Chapter 369: Katarina's Changes
One month later, Zaun.
Because it is the furthest away from the haze-clearing time at noon every day, the morning is always the darkest and the haze heaviest in Zaun's sky.
When the Garen people arrived in Zaun and just got off the Hexgate, they smelled the strong and lingering pungent smell that permeated the streets and alleys of the city.
This city, which sacrificed its environment for the alchemy industry, certainly cannot compare to the picturesque Wuji Village in terms of beauty. But there is something more beautiful in Zaun that is unforgettable.
So Garen spent a whole month on the front line, and as soon as it was time for the day off, he couldn't wait to get on the Hex Gate and rush back to Zaun as soon as possible.
He hurried out of the Hexgate Hub and looked around at the exit. Soon, his burly figure that stood out from the crowd was recognized by the person he was looking for.
"Mr. Galen!" Catalina waved to him in the crowd.
"Ms. Kana!" Garen immediately pushed through the crowd and walked over.
As he got closer, he could see clearly Catalina, whom he hadn't seen for a month.
At this moment, Catalina had red hair, fair skin and no makeup. She was wearing a simple student uniform with a bluebird badge, a plaid skirt that barely reached her knees, a pair of black stockings that tightly wrapped her slender legs, and a pair of ordinary but smooth and shiny flat leather shoes. She looked particularly charming.
Although they are all cheap industrial products, they create a pure and natural beauty on her.
This is also the unique fashion style of the Twin Cities, which is not seen even in the noble courts of Demacia.
"Ahem..." Garen suddenly blushed. He seemed to have forgotten the noble education of the Crown Guard family.
"What's wrong?" Catalina tilted her head.
Galen calmed down his little throbbing and said frankly: "You are so beautiful."
"Really?" Katerina rubbed the ground with her toes restlessly. In fact, she didn't like the way she looked.
Short skirts are not conducive to kicking movements, leather shoes are too restrictive on the feet, and stockings reduce the coefficient of friction on the soles of the feet, which will affect the force of the feet at critical moments... These useless things will only affect her speed in killing people.
And even in terms of scale and charm, this outfit is not as good as Katarina's usual cool assassin uniform that is extremely weight-loss.
But Leblanc ordered her to wear it like this, saying it would definitely work against Garen.
"It really works." Catalina was speechless.
LeBlanc has completely understood Garen's psychology.
Just as she was thinking this, she heard Garen sighing to himself: "Kana, you have really changed a lot. Although I can feel it from the letter, but now seeing it with my own eyes..."
Yes, Galen and Katarina have been writing to each other for the past month.
Although Garen was not an official leader and did not have to abide by the rules of a leader, if he really wanted to squander the noble privileges of the Crown Guard and go back to Zaun every day to date Katarina, no one could stop him. But as a model soldier of Debon, he was not much less disciplined than a leader.
So Garen did not sneak back to Zaun from the front line to see Katarina every day, nor did he abuse his power to use the military "Bluebird Radio" to make long-distance calls to Katarina and ask Goddess Janna to help him perform the "Bluebird Diligent Visit" drama.
He chose to write letters back to Zuan every day and communicate with his sweetheart through words.
But what was unexpected was that this backward and primitive method of communication actually produced unexpected results.
The distance between them was far, but just right. This made Katarina in Galen's mind gradually have an indescribable hazy beauty.
"Big fool." Catalina secretly complained in her heart.
Those letters were not written by her at all, but were written under the guidance of Leblanc.
In front of this female master who is well versed in human nature, Garen's skills are ultimately a little shallow.
He was still there, happily sighing: "Although I can feel it from the letter, but seeing it with my own eyes...really, Kana, it's like you've become a completely different person, a brand new person."
Isn't it? Katerina curled her lips.
She was indeed a changed person—back to the original Katarina.
And this also comes from LeBlanc's guidance.
Master Leblanc said that a nobleman like Garen must have seen too many women who were humble and had no self-respect.
A woman like Catherine do Coca-Cola, who is independent, proud and yet sharp, will make him particularly attracted.
