Arcane: The Gods Want Me to Pick a Route

Chapter 280 280: That’s the Yeti’s Song

In the Freljord, in the dead heart of winter, January and February were the coldest months of all. When the wind blew against your face, it felt like sharpened ice spines stabbing into your skin. The pain even carried a strange burning sensation, followed by the unbearable itch that came after the skin split open.

For the Freljord, January and February were months when people absolutely did not go outside. Even nomadic tribes would stop traveling during this season and find a place to settle down long enough to survive the winter.

Otherwise, the Freljord would teach anyone foolish enough to underestimate its weather a brutal lesson.

Still, in recent years, it had become much rarer for people to actually freeze to death in winter. The people here already carried traces of Iceborn blood in their veins, some more, some less. As long as supplies were sufficient and their food gave them enough heat, even the elderly and children would not die just because of the weather.

The main reason that had changed was the rise of the dominant tribe, which had reduced the number of wars, while the Avarosans had also begun trading, selling food at cheap, accessible prices. That had helped many tribes survive.

And now, in the Dragonbone Mountains of the Freljord, a girl holding an ancient vessel breathed warm air into her palms. Watching the white mist condense into droplets, she shivered, shook a thick layer of snow off her shoulders, and said, "It's freezing."

"Can people really live in a place like this?"

"Why not?" a voice sounded behind her.

The black-haired young man climbed up to the higher ground, stood beside her, looked out over the surroundings, then turned his gaze toward the girl.

"And with your strength, you're really scared of the cold?"

Nilah wore a smile and puffed out her chest. She was dressed in thin cloth, the kind of outfit that, in the Freljord, might as well count as wearing nothing at all. Stubbornly, she said, "I was just making an observation, that's all. A temperature like this? Something like this obviously doesn't mean anything to me."

Damn it...

She really was powerful. Sure, Lissandra had thoroughly put her in her place earlier, but Nilah was not about to look down on herself because of that. That had not happened because she was weak. It had happened because Lissandra was a complete monster.

Someone who had lived for ten thousand years, come on, even if it were a pig, if it lived ten thousand years it would probably turn into a terrifying monster. So of course that went double for a human like Lissandra, someone absurdly gifted with magic.

So no, it absolutely was not because Nilah was weak.

If anyone dared say Nilah was too weak, she would absolutely lose it and kill them on the spot.

"So where are we going now?" Nilah asked.

From Bilgewater to the Freljord, Lissandra had continuously opened ice doors and let the three of them pass through, so it had taken them less than ten minutes to travel from the south end of the world to the other side.

"First, we find someone."

"How?" Lissandra asked. Then she followed immediately with, "Who are we looking for?"

Anything related to the Void mattered to her, so naturally Lissandra took this seriously. Under normal circumstances, she barely reacted to things happening in the outside world. She was the sort of person who did not care unless it involved her. But once it did involve her, Lissandra could become extremely impatient.

Otherwise, she never would have made that kind of decision all those years ago.

To put it plainly, Lissandra was a refined egoist. To achieve her purpose, she could do anything.

It did not sound especially flattering, but for Logan, he already had plenty of people like that around him.

Silco and Renata were the clearest examples.

"The Notai tribe. Do you know that name?" Logan turned and looked at Lissandra, who hovered in the air behind him.

"The Notai..." Lissandra murmured, then frowned. "I seem to remember them. If I'm not mistaken, the Notai are only a very small tribe, a nomadic people known for singing and for their knowledge of ancient legends."

Lissandra really did know them. In fact, when she roamed through dreams, she had entered the dreams of Notai people before. The reason was simple. The Notai were small, but they were the Freljord's most prolific source of storytellers and bards.

Too many of the people Lissandra hated had come out of that tribe. It was because they passed tales down by word of mouth, generation after generation, that traces of the things she had done were left behind, allowing the world to form the idea that witches were not good people.

"Why are we looking for them?" Lissandra asked.

"Because the person who can help us find the yeti is in that tribe," Logan said after thinking it over.

If he wanted to find Willump and earn Willump's trust, then Nunu had to be the one to step forward.

Sure, doing it that way felt a little shameless. Nunu was only a little kid. But if they wanted to awaken Willump's conscience, then Nunu was the only one who could do it.

In League lore, yetis were magical beings, creatures of wonder and dreams.

Willump was also a yeti who had lived for over ten thousand years. He had lived too long, been lonely for too long, to the point that he had forgotten who he was and forgotten many other things as well. But one thing Willump still remembered was that he had to guard something and wait for its true owner, Anivia's heart, or in other words, the Heart of the Blue.

And from what Logan knew, the Heart of the Blue could reflect a person's inner world. Which meant that if Willump was holding it, there was no way to lie to him with words or expressions and trick him into trusting you.

Even if Logan's intentions really were for Willump's own good, Logan still had selfish motives. Those motives would be reflected through the Heart of the Blue as well, and then Willump would lose control, using the Heart of the Blue to create True Ice in order to protect himself, escape, or kill.

Because really, were you going to expect a simple-minded creature, someone with the same level of understanding as a child, to grasp the complicated reasoning of adults?

