Surrounded by Five Beast Lords novel Chapter 43

Chapter 43 The Childhood Engagement

The Interstella Net feed scrolled past her eyes. The entries on “Luciar” were organized and clear, though many details remained vague behind the military’s standard confidentiality filters. What was visible, however, was more than enough to raise eyebrows.

Lucian held the title of First Commander of the Interstellar Federation Military, and the weight of those words alone was staggering.

What followed was a string of credentials that read like they had been made up.

Lucian was the youngest major general on record, architect of the outnumbered victory at the Abyss Line campaign, the man who dismantled a pirate syndicate that had infested the Star Belt for decades.

And he was a commander who had personally led elite units to repel beast tide assaults on multiple occasions.

His file listed him at thirty–two years old, beast form undisclosed. Photos were scarce, limited to a handful of official long- range shots and side profiles.

In every single one, he wore a crisp dark navy or black tactical uniform, his posture ramrod straight, his jawline cut from stone, and his gaze carrying the kind of cold precision that made one feel like a specimen under a microscope. What his beast form actually was had been one of those evergreen guessing games for the Interstellar media and the public alike.

Anyone who could hold the seat of First Commander had to possess combat abilities that went well beyond what most people could even imagine.

Yet Lucian had never revealed his beast form in public. His combat records showed nothing but flawless tactical command, one brilliant maneuver after another with no trace of what he actually was underneath.

That gap in the record had become its own kind of legend, wrapping him in a mystique that felt equal parts fascinating and dangerous.

Dora stared at the display, her fingertip hovering over the line that read his beast form never publicly disclosed. She lingered there a beat, then scrolled on.

A nearly forgotten entry jumped out at her.

Federal Year 937, a victory party held at Triumph Palace on Core Planet, celebrating a fifteen–year–old prodigy named Lucian who had just led his first independent campaign and successfully driven back a beast tide along the border of the Blacktide Sector.

Her mind drifted seventeen years back to that night. What she remembered was spectacle on a grand scale. Crystal chandeliers threw fractured light across a ballroom thick with silk gowns and expensive cologne, where champagne flutes clinked, and laughter circled like currency. Beneath all the glitter ran something colder, something calculated.

Nearly every old family and political heavyweight at the gala had an eligible female on hand. Every one of them was running to bind this freshly risen young general to their own family.

His background was spotless. He was an orphan raised by the military, and his prospects had no ceiling. Lucian was fifteen years old. He stood at the focal point of the ballroom in a tailored officer’s dress uniform.

His face stayed blank, almost too composed for the noise pressing in around him.

His eyes, the same ones that would later make enemies flinch on the battlefield, already carried a calm well past his years. A trace of boredom and irritation flickered underneath.

He listened to wave after wave of probing flattery and watched as carefully dressed females were paraded in front of hims like merchandise. ‘How am I supposed to get out of this thinly veiled marriage market?‘ he thought

That was when a small girl wormed her way out from between the adults‘ legs. She wore a puffy pink dress, her hair gathered into two tiny pigtails, her cheeks round, her eyes huge and bright. She came stumbling right up to Lucian

She still clutched a half–melted candy in one small hand. She tilted her face up and stared, openly curious, at this older boy who was better looking than every uncle in the room.

That was Dora at five years old.

Vivienne had only just recovered, so she brough Successfully unlocked!

At five years old, Dora had no grasp of the undercurrents swirling through the room. She didn’t understand what the

medals pinned to Lucian’s chest meant, or why the grown–ups kept trading glances behind their drinks.

Chapter 43 The Childhood Engagement

All she knew was that the tall boy with the cold face was really, really good–looking. ‘He’s even prettier than my dolls, she thought

And then, in the hush that suddenly swallowed the room whole, under dozens of stunned, amused, and quietly calculating gazes, she opened her mouth and delivered what could only be described as a declaration for the ages, her voice bright and piping and utterly fearless.

“Sir, you are very handsome. When I come of age, I wish to take your hand in marriage. Would you consent?”

A wave of stifled laughter rolled through the hall.

She rushed forward to scoop Dora up before the child could say anything worse.

But Lucian’s reaction caught everyone off guard.

He looked down at the little female standing barely as tall as his thigh. Her eyes were wide and guileless, completely at odds with the words that had just left her mouth.

Something shifted in his cold expression, there and gone in a flash.

He crouched until he was level with Dora’s eyes and spoke in a voice already settling into its deep register. “What’s your name?”

Dora didn’t flinch. “Dora Southwell,” she announced.

“Dora.” Lucian repeated the name once, then straightened up.

He turned toward the Southwell family’s table, his tone calm but carrying a finality that left no room for debate. “Lady Vivienne, your daughter and I have taken a liking to each other.

“Here, before every family of standing in this room, I’d like to formally enter an engagement with Lady Dora, to be honored once she comes of age. I trust the Southwell family finds this acceptable?”

The room erupted.

The Southwells were a second–tier family on Core Planet at best. No one could fathom what they’d done to deserve a personal proposal from this rising military prodigy, a future powerhouse in the Armed Forces.

Vivienne and her two beast mates could hardly believe what they’d heard. They tripped over themselves to accept, terrified he’d change his mind.

For Lucian, the engagement was a masterstroke.

It solved his most pressing problem first. A standing engagement gave him the perfect shield against every elite family angling to marry into his future.

The Southwells also carried no real weight. They had no tangled political ties and no hidden ambitions, which meant no one would be pulling strings behind his back. They were the ideal in–laws by every measure.

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