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ArabicArknights: The Holy Son's Leisurely Life — Chapter 38
Chapter 38: What Do You Like About Me?
“Are you entirely out of your mind?”
Miss Swire looked at him with genuine concern. Her soft, fair palm rested against Lucian’s forehead, the skin cool and carrying the faint, expensive scent of a bespoke Victorian perfume.
Although Swire had lived in Lungmen since childhood, her family hailed from Victoria, and their assets back in the homeland dwarfed even their massive holdings in Lungmen. She was the genuine first-in-line heir to the Swire family empire. The only reason she worked as a frontline officer in the Lungmen Guard Department was simply because she liked the city. If it came down to pure capital, the Swire family could likely buy Lungmen outright.
Yet, to this elite heiress of a capitalist dynasty ranked among the wealthiest in all of Terra, Lucian had just proposed a single, absurd condition for his hand in marriage: she had to provide the entirety of Victoria as his dowry.
Seeing that Lucian wasn’t actually running a fever, Swire slowly withdrew her hand. Her eyes narrowed. “My family does have a bit of money, it’s true. But to offer all of Victoria as a dowry? You would have to marry the Queen. No, even the Queen wouldn’t be enough, would she? Victoria’s political situation is highly volatile right now. If Her Majesty were to marry a foreigner, it would only fracture the nation. If you truly want all of Greater Victoria, you would have to marry the princesses of all three major factions simultaneously.”
“Hahaha, that does sound a bit difficult, doesn’t it?” Lucian scratched his cheek, offering a dry laugh in hopes of brushing the dangerous topic aside.
But Swire was not easily fooled. Even when deeply engrossed in matters of the heart, the young heiress’s mind remained as sharp and clear as a polished mirror.
She noted Lucian’s increasingly evasive expression and let out a soft, elegant snort. “Lucian, you should be able to guess my position. I am the heir to the Swire family. No matter how much I might like you, it is fundamentally impossible for me to decide my future husband based purely on personal preference. Political marriage, though terribly old-fashioned, is not a problem if it is necessary for the family. A personal life can be sold off without issue.”
Lucian offered no response. He knew this wasn’t a topic he could casually dismiss with a joke.
It was easy for ordinary people to gossip over tea and call political alliances stupid or tragic. But Swire was no naive, sheltered rich girl. Her personal competence, her tactical mind, and her sheer drive were entirely worthy of her privileged background. Because she understood her own worth, she accepted the heavy obligations that came with her noble blood. If the price was high enough, a true capitalist would sell the very rope used to hang them.
However, the Beatrix Swire that Lucian knew was not a woman who would ever quietly yield to fate.
She lifted her chin proudly, her fingers gripping Lucian’s arm a fraction tighter. “But do not misunderstand me. I am telling you this to show my determination. If my personal desires ever conflict with my family’s interests, I will find a way to force them to coexist. If reality does not match theory, I will simply modify reality until it does.”
“How terrifying. Is this what the women of the Swire family are like?” Lucian laughed, a note of genuine admiration in his voice. Calling her a tigress was far more than just a reference to her feline traits.
Swire would never let herself succumb to the crushing pressures of reality. It was why she could ignore the high-society gossip and work tirelessly on the streets to make Lungmen a better place. And it was precisely because of this unyielding nature that, once she fell for a man and decided she would marry no one else, she would prepare for the fallout with a hundred and twenty thousand percent effort.
Swire blinked, her golden eyes locking onto the man before her. “I investigated your background. A Laterano Sankta who somehow ended up drifting through Lungmen… such a profile is hardly common. Whether you are a high-profile criminal on the run or the illegitimate son of some powerful figure, I am already prepared for all the realistic and political pressures I can imagine. I have already drafted contingencies on how to handle them.”
“Laterano doesn’t have nobles, you know,” Lucian corrected her mildly, his tone perfectly even. “So, what did you find out? Who am I?”
Swire snorted indignantly, her tail flicking behind her. “It is precisely because I couldn’t find a single thing that I realized you are even more unfathomable than I initially imagined.”
Lucian remained noncommittal. He had expected exactly this outcome.
Laterano had never disavowed him as their Holy Son. He was merely away from home, not exiled or overthrown. Personally, Lucian wished they would overthrow him. He wished the Sankta of Laterano would finally come to their senses, realize they didn’t need a Saint sent by God, and just adopt a normal system to reform their nation.
Unfortunately, the Sankta race was far more stubborn than he had ever anticipated. They knew Lucian did not want to be disturbed, so they refrained from interfering with his quiet life in Lungmen. But they had never given up, firmly believing that their Saint would return to Laterano one day. The Apostolic Knights and the Pope had strictly sealed off all information regarding him from the top down. Coupled with the unique, empathic nature of the Sankta race, it was fundamentally impossible for foreign spies to infiltrate their networks.
Swire had mobilized all the vast intelligence resources of her family, pulling strings from both Lungmen and Victoria. In the end, it was like dropping a stone into the deep ocean. Not a single piece of credible intelligence floated back up.
