Plan of Action

__________ POV Narration__________

The princes all gathered around Ashton, they were all a bit curious about any information he might have about the situation.

Ashton looked at them for a second. "I guess we should interrogate one of the captives..." That was the phrase he started with.

"Even without that, we can at least be sure that these people were the last on the ship." His confident tone portrayed the message quite well. No one refuted it.

"This was supposed to be an all-out attack. And I doubt prince Zhang Lei left a lot more people on board of the ship."

"That still isn't confirmed, however... The best thing to do right now is to interrogate one of the people that survived..." Halkenburg was quick to interject.

The information they had was just speculation after all, then needed proper assurance that they were no longer in danger while on the ship.

It was important for them to know that they could have a safe base of operations before they could start to look for and deal with the rogue prince.

"Indeed, waiting for them to recover sounds bothersome, how about I just look into their minds for a bit?" All of the princes seemed to agree with that proposal.

It was the fastest and most efficient way of gaining information from other parties. Even if they all found the 'Mind Worm' that Ashton used to be slightly disgusting.

Sevanti, Momoze's mother, even covered her younger son's eyes while Ashton confidently patted his chest as the servants brought one of the captured assassins to the group.

He coughed a few times and out came that strange worm. It opened its small mouth to show the tendrils it had for teeth.

Ashton slowly approached the tied up assassin and placed the worm on his chest. It crawled into the poor man's ear as some of the princes looked away.

Fugetsu especially, found this to be extremely horrifying.

Her twin sister covered her eyes though. Kacho didn't care as much, she was just glad that they could know for sure whether or not they were safe while on the Black Whale.

All of the princes had been in low spirits and wary ever since the assassinations had started, this information would prove to be a breath of fresh air for them.

After a minute, the worm made its way out of the assassin's ear and Ashton picked it up. There was no hint of disgust on his face as he opened his mouth and swallowed it back.

Most of the princes grimaced at that scene. Halkenburrg, however, didn't find it disgusting, he just found that ability interesting.

He had seen it once before after all, there was no need to be disgusted by it at that point.

The worm vanished as soon as it passed Ashon's neck, and the information and memories it had collected were transmitted to his mind.

"Interesting..." He muttered as he sorted through the new information that flooded his mind.

"Well, fortunately, or unfortunately depending on how you look at it, Zhang Lei has long since taken his men and fled the Black Whale. These men were all that was left on the ship." Ashton's words brought instant relief to all of the listeners.

But Momoze and Halkenburg still looked a bit grim in expression.

"That means that he can be anywhere..." MOmoze muttered as the rest of the princes were also brought back to the reality of the situation.

Zhang Lei not being on the ship was the most likely possibility, but it was also the worst for them.

How exactly would someone go about finding a single person on an entire continent?

"There is no confirmation about his location in this assassin's memories. But we know that Zhang Lei left soon after the second city was built..." They at least had some clues. But nothing concrete and a lot of searching and groundwork needed to be done.

"Would he be living in it? Maybe in close proximity?" Oita asked in a hopeful tone.

"Nothing can be too certain right now, finding him will take a while. But one thing's for sure. As long as he is alive, none of you is truly safe." Ashton said as he looked at the Assassin laying on the ground.

It was unknown whether or not he would ever wake up, Ashton just told the servants to take him somewhere to 'finish' him.

"So... What are we supposed to do now? We have nothing to go on? Well, I guess we could start looking for him in the second city, but that would be gambling with our lives..." Kacho voiced everyone's concerns quite eloquently.

They were all reluctant to leave the ship, well, with the exception of two of them. Halkenburg and Momoze were both courageous individuals, to varying degrees of course.

But they were both determined to make sure none of their siblings would be in any further danger.

"Well... As we are now, finding them would take a long time. Using princes as bait might also not work at all after he finds that I'm also in the picture..." Ashton was still rationally analysing the situation.

Had this been in the past, he wouldn't have bothered with any of this. But, he couldn't really turn his back on Momze and the other princes.

He didn't really care about any of them as much as he did for Momoze, but disregarding them would just mean that he hadn't changed in any way.

And that, in itself was a lot more troubling than any issue Zhang Lei could pose to the old hunter.

"Well, there is no need for any of us to do anything..." Ashton finally decided to lay out his plan in front of everybody.

"Are you suggesting we just wait on the ship? Zhang Lei does want to kill us, so if we never go to shore, he'll be forced to come to us." Halkenburg's suggestion made all of the princes relieved.

"That can be one part. But there is also a way to track your half-sibling. The current Chairman of the Hunter Association, as well as every member of the Zodiacs, owe me quite a few favours." Ashton said with a small smirk.

"I believe putting them to work a bit wouldn't be that bad. They can easily find and apprehend Zhang Lei for us." Ashton's plan sounded quite good to the princes.

But Momoze was quite disappointed. 'In the end, you're still doing most things by yourself...' Was the thought going through her mind.

But she also knew that this was the best course of action they had. She could only grit her teeth and keep thinking of a way that she could assist Ashton.

She had no way of knowing that these things mattered little to Ashton. He wasn't planning on using those favours on anything anyway, so why not use them now?

He didn't consider this a bad thing. In his eyes, Momoze didn't need to be 'useful' to him. There was no such thing as a 'purpose' for a friend.

So, things remained as such.

The princes wouldn't leave the Black Whale, and Ashton would contact the Zodiacs to ask them to look for Zhang Lei.

_______________________________________________

Hope you liked the chapter!

If u want to support me look up VeganMaster on Patre_on:

Discord: