Chapter 51: The Secretary Was Carried Away By a Lion

“The admiral…?” Luo Ran wasn’t just a little surprised. When he last spoke to Lucas, he had been only three hours away from M4 and now only a day and a half had passed, so how…?

Shen Xiluo and Lu Cheng supported Luo Ran back to the bed, where he dug out a bottle of painkillers from his pocket, swallowed a pill, and then waited for the pain in his head to subside.

This was different from ordinary headaches. A dull pain came from deep in his skull, depriving him of the ability to think. He had been fine when he was lying down and resting, but as soon as he had to focus on negotiating with the first prince for an extended time, his body couldn’t endure any longer.

“Yes!” Lu Cheng said. “Admiral really is back! He’s currently in the B4 system, already in Imperial territory!* Everyone in the Empire knows!”

Luo Ran rubbed his temples and leaned against the headboard. “He’s alone?”

“There’s a small team with him.”

“Colonel Lu!* Colonel Lu!” Lu Cheng’s radio once again transmitted the sound of the guard-captain below. “The first prince is going to force his way in!”

Lu Cheng’s eyes widened. Motherfucker, this guy’s too shameless!

“Colonel Lu! Major General Chen, Major General Mokka, and Lieutenant General Luo are here to stop them!”

Lucas was the head of the military and Luo Ran was his secretary, not to mention that everyone already tacitly recognised him as the admiral’s romantic partner.

Now that the royal family wanted to kidnap people, those officers at the military department each with tempers worse than the last naturally couldn’t sit idly by. They immediately brought their private soldiers here to help.

“Adjutant Lu.” Luo Ran, gripping the bed sheets, resisted the discomfort to say, “Don’t do anything!”

“Huh…?” Lu Cheng stopped.

“Don’t let our guards move, and more importantly, don’t let those people from the military department intervene!” Luo Ran said sternly. “Adjutant Lu, you go down and stop Lieutenant General Luo’s group right now! We must not do anything to injure the royal family’s people! Go, hurry up!”

The military department was already a sensitive topic, especially with how Lucas controlled more than half of the Empire’s military power. It would be bad if they ‘ran wild’ in the capital or, even worse, used weapons.

“Yes sir!” Luo Ran looked so serious that Lu Cheng became serious as well, and said through gritted teeth, “But, but if we don’t do anything, the first prince’s people will break in!”

“No, they can’t take me away,” Luo Ran smiled. “Isn’t the second prince also here? He won’t let me be taken away, that would mean letting the first prince ally with the military department.”

Lu Cheng was taken aback.

He didn’t understand it, but since Luo Ran said so, he’ll just do it!

Just as he turned to leave, Luo Ran pulled him to a stop and gave one last reminder. “Let the second prince help on his own initiative, you can’t speak to him or hint at him, much less ask him for help, do you understand?”

“Yes!”

After Lu Cheng left, Luo Ran’s breath became a little short, so he took another pill.

“Secretary Luo is still injured, the current situation is normal,” Shen Xiluo, who was standing nearby, said. “You just need to recuperate for a while.”

“Yeah,” Luo Ran nodded.

“I’ll remind you again — although the painkillers are effective, try not to take too much or else your body will develop resistance, and taking more drugs to overcome this will only hurt you in the long run.”

Luo Ran paused, then said, “I’ll do my best, but there’s no choice right now.”

Shen Xiluo pushed up his glasses by their frame. “As you are an SSS omega, my suggestion is to find a SSS alpha to assist you in pheromone soothing.”

“…” Luo Ran turned away. “Ah.”

He pretended not to hear it and turned on the radio Lu Cheng had left for him just in case.

As soon as it was turned on, he could hear a series of noisy shouts and collision sounds.

He frowned.

It seemed that the first prince’s people and the second prince’s people had started a dispute downstairs.

Luo Ran was on the hospital’s highest level, so he couldn’t hear anything directly. Everything was as peaceful as always up here, but things had already devolved into a mess down there.

He was silent for a moment, then turned and asked, “I’m a beta, wouldn’t it be fine if I went to the first prince’s lab?”

“Don’t even think about it, if you really went, do you think you can still hide your 3S omega identity?”

Although Luo Ran understood this rationally, he still felt uncomfortable just sitting there when it was so chaotic below, he wanted to solve this troublesome situation that happened because of himself.

