CHAPTER 366: CHAPTER-366.

Kaya exhaled slowly, forcing herself to calm down. She glanced at Veer, who was watching her with mild curiosity, then looked back at the book.

The handwriting was messy, clearly copied by someone who didn’t fully understand what they were writing. But it was readable. Barely.

She flipped through the pages quickly, scanning for anything useful—names, locations, abilities, ’anything’.

Because if she’d come all this way just to find a bunch of books she couldn’t even read, she was going to burn the whole place down.

.

.

.

Ten minutes later....

Kaya could feel eyes on her.

Not just one or two casual glances—proper staring. The archive wasn’t even that crowded, but somehow every pair of eyes that ’did’ exist seemed to land on her. Most of them were guards posted inside, pretending to be relaxed but clearly watching. The others looked like common people, but Kaya couldn’t tell for sure. Here, there was no real difference in appearance—some wore better clothes, some worse, but nothing screamed "I’m important" or "I’m nobody."

’At least if you’re high class, wear something that shows it,’ she thought bitterly. ’Slap on a badge, a crown, a neon sign—something.’

Even with eyes on her, Kaya moved quickly. She didn’t want to waste time on books she couldn’t read. But one thing was clear: these books were written by transmigrators. And not just from one place either. Different languages, different handwriting—people from all over had been dumped here.

Then she found it. A book in English. Her pulse kicked up. She kept searching and found six more. Seven total. One was on medicine. Another on the beast world—the most useful thing she could’ve hoped for. The third looked like someone’s diary.

Just then, she felt it—the air shift. A prickle ran down her spine. Something was off. Someone was paying a different kind of attention now. She needed to leave. Soon.

But she didn’t want to walk out empty-handed. These books were too thick to hide, and copying them would take all day. Useless.

she also needed these books.

An idea flicked on in her head, sharp and sudden. Kaya smiled slowly, then turned her head toward Veer, who was standing a few feet away, calmly looking around like he owned the place.

She kept her voice low but soft, sugar-sweet and melodic. "Honey~ come here," she called, sounding every bit like a maiden completely in love.

Veer’s whole body tensed. A visible shiver of pure cringe ran down his back. ’Damn it,’ he thought, but he forced himself to stay in character. He turned toward her with a straight face. "Yes?" he answered, voice calm, heart suffering.

Kaya beckoned him closer with a little curl of her finger. When he leaned in, she rose on her toes and whispered her plan into his ear.

Veer pulled back slightly, eyebrows lifting, head tilting just a little as if to say, ’Are you serious?’

Kaya only gave him her brightest, most innocent smile.

Veer just sighed helplessly. What the hell could he even do? He walked slowly to the window and snapped his fingers.

A vulture arrived within moments. Veer didn’t say a word—just stared at it, like his eyes were doing all the talking. Then he made a sharp sound, something between a screech and a click, in a tone only vultures understood.

Kaya didn’t bother watching. She turned around and started browsing through other books, keeping up appearances.

The vulture glanced at her once, then flew off.

Twenty minutes later, Kaya had gathered quite a stack. But instead of taking them, she slowly started putting each one back exactly where she’d found it. After that, she walked out casually, like she’d just been browsing for fun.

Veer, on the other hand, looked like he was dying. He walked stiffly, one hand clutching his stomach, face tight with discomfort.

Kaya glanced at him, her voice soft and worried. "Honey, are you okay?"

Veer gave her a pained, helpless smile. "Yes. Just... a bit tired."

Once they’d walked far enough away, Kaya scanned the area. No eyes on her. None on Veer either. And how could there be? The vultures had handled it. From the moment they’d left the archive, people had followed them—trained types, probably good at their job. But Veer’s vultures were better. They’d distracted them, drawn their attention elsewhere, made sure no one was actually watching.

Veer stopped in front of a tree and yanked his shirt open. Eight English books—the exact ones Kaya had been looking at earlier—tumbled out from where they’d been strapped against his body.

Kaya crouched down, picking each one up carefully. She smiled. "Good job."

She slipped them into the small cloth bag she’d brought. Veer just sighed, shaking his head. "You know if we’d gotten caught, they wouldn’t have just let us walk away."

Kaya rolled her eyes. "Who’s gonna know it was us? Hundreds of people go in and out of that place. And even if they ’did’ know—what are they gonna do? They’re already trying to kill me."

Veer had no response to that. Just another tired sigh.

Earlier, Kaya had whispered her plan to him. She’d asked him to send a message to Cutie—describe the books, their covers, their thickness, everything. And she’d asked for replicas. Same look, same weight. But completely blank inside.

She hadn’t been too worried. When she’d picked up the original books, she’d noticed the dust on them. Thick. Untouched. No one had read them in a long time. Maybe years.

And honestly? She wasn’t surprised. The languages were too different. How could anyone here read Japanese, Russian, or Chinese unless they’d come from those places?

It made her think. The transmigrators who’d written these books were smart. Really smart. And probably paranoid as hell. Why else would they write in their own languages instead of learning the beast language and using that? It couldn’t be that ’none’ of them had learned it. And even if they hadn’t, they could’ve asked a beastman to help translate.