Beast Gacha System: All Mine

"Weren’t you the healer who helped Prince Arzhen Vasiliev regain his consciousness?"

Ah. So that was it. A reputation check. She had heard his name attached to the prince’s recovery and was confirming the source. Reasonable. Expected, even.

"Thank you for your service," Ruby added, her tone warm.

Roarke did not immediately seize the credit. He nodded calmly, slow and casual.

"We are fortunate that the Prince originally had a great constitution." He said humbly. "He is a very resilient person. I barely did anything."

"You are right!" Ruby chuckled. "But it is not true that you barely did anything. I heard your medicine is very effective."

She paused and tilted her head.

"It reminded me of the recently spread miracle elixir of Lady Sees. The Dragon’s Physician."

Roarke hummed. He sounded exactly like a professional considering the claim. "I have never encountered the elixir personally. But it is indeed a very hot topic in the healer community right now." He showed a small, self-deprecating smile. "To be compared to the rumored miracle, however, I am sure my medicine is merely average."

"It is not true." Ruby shook her head gently, benevolently bestowing a blessing. "I am sure your medicine is miraculous, Father!"

She then added, almost offhand, "But well. Perhaps a medicine that could close an open wound on a throat immediately is simply out of this world."

Hmm. He smelled some negativity in her voice...? Skepticism? No. Jealousy?

"Is that how miraculous it was?" He let a note of professional admiration color his voice. "Apparently, once again, the Dragon Physician’s reputation has soared thanks to the incident in the palace." he warmly smiled. "We ought to be happy for her."

"Indeed," Ruby nodded.

Roarke did not think much of it. Not deeply, anyway. Perhaps Ruby simply wanted a healer’s perspective on the famous elixir. Perhaps, in her eyes, he was one of the few credible sources available, a healer with proven results, attached to Prince Arzhen’s recovery.

Just someone whose opinion might carry weight. It made sense.

Alright, it was enough. He was about to bid his farewell, to excuse himself for his ’herb collecting trip’ this evening, when Ruby continued.

"Father Raul."

Her voice and her smile had not changed—

"It is actually rare to see a werewolf like you, one who can maintain this humanoid form, become a healer instead."

—but something changed.

Roarke heard the difference. And beside him, Bimo heard it too.

This was not casual.

This was a probing question.

Interesting, Roarke thought, and almost meant it. Ruby had just handed him an advantage without realizing it. If this was her attempt at digging, if this was the best suspicion she could muster, then she had given him the perfect opening to establish his cover more deeply.

A question about his origins was not a threat. It was an invitation to perform.

"Yes." He nodded, his expression open, unguarded. "I was born in the North."

He let a note of old, tired memory creep into his voice.

"But I have no relatives. I am not part of any tribe, thanks to my father being a lone wolf his entire life. My mother..." he added a perfectly timed pause. "I remember my father said he bought her from slavery. She was human. After she gave birth to me, she began to get sick."

He saw Ruby’s eyebrows raise.

"I suppose because my father was a lone wolf, he demanded that I become a strong wolf myself. We were not protected by a tribe or a beast kingdom after all. And my mother was ill most of the time. That is what gave me my interest in medicine."

It was bullshit, of course. Every word of it. A backstory carefully constructed by the princess’ network, complete with emotional beats and sympathetic details designed to deflect exactly this kind of inquiry.

The truth was far less palatable.

Roarke had been bought from slavery by Arkai Dawnoro himself. Both of them had been twelve years old, one a wolf prince, the other a half-breed whelp with nothing but sharp teeth and a sharper will to survive.

Arkai had freed him. Given him a name. Given him a purpose.

The name Raul had been chosen from one of the three most common northern wolf surnames. Nothing distinctive or traceable either. Just another wolf among many.

Raul meant wise wolf.

Wise wolf his ass.

He had made the worst mistake ever conceived.

"That is... a beautiful story, Father Raul."