She sighed deeply, the sound carrying a mix of exhaustion and fondness. “You Sankta are truly too strange. If it weren’t for you and Exusiai acting as two massive oddities, I would genuinely suspect your kind was a gestalt race. Like ants, controlled by a single hive consciousness. Are those halos on your heads really not receivers? Do they broadcast some kind of radio wave that controls all of you?”
Lucian’s expression turned subtly complicated. “It is hard to say. To some extent, it really does function a bit like that. That is why the Sankta strictly abide by the law, and why bribery is almost non-existent among our kind. But as you said, exceptions like me and Exusiai prove that people with different personalities do exist.”
“You are always so perfunctory with me. You never give me a single piece of accurate information.” Swire pouted, thoroughly unhappy that she could do absolutely nothing to crack this unyielding man.
If he had gotten angry upon learning she had secretly investigated him, Swire would have been thrilled. It would mean she had finally touched a sore spot, a crack in his armor. But Lucian truly did not care. That meant her efforts were aimed in the wrong direction, and she still hadn’t managed to make this man truly care about her actions.
Feeling a sudden wave of deflation, Swire dropped her gaze. She kept her hold on his arm, her calves swaying gently beneath the hem of her long skirt.
“Lucian. I like you.”
The brave young woman did not stop there. “You are the first man I have ever explicitly felt this way for since I was a little girl. I have thought about dating you. Going on real dates, visiting our favorite shops together. I have even dreamed of our wedding. Me, wearing a wedding dress I never cared much for before, and you, holding my hand and slipping a ring onto my finger.”
‘I am truly undeserving of this.’
Lucian was caught entirely off guard by the sheer force of her confession. It was a point-blank shot to the chest. He scratched his cheek, the laid-back facade cracking into genuine awkwardness. “So, following that logic… have you dreamed of something even deeper?”
“Do you want to hear it?” Swire did not flinch, her gaze burning directly into his. “If you want to hear it, I will tell you. But if you push me to say it and still refuse to take me seriously, I will truly hate you.”
‘I am sorry.’
Lucian felt as though he had been struck by a physical blow. His teasing nature evaporated, leaving him completely subdued. A completely serious Beatrix Swire was too terrifying; she gave him absolutely no room to dodge or deflect. It felt like a blatant abuse of her natural authority.
His mouth went dry. The physical reality of Swire pressed against his side, the warmth of her body and the soft sway of her tiger tail, suddenly became overwhelmingly clear.
He swallowed hard and asked, “May I ask a shameless question? Swire, why do you like me? Let alone Lungmen, even the most excellent, high-ranking elites in the entire world would gladly kneel at your feet just to be stepped on by you. So why choose me?”
“Why do you have to use the phrase stepped on, you absolute masochist?” Swire shot him a highly annoyed glare, but Lucian could feel the tension in her shoulders relax. Her mood had visibly improved.
No woman disliked being complimented, after all. When her charm was openly acknowledged by the man she had fallen for, it was impossible not to feel a flutter of joy.
Swire twirled a strand of her long blonde hair around her index finger, glancing up at him from the corner of her eye. “First, guess how I came to like you.”
“That is a bit difficult.” Lucian pondered for a moment, tracing his memories. “Was it… about half a year ago, when your attitude toward me drastically changed? When I was looking after that lost girl in your family’s shopping mall, and I played the piano to calm her down?”
Swire nodded repeatedly, her tiger ears twitching. “Ah, yes, that was when I first learned you could play the piano. You never show it off, but you clearly received high-level, aristocratic training since childhood. That was the exact moment I started to suspect your true identity. But that is not the whole answer. Keep guessing.”
“Then… the first time you arrested me, dragging me back to the LGD station for interrogation to take my statement?”
“No. Keep going.”
“When I took on that VIP escort mission and worked alongside you to take down the Ursus spy ring?”
“No.”
“When your family’s business rivals launched that terrorist attack, and I had you arrest the perpetrators while I personally went after their handler?”
“Wrong again.”
“Then it couldn’t possibly have been when your grandfather heard I had a good relationship with you, kidnapped me off the street into a minivan, and dragged me to the estate just so he could inspect me, could it?” Lucian finally raised both hands in a gesture of total surrender. “I really cannot guess anymore. Please just tell me.”
“Men are so spineless.” Swire curled her lips into a playful, stunning smile, easily the most beautiful expression she had worn during their entire date today. “The answer is all of the above.”
She stepped closer, closing the remaining distance between them. “If I were to list every moment, I could fill three entire pages. All the little events that happened after you arrived in Lungmen. Little by little, drop by drop. The smooth-talking Sankta who I initially thought was just a handsome face unknowingly became the man I think about day and night.”
She smiled sweetly. Her cheeks were flushed with a deep, rosy shyness, and the slight, nervous trembling of her tiger ears betrayed the intense emotional turmoil hidden beneath her confident exterior.
“You know everything now,” she whispered softly. “Beatrix Swire is a woman who, despite knowing the chances are slim, is foolishly pursuing you. If you have even the slightest fondness for this silly woman, and do not outright dislike her, I hope you can answer her honestly.”
The brave Miss Swire leaned in, her golden eyes shimmering with an unshed, liquid light under the city glow.
“Do you like me? Do I have a chance… and what exactly do I need to change to surpass the woman who already lives in your heart?”