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ArabicArknights: The Holy Son's Leisurely Life — Chapter 40
Chapter 40: Swire’s Date
At Swire’s unyielding insistence, Lucian found himself dragged through the gilded doors of a luxury hotel in the heart of Dagu Plaza.
This was the highest vantage point in all of Lungmen. The presidential suite, reserved exclusively for the absolute upper echelon of society, boasted a sweeping, curved wall of floor-to-ceiling glass. Beyond the pristine panes, the sprawling neon grid of the nomadic city stretched out into the night. Just snapping a single photo of this view and tossing it onto social media would be enough to fuel a lifetime of bragging rights for an ordinary citizen.
Just how much does one night in this place cost…? Lucian felt his liver tremble at the thought.
Miss Swire didn’t need a black card, a gold card, or even a rainbow-tier VIP pass. Her face was the only currency required. She strolled over to the edge of the massive, silk-sheeted king bed, sat down, and patted the mattress beside her.
“Come on. Sit.”
…Young miss, aren’t you the least bit worried about your own people getting the wrong idea?
Lucian was thoroughly impressed, mentally bowing to Swire’s sheer audacity.
This was her family’s property. Every single employee in the building recognized her as the eldest miss of the Swire consortium. Yet here she was, brazenly bringing a man up to the penthouse. Regardless of what she actually intended to do, the act alone was pure scandal fuel. Tomorrow’s front-page tabloids across Lungmen would practically print themselves.
Swire, however, didn’t look the least bit concerned. She leaned back, completely candid.
“I mean, I’m not some sheltered, underage student. I’m a Senior Inspector of the Lungmen Guard Department, you know?” She crossed her legs, the fabric of her dress shifting. “At my age, and still unmarried, I’m already a regular fixture in the gossip columns. I could just be swapping shift reports with my subordinates, and the media would spin it into some sensational, steamy inside story. At this point, do you really think I give a damn about what they write?”
“…Hmm, that actually makes perfect sense,” Lucian said. “You must be exhausted.”
He felt a genuine pang of sympathy for her. Given her monolithic family background and elite status, the suffocating attention and pressure she had endured since childhood would have crushed an ordinary person.
A typical wealthy heiress might have reveled in that attention, casually throwing her weight around and abusing her power. But Swire was fiercely disciplined. As the sole designated heir to a massive financial empire, she had voluntarily subjected herself to the standard exams, climbed the ranks step by step according to the rules, joined the Lungmen Guard Department, and spent years grinding her way up to her current position.
The trashy media, of course, attributed all her success to her family’s deep pockets.
But anyone with half a brain knew that if Swire truly wanted to abuse her family’s influence, she wouldn’t just buy a promotion—she could practically buy Lungmen itself.
Unfortunately, the general public was too lazy to weigh the logic. They just wanted juicy drama. That was why Swire claimed she was used to it.
Lucian respected that core of iron within her. It was exactly why he refused to treat her casually.
He didn’t obey her invitation to join her on the mattress. Instead, he dropped down and sat cross-legged on the thick, plush carpet right in front of her.
“Seriously, what exactly is your endgame here? Why are you suddenly doing something that drags your reputation through the mud?”
“I told you.” Swire’s expression turned dead serious, her calves swaying gently over the edge of the bed. “If reality doesn’t match what I hope for, I’ll just change reality until it does.”
“I originally planned to take my time. To try harder and naturally become number one in your heart,” Swire confessed, her voice dropping a fraction. “But after hearing those cheesy love words of yours, I ended up way more moved than I expected. So I made a decision. No matter the outcome, I’m going to force a fait accompli.”
Her eyes burned bright, radiating the fierce, heroic spirit of a general stepping onto a battlefield.
Lucian was a realist who never lied to himself, and Swire operated on the exact same wavelength.
Her original strategy had been simple: win over the woman currently occupying his heart, and use every resource available to make him marry into the Swire family.
But after hearing his confession, she realized her own emotional investment was far deeper than she had calculated. More, her biggest reservation had vanished. Lucian’s ambiguous attitude toward her hadn’t been because he was blindly obsessed with his first love, but due to harsh, realistic constraints.