And thinking about it now, Logan suddenly realized that in the Freljord storyline, the main focus always seemed to be on Ashe and Sejuani, with the whole story unfolding around their conflict as sisters.

But under the surface, the real core of the story was actually Lissandra and Nunu.

That was right. After thinking it through carefully, Logan realized that Nunu was actually the true protagonist of the Freljord, just like Lux in Demacia or Irelia in Ionia, a genuine main-story lead.

Because Nunu also possessed the power of a god.

He might only be a little kid, but once he earned Willump's approval, he received the power of the Heart of the Blue, which meant the power of Anivia. And because of the Heart of the Blue's capacity for transformation, the ability Nunu gained was simple, imagination made real.

He could turn his imagination into reality. Even a demigod like Ornn could not do something like that.

So looking at it that way, little guy, big hero...

If Logan had never appeared and changed the course of events, then in the Void storyline, Nunu would have been the truly crucial figure. At the very least, his importance would not have been any less than Kai'Sa's.

Nunu really had the classic main-character setup. He started out separated from his mother, then gained the protection of a yeti, basically his old master figure, and then inherited supreme power, Anivia's legacy, before setting out on a journey to save the world.

Wasn't that the ultimate power-fantasy protagonist setup?

So if they truly wanted to unseal the True Ice and face the Void, then Nunu was absolutely necessary.

Thinking that far, Logan found himself remembering the RPG Riot had released, Song of Nunu: A League of Legends Story. He had never actually played it himself, but he had watched a full playthrough.

Riot rarely gave individual champions their own single-player games, which just went to show that in Riot's broader universe storyline, Nunu really did occupy an extremely important role.

And in that game...

Nunu and Willump had even beaten Lissandra.

Sure, the official explanation was that when Nunu and Willump fought Lissandra, it took place directly above the Watchers' seal, and Lissandra could not use her full strength in that environment. She was afraid the magical shockwaves from the battle would weaken the seal, so she held back, and then got beaten by Nunu's dream-made-real power.

But even so, that was still completely ridiculous...

No, wait, damn, now that he thought about it, Nunu had practically met every major figure in the Freljord!

In Song of Nunu, Nunu wielded Anivia's power, made a deal with Ornn, endured Volibear's test, saved a demigod trapped in ice, and then finally faced Lissandra...

Hell, if you put just those few together in one place, forget Runeterra, they could probably punch a hole in the heavens themselves.

Shaking those thoughts from his head, Logan turned back to the matter at hand.

He looked at Lissandra and asked with a grin, "Lissandra, do you know what roleplaying is?"

Lissandra's pale eyes turned toward Logan. She could not see, but she could still sense that the way Logan was smiling right now was deeply obnoxious.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that when the time comes, we're going to need to put on a little show. We'll all have to play different roles. I'll play the great hero who helps the kid protagonist on his adventure, and you, meanwhile, will play the final boss he has to face, the one who pushes him into awakening. You'll have to play a villain, no, wait, you already are one."

"..." After hearing that, the corner of Lissandra's mouth twitched slightly. She so rarely made expressions like that that the faint irritation and speechless disbelief on her face made her stop looking like a beautiful ice statue.

"Logan, have I been too nice to you all this time? Do I seem easy to talk to? Is that it?" Lissandra said coldly.

"All right, all right." Logan was completely unbothered by her icy tone and only teased her more as he tried to calm her down.

After all, they had spent a long time around each other by now. Logan simply did not fear Lissandra anymore.

It was not that he was trying to whitewash her, but Lissandra really was a complicated person. She absolutely had done evil things. For her own selfish desires, she had sacrificed countless lives. In order to confront the demigods, she had allowed herself to be tempted by the Void and committed terrible mistakes.

But the root reason Lissandra had stood against the Void in the first place was because she wanted to protect humanity from the hands of the demigods.

From beginning to end, even the people who knew what she had done would have to admit one thing, once upon a time, she truly had been a hero of humanity.

Without the Three Sisters, human history might have turned out drastically differently.

"So basically, for the next stretch of time, we need to be prepared to play our roles properly and build a kind of... stage play?" Logan said, rubbing his chin.

At that, Nilah could not help cutting in. "Wasn't I brought here to fight the Void you were talking about? Why are we suddenly playing games now? And what about me? What role am I supposed to play in this story?"

"That depends on how the story develops," Logan said with a smile.

"Come on. Let's go to the Notai tribe. You know the way, right?"

With a cold snort, Lissandra raised a hand and opened an ice door.

Then she stepped through first.

Logan was right. She really did know where the Notai tribe was.

Or rather, there was not much in the Freljord that Lissandra did not know, because she really was an incredibly diligent dream-peeper.

Deep in the northern reaches of the Freljord, nestled among mountains and set between two fjords, a tribe had made its winter home there.

Winter had arrived, and the Notai had long since chosen the place where they would put down roots for the season.

As a nomadic tribe, the Notai understood better than anyone how cruel a Freljord winter could be. That was exactly why they never let their experience make them careless. On the contrary, they treated winter with tremendous caution.

Just like now, they had already prepared all their firewood for warmth, food for the season, and reserves of water.

