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ArabicArknights: The Scarlet Devil of Terra — Chapter 23
Chapter 23: First Meeting with a Rich Kitty
After landing lightly on the pristine pavement, Flandre strolled at a leisurely pace, her crimson eyes curiously taking in the opulent surroundings of the wealthy district. The morning air was crisp, carrying the faint scent of manicured gardens and expensive perfumes.
Before she had gone very far, she rounded a sharp corner and collided straight into another figure.
“Waaah!” Flandre clutched her puffy mob cap with both hands, losing her balance and falling squarely onto her bottom.
“Ah!” a pained female voice echoed from the other side of the collision.
The stranger quickly recovered, her gaze dropping to the small girl on the ground. She hurried over, her posture softening. “Little sister, are you alright?”
Flandre looked up. Standing over her was a tall, striking feline with vibrant golden hair and a pair of twitching cat ears.
Flandre blinked. Her inherited memories immediately supplied an identity. This was none other than one of Terra’s most famous wealthy elites, the very Operator known from the ‘Don’t Level Swire’ meme in her past life—Beatrix Swire.
Earlier, Flandre had wondered why she was bumping into people when Wei Yenwu had explicitly promised this area would be deserted. Seeing the golden-haired feline made it all make sense. Ordinary citizens could never afford to set foot in this exclusive district, but for a wealthy heiress like Swire, this was practically her backyard.
At that moment, Swire’s gaze shifted, locking onto the strange, crystalline bat wings protruding from Flandre’s back. Her feline ears pinned back slightly.
“You’re a Sarkaz. A Vampire.”
“That’s right,” Flandre said, tilting her head with an innocent, unblinking stare. “Is the kitty scared?”
Swire hesitated for a fraction of a second, her eyes darting over the small girl. Then, she extended a gloved hand. “I believe that someone allowed to live in this district wouldn’t be a dangerous person.”
“You’re wrong,” Flandre replied bluntly, ignoring the hand for a moment. “In the eyes of Chief Executive Wei Yenwu, Flandre is a very dangerous person. That is exactly why I was arranged to live in this deserted place.”
She raised a small finger, pointing toward the sprawling, isolated villa sitting at the far end of the street.
Swire followed her gaze. It was the most remote property in the entire district. Coupled with the rumors that the surrounding estates had recently been bought out by a mysterious buyer, the silence of the neighborhood suddenly felt heavy.
It was precisely because of this quiet isolation that Swire had chosen this route for her morning run. Now, the pieces fell into place—the mysterious buyer was the Chief Executive himself.
Why Wei Yenwu would allow a Sarkaz Vampire into Lungmen, only to place her under what amounted to luxurious house arrest, was entirely beyond Swire’s understanding. But her sharp aristocratic mind quickly deduced one absolute truth. There were no L.G.D. cordons, no warning signs prohibiting entry, and no hidden guards had stopped her from jogging through the area.
In other words, Wei Yenwu suspected this girl might be a threat to large crowds, but he wasn’t entirely certain. Hence, this awkward, half-measured quarantine. Therefore, interacting with her was neither a crime nor an immediate death sentence.
“Perhaps you were dangerous once,” Swire said, her confident smile returning. “But since the Chief Executive trusts you enough to leave you unguarded, how can I, as a citizen of Lungmen, claim his judgment is wrong?”
Without waiting for permission, Swire reached down and pulled Flandre up to her feet.
Flandre dusted off her dress, looking at the golden-haired feline with renewed interest. “You’re a nice person. Flandre approves of you. From today on, you are Flandre’s friend.”
“Is your name Flandre?” A genuine smile curved on Swire’s lips. “I’m Beatrix Swire. You can call me Beatrix. I’m glad to be your friend.”
“Flandre’s name is Flandre Scarlet. Flandre is just a short version, and I like it when people call me Flandre,” the little vampire nodded seriously.
“So that’s how it is. Well, it’s very nice to meet you, little Flandre.” Swire reached out, gently shaking Flandre’s small hand.
