Arcane: The Gods Want Me to Pick a Route-Chapter 133: Boss Jinx

Jinx, of course, could feel the stares from Karina’s group.

So she bared her teeth at Logan, annoyed enough to grit them. "Logan, are they seriously staring at us the whole time?"

"Yeah... probably." Logan’s answer was deliberately vague. When that small head leaned closer, he reached out and flicked her forehead.

Jinx clapped a hand over her head and protested, "Then tell me—are they staring at you, or staring at me?"

"I think both."

"Are they looking down on me?" Jinx immediately got mad, snapping her head around to glare back.

But what confused her was—she did glare. She even tried to look scary. And yet the girls over there suddenly squealed, then politely smiled and nodded at her.

Two of them even waved enthusiastically.

"...Wait, Logan. That doesn’t look like they’re looking down on me." Jinx turned back right away, suddenly sheepish.

That was Jinx: if someone was rude to her, she’d hit back twice as hard. But if someone was polite to her... she didn’t know what to do.

Because the word "polite" wasn’t in her dictionary. She genuinely had no idea how to respond.

"Do you want to go say hello?" Logan thought for a moment and asked.

He didn’t want Jinx’s future to be nothing but him. She needed her own social circle—things she liked, friends her age.

She couldn’t spend her entire life orbiting the word "Logan." Even if Jinx didn’t care... Logan couldn’t be that selfish.

In Zaun, Jinx didn’t have friends. The former Spirit Blossom Gang people and Marsen’s bunch feared her and treated her like a live grenade. Vi was her sister—so that didn’t count as "a friend." And the only person in Zaun her age who could’ve been called a friend was Ekko... but Ekko avoided her at every turn.

Jinx knew why, too.

After all... she’d killed so many Firelights.

Ekko didn’t want contact with her. She understood.

So in Zaun, she had no friends her own age.

But what if it was different in Piltover?

What if she became friends with these girls—girls who looked a little fake on the surface, but whose hearts were actually decent?

Logan thought about it and almost laughed.

Because it was hard to picture Jinx dressed like a proper young lady, carrying a little handbag, going to a Piltover girls’ tea party. Would he ever see that in this lifetime?

"Me... go say hello?" Jinx tilted her head, giving Logan a look like he’d lost his mind. "Are you serious?"

"I’ll go with you. Before you got here, they talked with me for a bit. They’re pretty nice."

"Hm?" Jinx’s eyes narrowed, dangerous. Her mouth puckered, and she instantly got sulky. "So while I wasn’t here, you were talking to other women. A whole group of women."

"See? There you go again." Logan laughed and scruffled her hair. "They really are nice. I said my wife and I are both from Zaun and don’t know how to dance, so I asked for advice. They taught me a bunch."

Jinx fixed the hair he’d messed up, still not saying anything—just making small, pleased little grunts that were clearly her version of happiness.

"I can dance," she said. "Don’t go around saying I can’t."

"Zaun dancing isn’t the same as Piltover dancing," Logan said with a grin. "With that kind of music, the dances you’re good at won’t look right."

Then he held out his hand. "Come on. Let’s go say hi."

"Mm-hmm." Jinx took his hand, and Logan led her over to Karina’s table.

The moment the girls saw Logan and Jinx approaching, one after another they shut their mouths and sat up straight, eyes wide as they stared.

Seraphine, meanwhile, looked... weird.

Something was off.

A second ago that soul-voice had sounded like a furious, claw-swinging cat. Now it was like a lazy, sunbathing sweetheart of a cat.

That inner voice changed fast.

Seraphine studied Jinx with open curiosity.

And if Logan had known what Seraphine was thinking, he would’ve agreed. Even now, Jinx was the uncontested MVP on Logan’s mood meter—her emotions flared up fast, vanished fast, and spun back around again, chaotic and unpredictable.

"Hello," Logan said. "This is my wife, Jinx. She’s from Zaun."

Hearing Logan call her that again, Jinx made the goofiest smile, eyes narrowing with pure happiness—like a blissed-out, dopey cat.

"Quick, quick—make room for Councilor Logan and his wife!" Karina hurried to say.

She already liked Logan a lot, and she’d realized something: earlier, when Logan suddenly brought up his "wife," it had been to protect Karina’s feelings.

He’d deliberately changed the subject so she wouldn’t be embarrassed in front of her friends. So now that Logan had brought "his wife" over, Karina was genuinely happy.

Logan and Jinx sat at their table. The girls basically ignored Logan and stared at Jinx instead—especially at how naturally she grabbed food and ate—until curiosity exploded out of them.

"Jinx... aren’t you afraid people will gossip about you?" the round-faced girl asked. "If you eat too much at a banquet, people say horrible things behind your back!"

Jinx looked up at her. At first, the question made her uncomfortable—like the girl was mocking her for having no manners and only knowing how to eat.

But then Jinx saw the girl’s eyes, and her face settled into something cool and flat, like she didn’t care at all.

"Why would I be afraid?" Jinx said. "People who like me aren’t going to run over and criticize me just because I ate something. And people who hate me—why would I waste my time caring how they feel? If they don’t like me and want to talk behind my back, that’s their problem. They can all go to hell."

"Whoa!"

"Jinx, why aren’t you wearing a formal gown? And why are you wearing a jacket?"

