Beast Gacha System: All Mine-Chapter 249: Frustration

Professor Lazuardi hadn’t just called them about the Dawnoro situation. The conversation had been longer, heavier, layered with implications that Arkai was still struggling to fully grasp.

He had talked about what would happen after the conference incident. About Cecilia’s status in the eyes of the magic world now. About her power. About how her entanglement with the Edengold and the Dawnoro would complicate that even further.

She had become an asset. Someone valuable. Someone to be courted, protected, or targeted depending on who you asked. And thanks to her friendship with the princess, she was also seen as someone close to the Empire.

Then there was Oathran. The boy Lazuardi spoke of with a weight that suggested far more than a simple transfer student. The boy who was supposed to be the world’s sacrifice. The boy she had saved, along with the world itself, in some process Arkai couldn’t fully comprehend.

Lazuardi’s final words before releasing them were still fresh in Arkai’s mind.

"I’ve told my colleagues and the Athenaeum that you are not just an asset. You are the savior of the world. But more importantly, the savior of the boy who was supposed to die to save the world. We owe you more than anyone can imagine."

The scriptures, Lazuardi had explained, said that the boy must be sacrificed and he had no choice. To seal the gates, to stop evil from invading. The boy would be forgotten. Any proof of his existence would be erased.

No one would have known a being like Oathran ever existed. No one would have known the world was ever in danger at all.

But thanks to Cecilia, facts and research about it would soon be publicized. Oathran would be recognized as the chosen boy. And in the future, if anyone like him ever emerged again, if a sacrifice must be made, there would already be a record of how to save them.

Arkai didn’t fully understand all of it. The details slipped through his mental fingers like water. But he understood enough.

Having him entangled with her would be a complication. Another layer of complexity in a life already drowning in them.

Well. Even without all those other reasons, just generally, entangling with him was already an issue. He was the heir to the Dawnoro name. His family was messy. His sister was dangerous. His father was unpredictable.

Cecilia, meanwhile, didn’t seem to care.

She walked beside him now, through the city near the academy, toward the boulevard where shops and cafes lined the streets. The afternoon light was soft, golden, painting everything in warm hues.

This was just a fabricated world. That thought lingered at the edges of her consciousness. Everything Lazuardi had spoken of, the sacrifice, the scriptures, the future implications, was for now a faraway concern.

Her immediate concern was President!Arkai.

She had succeeded in Task 5, making love with him. But she had been too impulsive yesterday. Too driven by grief, by need, by the desperate ache for a child who would never exist.

She was sure she had crossed a line that shouldn’t be crossed... even if she knew the man had wanted it too.

"You look... tired." Arkai’s voice pulled her from her thoughts. They had stopped walking, and he was watching her with those dark, concerned eyes. "Is it alright to have this talk with me now?"

Cecilia looked away quickly, hiding her smile and the embarrassed blush creeping up her cheeks.

He couldn’t be this sweet. Not after getting goaded into fucking her.

Truly, in front of this man, she couldn’t call herself a good woman anymore.

But if he remembered about the real world... if the real Arkai was in this moment... he would understand... right?

Or would he be mad? 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

Like Oathran had been.

He would be mad... right?

"Actually." Her voice was steady when she spoke again. "I can’t postpone this talk anymore."

They had stopped near a small fountain, the sound of water a gentle background to the weight of her words.

"Mr. Dawnoro." She turned to face him fully. "I am sorry. I must apologize... because I’ve caused quite a lot of harm to you. And from your perspective, we’re barely colleagues."

Arkai opened his mouth, but she continued before he could interrupt.

"We got trapped together. I experimented on you. I forced a climax out of you." Each word was precise and honest. "Then I lured your sister and uncovered what you wanted to hide from the world. I meddled in your family’s issues. I forced your father to do something about it."

She squeezed his hand that was still intertwined with hers.

"Then..." A pause. A breath. "I coerced you to have sex with me. Without any clarity of what we are."

There. She had said it.

All of it.

It was, no matter what anyone said, unfair for Arkai.

"I treated you like you’re already mine..." Cecilia’s voice dropped to a whisper. She did treat him like he was hers despite every reasonable boundary between them in this world. It was wrong.

"Even though... even though this is supposed to be a high school alternate universe romance scenario game... within a gacha system... where we were just colleagues..."

"What?" Arkai’s head tilted. His brow furrowed in complete confusion.

What she had just said, those words in that order, and even some words he couldn’t recognize, sounded like a magic spell he hadn’t yet learned about. A language from somewhere beyond his understanding.

She looked up at him, those sea-glass eyes meeting his.

"You’re confused, right?" A sad smile touched her lips. "You’re... suspicious of me. You didn’t know me and... and suddenly I... you..." She shook her head slightly, searching for words. "You haven’t yet trusted me. You haven’t yet believed in me, knowing me intimately, and yet I..."

She grasped both of his hands. Held them in hers. Looked down at them, fidgeting with his fingers, giving them a subtle rocking motion side to side. Like a lover seeking connection.

"But to me..." Her voice was soft, certain. "To me, you’re mine anyway."

Even though they were strangers. Even though in another world they were uncle and niece. Even though in this world she had made him call her sister. In any scenario, any timeline, any possibility—

"Arkai." She looked up at him again. "If I hadn’t died already... and if you hadn’t died already... and if we meet, no matter what happened... you’re already mine. I can’t treat you any other way anymore."

Her grip on his hands tightened slightly.

"Even if I’m already married... or even if you’re already married, I—"

"Stop." Arkai’s voice was strained, barely controlled. "Stop, wait a minute."

He felt like his heart was exploding.

Everything she said, every word, every confession, every impossible declaration, was overwhelming him. It was drowning him.

What—

What even—

What even was this woman? Why? Who was she? What was her goal by saying all of this?

He didn’t understand. He just... couldn’t.

Cecilia pursed her lips. She had said this much, had laid herself bare, had confessed things that made no sense in any rational framework. And still he couldn’t remember.

Why?

Why couldn’t he remember their life outside this fabricated scenario?

But—

"I don’t care whether you understand or not." Her voice was quiet but steady. "My point is... you are mine. And I am yours. And... and I also have two other boyfriends—"

"Like I said, what even is this situation?!" Arkai snapped, his voice rising with frustration and confusion and something else he couldn’t name. "What do you want me to do, Miss Araceli?!"

Cecilia flinched.

Her shoulders rose, curling toward her ears. And just like that the fire in Arkai’s chest faltered.

"...sorry..." she said, barely a whisper. "...it’s hard to explain this even to me..."

Arkai looked at her. Frustrated. Confused. Lost.

Forget trust, he couldn’t even understand half the things she was trying to convey.

But—

But she had said he was hers.

And she was his.

In the silence that followed, Arkai wanted to scream.

Not just because he was confused. Not just because nothing made sense. But because, at the very least, she wanted him in her life.

That much, through all the chaos, through all the impossibility, through all the words that sounded like magic spells from another world, that much he understood.

"...umm..." Cecilia hesitated.

Arkai’s jaw tightened. "What? More impossible rants I can’t possibly understand?"

She shook her head slowly.

"I was about to ask for a kiss. Umm, sorry..."

Arkai’s eyes narrowed. A dark blush crept up his face, staining his cheeks, his ears, the tips of his fingers.

"Y-you..." The words came out strangled. "You are impossible..."