"To be honest, I never imagined that one day the two of us would be able to sit together and drink tea."

In Demacia's royal garden, a place that had always been open to the people of Demacia, the public was barred from entering today. It was an unusual thing, truly unusual, because every Demacian knew exactly what kind of ruler Jarvan III was.

He was wise, valiant, kind, and fair. As king, there was simply nothing better than being one of his subjects.

After all, whenever war came, that old emperor would always lead from the front himself, mounting his horse and riding into battle in heavy armor even in his sixties, all so he could keep his people behind him and safe. With a king like that, what fault could anyone possibly find in him?

That was exactly why the closure of the royal garden felt so strange. But among the nobles, it was not strange at all.

Because Demacia had received a guest, a guest of immense power and status.

The middle-aged man seated there had graying hair combed neatly back without a single strand out of place. His face was a little long, his eye sockets deep-set, and his gaze sharp as a hawk's. Hearing those words, Swain calmly reached for the delicate teacup on the stone table and took a sip of the floral tea the old king had brewed.

It was slightly sweet going down, but when the flavor settled, it left behind a powerful lingering sweetness, with a rich floral finish. It was a very fine tea.

Swain's eyes shifted toward Xin Zhao. He saw the man standing ramrod straight off to one side, spear in hand, staring ahead as though he had never noticed Swain looking at him at all. A trace of helplessness passed through Swain's heart.

Such a powerful warrior, a man who, on the battlefield, could hold off a thousand enemies by himself, and yet Noxus had lost him with its own hands.

During his time as Grand General, Swain had spent years in Noxus's libraries, and throughout that time he had investigated a great deal of Noxian history. From those records, he had come to understand just how severe Noxus's loss of talent had become.

Darkwill had grown incompetent in his later years, while LeBlanc had cared only about opposing Mordekaiser. It was not that she did not understand politics. A woman who had lived for over a thousand years and led a secret cabal of black sorcerers could never truly be a fool.

So clearly, LeBlanc simply did not care what became of Noxus. The only thing she cared about was herself. For her own sake, she would gladly sacrifice everything Noxus had. The glory of the empire meant absolutely nothing to her.

Swain had always found that bitterly frustrating.

He and LeBlanc were complete opposites. Everything Swain did was for the sake of strengthening Noxus, and for that goal, even if it cost him his life, he would never hesitate.

And now, it was for Noxus's sake that he had come to Demacia.

"I did not expect it either," Swain said calmly, looking at Jarvan III before continuing, "and yet here we are. With the rise of the Twin Cities, whether it is our Noxus or your Demacia, both of us now have to listen to them."

"I don't much like that way of putting it, and I certainly do not agree with it." Jarvan III shook his head. His beard was white, and his unruly hair had likewise faded into an old silver-white. At this moment, Jarvan III looked like an aged white lion, every inch of him showing his years.

But even an old lion was still a lion. The force of his presence was no weaker than Swain's, even if, outwardly, he looked like nothing more than an unarmed old human king, while Swain was a demigod who wielded demonic power.

"I admit that the Twin Cities are powerful. At this point, there is no force left that can step forward and stop them. City Lord Logan not only possesses power like that of a god himself, he also has the aid of many gods besides. Add to that the strength of the Twin Cities' technology, and frankly, the weapons they possess make the armor and warriors we Demacians once took pride in look like little more than a joke."

"But that does not mean Demacia has submitted to the Twin Cities." Jarvan III looked at Swain. He had spoken sternly until then, but now his expression shifted, wrinkles gathering at the corners of his eyes as he smiled. "Besides, Logan has never had that sort of intention. Otherwise, he would never have formed the Federation."

"He formed the Federation, merged the nations, and united them against an outside threat. The Twin Cities have raised themselves onto the moral high ground. He truly has made everyone listen to him, but at the same time, he has also placed himself under everyone's gaze."

"Every word and every action are now exposed before the world. If Logan truly wanted conquest and unification, then there would have been no reason at all for him to raise both himself and the Twin Cities up in that way, would there?"

Swain fell silent. He cast Jarvan III a subtle glance and felt a deep wave of emotion.

If Darkwill, in his later years, had possessed even half of Jarvan III's character, then Noxus would already have claimed half of Runeterra on the map.

"I assume you did not come here just to say these things. Tell me why you came, Grand General," Jarvan III said when he saw Swain fall silent.

Swain was quiet for a moment, then said, "I want to obtain some petricite from you."