After a brief exchange of pleasantries, Swire resumed her morning run, her golden hair bouncing with each step, while Flandre continued her aimless walk along the quiet road.
Before long, a detailed report of their brief encounter was placed directly onto Wei Yenwu’s mahogany desk.
“That little girl from the Swire family just returned to Lungmen, right?” Wei Yenwu murmured softly, the faint glow of his pipe illuminating the dim office.
“Correct. She submitted her application to join the L.G.D. just yesterday,” Madam Fumizuki’s elegant voice drifted from the shadows at the side of the room. “Since the new director of the L.G.D. hasn’t been officially decided yet, her application report is sitting right there on your desk.”
Wei Yenwu exhaled a thin plume of smoke. “According to Talulah, this Miss Flandre Scarlet is someone who deeply values friendship and keeps her promises. If she has already taken a liking to the Swire girl… then the L.G.D., huh? That is indeed a good place to anchor her.”
Reaching into the neat pile of documents, Wei Yenwu pulled out Beatrix’s application, picked up his pen, and decisively signed his name.
On the other side of the city, Flandre had finished her morning walk. She returned to the cavernous, empty villa, pulled a heavy book from the shelf, and sat down to read with great interest.
In the distant past, trapped within the basement of the Scarlet Devil Mansion, she hadn’t been allowed to go outside. Her only forms of entertainment had been reading books and playing with her dolls. She had consumed centuries’ worth of literature, but this was a brand new world, and the text in her hands was entirely foreign.
The official script of Yan was not the Simplified Chinese she remembered from her past life’s memories, but the structural roots were similar enough to decipher. Though her reading started off slow and stumbling, her terrifying cognitive speed quickly bridged the gaps. With every page turned, the characters clicked into place, and her reading grew smoother.
In the late afternoon, just as the sun began to dip below the horizon and cast long, bleeding shadows across the floorboards, an unexpected knock echoed through the quiet house.
Flandre closed her book, hopped off her chair, and opened the heavy front door.
Standing on the porch was Madam Fumizuki. Behind her, concealed perfectly within the fading light, were several elite ninja guards. Flandre’s crimson eyes immediately caught sight of a familiar figure among them—a tall female ninja carrying a massive shuriken on her back. Her memories identified her as Shirayuki.
“Please come in!” Flandre stepped aside, gesturing into the dark foyer.
“Pardon the intrusion, Miss Flandre Scarlet,” Fumizuki said, her tone warm and polite as she stepped over the threshold.
“No need to be so formal. Just call me Flandre.”
Madam Fumizuki gracefully scanned the interior of the living room, her eyes eventually landing on the open book resting on the table. A pleasant smile graced her lips. “I was originally worried that you wouldn’t understand the Yan script. I was planning to find a private tutor for you, but I didn’t expect you to already be capable of reading it.”
“I learned some before,” Flandre said, guiding her guest to the sitting area. “Although my memory is a bit fuzzy, it’s not a big problem. Besides, since I can speak the language of Yan, it’s only natural that I learn how to read it.”
Fumizuki took a seat, her sharp eyes taking in the cold, pristine emptiness of the massive living space. “Is this house too big for you?”
“It’s okay. In the past… Flandre got used to it.”
Flandre briefly thought of the sprawling, endless corridors of the Scarlet Devil Mansion and her sister, but she swallowed the words. Explaining her true origins would only lead to a mountain of tedious questions, and Flandre hated tedious things.
“From now on, I will arrange for a dedicated staff to come and help you clean every three days,” Fumizuki offered gently. “After all, living entirely alone means there are many places you simply cannot take care of. If a house this size isn’t maintained, problems will eventually arise.”
“Then I’ll trouble you,” Flandre agreed readily.
Back in her old world, a certain time-stopping maid and a swarm of little fairy devils had always handled the cleaning, so she never had to lift a finger. During her brief time in the Ursus tundra, Alina had helped maintain their small shelter. But this villa was a massive, multi-story luxury estate with a basement and a sprawling backyard. Cleaning it by herself sounded like an absolute nightmare.