Ruby said, perhaps genuinely touched, or it was just the polite thing to say. But it still sounded like someone who had just heard something that confirmed her belief in the fundamental goodness of the world.

"Please rely on me if you need assistance." She paused. "In turn, can I rely on you more? In medicine... and if a danger or an emergency happens?"

Roarke wanted to scoff, but of course his face remained serene.

There it was. The transaction. Nothing in this world was free, least of all a Saintess’s kindness.

She would offer him her patronage, her protection, her holy name as a shield, and in return, she wanted his loyalty on standby. His medicine. His skills. His presence, ready to be deployed at her convenience.

He chuckled, warm and self-deprecating, a humble healer who could not quite believe his good fortune. "You are the Saintess. I will, of course, nurse you back to health if you fall sick."

"But no one in this world would dare attack a Saintess. Please do not worry, my Lady," he said reassuringly.

"We never know, do we?" Ruby’s smile remained gentle, but something flickered behind her eyes. A shadow, quickly suppressed?

"You see, my husband is still at war defending me." She said casually, yet it was framed like a vulnerability she was choosing to share with him. Truly a master at sounding pitiful. "I... there are people out there who hate me."

Roarke did not give a fuck.

Not a single, microscopic fuck.

The fact that this woman warranted Arkai Dawnoro’s animosity was all he needed to know. Arkai and his Luna clearly despised her. That was enough.

A threat to Dawnoro was a threat to Rinne, his son. And a threat to Rinne was a threat Roarke would eliminate with extreme prejudice, Saintess or no Saintess.

And... and a threat to Arkai too.

He and Arkai had not spoken properly in years. Spoken... ha, just looking each other in the eyes was already difficult. So maybe... never again. Roarke did not know how to repair anything between them.

Arkai was Alpha. Arkai was pack. Arkai was family, in whatever broken, complicated way that word still applied to Roarke’s life.

So no. He did not give a fuck about Ruby Vaiva’s fears or her husband or her gentle, manipulative smile.

"Please do not be upset for my sake, Father." Ruby said, cutting through his thoughts. "You are very kind."

Ah. So his expression had leaked just enough for her to misinterpret. Roarke had to resist the urge to laugh. He would not clarify, obviously.

"I will do my best for you, Saintess." He said gently. "Please head back to the Saintess’s Sanctuary and get a proper, deep rest."

He let his gaze soften.

"You seem as though the world has weighed you down terribly lately."

Ruby’s eyes widened.

Heh, watching the micro-expression flicker across her face, Roarke assumed she had just realized that people noticed. She looked a bit like a mess lately.

Bimo had told him, of course. The boy reported everything including the fact that Ruby Vaiva and her mate, Nikolas, had been fighting via communication crystal throughout the seven days of the Emperor’s mourning period.

Something about, ’When are you going to reveal the prophecy about who killed the Emperor?!’

Roarke’s opinion of the man, already subterranean, had somehow managed to sink lower. Useless, lame bastard. Just because you march off to war for her sake does not mean you get to scream at her to prove everything with prophecies.

What is she supposed to do? Pull a vision out of the ether like a rabbit from a hat? Well, she might actually be able to. This woman prophesied Arkai Dawnoro’s fucking death, she dared. And was stupidly wrong about it.

Not that he cared about Ruby’s marital struggles. He did not. But even enemies had their private miseries.

Everything he learned, Roarke was professional enough not to give her any sympathy. It all should just arrive as a report at Lady Sees’s desk.

"Thank you, Father." Ruby said. "I will take your advice."

She turned and left, her footsteps fading down the temple corridor.

Behind her, she heard Bimo’s voice pipe up, "Father Rohan, is the medicine we are gathering tonight very difficult to find? I heard it only blooms under starlight!"

Ah, Ruby thought as she walked away, filing the information without interest. So they are gathering medicine tonight. How diligent.

She put it out of her mind and continued toward her chamber, never once looking back.