Beast Gacha System: All Mine-Chapter 258: Yearning Perfection

"Fiancé." Cecilia’s voice was warm, teasing. "Don’t you think you should please me? So I won’t second-guess my decision to be your fiancée?"

Arkai looked at her helplessly.

Complicated feelings reflected in his eyes. Gratitude, confusion, wonder... and something deeper that he couldn’t quite name. The firelight from the nearby sconces played across his features, softening the hard lines of his jaw, illuminating the questions he hadn’t yet found words for.

"How did you convince my father?" His voice was low, meant only for her.

Cecilia shook her head slowly. "I didn’t convince him of anything. I just told him to look into what your sister had purchased recently, and what she was using it for. Everything leaves traces in this world. You just need to know where to look."

"I didn’t ask you about that." The man said quietly, almost hesitant. "No. I guess my question was wrong." He met her eyes. "How... how did my father convince you to... to marry me?"

Cecilia blinked.

Did anyone even need convincing for that?

"You said you already have two other boyfriends." Arkai’s voice was solemn now. "I thought... I thought marriage wasn’t for you."

And he was ready to throw away marriage life thanks to that too.

Cecilia dazed for a split second, just long enough for the words to register, for their meaning to land, and then she managed a chuckle.

If this guy knew the four of them were getting married in the real world, it might be interesting to see his face.

"I can’t marry my other two boyfriends if I marry you?" She asked.

Arkai froze.

"And..." he asked carefully. "You told my father that?"

"Why do I need to tell your father?" Cecilia asked back. "What can he do? Stop me?"

Arkai’s brain exploded.

Ah.

Right.

The Edengolds might want her just as badly as he did. And the fact that his father might have been the one to beg her to marry him, it was possible. Unprecedented, yes. But possible.

But—

Disappointment rose in his heart.

It meant... he truly wouldn’t ever be her one and only.

"Miss Araceli—"

"Yoo! Arkai, you’re alive?"

Right when he was about to unconsciously voice his disappointment, Roarke’s voice cut through the moment.

He approached from the end of the hallway, his boots echoing against the stone. When he saw Cecilia in her dress, he paused mid-step.

His eyes narrowed. Then widened. Then narrowed again.

"Hmm." He crossed his arms, a smirk playing at his lips. "You know what? Not my prob—"

"Mr. Raul." Cecilia raised her chin smugly. "Me and Arkai are getting married. Congratulate us."

Roarke froze.

His brain visibly stuttered. She could see it in his eyes, the way they went wide, then wider, then impossibly wide.

Then—

"HUH?!" His voice echoed through the keep’s corridor, bouncing off stone walls and ancient tapestries. "WOAH!"

Cecilia giggled, light, chasing away the shadows.

Arkai watched her laugh, watched Roarke’s expression cycle through shock and delight and confusion, and couldn’t help but smile helplessly.

Despite everything, despite the weight of the night, the revelations, the sadness, and then the disappointment still sitting heavy in his chest, she made him smile.

"Why are you here?" Arkai’s voice shifted. "I didn’t call you. There’s still lots of work at the Athenaeum."

He changed the subject entirely. Since he couldn’t continue his talk with Cecilia now with Roarke here, and especially not with the words he had been about to say still burning on his tongue.

"Why else?" Roarke shook his head, still grinning that it somehow worked out. "Of course, to drag you back to the Athenaeum. In case you needed an escape from this dreadful—"

He glanced at Cecilia, who was showing off her dress proudly, her chin still raised in that smug way.

"—apparently not that dreadful... situation."

He shook his head, bemused. As expected of Miss Araceli... turning such a situation into something surprising.

"So there’s nothing?" Arkai pressed. "No emergency?"

"Who said there’s nothing?" Roarke’s smirk returned, sharper now. "I didn’t come here empty-handed. I have a legitimate excuse to drag you back there."

Cecilia’s smile turned upside down.

"You guys actually have work...?"

***

Midnight wrapped around the Athenaeum. The corridors that had buzzed with conference activity just days ago were now empty, echoing only with the distant sigh of wind against ancient windows.

In the student council office, bright magic lamps cast warm light across scattered newspapers. Dozens of them, piled on desks, spread across the floor, pinned to bulletin boards with colored markers highlighting specific passages.

Arkai sat behind the president’s desk, a stack of papers before him, his brow furrowed in concentration. Across from him, Roarke had claimed a corner of the same desk, his feet propped on a neighboring chair, a newspaper held aloft as he scanned its contents.

