Chapter 528: Manifestation of Influences
Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
Sensing Lucien’s silence, Natasha asked rather confusedly, “You don’t like me being so straightforward?”
“No, I love your spontaneity and your aggressiveness. You wouldn’t be the Natasha that I love if you cringe shyly.” Lucien expressed his feelings, too. “However, I feel that what your said was too ‘tough’, and it was more suitable for a man to say.”
That was because the original quote left a deep impression on Lucien.
Natasha snorted and grimaced, “In fact, when I said that, I had imagined a scene in my mind, where I played Moonlight, building a peaceful, slightly sorrowful atmosphere, before I left the piano, walked to your front, fell on one of my knees, grabbed your hand, kissed the back of your hand, looked at you in your eyes, and confessed my love to you emotionally. Haha.”
Lucien was amused. Had Natasha duplicated the romantic confession of love that she planned for Sylvia to him?
After laughing for a while, Natasha said delightedly, “I was just kidding. I know that you don’t like it. But to be honest, it’s quite strange. I used to be a knight who was so good at romance, but why are the topics always diverted to strange courses, ruining the atmosphere, whenever I want to talk sweetly to you?”
“You are good at romance and sweet talk? As I recall, I was the one who taught you that confession.” with a smile, Lucien teased Natasha.
Natasha raised her voice and argued solemnly, “That’s only one of them. I’m adept at sweet talking. It was exactly based on romance and sweet talks that I won Sylvia! Right, that is not my point. My point is, why does the romantic and sweet atmosphere between us always change weirdly?”
As time went by, she seemed to have forgotten the trauma of the past and could talk about Sylvia in a regular way.
“In fact, I like the atmosphere. I feel that it is relieving, joyful and warm to be with you, and I don’t need to worry about the change of feelings if we continue on like this.” Lucien thought for a moment and expressed his feelings frankly, too. However, Lucien felt that his face was flus.h.i.+ng when he talked in such a way, and he was certain that Natasha was not.
Natasha chuckled and said emotionally, “Me too. It makes me feel very happy and comfortable, as if we had started since a long time ago and we will continue to the end of our life. When I was with Sylvia before, I was always worried that she might abandon me and choose you. But now that I’m with you, my heart is very peaceful, because I know that you will always be here by my side. It is not about gender or external pressure. Even if you were a girl, I believe that you still wouldn’t give up.”
“Lucien, although I had romantic experiences, I have never been intimate with a gentleman before. If I do anything wrong or overstep your boundaries, please do tell me so that I’ll pay more attention in future. Problems occurred between me and Sylvia exactly because we were not candid enough to each other, and we did not communicate often. I want to protect our love.”
Lucien smiled. He was somewhat excited but managed to control his voice and make it gentle, “Natasha, me too. I don’t have much love experience. If I do anything terrible or clumsy, please don’t despise me and just tell me straightforwardly.”
“It is your clumsiness that I like!” Natasha’s voice became hoa.r.s.e, enchanting Lucien’s ears. “I am looking forward to my birthday when I realized that we will celebrate it together.”
“What gift do you want?” Asked Lucien half-jokingly. It could only be a surprise if he was the one who prepared the gift.
Natasha lowered her voice and chuckled, “You should know what gift I love most.”
Lucien was immediately lost for words.
However, Natasha followed with a smile, “I was just kidding. I know it’s your boundaries. You never encouraged me to abandon my family and responsibility and elope with you, and I will respect your thoughts, too. I will only imagine it in my heart until the day you are willing to do it yourself. For me, the best birthday gift is that you accompany me to pa.s.s the dawn.”
“However, there’s still more than one month to go before my birthday. There should be chances for us to meet in between. Lucien, I miss your temperature, your smile, your different looks, and… and your ‘flavor’.”
Lucien had thought that Natasha would be shy in the end, but out of his expectations, she spoke it out so openly. Therefore, to defend a man’s dignity, he followed, “I miss you, too. I miss your everything.”
“Really?” Natasha said in a slightly hoa.r.s.e voice, “By then, I will wear your favorite dress and silk stockings. Do you want black or any other colors?”
Her voice was so captivating that Lucien’s body became hot. He was about to reply, when Natasha cut off the electromagnetism messaging with an evil laugh. It was quite a b.u.mmer for Lucien.
Pacing back and forth in his library, Lucien thought to himself, “Last time, it was Natasha who pushed me over. Next time, I have to be more active and push her over, or I wouldn’t deserve to be called a man.”
“Huh, what should I do? What distance should I keep so that I can push her over without being pushed over by her?”
“After we enter the room, if she is in the front, I’ll hug her from behind and kiss her earlobe, which will weaken her strength…”
“If we walk into the room next to each other, I’ll distract her attention with other topics. Right, I can confess my love boldly so that she will be overwhelmed by surprise…
“Or maybe, I can trigger the softness in her heart with a romantic atmosphere, so that she will be pushed over by me willingly?
“But what if she is as straightforward as yesterday?”
Without him knowing it, Lucien began his ‘meticulous’ ‘Natasha Push-over Plan’.
……
While the two of them who were in hot love tried to control the frequency of their communication, they had been talking every other day. Very soon, it was already the Month of Fire (July).
