Affinity:Chaos

They decided to get the wine from Smith's room first, before heading over to the mayor's room.

Smith gave them a rough description of the villa, so they had some knowledge about where was where.

"How about him, what do we do to him?" Reynolds pointed at Richard.

"Alice." Grey looked at her.

She had the final decision on what would happen to Richard, if she took pity on him and decided they should let him go, then he should count himself lucky. But the group knew given Alice's personality, she probably wouldn't want him to live because of what he thought of doing to her.

"Kill him, keeping him alive doesn't change anything." Alice said decisively.

According to what Smith said, Richard didn't come with the important guests, which meant he wasn't of any use. The group planned to keep Smith alive since he could be used as leverage if by chance things didn't go as planned.

They didn't know the strength of the guests the mayor received. However, Grey was a little hopeful since Void said he only sensed a single person who should either be in the Origin Plane or close to it.

Klaus walked closer to the unconscious Richard before flicking his hand. Multiple ice shards came from the ground, piercing Richard's body.

Richard died a quick death, he didn't even know what killed him. Klaus went on to further tap a finger on his body, freezing him entirely.

'*Sigh* If only my ice ability has gotten to that level, I would have been able to freeze him, then break him into smithereens, leaving no evidence behind.' He thought sadly.

He moved to the pond, touched it, taking it back to its previous state when it was filled with water. He looked around before finding a perfect spot.

"Grey, come here." He called Grey over.

When Grey got there, he told him what he wanted to do, and Grey agreed to it. He wanted to keep Richard's corpse hidden from the world. So he had Grey carve an opening inside the pond, on its walls. He calmly placed the frozen corpse in the pond, before manipulating the water to move it to the opening.

Grey sealed it up, and it was like Richard was never here.

"If only we could find a way to fix the garden, then we wouldn't need to be afraid of it alerting the guards here." Grey said thoughtfully.

"It doesn't matter, we should get to work now, and leave as soon as possible." suggested Klaus.

The others nodded before using the same back door Richard and Smith used when they went to get the wine for them. Reynolds was the one tasked with carrying the unconscious Smith on his shoulder which annoyed him but excited Klaus. It was almost like the duo found each others suffering funny, that was why they always laughed at each other whenever one of them was suffering.

Void was the one who the group sent ahead, he would alert them if there were any guards or servants around. After going through two halls, and three turns, they got to Smith's room within three minutes.

When they entered the room, Grey looked around to locate the place Smith said he hid the wine. The room spanned about fifteen square meters, with a large bed located in it, it surprisingly also had a table and chair that were positioned close to the window which was wide opened, with the curtains hanging on his side. Looking to the extreme left corner of the room, Grey found the place he could use in going into the bathroom.

'He said he kept it there.'

He cautiously walked towards it, entering the bathroom room, he saw a bathtub, as well as some towels and a closet where a large chest was located.

Grey walked closer to inspect the chest, it looked a little worn-out, which was strange given Smith's status.

"He's a strange one." Grey said as he pushed the chest to the side.

He gently tapped on the spot where the chest was previously on, he could tell it was hollow from the sound he heard, Smith only created a thin wall to block it. Being an Earth Elementalist, he tapped his finger on it once again, but this time, the outcome was different from the previous time when it only made a sound.

The thin wall Smith previously created moved to the side with little to no effort, and Grey was left speechless by the number of wine jugs he found in there. There were at least twenty in there.

'This guy sure does love his wines.' He thought internally while searching for the wine Smith brought out.

It took a while, but he finally found it after almost two minutes of tasting the different wines. He kept some that he found good, while he left the rest.

After keeping the wines, he left the bathroom. The others were waiting for him in the room. Reynolds placed Smith on the bed since carrying him constantly was uncomfortable. Klaus and Alice were sitting on the bed. They all looked in his direction when they heard his footsteps.

"We should…" Grey froze mid-sentence before continuing, "Hide, someone's coming."

He quickly went back to the bathroom, hiding in the closet.

Klaus and Reynolds hid under the bed, while Alice hid behind the curtain that was on the window. They left Smith on the bed, trying to make it seem like he was already asleep.

Tap! Tap! Creak!

The footsteps increased before a lady walked in, she looked to be around her late twenties, and from her clothes, it was easy to tell that she was a maid in the villa. She had deep brown long hair, a slender and well-curved body, a slightly average-looking oval face, and blue eyes.

"Young lord, are you asleep?" She asked while blinking her long eyelashes as she approached the bed.

Getting no response from the unconscious Smith, she walked over to the bathroom, "I'll go freshen up."

This wasn't the first time Smith was keeping her quiet, but whenever she gets on the bed, he would always hold her tight, as if afraid she would disappear the next moment.

Klaus and Reynolds who heard this looked at each other with regret deep in their eyes.

'Why didn't I hide in the bathroom?'