Meanwhile, at the Council building.
"This guy's fighting style..." Councilor Mel lowered her binoculars, sighing with a hint of amusement. "It certainly is novel."
"Miss Mel, you give him too much credit," her handmaiden said.
The handmaiden had grown up alongside Mel and had been exiled to Piltover by the family together with her. Though their relationship was nominally master and servant, they were much more like friends.
Therefore, regarding Levi's Unlimited Gun Works maneuver, the handmaiden bluntly offered the exact opposite assessment: "Only a coward would fight like that. If this were Noxus, he would already be dead."
It was true. If anyone foolishly flew in the sky like a sitting duck in Noxus, the Noxian military mages and long-range archers would have long since taught him a harsh lesson.
"But it is indeed a clever way to fight. At the very least, he prevented me, the mastermind behind the scenes, from achieving my goal." Saying this, Mel let out a soft sigh.
She had orchestrated this grand spectacle solely to test Levi's trump cards. Yet while Levi did make a move, he hadn't gone all out.
He had personally wiped out a squad of Transcendent-level Chemtech Warriors, that much was true. However, his damage output relied entirely on guns and bombs. The low-intensity wind magic he personally utilized could easily be replicated by even a junior student at a Noxian mage academy.
The only remarkable aspect was the precision of Levi's control over the wind element. That level of mastery—precisely manipulating air currents to simultaneously wield hundreds of ranged weapons—truly made it seem as though a goddess was helping him from behind the scenes.
But this still didn't prove Janna's existence; it only proved that Levi might be a magical genius excelling in precise spellcasting. Avery hadn't forced out Levi's true strength at all. Let alone force out the goddess Janna who might be standing behind him.
"I think this exactly proves that Levi isn't some Chosen of Janna," the handmaiden analyzed. "If such a powerful demigod truly stood behind him, why would he need to rely on such a cheap trick to win? By resorting to a coward's petty tricks, he has actually exposed their true strength."
"Perhaps," Mel replied noncommittally.
"Then, Miss Mel," the handmaiden asked, "should we continue to test them?"
Continue testing them?
Mel raised an eyebrow. "No."
There were already few useful hounds to begin with. The Iron Fist Gang was considered one of the more capable ones among them. Now that the Iron Fist Gang had been beaten into total submission, any further probing would require House Medarda to take off their gloves and step onto the field themselves.
At that point, they would completely tear away all pretenses with the Windguides, leaving no room to maneuver. Until she fully understood the relationship between Janna and the Windguides, Mel had no desire to drag her family into such a risk.
"Then..." the handmaiden asked again, "how should we handle the Windguides?"
Mel already had a plan. "Give them the Iron Fist Gang's territory, just as they wish. If they want to conduct any business, House Medarda will not interfere."
"Oh, right." At this, Miss Mel smiled thoughtfully. "Contact House Kiramman. Tell them that House Medarda is also very interested in that Walkman project Miss Caitlyn is working on. If Miss Caitlyn still needs investment, there's no harm in us buying some shares."
"Huh?" The handmaiden was astonished.
Giving them territory was one thing, but investing in their business? Wasn't this blatantly using House Medarda's prestige to publicly back the Windguides?
"Miss Mel, earlier you had the Iron Fist Gang..." The handmaiden hesitated, stopping herself.
First sending the Iron Fist Gang to cause trouble, and now offering to help the Windguides. Wasn't this change in attitude a bit too fast? What exactly was Miss Mel thinking?
"I want to be friends with the Windguides," Mel answered.
"Are they qualified to be friends with House Medarda?" the handmaiden asked in confusion.
"If Levi truly is Janna's Chosen, then they are more than qualified. If he isn't, then we've merely made a small investment. No harm done."
"But..." the handmaiden said, fraught with worry. "Their ideology is very dangerous. If Levi really is Janna's Chosen, wouldn't letting them grow so wildly be like rearing a tiger that will eventually bite us?"
Mel smiled but said nothing.
Her handmaiden still didn't understand. If Levi truly was Janna's Chosen, then he wasn't a tiger, but a dragon destined to grow into a world-shaking behemoth. You could defeat him. But as long as Janna existed, as long as faith existed, the embers would always reignite after being extinguished.
"Miss Mel." The handmaiden didn't grasp Mel's thoughts, so she simply advised, "If even we publicly support the Windguides, their power will likely expand rapidly. The Windguides aren't the Iron Fist Gang. They won't be controlled."
"That's perfect." The corners of Mel's lips curled up slightly. "Think about it carefully—once the Windguides become too powerful to control, who will have the biggest headache?"
