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"Summoned, huh?" Ashton got off the bed, "And you are the escorts I suppose?"

None of the men answered. On top of that, since their faces were covered, Ashton couldn\'t read their expressions nor could he use [Perception] to know whether these people were friendlies or not.

But he did have [Heatbeat Sense]. As long as they had a heart, he could know whether the fools were lying or not. That\'s why he asked whether the men were escorts of this so-called monarch or not.

"Who we are is none of your concern." One of the men replied, "What matter is that the monarch wants to see you. If you don\'t follow through with the request, we\'ll be forced to execute our orders by force."

<The words have been deemed as a lie.>

[Looks like your guess was correct. It doesn\'t seem that bastard from earlier learned his lesson.]

\'No. I saw how scared he was when I left him. This isn\'t his doing... Someone else might be trying to take me out before I could \'challenge\' them.\'

​ [Hm... now that I think about it, that commander from earlier could also be the one trying to pull this crap.]

Ashton quietly agreed. Now that he thought about it, his meeting with commander Leon did leave a weird taste in his mouth. As if the commander didn\'t want to let him go unpunished.

While the two of them were having a conversation, the soldiers had already surrounded Ashton. Considering he was still in his towel, they must have thought they caught Ashton at the most \'opportune\' time. After all, he was defenceless.

"You people think you are expert liars?" Ashton shrugged before staring straight at the man in front, "Look here, I\'ll give you one last chance to come clean before I start cleaning the floor with your sorry asses. Who sent you?"

"Target has refused to cooperate. Proceeding with section 420A. Apprehend the criminal for insubordination."

The men immediately aimed their weapons at Ashton. In their eyes, Ashton was just an E-grade punk from a low-grade civilisation. This meant, he most likely did not have a powerful backer they would have to worry about later.

The soldiers had already been debriefed about Ashton\'s strength. He might have defeated a bunch of E and D-grade soldiers. But he was no match against them, all of whom were C-grade. In their minds, they could bully him all they liked.

Little did they know both his stats and his cumulative levels were that of a Mid-levelled C-grade being. In other words, he was just as strong as the soldiers in front of him. All thanks to defeating the Hydra.

Still, Ashton had no misconception that this fight would not end up well for him. He did not want to use any of the remaining abilities with absurdly big cooldowns as he was saving them for the trials. Also, way too many important skills had already been wasted thanks to the stupidity of a few morons.

And without those skills, he was essentially up against people who were probably more experienced than he was. Thus, he wanted to evade fighting if possible. Thankfully, he had the perfect skill for the occasion.

<Skill: [Influence] (Mid-grade) had been activated. Surrounding targets possess lower intelligence than you. The skill has been successfully utilised.>

"Criminal? You\'re the one who broke in without permission." Ashton smiled, "Therefore no matter what I do to you, it\'ll be called self-defence. Even if I killed you, you know that right?"

Upon seeing him smile like a maniac, the soldiers exchanged their looks. The man was correct, he could kill them and remain justified. At least, that was what they were being forced to think at the moment.

Ashton had successfully got a hold over their minds and emotions. As a result, they began questioning the morality of their behaviour and plans. Had they not been under his influence, they could have killed him and then framed him as a criminal, as they probably wanted to.

Since they were soldiers, they could abuse their powers however they liked and no one would question them. In other words, the legality and morality of the situation were of little importance to them. But since Ashton was playing with their minds, they became worried about their actions.

[You should make them kill or at least hurt each other somehow.]

\'Hm... I was planning to force them to admit who sent them. Then maybe I\'ll feed them to the wolves afterwards.\'

[Ah, yes. Gotta take care of your pets.]

However, before they could do anything, the room\'s service phone rang. The leader of the soldiers received the call. Although the leader did not speak a word, Ashton could hear what was being said clearly due to his sensitive hearing.

Someone was badly ripping into the leader. Ashton had never heard anyone being berated the way the leader was. So much so, that he held his head down. The valour and might he had shown before, evaporated instantly.

Upon seeing their leader in such a pitiful state, the rest of them got concerned as well.

That was all the confirmation Ashton needed to know their action had nothing to do with the monarch. Someone else was behind the plan and they probably got caught for using the Monarch\'s name.

After what seemed an eternity, the berating ceased and the soldier passed the communicator to Ashton.

"Hello?"

"My most sincere apologies for the inconvenience caused by my soldiers, Mr Ashton." The unknown voice responded, "I assure you that I\'ll personally handle those morons for troubling you. But in the meantime as an apology, you\'re allowed to use any services on Euphoria for free."

"That\'s alright but-" Ashton wanted to know who was he talking to exactly but got cut off.

"I know it isn\'t remotely enough to compensate you. I\'ll prepare a gift for you and your companions, first thing tomorrow morning. I will explain everything in detail later."

The voice kept spewing one word after another without break. As the woman kept talking Ashton remembered he had heard the voice before. It sounded awfully similar to the voice of the woman who wanted to \'punish\' him earlier for fighting with the mercenaries... Lucia Zhask.

Well, at least that was Ashton\'s guess as before he could confirm his suspicions the call was disconnected. As for the soldiers, they immediately apologised for their actions and left. But Ashton stopped their leader from leaving. He needed to confirm whether this was all Lucia\'s plan.

"Who was the one on the call?"

"The monarch of the fifth seat, Lady Otina Zhask."