"What are you so worried about?"
Kai'Sa saw Caleb sitting there in a daze instead of looking over the documents, so she could not help stepping forward curiously.
"I'm getting ready to go out, but Piltover won't let me leave."
Caleb's face was bitter. The paper beside his hand had one name after another written on it, then crossed out.
"Why?"
Kai'Sa could not help growing curious too. Judging from the people she had seen, they were not strong enough. Could they really restrict Caleb's movements?
"They told me to find and train a successor for the Governor's position first. Otherwise, they won't let me leave."
Caleb thought it over, trying to figure out who could take on such a heavy responsibility.
Ekko would not work. Although in every sense, Ekko was the "Boy Savior," for now, he was still too immature. Viktor, as the kind of genius who forgot to eat and sleep when he worked, was definitely more suited to the Mecha Project. Warwick? Caleb was not sure how good he would be at maintaining stability, though he seemed fairly decent. His image was just a bit lacking. Zeri... forget it. She was still young, and she leaned more toward the combat side. Zac... he still had a lot to learn right now. After all, he was a gelatinous life-form. Jinx and Singed... stop that dangerous idea right now.
After thinking it over and over, Caleb realized he had actually failed to find a suitable candidate.
"You keep thinking, then. I'll take Yuumi around the market."
Kai'Sa saw that Caleb was feeling irritated, so she got up and left, leaving Caleb alone where he was.
"Then it has to be..."
[Ding. New champions have been added recently. Is the host not even going to check?]
That mechanical system voice made Caleb suddenly come to his senses. New champions had been added? No wonder Caleb had always felt that he had never seen Zeri before.
A girl who could generate electricity with her own body. No matter how he looked at it, she had to be one of Riot's designs. Not to mention that coat of hers, "made with the help of her family and neighbors." In terms of creativity, it was not bad. But when Caleb and Viktor looked at it, it was full of design flaws. In the end, the coat's reinforcement was at least seventy to eighty percent stronger, which was honestly ridiculous.
"Hmm... Zeri's profile is a little ordinary. Another young person resisting the Chem-Barons..."
Then, in the expanded section, one portrait caught Caleb's attention.
"Renata. She's actually a champion too?"
This surprised Caleb even more. He had originally thought she was an NPC like Sky, but it turned out she was actually quite impressive.
"Well, damn..."
Looking at Renata's background story, even Caleb sucked in a breath of cold air. Renata's parents had been alchemists, the kind who specialized in treating people's illnesses. Unlike the fish-folk from before, who used Shimmer and demanded payment on delivery, Renata's parents often let poor people buy on credit. As long as someone needed treatment, they would prepare medicine for them.
Later, Renata brought investment into the family business, and just when everything was beginning to improve, the Piltover nobles who monopolized medical care burned down the home Renata had grown up in. Renata's parents also died in that fire.
From then on, Renata, now fitted with a prosthetic limb, built her commercial empire in Zaun with the policy of "no money, no medicine." If someone needed medicine, they had to pay. Poor people without money could only sign labor contracts. Glasc Industries, which she had created with her own hands, was enough to make her a major figure on par with Piltover's nobles. Of course, she would also do a little charity to improve her reputation, then turn around and earn even more money.
"She really is a business prodigy..."
Caleb looked at the commercial monopoly giant who, in the original background story, would be opposed by Zeri and Ekko together, and could not help sighing with emotion. Drawing in investment, building factories, becoming the strongest in Zaun, and seizing control of Zaun's economic lifeline. That truly was not a feat any ordinary person could accomplish.
And now, Renata looked so unremarkable, even a little timid. Who could have imagined that if Caleb had not weakened the Chem-Barons' power and stopped Piltover from doing whatever it wanted to the Undercity, he would have unknowingly prevented another tragedy and avoided a situation where people from the same side turned on each other?
Maybe she was a good choice?
An idea formed in Caleb's mind. Letting Renata handle everything alone would not be safe, but Renata was undoubtedly the most suitable person to place in the spotlight. On top of that, with her business mind and her current profit model, which was exhausting and thankless, Caleb felt certain this girl would accomplish great things.
"To grow this tall in a place like Zaun, either this girl has good genes, or her parents had good genes."
Zaun did not lack fat people, but compared with Piltover, it really did not have many tall ones. After all, everyone was almost too hungry to eat properly, and since prosthetic replacements were encouraged, even fewer people paid attention to their figures.
...
"Me?"
After hearing Caleb's plan, Renata's jaw nearly dropped. The Governor had to travel far away, and the Piltover Council hoped he would nominate an acting representative... so the Governor had come to her.
In truth, Renata had been a little worried at first. After all, she had never achieved anything before, and all she had done was ask the Governor to bring in investment. If the Governor felt that her business model was difficult to make profitable and wanted to withdraw his investment, that would be completely understandable too.
Renata had already been weighing how to make the Governor believe in her, only for Caleb's one sentence to leave her completely stunned.
"I-I-I don't think I can..."
Unlike the Renata who would crawl out of the flames and replace her limb with a prosthetic, she was still somewhat shy at this point.
"It's fine. I believe in you."
Caleb gave the tall girl a heavy pat on the shoulder, making her cough twice.
"Tonight, at Piltover's council building. Remember to come."
Caleb had only just stepped out of the room when he tilted his head back and added, "Of course, that's only if you want to become acting governor. Though I think you'll definitely like it."
After saying that, Caleb left the house Renata had lived in since childhood.
Now, under the Firelights' control, were there still reckless nobles who wanted to cause trouble for Zaunites? Caleb would not even need to step in. Caitlyn and Vi would find that person themselves. Throw him onto Piltover's main street, and before long, not even scraps of him would be left. Would you believe that?
The gratitude and remorse Piltover's citizens felt toward Zaun, along with Caleb himself acting as the anchor holding everything steady, plus the fact that the Chem-Barons had basically been wiped out and Zaun was now so united, all of this meant Piltover's upper-class politicians could no longer ignore Zaun, much less keep squeezing it dry.
Caleb forced them to shift their gaze toward the endless markets overseas. Think about it. If a product was going to be sold in Ionia, why not set up production directly in Ionia? Piltover's own output was limited, so of course it had to develop toward more precise and higher-end industries, rather than blindly sucking Zaun's blood in exchange for Piltover's "lasting prosperity."
...
"You're leaving the Twin Cities? Where are you going this time?"
Warwick was very surprised. How many days had the Governor been back? Before, Caleb had even returned carrying a girl on his back, so Warwick had thought he would be staying here for a while.
"Yeah. I have to make a trip north."
Of course, Caleb would not say his real goal out loud. Otherwise, he might as well go get himself admitted to the asylum Dr. Mundo used to be in.
"Before I leave, there's something I'd like to ask of you."
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