It certainly wouldn't be House Medarda. House Medarda's foundation had never been in Piltover, but in Noxus.
Mel had already become the wealthiest person in Piltover, yet among the direct descendants of House Medarda, she was still the poorest, most inconspicuous fringe figure. This prosperous family from the great empire actually looked down entirely on the small business Mel operated in Piltover.
"The ones with the biggest headache won't be Medarda, and it certainly won't be Noxus. The first to suffer a headache will be the great houses of Piltover. Their entire fortunes are tied up in these tiny Twin Cities. If anyone poses a threat to them, they will be willing to strike, no matter how deep the opponent's background or how great the risk."
"This..." The handmaiden's eyes lit up as she listened. "I understand now—you want to borrow the hands of those Piltovans to test Levi's trump cards again? And simultaneously use the Windguides' existence to indirectly drain the Piltovans' strength?"
House Medarda—or more accurately, Mel herself—had always maintained a very delicate relationship with the local Piltovan families as an outsider exiled here by her own kin. Both sides engaged in competition as well as cooperation. They were business partners, but absolutely not friends.
Letting the Piltovans and the Windguides fight like two tigers meant that no matter who won in the end, there would be no downside for House Medarda.
"Miss Mel, that's what you're thinking, right?"
"Haha... you're overthinking it." Mel smiled.
She did have considerations in that regard, but her most fundamental motive remained: "As I said, I want to be friends with the Windguides."
Making enemies of the Windguides right now would yield no benefits and would carry the massive risk of potentially forging a blood feud with a goddess. It was much better to befriend the Windguides first.
The Windguides lacked no enemies anyway. Sooner or later, someone else would test whether Levi was truly Janna's Chosen on her behalf. House Medarda had no need to step forward and play the villain.
"But we don't need to be their friends either!" After hearing Mel's thoughts, the handmaiden was still puzzled. "Couldn't we just do nothing and wait for the Piltovans and the Windguides to clash?"
"Well..." Mel pondered for a moment before asking her handmaiden, "Do you know why there are so few thousand-year empires in the world, yet thousand-year families are common?"
The handmaiden shook her head in bewilderment.
Mel took one last look into the distance where the Windguides were located, then turned and walked with elegant steps, slowly leaving the high-altitude balcony and stepping into the interior of the Council hall.
As she reached the balcony doors, she paused. Before her was the Council's round table, and behind her was the ceaselessly blowing wind.
"Because we are best at diversifying our investments and hedging our risks."
***
"Where exactly did those Turbo Chemtanks come from?"
Even after the great battle had ended, Caitlyn remained fixated on this question. Enduring the stench of blood and filth, she pried a piece of Chemtech Armor off Avery's mangled corpse and examined it carefully in her hands.
Unsurprisingly, she found nothing.
"Who is it? Who exactly is funding the Iron Fist Gang and ordering them to kill us?"
Several ancient and noble surnames flashed rapidly through Caitlyn's mind. In Piltover, the only ones capable of producing ten sets of Turbo Chemtanks in one breath were likely those few great houses.
Ferros, Medarda... and her own family, Kiramman.
For some reason, Caitlyn actually thought of her own mother. The mother who had once been flawless, gentle, and kind in her heart now suddenly felt unfamiliar and frightening to her.
"Don't let your imagination run wild," Levi said, noticing her distress. "Your mother definitely doesn't know about this. If she did, she wouldn't have let you attend today's Windguide assembly. This is likely just a private test imposed on us by a certain great house behind the Piltover Council's back."
"Mhm..." Caitlyn finally snapped out of it.
Right... she still had faith in her mother's love for her. How ridiculous. Why would she doubt her own mother?
Yes, why?
Suddenly, Caitlyn fell silent again. She abruptly realized that a rift had already formed between her and her family background. Just as Zaunites naturally distrusted Piltovans, she, as a Windguide, could no longer naturally trust her mother, a capitalist.
"Wait..." Caitlyn realized something else.
She looked at Levi with burning eyes and asked, "Mr. Levi, do you truly intend to trust the Piltover Council and insist on moderate struggle and non-violent non-cooperation?"
"Well..." Levi hesitated.
"Please believe me." Caitlyn bit her lip tightly, emphasizing solemnly as if taking an oath, "I am also a Windguide—I will never betray Janna!"
Levi still didn't answer. He simply looked into Caitlyn's eyes, meeting her gaze deeply.
Finally, Levi spoke up and asked, "Caitlyn, are you ready?"
"I..." Caitlyn's pupils trembled slightly.
Of course she wasn't ready.
Thus, she stood frozen for a long time before murmuring in reply, "I will not betray Janna."