Cleaning his clothes, Lucien spoke to Leo, his butler, “You will audit the accounts of the few companies with a few a.s.sistants who are good at numbers. I’ve already talked to Arthur.”
Although he was not in charge of specific affairs, Lucien maintained his interests in the Allyn Telephone and Telegram Company, the Mineral and Harvest Company and the Gift from Elements Company by seasonally auditing them. While those people couldn’t have the courage to embezzle his revenues, it would be good for both himself and them if he was more strict.
“Yes, my lord.” Replied Leo respectfully.
After seeking his revenge and settling his life, he had a plan of reestablis.h.i.+ng a family and was now dating a middle-aged lady who studied magic.
After he left the magic tower, Lucien went to the Atom Inst.i.tution, intending to continue the a.n.a.lysis on ‘Magic Order’, the eighth-circle magic, after a brief visit, so that his magic strength could be adapted to his cognitive world sooner.
Hardly had he entered his office when Lucien saw Annick, Sprint, Katrina and other students waiting for him, each holding one copy of Arcana.
“Katrina, Layria, has your paper on superconductivity been published?” Lucien thought that it was the reason for their excitement. After all, they had never published any paper on Arcana before.
Katrina said with a delightful smile, “Yes, it has, master. It’s on the third page of Arcana of this issue.”
“Also, many sorcerers of electromagnetics wrote letters to us. Some even visited us in person.” Layria was also very happy. She was flattered by such treatment.
Lucien checked the arcana badge of the two girls. Realizing that they had been successfully upgraded to level four, he nodded his head in approval, “You will have to continue on the work. Right, is there anything else?”
Sprint, the most impatient of all, opened Arcana and said, “Master, take a look at the paper on page one. His Excellency Oliver has proposed a solution to the problems in Mr. President’s light speed experiment. He has offered a transformation formula on the length reduction of materials in the motion against Ether.”
“A solution?” It was not until then that Lucien realized that they were excited about Oliver’s paper. Therefore, he took over the journal and browsed through it, checking if it was in accordance with their previous discussion.
His students looked at Lucien expectantly and solemnly, hoping that he could point out the problems of the paper. They were frustrated, however, because Lucien closed the journal calmly after skimming through the article.
“Master?” Heidi couldn’t help but ask.
Lucien raised his eyebrow. “What’s up?”
“Do you have any… thoughts?” After a brief hesitation, Heidi asked straightly.
Shaking the journal in his hands, Lucien asked back, “What thoughts do I need?”
After a brief silence, Sprint said anxiously, “Master, this is an explanation on Mr. President’s light speed experiment with Ether! It’s a strike on the particle theory! Now, all the sorcerers in Allyn who support the particle theory are waiting for the opinions of Mr. President, His Excellency the Lord of Storm, Her Excellency Hathaway and you.”
After he broke the silence, other people immediately chimed in.
“The supporters of the wave theory are c.o.c.ky again. They’ve found a new weapon!” Said Heidi in dissatisfaction.
“Master, did you find any flaws in this paper?” Annick asked cautiously.
“I feel something is wrong with the paper, but I can’t tell what it is.” Ch.e.l.ly rubbed her hair.
“It seems to be only an a.s.sumption…” Katrina and Layria said simultaneously.
Because their teacher had proposed the light quantum hypothesis, and they belonged to the elemental school, they were all supporters of the particle theory.
But after they wrangled for a long time, Sprint and his lot discovered that Lucien was as tranquil as before, as if the paper they read was just an illusion.
Heidi asked in confusion, “Master, are you not mad? Do you not want to refute them?”
“Why would I be angry?” Pointing at the journal, Lucien smiled, “I just checked it. His Excellency Oliver has only proposed a theoretical explanation that is still an a.s.sumption. It only suggests that things can be like this but cannot explain why things are like this. Also, it hasn’t been proved by any experiment or phenomenon yet. Why should I be angry?”
Heidi patted her chest in relief and said, “That explains a lot. I thought you betrayed the particle theory, master.”
The other students looked more or less the same.
Lucien looked at them and said solemnly, “When did I say that I support the particle theory?”
Huh? Heidi, Sprint, Ch.e.l.ly, Katrina’s jaws almost hit the ground. Even Annick and Layria, who were usually calm, were stunned, too. Weren’t you the one who came up with the light quantum hypothesis?
“Until the interference and diffraction can be explained from the perspective of particles, my opinion on the particle theory and the wave theory is the same. They are both flawed and cannot explain the nature of light.” Lucien took the opportunity to inculcate his ideas into his students.
Dazed, the few young men did not know what to say.
At this moment, Lucien’s monocle became hot. Somebody was reaching out to him.
“Lucien?” a loud voice echoed. “Have you read today’s ‘Arcana’? What’s your take?”
After hearing that, Lucien suddenly smiled. No matter how many prizes he won and how many revolutionary theories he came up with in the past, he was never considered a real authority compared with the renowned specialists such as Raventi or Gaston, but only a genius who had earned something through inspiration. Therefore, when there was any problem that they wanted to discuss, they would never talk to him first. However, after the ‘new alchemy’ was submitted and he had a complete system that belonged to himself, everything had changed subtly.
One’s influences in most cases were best manifested in other people’s subconscious reaction.