Of course, he was most worried about causing trouble to Lucas and the military department.

“Ow…”

Luo Ran frowned and rubbed his head.

He couldn’t think anymore, thinking would only hurt.

“Secretary Luo, you lie down first,” Shen Xiluo said as he pressed him down, “stop thinking for now.”

* * *

At the hospital’s ground floor.

Neither the first prince nor the second prince showed their faces, they only sat in their respective hovercars and observed the situation.

The first prince’s guard-captain reached the hospital’s stairs before being stopped by the second prince’s guard-captain, and the two were in a stalemate for a while before the first prince’s guard-captain made the first move, wanting to use his shield to push his opponent out of the way.

The first prince was indeed in a hurry, because Lucas had already reached B4 and was about to arrive at the capital.

If he couldn’t finish things before then, he could only wait to be dealt with.

Zhou Mingyu was making a bet.

He would either draw the army to his side in one fell swoop and continue the experiments, or he would have to completely sever ties with Lucas.

“Please don’t interfere with official duties!” The first prince’s guard-captain shouted at the people blocking his way. “Secretary Luo hasn’t received adequate care and is unwell! His Highness wants to help him!”

Lu Cheng was nervously watching the situation from nearby.

He’d already persuaded people from the military department to retreat, but they were still guarding outside and refused to leave.

Bang——

Right then, the hospital’s main doors suddenly slammed open.

A tall and mighty man stood in the doorway with a terrifyingly fierce expression, his aura so overwhelming that people could barely breathe.

When Lu Cheng saw Lucas, he directly swore out loud.

He’s back…!

The admiral really came back!

Trembling with excitement, Lu Cheng ran up to him. “Admiral…! Secretary Luo said not to fight with the royals, so our people–”

Whoosh——

Before he could finish, Lucas unhesitatingly picked up a chair and threw it at the first prince’s guard-captain. “Why the hell’d I care about that!” he sneered.

The man’s expression was full of arrogance, resembling a lion with all its claws and teeth bared.

The guard-captain was knocked unconscious, and the scene went a little out of control for a while.

Lucas ordered his team to hold position outside, then leapt up the stairs himself with a sword in hand, shouting, “Everyone scram!”

With this, everyone was stunned.

Even the first and second princes came out of their hovercars.

The two entered the hospital, and what they saw was Lucas standing alone on the stairs, his condescending gaze, and the two teams who were previously entangled with each other standing aside. No one spoke a word.

“Don’t say our army is abusing its power in the capital! I’m standing here by myself, let’s see who dares to go up!” Lucas shouted. Then he directly pierced the sword into the ground with a boom.

Although Lucas’ sword was made out of the best materials that could be found in the Empire, both sharp and strong, how much strength did one need to be able to drive it into solid concrete?

The SSS-grade alpha unscrupulously unleashed his pheromones at this moment, completely crushing all the alphas and betas present.

Some people with lower spiritual strength had already started panting, unable to breathe freely.

The thick scent of tobacco swirled around them and pierced into their nasal cavities as if declaring sovereignty.

The second prince stood still, on the one hand controlling his breathing, and on the other hand watching this trainwreck in motion.*

Heh, he wanted to see how his beast of a brother could overcome this.

“Admiral…” First Prince Zhou Mingyu smiled and said, “Please calm down, we can find a way to cure Secretary Luo together.”

Lucas’ gaze fell on Zhou Mingyu.

Zhou Mingyu could feel the pheromone suppression targeting him, as if a pair of giant invisible hands were pressing on his shoulders, pressing him down until he couldn’t stand upright. The pheromones relentlessly invaded his mind, causing him stinging pain.

He silently resisted it, a few drops of sweat beaded at the corner of his forehead and he seemingly inadvertently held the table next to him for support.

“Zhou Mingyu, I heard you want to forcibly steal away my secretary?” Lucas sneered.

“You misunderstood,” Zhou Mingyu smiled. “It’s just that I noticed that Secretary Luo was forced to stay by Doctor Shen yet hasn’t received proper treatment, he was ill when we met. I originally wanted to understand the situation better in order to help, but who knew that Adjutant Lu would drag me out, so now I have reason to doubt Secretary Luo’s safety.”

Lucas raised an eyebrow.

