Chapter 405: Enchantress's Prison Life
No one knows LeBlanc's past.
Even Levi, who possessed the "power of the prophet", only knew that she was once a sorceress under Modkaiser. As for more distant things, he had no idea.
Only Leblanc herself knows where she came from.
Many, many years ago, in the distant past when Noxus did not exist and Mordekaiser had not yet risen, she was just a farm girl on the plains south of Loxo.
The farmers of that era were unfortunate, but also lucky.
The Darkin War, which lasted for a thousand years before finally coming to an end, has reduced the population of this continent to an incredible low.
There are abandoned lands everywhere with no one cultivating them. In order to catch their breath, the warlords from all over the country, who finally got rid of the Darkin War, have also introduced policies to encourage farming and recuperation, and to rest and recuperate with the people.
As long as you have the ability to open up wasteland and are willing to work hard and endure some hardships, you can own land.
Leblanc's father was a strong and hardworking man. He spent half his life toiling and enduring illnesses to leave a large piece of land and a strong ox for his daughter.
This is LeBlanc's best memory.
She still remembered that when she was a child, she sat on the broad back of the cow, watching her father walking slowly in front of her holding the reins, and occasionally looking back and smiling at her, with that hunched but strong back.
She thought that when she grew up, she must work hard to help the family with housework and buy a few more strong oxen for her father so that he could have an easier life.
And then, nothing happened.
The decline of the Darkin warriors left a huge power vacuum in this land. So after a few years of peace, the remaining human warlords returned to their bad habits and started biting each other like mad dogs.
The flames of war soon reached Leblanc's doorstep, like a flood flooding an ant nest, easily destroying the little nest that her parents had put all their efforts into building for her.
Both her parents died tragically in front of her, just because they were a little slow to kneel in front of the warlord's horse.
The oxen that her family cherished as their treasure were also chopped into pieces by the invaders without mercy and cooked into a pot of meat soup. She was forced to wear heavy shackles and was taken as a slave by the invaders.
The life of a slave made Leblanc suffer humiliation in her childhood.
If she continued like this, the best outcome for her in the future would probably be that when she grew up a little, with her beautiful face, she would be noticed by an officer who was gentle towards women and be taken home as his personal slave.
And this is the ending that most mortal slaves dream of.
Fortunately, LeBlanc is not an ordinary person.
She awakened her innate magical talent and showed a .
The warlord was impressed by her powerful magic that far surpassed her peers, and promoted her from a military slave to an apprentice of a great wizard, hoping that after she completed her studies, she would use her abilities to serve his grand cause.
And Leblanc quickly proved with her strength that no one could enslave her and force her to serve.
With her innate magical talent and diligent study of magical knowledge, Leblanc quietly surpassed her teacher and possessed the terrifying ability to overthrow the warlord regime.
So she killed many people in one breath.
The so-called teacher who treated her like a slave. The officers and soldiers who massacred her hometown.
And that warlord.
When killing the warlord, Leblanc asked him in confusion: "You knew that you killed my parents with your own hands, why did you dare to promote me to study magic?"
"I killed your parents?" The warlord finally understood: "Oh, I don't remember."
Leblanc: “…”
The young pale lady finally understood that the weak are just ants. The strong may accidentally step on you to death when passing by, and will not even remember your name afterwards.
She doesn't want to be an ant anymore. She wants to be her own master forever and control her own destiny.
So, Loveland returned to her hometown for the last time and said her final goodbye in front of the pile of weeds where her parents' bones were hastily buried.
She abandoned her name and her past.
From then on, she was just LeBlanc, the Pale Lady, and Leblanc, the Deceiver.
LeBlanc succeeded.
As decades passed, her study and control of magic became more and more advanced. The constantly accumulated spell secrets and magical relics from ancient times gave her the ability to live forever, which was almost divine.
She is now strong enough to call the shots on this continent. No one can enslave her anymore and turn her back into the ant she used to be.
But LeBlanc soon encountered setbacks again.
Because Mordekaiser was resurrected. This underworld tyrant who was killed twice and reborn three times almost enslaved the entire Valoran continent.
Inevitably, LeBlanc fell into his hands.
Then, as Levi knew, Leblanc united the major warlord tribes of Roxy and secretly designed to seal the Well of Souls deep in the Immortal Bastion, cutting off the power connection between Modkaiser and the iron-armored incarnation, and finally driving the tyrant back in one fell swoop.
After the success, the major warlord tribes that formed an alliance to resist Mordekaiser finally put aside their prejudices and, under the secret integration of Leblanc and Black Rose, established the Roxxi Tribal Alliance, which was the prototype of the future Noxus Empire.
This energetic new regime quickly inherited Modkaiser's great achievements and began to expand their living space in all directions.
In the endless wars and one victory after another, the Noxian Empire was born and became the greatest existence in Runeterra.
And Leblanc is the true master of this great empire.
At this point, she had almost fulfilled the vow she made at her parents' graves. She took control of her own destiny and stood on top of the world.
