"Still want to chat about the Satu tribe?"
Luke drawled lazily as he watched Katarina standing there in a daze.
Katarina snapped back to herself and shot him a somewhat embarrassed, irritated glare. Snow was falling heavily outside, and it made her hands and feet feel even colder.
As an assassin whose heart should have long since become as cold as a blade, her emotions had never fluctuated as wildly as they had today.
It was not because the man in front of her was so devastatingly handsome.
It was because the faint smile tugging at the corner of his lips had a very punchable quality to it.
After steadying her breathing and calming herself down, Katarina looked at Luke and said, "I hope you keep your word."
She knew perfectly well that she had no right to negotiate now.
She had already experienced that poison for herself. Katarina knew that even with a body like hers, one that had endured countless poison tests, she still could not resist it.
Her life now depended entirely on whatever Luke decided.
And the choices in front of her were simple.
Either she trusted him, trusted that once the matter of Du Couteau was settled, he would do as promised and give her back her freedom.
Or she did not trust him, and while the antidote was still fresh in her system, she attacked immediately, took him hostage, and forced the complete antidote out of him.
Leaving aside the odds of success, the moment she made a move, the noise would bring the guards outside running, and she would die either way.
Anyone who was not an idiot knew which option to choose.
Katarina did not want to die, so she would rather believe Luke would keep his word.
Which meant there was nothing left to say.
Seeing that she had figured it out, Luke smiled. "Then good night. Sweet dreams."
Katarina held back the urge to turn around and throw a dagger straight into his face, then coldly turned and walked toward the tent flap.
Tonight was definitely not going to bring sweet dreams.
As he watched Katarina leave, Luke drained the tea in his cup in one gulp, stretched, and said, "Well?"
"Probably true. I could feel her desperation, her hunger to live, and the resentment she carried when she thought she was about to die. I also felt the deepest scar in her heart, one too painful to even describe. The person who hurt her most was the one closest to her."
Sona stepped out from behind the back of the tent, her voice sounding inside Luke's mind.
Even Katarina, who had trained her senses to a respectable degree, had not realized Sona had quietly circled back after leaving.
Sona recalled the melody she had heard in Katarina's heart. She could not directly tell whether a person's words were true or false, but the melody had not lied to her.
Just now, it had felt as though she had seen Katarina's childhood, the relentless training day after day, year after year, and the way her heart had slowly turned cold.
And there was a wound there too, one that could barely ever heal, left by the person closest to her.
Her father.
He had raised Katarina as though she were a cold-blooded weapon, and even if she broke, he would not have felt the slightest pity.
That was how Katarina had grown up, under inhuman training.
And yet deep in her heart, Sona had also felt that Katarina had never truly surrendered to her fate.
For many people, their destiny was decided from the moment they were born. Some surrendered to it in the end, while others fought it with everything they had.
Just like Miss Fiora. In the end, she had cut through the chains of fate with a single sword and stood proudly before everyone.
Katarina was the same.
"She didn't sound like she was lying to me either."
Luke nodded faintly.
Sona could hear the melody inside a person's heart. To her, those melodies were like all kinds of different sounds.
They were not true sounds, but she could understand part of what they meant.
For example, when Katarina was at her most unwilling, the desperate will to survive that burst out of her, together with those agonizing childhood memories, had all been felt by Sona.
So if Sona believed Katarina had not been lying, then that gave her words a high degree of credibility.
The kind of poison Luke feared most was the kind used on someone who no longer cared whether they lived.
If pushed too far, that sort of person would simply decide they did not care anymore and go for a mutual kill. Maybe the fish died and the net did not break, but it still meant trouble.
Luke admitted he had a bit of selfishness in this, but he also did not want that selfishness to interfere with things.
Now that he had confirmed the little assassin wanted to live, and wanted to live quite badly, everything was fine.
Luke looked at Sona and smiled. "It's late. You should get some rest too."
"Mm." Sona responded, but instead of leaving, she came over and gently sat beside him, leaning against him with a soft fragrant breeze. "It feels like it's been days since I got to be alone with Your Highness like this..."
