The Bookkeeper
Chapter 84: Advent of the Pages

Chapter 84: Advent of the Pages

The weight of danger filled the air.

Soul helped Speed aside while MK helped Noelle to her feet, and they made their way into the house. Raiden remained outside, patiently awaiting whoever was behind the aura he’d been sensing.

He couldn’t trust Aeris completely, but he believed her words about assassins given the circumstances. Plus, he knew the approaching figures weren’t assassins.

Was his bloodline ritual already identifying them as enemies?

Raiden activated Gaze Beyond to get a proper look at the approaching threat. His vision searched through the forest, but as it turned out, he couldn’t reach beyond three miles.

This made him uneasy as he stood still, fingers twitching, lost in thought.

"I think..." Freya said as she looked through the distance with her gaze beyond activated. Raiden’s expression turned grim as he wondered if her sight reached farther than his.

"Those aren’t intruders... it’s Leo and Levi."

A sudden wave of relief surged through Raiden, forcing a soft smile onto his face. "Are they injured or something?"

"No," Freya said casually. "Levi has his usual cocky smile, and I think he’s teasing Leo." She smiled.

"Leo’s wearing a white shirt with gloves and a bandage on his nose," she said, narrowing her eyes slightly. "He doesn’t look great, but he seems fine."

Raiden gave a firm nod, but his expression grew somber. He was expecting them to come with Alex.

He reached into his pocket and felt the badge Alex had given him for their bargain. Raiden had expected him to come for it so both of them could finalize the deal.

He sighed. "I guess I’ll have to keep it for a while," he muttered.

Soon, Leo and Levi emerged from the forest, walking across the grassy field in the distance, their yellow auras flowing gently around them. The smiles on their faces gave Raiden warmth—it was as if he now saw them as something beyond mere servants.

When they got close, Freya moved toward Levi, and Raiden remained still, while Leo approached him.

The dark circles under his eyes spoke volumes. It was as if he hadn’t slept in days.

"You don’t look well," Raiden said with a concerned expression. "Do you have time to explain what happened?"

"Don’t worry, it wasn’t from torture or anything. Alex made sure of that. I was just working through something," Leo said with a smile.

He stood before Raiden and stretched out his hand with his eyes closed, while Raiden stood there, hands in his pockets, staring at him in confusion.

Leo began murmuring incantations. Raiden could see his mana overflowing, leaving white traces at the edges of his yellow aura. Flames sparked on Leo’s hand, and Raiden’s eyes widened in confusion.

"I thought these could only be done in the 5th realm." Raiden checked Leo’s neck and saw he had reached level 6. Impressive, but he still wasn’t at level 5 to use elemental magic.

Leo opened his eyes with excitement. "Yes, I thought so too, but then an elderly maid began visiting me in my prison cell."

The sparkles in his eyes made Raiden smile; it was as if Leo had waited all this time to share this information with him.

"My fight with Captain Kai was so intense, it forced me to level up mid-fight." His smile widened. "Once I did, I realized I could easily nullify 200 kg of weight. Just one strike was enough to cancel out his ability."

His expression changed instantly as he reached into his pocket and drew out a piece of brown paper for Raiden.

"I suppose the maid knows you." Raiden’s expression darkened, nervousness washing through him. "She said I should give you this when I get back."

Raiden quickly read the words on the paper, and his eyes went wide as his heartbeat quickened and his hands began trembling.

The words were written in English, the language from his previous world. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing. If the message was in English and delivered by an elderly maid, then was it really who he suspected?

"What did the woman look like?"

Leo considered this. "Nothing really stood out about her except her white and blue maid uniform."

It was her. It was indeed her.

Raiden looked back at the page, his heart pounding. However, after reading it more carefully, his expression grew more confused.

The handwriting was exactly like Milo’s handwriting from the Book of Aaron. Raiden rushed to read it completely.

It read: "I had no option but to write this on the final page of my diary, because I’ve made some mistakes I should have corrected.

"Throughout the years, I’ve worked with many people, but few were able to help me get closer to returning to my world, and I am yet to try everything I’ve discovered. It might lead to my madness or even death; that’s why I want to write this to my fellow transmigrators.

"There are twenty-eight specific pages in the diary that explain how to read the devourer books, particularly the Book of Ashes, since it’s the most powerful, and how to grow stronger beyond human comprehension.

"My fellow victims of this unfair interchange of life, if you are reading this, read those specific twenty-eight pages. They not only stand a chance of getting you back home, but also contain all the knowledge you would need in this world."

Raiden’s eyes widened upon realization. Aeris said the assassins were after the twenty-eight pages, not the Book of Ashes.

He understood it all. Before they could read the four books, they needed those pages on how to do it, and maybe even how to retrieve and read the Book of Ashes.

His head started hurting from overthinking, so he rubbed his temples.

"You can read that?" Leo’s voice cut through his daze, but Raiden answered with his own question.

"I left the Book of Aaron in your care, right?"

Leo gave him a firm nod. "Get it for me." At the command, Leo immediately hurried inside the room.

Raiden needed to verify if the pages missing from the book were indeed twenty-eight. Unable to wait any longer, he followed Leo inside.

MK and Noelle rested on the couch, but Raiden stood in the living room without noticing them, his hand shaking as it repeatedly struck his thigh.

If this were true, then not only were the twenty-eight pages essential for him to return to his world, but he also needed to ensure the FIRMO assassins never got their hands on them.

Otherwise, they would target the Book of Ashes next, and worse, gain access to the entire Books of the Devourer.

Before long, Leo returned with the book of Aaron. Raiden grabbed it and started flipping through it. Page after page, counting the torn pages, everything felt like déjà vu.

The moment he finished, he clenched his teeth in irritation. The missing pages were exactly twenty-eight, confirming everything he’d read. But if that was the case, where had the page he read come from?

Was the elderly woman who supposedly transmigrated him the one who wrote it? Did that make her Milo? Why would Milo bring him to this world if all he wanted was to help?

He squeezed his eyes shut and released a sharp scream of frustration.

Regardless of what it was, he knew he had to get the pages before the assassins did. And just as he’d said after arriving in this world, he didn’t care who had killed him or who brought him here—he just wanted to go back and avenge someone dear to him.

He let out a sigh. He knew what to do, but where was he going to start?

"Can the people Speed spoke of help?" He slapped his forehead. "The black market is my only option, then."