"Piltover..."
Standing on a street in Piltover, Van drew in a deep breath of fresh air, his face full of satisfaction.
Down in the Undercity, the air was so filthy it felt like it wanted to crawl into your lungs and beat them black and blue.
Compared to that, one sharp breath in Piltover almost made him dizzy.
The weather was especially good today. Not a cloud in sight, just a bright blue sky and warm sunlight spilling over him, making the moment feel even better.
Of course, in the Undercity, nobody cared what you did. In Piltover, though, the moment you did something strange, people noticed.
The whispers around him pulled him back to reality.
Standing in the middle of the street looking drunk on fresh air had attracted a bit too much attention.
"Heh. Listen to me. I sound like a total bumpkin."
Van laughed at himself. He had dreamed about Piltover more times than he could count—dreamed about clean air, sunlight, and a peaceful life.
Even after seeing what had happened on the Bridge of Progress, he still had not let go of that longing.
Wanting something better was only human.
After pulling himself together, Van quickly blended into the crowd.
The clothes he wore made him stand out in the Undercity, but in Piltover they were nothing more than ordinary everyday wear.
And with his well-proportioned build and the kind of face that was rare in the Undercity, he slipped into the topsiders' crowd without any trouble.
He did not waste time wandering around. Van had not forgotten why he came up here in the first place, and he headed straight for the hardware store.
As nice as Piltover was, no amount of walking around would change the fact that he came from the bottom. If anything, it would only make the difference sting more.
...
...
By the time afternoon rolled around, Van had finished his shopping and stepped out of a cake shop by the roadside.
He had gone out of his way to buy a few little cakes Vi liked. To him, that mattered just as much as buying parts, and it had eaten up a good chunk of his budget.
Luckily, the parts that looked impossibly high-end in the Undercity were nothing special in Piltover, so he still had some money left over.
"Maybe I should try some Piltover liquor too..."
Walking down the street, Van's thoughts had already started drifting.
"Hey! Stop!"
Still half lost in his own head, Van suddenly saw a figure rushing straight toward him.
"Hm?"
Years of brawling kicked in before he even had time to think.
He immediately switched the cakes he had bought for Vi into the hand farther from the attacker, making sure they would not get crushed.
Then he dropped his center of gravity and whipped a heavy kick straight at the oncoming man.
Bang!
"Ugh—"
The man he kicked did not even manage a full scream. All he got out was a muffled groan and the sharp crack of something breaking before he was sent flying.
He flew several meters, rolled across the ground a few times, and finally slammed into the railing around a flower bed by the roadside.
A woman's handbag flew out of his hand and landed at Van's feet.
The sudden attack scared the onlookers badly, especially because Van's response had been so fast and so merciless. It clearly shocked these sheltered Piltover folk.
"What happened? What happened?"
Two Enforcers who had heard the noise from nearby started walking over.
"Damn it."
Van instantly panicked a little. He really had been spacing out just now. That counterattack had been pure reflex. He had not thought it through at all.
If he got tangled up with Enforcers here...
The thought had already made him want to turn and run.
"Wait!"
Just as Van was about to bolt, a dark blue-haired girl pushed through the crowd and ran out.
She hurried over, picked up the bag from the ground, and then froze for a moment when she saw the man's twisted face and broken-down state.
After that, she went over and spoke to the two Enforcers. They seemed polite with her, and it was obvious they knew who she was.
Van, meanwhile, had been left awkwardly standing off to the side. Running would look suspicious, but staying felt just as bad, so all he could do was stand there and sneak glances around for the best escape route.
Very soon, the questioning seemed to be over. The Enforcers did not even spare Van a second look. They simply walked over to the robber, who now looked like a half-dead dog, and hauled him away.
Watching the man get dragged off, Van caught sight of the grime worked into the exposed skin on his body and immediately knew where he had come from.
He had been scrawny too. Looks like even the rats who could not make it in the Undercity still liked trying their luck in Piltover.
"Hey, thank you! You really helped me out!"
The girl who had just spoken to the Enforcers walked up to Van and smiled at him.
"There was something really important in that bag. I don't even know what I would've done if I'd lost it."
"Uh... happy to lend a hand. Or a leg."
The girl held out one hand toward him. If Van was not mistaken, this was the handshake topsiders liked.
"Hello. My name's Caitlyn."
"Uh, I'm... right... Blast."
"Blast?"
"Weird name, right? Please forgive me. Having parents who name you on a whim is a real headache. I know a girl called Powder. Stupid, right?"
...
...
"That guy looked like he was from the Undercity."
Van and his new acquaintance, Caitlyn, happened to be heading the same way, so they naturally started talking as they walked.
"If you ever run into someone like that again, you'd better be careful. They won't just take whatever valuables you've got on you. They'll probably ruin that pretty new dress too."
"Hah. That was just one case, wasn't it? It's not like everyone from the Undercity is like that."
"You really think that?"
Van raised a brow and turned to look at Caitlyn, but all he found on her face was clear-eyed innocence and... stupidity.
"You really are sweet and naive, Cupcake."
"...Cupcake?"
"Because you look sweet and soft, like a cupcake."
Van lifted the cake box in his hand.
"Sorry. It was the first comparison I could think of. Did that offend you?"
"No, not at all... Haha. It's a pretty interesting comparison."
Caitlyn laughed awkwardly. Whatever they were like in private, topsiders at least tried to look restrained and proper in public, so she was not quite used to this kind of loose talk from someone like him.
Of course, she still had no idea Van was from the Undercity. She only thought this man called Blast was a little strange in the way he carried himself... just like his name.
[End of chapter]