Zhou Mingyu continued, “I’m very willing to help, whether now or before. Admiral, matters on M4 haven’t yet concluded, it isn’t appropriate for you to be here. I only want to take care of Secretary Luo for you, give him the best treatment, and bring him to the research team so that we can work together to solve the issue of UNK’s future.

“Secretary Luo is a beta, he won’t be affected by the side effects of UNK radiation but his power can save both the Empire and all other alpha and omega.”

“Now you’re just spouting bullshit, like hell I’d care if he’s a beta or omega!” Lucas said as he easily pulled the sword out. “You won’t touch him!”

On the floor, numerous cracks surrounding a small hole were revealed.

As soon as Lucas pulled out the sword, the atmosphere condensed.

The first prince’s soldiers tensed and silently clenched their weapons.

Lu Cheng watched all this in horror.

“Admiral, you’ve misunderstood, no one wants to hurt Secretary Luo!” Zhou Mingyu maintained his dignified appearance, only when someone got closer could they see the sweat on his brow. He frowned, saying, “Who was it that sent you misleading information, causing you to leave M4 early to come here? You don’t have to worry, Admiral, Secretary Luo is–”

Before he could finish, Lucas roared back, “You take care of yourself! My secretary is my responsibility, now that I’m here, no one else can interfere!”

“Admiral!” Shi Xiuqi, who was standing at Zhou Mingyu’s side, said in a suppressed voice and a red face, “You, uh, you’re speaking with His Highness the First Prince! How can you be so arrogant!”

Boom——!

Then, everyone saw Shi Xiuqi’s chubby body flying out like a football.

Lucas had picked up a chair and threw it at him with overwhelming force, so Shi Xiuqi flew out along with the chair.

Shi Xiuqi collapsed on the spot with his arm at a strange angle, the bone had presumably snapped.

This man who only knew how to cater to others for the sake of interests was in so much pain that his eyes were filled with stars. He curled into a ball and shivered in fright, not daring to speak.

Zhou Mingyu’s face was a sheet of white.

How did he forget that Lucas had never put the law in his eyes, this was a lunatic…!

“What are you doing, Admiral?” Zhou Mingyu asked coldly. “Will you act rudely? Here?”

Lucas sneered. He wasn’t afraid.

“Admiral.”

Lucas stopped.

Hearing a familiar warm voice from behind him, he turned around to see that Luo Ran had come down at an unknown time.

Luo Ran stood with one hand gripping the stair’s railings and the other hand holding onto an IV drip stand.

He was now suffering from pheromone disorder and his spiritual power was badly damaged, so Lucas’ aggressive pheromones combined with the swirling mixture of other alphas’ pheromones made him feel rather uncomfortable.

But he worried that if he didn’t come down, things would become even more chaotic. After all, he’d been monitoring things over the radio.

It didn’t matter who acted first or why they acted.

If Lucas’ forces did something in the capital, the one in the wrong must be him, no reason needed.

“Admiral,” Luo Ran, bracing himself, called again.

Lucas immediately stepped forwards and supported him by the waist. In a low voice, he asked, “Why did you come here?”

Glancing at the people below, he gestured for Lu Cheng to deal with it, then accompanied Luo Ran back upstairs.

When he took a closer look at Luo Ran, he saw his chalky white face and his foot which was still covered in a cast. Lucas paused, then simply swung him into his arms.

“Admiral…!” Luo Ran only felt his feet becoming weightless before he was picked up.

“Hush,” Lucas whispered, “I’m back, don’t worry.”

This simple sentence made Luo Ran freeze.

Actually, even if Lucas didn’t come back, he still had a way of solving the problem, he wasn’t a soft target to be bullied at the mercy of others.

But Lucas did come back.

Luo Ran smiled. “Mn.”

Lucas carried him back to his room, where he dropped him on the bed. “Sleep!”

I understand what Shen Xiluo said, Luo Ran thought.

At first, he did have a headache, but now that Lucas, a 3S alpha, was here and not emitting aggressive pheromones, a tobacco scent surrounded him and invisibly soothed his injuries, making him feel very comfortable.

So when Lucas got up to go back downstairs, Luo Ran subconsciously reached out and grabbed Lucas’ sleeve.

Lucas stopped.

Luo Ran abruptly came to his senses and retracted his hand, then turned his head away and said, “I-I wanted to ask, what’s going on on M4? Why did you come back?”