"Absurd!" the High Marshal standing beside Jarvan III barked at once.

Tianna glared at Swain and said coldly, "Give petricite to you? Leaving aside what you might do with it, on what grounds? What makes you think Demacia would hand petricite over to its enemy?"

"Enemy?" Swain looked at Tianna and shook his head. "That was true a year ago. Now we are allies, High Marshal."

"The Twin Cities have already left both of us far behind. Whether it is Noxus or Demacia, catching up to them is no longer possible. But that does not mean we can just sit there and wait, does it?"

"I like to think my relationship with Logan is fairly good, and I know the man truly has little interest in power or status. But that is only how he feels now, and people can change. No one knows what choices Logan will make ten years or twenty years from now."

"And what of the people around him? He may not change his ideas or his outlook because of his long life, but what about the others? Will the leadership of the Twin Cities still think the same way by then?"

Swain's eyes darkened. His lips moved, and he spoke in a low voice, quieter than if he were speaking to Jarvan III, more like he was speaking to himself.

"I have never believed in ideals. I only look clearly at reality."

Ideals were bubbles, beautiful and dreamlike. While they existed, they drew everyone's eyes to them. But a bubble was still only a bubble, and it could burst at any time. A gust of wind, the slightest ripple, no one could say when.

He had already paid a price for believing in ideals once.

Because of that, he would never believe blindly again.

The Twin Cities had developed too quickly, so quickly that Swain had gone from shock at the start to fear now.

Ever since obtaining Raum's power, very few things in this world could escape his understanding. Even if unexpected variables appeared, Swain could usually devise a solution. And even if he could not solve it, he could at least respond to it.

But the Twin Cities, and Logan?

They had already slipped completely beyond Swain's grasp.

He could cooperate with Logan, yes. But to truly have Noxus submit to the Twin Cities?

That was impossible.

At least while he remained Grand General, impossible.

Noxus had indeed gained many benefits from the Twin Cities. The land had improved, the population had grown, everyone could eat their fill, and under peace and recovery, everything in Noxus was getting better.

But that did not mean Swain would abandon his original purpose.

When Tianna heard that, her mouth opened slightly, as if she wanted to say something, but in the end she remained silent.

The Grand General of Noxus was right. Right now, the Twin Cities were full of goodwill. They restrained themselves with morality, radiated friendliness to the world, and helped nations everywhere. But what about the future?

As the Twin Cities grew stronger and stronger, who could say with certainty that they would never develop ambitions to dominate the world?

What was more, the Twin Cities were already practicing a kind of enlightened hegemony. On the surface, they bound themselves through self-restraint and moral obligation, but had they not, in doing so, gained power all the same?

In essence, was not Runeterra already being ruled by the Twin Cities now?

Jarvan III looked at Swain. He understood that the silence behind him from Tianna meant she had already been persuaded.

But Jarvan III had not.

He merely picked up the cup in front of him, held it in both hands, and looked off toward the flowers in the distance. Winter was cold, and most flowers had long since stopped blooming, but a few still bloomed on, bright and beautiful.

And it was because they still bloomed that even in winter, people still came to the royal garden to see them.

As for why Swain wanted petricite, the old king understood that well too.

He wanted to use it against the Twin Cities in the future. He was guarding himself against Logan and the Twin Cities. Hextech was magic, and petricite had the power to suppress magic.

But the Twin Cities did not only have magical weapons. Their chemtech bombs and their rifles were not magic.

The old king looked at the flowers, and only after a long while did he finally say, "I understand all of this."

"I can give you petricite. But in return, I want Noxus's runic forging techniques."

"Isn't Demacia a nation that forbids magic?"

"That was the old Demacia, Grand General. The Demacia of today is already working toward abolishing anti-magic law, and I have already begun quietly carrying it out in several places. The results have been extremely good." Jarvan III smiled as he said it.

Standing behind him, Tianna froze, her breathing catching in her throat.

She had not known this.

She knew Jarvan III wanted to abolish the old system and change Demacia's current state, but she truly had not known he had already started implementing those changes in secret.

If even she had not known, then what noble house in Demacia possibly could?

Lowering her head to look at her sword, Tianna realized her fingers were rubbing against the hilt without her noticing.

At that moment, there were no words to describe what she was feeling.

Caught between the instincts etched into her body and the transformation of everything she had known, she found herself unable to speak. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

The times truly had changed.