"Layka!"

The shout shook the snow loose from the branches overhead, and huge clumps of it came tumbling down through the forest. A woman with black hair and green eyes turned around among the trees. In front of her sat a basket filled with firewood.

She wore a thick coat, its sleeves cut wide at the ends so her hands could stay tucked inside. The broad outer sleeves kept the wind from getting in, while the interior narrowed further down for warmth. Long fur lining added even more insulation. With a puzzled look, Layka turned toward the woman running toward her.

"Lora, why are you in such a hurry? Did something happen?"

"It's Nunu, Nunu!" The girl called Lora had a scattering of freckles on her face, and from the look of her, she was still quite young.

She ran up in a panic, breathing hard, and shouted, "Nunu's gone again!"

Hearing that, Layka did not panic. Instead, she calmly asked, "What happened?"

"It's because of the story Balta told. That little brat said he was going off to find the hero from Freljord legend."

"Braum?" Of course Layka knew who the hero of Freljord legend was.

It was Braum, and it could only be Braum.

That enormous man with his huge muscles, his beard, his bald head, and that ever-present bright smile, calling him the hero of the Freljord was no exaggeration at all. Most tribes had received Braum's help at one time or another.

Compared to gods who stood high above everyone, people were naturally more willing to love someone closer to them, someone who helped them directly and did not feel distant at all.

Layka immediately gave instructions. "Go back to the tribe first and tell the elder. Ask him to send people to look for Nunu. I'll go search for him myself."

"Okay, okay, okay. Be careful too. They found traces of snow wolves in the forest," Lora said, nodding hard.

Layka let out a quiet acknowledgment, then picked up the chopping knife at her side and headed toward the direction Lora had come from.

As she walked, she began to sing.

Just like the word "again" Lora had used earlier, Nunu disappearing from the tribe every now and then was no longer anything surprising.

Her son had been born with endless curiosity. He was also incredibly brave and full of adventure. In the elder's words, Nunu was a born bard. He had a simple, honest nature, the voice of an angel, and a heart that did not fear hardship or danger.

In the forest, the song Layka sang was an old one, an ancient ballad passed down generation after generation in the Notai tribe. It was not in the common language of the Freljord now, but in an older tongue. And the things Layka sang about were tales of gods like Ornn and Anivia.

"Nunu, where are you?"

"Nunu! If you can hear Mommy's voice, answer me!"

Layka raised her voice, quickened her pace, gripped the chopping knife tighter, and scanned the snow-covered ground. But besides the trail of footprints she herself had left coming this way, all she could see were animal tracks, and that made her tense.

Those tracks were probably from a snow wolf pack.

But this time, no matter whether she played a sweet melody on her flute or sang an old song, Nunu did not burst out of the snow to answer her. Naturally, that made Layka anxious.

The tribe had chosen this place precisely because it was safe.

But even safety had limits. That boy was brave enough to run beyond the tribe's protected range. So even though Layka was already used to Nunu "running away from home" every now and then, as his mother, she was still deeply worried for her son's safety.

At that same moment, above her, Lissandra's face showed a rare flicker of shock.

"What was she singing? Why do you look like that?" Logan noticed the expression and asked.

Lissandra was silent for a long time before speaking softly.

"The third verse she just sang, that was the language of the yetis. That was a song that belonged to the yetis."

"She shouldn't know that. And I've never heard that song before," Lissandra said seriously.

There was only one yeti left in the world, and it had lived alone for ten thousand years. So never mind seeing it, most people in the Freljord no longer even knew yetis still existed at all. The language of the yetis should have been lost to time long ago.

Even Lissandra did not know the yeti language.

But she could still recognize enough of it to understand the general meaning, because she had dealt with the yetis in the past. So hearing Layka sing a yeti song naturally shocked her. If she had known this sooner, then... that yeti would have been much easier to catch.

She could have used this woman called Layka, had her sing the song to lure the yeti out, and then captured it.

But now, Lissandra no longer thought that way.

Now she understood why Logan had brought her to the Notai tribe and why he was looking for this woman named Layka.

"So what we need is her help?" Nilah sniffed, the tip of her nose red from the cold, and asked.

"No." Logan shook his head.

"What we need is the help of one little kid."

That was right. In the story that was about to begin, the main character was not the mother.

It was the son.

Logan smiled and said, "This is a story about a little kid saving the world."

"Come on, I've already sensed his presence. His soul is unbelievably pure. Right now he's panicked, he's grieving, but inside that grief I can't feel a single trace of darkness or hatred. There's no gloom in him at all. He's full of sunlight and hope... and he's crying his eyes out."

Logan did not realize how strange his smile had become. In Nilah's words, Logan's smile right now looked even creepier than hers.

But it was genuine, straight from the heart. As a Spirit Blossom Guardian, Logan could sense the shape of a person's soul. And Nunu's soul, well...

Let's put it this way. If Thresh ever saw it, he would probably stop chasing Logan entirely and start craving Nunu's soul instead.

Yeah.

First you reject Thresh.

Then you understand Thresh.

Then you become Thresh.

That was probably the path Logan's thoughts were taking right now.

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