That realization shattered Swire’s restraint.
She lifted her chin and puffed out her chest, delivering her words with the absolute candor of a declaration of independence.
“Lucian, I like you! Whether you have someone else you like or not, whether I’m the only one in your heart or not, it doesn’t change the fact that I like you!”
She leaned forward, her gaze locking onto his. “I know you still have Exusiai in your heart. Maybe Texas and Croissant too. Hell, maybe even Ch’en Hui-chieh holds a higher place in your affections than I do!”
“But it doesn’t matter! I’m the type of woman who gets more fired up the more rivals I have. No matter how steep the climb, I will never back down! As long as I have even a tiny sliver of space in your heart, I will absolutely snatch you away! I’ll outperform every single one of them and make you love me so much you won’t be able to breathe without me!”
“Okay, let’s calm down a second, Miss Swire… Don’t do anything impulsive,” Lucian said, genuinely taken aback by the sheer heat of her enthusiasm.
He didn’t even know how to properly respond. It honestly made him wonder if he had somehow unlocked a passive ‘mature woman charm’ attribute.
Seeing him maintain his defensive distance, Swire pressed the attack. She slipped off the bed, squatting on the carpet right in front of him, and boldly took his hands in hers.
“Is there something else you need to explain? I won’t force you, you know. If you look me in the eye and say you genuinely don’t like me—that you feel absolutely nothing for me—I can just cry and run home. You’d unlock the rare achievement of utterly devastating Miss Swire with heartbreak, turning her into a reclusive, decadent mess locked in her room for half a year. You could proudly brag about it at the bar.”
“Wow, that’s a terrifyingly specific scenario… Wait, is half a year supposed to be a long time or a short time?”
Lucian almost laughed despite the heavy atmosphere. Her precise prediction of her own depressive spiral was entirely too on-brand.
Of course, Lucian didn’t dislike her. Just as he had confessed earlier, he liked Swire entirely too much to ever hate her. And here she was, offering him an out, telling him he didn’t have to take any responsibility.
Her feelings were genuine, raw, and burning hot. Lucian felt his own resolve swaying under the weight of her overwhelming affection.
But he couldn’t just be irresponsible.
He might be a scoundrel when it came to the sheer number of women he cared for, but he refused to be a scoundrel regarding the consequences of his actions.
His expression sobered. He reached out, firmly gripping Swire’s shoulders.
“Wait, Swire. Listen to me. I don’t want to be in some temporary, fleeting relationship with you. If we’re going to be together, let’s be together for life.”
Swire let out a soft, strangled squeak. Her entire body froze.
For all her bold impulsiveness, the wealthy young miss was surprisingly pure when it counted. The word “lifetime” had completely short-circuited her brain.
Seizing the opening, Lucian sat up straighter, gently pulling her back a few inches so they were facing each other properly on the floor.
He looked her dead in the eye, his tone earnest.
“It was my fault for always deflecting and acting perfunctory with you. I did it because I didn’t want you getting dragged into the mud on my account. You’re the eldest miss of the Swire family, and a high-ranking superintendent of the Lungmen Guard Department. You already endure enough vicious rumors, don’t you? What kind of man would I be if I manufactured even more gossip, dragging your name down?”
It was an unspoken truth. As the crown jewel of Lungmen’s foremost capitalist dynasty, her decision to become a police officer was a lightning rod for controversy. Setting aside the internal politics of the Guard Department, the bitter, envious masses out in the streets didn’t care about Swire’s actual competence or arrest record. Whatever she achieved, they credited to her connections. They desperately wanted her to be nothing more than a spoiled heiress coasting on nepotism.
If Lucian were in a position to stand openly by her side and shield her, it would be fine. A straight tree fears no crooked shadow, and rumors naturally die out over time.
But the current Lucian couldn’t do that. That was the core reason he had always kept her at arm’s length.
“I will have to leave Lungmen one day,” he said sternly. “I need to pursue my childhood sweetheart. I cannot give up on that.”
He paused, letting the weight of his reality settle between them. “And even if I stayed in Lungmen permanently, I still have to run down to the Slums every few days. It wasn’t a big deal when I was just a nobody, but if I openly got involved with you? The media would magnify my actions a hundred times over. Unless Lungmen suddenly decides to embrace the Slums, my presence in your life will only bring you negative press.”
