Sensing everyone's curiosity about why he had come here, Faen didn't hide his intentions. Instead, he asked, "I wonder if any of you have ever heard of a Yordle named 'Vex'?"
Hearing Faen's words, the Yordles beside him fell into deep thought.
Although only Lulu had formally ingested Faen's Joy Factor so far, Faen's body naturally radiated trace amounts of the Joy Factor. This caused everyone who interacted with Faen to subconsciously develop a favorable impression of him.
Of course, for males, this favorable impression was strictly limited to, "This young man looks quite sharp and full of spirit."
But for females, they would subconsciously feel that this was an incredibly unique and attractive alpha male.
While it might not seem like a big difference on the surface, the underlying distinction was massive. Case in point: while Teemo and Corki didn't feel anything special, both Tristana and Lulu subconsciously wanted to learn much more about Faen.
Of course, for the latter, it was definitely more than just passively inhaling a few trace amounts of the Joy Factor.
But the end result was exactly the same. That is, when they heard Faen inquiring about someone inside Bandle City, they didn't feel much vigilance—
Naturally, given the carefree nature of Yordles, they probably wouldn't have cared too much even without the Joy Factor. It's just that they wouldn't have actively harbored good feelings toward Faen, nor would they have gone out of their way to provide every piece of information they knew.
Sure enough, after pondering for a moment, Corki said, "I... I think I've heard of that name before. I think she's in... the east side of the city?"
"That's right, the east side!" Teemo nodded and added, "I remember she's a distant relative of Uncle Yorkhan. I just heard she has a pretty bad personality, and she never wants to play with us."
"Vex... Vex, Vex, Vex—I remember now!"
After thinking hard for a while, Tristana nodded and said:
"She's that Yordle who can plunge her enemies into total despair! I don't want to admit it, but her magic actually seems even more powerful than my 'Boomer' cannon.
"While I do appreciate her rebellious streak, how do I put it... she's just way too gloomy and anti-social. Even if she joined the military, she would totally get isolated! She'd never be able to earn her comrades' trust!"
"Oh! Oh! It's her!" Hearing Tristana's description, Lulu also remembered something and eagerly chipped in:
"She's that Yordle who smells like dark rainclouds! Hmm, and also a bit like a sleepy morning fog~ It sounds kind of weird to say, but I slightly don't like her, because there's absolutely no starlight in her eyes, and even her shadow is always sighing!"
Saying this, a bright, radiant look appeared on Lulu's face: "Next time I see her, I'm going to Polymorph her dark clouds into cotton candy and dye her shadow cherry-blossom pink! I'll let her know that even a gloomy little grump can grow glowing, sparkling wings!"
"Uh... Vex probably doesn't want to turn into that at all," Faen gently reminded Lulu.
But Lulu just said excitedly, "Well, we can't just let that kid stay so gloomy forever! I'll just try it out first anyway! If she's unhappy about it, I'll just stop and apologize to her then!"
Hearing Lulu's logic, Faen wasn't surprised in the slightest.
Because that was exactly the kind of person Lulu was—doing whatever she wanted, brimming with pure, naive, childlike innocence. Always eager to help, yet constantly messing things up despite her best intentions. This was also the exact reason why Tristana refused to let Lulu join the rescue mission at the very beginning, because Lulu always found a way to screw things up in the most unpredictable ways.
Even if everything usually worked out in the end thanks to the Yordles' absurdly irrational good luck, for Tristana, who yearned to be an elite soldier, having so many unpredictable screw-ups during every mission was absolutely unacceptable.
After remembering who Vex was, Tristana looked up at Faen and asked, "We do know who Vex is, but why are you looking for her? Is there something you need to do?"
"Yes, there is indeed a rather troublesome issue I need to handle."
Hearing Tristana's question, Faen nodded and said, "Right now, Bilgewater is facing an incredibly severe crisis."
With that, Faen proceeded to explain the origins of the Harrowing. Upon learning what the Harrowing was, a hint of excitement and deep curiosity surfaced in the eyes of Tristana and the others.
To Yordles, every single adventure in the world was something to look forward to. And this "Harrowing" sounded incredibly fun to them.
But Tristana still asked, "What does this have to do with Vex?"
"Because this time, the Harrowing has received an upgrade," Faen said.
"In the past, the Harrowing could only affect Bilgewater. But based on my observations, the negative consciousness and spiritual pressure accumulating within the Harrowing have been growing more and more massive recently."
"And according to my investigations, the reason is that Vex felt that what Viego, the Ruined King, wanted to do was exactly what she wanted to do. So, she used her own magic to help Viego."
Saying this, Faen sighed deeply:
"Although the Harrowing this time might only be a small-scale amplification, if we don't deal with it in advance, once Vex's magic resonates with the World Rune fragments on the Shadow Isles, the disaster could spread across the entire world."
"Spread across the entire world! Oh my gosh!!" Tristana was thoroughly shaken to her core. She couldn't help but gulp and said:
"Then if someone could stop all of this and save the world..."
"Then Tristana would undoubtedly become the greatest hero in all of Bandle City."
Faen flashed her a thumbs up and said:
"When that time comes, absolutely no one will ever dare look down on Tristana again."
"!!" A deep, flushed red of pure excitement and anticipation bloomed across Tristana's face.
However, Faen didn't continuously tempt Tristana with this. Instead, he gently patted Tristana's little head and said, "But you shouldn't rush it. This matter is extremely complicated, and we need to take things one step at a time."
"Rather than worrying about that now, let's head home first," Faen said.
Hearing Faen's words, Tristana didn't have any particular reaction to the wording; she merely nodded eagerly in anticipation.
Lulu, on the other hand, had a totally different reaction. Hearing Faen say they were preparing to "head home," she seemed to remember something. Faint blushes of red surfaced on her little face. Looking entirely distracted and restless, she clutched her staff tightly and kept her head down as she walked.
She felt nervous, awkward, anxious, but also full of burning anticipation.
With so many complex emotions weaving together, Lulu felt like her brain was completely short-circuiting.
And right at that exact moment, Faen suddenly patted Lulu on the shoulder.