Beast Gacha System: All Mine

Initially, Ruby didn’t want to use the Emperor’s assassination as a prophecy. The imperial family was dangerous, and she truly didn’t want to be their enemy.

Damon Iondora was a violent, ruthless tyrant, she knew that very well in her previous life. After sending the assassin to kill his father, he ascended the throne. He brought House Leclerc to the ground and imprisoned Lady Vera, sending his half-siblings away to the borders.

He truly seemed like a man who had been planning this outcome long before the blade fell, who had constructed his own empire precisely to survive the transition from crown prince to emperor, from hidden power to manifest.

Of course, no one could actually prove that he was the one who killed his father. That, or no one dared. His reputation had been notoriously proven in many other ways.

People learned not to ask questions of men who answered with violence, who performed instability so convincingly that stability became invisible, became the water in which they all swam without noticing they were wet.

So, not long after, some group of people that was conveniently Damon’s opposition, successfully took the blame for the Emperor’s assassination, and was destroyed by Damon’s order.

Ruby was afraid of him. Even the Vasiliev and the Delanivis, in her previous life, after securing the north post Arkai Dawnoro’s death, didn’t dare to actually challenge this human emperor.

As long as she remembered, Damon Iondora sat on his throne, untouchable and unchallengeable.

She also couldn’t prove it, but Damon Iondora might be one of the people who accelerated her downfall in the previous life.

In this life, she wanted to secure herself, and at the same time, try to coexist with him. He was, after all, a very powerful man. After all, if you cannot defeat something, learn to live beside it, learn to make yourself useful, learn to become indispensable until the moment when indispensability becomes leverage.

But after the last vision she received, and after so many unexpected setbacks she had recently experienced, she decided to prophesy the Emperor’s death.

The water, the girl, the black hair spreading like ink. The warning from gods had reconstructed her priority. Damon Iondora was too unreachable. So, she would take Damon Iondora down and help Reginald and the Leclerc family rise to power.

She needed power, and the Leclerc family was a great potential sponsor. She would make them grateful and desperate enough to pay any price for the throne they believed was theirs by right of proximity.

She must find proof that Damon Iondora—no. She didn’t need proof. As a Saintess, her prophecy had been confirmed now. So, she could just go and accuse him of murder.

That was enough.

There was just one thing she never foresaw. In her previous life, Jove Iondora was never attacked or almost died. That never happened.

The youngest prince was never threatened and had been sent away, had lived in obscurity on the borders. He had never even been present at the assassination.

Knowing that this variable was as dangerous as how wrong she was about Arkai Dawnoro’s death, she decided to see for herself.

The divergence of timelines, the branch point where her knowledge became unreliable, where the future she had lived was no longer the future that would be, was of course worth investigating.

She must meet Jove Iondora as soon as possible and ask him what happened. What he saw. What he remembered. Whether the wound that should not exist had changed everything or nothing, whether her prophecy had created this divergence or merely revealed it.

That was why she insisted on visiting Jove, despite being directed by an aide to wait at a reception room.

But what she got by the youngest prince’s room door just solidified her determination.

"It is my pleasure, no matter how unfortunate, to meet you here, Saintess, I assume?"

Saintess?

Who was speaking?

But then, Ruby realized it wasn’t meant for her.

"Why would I do something so unnecessary as bringing the Saintess to meet my sibling who almost die—"

Un... unnecessary?

"Ahem, Saintess Ruby Vaiva, my Prince."

This...

This humiliation...!

"Then who is this holy lady...?"

And who was this lady who kept assuming someone who wasn’t a saintess as one?!

That was Lady Sees, alright. She did look charismatic and beautiful even with a veil covering the upper part of her face. But what did you mean you can see her as holy?

When Ruby, the true Saintess, was already right there?!

"You are not summoned here, Saintess Vaiva. Were you not provided a reception room? That was rude of us."

Ha—

She was not summoned here? Fine! But what kind of greeting was that?!

Damon Iondora—and these two women—

Who did they think they were?! Just because—just because—

"You must be Your Highnesses Prince Reginald and Princess Gertrude, right? Excuse me. May I check on His Highness Prince Jove?" Lady Sees gently asked. "I am Sees. I was the one who made the elixir that closed his wound."

"Of course, my Lady."

Gertrude and Reginald stepped away immediately. They too recognized Lady Sees’ name. She was the rumored Dragon’s Physician and Arkai Dawnoro’s Luna. Her presence had the same aura of command that surrounded their elder brother, the kind that did not require shouting to be heard.

They moved to the periphery, their eyes tracking the veiled woman as she approached their brother’s bedside with steps that were sand-soft, desert-trained, a gait entirely alien to palace floors.

"Why are you here? Did I not tell you to stay put and let my men fortify your security?" Damon turned to Ivy, feeling that his instructions were being treated as suggestions.

His words and glare made her chuckle sweetly. "Your men also surrounded this place since you love your siblings so much. It’s the same."

"I was here to ask our dear Prince Jove for the details of what happened. But I took my time to make sure they’ve acclimated themself to me, and since he still looked unwell," she explained.

"You speak as if my siblings are goldfish or something," Damon narrowed his eyes.

Again, Ruby felt ignored. This sensation of being transparent, being present without being perceived, and occupying space that others moved through without acknowledgment.

In this room, she felt like she was just a nobody, while she was the literal Saintess who had prophesied the Emperor’s death!

How could she, the woman who should’ve been listened to, believed, deferred to, now reduced to a background of the actual drama that occurred between a veiled, mysterious lady and a jealous princess and a murderous crown prince?

Even Reginald and Gertrude felt awkward from all these teases and exchanges, their younger faces showing discomfort.

"Stop being nosy. This is the Iondora Empire’s palace and it’s our right to investigate. In this case, Ivy, you are an outsider," Damon said, immediately claiming territorial sovereignty.

"Am I an outsider now after everything we went through together?" Ivy teased.

And Damon narrowed his eyes even more.

"Your Highnesses, please don’t quarrel in a patient’s room," Lady Sees giggled, the sound musical, clearly enjoying herself.

She focused her attention on Jove, her hands finding his pulse, his temperature, and finished her examination by petting his head, making the teenage boy unsure whether to blush or to get wary.

She smiled, the corners of her red lips curved elegantly upwards, the only part of her face visible. "His Highness seems alright, but in shock. It’s still too early for him to answer any question today."

Cecilia was sure now.

She knew who killed the Emperor.