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ArabicArknights: The Holy Son's Leisurely Life — Chapter 31
Chapter 31: Is She Pretty?
“Siracusa is a country controlled by the Mafia. You know that, right?”
Texas murmured the question quietly, her slender, perfectly sculpted legs resting comfortably across Lucian’s lap. She was usually the epitome of a cool, aloof beauty—a Lupo who preferred silence over small talk and never breathed a word about her history. This sudden openness about her hometown was entirely new.
But in all honesty, Lucian’s attention was completely hijacked by the weight and warmth of the thighs resting beneath his palms.
He continued to knead the tense muscles with a secretly smug satisfaction, savoring the exquisite texture of her skin as he replied smoothly, “I’ve heard the Siracusan families are quite famous. Their movies are pretty well-known, too.”
The film Lin Yuxia had taken her father to see earlier was a classic Siracusan mob flick. Handsome older men in tailored suits smoking thick cigars—that was the universal hallmark of the Siracusan Mafia.
Texas gave a faint nod, snapping a chocolate Pocky stick between her teeth. “In Siracusa, anyone with even a sliver of status is tied to the families. To put it bluntly, any high-ranking official who tries to cut ties with the Mafia has long since become a corpse.”
Wow. How terrifying.
Lucian didn’t have much interest in politics. Laterano was a strict theocracy where faith and government were one and the same. Having grown up as the Holy Son, he genuinely couldn’t fathom a nation run entirely by mobsters.
Texas shifted, stretching her legs with a subtle arch of her lower back, a silent cue for his hands to move higher.
Lucian naturally obliged. His thumbs swept over the delicate curve of her knees, moving upward to massage the soft, firm thighs that practically every man in Terra would kill to touch.
“The Siracusan Mafia operates differently from the gangs in other nations,” Texas continued, her tone flat. “They exist entirely as families. They believe blood ties run deeper than anything else. Even when they absorb outsiders, it’s mostly through marriage alliances or sworn brotherhood.”
As a Lupo, her race was the dominant demographic in Siracusa. Much like wolves in the wild, the Lupo were fiercely bound by pack dynamics, trusting only their own kind. With varying tiers of hierarchy, Siracusa was a web of countless Mafia families, big and small. Their influence was so deeply intertwined that the entire nation, from the highest office to the lowest street corner, was inseparable from the underworld.
At that scale, they weren’t just criminal syndicates; they were the structural foundation of the country.
“Sounds pretty interesting, doesn’t it?” Lucian mused, his fingers working a knot out of her calf. “A system like that would definitely be more reliable than your average street gang.”
“No.” Texas’s eyes narrowed, a cold shadow falling over her amber irises. “It just means that when you draw your blade, the chances of killing a blood relative are much higher.”
She delivered the chilling statement with absolute, terrifying calm. Then, her voice dropped a fraction.
“The Siracusan Mafia has fallen. Blood ties, loyalty, family… those things mean nothing in the face of capital.” She closed her eyes, the ghosts of her past flickering behind her eyelids. “As long as the profit margins are high enough, even the most sheltered young wolf will stab the alpha in the back. The rules we once held as absolute faith are trampled into the dirt, stained with foul blood. The old Siracusan wolf pack is dead. All that’s left is a mob of scavengers fighting over scraps.”
Lucian fell silent. He simply watched her, momentarily stunned.
The usually taciturn Lupo rarely strung so many words together, let alone such poetic, bitter lines. Misinterpreting his silence, Texas assumed he was repulsed.
She broke eye contact, her gaze darting toward the window as she spoke in a rushed, quiet confession. “I ran away from that rotten place. I’ve killed people, Lucian. I’ve killed my own blood relatives. You can despise me for it, there’s nothing I can do to change it. I’m just an executioner who can never wash the blood off her hands. If you hate it… I’ll move out of here immediately. I won’t ever see Exusiai or the others again.”
‘…’
Texas shifted uncomfortably, rubbing her legs together beneath his hands. “Say something. Or are you so disgusted you don’t even want to look at me?”
