Beast Gacha System: All Mine-Chapter 268: Gossip and Horror

The moment Cecilia and her three... whatever they were... disappeared around the corner toward the academic buildings, the corridor erupted.

"What the fuck was that?!"

"I don’t know but I need to sit down—"

"Did the President just—did he just do a bro handshake with the guy who almost brought down the whole building?!"

"With both of them?!"

"And the Edengold—the Edengold—was wearing keychains!"

"Fluffy ones!"

"Pink! There was a pink one!"

A first-year student who had been hiding behind had her eyes wide, her mouth open. "I... I need to lie down. For a week."

"No, no, no, focus!" A senior from the Vision Department grabbed the nearest person by the shoulders. "What did we just witness? Collective hallucination? Mass hysteria? Did someone cast a large-scale illusion spell without telling anyone?"

"I wish," someone muttered. "At least that would make sense."

"It makes sense already," another student argued, throwing their hands up. "The top nerd—sorry, the top student—has been dating all three of them. All three. And they know. And they’re friends."

"Brothers," the first-year corrected weakly. "They called each other brothers."

"BROTHERS."

"Does that mean—"

"Are they sharing her? Like—like actually sharing?"

"Is that even allowed?"

"I mean, it’s not illegal..."

"It should be! It should be a crime against nature! Against romance! Against every novel I’ve ever read!"

"Your romance novels are trash anyway."

"TAKE THAT BACK."

By lunch, the gossip had reached critical mass.

The cafeteria was packed. Students who normally ate elsewhere had miraculously found reasons to be there, huddled in groups, trays forgotten, voices overlapping in a constant hum of speculation.

"I heard the President proposed yesterday."

"No, I heard they got married in secret."

"That’s impossible, they’re students."

"Have you seen the President’s family? They can do whatever they want."

"But the Edengold—he’s from the south. The Dawnoros are from the north. Their families should be enemies!"

"Apparently not anymore?"

"And the transfer student, Oathran Alicei, no one still knows anything about him. But he’s definitely something. Did you see how the President greeted him? Like they’ve known each other for years."

"Maybe they have? Maybe he’s secretly nobility too?"

"Nothing gets past our information network, remember? If he was nobility, we’d know."

"Clearly our information network is useless."

A group of second-years near the window had given up on eating entirely, their heads together in a tight circle.

"So the timeline, right? She was with Edengold first. That’s when the whole hallway thing happened. Then the transfer student showed up and suddenly he’s in the picture. And now the President is engaged to her."

"But Edengold was wearing her keychains. Her fluffy keychains. You don’t wear someone’s fluffy keychains unless you’re—"

"Unless you’re very secure in your relationship."

"Or unless you’re marking territory."

"Both? Both is good."

"The question is, who’s the main one? Like, if there’s a hierarchy—"

"There’s definitely a hierarchy."

"Is there? They all did the same handshake. The same bro handshake. If that means anything. Like... equality?"

"Equality in what, though? Equal claim to her time? Equal claim to her—"

"DON’T FINISH THAT SENTENCE."

Near the serving line, a cluster of professors had gathered, their expressions a mixture of concern and bewildered amusement.

"Should we... do something?" one asked.

"About what, exactly?" another replied. "Students having... friendships?"

"Those aren’t friendships and you know it."

"I know nothing. I am a simple educator who teaches magical theory. I do not see. I do not hear. I do not know."

"Coward."

"Realist."

The head of the Force Department, a grizzled man with one ear slitted and scars across both arms, simply shook his head and went back to his stew. "Kids these days. When I was their age, we just fought over girls like normal people."

"Sir, that’s not—that’s worse."

"It’s simpler."

Back in the main crowd, someone talked into a magic crystal.

"OKAY, OKAY, let’s review what we know."

"One, Cecilia Araceli is engaged to Arkai Dawnoro. This is confirmed. The President himself hasn’t denied it, and his father made an official announcement."

"Two, Eastiel Edengold is still involved with her. He was wearing her accessories. He touched her. He called the President ’bro’. They did the handshake thing."

"Three, Oathran Alicei is also still involved with her. Same evidence. Same handshake. Same ’bro’."

"Four, they all seem to know about each other and are fine with it."

"Five, Cecilia Araceli called them, and I quote, ’my boyfriends’. Plural. In front of all of us."

Silence.

Then—

"So she’s dating three guys at once."

"At the same time."

"And they’re all okay with it."

"More than okay. They’re friends."

"Brothers."

"Um... well, is that... is that allowed? Like, socially?"

"With the President? The most eligible bachelor in the north?"

"And the Edengold heir? The richest guy from the south?"

"And the mystery guy who could probably kill us all with a look?"

"She’s collecting them like—like—"

"Like specimens."

"Like a harem protagonist."

