Levi left alone with Caitlyn and the others, returning to the Piltover Police Station to cooperate with the investigation.
After witnessing his powerful ability to command the elements, the students were no longer too worried about him.
Furthermore, the female Enforcer who kept insisting on seeking justice for Levi turned out to be the only legitimate daughter of House Kiramman, Caitlyn Kiramman.
She was the daughter of Madam Kiramman, a councilor on the Piltover Council!
With such a strong background, the Iron Fist Gang and Sheriff Marcus were clearly nothing to worry about.
Therefore, Levi was in no rush to have Viktor and Seraphine figure out a way to save him. He simply instructed them, along with the students, not to let this unexpected incident interfere with their plans. They were to form different working groups as originally planned and begin the initial propaganda and development work for the Windguides as soon as possible.
Thus, a long while later...
In the Factory District, at Seraphine's home.
"Dad! Mom!"
"I'm back!"
Seraphine, holding a large stack of documents, excitedly rang her family's doorbell.
She had returned alone first.
However, perched on her shoulder was a petite and adorable blue bird.
"Seraphine?!" Hearing their daughter's voice outside, Mr. and Mrs. Ivern immediately ran over in excitement and pushed the door open. "You're finally back!"
"Honestly, where... where did you run off to? Mom was worried sick about you!"
The couple did not pay much attention to the blue bird perched on Seraphine's shoulder.
Mrs. Ivern hugged her daughter affectionately, holding her tightly for a good while before finally letting go.
Mr. Ivern looked Seraphine up and down. Only after confirming that her hair wasn't messy, no buttons were missing, her clothes were neat, and there were no suspicious marks on her skin did he breathe a slight sigh of relief.
"Seraphine! Where is that boy?"
"A few Zaunite beggars came looking for us earlier, saying you sent them. They also said you had an 'episode' over in the Zaunite Community, fainted from a headache, and were... were carried away by that bastard Levi!"
"Is this true?" the old father asked, his eyes wide.
"Yeah!" Seraphine nodded. "I told those beggars to come here. Dad, didn't you take good care of them? I promised to give them jobs and apprenticeships."
Normally, Ivern would have definitely given his daughter a stern talking-to about this.
Their family ran a factory, not a shelter. Why would they hire random people for no reason?
Those beggars were either old or injured; their value had already been squeezed dry, and they should have been laid off and sent back to Zaun long ago.
"Ahem..." Now was not the time to think about that.
"Seraphine! Who asked you about those beggars? I'm asking if what they said about you fainting and being carried away by Levi—is that true?!"
At this point, Mr. Ivern's eyes were practically bulging out of his head.
But Seraphine simply answered very naturally, "Yeah! I was passed out in Mr. Levi's arms for quite a while."
"..." The old father's face turned green.
"Nini, that boy didn't do anything weird to you, did he?" The old mother's breathing also grew tense.
"What do you mean by weird?" Seraphine tilted her head, a look of confusion on her face.
"Ahem..." Ivern's old face grew a little hot. "I mean, did he get handsy with you..."
"Of course not!"
"That's good then..."
"Why would Mr. Levi get handsy with me? I wanted to hold Mr. Levi's hand, and he reluctantly wouldn't even let me touch him."
"I had to beg him for a long time before he finally agreed to hold my hand and continue 'singing' for me."
Mr. and Mrs. Ivern: "..."
"Bas! Tard!" the old father cursed in sheer agony. "Where is that little bastard? I'm calling the police! I'm going to have the Enforcers kick him back to Zaun!"
"Dad... there's no need."
"Mr. Levi has already been taken away by the Enforcers."
Mr. and Mrs. Ivern: "..."
'Just what did that little bastard do to our daughter that even the Enforcers couldn't stand by and watch?'
'No... calm down. Our daughter is standing right here, perfectly fine. Levi couldn't have been taken away because of her.'
'Then the only possible reason he was taken away is...'
"Did the Iron Fist Gang call the police?"
Having been a business owner for over a decade, Ivern was very familiar with the shady dealings between the Iron Fist Gang and the Enforcers.
Ordinary people thought the Iron Fist Gang's greatest strength was their fists.
But he knew that the Iron Fist Gang's greatest strength had always been their background connections.
"Mhm." Seraphine nodded. "That's exactly why."
"Good!" Ivern happily slapped his thigh.
Right now, he didn't care whether Levi was falsely accused or if he deserved to die.
He just wanted this Zaunite who had inexplicably abducted his daughter to roll as far away as possible.
