Lothar wanted to ask a few more questions, but heard Akali shouting from the front: "Luo Ji! Venerable! There is a Sweet Rice Hotel in front! Let's take a break!"

"Is it sweet rice wine? It's been a long time since I drank it." Karma's face suddenly burst into a bright smile like a young girl. Lothar was stunned. He had never seen Karma smile so happily.

The scale of the Sweet Rice Hotel is not small. It seems that the family asked a carpenter to build a wooden house here, which is a place for passers-by to rest.

"Boss Boss! Three bowls of sweet rice wine!" Akali ran into the store excitedly, "Do you have a snack? I want to buy it too!"

Lothar and Karma followed into the store. The old shopkeeper looked at Akali with a smile and liked this energetic little girl very much: "Little baby, we still have sweet-scented osmanthus cake, longan jelly and snow candy man here. Do you want your mom and dad to buy it for you? Grandpa will give you something cheaper."

Lothar was stunned, realizing that the old man had misunderstood them as a family.

He looked at Karma, and Karma still had a quiet smile on her face, and did not explain.

Akali's **** eyes rolled, she definitely couldn't let it go if she could take advantage: "Three of those three! I'll eat with my mom and dad!"

The three of them were seated, and Lothar tapped Akali's little head angrily: "How do you recognize your parents?"

"It's an idiot not to take advantage of it." Akali said dissatisfiedly, "We've saved money, and the old man is also happy. It's nothing to misunderstand."

"Why didn't you ask His Holiness's opinion?" Lothar turned to look at Karma, and found that she had already started drinking sweet rice wine.

Karma held the bowl in both hands, her eyes narrowed happily, she drank the sweet rice wine all night in one gulp, and let out a sigh of relief.

Lothar and Akali looked at each other.

"What's wrong?" Karma licked the grain of rice stuck to her lips and looked at the two who were looking at her with strange eyes, "Is there something on my face?"

"I always feel... You are so different from the Venerable I imagined..." Akali grabbed the sweet-scented osmanthus cake and took a bite.

Karma tilted her head: "What's the difference?"

"I feel that His Holiness should be more majestic." Akali made a good gesture, "Just that kind of domineering feeling."

"I don't have the kind of domineering you said about me?" Karma asked.

Akali shook her head.

Lothar also felt that Karma, as the Supreme Being of Ionia, was indeed a little too easy-going.

Unlike a certain Noxian old man who likes to pretend, Karma is really peaceful in Lothar's eyes, and even the magical fluctuations in her body are so calm that it is difficult to detect.

Without the double dragon jade ring behind her, Karma really seems like a simple and ordinary girl.

"I'm really sorry to disappoint you." Karma patted Akali's head with a smile, then raised her hand and motioned for the shopkeeper to give her another bowl of sweet rice wine.

The sweet rice wine was served, and Karma happily took it with both hands, as if she really liked this dessert.

Lothar also took a sip. The taste of the wine is very light, but the sweetness and rice taste are very strong. It is really suitable for children to drink. Akali has already eaten several bowls.

Suddenly there was a loud noise outside the store.

More than a dozen masked men and women broke into the store. The weapons they were holding were very crude. More than half of the people used agricultural tools, and even one person only carried a kitchen knife.

"I didn't expect that there is a shop in this wilderness." The leader laughed loudly.

"What do you want to do!" The old shopkeeper ran in front of them, and his family members also came to the front hall from the back kitchen upstairs, their eyes full of horror.

The people headed by "What are you doing" sneered, "We are the Navoli Brotherhood! The great Brotherhood who resisted the atrocities of Noxus!"

"There are no Noxians here, so please come back." The old man trembled.

"Old man, we are here to collect the tax for sword refining." The leader grabbed the old man's collar, "We need money to build an army and cast soldiers. If you are an Ionian, you can raise money for us honestly, we are good Defend Ionia."

"We have no money!" The old man's sons and daughters stood up, but were immediately pushed down by the fraternity and pressed to the ground.

"You bastards!" The leader spat at the old man's children, "All of them are young men with hands and feet. When Ionia is in crisis, I don't join the Brotherhood to fight for the land of birth, only I know that in such a place, only to be charged the sword-making tax is cheap for you!"