But LeBlanc was not happy.
The inevitable return of Mordekaiser is her lingering shadow.
This made her urgently need to conquer more lands, plunder more magic foundations and ancient relics, and look for the various powers left by the Darkin, Protoss, Demigods, and Demons in Runeland. Only in this way can she have the confidence to deal with Mordekaiser's counterattack.
The Black Rose's control over the empire comes from its cooperation with the imperial nobles.
Leblanc had to hold her nose and endure the greed and corruption of these nobles, and do her utmost to maintain their corrupt rule. Only in this way could she maintain the stability of the Noxian Empire.
To achieve this goal, she has been secretly advising dignitaries abroad, appearing in many countries at the same time, using her illusions to disrupt order and create chaos.
At the beginning, LeBlanc enjoyed this power game of maneuvering and controlling people's hearts.
But 100 years passed, 200 years passed, 300 years passed...it is almost 1,000 years now.
LeBlanc was already tired of it.
But she couldn't let go. Whether it was the threat from Mordekaiser or the obsession she had since childhood, she was destined not to give up her control over Noxus.
It's like a miser carrying a huge sum of cash...even though it's tiring, she has to carry it.
Until one day, the leader came.
Even if she didn't want to let go, she had to.
After the disastrous palace coup, Leblanc put on heavy magic-forbidden shackles custom-made for her and came to Zaun's high-level war criminal management center.
She had to say goodbye to all the material enjoyments of the upper class, including delicacies, jewels, and fine clothes. Her power was imprisoned, her authority was taken away, and her freedom was restricted.
The two demons she relied on for support were also handed over to the leader as her "united front values" as part of her atonement.
LeBlanc has become an "ant" again.
Her daily life is: get up, wash, go to the assembly point, breakfast, sewing machine, lunch, sewing machine, dinner, one hour of free time, reading and newspapers, theoretical study, and sleep.
Then repeat your previous life.
And she will have to live like this for another 2000 years.
At first, Leblanc was only resistant to this kind of life.
But gradually, she stayed away from the intrigues of power and put aside the crisis of Modkaiser. In this most ordinary and simple working life, she seemed to have found some kind of relief.
Every minute she spent working at the sewing machine, Loveland couldn't help but recall the peaceful days many, many years ago in that farmhouse when her mother held her clumsy little hand and taught her needlework.
But this peace was only a short-lived luxury for her mother.
Then, LeBlanc suddenly understood the leader.
The leader wants to build Runeland into a society where ordinary people can enjoy a happy life through labor. This is not an unattainable utopia, it is something that can be achieved.
But after she became strong, she forgot her origins.
But after the leaders have mastered the power, they never forget the weak. That is why they can do it, but others cannot.
Therefore, only the leader can...
"Stop, stop, stop... Don't rush to sublimate." Levi put down the article "My First Half of Life" written by Leblanc, and his mouth twitched with disgust: "Tell me, what is this you wrote?!"
"Confessions." Leblanc looked at Levi pitifully.
She raised her slender arms bound by heavy shackles, allowing him to see her slender fingers with many small holes pierced by the sewing machine because she was not familiar with the work: "President Levi, look - I am really working hard and repenting."
"You're not repenting at all!" Li Wei slammed her ideological report on the table. "The whole report is just about how miserable you are. It doesn't mention anything about what you did specifically."
“Even if you briefly mentioned the evil deeds you committed during your reign over Noxus, you only said that it was necessary preparation to fight against Mordekaiser, and that you had to compromise with the old nobles in order to maintain your rule.”
"Modkaiser and the old nobles took all the blame, but you cut yourself off from it."
"Are you reflecting on this? You are protesting against defeat!"
"Hmm..." Leblanc lowered her head and said nothing.
"Actually, you know what you did." Levi saw through her thoughts at a glance: "But you don't want to repent."
"Because you feel from the bottom of your heart that what you did was right given the context of the times."
“Yes.” Leblanc’s eyes lit up, as if she had found a confidant. “This is the limitation of the times… If I don’t do that, Noxus will disintegrate, the power of mankind will be dispersed, and Mordekaiser’s return will become even more unstoppable.”
"Haha." Levi shut her up with one sentence: "Considering the background of the times, the existence of alchemy barons is also necessary. But now, the times have changed."
"They're all hanging on the streetlights. What about you?"
"I..." LeBlanc stopped talking.
"It turns out that you don't repent so easily." Levi was not disappointed.
This is normal. How could a thousand-year-old witch transform into a true repentant, or even a leader of the faith in Janna, just through a few days of labor and ideological transformation?
This is just a war criminal management center, not a mind control center.
"You should reform yourself again." Levi stood up and told her coldly, "There are still two thousand years. There is still a lot of time."
"Yes..." Leblanc sighed helplessly.
Then she raised her wrists, which were bruised purple by the shackles, and begged, "Then at least, please help me unlock these magic shackles."
