Beast Gacha System: All Mine

It wasn’t hard to guess what might have happened in the alternate world Ruby Vaiva came from before her time travel. The absence of Cecilia was the primary variable, the empty space around which all other differences arranged themselves.

There was no Cecilia, so the Saintess was always Ruby from the start. Arkai Dawnoro and Oathran Alicei would die, and it was just one of the facts in history, names in chronicles, casualties of fates that had concluded without intervention.

But what about Damon and Angela Iondora?

Angela would’ve still done what she did, even without knowing Cecilia and becoming her best friend. The scandal, the imprisonment, these were expressions of her nature, not responses to external friendship.

Damon too, would’ve done what he did. The parallel empire, the shadow throne, the performance of difficulty that concealed functional necessity.

She knew now that Zircon Iondora was assassinated in that alternate future too. And assuming the people who made it come true were the same people, what would be the outcome?

Just like now, Damon Iondora was already accused of the murder by Vera Leclerc. Then, in that world, he would be accused of the same.

He would rise to the throne bearing the accusation, and it’d follow him ’til the day he died, whether he did it or not. He would never prove his innocence because innocence was not the point anyway.

Now Cecilia was sure that it wasn’t Damon who did it, both in this timeline and in that other alternate future Ruby lived. The reason was as mentioned, Zircon’s death or life never truly mattered to him.

The emperor had been irrelevant to Damon’s empire for years, a figurehead performing functions that Damon’s own network already performed more efficiently. Why kill what you have already replaced?

Heck, even with the title ’murderer-of-own-father’ attached to him, Damon would be fine. His rule would be fine. He might even use it to his own advantage, the reputation for ruthlessness consolidated, the performance of instability given documentary confirmation.

And so it would be in this timeline. There was not a difference. Not at all.

The only difference Cecilia would give them in this world because she was the saintess was one thing.

Damon’s amicable relationship with the Cassian Twins.

Starting from solving the murder of Rohan Morlynn, the late former prime minister of Cassia, to gaining respect from the Cassian Royal Family thanks to her saving people from multiple disasters in Cassia, Damon Iondora and the Cassian Twins’ alliance was more than secure.

Not to mention Qinryc Lukas’ lifelong gratitude for her, the debt of a man who had been prepared to die and had been given, instead, a future.

But what would be if Cecilia was never a Saintess?

Qinryc Lukas would be hanged. The people in the disaster would just die in the disaster. And there would be no reason for the Cassian Twin and Damon to have such amicable relationship beyond their connection through the Beaumont family and the dead Empress Beaumont.

The alliance of convenience, of genetic obligation, was rather weaker than the alliance of gratitude and shared survival.

But what was this to do with who killed Zircon Iondora?

Who killed Zircon Iondora?

Eh. Even though now she knew who did it...

...who cared?

Cecilia didn’t care. After all, Damon wasn’t threatened by this one bit. Nor was Angela. Nor was anyone. No one would be harmed by the death of the Emperor because Damon and Angela were here.

Arguably, Zircon Iondora’s death might bring more positive in this world than anyone would think.

The consolidation of Damon’s authority, the elimination of a figurehead who had become inconvenient and the clarification of power that had been parallel for too long.

These were administrative improvements and efficiency gains.

What she cared about, and what Damon and Angela truly cared about, was Jove.

A child almost died.

That was why Angela burst out of her dungeon cell and Damon immediately tried to find her.

Everything in the effect of otherwise was performance. The appropriate reaction for a prince to find the emperor had been assassinated. Also a response to general danger.

Everything else were the gestures required by his position. Just standard filial shock and royal responsibility.

That was why he asked Ivy to stay close in case of an attack and why he checked his father’s body, to find out if the murderer also wanted others’ lives. All because the two of them, Damon and Angela, truly weren’t the ones who ordered the assassination.

But guess who would not see it as anything like that?

Guess who wouldn’t know how the Imperial Family actually worked, and who would try to profit from the Emperor’s death like she did with both Arkai’s and Oathran’s deaths?

Correct.

It was Ruby Vaiva.

Forget whether she received any actual prophecy from her trance or not, whether the white-eyed vision was genuine or manufactured, whether the gods spoke or she spoke for them.

Cecilia was ready to come here to make sure no bullshit happened because of Ruby Vaiva’s prophecy.

And guess what, some bullshit did happen.

There would be no difference of what happened in this timeline and the other alternate timeline thanks to Damon’s power, so why would she reveal that the emperor would die in a prophecy?

Why would she want the emperor and the world know he was about to die?

Did she not want him to die and in turn get rewarded if he survived the assassination? Or did she want him to die to prove that her prophecy was still accurate?

Whichever way, profit?

"Ahh, so that was what happened..." Ruby nodded as she finally sat in the reception room, listening to what happened to Jove by what Lady Vera told everyone.

Drinking their tea on the table around her, Ivy and Sees nodded too.

"Which means, the prophecy didn’t tell you that Prince Jove would be in danger?" Lady Sees asked.

"No. Unfortunately, the gods only told me about the assassination of the Emperor," Ruby nodded.

Cecilia looked at Ruby from behind her veil, the red lips curved in expression that could not be read. Of course Ruby wouldn’t know.

Because Ruby herself was the one who caused it.