Swire carried a crushing burden that no one else could truly comprehend. Even Ch’en Hui-chieh, for all her rigid ideals, could afford to be reckless. If Ch’en wanted to go rogue, she could abandon her ties and do as she pleased; her chains were far lighter.
But Swire could never abandon her family’s empire to elope with a man. If she threw away the name Swire, she would cease to be herself.
Swire understood this harsh reality perfectly, which only fueled her legendary stubbornness.
She bit her lower lip, her eyes flashing. “Then when will that day come? When will Lungmen accept the Slums?!”
Before he could answer, she barreled forward. “I’ll just have to work harder! Once I climb to the absolute top of the Lungmen Guard Department, once I completely control my family’s board, I’ll rip Wei Yenwu right out of his seat!… But how many years is that going to take? If you go off and get married in the meantime, playing the reformed, devoted husband, wouldn’t I suffer a massive loss?!”
“Well…”
Lucian was left awkwardly speechless.
Wait, the way she phrased that… aren’t I a good man right now?
And setting aside whether he would actually get married, she made it sound like tying the knot was the only thing stopping him from cheating. Was he really that kind of guy in her eyes?
Swallowing his internal grumbling, Lucian awkwardly cleared his throat.
“No, no, I won’t get married. If you’re that worried about it, let’s make a deal: I absolutely will not get married until you finish reforming Lungmen.”
“Are you serious?!”
Swire’s eyes instantly ignited like flare-lights.
She lunged forward, grabbing Lucian’s hands in a vice grip, nodding frantically as if terrified he might take the words back.
“I agree! I agree! It’s a deal! I’ll seize total control of all my family’s businesses as fast as humanly possible, and then I’ll take down Wei Yenwu! I’ll reach out to Lin Yuxia and Old Lin down in the Slums, and I’ll force the Slums to become an official part of Lungmen! We will absolutely integrate the Infected!”
“I believe you.”
Lucian smiled, a wave of relief washing over him. He felt as though he had just given the heavy wheel of history a slight, necessary push.
…And then, right at the absolute peak of the moment.
Lucian and Swire sat on the carpet, hands tightly clasped, gazing at each other with deep, mutual affection.
BANG!
The heavy oak doors of the presidential suite were violently kicked open.
“Lungmen Police! Room check! Everyone put your hands on your heads and get on the floor!”
The pride of the Lungmen Guard Department, Senior Superintendent Ch’en Hui-chieh—Officer Ch’en herself—burst into the room alone, her hand resting threateningly on her sword hilt.
Her sharp eyes instantly locked onto the two figures sitting entirely too close together on the carpet.
When her gaze shifted to Lucian, the temperature in the room plummeted. She stared at him with the cold, dead-eyed disgust usually reserved for rotting kitchen waste.
Lifting her chin, Ch’en spoke in a clipped, authoritative tone.
“According to a tip from an enthusiastic citizen, someone is engaging in illicit activities in this room. Please cooperate with the investigation and accompany me back to the Lungmen Guard Department for a cup of tea.”
“You [Lungmen expletive] Rice Noodle Roll Dragon! You ruined my moment!”
Swire, completely unhinged by the interruption, assaulted a superior officer on the spot. The two high-ranking L.G.D. dragons instantly tackled each other, wrestling violently across the expensive hotel carpet and leaving Lucian sitting there as the ultimate third wheel.
As he watched the catfight with a speechless, dry smile, a towering figure stepped through the ruined doorway.
Big Sister Hoshiguma, who had clearly tagged along with Ch’en, strolled over and sympathetically patted Lucian on the shoulder.
“It’s tough being a popular guy,” she noted dryly. “You really need to be more self-aware and protect yourself when you’re alone with women.”
“Isn’t that completely backwards?” Lucian muttered, staring at the two brawling women. “Am I really the one in danger here?”
Comforted by Big Sister Hoshiguma’s heavy hand on his shoulder, Lucian felt deeply confused, genuinely beginning to question his own perception of reality.