In Black Lane, centered around the platform suspended in midair, there hung behind it a strange, enormous mirror, floating upright in the sky like a pane of glass.

The mirror glowed with a blue light. Outsiders had no idea what it was, but the people of Piltover and Zaun recognized it instantly.

What else could it be made from but Hextech gemstones? Couldn’t they see the faint magical glow coming from it?

Then the people of the Twin Cities entered Black Lane first and headed toward the seats deeper inside.

Round tables of every size had been arranged all throughout Black Lane, and the street stalls had all been cleared out. That was all thanks to Aunt Marna. At a single word from her, the residents of the Black Lane community had all answered the call.

Then there was the Demacian delegation, seated in the fourth row around their tables. Leading them was a beautiful woman with gorgeous wine-red hair, the mature, elegant type. Right now she had her eyes narrowed as she looked around, as if searching for something.

The Noxian delegation was led by Katarina. She was redheaded too, but her hair was longer and a lighter shade. She sat there smiling to herself while idly flipping a dagger around, her bright eyes meeting the gazes of the Demacian soldiers.

Soon, nearly half the venue was filled.

Today, as long as you wanted to come in, no one would stop you.

Which meant anyone could attend the wedding.

A dense crowd poured into Black Lane. Amid the flow of people, a young man with black hair patted the person beside him on the shoulder and said, "Wait here for a bit. I’m going to find some clothes for you two."

His two companions both froze, then lowered their heads to look at what they were wearing. One of them was basically just in a filthy cloak, while the other had on a fitted robe, but that outfit looked grimy too, and it had quite a few holes in it.

"Oh, right, Jax, Yi, how about you two become my groomsmen too?" Naturally, that man was Logan. After rushing all the way back, the moment he returned to Zaun, he sent a message to Janna, and Janna immediately passed it on to Silco.

Silco then used Janna to relay instructions and tell Logan what he should do next.

So Logan had made it back... not exactly on time, but not exactly late either.

Even though he had completely missed the part where he was supposed to go pick up the bride, Silco had told him that Jinx had no idea where she’d run off to and was currently hiding somewhere in a corner of the Twin Cities.

Logan had tried using his divine sense to search for Jinx, but a force blocked him.

It was Janna.

Just like Silco had guessed, Janna was helping Jinx.

But Logan wasn’t worried about that at all. If anything, he found it funny.

Because Logan trusted that Jinx would never run off on the wedding. If she was hiding somewhere right now, then she was probably just joining in the excitement and playing around all over the place again.

Jinx had a huge heart, and even though it was her own wedding, she was still running around everywhere. Logan could only sigh.

If Jinx ever had kids in the future, they’d probably be born just to serve as her toys.

So what Logan needed to do now was head backstage, change into the groom’s outfit, and then go find his Jinx.

"Groomsman? Logan, do you mean like a brotherhood escort?" Jax asked curiously. He was from another age and really didn’t understand a new word like groomsman. After all, in all of Valoran, only the Twin Cities had the custom of groomsmen and bridesmaids.

In places like Demacia and Noxus, weddings followed aristocratic rites, old, solemn, and formal.

But the Twin Cities’ style, Logan’s wedding style, felt very fresh to Jax.

Just think about it. If, back in Icathia, some noble archmage got married and invited commoners to attend the ceremony, the only thing waiting for him would be a swarm of attacks from other mages and nobles.

Because people of their station would never lower themselves like that.

But Logan could.

Logan truly didn’t put on airs, and that made Jax like him even more.

Yi, on the other hand, did know the word. Back in the old days, there had been Ionians in Zaun, which naturally meant there were Zaunites living in Ionia too. Under Ionia’s broad tolerance, Zaunite culture had naturally blended in.

That was why some parts of Ionia had wedding customs very similar to those of the Twin Cities.

"Be your groomsmen? Logan, do you really think the two of us can do that?" Yi asked hesitantly.

It wasn’t that he wanted to refuse. Becoming closer with Logan was obviously a good thing, although to be fair, their relationship was already pretty good.

That was just how things worked between men sometimes. Fight once, spar a bit, exchange a few blows, and suddenly you were brothers.

"What’s the problem? It’s just for fun." Logan said with a smile, and patted Yi on the shoulder again.

Besides, this would help him complete a personal achievement too. 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

The strongest groomsmen’s party in history or something like that?

Just think about it. Logan’s groomsmen already clearly included Jayce, Viktor, Ekko, and Marsen. Sure, one of them was questionable, but the first three were future scientists who would absolutely go down in history.

And now, adding Yi and Jax, two men standing at the absolute peak of human martial power, calling this the strongest groomsmen’s party in history really wasn’t an exaggeration, was it?

At least Logan didn’t think so.

Logan headed backstage, then pointed out where Yi and Jax should go and had an Enforcer take them over to Jayce and the others. The Enforcer quickly accepted the order and ran off excitedly toward Jax and Yi.

And only then did Logan finally meet the makeup artists.

At the same time, he also spotted a girl nearby touching up her makeup.

He took one look at her and burst out laughing.

"What are you doing here?" Logan asked.