Her thought flowed into his mind, sweet and lingering, enough to make his heart itch.
Even though they already knew each other so well, just leaning against Luke still made Sona feel shy, and her heartbeat kept speeding up.
"Yeah." Luke took the girl's soft, boneless hand in his, but did nothing more forward. He simply stayed like that, resting against her.
A sweet smile rested on Sona's lips. For her, this was already enough.
But once a woman had tasted something sweet, she only wanted more.
Still, Sona's courage only stretched so far. After a few minutes, she stood up with a flushed face, left behind a quiet "I'm going to bed," and hurried out of the tent.
After all, Kahina's tent, Lux's tent, and the others' were right next door. No matter how bold she was, she would never dare get too carried away here.
The next day.
The snow that had fallen for nearly fifteen hours finally stopped sometime around dawn, and after a whole night, the temperature in the air had dropped sharply.
The moment he stepped out of the tent in the early morning, the icy air rushed straight into his body.
The snow inside the camp had already been cleared away, but outside, it had piled up in a thick layer nearly as high as an adult's legs.
Even for Luke, it was the first time he had ever seen snow this deep.
He looked up at the sky. It was still covered in a dull gray layer, though there probably would not be another snowfall on this scale anytime soon.
At this hour, no one was sleeping in. Everyone was already up.
Katarina looked like she had slept terribly.
When Lux saw her, she asked with concern, "Didn't sleep well? You look awful."
"I'm fine." Katarina smiled at her, but it looked a little forced, and her gaze accidentally drifted toward Luke.
After what had happened last night, she would have needed a miracle to sleep well.
Even now, she still did not understand why Luke had not locked her down and instead had given her this much freedom.
Was this prince really so confident that he had her completely under control?
Though of course, it was much better this way than making her stay here as a prisoner.
"Since you're up, start working. And while we're at it, I've got an announcement."
Luke looked at the women in front of him with a smile. "Katarina has been captivated by my overwhelming personal charm and decided to become my maid. Everyone, please welcome her."
There was, of course, no applause.
The second those words landed, every girl in front of him wore the same stunned expression, as if they had all missed something huge.
Lux looked at Katarina in confusion. "Is your eyesight maybe not very good? I know someone who treats eye problems. Want me to introduce you?"
Someone like Yurna becoming this guy's maid for the paycheck, that they could understand.
But Katarina?
What was that supposed to mean?
Did this bastard seriously have that kind of charm?
Katarina also wanted to say that only someone completely blind would be won over by this guy's personal charm, but right now all she could do was stiffly nod. "That's right... Anyway, I don't have a home anymore, so I might as well stay by the prince's side and work..."
Lux let out a sigh and looked at Katarina sympathetically.
Not only had Noxus wiped out her home, now, at such a young age, her eyesight had apparently gone bad too.
She decided that from now on, she should be nicer to Katarina.
The look of pity on Lux's face made Luke instantly annoyed, and he flicked a finger at her forehead.
Lux dodged it with nimble ease.
Then she stood there wearing an arrogant, provocative expression, as if she had endless energy first thing in the morning.
Luke could not be bothered with her and said, "Nobody stand around. Pack everything up. We're leaving soon."
He immediately gave the order to strike the temporary camp and continue moving out shortly afterward.
Everyone quickly got busy. No one was idle, including Luke.
His job was to clear the snow from the road ahead, since the drifts would slow the whole group down.
And he happened to have an excellent snow-clearing skill.
Wind Swordsmanship.
With Snowglance in hand, Luke stood before the snow-covered road, gathered wind intent, then swung his blade.
With a rushing howl, a small tornado roared out, sweeping up the snow in its path. One slash cleared more than sixty feet of road.
Seeing that, Lux instantly got eager to try it herself.
The last time she had seen Luke use Wind Swordsmanship to blow dust off a wall, she had already been fascinated by it.
And now, her own Wind Swordsmanship had already reached the point where she could slash out wind blades.
So she carried her sword over to Luke and said excitedly, "Let me try!"
