Affinity:Chaos

After entering the city, Grey headed straight for the first tavern he could find. He bought a horse after leaving the canyon, so he kept it in the tavern's stable. He recalled Alice was from one of the three big families in Frost City, the Reiss family, so he might not even need the device to locate her.

Grey didn't immediately head there, he knew it wouldn't be easy to see Alice since he couldn't just swagger into the family compound. He planned to go over and check out the general situation of the family first, after all, since the Emperor went after Reynolds, the chances of him going after Alice were also very high.

'Void, you'll be sneaking into Alice's compound tomorrow. When you find her, give her this letter.' He passed a letter over to Void.

He also gave Void one of the devices to give to her, the content of the letter didn't say much, it only said Alice should come to meet him if she could. But if she couldn't, she should reply to the letter so he'd know what to do.

He stayed in the room for some time before going out to get food for them, after getting their food, he immediately started cultivating. He was already very close to breaking through to the Sixth stage of the Origin Plane after he comprehended and improved the elemental grade of the darkness element, so he hoped to increase his strength while he was in Frost City.

The next day.

He headed into the city accompanied by Void, who was hiding in his cloak rather than lying on his shoulder like always. Void being on his shoulder is something the Emperor's people would probably already be aware of, so he didn't want to take the risk.

He walked through the busy streets of Frost City, heading for the Reiss family compound. It took him almost one hour to get to the compound which was located in the southern part of the city. Looking at the gates of the compound, it wasn't hard to figure it belonged to a big family. Grey estimated the compound was around eight hundred square meters, which he felt was quite small given how big the spaces big families in other smaller cities take.

An Inn was across the compound, so he headed there for a drink. If anything happened in the city, especially to the Reiss family, this was the best place to find out. With his cloak covering half of his face, he stepped into the inn.

He walked to an empty seat by the window on the right side of the Inn, from there he got a great view of the front gates of the family.

'I'm counting on you Void,' He said to Void after taking a seat.

After getting the go-ahead, Void disappeared. Grey gave him the device so he could easily find Alice.

He ordered a bottle of wine before looking across the inn, hoping to get something juicy from the conversations of the people who were sitting close to him. But unfortunately, even after almost twenty minutes, he didn't get any useful information from the people there, most of them were speaking about their personal lives.

With nothing to do, he could only turn to Void.

'Hey, did you find her?' He asked.

After a few seconds of waiting, Void replied, 'No, the guards here are more than those at that Mayor's compound,'

'Which Mayor?' Grey asked, a little lost.

'The one you stole that wine from, you know, who was betraying the empire,' answered Void.

'Oh, that one. I totally forgot about him. But, why would there be so many guards in the compound? Something must definitely be going.'

'Well, I heard some guards speaking about the Emperor sending some people here some days back…'

Void told Grey all he heard from the conversing guards. According to the guards, Alice's father sent the people away, saying she wasn't in the compound. Being the head of such a big family, the Emperor's people didn't object much, rather they told him to send her to the Capital when she returned.

'That explains the high number of guards,'

'No, actually, just before the Emperor's people came, one of the Reiss' family members was almost assassinated, an Elder to be precise,'

'Well, there's that too. Did you use the device? Since it shows her light is here, it means she's obviously in the mansion,'

'Or maybe she dropped the wooden object before leaving,'

'Yeah, that too. Try to locate her quickly, you're a small black cat with the space element, getting past some many people shouldn't be difficult for you.'

'It's not, I only delayed because I saw something shiny,'

On hearing the reason Void hadn't gotten to Alice yet, Grey almost spat out the drink that he just took a sip of.

'Did you take it?' He asked a question which he knew would give him a very obvious answer. Since Void stopped because of something shiny, then of course he was going to take it.

'No,' Void replied hastily. His hasty reply only proved to Grey that he took it.

'You're lying, return it this instant. We do not steal things from our friends' house,' Grey reprimanded him immediately.

'But it's her father's house, not hers,' Void tried to justify himself.

After a few seconds of scolding, Void finally agreed to return it. Grey didn't think he would return it though, but there was no harm in trying. Had he been there, then there might've been some hope in Void returning it, but with Void being alone, the chances are low.

Grey waited for a few minutes before contacting Void again, to his surprise, Void said he was already at the place where Alice's light dot was on, but he couldn't find her. This probably meant that she left the wooden object in her room.

'Hmm, she should know this is the only way for me to reach her, so even when leaving, she would take it.' Grey thought while rubbing his head a little distressed by the missing Alice.

If he couldn't locate Alice within the next week, then he would take the risk of going to her family compound. He didn't plan on leaving this city until he was certain that Alice was safe. Void returned, and Grey went on to ask him about the situation in the house, and also if he returned what he took.

Void told him all he heard while he was inside the house, and other than the information he got the first time, there wasn't really anything more.