The girl turned around, revealing an oval face with delicate makeup. The blond bangs over her forehead had been curled, part of her hair was pulled back into a braid, and the rest fell naturally over her shoulders. With that beautiful blond hair, her cute face, those shining eyes, and the white princess dress that fell to her knees, she looked exactly like some princess who had escaped from a Disney movie.

"You finally showed up!" Lux cried out in surprise when she saw Logan. She blinked, then added, "This wasn’t my idea. Jinx insisted on having me as a bridesmaid. She said she really likes me."

"Does Fiora know about this?" Logan asked curiously.

Lux shook her head. "I haven’t seen her yet."

"..."

Logan gave Lux a strange look, then nodded.

Well, that explained why Jinx liked her. With a thought process like this, Lux and Jinx really were on the same wavelength.

The youngest princess of Demacia’s greatest noble house sneaking out to another city-state just to be someone’s bridesmaid, if news of that got back to Demacia, how do you think the major nobles would interpret the Crownguard family?

Did Lux really have no idea what the Crownguard name represented out in the world?

What she was doing right now was basically a signal, telling the nobles of the Great City that the Crownguards intended to befriend the Twin Cities, so much so that they had sent their own eldest daughter to serve as a bridesmaid.

And then there was the fact that High Marshal Tianna Crownguard was deeply trusted by King Jarvan III, so who was to say there wasn’t some measure of Jarvan III’s own intent in all this too?

But Logan didn’t say any of that aloud. If people misunderstood, then let them misunderstand. The Twin Cities weren’t afraid of that anymore.

He sat down, closed his eyes, and waited.

Very soon, two makeup artists came over and began getting him ready from the front and the back.

"Has anyone spotted Jinx among the guests registering at the entrance?"

"No. There are too many people. Just counting outsiders and not our own people, the number entering Black Lane has already surpassed seventy thousand. With this kind of crowd and this time pressure, the Enforcers can’t question people one by one. They’ve just been having them sign their names and go in."

Renata answered Silco at once.

After hearing that, Silco rubbed his messy hair. Unlike this morning, he was now wearing makeup that covered his scars, revealing a face that wasn’t exactly handsome but was still decent enough.

At least Silco himself thought he looked pretty good. After all, no matter what, he was definitely better-looking than that dead mutt Vander, wasn’t he?

As for why, when the Twin Cities’ technology had already advanced to this point, not to mention changing someone’s skin, even replacing an entire head wouldn’t be hard, Silco still insisted on keeping his disfigured face, well, only Silco himself probably knew the answer.

Maybe he wanted to remember the mistakes he had made in the past, as a kind of penance.

Or maybe he wanted the story written across that ruined face to keep warning him not to stray down the wrong path again.

In any case, Silco had his own reasons.

"Forget it. Since Logan is back now, everything proceeds as planned." After thinking it over, Silco waved a hand and said in a calmer tone.

Looking at Silco like this, Renata suddenly had the urge to tease him.

Not because of romance, of course. Even though the Twin Cities were now full of rumors that the two of them were a pair, both Renata and Silco knew perfectly well that there would never be that kind of feeling between them.

Or rather, for people like them, love was a luxury.

Maybe ten or twenty years from now they might settle into something together, but not because of affection, because of mutual benefit.

The reason Renata wanted to needle Silco was simple.

She was annoyed.

Because given her abilities, her professional competence had already surpassed Silco’s in certain ways, and yet she was still stuck beneath him, serving as his secretary.

Of course Renata was annoyed. What had her dream always been? It sure as hell was not to become somebody else’s second-in-command secretary.

From the very beginning, what Renata had wanted was to become Zaun’s queen.

Of course, she also knew that once Silco stepped down, his position would be hers. She wouldn’t even have to fight for it. Every councilor already understood this. Renata was clearly being shaped as Silco’s successor in Zaun.

So it wasn’t as though she had some small grievance and was about to storm off, but still...

Damn it, this was probably Silco’s method, wasn’t it?

"You’re really that sure Jinx didn’t run off? Maybe she suddenly got cold feet and called off the wedding," Renata said. The moment Silco started looking like everything was under control again, she just had to poke a hole in it.

Silco lifted his eyelids and glanced at Renata before saying calmly, "I already told you before, that’s impossible. I know Jinx better than any of you do. I raised her with my own hands."

"And besides, even if she really did change her mind and decide she didn’t want to get married, then fine, she doesn’t get married."

"Oh, so now you don’t care about the Twin Cities’ pride? Now you don’t care how the outside world sees Zaun?" Renata rolled her eyes, her scarlet pupils full of irritation.

Tsk. No emotional fluctuation at all. Which meant Silco truly meant it, and he would actually do exactly that.

"Nothing matters more than her happiness." Silco turned his chair and spun around in it. After a few turns, he planted one foot on the floor to stop himself, picked up an old cup covered in graffiti from the desk, and took a sip of water.

Then Silco gave the order to leave.

"You can go now. Make sure you handle everything I told you to."

"Yes," Renata replied.

Joking was joking, and being irritating was one thing, but when it came to serious matters, she could not openly go against Silco. No one understood that better than Renata.

