Chapter 87: Culprit

Chapter 87: Culprit
Cretheus
"I don't know what you're talking about." Kenji scoffed a smirk. "And this is not funny anymore, you three. If this is some antic—"
"Oh, I can assure you, Kenji. This is not," I chimed in, reaching his other shoulder, holding him off. "Stop feigning ignorance. We know that you want what Kasumi has right now," I said meaningfully.
I might have been able to witness what miracle Kasumi had done, but his startled expression during that time and his sudden leave of absence had given me enough proof that Kasumi was telling the truth.
Not only that, Thaddeus had already provided me with some documents of the recent suspicious activities of the four clans, enough to make me believe Kasumi's statement. Her former clan had been conspiring with Miyoshi Clan. And Kenji was already secretly contacting the Ikeda Clan and Kagawa Clan.
As Kasumi told us, it would be a matter of time before they would act, due to the miracle she had performed, which had been granted by her mother, the Moon Goddess Herself.
"This accusation is baseless. My apprentice was left behind." Kenji shook his head. "I am not going to let this slide for doing this to me."
Thaddeus's usual calm had curdled into something colder, more dangerous. His gaze locked onto Miyoshi's, voice steady but edged with steel. "Something happened to her. We both felt it," he said. "We're her mates. And she warned us—she told us it was you."
Kenji opened his mouth, but Thaddeus pressed on. "Theodore and I checked your quarters. She's gone. Not even her scent lingers."
Kenji looked ready to object, but Theodore leaned in slightly, his words slicing through the space between them. "We know who she really is. Our Kasumi is one of the daughters of the Moon Goddess."
That stopped Kenji cold.
His posture stiffened, eyes narrowing with the flicker of something that gave him away—greed, perhaps. Obsession. Whatever it was, he'd just confirmed it without a word.
"I see," Theodore murmured. "That got your attention. So it is her power you're after."
Kenji's mask dropped completely as he snarled and yanked against the hold. "Unhand me, De Rosas!"
But before he could even twitch again, a cool, feminine voice echoed around them like a breeze slipping through a crack in time.
"No one's going to hear you," she said. "Time has stopped."
The tent's entrance rustled, and in stepped Luna Queen Rachelle, her presence commanding as always. Beside her walked a woman with a regal bearing, close in age, yet cloaked in an unfamiliar air of mystery.
A sharp gasp broke from Kenji, while my breath caught in surprise. What was the Luna Queen from a neighboring kingdom doing here?
Only then did I register the quiet figure lingering in the shadows behind them. It was Alpha King Claudian, watching in silence.
Rachelle's gaze swept the tent, landing on Kenji with unmistakable recognition. "So this is the man who dared lay hands on our sister."
Her voice left little room for doubt or mercy. As she advanced toward him, the rest of us instinctively stepped aside. With a tilt of her head, she motioned toward the woman beside her.
"You being here is a blessing, Dominixe. Your gift will buy us the time we need to pry the truth out of him. Thank you for answering Mother's call."
The woman, Dominixe, gave a slight nod, her expression unreadable, voice like frost. "For our sister, always." Her gaze bore into Kenji with unnerving calm. "In case you're wondering, stranger, I am Dameta, the Goddess of Time. The seventh daughter."
She raised a hand toward Rachelle.
"And this," she said, her tone tightening with pride, "...is the first daughter of the Moon Goddess, Ragriel, Goddess of Mate Bond. Or, as our world knows her... Luna Queen Rachelle."
I caught the gaze of my nephews, asking confirmation from them. They simply nodded, confirming that what they said was true.
I was awed and appalled at what had been bestowed before me. And I couldn't believe that she was the person Kasumi was talking about, who had been with her a lot, pretending to be an apprentice. 
All this time, her older sister was watching her...
Kenji's eyes darted between the two women, his gaze lingering a little too long as if trying to piece together what he was seeing. His throat bobbed with a hard swallow. "Are you really..." he trailed off, stunned.
Rachelle's lips curved into a calm, ghostlike smile. "I assure you, I speak no falsehood. I am the Moon Goddess's first daughter." With graceful defiance, she spread her arms. "Take us if you must—me and my sister. It's not lost on me how your people revere the same goddess under different names."
A sharp voice cut through the air.
"Rachelle!"
She froze. Claudian's voice carried the edge of frustration. She turned to him with a sly smile, her eyes locking with his in silent challenge. His brows tightened, a visible struggle behind his stern expression, before he finally exhaled and stepped forward.
Without a word, he grasped Rachelle's wrists and guided them behind her back, holding them there. Not with force, but with a message.
"Take her," he said, voice devoid of hesitation. "Deliver her to your clan if that's what you wish. I won't intervene."
Rachelle blinked at him, disbelief flashing across her face. "You traitor, Claude!"
Yet beneath her outrage, I caught the flicker of something else in her eyes. It was a glint of amusement she didn't bother hiding.
Kenji thrashed against our hold, fury overtaking reason. "You'll regret this," he growled, his voice no longer polished and composed. It was raw, stripped of pretense. "You're all making a mistake."
Dominixe didn't even flinch. Instead, she walked closer, her footsteps silent, as if the ground itself dared not betray her. The air around her shimmered faintly, like reality was bending just from her presence.
"Mistake?" she echoed, her gaze sharpening. "You still don't understand the weight of what you've done."
She raised her hand and flicked two fingers. In an instant, golden threads shimmered into existence around Kenji binding him midair, his body frozen, yet his eyes wide and moving in panic.
"Time isn't just mine to control, Kenji," Dominixe whispered, stepping closer. "It's also a mirror. It shows us what was and sometimes what people try so hard to bury."
The threads glowed brighter. Images burst from them like shards of stained glass. They were memories, scenes spinning in the air. There was Kasumi, bound and unconscious, laid on a ritual altar alone as there were cloaked figures preparing for the ritual. Her hands twitched faintly. Her lips moved, a silent prayer escaping.
"Kasumi!" Thaddeus, Theodore, and I called in a panic upon seeing her horrible state.
Dominixe's expression didn't shift as our voices cracked through the frozen moment. Her eyes stayed locked on the unraveling memory.
"She's alive," she murmured, though her tone carried no comfort, only certainty. "But soon they are going to perform a ritual on her..." She paused and turned at Kenji, glaring at him. "They're just waiting for him to arrive. Am I right?" 
At that moment, I couldn't take the anger I felt as I grabbed him by his collar. "Take us to where she is. Now!"