"He's… a villain?"
His words echoed in the stillness. Raiden's vengeful purpose was absolute, but this represented his only route ho. He'd accepted the risk of failure, but not the guarantee of it. For original chapters go to NoveI-Fire.ɴet
Both Dainty and Noelle gazed after him with bewildered frowns. Raiden's relationship with Aaron remained hidden from nearly everyone—except possibly Klein, whose future sight might have revealed it. His sudden concern seed oddly misplaced, given what he should know.
"Uhm… I don't know about that." Dainty's words ca in hesitation, her azure eyes locked into Raiden's golden ones.
Relief flooded through Raiden, his exhale carrying away so of the tension as he smiled. His quest for revenge would have continued no matter what, but discovering Aaron retained so humanity lifted a weight from his shoulders.
"Oh, right…"
A flicker crossed Noelle's lips as she visibly fought against saying sothing. Raiden's gaze found her, and his face clouded over with suspicion.
An awkward strain settled between them, growing heavier by the mont. Raiden would typically brush off interpersonal drama, but sothing about the Queen of Viscount's power within him was making him achingly aware of every emotional undercurrent.
"I don't know. But that doesn't make him a good guy." Dainty's words cut through their daze, forcing Raiden's attention to her.
"What?" Noelle asked.
"Well… for so reason, none of us can rember a thing about him." She shrugged her shoulders briefly. "He sohow erased our mories of him. I just don't think soone with nothing to hide would go that far."
Raiden shared the others' confusion about Aaron's motivations. Aaron had wandered endlessly, accumulating knowledge in his single-minded pursuit of ho—a yearning Raiden understood intimately. But the mory loss was troubling. Was amnesia the cost of escape, was it or sothing darker?
"What do you an?" Noelle spoke, maintaining her scowling expression. "You've got everything Aaron wrote down; you're its guardians… can't you figure it out and break the curse?"
Dainty fell silent for a mont, Noelle's question settling in as her mind wandered. Before long, her savory voice cut through the silence.
"Klein gave us the pages to guard. Four went to the Lost Child, ten to , fourteen to the Reader… and we weren't even allowed to read them."
Identical looks of confusion crossed both their faces. Klein el Seer's dominance was undeniable—every mber of the Elusive knew better than to defy him. But the pages themselves were their true chains.
The Lost Child's pages were taken right under his nose, and the Reader t his end within his own absolute domain. Eighteen of the twenty pages had already vanished. This wasn't just a blow to the Elusive's pride—all their sacrifices would be worthless if they failed to secure the last ten.
Studying their faces, Dainty knew precisely what they were thinking. She slipped back into her typical manner, bright and self-assured. Then she spoke:
"The pages aren't yours. They aren't mine either." she said with a smile, confusing Raiden even more.
She rose to her feet, her long white hair stretching on her shoulders. "Klein didn't bring you here by chance. He wants sothing else from you."
The mont she spoke, she began leaving the room.
Raiden's eyes squinted, taking in her words. Nothing made sense to him at that mont. The last ti he spoke to el Seer, he ntioned he couldn't see his future anymore because of the Huntress, an unbreakable force that sought to eliminate potential future threats. And now Dainty claid what exactly?
"Wait a minute…" Noelle spoke, prompting Dainty to halt and turn in her direction. "If the Lost Child wouldn't kill Freya, then she's sowhere… and you know where."
Dainty glanced at her, her smile slowly widening. "Who knows?" She shrugged and continued to walk away.
A trace of hope lit Noelle's gaze, accompanied by a tender smile. She and Freya had their monts, but her selfless sacrifice appeared to have changed sothing fundantal within Noelle.
Raiden, however, found no such peace. His thoughts arrived in jumbled pieces, and he realized only Klein himself could provide the answers he needed.
As the two sat there, absorbed in their respective musings, Levi appeared in the doorway, rubbing his sleepy eyes while his feet scraped drowsily along the ground.
"Have you seen Aeris? I'll be needing her." His lazy tone cut through the haze, grabbing Noelle's attention.
"No, I haven't." She responded, and they both began leaving the room.
But Raiden found himself falling deeper into his confusion.
He needed the twenty-eight pages to return to his world, and when he first heard of the Huntress coming after him, this had been his fear. Perhaps his desire was an abomination—one the unbreakable force couldn't allow.
And if Klein had encouraged him so strongly, and not for his journey back ho, then what was the reason? But this was only the beginning of his bewildernt… why exactly was the Huntress pursuing him?
This was his solitary abyss. None of his comrades knew his reasons for seeking the pages, and this wasn't knowledge he was willing to divulge. He had to navigate this isolation alone.
He could feel his brain throbbing against his skull, his hands tangling through his hair in frustration as he searched for sothing to cling to. Sothing to offer him, even a shred of hope.
The room felt silent, his head leaning back against the sofa, his eyes darting across the ceiling above as he tried to absorb the warmth in the quietness and ease his mind.
However, not long after, a nerve-wracking sound broke from the stone gate behind Raiden, cutting through the silence, and his head jerked in its direction.
Behind it was Noelle, panting as she gripped her knee. Raiden's expression darkened from seeing her alone. An uneasiness swept through him as her condition seed strange given the carefree expression she'd carried monts before.
"Th—
Raiden's confusion began lting away, consud by the puzzle before him. Noelle hadn't spoken to him in days, and with that panic threading her voice, sothing was definitely wrong.
"The pages… they are gone!" The words rushed through her heavy throat.
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