lol: After being blessed by the Happy Demon, I became the harem king

Page 20

"What nonsense! That's not how it is!!" Zeli angrily interrupted Seraphine. The Piltover Council's ugly behavior made Zeli even feel a surge of electricity. It wasn't until Fain placed his hand on the girl that Zeli belatedly calmed down, then angrily crossed her arms and said:

“They’re all liars! He’s a liar! There’s not a single good person in the Piltover Council! What bullshit about living a better life, I think it’s you who are living a better life! People are dying every day in that awful factory, and they only stopped a little bit after Farn came… just a little bit!”

As they were talking, Zeli suddenly noticed that Salafine was still looking at her with a puzzled, even frightened, expression. This quickly brought Zeli to her senses. She glanced at Fan beside her, and under the calm gaze of her beloved, Zeli took a deep breath and then said somewhat reluctantly:

"...Okay, it's not your fault. But don't be fooled by those guys in the Piltover Council. If you have time, go to Zaun and see what they're really doing. Then you'll know how they fooled you."

As she said this, Zeli took Fain's hand and prepared to leave—she had finally realized that Seraphine was, in the literal sense, an innocent girl who was treated like a precious treasure. She truly knew nothing about what had happened between Zaun and Piltover.

Zeli neither hated nor disliked, but felt genuinely helpless. She didn't know how to make Seraphine realize what disgusting things Piltover had done in Zaun.

But just as Zeli was about to turn and leave, a girl's voice, as light and clear as a lark's yet incredibly firm, came from the side.

"I want to go down and take a look!"

"Eh?"

Zeli looked at the girl behind her with some curiosity.

Meeting Zeli's surprised gaze, Salafine simply pursed her lips, then looked at Zeli and Fane seriously and said, "I want to go down and take a look!"

"Uh...why do you suddenly want to...?"

Zeli looked at Salafine with a puzzled expression. Salafine explained, "Because I can sense the rhythm of people's emotions... Although Zeli just now seemed frightening, the rhythm of her emotions was filled with anger and indignation. This emotion cannot be faked, so I can be sure that you are genuinely angry about it."

“Although I don’t quite understand why this makes you so angry, I believe you are a good person, and I also believe Mr. Fain is a good person. And just like Mr. Fain said, my parents are from Zaun, and I should go to Zaun to see for myself. I should really understand what my real hometown is like, instead of... listening to what the Piltover council members say.”

As she finished speaking, Seraphine paused, a complex expression creeping onto her face. Clearly, she remained deeply perplexed.

Even so, looking at Seraphine who had already made her decision, Zeli still showed a happy and cheerful smile, and then affectionately took Seraphine's hand and said, "That's great! You're the first person I've met who has chosen to go to Zaun for the peace of the two cities! Fane was right! You're a good person! I apologize for my anger just now!"

"No need to apologize, no need to apologize." Upon hearing this, Seraphine quickly shook her head and laughed, "Because you're also unhappy that I was deceived and still believed it... It's just that I have nowhere to stay in Zaun, can I rest at Zeli's house?"

"No problem at all!"

Zeli said with a grin, "My house is huge! You can stay in the guest room next to my bedroom. If you need anything, just knock on the door and I'll come out to help you!"

"Okay, okay!" Salafine nodded happily.

Meanwhile, Farn keenly sensed that things might not be so simple. However, seeing the happy Zeli and Salafenny, he didn't say anything more.

Having finished their conversation and now that Zeli had been found, Fain walked aside and said to Caitlin, Victor, and the others, "If there are no further questions, I'll be leaving now."

"No need to see me out." Caitlin looked at Fane nervously. Even now, in Caitlin's eyes, Fane was still extremely dangerous. Following behind Caitlin, the seemingly strong Wei appeared somewhat timid, as if she had something to ask but didn't know how to bring it up.

Seeing this, Faen, who was standing to the side, asked directly, "Wei, what's wrong? You seem to have something to say?"

Upon hearing Fain's question, a hint of embarrassment appeared on Vi's handsome face. Especially with Caitlyn nearby—not because of any intimate feelings. Caitlyn and Vi were currently only in a preliminary working relationship. Although they had mutual attraction due to their personalities, they hadn't reached the point of being soulmates. More importantly, Vi was only able to come out because Caitlyn needed Vi's help to hunt down Jinx.

Now, under Caitlyn's gaze, Vi was at a loss for what to do. Seeing this, Caitlyn guessed what was going on and said directly, "Just say it, no problem—my goal is to capture Jinx and make her pay for her illegal actions. Other than that, I don't have much of a grudge against her."

