The Bookkeeper-Chapter 50: Twenty-Eight Pages

"Milo had been misunderstood," Raiden muttered as he read the Book of Aaron, his head resting on his pillow as he lay quietly in his bed on a peaceful morning.

"It is distortion... meant to mislead people?" he muttered once more as he continued glancing through the pages, flipping them slowly.

The book was never called the Book of Aaron. According to Raiden’s knowledge, its true name was the Book of Distortion—but since no one in this world could speak English, the word "distortion" was completely meaningless to them. So they adapted "Aaron" instead, taking it from the bold golden letters emblazoned across the cover.

To Raiden’s knowledge, either Milo’s actual name in this world was Aaron, or it was an acronym that had to be translated. But what troubled him most were those very words themselves.

Taking a closer look at the cover, there were scratches where the word "distortion" was written—and worse, it was the only word on the cover that was handwritten.

This led Raiden to believe that either someone other than Milo had written it, or everything on the book cover had been written before Milo got it and he had simply erased a word to write "distortion." Either way, it meant he had nothing to do with the name Aaron.

Aside from the cover, many things within the book itself made Raiden’s head spin, leading him to believe the word "distortion" was written on the cover for a reason.

With careful consideration, he realized Milo had divided it into three parts—the last was about mana, but the most vital points of the first and second parts were among the missing pages. There were twenty-eight of them missing.

TWENTY EIGHT!

After lying in bed for quite a while, Raiden finally rose to his feet and began stretching his body. Finding all twenty-eight pages was nearly impossible—unless they were sold on the black market or safeguarded somewhere, it was most likely that many of them had already been destroyed, making the book largely useless to him.

Raiden took another glance at the book. "Regarding mana, there are things that would be both important and easy to learn."

He muttered and began heading out of the room. Though many pages were missing from that section as well, they weren’t codependent. Each page contained information on its own, unlike the first two parts which needed everything to make sense. And so, he was going to give it back to Leo—learning those techniques might help them.

He freshened up and put on his shirt, folding the sleeves up to his elbows, his mind pondering whether Milo was still alive. But he brushed the thought off after a few minutes—he needed to face his current predicament first.

Perhaps the Jaspers and Dawnbringers were plotting something beyond his control, and worse, he had yet to receive a response from the kingdom after sending them a message three days ago.

However, right on the staircase, before descending to the living room, his danger detection kicked in as he instinctively paused and tilted to his left.

It was faint, barely noticeable, but he could feel two people closing in. One had an enormous aura, while the other was partially overshadowed by it.

At that very moment, Raiden looked toward the main entrance and saw Ash dashing toward him.

[Something bad, Papa,] her voice echoed in Raiden’s head as she climbed the stairs toward him.

He wrapped her in his arms and began patting her back. There was no need to lie to her, but her expression, the way she whispered, and worse—Raiden could feel exactly how she was feeling since he shared a heart with her. She was scared.

Raiden swallowed nervously as he patted her slowly. This was his first time ever feeling anything directly through Ash since gaining the heart of dragon ability. And he couldn’t help but wonder if this was how scared Ash had been before every fight.

However, he knew he had to assure her that everything would be okay. "Don’t worry, Ash. I will take care of it."

She began to nudge him while whispering, and Raiden placed her on his shoulder, descended the stairs, and headed to the training room for his sword. When he got there, Leo and Levi were engrossed in a fierce duel.

Their movements made the very ground tremble as the room filled with heat. Raiden watched for a moment, then waited for them to put some distance between themselves.

"It’s okay, you guys," he said, interrupting their duel as they both turned to him. "We have intruders... very powerful ones."

He didn’t spare them another glance as he walked toward his sword, set the Book of Aaron down, and drew his blade. His mind was occupied—not by the battle ahead alone, but also by the reason why Ash was this scared. He could still feel her fear despite her resting gently on his shoulder.

He had seen her extremely scared once, and that was during their first encounter with Mack. That time was understandable because Raiden was still at the eighth rank, and he was the only one capable of fighting.

And with Seth, she had even trusted Raiden enough to let him finish Seth off alone. But now they had an army, potentially people stronger than him—so why was she still scared?

Still, that only made him believe that their enemy must be very strong, perhaps stronger than Seth, the most formidable opponent he had ever faced.

The moment he stepped outside, he saw Freya, Speed, and Soul practicing mana circulation on the grassy field to his right.

He said nothing—he simply glanced at them and turned toward the edge of the barrier, at the forest. Ash began whispering once more, and Raiden could feel it too. They were close.

Levi and Leo came up behind Raiden and stood beside him, alerting the others that something was coming. They stopped their training and joined them.

Raiden’s heart began to race the closer they got, prompting euphoria to course through him as it forced a faint, twisted smile.

Before long, he could feel them within the forest, and out of curiosity, he activated Gaze Beyond and began scanning through the trees. His heart sank as he saw them.

What caught his attention first was a blue giant about nine feet tall with giant curved horns, pitch-blue eyes, and long white hair. Armor was wrapped around its waist. It was the cursed doll they had failed to kill earlier—the giant Smurf.

It was alive. And beside it was a man dressed in black with dark hair, his aura radiating yellow. But Raiden was too lost in thought to register anything else about him.

This was the creature that was literally immortal—they had to use Leo’s quick thinking to get rid of it, and now it was back. He now understood why Ash was as scared as she was. He turned to her as she rested on his shoulder, letting out small whispers.

Freya, however, activated her Gaze Beyond as well and described what she saw in her not-so-fluent Persian. The moment she did, Leo’s jaw dropped in horror.

"We are in trouble, Bookkeeper," Leo said, his voice cracking with fear, but Raiden was already aware, so he only remained silent.

"The cursed dolls can climb the ranks on their own once their master dies. Though not with the same human structure..." he swallowed nervously, his eyes fixated on the barrier, waiting for them to enter. "If Freya described the giant correctly, then it’s at the final phase of their ranks."

"God Beast."

"They usually don’t cooperate with humans... I think he’s under a powerful mind control."

This content is taken from fr(e)ewebn(o)vel.𝓬𝓸𝓶