Lucas raised an eyebrow. “I won the first battle and came back after arranging things, now Wang Qiuyang is still there holding down the fort. Stop worrying, it’s just an M4. We can win no matter what we do.”

“Yeah.” Luo Ran lowered his eyes.

Lucas smiled, then sat down next to the bed again.

“Just let Lu Cheng take care of that mess down there,” he said. “Afterwards, I’ll take you to M4, we’ll leave at most three hours later.”

Luo Ran was taken aback. “Okay.”

“Go to sleep, don’t be scared.,” Lucas said, sitting by the bed. “I’ll stay right here.”

Lucas’ entire body was covered in dust, and he still carried hostility and filth from the battlefield. Truthfully, he looked a little out of place just sitting like this.

There was quite a distance between M4 and the capital. For the sake of getting here faster, it could be said that Lucas did absolutely everything in his power to speed up.

Luo Ran looked at Lucas’ sturdy and straight back. At this moment, he was using his terminal to contact Wang Qiuyang to follow up on the battle situation. He kept his voice low as they discussed countermeasures, presumably not wanting to disturb Luo Ran from slumber. 

Luo Ran’s heart moved. He got up, and then leaned against that wide, powerful back.

Lucas completely froze in place.

Luo Ran just slept against Lucas like this, not minding how uncomfortable his posture was.

And though Lucas still held his terminal, he didn’t dare to move, nor did he dare to speak.

With the warmth on his back, all the anger and frustration he came back with were smoothed away. They had only been separated for a few days, but he’d missed Luo Ran very much.

At this moment, he suddenly realised what he was feeling.

Lucas thought —

It’s over.

I fell.

—— XXXX ——

Three hours later, Lucas brought Luo Ran onto a warship, then set off for M4.

Before leaving, Luo Ran went to see Xia Zhi to report his safety. Shen Xiluo would also go with them; although he was worried about Xia Zhi, Luo Ran needed him more.

The first prince was unwilling, but he couldn’t stop them.

His options all disappeared the moment Lucas came back.

–He lost the bet.

No one thought that Lucas could use such a short time to conquer M4, then return so quickly.

It was insane.

On the warship, the prior scene was replicated — Luo Ran lay down, while Lucas sat nearby talking with Wang Qiuyang.

After a while, Lucas saw that Luo Ran truly fell asleep, so he got up and went to find Shen Xiluo.

“Admiral?”

Shen Xiluo was currently on the bridge, having a video call with Xia Zhi.

Lucas glanced at his terminal, then raised his eyebrows. “You reconciled with Doctor Xia?”

“Should be, I feel he’s treating me better,” Shen Xiluo said proudly. “It’s probably because I studied hard, and my skills finally satisfied him.”

Lucas: “…”

Fuck.

Lucas suddenly felt that he lost badly.

He and Luo Ran hadn’t even confessed to each other yet.

“Admiral, you don’t need to be discouraged, keep working hard.” Shen Xiluo encouraged Lucas very professionally.

“…”

Lucas snorted, then got to the point of his visit. “Luo Ran… is it really just a spiritual power problem?”

The expression on Shen Xiluo’s face didn’t change one iota as he pushed up his glasses. “Yes, it’s something unique to betas, resulting from resonance with the UNK’s electromagnetic field.”

“Can a beta really resonate with UNK?” Lucas frowned slightly.

He and Luo Ran had been with each other for so many years and they knew each other well.

But he suddenly wondered… Did he miss something?

“There has never been such a case before, but evidently, Secretary Luo did resonate with UNK as a beta,” Shen Xiluo said.

Lucas frowned harder.

In the time he recently spent with Luo Ran, the secretary would often act strangely as if seeing something that wasn’t there, and his reactions were slower.

His symptoms were exactly the same as those of omegas with pheromone disorder and spiritual power collapse.

“Could you have… misdiagnosed him?” Lucas asked slowly with furrowed brows.

“…” Shen Xiluo, feeling that his professionalism was being insulted, said sternly, “Admiral, please have more confidence in me. I won’t misdiagnose you even if you turn into an omega!”

“…”

“Else you suspect that your secretary is hiding his gender?”

“I don’t know.”

“Then you haven’t found anything even after so many years?” Shen Xiluo sighed and cast Lucas a sincerely loving look.

Although this question was to help Luo Ran hide his identity, it was also something Shen Xiluo truly thought. 

Lucas: “…”

“Shen! Xi! Luo!”

