Beast Gacha System: All Mine-Chapter 18: Helpless

"Why would the five-star skill be how to do a fellatio?!" Cecilia screamed internally.

[Fellatio is a prestigious five-star skill! It requires immense talent, dexterity, and years of dedicated practice to mas—]

"I know it’s hard! Of course it’s difficult! But why is it one of the things I can get from this system?! I was expecting something for combat! Or survival! Real life important skills!"

[Processing...]

DING!

[Answer: Fellatio is a real life skill!]

"Are you arguing with me?" Cecilia glared at the empty air.

[...uhhh... you can always convert it to Gold if you don’t want it, Cecilia!] the system backtracked, its tone suddenly placating.

"This conversion thing is a scam and you know it," she snapped. "How many rolls do I have left?"

[You have 151 rolls left!]

And thanks to the double five-star pull, her next one was guaranteed. But if she rolled more, she’d just get another bond copy, ranking her bond with Oathran even higher...

"That bond rank that just unlocked," she began, rubbing the center of her chest. A strange feeling of a steady rhythm pulsed there now. Since the second bond copy had resonated, it felt like she had a heart again—a phantom, borrowed beat. A quick check confirmed her own chest was still hollow. "Explain it to me."

[Five star Oathran Alicei: Rank 2]

[Rank 1: Bond]

[Rank 2: Sense Sharing]

[Rank 3: Locked]

...

[Rank 7: Locked]

[Rank 2 details:]

[Sense Sharing allows you to feel a wide spectrum of your bonded mate’s physical and emotional states! This includes the five senses, hormonal fluctuations, body temperature, gravitational awareness, general emotions, pain, and the functional sensation of his working organs!]

"Working organs?" Cecilia’s voice dropped to a horrified whisper. "You mean, I can feel when he... piss... and... shi—"

[If you consciously tune into that specific sensation, yes!]

No.

Nu uh.

Absolutely not.

"So, I can feel his hormonal changes and thus his general emotion... but I won’t know the why or what he’s actually thinking?" she clarified.

[Correct!]

[You’ll only be able to read his mind after you rank him to ra### ### ##### 01110011 01101111 01101001 01101100 01100101 01110010—]

BZZZT—BEEP—

Cecilia blinked.

[System rebooting...]

DING!

[We are sorry for the error. Please refrain from steering the conversation toward information we haven’t chosen to disclose.]

"Hmm," Cecilia narrowed her eyes. The system’s panic was more telling than any answer. "I see. You’re blaming me for guessing correctly?"

[We are terribly sorry! That is not what we meant!]

"I forgive you," Cecilia sneered.

[...]

[...]

This was the second time she’d managed to pry unintended information from this entity. But it seemed she would need a much, much subtler method from now on. The system was learning to cover its tracks.

"Saintess, do you feel unwell anywhere?" Oathran returned from the bathroom, wiping his wet, intact hand with a small towel. His voice was a careful, gentle baritone, afraid to shatter the morning’s peace.

Cecilia raised her face and smiled lightly for the first time in years. "No, I feel a lot better than ever."

It was the truth. Lighter, despite the phantom heartbeat. Cleaner, despite the memory of his touch.

Oathran sat on the chair beside the bed, his gaze briefly touching the empty breakfast tray on the cabinet. He took a deep, quiet breath of relief before turning back to her. "Do you have something planned for today?"

Cecilia rubbed the hem of her sleeve. "What about your plan, Your Majesty?"

"My plan," he said, his tone softening, "is to give you what you wanted yesterday. When you said you had a hidden motive, that you wanted something from me."

Cecilia’s eyes faltered. "But... I already asked you to..."

The man shook his head. "At the time, you didn’t know you wanted that yet. You wanted something else. Before... everything."

This man...

He’s too good to be true.

"Your Majesty," Cecilia began, a wide grin spreading across her face. "With my conscience, I would need to give you something more in return for your help."

Seeing her smile, Oathran’s own lips curved upwards. He leaned in slightly. "Oh? It’s so big that you need to give me more to make me give it to you?"

Cecilia blushed, pressing the cold back of her hand to her cheek. "Please don’t phrase it like that..."

Oathran immediately coughed, his own composure cracking as he stuttered. "...W-What? That’s not what I meant..."

Seeing the mighty Dragon Lord as flustered as she was, Cecilia exhaled a sharp breath, steadying herself. The playing field was level again. "Give me your cane," she said, opening her palm in a demanding gesture.

The man narrowed his eyes, though amusement still danced in them. "Are you going to add more enchantments and ridiculous effects to it?" 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

Cecilia giggled and nodded. "That’s my plan from the very beginning. And I’m now able to add more."

The man’s expression grew hesitant, the teasing fading. "But how could you still not be able to regrow your heart? Shouldn’t you focus your efforts on that?"

"Ah, this and that require different things," Cecilia shook her head, making a hurrying gesture with her hand. She then mock-glared at him, twisting his own logic back on him. "How about you? You pay for my clothes and food with your condensed mana stone, yet you still refuse to regenerate your own missing limbs!"

Oathran looked away. "Ahem... It’s just... you can use my mana to regrow your heart first. After that..."

"Oathran!" Cecilia snapped, her voice sharp.

The man flinched, his broad shoulders riding up slightly, looking for all the world like a scolded husband. "What?"

"Did you deliberately not heal yourself because you want to hoard all your mana for me? For my heart?" Cecilia narrowed her eyes, leaning forward to pin him with her gaze.

"But it’s your heart," Oathran helplessly said. "You need it more than I need my... appearance."

If the world could see the legendary Dragon Lord cowering before a seemingly frail human woman, they would be convinced it was a waking dream, one so bizarre they’d feel the need to wash their eyeballs, and then their brains for good measure.

And it got worse.

Hearing his reasoning, Cecilia’s anger simmered hotter. "Appearance?" she repeated, her voice dangerous. "You’re calling a missing arm, an exposed leg bone, and a mangled cheek and jaw... a matter of appearance?"

Oathran short-circuited. Wasn’t that the entire reason he’d been using transformation magic to conceal the damage instead of fully healing? For aesthetics?

"Forget it," Cecilia sighed, the fight draining out of her as she turned her face away from him. "I don’t want anything from you anymore."

Ah.

Oathran clenched his fist. This helpless feeling...

So this is what it feels like... to fall for someone, huh...?