-239- Supplies

"Skite, where's Captain Skite?!"

On the airship, a large horn was brought out, and a man standing at the bow shouted loudly through it, "Skite, Skite, respond if you hear me!"

"Bod, Bod! I'm here!" Skite immediately stepped on his own Hextech hoverboard, bent forward, and flew into the air with a whoosh.

Meanwhile, Sejuani and her tribespeople were staring at the giant beast that had landed in the sky.

It was hundreds of meters long and dozens of meters wide. What kind of monster was this?

Such a creature made Sejuani's face change drastically. Looking at the "giant beast," Sejuani couldn't help but think of that bear.

The bear she regretted making a deal with.

Just as Sejuani was suspecting whether this beast was the deity of the Southerners, Vi and Caitlyn, who were supposed to be napping, rushed out of the wooden house.

"Hurry, Sejuani, have your tribespeople join us. We need to go receive the supplies."

Vi grabbed the stunned Sejuani and ran towards the high slope hundreds of meters away. Her other hand was already wearing the Atlas Gauntlets.

The terrain of Freljord was complex, and even with the skill of the airship pilots, it was impossible to land. Therefore, they could only receive supplies on high slopes.

Forced to follow, halfway there, Vi suddenly asked her, "What about your pig?"

"Bristle?" Sejuani was dumbfounded. The Hextech airship, this flying behemoth, had brought her too much shock.

No wonder even the prosperous Demacians were shocked when they saw the Hextech airship. Not to mention the poor and backward people of Freljord.

"Yes, let it come too. It must help."

Sejuani put her hand to her mouth and blew the whistle hard.

After a moment, a huge beast rushed out of the woods.

This huge drüvask boar was covered in frost, and after running to Sejuani's side, it slowed down its speed. Sejuani habitually pulled the reins on Steelback's body and deftly mounted the boar.

Vi looked enviously at Sejuani as she mounted the boar.

At first, when Linwin mentioned that Sejuani rode a pig, Vi was a bit disdainful. What kind of ferocity could a pig have? Fighting on a pig was really ridiculous to think about. But now, Vi had to admit that she really wanted a pig like that too.

With this thought in mind, the group rushed to the high slope.

From afar, Skite was already communicating with the leader of this expedition.

"Skite, the goods delivered this time, Councilor Camille said, are to be handed over to Sejuani by you."

Skite waved back, and Vi and Caitlyn immediately followed. Looking at the stack of large boxes, hundreds of them, Vi's brow furrowed.

"Uh oh. We're in for some work," Vi said bitterly, looking at Caitlyn beside her, who crossed her arms and quickly looked away.

Manual labor. She never did that.

Especially this kind of physical labor of moving things.

There were still privileges for the noble daughter.

"Hmm? What did they send?" Skite asked aloud.

"Five tons of fresh fish," the transfer officer began listing the goods brought by the Piltover-Zaun trade convoy.

"Five hundred woolen sweaters, five hundred velvet pants, one thousand pairs of snow boots, and four hundred snow pants," the transfer officer listed the contents of the shipment.

Skite, standing on the side, was dumbfounded. Did Councilor Linwin really consider these barbarians as allies?

Those clothing from Piltover-Zaun were not the fur pants worn by Freljordians but state-of-the-art cold-resistant pants designed for workers going out to sea and mining during winter.

Maximum cold resistance!

"Don't make that face; there's plenty more where that came from," the transfer officer, observing Skite's expression, rolled her eyes dramatically and continued counting the goods.

"Captain Skite!" Vi walked up and called out. Sejuani, dismounting from Bristle, also joined them, looking at the numerous large boxes scattered on the high slope. The largest box was as tall as Bristle, and the smallest wooden box was half the height of a person.

Sejuani's face was filled with anticipation as she looked at the boxes scattered all around. Seeing the full-sized boxes, she felt her heart racing.

"Is the food in that box? I'll take Sejuani to check."

Vi placed a hand on Sejuani's shoulder, proudly saying, "Look at her expression. In the morning, she looked so depressed and unbelieving, even suggesting to go hunting. But look at her now."

Coughing, Skite pointed to a wooden box that had been counted earlier. "In that box are fruits. You can open and check."

"Alright!"

Vi immediately pulled Sejuani towards the box Skaarl had pointed to.