"That’s it! That’s exactly it! She’s the main character and we’re all just living in her world!"

"Then what does that make us?"

"Side characters. Obviously."

"BACKGROUND characters, even."

A vision major adjusted their glasses thoughtfully. "But if she’s the protagonist and they’re the love interests, then what does that say about the narrative structure of our reality? Are we simply extras in someone else’s story? And if so, does that diminish our subjective experience or merely reframe it within a larger—"

"Shut up."

"Fair."

Near the back, a group of students had given up on understanding and moved straight to acceptance.

"You know what? Good for her."

"Honestly? Yeah. Good for her."

"She’s the top student, she saved the conference, she’s friends with the princess, and now she’s got three insanely handsome guys wrapped around her finger. That’s kinda not a scandal anymore, bruh. That’s a career."

"A lifestyle."

"A legend."

"I want to be her when I grow up."

"You’re the same age."

"Then I want to be her now."

Outside, the sun continued to shine. Birds continued to sing. Classes continued to happen.

But the Athenaeum would never be the same.

And somewhere in a classroom, Cecilia Araceli sat between three very different men, focused.

A heavy textbook lay open on the desk before them, pages covered in diagrams of mana flow and spatial displacement. Eastiel’s finger traced a particularly complex illustration, his golden eyes narrowed in concentration.

"See, this world’s teleportation is kind of a mix between the jump kind and the warp kind." He muttered. "They still need to build a warp channel to construct the pathway first, and then they make the bodies and objects that need to be transported jump into the other predestined place."

"Which makes the sand portal we saw at the conference the true warp-style teleportation gate." Arkai nodded, arms crossed, his dark eyes scanning the text over Eastiel’s shoulder. "No pre-built channel. Just pure spatial manipulation. No wonder it’s very unstable."

Oathran leaned back in his chair, grey eyes thoughtful. "So what kind is ’Summon’? Can we test it in this world?" He tilted his head. "I assume not?"

Cecilia shook her head slowly. "But I’m still not ready to try it in real life without... you know, knowing all the possibilities."

Her mind was already running through scenarios, calculations, risks.

After all, whose mana would be depleted when Summon happened? If it was totally her mana, the mana she naturally generated through her bond with three men, then the strain would be equal across all of them. Shared burden. Fair distribution.

But if it depended on who summoned who? Then it might be unfair to Arkai and Eastiel. They didn’t have the same mana reserves as Oathran.

The dragon was... a dragon, after all. The wolf and lion were powerful, but, well, they weren’t dragons, and they were younger. Less time to accumulate mana within themselves.

"But what if affinity levels also play a part in the mana calculation?" Cecilia muttered, half to herself. "That’s what the System said... but what was the minimum level requirement? What threshold won’t kill you from mana drain?"

[Don’t worry, Cecilia!]

[With your affinity level with all three Love Interests now, you can do back and forth Summon with just half the mana drain you expect!]

"I expect most of our mana," Cecilia murmured, processing. "So half of all the mana we have collectively?" She frowned. "What about distance? No, distance shouldn’t matter for teleportation..."

Oathran hummed thoughtfully. "Let’s draft all possible scenarios. Variables, constants, risk factors."

"I’ll make a chart." Eastiel was already pulling out his notes, flipping to a fresh page, his pen moving in quick, efficient strokes.

"Oh, wait." Arkai straightened. "This is lunch. You guys want something? I’ll grab it for you."

Cecilia smiled up at him, warmth flickering in her sea-glass eyes. "I’ll come with you."

She stood, brushing past Oathran’s chair, and slipped her hand into Arkai’s.

Yep.

They were busy compiling knowledge, analyzing possibilities and preparing.

The gossip world, the rumors, the speculation, the chaos they had left in their wake, was just a faraway concern.

They had bigger things to figure out.

At least, to them.

"Wait." Eastiel’s voice cut through the moment sharply and seriously. "Wait, hear me out."

Arkai and Cecilia stopped mid-step, turning back toward him. His golden eyes were intense, the look of someone who had just had a thought. A potentially terrible thought.

"What if—" Eastiel leaned forward, his gaze sweeping over all three of them. "You know how teleportation theoretically works in some magical theories, right? Like, Cecilia’s power makes a scan of the person being summoned, disintegrates them at the origin point, and then creates a clone of them at the destination...?"

Silence.

Deafening silence.

Cecilia’s face went through several stages of processing and arrived at dawning horror.

"..." Oathran’s grey eyes had gone wide, wider than anyone had ever seen them.

"..." Arkai’s jaw had dropped slightly, his usually composed expression completely shattered.

Cecilia felt a shiver run down her entire body.

Then she yelled.

"Ah, shut up!" Her voice echoed through the classroom. "That’s the plot of a horror story, stop it!"