Looking at the anxious, disheveled man before him, Leon "hesitated" for a moment, then said helplessly:
"Forget it, we don’t have any other choice now, we can only trust you this once...
But let’s be clear, our original goal was just to complete the investigation and ascertain the state of the Crolock royal family, we didn’t plan on harming you. But if you alert anyone, don’t blame us!"
"I assure you I won’t! I swear it!"
Seeing that Leon and his companion were still hesitant to trust him even after he chose to "voluntarily surrender," the last bit of doubt in the disheveled man’s heart was dispelled, and after swearing an oath, he urgently asked:
"What exactly happened to the royal family? Is His Majesty truly dead?"
"About ninety percent dead."
Leon sighed and said:
"From the information we’ve gathered so far, the whole Crolock royal family is down to two living people. Almost all the members with royal blood have had their brains extracted by Prince Andre, turned into Atifie subjects."
Upon hearing the "truth" Leon revealed, the disheveled man seemed struck by lightning, eyes wide with shock, he said:
"Prince Andre... how... how can this be? It’s absurd, I... I don’t believe it!"
"To be honest, we don’t believe it either."
Leon said with a look of frustration:
"I understand your feelings; we couldn’t believe it when we first heard this news either, but the source is quite reliable. That’s why we thought of using you to sneak into Research Area 1 to see if we could verify this information."
Seeing Leon’s furrowed brows and troubled expression, the disheveled man couldn’t help but clench his fists and fall into hesitation as well.
People can be so contradictory; if Leon had revealed the truth upon meeting him, stating that the Crolock royal family was in trouble and hoping for his help, he would likely have been met with suspicion and guardedness, perhaps even betraying them.
But by being secretive and making him ask for clarity, while showing an attitude of non-belief but having to take the risk due to duty, the eager-to-know disheveled man would subconsciously find the information highly credible.
After hesitating for a while, the disheveled man, who initially insisted on not cooperating, couldn’t help but grit his teeth, lower his voice and say:
"Where did you get your information?"
"Hmm? Why are you asking that?"
Upon hearing his inquiry, Leon squinted his eyes, adopting a "wary" posture, and questioned intently:
"Do you know something?"
"I knew you were suspicious!"
Leon slightly cooled his expression, full of doubt as he said:
"Even though you’re kidnapped by us, you’re not worried about your own safety and actually took the initiative to talk! Moreover, you’re asking about such crucial information... Speak! What relationship do you have with Prince Andre?"
"You misunderstand me!"
Seeing Leon starting to suspect him, the disheveled man hurriedly said:
"I really have nothing to do with Andre! I’m with King Fein!"
"That’s just your word! How am I to know if it’s true?"
Feeling frustrated by Leon’s "suspicions," the disheveled man scratched his head for a while, then suddenly lit up, reached into his chest, and took out a pocket watch, opening the lid as he handed it over.
"Look! This is a picture of me and King Fein! Taken when we graduated from the Second Metal Academy, I’ve carried it with me all these years!"
After inspecting the pocket watch and seeing two young men standing side by side, smiling brightly in the photo inside the lid, Leon looked up with some doubt and asked:
"Is this picture of you?"
"Yes! I was very thin back then!"
"Alright... Although the photo doesn’t prove much, I can reluctantly trust you this time."
Handing back the closed pocket watch, Leon somewhat "reluctantly" explained:
"Our source is Princess Feiliya, the last survivor of the entire Crolock royal family, apart from the criminal Prince Andre."
After hearing Leon’s words, the disheveled man’s expression was momentarily stunned, then his pupils suddenly dilated, and the muscles on both sides of his face involuntarily twitched a couple of times before he forced himself to appear calm and said:
"I see... then it definitely needs proper verification..."
Hmm? Is he starting to suspect me again?
Seeing the once again swirling, muddied representation of distrust in the disheveled man’s soul, Leon raised an eyebrow and straightforwardly questioned:
"What about Princess Feiliya? Why did your expression turn so odd upon hearing her name?"
Not expecting his hesitance to be detected so quickly, the disheveled man’s heart skipped a beat, forcing himself to stay steady, he said:
"It’s nothing, really... it’s just that... I haven’t met Princess Feiliya many times... so..."
Leon interrupted the disheveled man’s words without hesitation and, fixing his intense gaze on his face, fervently pressured:
"What’s wrong with Feiliya? You better explain clearly!"
"Mr. Bell, we’re Clean-up Bureau cleaners; if you’re truly a friend of King Fein’s, you might have heard him mention us."
After briefly explaining the cleaners’ work, Leon fixed a cold gaze on the disheveled man and coldly said:
"Under normal circumstances, we don’t attack ordinary people, but yesterday, three of our companions were blown up and two more got captured while protecting the royal family of Crolock, and there’s been no news since.
So now, our emotions aren’t very stable, and it’s hard to guarantee we won’t vent on others. You’d better cooperate with our investigation and tell us everything, or don’t blame us for using force."
Feeling a chill run down his spine under Leon’s cold stare, the disheveled man shivered slightly.
Stealing a glance at the nearby somber-looking Atifie, who seemed to have genuinely lost a companion, considering that these two self-proclaimed cleaners were apparently not enemies of the royal family, the disheveled man gritted his teeth and hesitantly said:
"It’s not that I don’t want to be frank, but... Feiliya died more than ten years ago, how could she be any kind of ’survivor’?"
Feiliya died more than ten years ago?
Upon hearing the answer from the disheveled man, it was now Leon and his partner’s turn to be taken aback.
The emerald-eyed girl’s body was intact, soul robust, full of life with no sign of the dead’s aura, so Leon never considered this possibility, yet...
After observing the disheveled man’s soul and confirming he was telling the truth... at least what he believed to be the truth, Leon furrowed his brow and said:
"Are you sure? Could it be that King Fein deceived you, thinking your friendship wasn’t that deep, so he didn’t tell you the real story?"
Seeing Leon question his friendship with the old king, the disheveled man couldn’t help but exclaim angrily:
"I met that child! She suddenly fell ill with a brain disease on her twelfth birthday and died not long after.
Fein adored this daughter, and when Feiliya died, he left the palace without a single guard, came to my home to cry for a long time. This definitely wasn’t a lie!"