I Transmigrated Into A Goddess Body In Another World: But I'm a Man Chapter 58: The Name Between Them

Mason was dressed and walking through the palace less than ten minutes later.

Sleep had abandoned him completely.

Draca matched his pace as they moved through the nearly empty corridors.

Most of the palace remained asleep.

Only guards and servants occupied the halls at this hour.

The silence should have felt peaceful.

Instead it felt expectant. Like the palace itself was waiting.

Neither spoke imdiately.

Both were focused on the ssage Zereth had sent.

Soone had attempted to remove part of the journal...not copy but to remove it completely.

The archives ca into view.

Additional guards had already been stationed outside.

That alone confird the seriousness of the situation.

One of the soldiers stepped aside as they approached.

"Commander."

Draca nodded. "Inside?"

"Yes."

The guard looked uneasy.

Mason didn’t bla him.

Everyone seed uneasy lately.

They entered together.

Several lamps illuminated the archive chamber.

Zereth stood near the central table. The immortal looked ntally exhausted.

The kind of exhaustion caused by too many questions and not enough answers.

A familiar condition.

"You ca quickly."

"You sent a ssage in the middle of the night."

"I felt that might get your attention."

"Mission accomplished."

Zereth almost smiled.

The recovered journal pages rested on the table.

Several archivists stood nearby.

None appeared happy.

One looked ready to retire permanently.

Mason sympathized. "What happened?"

Zereth’s expression hardened.

"A storage compartnt was opened."

"By who?"

"We don’t know."

Mason would have been shocked if they actually knew.

"The section was discovered during an inventory review."

Zereth carefully unfolded several aged pages.

"The intruder never reached these."

Mason stepped closer.

The writing looked older than the original journal, different ink and handwriting.

Possibly a different author.

The first lines remained damaged.

The middle section survived.

Zereth began reading. "’We no longer trust the records. Changes appear where none should exist. Entire events vanish between revisions.’"

Silence settled across the room.

Mason exchanged a glance with Draca.

The commander looked equally troubled.

Zereth continued. "’The Witnesses have begun maintaining independent accounts.’"

One archivist quietly cursed.

Nobody blad him.

"’If Heaven rembers differently tomorrow, we must rember today.’"

The room beca very quiet.

Mason stared at the page.

The wording disturbed him.

Not because it explained anything, it’s because it didn’t. Every answer sohow created three more questions.

Athlian stirred uneasily. ’That feels familiar.’

"You’ve said that before."

’I know.’

"Could you be more specific?"

’No.’

He rubbed his forehead in frustration.

The investigation was becoming increasingly frustrating.

Draca studied the docunt for a mont.

Then asked sothing interesting.

"Why would soone remove this now?"

Nobody answered imdiately because nobody knew.

Eventually Zereth spoke. "Perhaps because we’re finally asking the correct questions."

That wasn’t reassuring...not remotely.

The discussion continued for another hour.

The results remained disappointing.

Nobody identified the intruder.

Nobody understood the Witnesses.

Nobody understood Heaven.

Nobody understood anything.

By sunrise, Mason had reached the limit of his patience.

He escaped the archives before soone handed him another ancient docunt containing mysterious nonsense.

The palace gardens looked beautiful.

Which felt personally offensive.

The world had no right looking this peaceful.

Draca eventually joined him.

The commander carried two cups of tea.

Again.

Mason pointed imdiately. "You keep doing that."

"Doing what?"

"Appearing with tea."

Draca handed him one.

"You never refuse it."

That was unfortunately true.

Mason accepted the cup.

A terrible precedent had clearly been established.

For several minutes they sat quietly.

The sky gradually brightened overhead.

Birds sang.

Everything felt normal, which was perhaps the strangest thing of all.

The kingdom stood on the edge of political chaos.Yet nature remained completely unconcerned.

Mason sipped his tea, then rembered sothing.

Sothing that had been bothering him for far too long.

He turned toward Draca.

The commander imdiately noticed.

"What?"

Mason hesitated.

Then decided to ask again.

"You are yet to give a valid answer to my question."

Draca frowned slightly. "What?"

"The na."

The commander froze.

Only briefly but Mason noticed.

"You rember."

"Yes."

"Good."

Mason set down his tea.

"Why do you call Mason?"

Silence followed.

A long one.

Draca looked genuinely uncomfortable and confused. As if he had hoped the question wouldn’t return.

Unfortunately for him, Mason was persistent.

"Well?"

The commander exhaled slowly.

"I don’t know."

Mason blinked. "What?"

"I don’t know."

That wasn’t the answer he expected.

Draca looked frustrated with himself, not the question.

"The na appears sotis."

"Appears?"

"Yes."

Mason stared.

That sounded insane. Which unfortunately ant it fit perfectly within recent events.

Draca continued. "I hear it."

"What does that even an?"

"I don’t know."

The commander’s voice remained calm, honest and confused.

"It feels familiar."

Mason felt a chill run through him.

Athlian imdiately beca alert.

Neither spoke nor liked where this conversation was going.

Draca stared toward the gardens.

"The first ti it happened was months ago."

Months? not recently or after the fractures.

But Months!