"Demacia has long since begun to change. In that, I agree with you, Grand General. Using morality to restrain others is far less effective than using strength to deter them. Before true power, so-called order is nothing but paper, and it can be pierced through at any moment."

"But I do not agree with your method."

"I would be honored to hear why," Swain said after a brief hesitation.

"You want Demacia and Noxus to draw closer and, together, pressure the Twin Cities and balance their hegemony. In my eyes, that is... a very Noxian way of thinking." The old king set down his teacup and sighed. "Noxians always imagine the worst. The way your people think is deeply aggressive by nature."

"The times have already changed, Grand General. Do you understand what I mean? A few years ago, I could never have imagined something like this happening in Runeterra. Tell me, had you ever imagined it yourself?"

"That one day, from Demacia to Noxus, then to Ionia, and on to the Twin Cities, it could all be done in a single morning? That the distances between people would shrink, and the distances between nations would seem to vanish? That war would no longer be a matter of riding on horseback for days, and that humanity would truly possess the power to fly through the sky and descend into the sea?"

The old king leaned back in his chair and continued slowly, "The old way no longer works. You place too much weight on Noxus, but you are looking in the wrong direction."

"What you care about is only the name Noxus. It seems you have made the rise of Noxus into your personal duty. You want to restore the glory of the Noxian Empire. But have you ever truly thought about what the people of Noxus themselves want?"

Swain paused, then fell silent.

Thinking about it carefully, what Jarvan III had pointed out was indeed exactly what Swain had been thinking.

What he cared about was only Noxus.

"Peace is hard won, Grand General. I know your will is firm, and that you are not a man who would be swayed by a few words from an old man like me. But there is one thing I want you to understand, and that is that no one likes war except madmen."

"The Noxus of the past, in my eyes, was one great madman leading a pack of smaller madmen in a savage nation. But I could understand it, because back then you needed to survive. The only way for your nation to remain stable and for your people to live was to keep launching wars, invading others, and seizing resources."

"But what about now? You no longer need to do that. Back then, war was the only thing keeping the cart of Noxus moving, forcing it to run endlessly and without purpose. But now the Twin Cities have already fitted that cart with brakes, and Noxus has stopped. Instead of setting it running without direction again, why not rest, and find the right direction?"

"As for what you said, whether the Twin Cities might change in the future, that belongs to the future, Grand General."

"I do not know what kind of power you possess, but the change of the times is not something you or I can stop. No matter how far ahead you see, accidents will still happen. Ten years ago, if someone had told me that anti-magic law was wrong, I would only have said that person had been corrupted by magic, and I would have ordered him imprisoned, convicted, and exiled."

"Logan is the tide of this era. He and his Twin Cities have changed this age. Rather than thinking about how to oppose the Twin Cities or balance the Twin Cities, you would do better to think about how to support them, how to help them..."

"Wouldn't that only make them grow faster? Wouldn't that only make it easier for those people to change their minds—" Swain did not get to finish, because Jarvan III interrupted him again.

The old king rose to his feet and pointed toward his garden, toward the flowers still blooming there.

"Do you see those flowers? If not for them, no one would come to this garden in winter. But because these flowers bloom only in winter, people keep coming to visit this garden."

"And after they see those flowers, they begin wanting to care for the others, to water the flowers that have not yet bloomed, to fertilize them, to protect them as they grow."

"There is nothing wrong with guarding against future threats. But trying to balance and contain everything, that is wrong. Because you cannot stop it. The only path is to move with the tide of the times, keep pace with it, and change dynamically. Only then will Demacia and Noxus avoid being forgotten by history."

"Stop staring only at your own flower. This ecosystem has room for many flowers. It is far larger than you imagine. Instead of always thinking about uprooting someone else's bloom, why not become one of the caretakers of the whole garden?"

After saying that, the old king turned his back to Swain, waved a hand, and began to walk away. As he did, he said softly, "I'm growing tired. Age catches up to everyone, and cold winds are harder to bear than they once were. So, Grand General, forgive me for taking my leave. If there is anything else you wish to discuss, we can speak another time."

Swain quietly watched Jarvan III's departing back. He watched as Demacia's High Marshal and the royal steward followed after him. Then he slowly turned his head and looked toward the flowers Jarvan III had pointed out earlier.

He felt that he understood what Jarvan III meant.

The Twin Cities were the preservers of the current order.

But at the same time, they were also the gravediggers of traditional civilizations.

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