"You should know what the Forbidden Magic Stone is. If a wizard wears this for a long time, his body will become irreversibly decayed due to the exhaustion of magic power. At least... let me live out this 2000-year sentence."
In fact, Leblanc never thought that Levi would really agree. After all, she was Leblanc, a Deceiver, and was considered an extremely dangerous element among mages.
She just wanted to make an outrageous request first, then ask for a sky-high price and pay it back on the spot in order to improve the food.
This is because Levi doesn't want the criminals to have too good material conditions in prison, so that they turn jail time into a vacation, or even create a bad habit of "going to jail is like going home."
So the food in this prison now...it's just steamed buns in your hands, and there's not a drop of oil in the dishes.
Leblanc wants to eat better.
However, what she didn't expect was:
"Okay." Levi actually helped her unlock the magic shackles.
Then he placed a blue bird incarnation on her shoulder.
"From today on, this blue bird will always stand on your shoulder. If you want to escape from prison, believe me... it will chop off your head with its wind blade in a second."
"This..." Leblanc felt the power of this bluebird incarnation. This was obviously a prison guard version of the bluebird incarnation that Levi had specially customized to keep an eye on her.
But why did he do this?
"Because I feel like you're living too well here." Levi said, "How much effort does it take to operate a sewing machine? What does it mean to a great wizard like you?"
"Without the intensity of the work, how can you experience first-hand the suffering that the vast majority of working people have silently endured over the past countless years and truly repent from the bottom of your heart?"
Leblanc: “…”
She suddenly had a bad feeling.
Then, Levi asked her, "Leblanc, how many clones can you create at most?"
Leblanc hesitated for a moment, and finally answered honestly: "It's hard to say. If it's a low-level clone that has no combat power at all, I can create at least tens of thousands of them."
"Tens of thousands?" Levi frowned.
"What's wrong?" Leblanc suddenly had a bad feeling.
"It's not enough." Levi sighed to himself.
Then he looked out the window at the open playground of the war criminal management center.
A row of alchemical trucks that had just stopped on the open space were unloading boxes of goods onto the open space.
At first, Leblanc thought that the prison was receiving logistical supplies, but now it seems that is not the case.
"So, what's in that box?" Leblanc asked concernedly.
"Five hundred sewing machines," Li Wei replied. "I was planning to open a garment processing factory in the management office and let you work there."
"We?" Leblanc keenly caught the word.
"Yes." Levi explained: "You and your clones."
"Boss, manager, sales, finance, security, needlewoman... probably more than 500 jobs, all for you alone."
Leblanc: “…”
"You, you..." Using one person as more than 500 people made Leblanc angry.
"You're squeezing my surplus value!" she accused angrily.
"What else?" Li Wei said calmly, "If you don't want to be exploited, do you want to come and enjoy yourself?"
LeBlanc was speechless.
Levi, on the other hand, said to himself with a headache: "I thought you could only create a few hundred clones at most, but I didn't expect you could create tens of thousands in one go."
Although this low-level clone that does not require too much magic power has little combat power, it is productive. Operating a sewing machine, sweeping the streets, and doing some relatively simple work are no problem for them.
"It seems that more than 500 jobs are not your limit. This small garment factory can't even increase your work intensity..."
Levi looked at Leblanc carefully with the same eyes that Zibenjia used to look at advanced employees.
This look made Leblanc feel frightened.
"What a pity." Levi sighed with a headache: "Tens of thousands of clones... there are too many people."
"If you were asked to do the job those people do, I'm afraid Zaun's job market would be impacted."
“???” A drop of cold sweat broke out on Leblanc’s forehead.
What the hell is “work done by humans”?
Do you still want me to do a job that is not a job for humans?
The mysterious and elegant Miss Enchantress couldn't help but curse in her heart in the Zaun dialect that she had just learned.
"How about this..." Levi thought for a moment and said, "First, you can send 3,000 clones to the ditch area to clean up the toxic soil."
"Toxic soil?" Leblanc's face darkened.
For more than two hundred years, Zaun has been recklessly discharging alchemical wastewater and various types of solid and highly toxic waste into the sewer area.
Although these toxic wastes had been swept away by Janna's divine power and sent to the landfill built by the Wind Leader outside Zaun City for proper disposal, this entire piece of land seriously polluted by toxic substances could not be cleaned up in a short period of time.
And how toxic is this land?
It is so poisonous that ordinary people can die instantly if they walk past it without wearing protective clothing.
Therefore, the task of cleaning up the toxic soil has never been done by the Zaun people, but by mass-produced steam robots.
"You want me to do the work of a robot?!" Leblanc questioned angrily.
Levi smiled and said, "Do you know why the nobles and landlords of Noxus prefer to use serfs instead of tractors imported from Zaun?"
"Why?" Leblanc asked subconsciously.
"Because under your rule." Levi restrained his smile: "Human life is cheaper than machines."
Leblanc: “…”
"Go to work. There are still 2000 years left. I hope you understand."
"..." Leblanc was silent for a long time, and finally nodded slowly: "Yes."
