Chapter 52: Investigation [2]

Chapter 52

Both women went still.

The name Aurelia Crimsonvale landed between them like a stone dropped into deep water. They had known a noble house was involved in the First Realm deaths; they had not known which one, or how deeply. Samantha recovered first.

"Can you prove what you’re saying?"

"No," Rael answered. "I only saw her do it." He paused, then added, quieter, "She killed people I knew. Friends."

He reached into his storage ring and drew out the simple necklace Lila had pressed into his hand. The metal was dull under the office lights. "She gave me this. Told me to return it to her sister if anything happened to her."

The pain in his voice was unguarded for a moment. Both sisters heard it. Samantha’s expression tightened; Susan’s usual sharp edge softened by a fraction.

Rael closed his fingers around the necklace and looked at them directly. "There’s one more thing. If you’re on their side you’ll probably try to kill me for saying it, but I don’t care anymore. Aurelia is a ghoul. I watched her eat the brains of the people she killed."

Neither sister looked surprised.

Rael’s eyes narrowed. "You already knew."

Samantha did not deny it. "Yes. We knew the Crimsonvales are ghouls."

Anger flared hot and immediate. "Then why has no one done anything? How does a family of ghouls get to live at the center of the kingdom? How do you let that continue?"

Susan answered, irritation clear in her voice. "The king authorized their residence. We don’t have the authority to go against that order."

The words settled heavily. They answered directly to the crown. Whatever trust the Ross name had briefly earned in Rael’s mind shrank again. He was suddenly very glad he had never given his real identity.

"That’s everything I know," he said flatly. "It doesn’t look like you’re going to act on it anyway."

Samantha’s face showed a flicker of genuine regret. "I apologize. I understand how this must look to you. But we truly cannot move against a direct order from the king."

Rael only shrugged. The moment a sovereign house was named, the Association had begun calculating political cost instead of justice. He had expected nothing better.

"Can I leave now?"

Samantha saw the respect she had lost in his eyes and felt a small, uncomfortable knot form under her ribs. She reached into a drawer of the desk. "Wait. Take your identification first."

She held out a thin black card.

[Name: Rael Ashborne

Age: 16

Rank: E-Rank

Unique No: 2828420]

Samantha’s gaze caught on the age. Her pupils tightened. The numbers seemed to rearrange themselves in her mind. Sixteen. The morning in the apartment, the assumptions she had made, the missing clothes, the way she had apologized—every piece slammed back into place at once she slept with a teenager. She stared at the card, then at the boy in front of her, thoughts grinding to a halt.

She said "Wait you lied about your age right?"

Rael, already in a foul mood, simply took the card from her unresisting fingers. "No, I didn’t lie about my age."

He had no idea what was running through her head.

He turned toward the door. Neither sister tried to stop him. At the threshold he paused and looked back.

"One more thing. I think she’s still inside the city."

Samantha and Susan exchanged a glance. "We’ll look into it," Samantha said.

Rael gave no reply. The door closed behind him.

Silence held for several seconds.

Susan dropped into the chair Rael had used and stretched her legs out. "He was hiding something, Sam."

"I know," Samantha answered. "But what he did tell us was the truth. We already knew ghouls were active in the region. Now we know why."

"What do we tell Father?"

Samantha’s expression hardened into the version of herself Susan saw only rarely—the one that surfaced when she decided someone else’s suffering would not be ignored. "Tell him to put those meat-suckers on a tighter leash. If he doesn’t, there will be a war against them whether he’s involved or not."

Susan knew that tone. Samantha would not let the Crimsonvales walk away clean. "Order a full city sweep," Samantha continued. "Clean out every ghoul we can find. If their precious daughter dies in the process, we’ll have all the justification we need."

Susan’s mouth curved. "I’ll handle the sweep myself."

She leaned back, still turning Rael’s face over in her mind. Something about him felt familiar, but the memory refused to surface. Her recollection of people had always been unreliable.

"How did you know him?" she asked suddenly.

Samantha’s cheeks colored. "I didn’t."

Susan studied the reaction and gave a short, knowing laugh. "Liar."

Outside, Rael walked through the upper corridors of the Association with the new ID card in his pocket. Irritation still burned under his ribs. The Crimsonvales would face little more than a quiet warning. That was the reality of power: when the cost of justice threatened open conflict between the Association and a sovereign house, the death toll of ordinary people became an acceptable calculation.

He looked down at the card once more. Despite everything, a small, genuine smile pulled at the corner of his mouth. He was an official awakener. The thing he had wanted for as long as he could remember was finally real. His journey started here.

In the parking level he swung onto the CoreMotion bike, sealed the helmet, and pulled out into the night traffic. The knowledge that someone had already tracked his old phone sat uncomfortably at the back of his mind. It would not take them long to start hunting the new identity if they were determined. For a moment he considered returning upstairs and asking the Ross sisters for protection. The idea died almost immediately. Their reaction to the Crimsonvale name had shown him exactly how far they were willing to go.

There was only one reliable path left.

He needed to grow stronger, and faster than anyone expected. The Dream Realm was still the only place that could give him that strength.

Rael leaned forward, opened the throttle, and aimed the bike toward home.

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