"Thanks." Hearing this, Vi breathed a sigh of relief, then looked at Fain and pursed her lips, saying, "Boo... I mean, what's Jinx doing right now?"

“It’s not good,” Farn replied. “My arrival revealed some of the truth to her, but it turns out her mental state is worse than I thought.”

As he spoke, Fain shook his head. Although Fain's contact with Jinx wasn't very deep, upon reflection, he keenly noticed that while Jinx's projection in the mental realm was intense, it wasn't active. This indicated that Jinx's self-destructive tendencies were steadily accumulating.

Upon hearing this, Wei's eyes trembled slightly, then she turned her head away, pouted, and said, "Then let her give up those unrealistic fantasies..."

"Is this what you wanted to say to her?" Farn raised an eyebrow.

Wei did not speak.

Seeing this, Farn didn't press the matter further. He simply looked at Viktor beside him and calmly said, "Viktor."

"Hmm?" Viktor looked up.

“I won’t force you, so follow the answer your heart gives you.” As he said this, Fane looked up at Piltover behind him, then turned and led Zeli toward Zaun—Salepani had already quietly gone down the side path.

As he walked, Farn calmly said, "I've always referred to the organization I've built as the organization and its workers. But now, I think it's time to get the organization on the right track—the winds of change."

"Feel it, the winds of change have already blown."

As the sound faded, Fain's figure gradually disappeared from everyone's sight.

"The Winds of Change? That's so mystical..." As he watched Farn walk away, Jess couldn't help but mutter, "Giving such a mysterious name out of nowhere... it makes him sound more like a prophet or some kind of fraudster."

Caitlin didn't take it seriously, but silently noted the name, preparing to report it to the council later.

Viktor fell into a brief moment of contemplation upon hearing the name, then nodded as if realizing something—The Wind of Change…is that the guardian deity of Zaun?

"What's wrong, Victor? Did you find something?" Jess, who was standing next to him, noticed the change in his best friend's expression and asked curiously.

Viktor shook his head and said, "It's nothing, I was just thinking about some stories from Zaun."

"Could you tell me?" Caitlin asked. "Perhaps it would be helpful?"

“No problem.” Victor nodded, glancing at the twin-city model left by Farn as he spoke. Although he only had a superficial understanding of it, Victor, who had studied diligently since childhood with the ambition to change Zaun and free its people from suffering, had a deep understanding of the differences between the two cities and had already noticed some anomalies.

Meanwhile, after meeting up with Salafine, Zeli asked curiously, "The Winds of Change? Is that the name of our organization?"

“Yes.” Farn nodded and said, “It’s not just our name, it’s also the title of the guardian deity of the land of Zaun.”

"The guardian deity of Zaun?"

Upon hearing this, Zeli was slightly taken aback, and then it took her a while to react before she said, "Oh! You mean Janna? That's a very old legend. I only remember it because my mother told me stories when I was little. I didn't expect you to know even that!"

"What do you know?" Seeing that no one was around, Salafine jumped out from the side and curiously came over to ask.

"It's a very old story, I'll tell you it tonight~"

Upon seeing Salafine, Zeli smiled.

Zeli really liked Seraphine—not just because she liked Seraphine's singing, but also because Seraphine, as an Upper City resident, was willing to seriously and proactively learn about Zaun.

"But before that, our organization already had a name: the Winds of Change!"

"The winds of change? Oh! I'll remember that!"

Seraphine carefully memorized the name, then said curiously, "Let's go to Zaun! I can't wait to learn about Zaun and hear its melodies!"

Seeing the anticipation and joy on the girl's face, Zeli, who had been smiling, paused slightly. She then looked at Fan beside her, only to receive a helpless shrug. This made Zeli sigh involuntarily.

Clearly, even though she had mentally prepared herself for the harshness of Zaun, Seraphine's idealized view of the city had remained overly romanticized until now...

Yes, how could such a lucky girl, who was well protected and raised by her parents, possibly truly understand the heinous acts committed by those alchemist barons?

To this, Farn simply said, "It's getting late, and we should get some business done."

Upon hearing this, although she was worried about Seraphine's situation, Zeli quickly nodded—regardless of whether Seraphine could accept it, this was the current state of Zaun.

And what they need to do...

Zeli let out an exhilarating shout—

"Let's go and kill some of those who oppress the people!"

34. The Winds of Change

Although the concert has ended, the work of Faen, Zeli, and others shows no signs of stopping.

However, because of the massacre that Fain carried out at the concert against the alchemists who chose to obey the alchemist baron's promise and helped him oppress the people of Zaun's lower class, all the alchemy factories became much more disciplined.