Luke looked at her rosy little face, nodded, and stepped aside to give her space.
Lux took her stance, inhaled deeply, and wrapped both hands around the hilt with a serious look.
Honestly, she really did look the part.
Wind intent gradually began to gather around her, and then she slashed.
A tiny tornado burst out.
It was not as large as Luke's, but it still blew the snow away. It only reached about thirty feet, and it did not clear things as neatly as his.
But when Lux saw the result in front of her, her eyes lit up and a bright, excited smile spread across her face.
She turned and looked at Luke smugly. "Well?"
Luke wore a look of complete disbelief. "You've really trained it this far already?"
"Hmph!" Lux gave a proud little snort and lifted her chin even higher. "Of course! And that was only sixty percent!"
Luke sucked in a breath like he had just witnessed something terrifying.
That expression of shocked admiration made Lux's vanity explode with satisfaction. She immediately ran to the far end of the snow path, gathered wind intent again, and slashed once more.
This second tornado was larger, blew away more snow, and reached farther.
Then she turned around and gave him an absurdly smug grin. "Honestly, easy."
Luke looked too stunned to speak, then finally said, "That was probably your last one."
"Oh please. You're not tricking me into doing your work for you."
Lux was smart enough to see through his fake acting instantly.
After being tricked by him so many times, she knew he was obviously trying to get her to keep grinding away like an idiot.
Seeing that, Luke could only sigh. These days, even the little blonde menace was getting hard to fool.
"Then one slash each. We'll work together."
The road still had to be cleared. Having one more person help was better than doing it all alone.
"Fine."
This time Lux did not refuse.
Not far away, when Katarina noticed what was happening, she felt another quiet shock.
She had not expected Luke to know a sword technique that could command the wind. She had seen him fight with a sword yesterday, but she had known nothing about this Wind Swordsmanship.
No wonder he had dared stay alone with her in the same tent last night.
Clearly, this prince had never believed that even if she went all out, she could beat him.
Half an hour later, the temporary camp had been fully packed up.
Everything they could carry, they took. Anything they could not, they left behind.
The group set out again along the path Luke and Lux had cleared.
The two of them obviously did not have endless stamina, so after clearing a stretch of road, they returned to the group and handed the job over to the others.
Once they got a chance to rest, both of them were breathing a little hard, though after moving around so much, neither of them felt quite as cold anymore.
By the afternoon of December 1, after a day and a half of travel, the group finally reached Hill City.
Jarvan IV, having already been informed ahead of time, was waiting at the city gate. The moment he saw Luke's figure appear, he strode forward.
"Brother!"
Jarvan IV warmly pulled Luke into a hug, then looked at him with a strangely moved expression. "You really came all the way from the capital. What were you thinking?"
"Well obviously, I came because I wanted to fight beside you."
Luke smiled as he looked at Jarvan IV.
It had been more than a month since they had last seen each other. Jarvan IV had grown out a bit of stubble and looked rougher around the edges, and there was a trace of missing him in his eyes.
But that steady sense of reliability about him had not changed at all.
"I won't say much more. Since you're here, then we'll fight this together, as brothers."
Jarvan IV gave Luke's shoulder a heavy pat.
Originally, he had thought that with Luke in the capital, he could fight out here without worry.
After all, one prince had to stay in the country.
But now Luke had traveled all the way from the capital to support him, and no matter what, Jarvan IV would treasure that brotherly bond.
If battle came, then as the older brother, he would naturally protect Luke and make sure no harm came to him.
"Let me introduce these two. This is Shyvana, and this is Katarina. We met them on the road while they were fighting a Noxian warband."
Luke stepped aside and briefly introduced Shyvana and Katarina.
Hearing that, Jarvan IV looked at them both and said, "On behalf of Demacia, welcome."
Shyvana nodded slightly as she studied Jarvan IV. "It's an honor, Your Highness."
"Thank you, Your Highness," Katarina added as well.
"We can talk about the rest after we get inside."
Jarvan IV smiled and led the group into the city.
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