With the Atlas Gauntlets gripping the wooden boards, Vi removed the nailed lid. Then, a pile of colorful fruits appeared in front of the three women.

Sejuani looked at these unnamed fruits, pursing her dry lips.

"Wow! It's nectar fruit!"

Vi saw a fist-sized green fruit and immediately became excited. "Linwin really knows his stuff!"

Seeing Vi grab five or six of those fruit, Caitlyn immediately protested, "Vi, these are for Sejuani and her people."

"There's so much, I'll just eat a few."

While saying this, Vi stuffed a fruit into Sejuani's arms, then smiled and said, "Try it. This fruit is super delicious, and it's from the Eastern Forests of Shurima, very expensive."

Sejuani pressed her hands against her chest, looking at the fruit in her hands.

"Crunch." Vi wiped the fruit on her clothes and started eating.

Sejuani remained silent. Then, imitating Vi's actions, she placed the fruit at her lips.

Opening her mouth and biting down, the warm and soft sensation, not cold at all, flooded into her mouth. The tip of her tongue felt the sweetness—a taste Sejuani couldn't describe.

She had never eaten anything like this before.

"The fuck?! You even brought this here?" While Sejuani was eating the tasty fruit, Skite suddenly exclaimed, immediately catching Vi and Caitlyn's attention.

Vi quickly ran over after devouring a few fruits.

"Holy shit! Hextech water heaters!"

"And the Shimmer ones too!"

Vi jumped up, hanging on the edge of the box, looking inside and shouting.

Sejuani looked at Caitlyn and asked, "Water heater? What's that?"

Caitlyn immediately exclaimed excitedly, "We can have hot baths! By the grace of Janna, I haven't bathed in days!"

Without waiting for Sejuani's response, Caitlyn rushed over to Vi's side, tiptoeing to get a better look inside.

The enforcers nearby also showed excitement.

Caitlyn and Vi had only been here for a few days without bathing, but Skite and the enforcers?

They hadn't bathed for almost a month!

No one dared to bathe in Freljord!

————

"Are you stupid? You want to put drinking water into the water heater?"

"Then where else would we get water? There are no water pipes here."

"Use snow. Vi just dug a snow pit outside, and Ekko has already put the heater in it. The snow will melt soon. You just need to bring the pipes over there."

"Wait, if we do that, and let Vi dig a super large pit, wouldn't we have a hot spring?" exclaimed one of the enforcers holding several bottles of water, suddenly enlightened.

"What nonsense! Making a hot spring here would consume so much energy. Are you going to pay for that? Those heaters are for cooking for the Winter's Claw."

As evening approached, the summer nights in Freljord came late. Even though it was already 8 o'clock at night, the sky was still dim, and sometimes you could even see a glimpse of twilight if you were lucky.

The Hextech airship had returned to Piltover already. At this moment, Sejuani was flushed, and with the same excitement, her tribesmen were sorting out the supplies.

Rows of wooden boxes were laid out in the snow. Fortunately, despite the harsh weather of Freljord, it served as a natural refrigerator. Even if the items were left here now, there was no need to worry about their shelf life for a while.

"How's the new clothes?!" Caitlyn had changed into a new set of warm clothes, but still wore her thick coat outside.

Now she walked to Sejuani's side, smiling, and asked, "Very warm, comfortable." Sejuani nodded vigorously at Caitlyn, then immediately roared to command, "Faster, move faster! It's getting dark!"

"In a while, Ekko will have the water heater installed properly. I'll teach you how to use it later," Caitlyn said, walking away without waiting for Sejuani's response.

Because Sejuani was really busy now, busier than ever before.

Looking at the scattered hundreds of boxes in front of her, Sejuani and her Winter's Claw were wealthier than ever before.

That Linwin from the twin cities, didn't deceive her!

For the first time in her life, Sejuani realized that being captured wasn't all bad.

In fact, she was even a little grateful to Ashe because if it weren't for the people of Avarosa blocking the Winter's Claw at that time, Sejuani might not have turned around, and she might not have met this group of people from Piltover.

"Hurry up, move faster!"

Sejuani commanded loudly.

At 9:30, the sky was completely dark. Apart from the light from the bonfire, there was no other source of light in the Freljord night.

As Sejuani looked around, the numerous newly built wooden houses made it look like a small tribe. In an open area, there was something Sejuani was very curious about.