They were all just trying to make a living. They thought that Qingmo would definitely suffer a setback in the Alchemist Barons' siege, or at the very least, his reputation would be ruined by the cancellation of the concert. But who would have thought that Qingmo would use such simple, pure violence that everyone could understand to let people know Qingmo's will—or rather, where Qingmo's confidence came from.

But this will not affect Farn's actions and will.

Worker organizations are emerging in the factory. Especially after Farn demonstrated overwhelming strength, workers who were previously fearful, uneasy, and hesitant have all chosen to quietly join these organizations.

In some of the factories that Farn frequented, the workers' organizations had even grown to the point where they could directly negotiate with the Alchemist Baron.

However, these workers knew very well that the reason they were able to negotiate with the Alchemist Baron was only because they were wearing Fane's coattails... In fact, until now, Fane has not clearly established a real organization or gang.

Now, what puzzles Salafine is that they said they were going to kill some oppressors, but their first stop wasn't a factory or anything like that. Instead, they came to an abandoned warehouse in the Alchemy Prosthetics Factory to attend a workers' gathering organized by Zeli's mother, Schona.

It was called a rally, but it was actually a grievance session.

In the abandoned warehouse of the factory, ragged alchemical slaves gathered in the sweltering, toxic air. Trembling coughs pierced through the dilapidated roof of the warehouse, emanating from their makeshift gas masks. Over three hundred pairs of cloudy eyes flickered with suppressed pain under the alchemical lamps. A gaunt speaker, limping with his left leg shattered by a steam hammer, climbed onto a wooden crate, his cheap alchemical prosthetic fingers gripping tightly a sheet of white paper covered with names.

"Last Wednesday, after working for sixteen consecutive hours, my friend Tommy's right hand got caught in machine number 9!"

Gritting his teeth, the man's face was filled with pain: "His severed arm is still hanging on the drive shaft. The foreman said we can't stop the machine to clean it, unless we want our whole family's pay docked!"

As he spoke, the man took out another piece of dark, grimy bread.

"Brothers, you all know what this feels like, right? The bread sold in the factory store costs three times more than outside, yet we have to hand over three-tenths of our weekly wages to these sons of bitches of alchemy barons! He can't remember who gives the most, but he can remember who gives the least!"

“Last week, I was supposed to have 6 gold Hexes in my paycheck, but the foreman said I was slacking off and wasting the workshop air, so he deducted 5 coppers. He also said that my bleeding fingers were dripping onto the cotton thread and affecting the quality, so he deducted another 7 coppers.”

With that, the man threw the dark, hard bread onto the ground: "To hell with him! To hell with him! This is only because my son is sick, and I need money to save my child! I didn't give him any money! I didn't borrow any money from him!"

"But I'm using my hard-earned money for treatment, why should I pay? Fuck it!"

The man's face flushed red, and he coughed violently. The people around him were also agitated—because the man wasn't talking about his own misery, but about something they all would encounter, might encounter, or had already encountered. Seeing this, Fain subtly released a source of happiness, preventing the people's emotions from spiraling out of control while also relieving the hidden burdens within their bodies through physical activation.

After a brief pause, the gaunt man stood up again, then laboriously grabbed a bell clock from the side and shook it vigorously. The familiar sound rang out, and the workers' faces first showed weariness, fear, and numbness, which then transformed into gritted teeth and furious anger.

“That hateful work bell!” the man gritted his teeth, his lung disease making it hard to breathe, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth. But he still forced himself to speak—this was an opportunity he had fought so hard for. It was a chance he had fought so hard to win from among his many fellow workers who were suffering just like him, a chance to speak out about his pain.

There is so much suffering in Zaun that even the victims of the grievance meetings need to be elected to be eligible to speak about their suffering.

"The foreman set the clock fifteen minutes fast! We have to work three extra hours every day, and if we're late even once, we'll lose three days' pay." The man was breathing heavily, but he kept talking nonstop: "Jack collapsed next to the straightening machine last week, and those despicable bastards threw his body into the ditch. I saw it, damn it, their pocket watches were a full twenty minutes slow compared to the factory clock!"

The man gritted his teeth, seemingly recalling some painful past event, and collapsed to the ground, refusing any help from anyone. Instead, he stubbornly crawled up from the wooden crate.

"Finally, let me talk about my five-year-old Emma... He's cured, he really is cured. But while I was being taken away by the foreman to work overtime, Emma was also taken to clean the alchemical fumes duct!! It was an alchemical fumes duct! He didn't even have any protective gear!"

