I Transmigrated Into A Goddess Body In Another World: But I'm a Man Chapter 60: The Symbol That Shouldn’t Exist

The palace was awake long before sunrise. Mason discovered that when a servant knocked on his door before dawn and nearly gave him a heart attack.

"What?"

The servant flinched.

"My goddess, Lord Zereth requests your presence in the archives imdiately."

Mason rubbed his eyes. "Does nobody sleep anymore?"

The servant wisely chose not to answer.

A few minutes later he was already walking through the corridors.

Athlian remained unusually quiet.

That worried him. Normally she would have made at least one sarcastic comnt by now...instead she felt distracted and uneasy.

As though sothing from the previous night continued bothering her.

He eventually sighed. "You’re doing it again."

’Doing what?’

"Pretending nothing is wrong."

’I don’t like that symbol.’

Mason frowned.

That wasn’t the answer he expected.

"The one from the journal?"

’Yes.’

"You recognize it."

A pause.

’I don’t know.’

Mason imdiately regretted asking.

Everything lately led back to the sa answer.

Nobody knew anything. Yet everyone sohow knew enough to be nervous.

The archives appeared ahead.

Additional guards surrounded the entrance. More than yesterday.

More than the day before. At this rate the archives would soon be better protected than the royal treasury.

The mont he entered, he realized sothing had changed.

The atmosphere felt different.

Zereth stood beside a table covered with docunts.

Draca stood nearby.

Several archivists were arguing quietly.

Mason imdiately beca suspicious.

Archivists rarely argued quietly.

Normally they argued loudly.

"What happened?"

Zereth looked up. "You arrived quickly, my goddess."

"That sentence usually ans sothing terrible happened."

The immortal considered that. "Fair."

Definitely terrible then.

Draca motioned him closer. "We found another reference."

Mason groaned. "Wonderful."

"No."

Draca looked serious. "Not wonderful."

That got his attention.

He approached the table.

Several pages had been arranged carefully.

Ancient maps.

Witness entries.

Copies of recovered records.

And beside them...the symbol.

The sa one discovered within the recovered journal fragnt.

Mason stared.

The design looked simple.

A circle.

Several intersecting lines.

Three smaller markings surrounding the center.

Nothing dramatic or particularly threatening. Yet everybody present seed uncomfortable.

One elderly archivist looked personally offended by its existence.

"What am I looking at?"

Zereth pointed toward several records.

"We found the symbol elsewhere."

Mason blinked. "Elsewhere?"

The immortal nodded.

"In docunts recovered from three separate regions."

That wasn’t good. Those regions shouldn’t have been connected.

Not according to history,geograph and common sense. Yet there it was.

The sa symbol.

Repeated.

Again and again.

Draca crossed his arms. "The dates don’t match either."

"How bad?"

"Several centuries."

Mason stared. "What?"

One archivist stepped forward.

The woman looked exhausted. Possibly because reality had stopped cooperating.

"The earliest known appearance predates the kingdom itself."

Mason looked back at the symbol.

That was impossible. Or at least it should have been.

Athlian suddenly beca very alert.

He felt it imdiately.

’That’s wrong.’

He frowned internally. "What do you an?"

No response ca.Instead he felt confusion, fear. And sothing else.

Recognition.

The sensation vanished almost imdiately.

Leaving only frustration behind.

Zereth continued examining another docunt. "There’s more."

Of course there was always more.

The immortal unfolded a separate page.

This one contained only a short passage.

Most of the text had deteriorated.

Only a few lines survived.

Mason read carefully...then read it again.

The symbol marks those who recorded what could not be erased.

A chill crawled down his spine.

Not because he understood it but because he didn’t. The statent sohow raised twenty additional questions.

Draca looked equally troubled. "The wording suggests the symbol belonged to the Witnesses."

"Suggests."

Zereth emphasized the word.

"Not confird."

Nobody wanted confirmation anymore.

Every confird discovery sohow made reality worse.

One of the archivists cleared his throat.

"There is another concern.

Everyone turned toward him.

The man swallowed visibly. "We reviewed the inventory logs."

Mason imdiately disliked where this was going.

"The attempted theft wasn’t random."

The room beca quiet.

Zereth slowly lowered the docunt.

"What do you an?"

The archivist pointed toward the recovered pages.

"The intruder ignored everything else."

Nobody spoke.

The implication settled heavily over the room.

Thousands of records existed within the archives. Yet soone had gone directly toward docunts connected to the Witnesses.

They knew exactly what they wanted.

Draca’s expression darkened. "They had prior knowledge."

"Yes."

Nobody liked that answer. Because it created another problem.

Who possessed that knowledge?

A scholar?

A noble?

A priest?

A tribunal official?

Soone inside the palace?

The possibilities multiplied rapidly.

Mason suddenly missed simpler problems.

Like divine catastrophes. At least those announced themselves properly.

Politics preferred knives.

The discussion continued for hours.

No conclusions erged.

Only theories.

Suspicions.

Possibilities.

By midday Mason escaped before another historian attempted explaining six hundred years of contradictory records.

