Chapter 137: Book of Mysteries.

The place I was currently in wasn’t my soul space anymore. So… where the hell was I?

I looked around, scanning the crimson emptiness that glowed eerily around me.

Yeah, this wasn’t it.

So what was this place?

Some hidden realm inside the Card of Arcana?

Or maybe the cards themselves were connected to this place and that’s why I had been dragged in through them.

But then… Why now?

And what the hell was that black energy from before?

I sighed.

Maybe I had screwed around with fate and death one too many times and now they had both decided to make it personal.

“Fuck,” I muttered.

All I wanted was to sit down and think about whatever new cosmic mess I had landed myself in this time.

And right as I thought it, a chair appeared out of nowhere.

I blinked.

“Well,” I said slowly, “if it isn’t convenient.”

I didn’t think much and sat on the chair.

“Alright, let’s check the damage first.”

I took a breath, then started ticking things off like I was filing a report.

“I can’t remember shit about most of the important events in the later part of the novel, I am somehow in the Trickster’s Domain and had to witness a giant ugly eye playing cosmic peekaboo with me…”

“…and let’s not forget the filth that was oozing out of my body earlier.”

I sighed and leaned back.

“So yeah, lots of shit for a few months, I must say.”

Still, it wasn’t all shit.

At least now I knew something was wrong and the earlier I knew, the better chance I had to prevent future damage.

So in a way, getting dragged into this mess early was… helpful.

“Now, back to basics.”

“It all started when I thought about Veluna,” I muttered. “And that means she is bad news, maybe someone the System doesn’t want me to remember… Or maybe someone, even the world itself, is trying to erase it.”

“Or maybe, the Trickster didn’t want me to know about her.”

I rubbed my temples, feeling that faint ache again.

“I knew it, to erase information that cleanly, there is absolutely no way a mortal could’ve done it. That leaves only two suspects.”

I exhaled slowly.

“The Trickster… or the Heavenly Principles themselves.”

My jaw tightened.

“But why the hell would those emotionless bastards, the same ones who wouldn’t care if someone stole their balls, if they even had any — go out of their way to protect that woman?”

“And why would they erase my memory?”

It didn’t make sense and was too sketchy.

And the only name that came to mind when things got sketchy was that shady bastard — the Trickster.

Because if anything in this world deserved the word suspicious, it was him.

“From the way he told me not to trust the novel, he definitely knew about it,” I muttered. “So maybe he is the one who messed with my memories… no, not erased but suppressed.”

I frowned.

“But why the hell would he do that?”

I paused, the thought hitting me like divine irony.

“Wait… is this payback? That shady bastard’s trying to get revenge because I’m more handsome than him, isn’t he?”

No matter how much I joked about it, I still couldn’t wrap my head around any of it and that brought me back to the main problem, the shady black energy and that massive eye.

Honestly… I might have an idea about what they were.

“Maybe that black stuff was corruption,” I muttered, tapping my fingers against the armrest. “And the domain or whatever this place really is, was trying to purge it.”

My gaze drifted upward, remembering that endless void and the eye staring through it.

“And in the process…”

“…it somehow attracted the attention of the one that corruption belonged to.”

It was the only explanation that made sense and it helped me form a theory.

The Trickster must have suppressed all that information inside me to shield me from something even he was afraid of.

Maybe by remembering those memories, I had started exposing myself to that corruption.

And to stop that from happening, he buried them deep. The thought made a chill crawl down my spine.

I had read about corruption before, from uttering forbidden names, touching cursed objects but just by thinking about it? Yeah, that was new and was never mentioned in the novel or maybe that memory was suppressed as well.

“My Card of Arcana gives me immunity from most forms of corruption,” I muttered. “So maybe when that thing… sensed me, the card reacted and unraveled the domain to hide me.”

I exhaled slowly, piecing it together.

“It was supposed to stay locked until I reached some sufficient rank… but it was unlocked prematurely and maybe that is why it’s still incomplete.”

It sounded far-fetched but deep down, I knew I was on the right track. Well… mostly.

“But then,” I muttered, “there’s another problem.

Why the hell am I talking to myself?”

“I’m a quiet guy and don’t mutter unless I’m talking to someone. I like keeping my thoughts inside unlike those idiotic fucks who narrate their entire plan out loud like it’s supposed to sound cool.”

I frowned… then looked up and that’s when I noticed it.

My words… actual words, were drifting out of my mouth, each one glowing faintly as they floated away,

before slowly wandering across the air and merging into a massive book resting at the edge of the domain.

I froze.

“What the fuck is that now?”

“And why the hell haven’t I noticed it till now?”

I walked slowly toward the book.

It glowed faintly and for some reason, it reminded me of my Cards of Arcana.

I swear, if someone ever recorded the top ten “foreboding sensations” of my life, this moment would be number one with a bullet.

As I reached the book, I leaned closer and froze.

It was writing.

Not metaphorically but literally.

The words were being written constantly.

Line after line of text flowed across the glowing pages, recording everything about me, my thoughts and my words like my entire life was just some damn story being written in real time.

And right there, I caught the newest line forming:

“Unbeknownst to Rael, the True Beginning had only just begun.”

My throat went dry as the next line burned itself into the page, letters etching themselves in gold:

“And opening the Domain before the prophesied time had its side-effects and one of them had already been added to his flaws.”

My mind went completely blank as I watched the words carve themselves into the page.

What the hell was this book?

Was it some hidden ability of my Cards of Arcana?

Or… something else entirely?

I didn’t have an answer and that was the problem.

Because watching a glowing, golden book casually stalk my life and write out my every move?

Yeah, that was more than a little creepy and maybe a little useful, depending on how I use it.

Still, the part about the flaw or whatever it was talking about… I had a feeling that I wasn’t going to like it.

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