Akali put down the bowl angrily and tried to get up, but Lothar held her down.

"What are you doing! I'm going to beat them!" Akali said angrily.

Lothar said nothing.

Akali was startled, she followed Lothar's line of sight and saw Karma sitting across the table.

The Ionian Venerable sat in his place, motionless.

She still had a peaceful smile on her face, as if everything that happened around her had nothing to do with her.

———————————————————————————

Ionians are peaceful by nature, and living in harmony with everything is the root of their culture.

After the Noxian war of aggression, large swathes of Ionia were devastated due to the lack of an organized army and a sense of resistance. Rebel groups such as the Navori Brotherhood also sprang up and became one of the main forces against Noxus during the war.

After the army led by Jericho Swain, the commander of the Noxus Legion, was defeated in the First Battle of Presidian, Noxus temporarily stopped the expedition to Ionia, and only Feilor and other parts were The area was left occupied by garrison troops.

The Noxian Army withdrew, but the Navori Brotherhood did not disband, and they began going door-to-door to collect troops and taxes, hoping to form an army that could counter Noxian incursions in the future.

However, their methods of conscription and taxation are very tough, and the Navoli Brotherhood has always lacked a clear leader. It has gradually changed from a rebel organization to a chaotic existence of half militia and half bandits. It has continued to this day. Caused a lot of damage.

—Excerpt from Ionian Travels Chapter 5: History and Culture by Ezreal

Chapter 199 Contradiction

"Why do you keep looking at me today?" Karma asked with a smile.

"His Holiness..." Akali looked at Karma in disbelief, "You don't care?"

"Manage what?"

"Those bastards!" Akali almost yelled, but Lothar held him down.

Karma said: "You mean the Navori Brotherhood? They just want to defend their homeland."

"Do you think what they're doing is like defending Ionia!" Akali was so angry that she didn't even say honorifics.

Karma said indifferently, "Resistance is bound to have sacrifices, Akali, you belong to the Equalization Sect, you should understand this truth."

"I don't understand!" Akali was so angry that she was about to go crazy, "I only saw those **** bullying honest people!"

"Akali." Lothar released a little chill to calm the restless little girl in her arms.

He looked at Karma: "I'm a foreigner, I don't know much, but is it an Ionian tradition to sit back and ignore bullying?"

Karma clenched her hands slightly, her knuckles turning white, but the expression on her face remained the same: "Of course not."

"Then why are you sitting still"

"Because I can't shoot."

"why"

"Because I am Karma." Karma said, "I am the incarnation of the will of Ionia, and every move I make will greatly implicate the Land of the Newborn."

Lothar curled his lips: "My hometown is a bad land."

Karma and Akali looked up at Lothar at the same time, wondering why he was suddenly talking about his hometown.

"It may be hard for you to imagine how miserable life is in my hometown." Lothar recalled, "Food is poor, starving and freezing all day, I remember that the days when I am full and warm may be at most once a year. For two months, if the luck is bad, you have to endure hardship for the whole year."

Losa squeezed Akali's face: "Sweet rice wine, sweets like sweet-scented osmanthus cakes, we don't have them there. The wines in our place are all spirits, and you'll blow your head off if you drink it, but that's the only way To warm up. We usually run out of food there quickly because no one knows when the next meal will come. But even living in that environment…”

Lothar looked directly into Karma's eyes: "Even living in such an environment, there is a very powerful girl who cannot see any weak being bullied."

Karma was silent.

"She will divide her own wine, her own food, and raise her own bow when necessary, just to protect the person she wants to protect." Lothar smiled, "Even a disabled man with a broken hand, She accepted it without discrimination."

"Enough." Karma interrupted Lothar suddenly, the emerald light in her eyes flickered and Akali shrank behind Lothar in fear.

Lothar also looked at Karma unexpectedly. For the first time, he felt obvious magical fluctuations in this woman.

"Ionia has Ionia's own rules." Karma gritted her teeth, "You are a foreigner, you can't judge our traditions at will."

