Affinity:Chaos

"Old man Gerald, what's the meaning of this?" Jean quickly put himself together and scolded.

"You're abducting girls, and keeping them in your manor to have fun with them," Gerald said calmly.

"Old man Gerald, because I respect you doesn't mean you can slander me. I have never, and will never do such evil acts." Jean said with a face filled with anger, he turned to Blazh, "Your highness, like I said, give us some more time, I assure you, we can find the boy,"

Blazh looked at Jean, before switching his gaze to Gerald, "Old man Gerald, is what you're saying the truth?"

"Do I look so bored that I'll falsely accuse this moron?" Gerald asked apathetically.

"Old man Gerald! I will not stand by and watch you accuse me of something I have no idea about." Jean yelled angrily, he turned to Blazh, "Your highness, I think it'll be better it we went to the Capital now, I need to report to your father about this evil accusation,"

Although Jean was panicking, he was still trying his best to get Blazh out of the manor. He had also secretly crushed something that would notify someone to move the cages away from the secret room.

As long as he could hold them here for at least three minutes, everything would be fine.

"Hmph! You're only saying this to escape punishment. Blazh, no need to ask any more questions, come with me, I'll take you there myself," Gerald snorted coldly, he already knew Jean was trying to stop them.

"Old man Gerald, this is my manor, the Smith manor, not the Lenz organization's manor. If you are going anywhere in my manor, then I should be the one inviting you." Jean said coldly.

He was already under a hot seat because Grey escaped, if Blazh were to find out about the ladies in the cages, then he was done for. Not just him, but the entire Smith family.

Gerald looked at Jean with a smile, he enjoyed seeing him look this desperate, but what he enjoyed more was seeing him think he has hope before it crumbles.

Presently, he had already sent Diluc to the garden. Diluc has not only gotten there, but he has captured the Overlord Plane expert there, so no matter how long Jean tries to delay them, it wouldn't change a thing.

"Old man Gerald, where are they kept?" Blazh asked Gerald.

He couldn't let this matter rest given the caliber of it.

Even in Capital City, there have been families who have reported to the Emperor of their missing children, and most of them were ladies, young ladies. If it were to turn out that Jean was the one holding them, then he was as good as dead.

"Yes Gerald, if they are in my manor, where are they kept?" Jean asked, forgoing all formalities.

"No need to be in a hurry, I'll take you all there," Gerald chuckled before heading out of the hall.

Jean took a deep breath before following behind them. He had tried to stop them for a few minutes, although it wasn't up to the time he wanted, he was sure he would be able to delay them another minute or so. All he needed was one or two more minutes and the expert should've been able to remove all the evidence.

While they were walking, he started introducing the manor to Blazh. He even went as far as calling his daughter, the young lady Grey fought with, hoping to introduce her to Blazh.

But his fake smile turned for the worse when she got there. The young lady looked pale, and appeared to be very weak.

"What's wrong?" He asked hurriedly while approaching her.

The group naturally stopped on seeing him hurry towards his daughter.

Jean on the other hand was beside himself with joy, he didn't care to know what happened to his daughter, but whatever it was, is a life saver.

"Father, since the battle I had with Zeke Hoover, I haven't been feeling too fine," The young lady explained.

"Since you fought with him?" Jean asked, confused.

Elementalists don't usually get sick, although there are a few cases, but they were rarely natural. After their bodies have been refined by the elements, it would improve by a whole lot, making them impervious to sickness.

The young lady nodded her head, Jean's happy heart shook.

"Give me your hand," He had already grabbed her hand when he said this.

After placing his thumb on her hand, he closed his eyes.

"This… how?" Jean opened his eyes in horror.

It was like he was falling into despair.

"Father, what's it?" The young lady asked anxiously on seeing her father's reaction.

"Your… essence bead. It's seventy percent damaged," Jean replied with a lost expression.

'What's going on? What did I do for all this to happen to me?' He looked at the sky with a look that showed extreme pain.

The young lady was the hope of the entire Smith family, she was the one who has had the highest potential amongst all the children ever born to the family. Although they were a big family, they knew that it wouldn't last forever. They were wealthy, but they weren't strong individually.

The experts they hired could easily be tempted by an enemy of the family, this would make them betray them, so they weren't too safe with them.

If the young lady were to truly get to the legendary Sage Plane, then they would be able to attract talents to the family, talents they would groom to love and respect the family's rules.

"What?!"

The young lady, as well as the remaining elders who were beside Jean exclaimed.

The elders all hurried to grab hold of her hand, checking it for themselves. Their expressions all changed when they saw this.

Gerald who was looking from the side, couldn't help but shake his head.

'This boy is just as vicious as his Teacher. All the girl wanted to do was spar, yet he crippled her, and in the presence of an Overlord Plane expert, amazing! He's just as daring as his Teacher.'

He couldn't help but wonder what the empire might turn to when Grey grew to the same strength as Chris. Given the personality of both people, it's most likely even the Emperor wouldn't want to get on their bad sides.

'No wonder they want to eliminate him as soon as possible.' He thought.

But to be honest, Gerald felt the Emperor was making the wrong decision. If he were the Emperor, then he would've tried to befriend Grey, instead of making him feel like a fugitive. Just think of what they could do if they had someone like Grey and Chris behind them.

He felt the Qilin empire would be able to easily dominate the other two empires with just those two on their sides.

He had done more research on Grey, and found out it had just been three years since he started cultivating, this made him all the more certain he had to build a stable relationship with him even if it meant offending the entire Qilin empire!

"Jean Smith, you're wasting my time," Blazh said coldly.

Whatever happened to the Smith family had nothing to do with him, all he wanted to do now was return to the Capital, with Jean Smith.

Although Jean Smith might not be executed because Grey escaped, he wouldn't escape punishment. But if they were to find out that he truly was abducting ladies, then the punishment will not be light.

Jean turned to look at Blazh and old man Gerald, the luster in his eyes was gone. He wasn't even happy he had been able to successfully delay them.

Sigh…

He sighed heavily, and it was like a aged by at least five years.

Gerald looked at him with a pitiful expression, it was like he was witnessing the scene of Chris almost annihilating an entire family again, only this time, he was doing it with the help of others.

Chris was brutish, while Grey on the other hand was cunning. But Gerald was sure if Grey was strong enough, then he might've done even more than what Chris did.

They had spent a considerable time with the young lady, so when they got to where the garden was located at the back of the main building, over five minutes had gone by.

Jean was comforted by the fact that Gerald would mislead Blazh, even if they wouldn't punish him, it would at least make the punishment on him for not being able to provide Grey not as harsh as before.

"There's a secret room here," Gerald said.

"That's the place I keep all the rare flowers," Jean said before leading them to the building in the garden.

He opened the door that led inside, after they walked in.

"You see, just like I said, where I keep all…" He paused mid sentence, in front of him were multiple cages, with ladies chained inside.

This time, he didn't only fall into despair, but he immediately plunged to the depth. His previous black hair started to whiten at an incredible pace, the process was visible to the naked eye.