Affinity:Chaos

"Stay with your friend, I'll be back shortly," Jason turned around and left the room. 

The moment he walked out, after confirming that there was no one monitoring them, the worried expression on the faces of the trio vanished. 

"Wow, Klaus, you're such a good actor," Reynolds complimented. 

"Well of course, after traveling with my father these few months, my acting skills improved. If not, I'd have been dead by now," Klaus replied proudly, before adding with a smile, "By his hands if I might add," 

"You two are no good," Alice shook her head at the sight of her friends. 

"Alice, I believe you should put in more effort. You almost made the Crowned Prince know we were faking it," Klaus lectured. 

"I don't like pretending," Alice's reply was simple and straightforward, just like her character. 

"Suit yourself," Reynolds and Klaus exchanged glances, clearly, they weren't in line with her words. 

"You can stop acting now, he's gone," Klaus went over to kick Grey on his leg. 

"Ouch! Are you made of metal or something?" He complained when he was the one that got hurt after the exchange. 

The black lines on Grey's body vanished without a trace, and his body temperature returned to normal. 

"I thought you no longer wanted to make use of your leg, you know, since you came to kick me," Grey said nonchalantly. 

"You… Hmph! I can't be bothered with you." Klaus snorted as he turned to the others, he still felt pain in his right leg, "What's our next choice of action now? We've been captured just as you planned," 

"This place is under close surveillance, so making a long range array will take a while. From the information Void passed on a few seconds ago, it looks like the Emperor is more focused on finding the necromancers than actually doing the test. Since he already has us, he doesn't seem to be pressured any longer," Grey replied. 

"Take Void's attack head-on was ingenious, however, I feel like the Crowned Prince is suspicious of something," Alice replied. 

"I can tell, but there's no way for him to confirm his suspicions, so we shouldn't be bothered with him. Now, I'll have to find a way to send a message to old man Gerald. Since we're already here, the necromancers will come for us. If the other empires were to find out about it, then all hell would break loose," Grey said with a sly grin. 

"Hehe, pitting all of them together, and escaping in the chaos, I love it!" Klaus said with a smile. 

Grey took out old man Gerald's communication device, and the messages he had received from him stunned him. It had only been just a day since their capture, yet from how the message sounded, it seemed like old man Gerald got news of it a few hours after they were caught. 

'The speed at which he gets information is terrifying. It's a good thing that he's an ally,' He thought internally. 

He sent a message to old man Gerald, assuring him that he was fine, and of course he was still under the watch of the Emperor and his people. 

He got a reply a few seconds later, it was like old man Gerald had been waiting for his message for a while now. 

He found out from old man Gerald that he was already in the Capital, staying in the Lenz organization's building there, waiting for the best time to pay a visit to the castle. 

Hearing how anxious old man Gerald was after his capture, Grey didn't know what to feel. He had always felt like other than his parents, friends, and Teacher, no one really cared about him. That was how he grew up because of his situation, and he was used to it. Getting to see someone this worked up because of him left a strange feeling in his heart. 

But he soon tossed his feelings aside before telling old man Gerald he was the one who planned for their capture. 

In the Lenz organization's building, old man Gerald spat out the tea he was drinking when he heard this, feeling a wave of headache. 

They spoke for a few more seconds before Grey asked for his help in decimating the news of them being in the castle to the other empires. 

Grey was a little taken aback when old man Gerald told him that they were already aware and that their forces were trying to force their way into the Qilin Empire. 

"That's great news! All we have to do now is wait for the chaos that will ensue," Klaus said while rubbing his hands together. 

"Wait, where's Void?" Alice asked. 

"He's still there. Apparently, he's been trying to get into the castle for a while now," Grey replied with a sigh. 

Even after he tried calling Void over, he refused. When he asked his reason, Void's reply was 'What's an Emperor without a crown?'. 

"So he's going to steal the Emperor's crown?" Reynolds asked, just to be sure. 

"And everything he can lay his hands on," Grey caressed his temples. 

The only reason he didn't try to stop Void was that he knew that Void would be fine. Since he got to the Peak of Rank Five, his concealing abilities improved drastically. 

For a while now he had been very cautious around these Sage Plane Elementalists, but he couldn't afford to let a golden opportunity like this go to waste. 

Since he managed to attack and escape in the presence of two Sage Plane experts a few seconds ago, he felt more confident in being able to elude all the senses of the experts here and looting the entire royal treasury. 

His first objective though, was the crown of the Emperor. Grey had promised they would steal it anyway. 

Alice gazed at the excited Klaus and Reynolds before shaking her head. 

"Dammit! I can't wait to see the expression on that loser's face when he can't find his crown," Reynolds said in glee. 

"It's a shame we're stuck here," Klaus said regretfully.