Marcus remained completely calm, his face showing no panic, not even a blink of an eye: "You have no authority to arrest me."
Caitlyn kept her rifle trained directly on Marcus, never lowering it. Her normally composed features were twisted with anger and disbelief.
Hearing such an utterly absurd statement from someone she'd once respected, she walked slowly toward Marcus.
"To think I used to respect you, thought you were a law enforcer who genuinely stood for justice and protection of the innocent."
"But what have you actually done? Attempted to murder witnesses in front of a councilor, operating completely outside any law!"
"Where do you place Piltover's laws? Where is your sworn oath to justice?"
"Only now do I realize that in just a few years, tens of thousands of indentured workers have died. That's tens of thousands of human lives, how can you possibly sleep at night?"
"You are utterly devoid of conscience or humanity!"
By the end of her condemnation, her voice cracked with overwhelming fury. She was practically shouting.
"Drop your weapon immediately and surrender yourself. Submit to the judgment of the law, or I will shoot you where you stand."
She aimed her rifle directly at Marcus's head. The Hextech weapon glowed with bright blue energy.
Her eyes burned with rage.
The enforcers Marcus had brought with him stood frozen like statues, looking at one another, none having the guts to even move a muscle. Let alone raise weapons against Caitlyn to resist her arrest, none of them even risked to breathe heavily.
If Caitlyn arrested them and they ended up in Stillwater Hold, at worst they'd lose their jobs and pensions. But if they resisted arrest and there was an accident like a misfire or struggle, they might end up responsible for harming a councilor's daughter.
And who would even risk that? Her life was worth infinitely more than all of theirs combined. If anything went wrong, it would drag their entire families into destruction.
Everyone knew the stakes.
Yet Marcus remained completely unshaken by the death threat. As an officer in Piltover's security apparatus with decades of experience, he was a seasoned political survivor, he knew more about how power actually worked, understood the real rules better than idealistic young officers.
He knew very well that the actions of the enforcers in the industrial zone were not just sanctioned, they were either explicitly allowed or actively encouraged by Piltover's true leadership. They had not violated any laws that mattered.
"I told you already, you have no authority to arrest me."
Even as the rifle's barrel nearly touched his forehead, he showed no fear whatsoever. He grabbed the weapon's barrel with his bare hand.
"My official position is Captain of the Enforcers. My rank within the hierarchy is Deputy Chief of Piltover Wardens. According to Piltover legal code, arresting an officer of my rank requires a formal warrant."
"That warrant must be jointly signed by at least four senior councilors to have any legal force!"
"Without such proper authorization, attempting to arrest a deputy chief is a serious criminal offense!"
"Do you even realize that you're the one breaking the law right now?"
"If you want to become a criminal, go ahead, pull that trigger. Fire one shot to my head and end this. One bullet and I'm dead."
Marcus gripped the gun firmly and pressed his forehead directly against the barrel, challenging her resolve.
He had thought through all the possibilities: if Caitlyn did shoot him in cold blood, his family would likely receive a generous anonymous donation from some "charitable benefactor" within the system.
And more importantly, he wouldn't have to continue living in constant fear, always worrying that a careless word or a misstep might doom his entire family.
So at this critical moment, he genuinely hoped Caitlyn would lose control and execute him. Death seemed preferable to the psychological torture he was constantly enduring.
"Don't think this means you'll escape justice forever. I will obtain that warrant," Caitlyn said. She didn't fire, but she never lowered her weapon either.
Her moral code wouldn't allow execution, even of someone this corrupt.
"Oh? Instead of hoping for approval that will never come, wouldn't it be more practical to just shoot me right now? Do it for all those dead workers," Marcus said with a mocking grin, finding Caitlyn's rigid idealism both admirable and pathetically naive.
Who actually wants to be a butcher? Did he want this life?
He had once been a passionate young man himself, bold enough to walk into Zaun's darkest alleys and face chem-barons head-on in pursuit of justice. But what good had any of that idealism ever accomplished?
"You want to escape justice by dying a martyr? Dream on. I will bring you to public trial."
She absolutely could not just execute Marcus on the spot, no matter how much he deserved it.