His sanity deserved protection too.

The palace gardens offered temporary refuge. Temporary being the important word because Draca found him again.

Mason was beginning to suspect the commander possessed supernatural tracking abilities.

Draca sat beside him.

Neither spoke imdiately.

The silence felt familiar now and

Mason hated that. Mostly because he didn’t hate it at all.

The commander glanced toward him. "You left quickly."

"I value my ntal health."

"A reasonable position."

Mason snorted.

Draca smiled slightly.

For several monts neither spoke.

Then Mason rembered sothing.

Sothing he had ant to ask again.

He turned toward Draca.

The commander imdiately noticed.

That alone irritated him.

How did he always notice?

"You’re doing it."

"Doing what?"

"Thinking."

"What an accusation."

Draca almost laughed.

Mason pointed accusingly.

"There."

"Where?"

"That."

The commander looked genuinely confused.Which sohow made it worse.

Mason sighed dramatically. "I forgot my question."

Draca actually laughed this ti.

A rare natural sound.

The unexpected reaction caught Mason completely off guard.

Embarrassingly off guard.

Athlian noticed imdiately. ’You’re staring.’

"I am not."

’You absolutely are.’

Mason ignored her.

A strategy that failed because Draca tilted his head slightly.

"What?"

"Nothing."

The commander looked unconvinced.

Fortunately another interruption arrived.

Unfortunately it was Zereth again...the immortal approached directly toward them.

Athlian imdiately beca tense.

Mason imdiately beca suspicious.

Draca simply looked resigned.

A healthy response.

Zereth stopped beside the bench.

His gaze lingered briefly on Mason.

Then shifted toward Draca.

"The tribunal envoy requested another eting."

Nobody looked happy.

Especially Draca.

"What now?"

"Questions."

"That’s never a good sign."

"No."

It wasn’t.

The immortal folded his arms. "She’s requesting access to the archives."

That got everyone’s attention.

Mason sat upright. "Directly?"

"Yes directly."

interesting.

The tribunal seed increasingly interested in the Witness investigation.

A little too interested.

Draca frowned. "Has she given a reason?"

"No."

Of course not that would have been useful.

Useful information has beco increasingly rare.

Zereth’s gaze shifted briefly toward Mason again.

The look lasted only a second.

Yet sothing about it felt strange.

Mason imdiately disliked it.

The immortal had been watching him more carefully lately. And that worried him.

Because Zereth noticed things.

Far too many things.

By evening the palace had beco a battlefield disguised as a governnt.

Argunts echoed through council chambers.

Temple officials argued with nobles.

Nobles argued with coalition representatives.

Coalition representatives argued with everyone.

The tribunal envoy remained calm throughout all of it.

Which sohow felt suspicious.

Mason attended only part of the discussions.

That was more than enough.

Hours later he finally escaped to his chambers.

Exhaustion settled over him.

Athlian remained quiet.

Eventually he lay down.

The room darkened.

The city beyond the windows glowed beneath the night sky.

For a while neither spoke.

Then Athlian finally broke the silence.

’The symbol frightens .’

Mason froze.

That admission surprised him.

Athlian rarely admitted fear.

"What is it?"

’I don’t know.’

The answer sounded genuine.

That frightened him too. Because Athlian knew many things she refused to explain.

When she genuinely didn’t know sothing...The situation was usually worse.

Mason stared at the ceiling thinking about the ongoing ss until sleep eventually arrived.

And with it...another dream.

This ti he stood inside a vast chamber.

Rows of shelves stretched endlessly into darkness.

Docunts.

Records.

Books.

Thousands upon thousands of them.

A library. Or sothing resembling one.

The air felt cold...

He walked forward.

The shelves seed endless.

Then he heard voices.

Several figures stood around a table.

Their faces remained hidden.

Shadows obscured everything.

One voice spoke. "They’ve begun removing nas."

Another answered. "Then record them elsewhere."

A third voice sounded frightened. "If they discover us..."

The vision trembled.

The room blurred.

Mason struggled to hear.

One final sentence reached him.

A sentence spoken by soone he couldn’t see.

"The Witnesses were never guardians."

Silence followed.

Then...

"We were evidence."

The dream shattered.

Mason woke instantly as he Breath so hard.

Darkness filled the room.

His pulse hamred against his chest.

Athlian was awake too, he felt her shock,confusion and fear.

Neither understood what they had just seen.Then a sudden knock echoed through the chamber.

Mason sat upright. At this hour?

Outside the door, a familiar voice called.

"My goddess," Draca called.

Sothing in his tone imdiately erased the last traces of sleep.

Mason crossed the room and opened the door.

The commander stood there...his expression was serious and concerned.

Holding a folded docunt.

Mason’s stomach tightened. "What happened?"

Draca looked directly at him. "The symbol."

His voice lowered. "We found another one."

A pause.

Then:

"This one wasn’t hidden in the archives."

Mason felt a chill run down his spine. "Where was it?"

Draca’s expression darkened. "Inside the palace."

And suddenly the investigation no longer felt distant.