Truth and Lies

__________ POV Narration__________

As she stood there, kneeling on the ground in front of all of her brothers and sisters(well, half-brothers and half-sisters, but whatever). She could feel herself growing angrier and angrier.

Still, she needed to talk, otherwise, Ashton would truly do the same to her as he did to that Royal guard captain, and she didn't want that.

So, Camilla started reiterating what she had told Ashton previously.

To which she got quite a few odd looks, and Ashton just glared at her.

"You really are still trying to lie to us?" His cold gaze seemed to unnerve Camilla quite a bit.

"N-no! I'm telling you the truth!" Camilla's gaze was unwavering, yet there was a trace of unruliness to it. Resistance was still clear in her eyes.

"Kurapika. Would you mind telling us whenever she is lying? Just to make sure." Momoze was the one to speak up this time.

The Kurta Clan survivor just nodded, he walked up in front of Camilla and sat down.

He extended his hand forward and his Dowsing Chain manifested, swinging around slowly as he gazed into Camilla's eyes.

The princess just gritted her teeth, a bloodthirsty look in her eyes. She finally realised there was no way for her to talk her way out of the situation.

Ashton was also quite irritated. The only reason he hadn't used the Mind Crawler on her was that he didn't think the other princes would appreciate it.

But he was going to do so if Camilla refused to cooperate. He was not opposed to pissing off some of the princes to get results.

"I understand..." Camilla gazed at the people in the room with hate.

"It's quite simple really. I wasn't planning on actually killing any of our siblings so soon... But someone else approached me first..." Her story started smoothly.

It was a bit surprising for Halkenburg to hear that she wasn't the first one to come up with the idea to assassinate the others. She was certainly not the type of person that would be opposed to doing that.

"Zhang Lei, that snake, came with the idea. He arranged a meeting between the four of us and told me about his plan to get rid of Tyson and Luzurus beforehand." Ashton gazed at Kurapika, the young hunter just nodded.

He confirmed the validity of her story, but Ashton still seemed a bit suspicious of Camilla's words.

"So, we did that. But he didn't think it was enough. He also wanted to get rid of me, so I... Things happened, and he died." She was a bit reluctant to give out so much information about her powers.

But Ashton didn't need the details to understand what had happened. He could tell that 'Zhang Lei' killed her and got his life force drained by her Hatsu.

But some things still seemed a bit odd...

"That was it. I didn't get to do much more before Ashton arrived..." Her sentence raised quite a few eyebrows, Kurapika looked the most confused.

Everyone looked at him for confirmation. He just nodded his head and slowly got up. "It seems someone else was responsible for the assassination attempt on Oita..." He said that as he walked back to her.

Ashton then looked at Camilla, who was still hatefully gazing at the people in the room.

"Are you sure that the person you killed was Zhang Lei?" That question seemed to take most of the people by surprise.

But Halkenburg understood where he was coming from, that was what Ashton had been leading up to.

Camilla was silent for a bit, it was clear that she herself wasn't quite sure.

"It's clear that you were telling the truth... So you certainly killed someone you thought was Zhang Lei... But he is almost certainly still alive." Even Camilla looked surprised at this.

How exactly could Ashton be so sure about that?

"His Nen Beast could essentially give others abilities, right? So, maybe one of his subordinates gained an ability to disguise himself as others..." The other people in the room were also catching up to his logic.

"An ability that didn't become undone in the moment of death." Ashton started explaining as he pulled Camilla up from her kneeling position and let her sit on a chair.

"It's a possibility... I didn't hang around there to check properly. But I guess it would make sense for him to do something like that..." Camilla finally seemed to be calming down, as she was also put on the same level as the rest at the table.

Being allowed to sit down meant only one thing, 'Your life is no longer in danger, at least momentarily' And that gave Camilla some breathing space.

"Yes... But we can't really be sure if the effects of the Nen Beasts are still working after they've vanished..." Momoze was right, that was yet another assumption that Ashton made. But, thankfully, Camilla had an answer for them.

"They do... My servants were still affected even after Ashton broke the Seed Urn." Her confirmation made Ashton reveal a satisfied smile.

"Then, the pieces are coming together quite nicely... It seems our good friend, Zhang Lei, had been building an army right under our noses." Ashton's words seemed to make the other princes quite irritated.

But they couldn't refute them, they realised that this was the only explanation they had.

"Does that mean that he was never part of the alliance at all? Did he use it as a cover while building up strength?" Oita seemed quite annoyed at the way things were unveiling.

Sure, now they had answers, but they weren't exactly pleasing to hear.

"No need to be so caught up in the details. I believe we should also discuss Camilla's punishment." Ashton's words seemed to put said princess on edge once more.

"Indeed... She still betrayed all of us, even planning on killing us." Halkenburg was really happy with this idea. His sister was a danger to everyone's safety.

"W-Wait! What about all of the information I just gave you? Without it, you wouldn't have gotten anywhere." Camilla quickly tried to bargain.

Even if she couldn't die, she could still be incarcerated for the rest of her life, something that she knew would be hard to avoid in such a situation.

"Oh please~ I basically had to threaten the information out of you. You didn't give anything up out of goodwill." Ashton's words were quick to shoot down her pleas and justifications.

"We can't really kill her. So I suggest just locking her up and keeping a really close eye on her." Ashton's suggestion seemed to be accepted by everyone.

They didn't want to have the blood of their sibling on their hands. Yet, they didn't have much choice in this instance.

Camilla had no choice but to get dragged off by a few of the servants and closed in one of the rooms.

She was to be surveilled by the servants from all of the other princes. Handpicked for their loyalty.

The meeting was quickly concluded. Everyone decided it would be a good idea to stick together for now. At least until they found Zhang Lei.

It was easier to convince everyone now that they had a clear culprit and a suspect. Not knowing the actual force of the enemy was also a factor in their decision to stand by together.

Ashton also decided to rest, bringing out a sleeping bag for himself and posting it right at the door to the room where all of the princes were sleeping.

He would deal with any misunderstanding he had with the guards in that interrogation room at another time.

Too bad his rest was disrupted by someone else. Momoze did want to speak to him in private after all...

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