Chapter 157: Interrogation
__________ POV Narration__________
Ashton's plan was quite simple. He was just going to ask Camilla.
A simple course of action, but Camilla herself should know better than to not respond to him.
All of the princes had seen it with their own eyes, as Ashton infiltrated the mind of the old royal guard captain and learned everything he needed to about the Seed Urn.
They also saw the state said captain was left in after Ashton was done with him.
So, he was banking on the idea that Camilla would want her mind to remain intact. Otherwise, he could only hope the other princes didn't mind him possibly disabling their sibling.
Well, Camilla was not quite loved, now she was also one of the main suspects for the murders.
Well, everyone seemed to have forgotten about her momentarily, as the possibility of there being more than one killer shook them up a bit.
Ashton had yet to voice this out, but he was sure that Camilla was working together with Zhang Lei.
Both in the sense that Camilla was supposed to attract attention, and that she was capable of taking out one or two of the princes by herself.
Momoze was currently thinking about the information Ashton had brought to the table. But she was also doing her best to ignore some of the stares her mother was giving her.
She had over-reacted and jumped Ashton in an instant. It was quite disgraceful of a princess to do such things. Then again, she couldn't really help it.
Even if she was much calmer and more collected than Ashton once knew, her affection for him only grew as time passed.
Seeing him younger only made her like him more. Although, she definitely wanted to know more about his sudden change in appearance.
Ashton was clearly not acting any younger though. But he seemed a tad bit more affectionate. She couldn't quite put her finger on it, but he was more... Reachable?
In the past, he wouldn't have bothered hugging her back in the middle of the meeting like that. He also only hugged her when he was comforting her.
He was acting more in line with an old man taking care of a young child than a man looking after a woman.
She felt that she had a fair chance to gain his genuine affection now. And that feeling made her giddy.
Even when the meeting was as serious as it was, her mind was still distracted by all of these thoughts.
Ashton's next actions did manage to break her out of her spell and bring her attention to the present situation quite instantly.
"I believe asking one of the killers might bring us favourable results. So... Should I bring your dear sister Camilla to this place?"
The question was more of a rhetorical one, as he had already ripped space open, revealing a dark void, out of which he pulled the unconscious Camilla and threw her on the ground with little care.
His actions made some of the people which, but no one complained. They all considered Camilla to be the prime suspect. Even Fugetsu managed to see that with the help of her twin sister.
There was also the fact that they all trusted Ashton greatly. He was the sole reason the Succession War could end, it wouldn't have made sense for him to try to kill any of them.
Camilla was still not responding, as not time had passed for her, she had basically just been knocked unconscious.
"Do you believe she might hold the answers we seek?" Asked Halkenburg, he looked a bit hesitant about seeing his sister in that state.
But he also knew of her true, twisted nature. He knew her cruelty much better than anyone present at that table.
"I guess we should wait for the princess to wake up..." Yawned Ashton while stretching a bit. He hadn't truly gotten a break after arriving on the ship.
Not that he was truly tired, he just didn't expect to be spending time in this way. Maybe it was also because he had lost some vitality(a minuscule amount, but still).
"Couldn't you just wake her up or something? How long has she been out anyway?" Kacho just wanted to get her answers faster, she was getting a bit impatient.
But then again, the situation didn't really seem to be a great one for any of the princes involved.
"Oh don't worry. She'll wake up in a few minutes anyway..." Ashton said while he pulled himself a chair and sat right beside Camilla, waiting for her to wake up.
Momoze was transfixed on the situation, so was Kurapika, he didn't really know how to react to all of what was happening.
He did hope he would get the chance to actually speak with Ashton this time. He wanted to get things straight, to find out more about the situation directly from him.
But those things had to wait for now, as Camilla seemed to be stirring awake already.
"W-What...?" She looked around with a cautious gaze, she instantly realised where she was, there was little panic in her eyes though.
It seemed like she had calmed down a bit after the shock Ashton had given her... At least on the outside.
In truth, her mind was racing more than ever, trying to think of ways to get out of her current predicament.
"Great to see you so energetic~ Did you rest well?" Asked Ashton with a smile. It made Camilla flinch for a second.
"Well... It seems things aren't looking all that well for me..." She looked around, the faces of her siblings were all judging her.
She wished she could kill them all right in that instant. But she knew that it would be impossible for her to do.
"I'll make things simple for you. You can either talk willingly, or I can take that information out of you by force. Your choice. But the second one might kill you."
Ashton started beating his chest a bit, much in the same way he did when the Mind Crawler came out of his mouth to enter the Royal Guard Captain's ear.
Camilla gritted her teeth, she looked up at Ashton with absolute hate.
Any admiration and desire she might've had for his strength vanished the second it was levied against her.
"No need to go that far... I will talk." She said with a sigh. She knew that she truly had no way out of that situation. And she knew that killing Ashton wasn't a feasible strategy at this point.
"Good," Ashton said with a smile, it looked warm to some of the people in the room, but Camilla just found it annoying and creepy.
Then, Camilla started telling them her story.
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