"Wait..." Ivern looked at his daughter nervously.
This silly child had clearly been completely bewitched.
'She isn't coming back now to beg me, her father, to spend money and use my connections to bail that little bastard out of jail, is she?'
"Let me tell you clearly, that is absolutely impossible!"
"Not to mention that our family's relationship with the Enforcers can't even compare to the Iron Fist Gang's background. Even if it could, I absolutely will not spend a single cent on that little bastard!"
"Dad..." Seraphine blinked aggrievedly. "I didn't come back to ask you for money."
"Eh? Then you're..."
"I came back to make you rich!"
Ivern: "???"
'Damn it, why does this pitch sound so familiar?'
'And how is it that my silly daughter, who hasn't earned a single cent herself since she was born, is suddenly talking business with me the moment we meet? What kind of magic potion did someone feed her?'
He suddenly had a bad premonition.
"Seraphine?"
"Hmm?"
"Did Levi take you to some seemingly legitimate university, auditorium, or theater to listen to some lecture?"
"Eh? Dad, how did you know?"
"..."
"Was there someone at the lecture claiming to be a senior professor from the University of Piltover, boasting about some big project like 'turning water into oil,' some 'physiotherapy device,' or some 'new practical Hextech technology' that they wanted to share with everyone?"
"Yeah!" Seraphine nodded excitedly.
"Did they also hand you a huge pile of internal documents and ask you to invest money?"
"Dad, you're really amazing—"
"I haven't even said anything yet, and you already know everything!"
Ivern: "..."
'To hell with it!'
'That bastard Levi deserved to be arrested!'
"Dad!" Seraphine, not yet noticing her old man's subtle expression, simply handed the stack of documents in her arms to Mr. Ivern. "Take a look. This is the new project I agreed to collaborate on with Mr. Levi."
"Mr. Levi and Professor Viktor are going to use their technology as shares, and then we'll split the equity thirty-seventy."
"A damn thirty-seventy split?" Ivern couldn't hold back and actually started swearing in Zaunite slang in front of his daughter. "It's one thing for that bastard to scam money, but he actually wants to scam thirty percent of my equity?"
"No, not thirty percent."
"It's thirty percent for us, and seventy percent for Mr. Levi and Professor Viktor."
"..." Ivern instantly exploded.
'I only let my daughter go out for half a day... and Seraphine has already managed to squander our entire family fortune?'
"Seraphine, you... you..."
"Do you actually understand what those projects are?"
"I don't understand them," Seraphine answered confidently.
"But I can feel it. Everyone's souls are so bright and warm... Working with them means we must be doing the right thing!"
"Hey, hey... Dad, don't walk away!"
"Professor Viktor and Lina are still organizing the specific technical data, so just take a look at the project proposal I brought back first..."
Mr. Ivern ignored her completely.
The old mother also looked at her daughter with heartache, already calculating in her mind that she absolutely had to find a son-in-law with a high IQ in the future to help take care of her daughter for the rest of her life.
"Mr. Ivern, Mrs. Ivern."
"You should take a look at this project proposal."
But right at this moment, someone actually spoke.
No, the one speaking wasn't a person; it was the bird on Seraphine's shoulder.
And this voice was actually...
"Levi?!" Mr. and Mrs. Ivern looked over in astonishment.
Yes, it was Levi. But only the voice was Levi's.
This bird was, of course, Janna.
She was simply communicating remotely on Levi's behalf through the spiritual connection between herself and her Summoner.
As for Levi's speaking voice... that was just a minor spell she had re-mastered after recovering her divine power, using airflow to simulate vocal cord vibrations.
"Levi, you... you..."
'How did you turn into a bird?'
'No!'
Ivern suddenly realized:
'This is a spell! This is a spell that only a mage could use!'
'That boy Levi is actually a mage?!'
"That's right, I am a mage."
"So not only do I have a project to bring you, but I can also solve the problem of Seraphine's inability to control her innate magic."
Levi presented his greatest introductory gift.
Seraphine had never received formal magical training, which was why she couldn't control her talent.
And Janna, having lived for thousands of years, could be considered omniscient. She was naturally the best magic tutor for Seraphine.
"This..." Ivern fell silent.
He seemed shocked, seemed to be thinking, and seemed somewhat tempted.
Then, he opened his mouth and cursed at the blue bird:
"Get the hell off my daughter's shoulder right now—"
"If you dare look down at her chest, I'll fight you to the death!"
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