"This is the Hextech heater. If you want to cook something later, you can put the pot on these circles. Pay attention, it must be on the circles because only these areas will heat up." An enforcer was teaching several female warriors of the Winter's Claw how to use the Hextech heater.

Curious, Sejuani walked over and saw the enforcer lowering his head, holding a rotating switch in his hand, saying, "See, under each circle, in this position, there is a button like this. Look here, there's a flame indicator. One flame is low, two flames are medium, and three flames are high. Easy to understand, right?"

"Next, I'll show you how to use it, learn well, and teach your tribe members how to use it later."

"Click, click."

Turning the switch, the rectangular "big box" about two meters long and one meter high made a buzzing sound, and then Sejuani saw the area the enforcer had pointed to earlier, which was the circle gradually turning red and heating up.

Putting a silver pot on it, in just a short while, the pot started making bubbling sounds—the water boiled.

"Oh my god!"

"This, this is amazing."

Several Winter's Claw female warriors immediately surrounded the enforcer, looking at him with eyes as if they had seen a miracle.

"Cough... Don't look at me like that, this wasn't my invention, it's science," the enforcer immediately said, feeling embarrassed.

"Alright, everyone quiet down, now pay attention to this." The enforcer pointed to the edge of the long box, which had four circles on its two-meter length, and at the edge were two bulb-like objects.

"If this area turns red, it means we're running low on energy, and we need to replace it. It's easy to replace."

After teaching several female warriors how to change the energy source,

When he stood up again, he immediately put several fish into the bubbling silver pot and loudly exclaimed, "Alright, let's hurry up and cook now."

"Okay!"

Sejuani watched quietly from the side.

Hextech?

She suddenly became curious, what were Piltover and Zaun like?

Two days ago, she had deep doubts about what Caitlyn had said, but now Sejuani knew that Caitlyn had been telling the truth.

In this world, are there really people who can live like that?

"Piltover and Zaun?"

Sejuani murmured.

Late at night, Sejuani, Vi, Caitlyn, and two female warriors of the Winter's Claw were in a wooden house.

After dinner, Vi hummed as she lay on the warm blanket, while Caitlyn was collecting the used utensils.

Sejuani hurried forward to help.

"No need, I've got it." Caitlyn shook her head at her.

Then, as if remembering something, Caitlyn immediately said, "Right, Vi, stop lounging around like a pig, go and take Sejuani for a bath."

"Oh, come on, why don't you take her, I've been carrying boxes all day, I'm tired," Vi grumbled discontentedly.

Sejuani remained silent on the side.

"Go on!" until Caitlyn gave Vi a stern glare.

With a flop, Vi immediately got up and walked towards Sejuani, making a face at Caitlyn before saying to Sejuani, "Let's go, follow me, I'll teach you how to use the water heater."

A few minutes later, in the wooden house off-limits to men, Vi, with Sejuani similarly naked, led her to the front of the water heater.

Looking at the various wounds crisscrossing Sejuani's body, Vi paused for a moment.

It wasn't until Sejuani looked at her sideways that Vi hastily said, "This is the Hextech water heater. Just turn this here."

"Swoosh!"

Steam rose, and Sejuani squinted her cold blue eyes, feeling the hot water hitting her face.

"Here, this is soap, and this is shampoo."

Handing the two items to Sejuani, Vi also walked over to another water heater, smiling.

There were a total of four water heaters in this wooden house.

Was it a temporary communal place?

Relaxing with her eyes closed, Vi hummed the same weird tune that Powder made for bathing.

"Miss Powder loves to bathe~~~Her skin's gonna be so so so nice!"

"..."

Listening to the weird song by her ear, Sejuani closed her eyes, feeling indescribably content.

Could she... be this happy now?

Just as Sejuani doubted whether all of this was her imagination, another person walked into the wooden house.

With her curves accentuated, Caitlyn wrapped in a thick towel, upon hearing Vi's song, showed an annoyed expression.

"That's an awful tune!"

"How is it, Sejuani, enjoying the hot bath?" Sejuani opened her eyes, looked at the ceiling of the wooden house, and nodded.

It wasn't a dream.

All of this was real.

A smile curved Sejuani's lips, and as she lowered her head, the hot water sprayed onto her dry hair. She smiled and said:

"Yes, it is very comfortable."