arrived relatively early.
After enduring the wait, she finally made it to the front of the line.
At the front of the line, the ones responsible for distributing the pens and notebooks were two middle-aged women who did odd jobs around the school.
They were both Piltovan locals, but clearly belonged to the lowest rung of the locals.
With bloated figures fattened by cheap fried chicken, tasteless clothing, and poorly imitated "trendy" permed hair, these two Piltovan women looked even more unsophisticated and tacky than the queuing Zaunite students.
And while their job was supposedly to distribute the pens and notebooks, in reality, they just piled the free stationery on the table and let the queuing Zaunite students take it themselves.
Then they just sat there cracking sunflower seeds, gossiping about campus rumors while they ate.
"Hey, hey, did you hear?"
"Professor Jayce last night..." Jayce was the scientific superstar of all Piltover, and anything related to him would spread across the campus at top speed.
Not to mention, as a muscular, testosterone-filled handsome man, Jayce was already the dream lover of these middle-aged women.
"He recruited a new student into his research group. This seems to be the very first student Professor Jayce has ever taken on!"
"Who is it? Who could catch Professor Jayce's eye?"
"Kaya Ferros, ever heard of her?"
"Ferros? *That* Ferros? Tsk, tsk," one of the women sighed in admiration. "Those from great families really are different."
"What are you blindly guessing at! That Miss Ferros is a genuine genius, no exaggeration at all."
"Rumor has it that Professor Jayce personally set a test last night, and out of dozens of the academy's strongest students, only Miss Kaya managed to solve it. And she's only eighteen!"
"Look at her. She has a better background than others, yet she's smarter and works harder than them too. No wonder House Ferros can make a fortune. They deserve it!"
"..."
The two women were deeply engrossed in their discussion, but Lina felt a bitter taste in her mouth as she listened.
Kaya Ferros indeed had skills; the young lady's grades weren't inflated, a fact even Lina acknowledged.
But what did they mean by "only Kaya managed to solve it"?
She had clearly solved the problem too, and her solution was no worse than Kaya's!
Why had the rumors completely turned into Kaya Ferros's solo show after just one night?
In the story, the young lady Kaya was diligent, smart, and completely independent of her background, making Professor Jayce "fall for her at first sight" and exclaim, "This girl's talent is absolutely not beneath mine; she will surely achieve greatness in the future."
If Lina hadn't seen this young lady's true colors with her own eyes, she probably would have started worshipping her after hearing all this.
'Wait...'
Her mind drifted to the biographical stories she had once firmly believed in—the tales introducing Piltover's wealthy plutocrats, councilors, scholars, and various great figures.
The deeds of those great figures were also full of these "talented youth" anecdotes:
Things like the divine cherry-chopping axe, the light-gathering magic mirror, or Heimerdinger's little stool...
It was as if these great figures were extraordinary from childhood, making their success a matter of course.
'Could it be that all these stories were embellished and exaggerated just like Kaya's?' Lina found herself doubting everything she had previously accepted as truth.
However, there was no use thinking about this now.
Kaya had won, and that was that. No matter how indignant Lina felt, it wouldn't change anything.
Her only hope now was still Professor Viktor. Viktor had said he would take her paper back to show everyone in the research group. A night had passed, and she didn't know if there were any results yet.
Perhaps...
In a little while, Viktor would appear before her and gladly tell her that she had been accepted too?
Thinking of this, Lina was filled with hope for the future.
Being stared at while waiting in line, the women's praise for Kaya—she didn't care about these trivial matters anymore.
She could endure it all. She just had to bear with it, and it would pass.
Lina gave herself a silent scolding, and before she knew it, she had reached the very front of the line—it was finally her turn to receive the fountain pen and notebook.
But then...
"Th-They're gone."
The free stationery placed on the table had already been completely taken by the students ahead of her.
However, there was actually plenty of stock left. It was just that the remaining pens and notebooks were placed behind the table, blocked by the two broad and plump Piltovan women. They needed to bend down and move another stack onto the table.
But these two were still relishing their gossip, chatting about the various legendary tales of Kaya and House Ferros, completely ignoring Lina.
Even though they were sitting right behind the table, it was as if they couldn't see that the stationery on the table was gone, nor could they see Lina standing in front of it, along with the long line of Zaunite students waiting to receive their supplies.
"Um... ma'am?" Lina hugged her backpack somewhat uneasily and softly reminded them, "The fountain pens and notebooks on the table are... are all gone."
The two women didn't hear her at all.
"Ma'am?"
Still no reaction.
It was like teammates who couldn't see a ping.
"Ma'am!" Unable to hold back any longer, Lina reached out and patted one of them.
That Piltovan woman immediately frowned, stopped gossiping, and looked over with a dark expression.
"Who are you calling ma'am?"
"Can't you tell how old I am? Do you have any manners!"
"I-I'm sorry," Lina apologized tremblingly. "Miss, um..."
"Um what? Spit it out!"
"The stationery is all gone," Lina pointed at the empty table in front of her, which anyone who wasn't blind could have noticed.
"If it's gone, it's gone! Just say so directly!" The woman glared at her in annoyance, but ultimately, she reluctantly bent down and brought up a stack of notebooks and pen boxes.
"Thank you," Lina swallowed her anger and thanked her.
But just as she was about to reach out and take them, the other woman spat out a sunflower seed shell, raised her eyebrows, and looked at her suspiciously.
"Wait a minute, you look a bit familiar."
"Say, you haven't already taken your stuff and then sneakily lined up to take it again, have you? Hey, hey, I'm warning you, that counts as stealing!"
"Huh?" Lina froze slightly.
She hadn't expected to be subjected to such an inexplicable accusation...
Actually, it wasn't that unexpected.
In the past, whenever someone lost something in class, she and the other Zaunite students were always the first ones called in for questioning.
"But I didn't do that at all!" A surge of anger flared up within Lina. "I-I'm also a student of the University of Piltover, how could I possibly steal!"
"If you didn't, then you didn't!"
"Why are you yelling so loud?"
"Feeling guilty like a thief?"
Lina: "..."
Endure. She had to endure it.
If she endured this, Professor Viktor would bring her good news.
If she endured this, endured until she graduated and found a job, she could also become a noble Piltovan.
But Levi's article suddenly appeared in Lina's mind. It was clearly just a historical analysis paper devoid of emotional bias, but somehow, it inexplicably managed to stoke the fiery anger of a Zaunite.
It made one unable to resist pointing right at the faces of these Piltovans and cursing viciously:
"Fuck you!!!"
"I am not a thief!!!"
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