"Does it look bad?" Jinx said, shoving another bite of cake into her mouth and answering mid-chew. "Zaunites dress like this. And who decided you have to wear a gown to a banquet? Those things are hard to move in. I don’t like them."

This was an image these noble girls had never seen before.

Not caring what anyone thought. Talking while eating. Saying rebellious things like it was nothing.

It was... insanely cool.

"Jinx, I heard Councilor Logan say you can’t dance. If you want, I can teach you."

"Logan’s lying," Jinx said instantly. "I can dance. I’m amazing."

"Jinx, is that cake good?"

"If you want to know, try it," Jinx said. She lifted the plate and held it out. "Go on. Take one—only one."

The girl glanced around, then finally worked up the courage to skip the fork entirely. She copied Jinx, grabbed a pastry with her hand, and stuffed it into her mouth.

"Jinx—this is really good!" she said with bright eyes as she chewed.

Jinx frowned. "Hold on. How old are you? Why are you calling me that?"

Calling her like she was some older figure... since when?

She wasn’t even that old.

But the girl shrank a little and said, "I just turned seventeen."

Jinx froze. She stared at the girl’s face, then pulled out a small mirror and looked at herself.

And then she got mad.

She was two years older.

So why did she still look like a kid?

And the girl’s chest was... obnoxious. Seriously. Unfair.

What was she even planning to do with that? Use it as a battering ram?!

Logan watched from the side, trying not to laugh, not interrupting—just listening to Jinx talk with them.

But Logan also noticed something else: from the moment Logan and Jinx sat down, Seraphine’s attention had locked entirely onto Jinx. She kept watching her like she was staring at some kind of protected species.

And yes—Seraphine was staring at a rare creature. 𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

She could hear people’s soul-voices, and her whole life, even her own parents sometimes didn’t match perfectly—sometimes they told kind lies, sometimes they deliberately avoided ugly topics and kept them from Seraphine.

But this blue-haired girl in front of her?

Seraphine’s eyes shone.

Because for the first time in her life, she was seeing someone whose thoughts and words matched perfectly.

Even Seraphine lied to her parents sometimes.

But this girl? She’d said so many things, and every single one matched the sound coming from inside her heart.

There were really people in the world who were completely honest—inside and out?

"Hey," Jinx said suddenly, looking straight at Seraphine. "Why do you keep staring at me?"

Seraphine blinked, then tucked hair behind her ear and said softly, "My parents are from Zaun too, so... I was curious what Zaunites are like."

"Zaunites?" Jinx thought about it. "Using me as your example is the wrong move."

She frowned, as if searching for the right words.

"I’m not like other Zaunites. Actually... nobody’s the same as anyone else." Then she continued, "I don’t get why you people keep sorting everyone into ’Pilties’ and ’Zaunites.’"

"At the end of the day, we’re all people. One nose, two eyes, one mouth. It’s not like we’re growing flowers out of our heads." Jinx’s expression stayed serious. "What should be different isn’t where you’re from—it’s the soul inside you."

Seraphine’s eyes grew brighter and brighter.

Hearing Jinx say it out loud made Seraphine feel even more certain she was right.

Zaunites and Pilties should be exactly the same.

"Jinx, you’re so cool!"

Had Karina and these girls ever met someone like Jinx?

They were still sheltered, still living behind fancy doors, not officially "old enough" to be allowed at real adult events—so they weren’t like the Piltover adults who talked business with every breath.

They had their little flaws, sure, but those flaws were shaped by their environment and families.

And they were teenagers—of course they had rebellious thoughts. Who didn’t?

So a Jinx like this instantly became an idol to them.

Karina looked at her, thrilled. "Jinx, what are you good at? I’m good at music and dancing. We can trade tips sometime! I want to be friends with you—you’re incredible!"

Being praised, Jinx glanced at Logan and blinked.

She was realizing it, too.

She was... kind of popular.

And then Jinx’s mood rose like a rocket. She gave a smug little huff.

"The stuff you listed is for little kids."

"What I’m good at... hm." She tilted her chin. "This."

As her words landed, Jinx smoothly pulled a delicate handgun from under her skirt and set it right on the table.

...

Karina and the others froze, jaws dropping.

Wait—was that real?!

How could you bring an actual gun into a banquet like this?!

Even Councilor Talis couldn’t do that, could he?

And even if he could, he would never do it like this!

Logan’s mouth twitched.

He’d expected Jinx to carry a gun, sure. But how had she hidden it under a dress?

And that draw was so outrageous Logan almost lost it.

Jinx’s movement was quick—blink and you missed it—but to Logan, it wasn’t like that at all. In his eyes it was: Jinx lifting the skirt slightly, her small hand sliding along her pale thigh... then a soft click, and the handgun came free.

Logan’s senses were far beyond normal. When he focused, everything slowed down for him.

Thinking it through, Logan figured the gun was probably strapped to her thigh. Jinx had special thigh rigs for that kind of thing—she’d even shown him a few before.

A black strap hugging her thigh, pressing the skin just slightly—

Yeah. That was... dangerous.

Logan looked at the stunned girls with their mouths hanging open, sighed, and covered his face with his hand.

This was his Jinx.

See that, Jayce? Mel?

I wasn’t lying.

She really would bring a gun to a party.

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