Other than Jinx, oh, and maybe Isha too now?

As for everyone else, Silco simply did not care.

To put it bluntly, if one day the destruction of the Twin Cities were tied to Vander’s life, Silco would choose the former without hesitation.

And if the choice were between the Twin Cities and Silco’s own life, he would still make the same decision.

But if the question changed, if it became a choice between the destruction of the Twin Cities and Jinx, then Silco would choose Jinx without the slightest hesitation.

Tsk, that inhuman daughter-obsessed maniac.

In a back corner of Black Lane, with a Zaun house behind her and a table in front of her, a girl with messy hair, sloppy as a little stray dog, freckles across her face, was staring at the food on the table and swallowing hard.

"If you’re hungry, then eat. What are you scared of?" a voice said beside her.

The girl turned and saw someone in a cloak sit down next to her, the hood hiding her face.

The moment their eyes met, the girl immediately looked away again. She wasn’t used to making eye contact with people. That feeling of being stared at and judged, ugh, she hated it.

"Eat. Don’t be shy," the other girl said. As she spoke, she shifted a little, and a lock of blue hair slipped out from beneath the cloak.

"But... but not everyone’s here yet," the freckled girl said after hesitating.

She really was hungry.

She had drifted into Zaun yesterday evening.

No, literally drifted.

She had boarded the wrong ship and ended up a slave to Noxians for a while. After the Noxian invasion of Ionia ended, the general on that ship refused to surrender and refused to return to Noxus, stubbornly continuing to resist. That made things miserable for her. Even though she wasn’t on the front lines, as a "slave" she still had to work as a deckhand on the ship.

Then a man named Draven came aboard, chopped off that general’s head right in front of the entire crew, and only then did she gain a brief taste of freedom.

But by then the ship was already far from Ionia, so in order to avoid being taken back to Noxus by those people, she resolutely jumped into the water.

And then...

Then she drifted all the way to Zaun.

And after hearing there would be free food here, she somehow stumbled into this, a wedding?

"It’s fine, eat. I’m hungry too anyway." Hearing that, the cloaked girl giggled and reached out a hand.

It was a clean, beautiful hand, with long fingers, graceful knuckles, and skin so pale it seemed to glow. The skin itself was fine and smooth like silk.

The freckled girl stared for a second, then looked down at her own hand. The harsh environment of Shurima had left her skin a little rough, and the scorching sun had given her a warm wheat-colored complexion.

Compared to the other girl’s hand, it really just couldn’t compete.

"Eat. If I say you can eat, then you can eat," the cloaked girl said again. She even picked up an exquisite pastry from the table and set it in front of her.

After hesitating a moment, the girl reached out, grabbed the pastry, and quickly stuffed it into her mouth. Then she lowered her head and started chewing.

"Hehe, you’re really cute."

"Your hair looks a lot like my little sister’s. Hers is curly too, short too, all messy like a bird’s nest..."

Hearing that, the girl only became more self-conscious.

But then she heard the other girl speak again, still smiling.

"But I really like it. Your hair is beautiful. By the way, what’s your name?"

She looked up, crumbs still clinging to the corner of her mouth, hesitated for a second, then said quietly, "Taliyah."

"Taliyah? Nice name. My name is Jinx... Powder."

"You can just call me Powder," she said with a grin.

Taliyah nodded.

And just then, the star of the wedding banquet finally made his appearance.

Tilting her head up, Taliyah looked ahead and saw the crowd in front erupt in gasps. Then Mr. Logan of Zaun appeared on the stage above.

A warm, approachable middle-aged woman also stepped onto the stage holding a microphone, apparently serving as the officiant.

And then Taliyah saw something she would never forget for the rest of her life.

In fact, she believed most of the people here would never forget it either.

A beautiful azure bird suddenly appeared in the skies over Zaun, incomparably magnificent. It was enormous, so vast that when its wings spread, they seemed to blot out the sky. The blue-green light it cast became a curtain, then transformed into a staircase of the same color, extending downward step by step from the stage.

Before the eyes of everyone present, the staircase came to a stop at the feet of a thin middle-aged man. He was dressed in a neat suit, his hair combed perfectly into place, and he stood there with a calm expression.

Someone recognized him and called out his name.

It was Silco.

He had come here for his daughter.

But that raised the obvious question. The groom had appeared, and the bride’s father had appeared, so where exactly was the bride?

The middle-aged woman onstage gave a small cough and announced for the bride to come forward, but...

No one appeared.

Silco was still standing there alone.

And by the time the atmosphere had started to grow strange, by the time visitors all around the venue were beginning to wonder where the bride was, and even Taliyah herself had started looking around for her, a hand patted Taliyah on the shoulder.

Taliyah turned around and saw that it was the surprisingly friendly cloaked girl.

She said with a cheerful smile, "Looks like it’s my turn to go onstage. Taliyah, let’s eat together again next time."

Taliyah stared at her blankly.

Then the girl pulled off her cloak.

And Taliyah’s eyes went wide.

Because the girl standing in front of her... was wearing an unbelievably beautiful wedding dress.

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