“Ah, no. I’m just a little surprised.” Lucian blinked, snapping out of his daze with an amused smile. “Texas, you actually care about what other people think. That’s a first.”
“…It’s not about other people. It’s about you all.”
A faint flush crept up her pale neck. The emphasis on ‘you all’ proved that she had finally opened her heart to Penguin Logistics, accepting them as her true pack. And the fact that she was only revealing this to him made Lucian’s mind fast-forward a bit. Did she consider him the closest of them all?
Oh man, this girl is too cute.
Disarmed by her rare, shy vulnerability, Lucian fought the sudden urge to pull her into a hug and ruffle her ears. Instead, he clicked his tongue, his hands resuming their gentle rhythm on her thighs.
“You’re really silly. Anyone who’s seen you wield a sword—even Croissant, with her meathead brain—could guess what you used to do for a living. We never brought it up because we don’t care. Besides, you haven’t sliced anyone to ribbons since you moved to Lungmen, have you? Look at you, being a rule-abiding citizen.”
Texas frowned, her blush deepening. “That’s only because you’re so annoying, always nagging me to use the blunt side of the blade… If the situation calls for it, I will cut people down without hesitation.”
“Hmm. If there’s a real need for it, I’ll be relying on you,” Lucian replied, his tone light but his eyes serious. “I’m not going to spout naive nonsense like ‘never kill.’ When it’s necessary to pull the trigger, I’ll be right there killing alongside you.”
Terra was a brutal world. Lucian wasn’t foolish enough to believe that hiding out in Lungmen meant his hands would stay clean forever. If anyone dared to threaten Exusiai, Texas, or by extension Hoshiguma and Swire, he wouldn’t hesitate. He would draw his gun and fire as many rounds as it took to bury the threat.
So, Texas’s bloody past didn’t shock him in the slightest. What surprised him was her dramatic delivery, bringing a teasing smirk to his lips.
“Let me guess. You come from a highly bred noble family, don’t you? Siracusa’s theater and arts scene is famously developed, and those lines just now were delivered with absolute flair. Why don’t you try debuting in Lungmen’s entertainment industry? You’d be an overnight sensation.”
“Are you mocking me?” Texas pouted, her annoyance flashing as she lightly kicked his stomach.
For Lucian, the soft impact of her thigh against him was purely a bonus. He chuckled, catching her ankle. “I don’t mean it like that. I mean… this letter.” He gestured to the envelope on the table. “The one I can’t read, but has beautiful handwriting. Was it sent by one of your family members?”
Texas froze, momentarily speechless.
She had almost forgotten. Lucian usually played the part of a lazy, laid-back shopkeeper, but beneath that facade, his intuition was terrifyingly sharp. She sighed, the tension bleeding out of her shoulders.
“She isn’t my family. We were born into different bloodlines. But she… the woman who wrote this, is my past. If I hadn’t come to Lungmen, if I hadn’t met all of you, I would still be exactly like her.”
Texas looked at Lucian, her amber eyes burning with a fierce, desperate light. “She will definitely come for me. To drag me back into the dark, she will stop at nothing. But I don’t want to go back. So, Lucian… if that day comes, I hope you don’t look at me. If I have to draw my blade and cut her down, I don’t want you to see the monster I used to be.”
This was the true core of her confession.
The letter itself couldn’t shake the current Texas; she had severed her ties with the mafia. She was simply Texas of Penguin Logistics now. But a ghost from her past was hunting her down, determined to drag her back into the blood-soaked abyss. If that woman threatened her new life, Texas would have no choice but to settle the score and kill her.
That was her greatest fear. She could tell Lucian about her sins, but she absolutely refused to let him watch her become a ruthless butcher again. It was a humble, almost pleading request from the proud Lupo.
Lucian looked at her, his expression turning deeply serious as he processed the gravity of her words. He leaned forward, his voice earnest and hushed.
“Texas, this person you mentioned… is she good-looking?”