_________ POV Narration_________
Ashton looked on as everyone was debating and fighting about whether or not to save Camilla.
If someone was to ask for his opinion on the matter, he would put it quite plainly. 'She has proved herself to be a danger to all of us. Saving her life would be quite illogical.'
But there was also a part of him telling him something else. 'If she truly wanted to kill her siblings sooo much... Then why did she wait for so long? Why would she not start going ham the second I disappeared?'
Those questions were what made Ashton somewhat doubt the validity of Camilla's hatred towards her half-siblings.
This is exactly what made even Halkenburg doubt his judgement of his sister. He considered her to be devious and opportunistic.
He had been silent on the matter, but he realised that it was strange for Camilla to not act as soon as Ashton went missing.
The entire situation was quite strange for everyone that knew Camilla.
Eventually, they all started arguing, and Momoze stared at Ashton for a bit.
"What do you propose?... Do you think it's worth saving her? Do you think she's to be trusted?" She looked at Ashton expectedly.
In truth, their argument wouldn't matter at all if they had no way of freeing Camilla from the wreckage. And, currently, Ashton was the only one capable of doing that.
"Whatever..." Ashton took a step backwards and jumped on the bannister while staring at everyone present on the small ship's dock. "I'll just go get her while you guys decide on things. We can always kill her later anyway."
After saying that, the old scientist let himself fall backwards. He created a bubble of air around him using Wind Aspect, he proceeded to manoeuvre himself to the Black Whale.
At this point, it was completely submerged. But he could tell that Camilla was still alive. He could sense her aura quite clearly.
He arrived on top of the first tier of the Black Whale, and he broke a hole through the ceiling.
It was already filled with water, so there wasn't an issue with him creating more holes. He calmly walked towards the room Camilla had been kept in.
it didn't take long for him to realise that most of the people that were closed off in a single room were still alive. It was likely due to a few air bubbles that formed when the ship was being submerged.
But Ashton was only interested in helping out Camilla. The rest were all infected with Shakti anyway, so the old scientist had no actual reason to try and save everyone that was still alive.
He made the sphere around himself larger and opened the door to Camilla's room forcefully. The water was currently at waist height. The princess was just sitting on her bed and looking at her own legs.
She was doing her best to control her breathing.
The ship sinking was something she found inconceivable, and yet, there she was. Being engulfed by the ocean that surrounded and swallowed her ship.
She still had a few hours worth of air. But she didn't think she would make it that long.
Such a large ship falling on itself was bound to attract the attention of some sea creatures. Even if the initial explosion had scared all of them away.
Everything happened too quickly for Camilla, she didn't even understand where everyone had gone. She had just heard some struggle outside of her door before the explosion happened.
After staying in that room for around 30 minutes, she had somewhat resigned herself to her own fate. Even if she was a Nen User, she didn't have the confidence to escape the ship quickly enough to not drown.
That's not even to say that she was somehow supposed to find the exit while drowning.
If she left her room, she would've ruined her last chance at staying alive for a bit longer. She had never been afraid of being killed. But it seems that she still didn't find the idea of dying in this way comfortable.
It also didn't help that she had quite a few regrets on her mind. 'Why did I ever bother answering Zhang Lei's invitation?'. It had all started from there after all.
She wasn't actually planning on killing her siblings, she was already plenty confident in winning the election. So she stopped caring about offing her siblings.
But, Zhang Lei had been the one to start all of that. And, she was forced to take action. Even if she didn't, everyone would've blamed her for the deaths of the other princes.
So, she decided to depart from the alliance. She knew that she didn't win anything by remaining in it. Rather, she would only garner more suspicion because she stuck around with them even when being suspected.
She realised pretty well that she was going to be a suspect regardless of her actions. So she decided to do the thing that bothered her the less.
Her trying to persuade Ashton into joining her was a desperate move. She needed to make sure at least she was protected from Zhang Lei's men.
She wasn't afraid of them, per se, but she knew that killing her directly wasn't the only thing they could do.
Her attempt at persuading Ashton had somewhat backfired on her.
It was likely due to her inherently arrogant way of speaking. Perhaps it was because she hadn't expressed herself properly? Regardless, it had lead her to her current situation. She was left wondering what things she could've done differently.
But it was far too late for regrets at that point.
Well, at least that was what she thought. She heard another bang as her door swung open.
She thought the sea water had finally brought it down, she just stared at her feet and prepared to be engulfed in seawater.
She stood like that for about 15 seconds. Before she heard a voice. "What are you doing? Do you think seawater waits for you to look at it?!"
She immediately recognised that voice. Ashton was by no means someone she wanted to forget any time soon.
And, by the tone, he was slightly irritated. Still, an uncharacteristically honest smile spread to her lips.
'He came back for me?' She said while moving her eyes directly on Ashton, who was completely dry and looking at her with a bit of annoyance.
'Did my siblings forgive me? Or did they just send him here to make sure that I would be gone?' Those thoughts still made her quite worried.
But, she was still happy.
"So... How've you been lately?" Asked Ashton, taking her out of her trance completely.
"Umm, A bit wet, I guess?" His question had managed to remind her that she was not supposed to stand around and contemplate her situation. She needed to get out, and her ticket to doing so had just kicked her door in.
"Great, now that you're all here, we should really take our leave." Ashton walked forward and grabbed her off her feet.
It took Camilla by surprise, but she didn't protest at all. It was quite fitting for a princess to be carried in a princess carry after all.
Well, Ashton's reasons were a bit more practical. 'Carrying her will be faster than having her walk on her own.'
Ashton calmly walked back to the hallway, Camilla watched with quite a bit of fascination at the way the water seemed to part around the two of them. Almost as if it was afraid to touch them.
Then, a powerful whirlpool was formed above their heads, it slowly crushed the ceiling right above their head.
That move shocked Camilla quite a bit.
She stared in fascination once more. The way the water moved created a beautiful scene, but it didn't last for long, Ashton quickly took off and flew to the surface.
Ashton arrived on his small ship quite quickly. Placing Camilla on her feet and supporting her momentarily, as she was still dizzy due to flying at a high speed.
"There, now everyone's off the ship. All of you can rest, for now, I'll sail us to the continent." He said as he walked to the sails and lowered them. He quickly started turning the rudder and directed it towards the continent.
And just like that, their crisis was over... At least momentarily.
Underneath the water, a curious beast managed to find some food, that food didn't have much flesh on it, it didn't have much substance.
But the sea beast ate it anyway. After a few seconds, its eyes turned purple, as it started swimming away in an unknown direction.
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