[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-beast-gacha-system-all-mine":3,"chapter-beast-gacha-system-all-mine-beast-gacha-system-all-mine-chapter-158":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"english","Beast Gacha System: All Mine",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},1083450,1407,"Chapter 158: A Lot of Fun","beast-gacha-system-all-mine-chapter-158",158,"\u003Cp>Transfer!Oathran was...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>...something else.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He still carried that innate untouchable air. A quiet dignity that seemed to flatten the noisy chaos of the school refectory around him into a more manageable hum, perhaps. The aloof majesty was there, one could see. In the straight line of his back, the careful economy of his movements...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But layered over it, woven through it, was something... normal.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Oh, it’s meat pie,\" he observed, delighted in his low voice as he surveyed the late-night serving counter. He selected two generous slices, added a bowl of savory broth, and eyed the dessert section with... scholarly consideration.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Cecilia had to ponder a bit before even attempting to describe it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His gaze lingered on a glazed donut, then drifted to a large, magically chilled bowl bearing a handwritten sign. ’Smoothies.’\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He tilted his head, a faint, curious frown touching his brow.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Cecilia, queuing behind him, followed his gaze. Smoothies? The word meant nothing to her. Some kind of potion? Pudding? Her own mind, ever wary of unknown variables in a constructed world, narrowed her eyes at the mysterious substance. It seemed only logical to investigate.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As Oathran reached for a bowl, she realized her hand had also moved at the same time.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>For fuck’s sake.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Their hands brushed in the space above the stacked porcelain. Not quite a touch, just a proximity. But Cecilia snatched her bowl back as if burned. Why did it feel like she was electrocuted?!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Can this scenario be less romantic?!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She screamed internally. It seemed that because she didn’t want to proceed on the romance trope scenario yet, the system would just enhance and exaggerate every sensation remotely intimate.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ahh... the System’s heavy-handed tropes were one thing, but the universe itself seemed to be conspiring to throw them into cliché proximity.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She had a mission here! A mission of careful, passive observation, not shared dessert selections!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Late dinner today? Oh... as expected, Miss Araceli,\" chuckled the kindly, middle-aged staff member manning the counter. She began filling Cecilia’s bowl with the thick, pinkish concoction. \"Is it because your new boyfriend is away? I hadn’t seen him today.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"I noticed you started eating on time when you started dating him,\" the staff blinked. \"Tagging along behind him like a lost puppy every meal time.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The casual gossip, so ingrained in the school’s fabric, was a welcome relief. Why would it be a relief, though? Because the touch with Oathran made her stomach butterfly-ed? Butterflying her sto—whatever?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Cecilia grasped the lifeline though. And... blushed while she was at it too... Who wouldn’t blush when you’re gossipped withEastiel?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"You mean, Eastiel?\" she asked, her tone light, playing along with the established narrative.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Is he... nooOOot your boyfriend?\" The staffer teased, drawing out the word with a weary affection. She’d seen generations of teenage drama and this particular saga was apparently a highlight.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Cecilia offered a casual shrug, ambiguously nonchalant. \"I don’t know. How about you ask him when he comes back?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Oh!\" The woman’s face lit up with gleeful anticipation. \"Just know that I will.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She handed over the smoothie bowl to her.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Cecilia took her tray. Meat pie, steamed veggies and condiments, the mysterious smoothie, and retreated to the nearly empty dining hall. She chose her usual seat at a long table by a rain-streaked window, the night pressing black against the glass.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She didn’t look back. She didn’t expect him to follow. In fact, she wished he wouldn’t. They needed distance. Strategically, psychologically, narratively.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But alas.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The scrape of a chair directly beside hers was a tragedy. She didn’t need to look, she could feel the shift in the air, the subtle coolness and that clean, ozonic scent.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"What?\" Oathran’s voice was mild, a touch of genuine confusion in it as he arranged his own tray. \"I thought we had become friends.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Friends.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That was... nice.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Her relationship with the real Oathran had skipped that stage entirely. There had been no buffer. They had vaulted from strangers, to oath-bearer and death-seeking legend, to magically-bonded mates in a span of chaos and desperation. There had been no ’getting to know each other’ era. No shared lunches, no casual conversations.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Even with Arkai, there had been a buffer. Letters fraught with tension, warnings exchanged, gifts and political connections slowly weaving a net of mutual understanding.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The fact that she and the real Oathran had come to get along, to understand each other, to truly love each other...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was a miracle born of two specific conditions. One, Cecilia having grown into a halfway-decent adult, and the infinite wisdomful patience of a four-hundred-year-old Dragon Lord.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Come to think of it, if those conditions hadn’t been met...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Cecilia grimaced internally. She remembered how her own palm connected with his cheek, the sharp sound in the scorched town, her fury white-hot when he had so calmly offered her as Arkai’s mate after his death.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yes. Without her hard-won maturity and his ancient forbearance, they... might not have gone along well at all. They might have been oil and water, or worse, fire and kindling.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Do you not want people to tell your boyfriend that you’re seen with another man late at night?\" Oathran asked, his tone still one of polite inquiry.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He was scooping a tentative spoonful of his smoothie, his meat pie and broth sitting untouched. It seemed... he was conducting a culinary experiment as he spoke.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Eastiel is not that petty,\" Cecilia said. \"And that’s not the point.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"I see you do not enjoy my company,\" Oathran shrugged, not sounding offended, merely stating a deduced fact. He took a bite of the smoothie, thoughtful as he processed the taste. \"I just want to have someone to eat a late dinner with after a full day of studying.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Cecilia bit down on her fork, the rich, savory flavor of the meat pie bursting across her tongue, but her mind was galaxies away.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Oathran... rarely ate.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The real one. The dragon.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He’d shown polite interest in human cuisine, but it was a performance, a social grace. But when it comes to her diet... he’d turn into someone else.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He’d even eat when he deemed she might feel lonely dining alone, or if he thought she wouldn’t eat without him doing the same.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He never truly needed to.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He’d once offhandedly said that his diet for the past seventeen years had consisted primarily of... monsters.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And there was no kitchen in his mountain aerie.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Seeing this version of him... Transfer!Oathran... delight in a meat pie, ponder a donut, scientifically tackle a ’smoothie’... it was ’normal’. It was bizarre. Heartbreaking.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was a glimpse of a mundane he had never possessed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A life of simple, human pleasures his true nature had rendered obsolete.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She raised her chin, looking out at the dark window, seeing their faint reflections superimposed on the night. The mission warred with a pang of something she couldn’t name. Not pity. Something closer to... regret. For the ordinary moments they’d never had.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Fine,\" she said, trying to sound arrogant. \"You may stay.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A soft sound escaped him. Not quite a laugh, but perhaps a gentle exhalation of amusement. \"Pff... huhuhu...\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The young man nodded.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Professor Baswara was right,\" he muttered. \"School is a lot of fun.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Huh?\u003C\u002Fp>",1209,"2026-06-03T10:47:30.409Z",1,"novelbin.me","e6adee1c7d83b6954dfc6f246cb819e97ff943a606d8fbbfa80decaa7442be6b","beast-gacha-system-all-mine-chapter-159","beast-gacha-system-all-mine-chapter-157",410,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fbeast-gacha-system-all-mine-cover.jpg"]