This month's ideological and cultural courses will allow Catalina to reasonably complete her "transformation" and "become" her true self.
So, she seemed to have changed.
But nothing has changed...
No change?
"..." Thinking of the ideas she had come into contact with in the past month, Catalina was at a loss for words.
"Mr. Galen." She pulled her thoughts back to reality and returned to her mission: "Let's go. Didn't you say in your letter yesterday that you would take me to the movies?"
"Oh, yes." Garen came back to his senses: "I saw in the newspaper that a very important movie will be premiered at the Zaun Cinema today. It is said that President Levi personally wrote the draft of the script for this movie, and Miss Seraphine participated in the composition of the music."
The last film for which Levi wrote the script himself was the critically acclaimed "The Battle of Two Cities."
Because this movie is the most entertaining compared to other mainstream works, it is particularly interesting to outsiders like Garen who have no personal experience of the old Zaun society.
He happened to be returning from the premiere of his new movie this time, and he wanted to make his first date even more unforgettable.
"But..." Garen looked around and scratched his head again: "How do I get to the cinema?"
With the help of cutting-edge technology like steam robots and the magic plug-in of Goddess Janna, coupled with the terrifyingly high degree of organization of the Leader of the Wind, and the professional construction team of the two cities that was able to build even cross-sea canals in history, Zaun's infrastructure projects can be said to be progressing extremely rapidly.
Garen had only been away from Zaun City for more than a month, but he found that there were many residential buildings around him, similar to those in Corn Emperor, built with precast concrete panels.
The dilapidated roads near the Hexgate hub, which had not been repaired with funds from any alchemy baron for more than 200 years, were renovated into wide asphalt streets as if by magic.
"Haha." Catalina couldn't help but smile sincerely: "Come with me, Mr. Galen."
She led Galen to the side of the road.
There is no fixed bus stop on the roadside, but there is a short stone pillar.
A lovely blue bird stood on the top of the column. It looked not much different from the original Cana that Levi carried with him every day, except that its eyes were dull and it was obvious that it was a mass-produced incarnation without much divine power.
"Xiao Na, please call a taxi for me." Catalina said familiarly.
"No problem." Bluebird replied: "The driver is expected to arrive in 3 minutes, please wait patiently."
Galen: “…”
He vaguely remembered that Levi had told him that these cute bluebirds standing guard on the streets were actually the incarnations of the goddess to protect Zaun, and they were Zaun's "surveillance cameras."
This was enough to shock Garen, who had never seen the world.
And now, he hasn't been to Zaan for more than a month, and the "security camera" has been upgraded to a "city smart butler."
When did Zaan become so sci-fi?
"No matter what, this is the incarnation of the goddess Janna." Garen couldn't get used to it anyway: "How can the goddess...how can she place her incarnation in the human world to do the work of a housekeeper for mortals?"
No matter how weak the incarnation of God is, it represents the majesty of God.
If it were in Demacia, or anywhere outside the Twin Cities, let alone the incarnation of God, even if a mortal saw a statue of God, he would have to kneel down and pray respectfully.
Although the leaders don't have so many rules, isn't it too blasphemous to let the goddess incarnate as a smart city manager for mortals?
"I thought so at first," Katarina said with emotion, "but the leaders told me that serving all mankind is not only their belief, but also the belief of Goddess Janna."
"The power of God comes from mortals. If it doesn't give back to mortals, then why do we need to believe in a God?"
"This..." Garen still found it hard to accept.
But in fact, for God, giving back to mortals would not cause Him much loss.
Every time Janna gains a believer, it is not like robbery, where she takes away a portion of the believer's power of faith and then squanders it and it's gone.
It's more like a long-term stable tax.
Believers use their spiritual power to continuously generate faith and provide power to Janna.
Therefore, every time Janna has an additional believer, what is actually increased is the "mana limit", not just a box of fuel that will run out when used up.
Even if the divine power is lent to mortals, the consumed divine power can be gradually restored with Janna's "mana recovery".