Lothar felt the violent magic fluctuations on Karma's body. He knew that Karma was trying his best to control himself, otherwise even a single leak would be enough to raze the store to the ground.

But Lothar didn't flinch, he just protected Akali and looked directly at Karma: "I really don't understand the rules of Ionia, and I really don't have the right to judge, but... you shouldn't have the right to care what I do, right? ."

Lothar waved one hand, and the icy wind suddenly roared in the store.

"What happened!" The Navori Brotherhood was shocked, "Magic!"

"You have angered the spirit of the land!" The old shopkeeper said overjoyedly, "Get out now!"

"Shut up! Old man!" The leader slapped the old man, but the cold wind completely froze his raised hand.

Karma stared at Lothar, emerald eyes meeting icy blue eyes: "Stop."

"Do not."

"If you don't stop, I won't save you anymore."

"You don't even want to save your own people, why should I believe that you will really save me?"

Karma was dumbfounded.

She put her hands flat on the table, and the double dragon spirit pattern appeared on the table.

Lothar felt that his fingers were burning, and he laughed: "I'm used to the pain."

The table on Lothar's side was completely frozen, and the ice spread along the table to Karma.

Emerald-colored flames spit out of their mouths as the emerald-green twin dragons swam on the table, burning away the ice.

The cold wind in the store suddenly disappeared, and the members of the Brotherhood, who were blown all over with ice cubes, froze in place one by one, wondering what happened.

"This shop is evil! Quickly take the sword refining tax and leave!" the leader ordered loudly.

"Run farther, it will affect you." Lothar said to Akali.

"I don't!" Akali hugged Lothar's back, her teeth chattering, "Go on! Teach them a lesson!"

Lothar laughed, and the ice spread forward on the table with emerald green flames, and the ice layer slowly regained half of the table.

The severe cold wind blew in the store again, and the members of the Brotherhood were frozen to the ground below their knees, but the old shopkeepers just felt cold, not frozen.

"While you can't control the forces inside you," Karma said, "the forces that come out of your body are well controlled."

The flames in Shuanglong's mouth grew a little more, and the ice layer on the table began to show a trend of fading again.

"You have complete control over all your powers," Lothar said, "but you are still confused about who to use your powers with."

Karma frowned.

"Angry?" Lothar laughed. "It's the first time I saw you angry."

The tug-of-war between Ssangyong and Frost intensified, and Akali lay on Lothar's back, feeling like she was about to freeze into a popsicle.

In the end, Karma took the Ssangyong first.

The confrontation between them was too fierce, and it was about to disturb the spirit of the land here, which was not what Karma wanted to see.

Lothar panted heavily, the ice on the table slowly dissipated, he propped his head up, and smiled bitterly at Karma: "I won."

Karma said nothing.

Akali came out tremblingly and saw that the members of the fraternity in the shop were frozen in ice, and regardless of her face turning blue, she jumped to Lothar excitedly, and slapped him in the face. A kiss: "You are the best!"

"Let's go, Akali." Lothar picked up the little girl, "We don't need this Venerable anymore."

Akali gave Karma a complicated look, and Karma sat at the table, expressionless.

Lothar and Akali walked out of the store, and Karma turned her head and shouted to the old shopkeeper who was still in shock and waved in front of the ice sculpture, "Checkout."

"Oh... oh oh! Check out!" The old man trotted to Karma and stretched out his finger, "That's all."

Karma directly stuffed the old man with a large silver dollar, got up and left.

"Hey! Guest officer! Give more, give more!" The old man hurriedly shouted to Karma's back.

"More is compensation." Karma left this sentence and disappeared at the end of the road.

"What is the compensation for?" The old man was confused, ""A lot of strange things happened today. "

He sat down on the stool nearby and put the silver dollar on the table.

Wow.

Under the shocked eyes of the old man, the entire table and all the tableware and chopsticks on it were turned into powder and scattered all over the place.

——————————————————

From today on, your name doesn't matter anymore.

You are the new Karma, you are the soul of Ionia, you are the bearer of responsibility.

You will refrain, practice, meditate, always remember to keep your identity in mind.