Beast Gacha System: All Mine-Chapter 112: The Absence of Love

"Healing... Elixir?"

Ruby’s eyes widened in shock.

She had never heard of that. Ever!

No. This... this was not... This wasn’t a ripple from a changed choice, or a butterfly flapping its wings. This felt like an asteroid crashing into her carefully memorized timeline. Something new. Something that hadn’t existed in her past life at all.

"Nik... are you sure it’s not a scam...?" The words tumbled out of her, hasty, almost panicked. She hadn’t meant to sound so desperate.

"Why?" Nikolas turned to her fully, his icy gaze sharpening. "Do you see this as a scam in one of your prophetic visions?"

Prophecy again...

Couldn’t he just listen to her? Couldn’t he credit her own intelligence, her own judgment, for once? Did every warning have to be wrapped in the name of a vision for him to even consider it?

"No, but it’s... very suspicious," she insisted, forcing her voice back gently and reasonably.

"That Qinryc Lukas is the one promoting it," Nikolas countered, his tone flat. "He’s a snake, but he’s a snake who guards his reputation like a dragon guards its hoard. Attaching his name to a blatant fraud would be political suicide. The risk doesn’t match the reward for a man of his stature."

Ruby frowned slightly. Wouldn’t it be the opposite? Precisely because of his stature, his connections, he could get away with a scam? He had the network to sell the lie and the power to silence those who cried foul.

But that wasn’t the point. The point was the wrongness of it. A miracle drug? In all her years of living this life before, through wars and plagues and political upheavals, she had never encountered a whisper of something like this. Not even as a street-corner tonic.

She had a memory like a steel trap for useful things! She wouldn’t forget a potential game-changer, no matter how mundane it seemed at first.

"W-what if..." she ventured, layering her voice with tender worry, "it makes Father’s condition worse? Nik, I’m really not sure about this..."

Nikolas suppressed a surge of irritation. As if he hadn’t wrestled with the same fear every mile of the journey back? As if he needed her to voice the very anxiety that had been fucking at his own resolve?

He had debased himself, taken the risk, and now her caution only highlighted how foolish his desperate act might seem. She was making him feel like the gullible mark, the stupid one who got scammed.

"Then," he said, his voice dropping coldly, "can you give us a better suggestion? Anything on how to fix our situation?"

Ruby’s mouth opened, then closed. She thought better of whatever she was about to say. "I’m sorry, Nik..." she whispered, lowering her eyes, helpless. "I also want Father to wake up and get well more than anything..."

Nikolas with his patience worn to a thread, let out a short sigh. Decision made. He uncorked one of the vials. The air immediately filled with a clean, ozonic scent that felt alien in the sickroom. He thrust it toward her. "Help me. Help me give this to him. You hold the vial. I’ll help him sit up."

Ruby’s eyes widened again, genuine reluctance flashing in them this time. He was really going to do it? And he was making her participate? What happened if the old wolf choked, or seized, or died? Would he blame her for not stopping him? For being the hand that poured the poison?

Cruel! She’d always known the northern lords were hard, calculative men, but this... even toward her? She was Ruby Vaiva. The Saintess. His mate!

But the mask held. She gave a gentle nod. "If you say so... I’ll help you."

’If I say so...’

Nikolas subtly frowned. It placed all responsibility squarely on him, absolving her in advance.

Ha.

A string of anger tangled in his chest. Everything. Everything was because his father was weak. Because despite being an Alpha wolf, he couldn’t muster the sheer, terrifying power of an Arkai Dawnoro.

If only his bloodline ran that deep. No—even that Vasiliev bastard, Arzhen, had a claim to that power through his maternal line, didn’t he? He got to call him Uncle! Was that why? The strength Ruby was truly drawn to?

Ahh, right. He’d even heard somewhere the bastard was named after the Black Wolf King after he was saved as a baby. Of course.

Nikolas slid his arms under his father’s unconscious form and hauled him upright against the pillows. Ruby, her hand trembling just enough to be noticed, raised the shimmering vial to Dorian’s pale, slack lips and tipped it.

It was over in seconds.

And in those same seconds, a change occurred. The waxy, bloodless pallor of Dorian’s lips softened, infused with the faintest blush of pink, as if a drop of life had been stirred back into still water.

Nikolas’s eyes narrowed. No. He was imagining it. Seeing what he desperately wanted to see. It was just the liquid wetting his father’s chapped skin. That was all.

He laid the old man back down with more care than he felt. "We wait," he stated, his voice gruff. "Qinryc said it could take days to see any real effect."

Ruby nodded hesitantly. "Um, Nik," she began, shifting her weight, "I want to talk about something."

"I’m sorry, Ruby." He cut her off, not looking at her. "I’ve been away too long. There are matters that need my immediate attention. Let’s talk tonight. After dinner."

Ruby’s fingers twisted in the fabric of her sleeve. It was a small, vulnerable gesture that used to pierce his defenses instantly, that used to make him drop everything to attend to her. Now, it no longer sparked anything in him.

"Okay," she acquiesced, her smile returning, soft and understanding. "I’m sorry for disturbing you, Nik. Let’s talk later, when you’ve finished your business and had a chance to rest."

Nikolas offered a smile in return. "Thank you, Ruby."

How could it hurt more, realizing you no longer loved the person you loved as much as before? Was love just a cycle of different kinds of pain, the ache of wanting, then the hollow ache of its absence, even when the person stood right before you?

Then, no matter what happened, you’d just get hurt?

"I’ll see you later."