Giving back to mortals not only does not cause any loss, but can make mortals more grateful to the gods and their faith more firm.
But before Janna, few gods would do this.
Even if they did so, they would at most be like Nagakabouros, only granting divine power to the most devout priests under their command.
"In the past, the gods regarded divine power as a precious gift to reward humans for their fanatical faith and loyalty to them."
"Because that's enough to gain the faith of mankind."
"The inequality between priests and mortals can actually stimulate mortals' belief in God, making them pray to God fanatically, praying for the power to change their fate."
"Goddess Janna, like this, goes deep into the streets and into the masses, lending her divine power to humans like a tool. This will make humans lose their fear of God and allow them to think more rationally about the relationship between humans and God."
As she spoke, Catalina couldn't help but sigh:
"Only Goddess Janna would do this in this world."
The other gods, except Nagakabouros, who is the god of innate concepts, hope that humans will become as ignorant as possible. In their view, only ignorance can bring absolute loyalty.
But Janna wants humans to become rational.
Because only rational people can understand her thoughts and accept her unique beliefs.
"So, Goddess Janna is willing to become an ordinary existence within the reach of humans." Katarina was filled with emotion: "Because she doesn't need our worship, all she needs is... the awakening of humans."
Garen pondered for a moment and nodded secretly.
He looked at the twinkling eyes of Catalina as she spoke, and couldn't help but say, "Ms. Kana, you have really changed. Now you are like a real leader."
"I..." Catalina was shocked.
She suddenly came to her senses and found...
I didn't know when I started to speak in a "trend-like" way.
The ideological and cultural courses she had taken over the past month had had a greater impact than she had imagined.
No...no!
"I can't be bewitched by the Leader!" Katarina recalled Leblanc's dangerous smile.
And when she saw him off at the door of his apartment in the morning when he was leaving for a mission, her eyes were full of encouragement yet murderous intent.
"Oh right." Garen didn't know about Katarina's dilemma. He just asked curiously, "Ms. Kana, are you a wind leader or a wind chaser now?"
Generally speaking, young people like Katarina, who come from a "poor background", can basically see the thread of faith after seven or eight days of special training with the leader.
Catalina has been studying here for a month. Logically, she should be able to complete her studies and become a formal leader.
"I, I haven't yet." Catalina said guiltily, " Maybe it's because my cultural foundation is too weak and I really can't understand those complicated places?"
"Speaking of which..." She casually changed the subject, and at the same time, with genuine curiosity, she asked Galen: "Mr. Galen, aren't you familiar with the theory of the Wind Leader?"
"Why haven't you become the official leader yet?"
"This..." Garen had a complicated expression.
Because of his sister, he has been reading the book Leader.
And considering his cultural attainments and ability to comprehend, after two months of reading, it is no exaggeration to say that he is a master of the classics of Gana thought.
But the problem is...
"Understanding is one thing, belief is another." Garen said in a heavy tone: "I am not Lux, I am not that naive, nor am I that passionate."
"I'm not you either, Kana. I have a lot of 'baggage' to carry with me."
These baggages were once his advantage over others, and were the basis for him to defeat 99.99% of Runeterra players from birth.
"That's my family, the glory and honor that the Crownguard family has inherited for 700 years. I can't let it go." Garen rarely confided his true feelings in front of others: "Even if I know that the Leader is right, I can't make up my mind to follow Janna."
"To follow Janna is to break away from everything in the past—"
"My family, my friends, and this country that I was born and raised to serve."
Lux is young and Jarvan is stupid, and they don't care about anything when they get excited.
But he couldn't do it. Breaking away from the past was not that easy.
"Haha." Garen came back to his senses and hid the annoyance in his heart: "Forget it, let's not talk about this."
"Family, country, etc... You probably can't understand my concerns."
"..." Catalina remained silent.
She looked at Garen, at his Demacia general's armor, and at the golden family emblem on the armor.
"No..." Somehow, Catalina thought of herself.
"I understand you, silly," she said in her mind.