The fire crackled softly in the hearth. The clock ticked. The night deepened.

"The wording in this article..." Arkai murmured, tapping a particular paragraph. "I’ve never seen the journalist credit for this one before."

Roarke squinted at the byline, then flipped through a mental directory of every journalist who covered magical academia. "Oh, wait. Yes, he’s new, just started three months ago. Do you want this corrected?"

Arkai made a noncommittal sound, already moving to the next paper.

"And this article." Roarke held up a different publication, his expression sour. "They’re framing the incident as ’institutional negligence’ rather than ’unprecedented magical anomaly.’"

Arkai glanced at it, his eyes narrowing. "Too on the nose, huh?"

"Way too on the nose. Someone’s got an agenda."

They returned to their reading, the soft rustle of pages the only sound for several long minutes.

On the corner sofa, Cecilia pouted.

Her arms were folded tightly across her chest. Her lower lip jutted out in an expression that would have looked childish on anyone else but somehow remained elegant on her.

Her eyes, those impossible sea-glass eyes, tracked Arkai and Roarke’s movements with deep disapproval.

"Is this part of the Student Council’s job?" She asked with exaggerated dismay.

Arkai and Roarke raised their faces simultaneously, blinking at her as if they had forgotten she was there.

Roarke recovered first. "Well... we protect the Athenaeum’s students’ reputation, after all." He gestured at the papers scattered around them. "We’re also strategizing ways to counteract negative effects. Either we release our own articles, or we do interviews, or—"

"I know all that." Cecilia cut him off, her pout deepening. "I just... I bet no past or future student council president and his secretary would go this far."

She shrugged, the movement sending ripples through her beautiful black dress. Yes, the same dress she had worn to dinner at Winter’s Keep, the same dress that had made such an impression. The dress looked slightly rumpled now, hours later, but still stunning.

Roarke stared at her for a long moment.

Then he slammed the papers down on the desk.

"Right!" He threw his hands up. "She’s totally correct, Arkai! Why did you make me think this was important?! Why do you always go miles and miles to be responsible and perfect?! You even trained me to spot problems like this and report them to you and make excuses to drag you away from your fiancée—"

He ranted. And ranted. Words poured out of him in an endless stream of accusation and exasperation, his arms waving, his voice rising and falling with indignation.

Arkai’s eyes narrowed. And narrowed. And narrowed.

Roarke ignored him completely.

Finally, Arkai turned to Cecilia.

She was suppressing a smile. Well, failing at it, really, the corners of her mouth twitching with barely contained amusement. Her body wiggled coquettishly on the sofa, a small, satisfied movement that said everything about how pleased she was with the chaos she had caused.

"As if you didn’t lose sleep just to check the conference over and over and over again." Arkai’s voice was flat, but his eyes held a warmth that belied his tone.

Cecilia’s suppressed smile broke free.

"Ehehe..." she giggled.

Seeing him sitting there in his element, surrounded by newspapers, debating strategy with Roarke, his brow furrowed in that familiar expression of focused responsibility, something flashed in Cecilia’s mind.

A different Arkai, older, wearier, standing in a different room with different papers in his hands. The real Arkai, sitting in front of a stone fireplace. Alone.

She had done everything right.

Prevented the nightmare with Roarke and Sienna. Exposed the truth. Moved everyone toward a real solution. Arkai was safe. His family was, if not healed, at least on a path toward something better.

So why couldn’t his memory return yet?

She had completed the tasks. Had made him kiss her, confess... had made love with him. Had uncovered Sienna’s secret, Roarke’s potential, the whole tangled web of Dawnoro dysfunction...

So why?

There was only one reason.

DING!

[You’ve succeeded in the task: Uncover his secret!]

[Reward Rank 6]

- [5 Stars Skill Orb: Sound Magic Echolocation]

Grant him the ability to perceive his surroundings through reflected sound waves, creating a mental map of objects and beings even in complete darkness or when his vision is compromised. 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

DING!

[Unlock Rank 6 to gain this reward!]

[Would you like to roll?]

Cecilia stared at the notification, the words swimming before her eyes.

His secret.

The final piece. The thing she had been missing.

This man just didn’t want to remember.

.

.

.

.

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Did you guys get this book’s limited free in your account yesterday? Author lame_entity told me she got it for my book! So, whoever of you lucky babies got it, enjoy the free read! (I’m genuinely shook and pleasantly surprised lol)

Here’s my live reaction yesterday 😂 ---------->