Beast Gacha System: All Mine-Chapter 223: The Tedious Part

"Can you for once... try not to get in trouble, Miss Araceli?"

Headmaster Lazuardi’s voice carried the particular weariness of a man who had asked this question many times to more than one person and never received the desired answer.

He sat behind his massive desk, a construct of dark wood and floating crystal panels that shifted and rearranged themselves according to some internal logic.

The office around them could be said to be quite a marvel of magical architecture.

Walls lined with books that whispered to each other in the language of ancient spells, a ceiling that displayed the current positions of celestial bodies in glowing miniature, and countless orbs of various sizes floating in lazy orbits, each containing recorded moments, surveillance feeds, and correspondence waiting to be read.

Cecilia ignored the headmaster’s pointed look entirely.

"How’s Oathran?" she asked.

Lazuardi blinked, caught off guard by the non sequitur. "How about you ask about the Vasiliev Young Lord instead?!"

"I don’t care." Cecilia’s smile was gentle, serene, unbothered. "Tell me about Oathran."

She still wanted information, after all. She knew this was winter break, knew the International Magic Student Conference loomed in the background.

But even if she couldn’t reach the other two, at the very least, she wanted to know their overall predicament.

Lazuardi’s sigh was long and deeply resigned. "Senior is still locking him up at home. Coaching. Closed-door training." He paused, fixing her with a meaningful look. "You are banned. So don’t try to visit."

Alright. Perhaps what Oathran had done had finally caught up with him. Including beating Arzhen to a pulp. She filed the information away, already planning how to ask Angela about Eastiel later.

"Alright." Lazuardi’s voice sharpened, returning to business. "Now tell me what actually happened."

His gaze shifted to the other person in the room. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

"And why the surveillance orb in the student council office caught nothing."

Sitting not far from Cecilia, in a chair positioned to observe both her and the headmaster, was Arkai Dawnoro.

He had been silent throughout her exchange with Lazuardi. The more he observed, the more questions emerged rather than answers.

How could she be so casual with the headmaster? Speaking of the mysterious transfer student, Oathran Alicei, with such familiarity, as if they were old acquaintances rather than recent desk mates?

Arkai’s mind worked steadily, fitting pieces together. He was now determined to find things out from various perspectives.

Perhaps... from the Vasilievs. After all, that family was still his own relatives, however awfully distant. Arzhen might have answers. Or at least, leads.

He would find out what was really happening in his school.

"I think in the event where the room is enveloped in any kind of magical seal, the chain connection of the surveillance points will be severed, Professor." Arkai’s voice was measured, professional. It was the perfect student council president delivering a logical report.

Lazuardi’s brows drew together. "So you’re saying the student council office was sealed with magic, and you two were trapped inside?"

"Yes." Arkai nodded.

"And that was why you destroyed the outer wall and captured this pigeon?" Lazuardi’s gaze drifted to the frozen bird, still suspended in time, still hovering in that mid-flight pose, now brought along to the headmaster’s office as evidence.

"Yes, sir."

"Alright." Lazuardi nodded slowly, processing. "Do you know who’s doing this to you?"

A natural pause. Arkai’s expression didn’t flicker. "No, sir. We presumed the pigeon would give us the answer."

Lazuardi’s eyes narrowed. "How? Analyzing its mana signature? That can be faked, you know." He turned, already forming his next question. "Cecilia, you—"

He stopped.

Cecilia was yawning.

The headmaster’s eye twitched. He wanted, quite badly, to flick this girl’s forehead and make her confess. She must know. She always knew. This infuriating, brilliant, exhausting girl had probably solved the entire mystery within minutes of being trapped and was simply choosing not to share.

"I don’t know." Cecilia shrugged as she finished her yawn, unbothered by his glare. "I gave up thinking."

She tilted her head, considering.

"I have a feeling we’re intervening in some kind of noble magic family’s politics or something." Her voice was light, casual. "Mr. Dawnoro’s first instinct when seeing the pigeon was to shoot it down. Don’t you think he’s the one who knows?"

Lazuardi’s eyes flickered back to Arkai.

The student council president’s eyes had widened, just slightly. He stared at Cecilia with an expression that mixed disbelief, alarm, and something that looked almost like respect.

This woman was... terrifying.

Seeing both of his brilliant, top-of-the-crop, crème de la crème students behaving like this, one calmly deflecting with casual disinterest, the other staring at a frozen pigeon like it held the secrets of the universe, Lazuardi sighed.

"You know what?" He pinched the bridge of his nose. "I’ll record this incident as a prank gone wrong."

Cecilia perked up.

"You two, get out of my room."

"Yeees~" Cecilia’s response was musical, a bright, satisfied smile curving her lips. She rose from her chair in one fluid motion, already heading for the door.

Arkai followed more slowly, his steps reluctant, his eyes still wandering back to the frozen pigeon suspended in the headmaster’s office.

"But know that I’ll still investigate this with the school’s resources and protocol."

Lazuardi’s voice stopped them at the threshold.

They turned. His face had fallen into shadow, the floating orbs of his office casting long, cold planes across his features. For a moment he looked less like a beleaguered administrator and more like what he truly was. The headmaster of the most prestigious magic academy on the continent.

A mage of his level was not someone anyone could underestimate.

Both Cecilia and Arkai’s eyes widened. Just slightly.

Then they stepped through the door, and it closed behind them with a soft, final click.

The corridor stretched before them, empty and quiet. Cecilia immediately began walking, her steps light and unhurried. She raised a hand in casual farewell without turning around.

"See you later, Mr. Dawnoro."

"Wait!"

Arkai’s voice was sharp, urgent. He strode toward her, closing the distance in quick steps, then stopped cold, two feet away, as if an invisible barrier prevented him from coming closer.

She turned, eyebrows raised in polite inquiry.

"I—"

He hesitated. The words stuck in his throat, tangled with pride and embarrassment and something he couldn’t name.

Arkai Dawnoro, student council president, heir to the Dawnoro family, a young man who had never needed to apologize for anything in his life, opened his mouth, closed it, opened it again.

"I’m sorry." The words came out rough, uneven. "And thank you."