Affinity:Chaos
chapter-383

Jean appeared in the room a few seconds after Grey left. The second person to get to the vault was the expert who was at the garden.

He was taken aback when he saw the trapping array intact, it wasn't even destroyed which meant the thief should be in the vault. Unfortunately for him, when he walked in, all he saw was Jean in his sleeping robe.

"Where's the thief?" He asked after looking around.

"Whoever came to steal the essence stones has escaped. But given how quickly they escaped with that many stones, I'm starting to have doubts if it isn't someone from the family," Jean said.

Each family all had their problems, so it was normal for Jean to suspect someone in the family. There's no way someone would be able to take that many essence stones in such a short time.

When he sensed the alert, he was still having fun with the lady, he instantly pushed her from on top of him, grabbed his robe, and dashed down, yet he found the array intact, and more than fifty percent of the essence stones gone.

'Wait… this is the first time something like this is happening, and it was when that small brat was brought to the manor. Could it be related to him, or is it just a coincidence?' Jean suddenly thought about Grey.

Since sending Grey to the room, he hadn't seen or heard about him again.

"Go and check if the boy is in the room," He ordered the man.

The man hurriedly left the vault, while the other experts were coming into the room.

Given the speed of an Overlord Plane expert, it was impossible for an Origin Plane expert to be faster than them, even if said Origin Plane expert were to be at the Peak of the Plane.

In a flash, the man appeared outside the garden, and within two seconds, he had gotten to where Grey was kept.

Normally, since Grey was in the Origin Plane, if he was the one who stole the essence stones, there's no way he would've been able to sneak back into the room in this short amount of time.

It hadn't even been up to one minute since the alert went off, so it was impossible for him to have already hurried back without being spotted. Unfortunately for them, they can't judge Grey using normal reasoning.

When he appeared outside the room, he immediately opened the door, walking inside directly.

"Huh?" He paused and looked at the door.

He was sure he sensed something from the door just now, but the feeling was very faint, almost negligible.

After shaking his head to get the strange feeling out, he walked in. Seated crossed legs at the center of the room was Grey.

On sensing someone walking in, Grey opened his eyes which were still cold from what he saw at the garden.

His emotionless gaze stunned the man for a few seconds, he couldn't even speak any word for a few seconds.

"Is it time for me to leave?" Grey asked.

"No, I only came to see if you were alright. Do you need anything?" The man asked.

Grey shook his head.

"Alright," The man nodded before excusing himself.

After he left, Grey looked at him with a soft mischievous smile. When he returned, he thought of the possibility of them suspecting him, so he hastily created a small darkness array in front of the door, whoever stepped into the room would activate the array.

The darkness element will immediately sneakily slide into their body from the array, slowly corroding their insides.

Of all the elements, there was none that had such destructive powers, well, the space element would also have it, but Grey didn't really know how to properly use it until now. Other than teleporting with it, he didn't know any way to use it to attack.

He might be able to use it to make his attacks appear in front of his opponents immediately, or like Void's innate skill, to protect himself.

'It should take a while before this guy notices, maybe I'll be gone already.' He thought.

After finding those ladies, he had completely changed his plan. Once he leaves, he would hang around the manor, while slowly corroding the people's essence beads and life force.

Given how the Smith family usually carries themselves, they had created enemies in all places, Grey couldn't even imagine what would happen to them if their enemies found out about them being poisoned.

They would attack the weakened Smith family, especially the Reiss family, they might be the first to even attack them. There's a chance that the Earl family might join in as well.

Grey stayed in his room, waiting for the commotion he caused to subside. Once it subsides, he would immediately start his new plan.

Since he had already gotten the essence stones, there was nothing left for him to do in the Smith manor. But he wanted to wait till the people from the Capital arrived, that way the Smith family wouldn't have a way to avoid facing any issues.

Even if the Emperor didn't kill them, then there's a chance that he would punish them heavily for playing games with him.

Grey even hoped the people the Emperor would send over should all be in the Origin Plane, or at most, one should be in the First stage of the Overlord Plane. That way, he would set an ambush for them when they were leaving, making it seem like the Smith family found out what Grey had, and decided to kill off the Emperor's people.

….

The Smith family increased the surveillance around the manor, hoping to catch the thief before he escaped.

Grey wasn't concerned about their increased surveillance, even if they brought out a whole army of Overlord Plane experts, they still wouldn't be able to sense him if he didn't want them to.

He started his plan that very night since he knew the people from the Capital would either come after sunrise, or the next day. There wasn't much time, the manor was huge, and there were a lot of people in the manor.