Affinity: Chaos

Chapter 1975: For Every Wrong Answer, You Lose A Limb

“Oliver?” The Old Man asked.

“Yes, he was part of the people taken from True Dawn along with you.” Grey nodded, “Do you have any idea where he might be?”

The Old Man fell deep in thoughts, as if thinking about something. Grey did not rush him, waiting patiently.

A few minutes later the Old Man raised his head, “He was bought as soon as we got here.”

Grey’s eyes lit up when he heard this. Though the Old Man said the Principal was bought, he could easily retrieve him as long as he could find out where the Principal was taken to. Looking at the Old Man he asked, “Do you have any idea who the Gnome is? Did the Gnome’s clothing have any distinct insignia?”

One thing Grey has come to learn about Gnomes is that each Family, no matter how small, always tends to have a crest that makes it easy to identify them. As long as the Old Man is able to remember the insignia of the Gnome that bought the Principal, he would be able to locate him.

The Old Man thought hard for a few seconds before shaking his head, “I can’t recall I’m sorry. When they came, we were all inside and he was in the first group to be sold.”

The Old Man felt a sense of sadness when he spoke about this, reason being there was no way he would ever think he would be in such a situation. He was someone who has spent most of his life in True Dawn, he even faced the Gnomes all those years ago.

Grey’s eyes turned dull after hearing the Old Man’s words. He could tell the Old Man was genuinely sorry about this.

“Alright, we’ll be leaving now.”

There was no need to spend any more time in this compound. Since both the Old Man and the Ladies from the Moonlight Faction had been saved, he planned to take them somewhere safe and continue his search for the Principal.

It took him close to twenty minutes to take both the two Men as well as the Ladies from the compound. With no other choice, he took them to a secured area in this City. Taking them out of the City would only put them in more danger, so it was best he kept them here while he searched for the Principal.

In an abandoned building in the southwest of the City.

Grey and the two Ladies appeared to the shock of the two Men he saved from the compound as well. They had no idea he rescued these two young Ladies as well.

“Hide here, as long as you don’t step out you will be safe. I will not be able to rescue you again if you’re caught.” Grey warned.

The group of four nodded. They did not want to get into the hands of the Gnomes again.

Grey was about to leave when the other Man called out to him.

“What?” He turned around to ask.

“I don’t know if this will be of much help, but I recall them having a list of people they sell us to.” The Man said.

The Old Man agitatedly said “Yes, yes, I also saw them writing down something when I was being sold.”

The two young Ladies nodded in agreement as well. They, too, noticed this while they were being sold.

“Oh?” Grey raised a brow. If what they said was true, then he would have to pay a visit to the shopkeeper. As long as he could get his hands on whatever the Gnome was writing on, he would be able to locate the Principal.

Leaving the group alone, he told the Bunny Leader to leave two Bunnies around to make sure none of them left this place. Returning to the marketplace, he went straight to the shop where the Old Man and young Ladies from the Moonlight Faction were sold. He was a Sovereign, so his memory was in perfect state.

Getting to the place where the shop was located, he silently sneaked in. It was still night, yet the marketplace was still as lively as when it was day time. Elementalists generally have no need to sleep or eat, especially those in the Sage Plane and above.

Appearing inside the shop, he realized there were only two Gnomes working inside. One was the shopkeeper he saw earlier in the day, while the other was a young Gnome. The shopkeeper was an Old Gnome that was a Second stage Venerable. When Grey appeared inside the shop, the shopkeeper was shocked and tried to alert others, only to realize he was unable to move. The young Gnome was only a few meters away, but this place was separated by a wall, making him oblivious to what was happening inside.

“Answer truthfully and I’ll let you live. If you play with me, you will not know how you died.” Grey’s voice was cold, sending chills down the spine of the Old Gnome.

“You’re Human!” The Gnome exclaimed.

“That doesn’t matter. I’m searching for someone, and according to my intel, he was sold by you a few days ago. I only need to know the location of the Gnome you sold him to.” Grey did not waste any time, going straight to the point.

“I’ve sold a lot of Humans, and my customers’ privacy is someth…”

The Gnome was speaking when he suddenly felt a stinging pain coming from his left shoulder, dropping his head to take a look, he noticed a complete hand was lying on the ground while the position his left hand should be located from his shoulder was empty.

He wanted to scream in pain when he noticed he could not open his mouth which had been sealed in some way.

Grey’s eyes were emotionless as he looked at the Old Gnome, “It seems you don’t understand your current situation.”

The Gnome winched in pain, gritting his teeth with bloodshot eyes. There was still hope if he is able to reattach his arm now. However, the longer he delays it, the lower his chances of reattaching it.

“Where’s the journal where you write the names of the Gnomes who make purchases?” Grey asked.

The Old Gnome’s mouth was still sealed, looking in a direction, Grey followed his gaze and saw a sheet of paper on a table. Walking over, he picked up the sheet of paper. Thanks to learning the Gnome language, he was able to read what was written there. After the first line, his eyes brightened. The reason for this was because the Gnome wrote in detail every characteristic of each Human sold. This would make finding the Principal easier.

Going through that sheet of paper, he found nothing regarding the Principal.

Turning to the Gnome, he did not even ask before he pointed at a chest. He walked over to see a large book.

“Your sales from the past week, is it here?” He asked coldly.

The Gnome nodded with difficulty. He was losing blood from his chopped off arm, and he could already tell it would be very difficult to reattach the arm as it is. All he wanted was for this devil to leave his shop.

He could sense the aura of a Necromancer on Grey and knew that he was one of the Necromancers that was recruited. What he could not understand was why a Necromancer would act in such a way towards him, a Gnome. Most Necromancers are generally scared of offending Gnomes.

Grey naturally had no issues with this, he did not even mind offending the entire Gnome Race, much less a Gnome that was only in the Second stage of the Venerable Plane.

Glancing through the book, Grey searched for anything that related to the Principal. It took him a few minutes, but he finally found what he was looking for.

Bringing the book over to the Gnome, he pointed at the details of the Principal and asked, “Where is the buyer located?”

Unsealing the Gnome’s mouth, he used his space element to seal the area, making sure there would be no way any sound could leave this area.

The Gnome gritted his teeth and replied, “Can you afford offending me?”

As soon as this statement left the Gnome’s mouth, he felt another stinging pain come from his right shoulder. Looking in that direction, he yelled in pain. This time, he was surprised he could actually scream.

“For every wrong answer, you lose a limb.” Grey’s voice was calm, yet cold.

The Gnome grimaced, not speaking a word. Seeing Grey raise a finger, he started sweating profusely before saying, “He belongs to the top Family in the City. If you go there you will find him.”

“Oh, how strong is this Family?” Grey did not expect the top Family of this City to be ones to acquire the Principal. This would make things even harder since they would definitely have experts at the Peak of the Sovereign Plane, or even Half God Plane experts.