Beast Gacha System: All Mine-Chapter 244: Threatening

"Lord Dawnoro, why did you call me here instead of sending your people to just remove me?"

August hadn’t even welcomed her to sit. Hadn’t offered her a chair, a drink, the basic courtesy owed to any guest in his home. And yet she simply began questioning him?

But it seemed he didn’t need to welcome her at all. She had already turned, already chosen a seat for herself, and now she gestured for him to sit in front of her.

"Please."

This girl—

Acting like this in his own office? In his own keep?

"Who do you think you are?" August’s voice was low, dangerous. His eyebrows dipped into a subtle scowl, the expression that had made grown men stammer and diplomats reconsider their positions.

Cecilia didn’t flinch.

"I’m sure you already read about me." Her voice was calm, conversational. "My documents." She tilted her head slightly. "Is that why, instead of just removing me, you decided to make sure it wouldn’t hurt you in the long run?"

August’s jaw tightened.

Because she wasn’t wrong.

It was still unknown what kind of connections this girl had amassed. The Edengold heir had sent her a large amount of money. An unknown transfer student he couldn’t dig into no matter how hard he tried had moved for her like a trained hunt dog.

The Athenaeum itself covered for her, the Headmaster had refused his summons. And her friendship with the empire’s princess...

Her competence. Her record-breaking achievements. She could be an agent, specially cultivated for a purpose he hadn’t yet uncovered.

His instinct screamed at him to be careful with this person. And he still didn’t understand why.

To top it off, her attitude now... facing him in his own territory, calm and even warm, leading the conversation without giving him any leverage, any chance to probe into the narrative she was constructing—

Was she just a normal high school magic student?

"I assume you are the kind of person who would find out what you consider necessary information before acting accordingly." Cecilia’s voice was thoughtful. "But it seems you are not someone who would go out of your way to find out everything before passing judgment."

He had looked for her without trying to understand why ’her’. He hadn’t looked into his own daughter. That was enough proof.

August’s eyes narrowed. "What are you implying?"

Cecilia’s smile dimmed just enough.

"I too am scared about the implication." Her voice was quieter now, more sincere. "Perhaps I’ll begin to have a negative bias about you. Even though you raised such a remarkable man."

What kind of eighteen-year-old talks like this?

What even was she?

"I’ve made an important promise with Young Lord Dawnoro." Cecilia’s voice was gentle. "I assume you called me here to understand something. Or better, you want to find out something about me. Intimidate me."

She smiled. Warm. Untroubled.

"But no matter what you do, it won’t work."

August studied her. The confidence wasn’t feigned. It also wasn’t bravado. It was simply... there. Like a fact about her, like the color of her eyes or the shape of her face.

"So you also won’t tell me why my daughter was upset?" he asked.

Cecilia’s expression shifted. The warmth didn’t disappear, but something else joined it. Seriousness. 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

"If I tell you—" She stopped. Corrected herself. "No. If I am to give you a hint of where to look for the truth, you must promise me something."

Her voice dropped, becoming cold and hard.

"My Lord, after you find out..."

She looked straight into his eyes and held them.

"Consider deeply how you’re going to react. How you’re going to handle it." A pause. "For your reputation. For your family and children’s reputation. No, for your family itself. For yourself. For your children’s hearts."

In this world, Sienna was still a child. But she had done horrible things. A proper punishment was necessary to turn her around, to reshape her, to give her any chance at becoming something other than what she was.

Cecilia felt, deep in her bones, that no punishment would be enough to change her.

To make Sienna different, one would have to destroy everything about her. Her personality. Her way of thinking. Her very identity.

And even then she might not change. Because even if one stopped her obsession with her brother, she could simply transfer it. To someone else. Someone more vulnerable. Easier to manipulate.

Her own child, if one day she had one.

Rinne.

But doing all that, destroying and rebuilding a person, without destroying everything else around her? Without breaking her family, her father, her brother?

That was something Cecilia couldn’t do alone.

"You’re saying it’s not you." August’s voice was slow, processing. "It’s my children."

"Sienna." Cecilia corrected.

Silence.

"Look for the last things she purchased and acquired." Cecilia’s voice was quiet now. "Look for what she was using them for."

She had never needed the recording. Had never wanted to spread scandal about Sienna and Arkai. She had always had other ways to handle things. Cleaner, more effective ways.

She didn’t even need Angela’s resources, Eastiel’s money, the Athenaeum’s support or Oathran’s strength. After all, her promise to Arkai, to hide the scandal and to protect his family from the truth’s destruction, was absolute.

The drugs Sienna had used on Arkai would have left traces. Black markets, dealers... something, someone, somewhere.

What August found after that would no longer be her business.

But how he reacted after finding out would be part of the problem.

"Don’t disappoint me, Lord Dawnoro." Cecilia’s voice was a warning now.

"Remember. Think deeply. Investigate thoroughly before you dare pass judgment."

Outside the window, the sky darkened. Clouds swept across the sun, casting the room into shadow. The dim light fell across Cecilia’s young face, carving it into something else.

"And if I find out you hurt Arkai Dawnoro in the process—" Her voice dropped to barely a whisper. "I promise you I will come for you. And your house. And I will never forgive you. Even a hundred years after you die."