In the minutes that followed, Ashton had no idea what was going on there. But from what he saw, he could infer that things were not going to end on good terms for the man. As for what the Venom was, Ashton had no idea.
The special officers, as they referred to themselves, had already confiscated the syringe before he even got a chance to use Detection in the syringe. However, after seeing how everyone around them reacted upon learning that the syringe had venom in it, it was probably a well-known substance.
Thus Rose should be able to tell him what it was. But at the moment, Ashton had some other things he had to worry about. The duration for his [Alteration] skill was rapidly running out.
In five or so minutes, his face would automatically turn back to its original form. If he did not get out of there before that, there was no way these officers would believe anything he had to say.
After all, who would believe someone who could change their faces with a snap of their fingers? If anything, these special officers would be more suspicious of him and would probably even take him into custody. That was something Ashton could not allow to happen.
But there was little he could have done. The bow-carrying girl named Miya had already told him he was not getting out of there before talking to their captain, the man with the knives.
"Not that I mind hanging out with you people, but don't you think cuffing me up just for a meeting is going a little overboard?" Ashton mumbled rattling the chains in his hands, "You do know detaining an innocent civilian is a punishable offence, right? You can go to jail for this. Or at least get fined."
"You are not considered to be 'detained' until and unless you are inside a police station," Miya replied and began blowing up the bubblegum in her mouth, "don't you, dumbass?"
"..."
Ashton shook his head and resigned his fate in the hands of time. What else could he have possibly done? After all, all of them were level 30 or above. He could barely fight a level 15 or maybe a level 20 guy. How was he supposed to take on all of them on his own? Just thinking about it was suicidal.
Thankfully, his stars appeared to be shining a bit brighter. The next moment, the so-called captain of their squad, finally headed in their direction after putting the man to sleep.
"Why is he cuffed up?" The captain asked Miya as soon as he saw the cuffs on Ashton's hand.
"I was worried he would run away. Not that I would have minded watching his ugly-ass trying to do so." Miya replied with a snark in her voice.
"If you were worried about him running away, you should have chained his legs together... not the hands." Captained sighed heavily while shaking his head, "Get the chains off of him. I already know he is innocent."
"How do you know that?" Ashton couldn't help but ask.
But he wasn't curious about it or anything. He just wanted to know whether the man had some sort of lie detection skill. Because if he did then the boy he was fcked.
"When you work in this line for long enough, you know when someone is lying or not. For example, that terrorist guy over there was trying his best to get you caught up in this mess. And I have never seen a human do that before."
The Captain continued, "In fact, they usually do the opposite. Also, I can see the slave bands around your wrist. The humans would never work with someone who had human slaves. So, it's just a simple deduction."
'Damn, he is quite observant. If I did not have the slave bands... I would have been fcked for real.' Ashton smiled in relief.
He had done all that on impulse, but at the end of the day, his impulsive actions had saved him. As weird as it sounded, Ashton was so thankful to Duncan and Daniella for signing the slave contract, that he would actually let them have some food tonight.
"So can I leave?" Ashton asked the Captain while rubbing his wrists to ease the blood flow there.
"You can, but before that, I have something I'd like to talk to you about."
"Um sure... How can I help?"
"I would like you to join us."
"Wha-?"
To say that Cap's suggestion left him quite baffled would have been an understatement. This man wanted someone he barely knew on his team? For real? It seemed like he wasn't the only one who had been baffled either way. Miya had a similar reaction as he did.
"What are you talking about?" She almost screamed at the captain, "We barely know this guy for Lycaon's sake!"
"Shut it, Miya." Cap pointed a finger at her and she immediately obeyed, "I didn't know you either when I recruited you, did I? So what's it gonna be, Mr?"
"Vince. Just Vince." Ashton hurriedly replied, "I would be glad to help you out, but as you can see, I'm just a student. What can I possibly do to help you?"
"Let's just say, there are some places where even we, as the special terrorist response force can't enter. Places like the academy. I assume you are aware of the death of three students during the ranking examination?"
Ashton nodded his head.
"Yeah, as it was the doing of the resistance, we would like to investigate the academy. But there's a slight problem in it-"
"We can not enter the academy without the permission of the Director, and for some reason, she is not allowing us to do so." Miya chimed in, "That along with her past involvement with the humans, makes us suspicious that she might have something to do with the attack."
"And that's why I would like to have someone on our side investigating the place. Someone who does not need permission to enter the academy." Cap finished explaining his reasoning, "So, would you like to help us out?"
Ashton was lost in his thoughts. On one hand, it was a perfect opportunity to misguide the investigation while being on the team. Also, if he played his hands right, he could also get an upper hand on the Director. After all, he would be able to frame her for it.
All in all, it was too good of an opportunity to pass up. But if he immediately agreed to it, it might seem suspicious as well.
"Um... that's a lot to take in. Would you mind if I take some time to make the decision?" Ashton finally replied after a couple of minutes.
"Sure, take as much time as you want. Here, you can contact me on this number to let us know about your decision." The captain handed him his contact information, "You can leave now, and try not to get in some other mess. The other captains might not be as lenient as I am."
"I'll keep that in mind." Ashton smiled and ran away from there.. The duration of [Alteration] skill was almost up.