"Is it really that bad?" Anna asked, hoping to hear no.
But Richard shook his head and shrugged. "Even if master spent a lot of money for this hideout, without us staying here, it'd be found in no time."
Even though she expected it, his answer perturbed Anna. She leaned back on the couch and crossed her legs to hide her anxiety as she laughed it off. "Locking an entire planet for his daughter, that old man is crazy, haha."
Richard didn't respond to her forced humor.
Instead, he walked out to the end of the basement and looked at the unconscious woman.
With nine bots acting as her life support round the clock, she was in a perfectly healthy condition.
The only problem was her mind.
Sighing deeply, the old man shook his head.
'If she's a grown woman, maybe we can negotiate something with Kreo. But she's just a kid…'
Anna shifted on the couch and turned back to face Richard. "I know she's pitiful, but there are a lot of pitiful people in this world."
Richard froze for a moment before smiling at Anna. "Girl, I'm older than you."
"You sure are, old fogey." Anna laughed.
"Only by six years," Richard smirked.
Anna's smile disappeared and veins popped up on her forehead. "You wanna die?"
"If a level 9 like you beats up, I'll die in a flash." Richard shook his head.
It seemed like he got the bad habit of his young master. But how come he was able to tease Anna about her age and she stayed silent and when he did the same, she was pissed?
'Thankfully, I never married or else…' Richard thanked his past self and smiled with pride.
"Hmph!" Anna crossed her arms and turned to her normal position.
In front of the couch, a hologram was displaying the news telecast. Of course, a quarter of that news was related to Kreo's missing daughter.
Rewards, rewards, and more rewards were promised if she was found.
"They won't stop." Anna spat as she browsed through the messages from her informants.
All the messages pointed out the same thing.
Until and unless Kristine was found, the search would continue.
With every round, the search would only get more and more brutal.
"We can't get out of mars." Richard sat in front of her and sighed.
Evander said that Kristine had a treasure attached to her. Since he was so cautious and caring, Kreo of course had a tracker placed on his daughter.
Evander managed to deactivate it, but only partially.
If they left the planet, Kreo would find it immediately.
So, they had to stay. But doing so, they were subject to Kreo's ever-increasing search.
Even though Richard was confident in staying hidden for at least a month, he hoped he didn't have to.
"Dragging a planet down with us…it sucks to know we're the reason." Richard sighed.
"Not us. It's Kreo." Anna shook her head as a fierce light flashed in her eyes. "And honestly, I don't care if someone unrelated dies. Punishing someone like him is more important."
"That…" Richard didn't quite agree with her. But he understood where she was coming from.
Kreo…
He was responsible for making Evander's life miserable. Not just that, according to Varian, he was also responsible for making his girlfriend's life miserable.
'I wish we had a better way without pulling everyone into this revenge.' Richard sighed.
Anna noticed his creeping guilt and her fierce eyes softened slightly. With a light sigh, she said. "He's coming today. He sounded like he got a solution."
Richard's face lit up and he nodded with a smile.
At that exact moment, the door to the basement stairs opened.
Richard and Anna moved their body in an instant and appeared in front of the door, ready to kill the intruder.
But when they saw his face, they froze.
"Heya!" Varian waved at them with a smile.
Behind him, Sia gave them a light nod in greeting.
"You…" Richard opened his mouth in shock.
Even though Varian hid his auras so that no one could sense his exact levels, he didn't suppress it to the point they couldn't gauge his strength.
As a result, Richard thought he was seeing things.
'When did he get so strong?'
He was a relatively strong level 7 last time, but to Richard, that wasn't very strong.
However, Varian's strength was now on another level.
Since he was a peak level 8, Richard didn't feel threatened by Varian. But he could no longer ignore his young master's strength.
In comparison, Richard had it easy.
Anna's eyes almost popped out of their sockets as the maid stared at Sia, frozen on the spot.
'T-This girl…' Sweat rolled down Anna's forehead as she gulped her saliva.
"Anna, are you fine?" Varian raised a brow.
"Ah? Ah! I-I'm fine." Anna gave a forced smile and invited them in.
Varian looked unconvinced but didn't care much. With a nod, he walked in and went straight to the unconscious woman on the large bed.
Sia followed him quietly.
Even though she had opened up to Sarah, she wasn't really interested or confident in maintaining relationships with other people.
In contrast to Varan's white dress, she was wearing a beautiful black dress that made it seem like she was on a date.
'Is she really…'
Anna continued to watch her from behind with a deep frown.
She didn't know that Enigma was Sia. In fact, only Varian and Sarah knew. Other than them, it was likely that Blue Flash had her guesses. But that's it.
When Varian introduced his girlfriend, except that she was his childhood sweetheart, who for some reason was missing all this time and suffered due to Kreo and Julius, Anna didn't know much.
She was away from Sarah during her first year and that ensured she had absolutely no idea of Sia-Sarah's friendship.
As a result, she thought her young miss' talent would throw this girl behind, and eventually, Sia would be the lesser wife.
But…
Anna touched her pounding heart as she gazed at Sia with complicated emotion.
'She's only 18 years.'
Almost five times younger than her.
'Yet she reached level 9.'
Something Anna strived all her life for, this girl achieved at one-fifth of her age.
But the most depressing thing was.
'She's stronger than me.'