The man cried and vomited blood, furiously pounding the wooden box despite everyone's attempts to stop him. Even when people tried to come over and help him rest and calm down, he clung to the wooden platform and refused to let go.

He was afraid of losing this opportunity, and he wanted to incite people's anger and unite them for the sake of the land of Zu'an and for all the people of Zu'an.

"They dragged her out by her feet! Those heartless bastards!"

The man was already struggling to breathe, but he managed to open his eyes wide and cry out, "My, my child... my daughter, I promised my wife I would take good care of her."

“But those beasts… my child’s skull was stuck in the bend, and they used an iron hook… an iron hook…”

By the end, the man was screaming, clutching his chest and his eyes bloodshot. His emaciated body was taut, and the veins on his forehead and neck were bulging from exhaustion.

Among the crowd, Salafine, wearing a coat, had wide eyes.

Possessing the power to hear the voice of all things, Seraphine can perceive all emotions more directly than ordinary people, as well as the true thoughts hidden beneath the surface.

And now, here, Salafine felt an intense rage. Like a suppressed volcano, filled with uncontrollable fury, resentment, and grievance. These intense emotions had previously been independent, the will of each individual. But now, under a unique current of thought, this anger had converged, becoming a torrent of fury, waiting—waiting for an opportunity to destroy everything, to overturn everything.

"Damn those alchemist barons!" Zeli clenched her fists indignantly and said to Seraphine, "This is what those despicable alchemist barons did to Zaun! We will overthrow them!"

The current Zeli wasn't faking it—not only was Seraphine surprised, angry, and incredulous upon hearing the news. In fact, even Zeli herself wasn't entirely clear about what had happened to the Zaun workers.

Especially the man on the stage now—even though Zeli already knew that the Alchemist Baron had committed countless evil deeds, she still didn't expect that the Alchemist Baron's bottom line could be lowered so much. They could be so evil that they wouldn't even spare children...

Meanwhile, Salafine nodded in agreement, but then asked with some confusion, "But... what about Piltover..."

While Salafine was still speaking, the workers carried the man who was sobbing uncontrollably during his speech away for medical treatment to prevent him from becoming injured or killed due to further emotional distress.

After that, Fain patted the girl on the shoulder, and then walked up to her with a puzzled look on his face.

Standing on the wooden platform, he looked down at the pairs of angry eyes—they were merely genetic slaves, deprived of even their freedom. Their sole fate, from birth to death, was to become expendable resources in the alchemist baron's factory. But Farn could sense it, sensed a power far beyond anything anyone in Zaun could imagine.

Neither Vandal nor Hilko... they are not the real Zaunites.

These people, these pitiful, weak, and lowly people who can't even afford to breathe a breath of fresh air, are the real Zu'an.

When people first saw Fain, they were puzzled. But gradually, as they saw Fain's face clearly, they quickly became excited.

"It's the Blue Demon—it's the Blue Demon!!" The workers whispered among themselves, their angry eyes turning to excitement and anticipation as they looked at Faen. These emotions weren't yet happiness, but they had already formed hope—the very source of happiness.

But Farn didn't say anything; he just stood there quietly, silently spreading happiness through the air.

Logically, the activation of happiness factors should quickly energize people. But things are different now—people slowly fall silent as Fain remains silent.

It was at this moment of utter silence that Farn raised an arm.

"I prefer you to call me Faen rather than Qingmo."

Farn spoke calmly, but his words indirectly addressed the people's speculations. This caused their initial calm to quickly turn into a boiling, heated excitement.

"What should we do?!" a man shouted from the crowd. "Blue Demon—no, Fane! Tell us what we should do!!"

"Resist! Find out who our friends are and who our enemies are!"

Farn clenched his fist in response to the man, his voice solemn and impassioned as he said, “The time for resistance has come! But workers, do not let anger consume us! Discern carefully; among the enemies are still our friends. We are not simply launching a counterattack against the Alchemist Baron for revenge! We will not let any guilty person go unpunished, nor will we let any traitor who willingly becomes the Alchemist Baron's lackey escape justice! But equally, we should not allow any innocent person to suffer an unjust accusation!”

"We will create a Zaun without exploitation, a Zaun without the Alchemist Baron! After we succeed, Zaun will not belong to anyone! It will belong to the people of Zaun, to every son of Zaun!"

Fann's voice started calmly, but gradually it became more and more impassioned. Especially in the eyes of Zeli and Salafenny, Fann seemed to have completely transformed. Fann began to speak passionately, his eyebrows dancing, even gesturing wildly and standing on tiptoe. In just a few minutes, the once quiet venue transformed into a sea of ​​fervor.