Everyone was back inside the city but only a handful of people were there with Ashton and by a handful, there were only four of them in a room. Jonathan, Ashton, Verina and Irina along with a bunch of royal knights standing behind Ashton who had been handcuffed.
It was a precautionary measure so that Ashton did not attack them. The cuffs, however, were made of a special material. The same one that didn't allow the one wearing it to use any mana.
Virgil, Sheera and the rest of them were sent away as the information Jonathan wanted Ashton to disclose could potentially break the balance of power in the world if leaked. If that happened... then god knows what the greedy bastards hiding in various empires would do to get the power Ashton had.
Why Verina and Irina were allowed to attend the meeting? Well, it was because of two reasons. Firstly, since they were vampires they could help Jonathan to understand more about the vampiric genes within Ashton's body.
And lastly, they were Alucard's daughters, so they could convey the information to him and probably help Ashton in protecting his identity. Or at least he would be able to help deal with the situation on his end.
Once everyone had settled, Jonathan began asking the questions. Some gruelling questions. It was clear he was upset, but it didn't seem he was upset with Ashton. Probably he was worried about his daughter and ashamed of her actions at the same time.
"Let's get the big question out of the way first, how?"
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇt"That'll be a bit... difficult to explain." Ashton shrugged his shoulders, "It's not like I don't want to disclose it to you. It's just that my memory is hazy from back when it all happened. But I'll tell you what I know for certain."
Ashton proceeded to tell them about his plan to escape the enclosure but he skipped the part where he wanted to join the resistance as it would not have placed him in a favourable light in front of them.
He simply told them he was tired of being imprisoned and wanted a new life for himself. That's why he hatched a plan to escape, however, before he could escape he got into an encounter with a zombie who ended up biting him as he struggle to free himself from its grasp.
After that, all he remembered was that someone pulled the undead off of him and the next morning he woke up he was back in his room within the enclosure.
"When I tried to remember what had happened the previous night, I lost my consciousness and woke up on the day the Mistress, I mean, Mera came to get me."
"But if that was the case then shouldn't you have already turned into a vampire or an undead?" Verina asked the most obvious question.
"He would have but sometimes the gene calibration takes up to a week to finish." Jonathan chimed in, "That's why after being bitten, the humans are kept in isolation till their powers begin to show up. But I'm afraid Ashton did not get the chance to get isolated and was bitten too frequently."
"But the conflicting genes should have resulted in his death. I mean we have tried experimenting with the vampire and undead genes and they all-"
Verina quickly shut Irina's mouth as she was giving away too much information regarding the subject. They might have a good relationship with Lycania now, but no one had seen the future, they might stab them in the back if they got to know about the effect undead's bodily liquids have on the vampires.
Jonathan had caught on to them, but for now, he needed to focus on Ashton and deem whether he was a threat or not. If he was then no matter how important he was to anyone, Jonathan would have to get rid of him.
"There's one thing that's troubling me..." Jonathan changed the topic, "how did an undead get so close to the enclosure?"
"That's as much of a mystery to me as it is to you." Ashton shrugged his shoulders.
"Have you been colluding with the undead?" Jonathan did not beat around the bush and jumped straight to ask the most obvious question, "First the island of doom and now this, it seems the undead simply can't leave you be. It's a bit too coincidental don't you think?"
Ashton looked at Jonathan and smirked. At that moment, Ashton realised Jonathan was behaving less like a king and more like a father. Maybe he was even trying to get a little something from him that would be enough to throw Ashton in prison.
That way, he would be able to ensure the safety of his daughter as well as keep Ashton on a leash and use him whenever the time and opportunity showed up.
"If you want to get rid of me, I'm afraid you'll have to try harder than that," Ashton said with the sweetest smile on his face, "But let me make one thing absolutely clear. I will kill Mera and anyone who gets in my way, anyone."
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏmAt that moment, the knights standing behind Ashton drew their weapons out.
"You dare threaten his highness?" One of the knights roared and was about to smack Ashton on the back of his head.
What happened next was too quick for even Jonathan to keep track of. Ashton got up and snapped his handcuffs in half as if they were made of twigs before kicking the royal knight in the face.
The next moment, there a gigantic hole in the wall behind him could be seen and the knight who wanted to assault him was laying on his back puking a mouthful of blood.
"The next time any of you bastards interrupts us, I will personally make sure that it's the last thing they do, and that is a threat." Ashton snarled before sitting back down as if nothing happened, "So where was I?"
"You would kill anyone who gets in your way..." Irina involuntarily mumbled.
"Right. Thanks for reminding me. Also, let me tell you something, your highness. The woman you took away before I killed her wasn't your daughter. It was her clone but I will be taking her under my custody. Just thought you should know that."
He looked around the table and it looked like even though Jonathan wanted to say a lot more things, he had lost the will to do so.
"Great then, I'll take my leave, if you don't mind. I have a city to rebuild."