Just as Lucas was about to settle their accounts, the warship’s alarm suddenly sounded.

The alarm was so sharp that it woke everyone up. Lucas’ eyes froze, and then he reluctantly let go of his terrible friend and went to the monitoring room.

Adjutant Freeman, who had followed Lucas back on this trip, reported, “Pirates are chasing us!”

By now, they’d travelled for a day and were very close to M4. Presumably, these were pirates sent to reinforce their people on M4 and detoured to stop them by the way.

After all, the team Lucas brought was small and built for speed; the lower their defences, the faster they could move.

Lucas glanced at the red dot on the screen, then said, “It’s okay, we’ll fight them here and Wang Qiuyang will bring the rest of the army here to meet us.” He cracked his neck. “You stay here and wait for my orders!”

“Yes sir!”

Before setting out, Lucas turned to go to Luo Ran’s room.

Luo Ran had also been woken up by the alarm and had washed up, tidied himself, dressed, and was now ready to go at any time at Lucas’ instruction.

Lucas smiled and raised an eyebrow at this. “Oh? Secretary Luo, are you commanding the troops this time?”

Luo Ran only chuckled in reply. “I thought you would ask me to go with you.”

Lucas snorted a few times.

He’d guessed right.

Lucas worried that the pirates would be the same as last time, wanting to take Luo Ran as a hostage.

The main battleship he brought this time had few strong points other than its speed, so he would never be able to relax if he left the injured, mentally unstable Luo Ran behind on the ship.

He might as well bring him onto his mecha, where he could personally protect him.

“It’s just that the mecha will shake a bit,” Lucas said.

“That doesn’t matter, you don’t need to worry about me,” Luo Ran said seriously. “I can take it no matter how much it shakes, you pilot it as you like, Admiral.”

Although Luo Ran said so, since Lucas was bringing Luo Ran, he would naturally avoid the thick of the fighting.

“Let’s go.”

With his arm around Luo Ran’s waist, he brought him up the ladder and into the mecha.

Contrary to Luo Ran’s expectations, the mecha’s cockpit was rather spacious, to the point that he could lie flat.

Of course, he wouldn’t lie down.

This was the first time Luo Ran had gone into any mecha, so everything was very new to him. He kept looking around everywhere curiously.

The closed cockpit was well-lit, and the control panel in front was filled with dense buttons and other control surfaces.

Luo Ran found himself sitting on the warming cushion he gave Lucas before he left.

“How is it?” Lucas asked, “Is there anything uncomfortable?”

Logically speaking, this was an enclosed space, so Luo Ran should have been scared — however, Lucas was there and he could still see everything outside, so he felt quite good.

“Nothing.”

He picked up the operating manual placed inside the cockpit and endured his headache to read through it carefully.

“You don’t need to read that, you can’t pilot my mecha,” Lucas said as he activated Lion 01 with his fingerprints. “Mine is operated using pheromones and spiritual power, you don’t have them.”

Besides, other alphas couldn’t pilot it either. In this world, there were only two people who could: Lucas, and the omega who established a spiritual connection with Lucas.

“I know, I’m just curious.” Luo Ran matched the buttons in the manual to the control panel as he flipped through the booklet, looking very serious as he did so.

Luo Ran truly was curious.

Anyone would be curious about the one known as the Empire’s sharpest blade and strongest shield.

“We’re going,” Lucas said. “If you can’t get used to it, lean on me.”

“Okay.”

Lion 01 slowly rose, left the battleship, and rejoined the vast expanse of space at a steady speed.

Author:
Today’s is as thick and long as before! Ranran is going to pilot a mecha next chapter, so… eheheh he finally loses his disguise

Translator:
Why is the author so diligent… as much as I like it as a reader, I’m sick of translating 6k character chapters… (Ｔ▽Ｔ)

Footnotes:
1. He’s currently in the B4 system, already in Imperial territory [他现在还在B4荒星，但是已经在帝国范畴里]: each half of the sentence implies something directly contradictory somehow. I did my best.
2. Colonel Lu [陆队]: as far as I know 队 when used as a suffix refers to the leader of a squad of people (of nebulous size), so captain would be more correct, but damn I want more ranks than just admiral, adjutant, and captain.
3. Watching the trainwreck in motion [隔岸观火]: lit. watching a fire from the opposite bank [of a river]

隔岸观火