Seeing Flandre agree so decisively, the maternal smile on Fumizuki’s face deepened. She leaned forward slightly. “Tell me, what does Flandre usually like to do when she’s all alone?”
Flandre scratched her cheek, thinking it over. She had many interests, but boiling them down was tricky.
“Flandre likes to read books, listen to stories, and play all by herself!” she replied with a bright, innocent nod.
Fumizuki’s smile held steady through the first two items, but her expression subtly froze at the last one. Play all by herself…
Just how crushing must the centuries of isolation have been for this child to say such a heartbreaking thing with a smile? For a fleeting moment, Madam Fumizuki’s maternal instincts completely overflowed, a deep ache settling in her chest.
A subtle shift in the posture of the ninja guards behind her snapped Fumizuki back to reality. She cleared her throat delicately.
“Cough… It’s like this. The Chief Executive was worried that you would be too bored living here alone with nothing to do. So, he took the liberty of arranging a formal identity for you.”
Fumizuki reached back, accepted a sleek identification card from one of the guards, and handed it to Flandre.
Flandre took the card, her eyes scanning the embossed text. “Hmm? Specially Invited Expert of the L.G.D. Special Inspection Unit?” She looked up at Fumizuki in confusion.
“Flandre, as a Sarkaz Vampire, you must be intimately familiar with the nature of blood,” Fumizuki explained smoothly. “Lungmen considers itself a very safe city, but wherever there are masses of people, darkness inevitably breeds. There are those who do truly evil things and hurt innocent people.”
Fumizuki’s gaze grew serious. “The duty of the L.G.D. is to hunt down these criminals. The Special Inspection Unit, in particular, is responsible for the most vicious, dangerous predators among them. The Chief Executive believes your unique talents could greatly assist their investigations. Of course, you don’t need to report for duty every day. You only need to help point them in the right direction when they encounter a particularly gruesome or troublesome case.”
Fumizuki paused, her tone softening. “, if an opportunity arises to establish contact with little Talulah’s side, he hopes you might lend a hand when the time comes.”
Flandre nodded slowly, slipping the ID card into her pocket. She had no objections. Doing whatever she wanted on weekdays and occasionally hunting down bad guys to spice up her eternal life sounded like a fun game. Besides, after being away for a few days, she had to admit she missed Alina’s gentle presence.
“By the way, it’s getting quite dark,” Fumizuki noted, gesturing toward the dying embers of the sunset outside the massive windows. “Aren’t you going to turn on a light?”
“Oh, I have night vision,” Flandre replied matter-of-factly. “Whether the lights are on or off doesn’t affect my vision at all.”
“But only when the lights are on will the outside world know someone is home. Light represents life, little one.”
Ignoring the sudden, terrified stiffening of her hidden guards, Madam Fumizuki reached out and gently patted Flandre’s head.
The golden hair was incredibly soft and smooth. Despite not having taken a bath, Flandre’s daily use of passive magical cleansing kept her entirely pristine.
Flandre blinked, leaning slightly into the touch. “Oh. Alright!”
“It’s getting late, so I will take my leave now. Remember to turn on the lights at night!” Fumizuki reluctantly withdrew her hand, offered a graceful nod, and walked out the front door, her shadows melting out of the room behind her.
Once they were safely outside and the heavy door clicked shut, one of the elite guards materialized beside Fumizuki, his voice tight with lingering dread.
“Madam, that was far too dangerous just now.”
Fumizuki didn’t break her stride as she approached the waiting car. “What do you mean, dangerous? If she truly harbored any hostility toward me, none of you would have been able to protect me anyway.”
She paused with her hand on the car door, glancing back at the villa as a warm, golden light finally flickered on in the living room window.
“If she doesn’t have any hostility, there is no harm in stepping a little closer.”
With a dismissive wave of her hand, Madam Fumizuki got into the car, leaving the quiet, illuminated house behind in the dark.