Vigilante justice was a severe crime against everything she believed in. Without a trial, no one had the legal or moral right to carry out an execution. True justice must go through proper legal processes.
But she could see it clearly now, Marcus was actively seeking death.
Her hands trembled slightly. She yanked her rifle back, breaking his grip on the barrel, then stepped back several paces to prevent him from possibly turning her weapon on himself.
"What's going on here? Caitlyn, why are you pointing your weapon at Marcus?!"
Just as the tense standoff between Caitlyn and Marcus reached its breaking point, a familiar middle-aged woman's voice rang out.
Grayson had arrived with a full tactical team.
"Sheriff Grayson, you arrived at the perfect time," Caitlyn said immediately.
"Marcus is suspected of persecuting tens of thousands of indentured workers over multiple years. He attempted to execute key witnesses right in front of me and Councilor Talis. The evidence is conclusive."
"I'm formally requesting that he be temporarily detained. Once the arrest warrant is approved, we'll formally apprehend him and put him on public trial."
Her eyes lit up. Grayson was universally known and respected throughout both Piltover Wardens and all of Piltover.
With her help, arresting Marcus would be much easier to accomplish.
Grayson surveyed the scene and quickly pieced together what had happened based on the positions, weapons, and obvious tension.
"Caitlyn, put the gun down."
She gave Marcus a complicated look, then reached out and gently pushed Caitlyn's rifle barrel toward the ground.
Marcus had once been her trusted deputy and protégé. Though impulsive and hot-headed at times, he used to be driven by a strong sense of justice and duty.
But now, he could no longer hold onto that idealism.
"What do you mean?" Caitlyn asked, completely stunned by this unexpected response.
"He has committed no crime. Neither have any of the enforcers in the industrial district."
"So I repeat my order: put the gun down."
Grayson's face was full of helplessness. Her eyes were heavy with exhaustion.
"Sheriff Grayson, you cannot be serious about this."
"In the past few years alone, tens of thousands of indentured workers have died. We have solid evidence that Marcus and his fellow enforcers colluded with labor contractors and corporate owners."
"We even have eyewitnesses to the abuse. The evidence is overwhelming! I—"
Caitlyn tried desperately to explain, thinking Grayson simply didn't understand the full scope of the situation.
But Grayson cut her off before she could finish presenting her case.
"I know. I know all of it. But do you know the most important fact?
"What Marcus and the others did, every single action, is completely legal."
"If you don't believe me, go read Piltover's Indentured Labor Employment Act. It's all written there in detail."
"Marcus, his enforcers, the labor contractors, the corporate heads, every action they took is legal and fully compliant."
She had to tell Caitlyn the cruel truth, to end this farce before it spiraled out of control.
If this continued, all it would accomplish was turning the so-called City of Progress into a global laughingstock. Nothing would actually change, and no one would benefit except their enemies.
"You're telling me that killing tens of thousands of people is legal?" Caitlyn staggered backward, nearly losing her balance, eyes wide with disbelief.
She could hardly believe there could be such an outrageous law.
She couldn't fathom that even someone like Grayson was standing there defending the words of a corrupt system.
Those were tens of thousands of human lives.
Tens of thousands of people with families, dreams, hopes!
Tens of thousands!
She could still understand Marcus to some degree, corruption born of desperation and moral compromise. But Grayson? This renowned sheriff?
If even Grayson was corruption, then aside from herself, were there any law enforcers left in Piltover Wardens who still stood for justice?
Did that mean Piltover Wardens were rotten all the way to its very core?
If she wanted to thoroughly investigate the indentured labor system and bring down Marcus, would her first step have to be completely dismantling the rot within Piltover Wardens themselves?
"I know it's hard to accept, but this is reality, not the idealistic world you learned about in training."
"Caitlyn, stop this. All you're doing is causing problems for Councilor Kiramman. You won't change anything. Just go home."
Grayson's voice was calm, numbly calm.
She had once been young and full of fire herself. She understood exactly how Caitlyn felt.
But she also knew, this was how Piltover actually worked.
Caitlyn couldn't change anything. All her struggle would be in vain, just like Cassandra's efforts, all those years ago when she was young and idealistic.