"How did Zaun end up picking you as its Governor?" Sivir naturally had a world map, and she knew about Piltover and Zaun, that pair of twin city-states.
Every now and then, Shuriman mercenaries dumped whatever junk they couldn't sell onto the black market.
Sivir hadn't been paying much attention to the news lately, so she naturally had no idea what had happened in Zaun.
In truth, the news of Zaun's newly appointed Governor had spread to almost the entire world.
Anywhere trade existed, people loved talking about the outsider who had managed to rise to the position of Governor in just a few short months.
Naturally, they also filled in the story with whatever scenes their own imaginations came up with.
Only someone like Sivir, deep in the heart of the desert and cut off from the flow of information, could know absolutely nothing about it.
To the west of Shurima lay the high cliffs and Mount Targon, while to the east stretched the rainforests of Ixtal.
So even when the Black Mist had expanded last time, it hadn't affected Shurima in the slightest.
That was why Sivir didn't know that it was Caleb who had led a group of Zaunites and hacked a path to survival through the Black Mist.
And it was that very act that made the leaders of the upper city change how they viewed Zaun, which was what created the current balance between the twin cities.
At the thought of the twin cities, Caleb couldn't help looking toward the distant horizon.
The hometown from his previous life was already lost beyond reach, so the twin cities had become his second home.
When I get the chance, I have to go back and see them again.
Caleb made that decision silently in his heart.
Sivir's impression of the man before her had changed completely.
She had originally assumed he was, at most, a pretty figurehead, some armchair strategist, but she hadn't expected Caleb to have built something this significant for himself in a foreign land.
She couldn't help feeling a new sense of respect for him.
She had traveled far and wide for many years, and she had always respected people who managed to build something of their own.
Kai'Sa, on the other hand, seemed a little down. Over the past few days, she and Yuumi had gotten along very well.
But spending twenty-four hours a day with Yuumi didn't solve the problem of how boring the journey was.
"Not happy?" Caleb picked up on Kai'Sa's gloom and walked over to ask.
"Yeah..." Kai'Sa was visibly disappointed.
Back when they had been with Taliyah's tribe, Taliyah would sometimes chat with her about all sorts of things.
This yordle cat was cute, but the way Yuumi talked, shaped by such a long life, made her hard for Kai'Sa to understand.
"If you're bored, want to try this?"
Caleb pulled a little trinket out of his system inventory, a puzzle cube made in Piltover.
Compared to the Rubik's Cube from his previous life, something this delicate was much harder to reproduce, even in its simplest form.
The reason, in the end, was that Piltover had too many master craftsmen.
No one would have guessed that a puzzle made for Piltovan children was something even the councilor from the Ferros family couldn't solve.
That just went to show how good the Ferros family was at hiding its true capabilities.
They had been the first to discover and make use of Hextech crystals, though their efficiency had been fairly low at first.
Then Jayce burst onto the scene and aggressively pushed the Hexgates, and the Ferros family also began mass-producing Hextech crystals.
The councilor their family had put forward now was Camille's grandniece, who looked, in most people's eyes, like nothing more than some blonde little girl.
What those people didn't know was that the Gray Lady, who moved through Piltover's shadows with ruthless methods, was the one truly controlling the Ferros family.
Kai'Sa took the puzzle cube with a puzzled look. Her survival skills were outstanding, but her practical day-to-day skills were another matter entirely.
Seeing Kai'Sa's confusion, Caleb turned his head and went back to his thoughts.
The Dormun moved slowly, after all, there were towns and nomads riding on their backs.
At a Skallashi's speed, they should be able to find them near a water source before long.
Water sources on the endless plains were scarce and well hidden, and the Dormun's migrations would definitely pass by them.
But the thing they really needed to pay attention to was still...
that Harrowing.
Back in his previous life, during that year, all of the game's cinematics had revolved around the Ruination.
Because of that, Caleb had looked into the detailed story of the Shadow Isles.
Logically speaking, before Kalista died, she had been a capable and loyal general, unlike a scheming flatterer like Hecarim.
The Iron Order slaughtered Kalista and all her followers, and because of that, Kalista swore a bitter oath.
After the Blessed Isles became the Shadow Isles, Kalista became the Spear of Vengeance, while Hecarim fused with his mount and became the Shadow of War.
Even though, under the cover of the Black Mist, they would reform on the Shadow Isles after death, how could Kalista possibly fight alongside Hecarim after he had betrayed her?
Or had the two of them simply never crossed paths?
And Yorick, a monk, why had he appeared in the twin cities with the Maiden of the Mist, collecting souls?
There had to be something hidden behind all of this, something connected to the Ruined King.
The Void, demons, the Darkin, the Ruination.
This world really was facing too many threats.
Not to mention that in the far reaches of the cosmos, there was a great being waiting.
His power had been stolen by the celestial beings, the Aspects, and he was simply waiting for the chance to unleash all the fury in his heart.
Caleb hadn't been in this world since childhood, and while he hadn't grown up in the twin cities from the start, he had still been here for quite a while.
Even so, his understanding of Runeterra as a whole still wasn't thorough enough.
Caleb let out a quiet sigh.
Just as he sank into thought and his gaze unfocused, the Skallashi suddenly came to a stop.
Behind him, Kai'Sa, who was engrossed in that bit of Piltovan magic, and Sivir, who had been watching Caleb, both failed to react in time.
The two of them lurched forward and slammed into Caleb's back.
"Need a hand?" Yuumi floated over to Caleb right on cue.
Ref, that's a charge.
Caleb silently shook his head and grumbled to himself.
Unfortunately, Sivir was wearing armor, and Kai'Sa's outer layer was a layer of Void skin.
So his back actually kind of hurt.
That was also why Yuumi had come over.
Not far ahead of where the Skallashi had stopped, two massive beastly silhouettes came into view.
In terms of proportions, they were far broader than the Skallashi.
And in height, they were close to ten times as tall.
They looked like little mountains.
Caleb stared at the Dormun in amazement. They really deserved the word giant in their name.
Kai'Sa, seeing them for the first time, also stared in shock with her lips parted. Beside her, Sivir was much calmer by comparison.
The Dormun's bodies were covered in sturdy chitinous plates, and from the long spikes jutting out of those shells hung rope after rope.
"These ropes are how the Dormun riders climb onto the Dormun. Up there, there's only one house. Everything else is rope."
"The riders use hooked claws to move through those complicated knots. They drive off biting insects, clean the beasts' bodies, and live their lives up there. They call it 'running the ropes.'"
"And when a rider grows too old, or can't run the ropes anymore, they're sent back down to the ground to live out the rest of their days alongside the other people on land."
Sivir took the chance to explain it to the other two.
"Then..." After hesitating for a moment, Caleb finally spoke. "Do we ask the rider on the left first, or the one on the right?"
"The left!"
"The right, obviously!"
The two women spoke at exactly the same time, and their answers were completely opposed.
"Then I guess we're flipping a coin..." Caleb muttered as he pulled out a gold coin.
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