Mason’s pulse quickened. "Why didn’t you tell ?"

"I thought it would stop."

Fair.

Reasonable even, unfortunately it hadn’t stopped.

The commander rubbed his forehead.

"The na feels important."

"To who?"

"I don’t know."

There it was again.

Another mystery.

Another impossible contradiction.

Another question without an answer.

Mason hated those.

Draca looked directly at him. "I know how ridiculous it sounds."

"It sounds very ridiculous."

"Agreed."

The commander actually smiled briefly.

Then it vanished.

"But every ti I hear it..."

He paused...searching for words.

"It feels like soone important is calling for help."

The statent hit harder than expected.

Mason didn’t know why.

Athlian went completely silent.

Neither knew what to say.

Eventually Mason forced a laugh.

A weak one.

"Well that’s not concerning at all."

"No."

Draca stood.

"It isn’t."

The conversation ended there.

Not because either wanted it to.

Because neither knew where to continue.

The answer created more questions than before.

Exactly like everything else lately.

By afternoon, the palace had beco chaotic again. News of the attempted theft had spread.

Nobody admitted spreading it.

Everybody sohow knew anyway.

Ministers blad temple officials.

Temple officials blad archivists.

Archivists blad everyone.

Mason avoided all of them.

A survival strategy, one that imdiately failed because Zereth found him.

The immortal appeared beside him in one of the palace corridors.

Without warning.

Like a particularly elegant ghost.

Mason nearly jumped. "Can people stop doing that?"

"No."

"Wonderful."

Zereth’s amusent lasted only a mont.

Then he stepped closer.

Too close.

Mason imdiately noticed.

Unfortunately the immortal reached out.

His fingers brushed a loose strand of silver hair from Mason’s face.

The gesture looked natural, familiar and comfortable.

Mason froze.

Then stepped backward imdiately.

Zereth’s hand stopped midway.

Surprise flickered across his expression

"I’m capable of managing my own hair."

The immortal studied him carefully.

The silence stretched.

Dangerous territory.

Very dangerous because Zereth noticed things...too many things.

Finally he spoke. "You’ve changed."

Mason’s stomach tightened. "People do that."

"Not like this."

Athlian stirred uneasily.

Zereth noticed the hesitation.

Of course he did.

The man practically collected suspicious behavior as a hobby.

The immortal stepped back giving space.

Yet his eyes never left Mason’s face.

"You avoid ."

"I’ve been busy."

"That’s a lie...sothing is so much different about you my goddess"

Straight to the point...wonderful.

Mason resisted the urge to groan.

Fortunately another interruption arrived.

Unfortunately it arrived wearing black robes.

Assura walked toward them calmly. Like he owned the corridor.Which honestly wouldn’t have surprised Mason anymore.

He glanced between them.

Then smirked imdiately.

That wasn’t a good sign.

"What fascinating timing."

"No."

Mason answered instantly. "Whatever you’re about to say, no."

The smirk widened.

Zereth looked tired already.

An understandable reaction.

Assura leaned against a nearby pillar.

"You know, so people spend centuries chasing answers."

Mason sighed.

Here we go.

"The Witnesses learned that."

Zereth’s attention sharpened imdiately.

"So you know sothing."

Assura laughed softly. "Everyone knows sothing."

"That’s not an answer."

"Neither are most questions."

Mason hated him. Not permanently,just professionally.

Assura’s gaze shifted toward him.For a brief mont the immortal looked unusually serious.

Then it vanished.

"If you discover why Witnesses existed..."

The immortal paused. "...you may not enjoy the answer."

And just like that, he walked away...with no explanation or clarification.

Zereth looked annoyed.

Mason felt exactly the sa.

Athlian felt worse.

He could feel it through the soul bridge.

He frowned internally. ’What aren’t you telling ?’

No answer ca.

Only silence.

By nightfall, the palace atmosphere felt heavier than before.

The investigation continued.

The questions multiplied. And sowhere beneath all of it...Soone remained desperate enough to steal evidence.

Mason stood beside his bedroom window.

Watching the city below.

Thinking.

About Witnesses,Heaven, dreams, Draca.

About a na that shouldn’t an anything.Yet sohow did.

Athlian finally spoke softly.

’You trust him.’

Mason didn’t need clarification...he knew exactly whom she was talking about.

"You noticed?"

’Everyone notices.’

He rolled his eyes. "That’s not true."

Athlian laughed quietly.

A genuine laugh. Yet there was sadness beneath it.

’It is.’

Mason stared toward the distant city lights.

For once, he didn’t argue because he wasn’t entirely sure she was wrong.

Far away, thunder rumbled beyond the horizon.

A storm is approaching. Or perhaps simply passing by.

Either way, the sound lingered. And deep beneath the palace...

Far below stone, steel, and forgotten history... Sothing shifted just once.

A faint movent. And in the darkness of a sealed chamber nobody should rember...A single ancient symbol began glowing faintly on a hidden wall.

A symbol that had not been illuminated in centuries.A symbol that matched one drawn beside the newest recovered Witness entry.

The sa symbol soone had desperately tried to remove.

And sowhere in the capital...

Soone realized it had been activated.

And imdiately began moving.