Chapter 66 - Problems

Winning the tournament, that was the goal.

But along the way, they all knew it wouldn't be easy. 

Reaching the goal was much more than a smooth ride uphill. Bumps were everywhere and right now, they haven't even reached the midpoint of their goal.

"Our group needs three more members to be complete. And instead of being able to go around and look for more talented children, Halma wouldn't let me leave this place until she's gone! And Von too. I can't leave him yet." Venedette said, voicing out her concerns with a worn-out face.

Not only was she having a problem with their team's composition, but Halma was also getting in her way along with Von.

And although this was Von's initial plan all along, having panic attacks just made Venedette more concerned about him and even thought about dropping the entire plan of joining the tournament completely..

But then she remembered, she can't drop it. She can't back out from it according to her pact with Halma.

This sight of Venedette walking around the room and being unsettled raised a concern on the girl's faces.

They did have their fun, but this meeting was just too overwhelming after everything that happened in this single day.

"You know, I think you should spend your precious time with Von first. The tournament wouldn't be happening anytime soon. And besides, the three of us each have their own things to deal with first. Like my issue with my level zero skills, or Fily being awake longer which lessens her ability to unlock more chapters from the manual book…" Gem looked at them meaningfully while trying to convince Venedette to calm down. "And Petunia. We still need to find a way to help her live longer…" Gem trailed off.

She realized how her words sounded more like giving Venedette more reasons to panic instead of comfort, which was not her intention initially, but since it already happened, Gem shut her eyes out of frustration and prayed to the gods instead that her message may be delivered to Venedette in a good shape.

Fily noticed Gem's expression so she pitched in to salvage her missed intention, "What Gem was trying to say here, is that, you shouldn't let all these problems hit you all at once, Venedette. I'm sure you're strong but no one could evade an avalanche of problems all at the same time. You've got to give it its own time, at the right time. Give Von space to change his decision while being there for him in his times of need."

"That's right." Petunia said, "The tournament's a long way from now, Venedette. We've got a lot of time in our hands to deal with these problems. Well, at least you guys do-"

"Petunia." Gem said pouting again.

"Just kidding. But still, deal with these problems slowly and surely. That way we wouldn't end up being prey for the monsters outside."

Venedette let out a heavy sigh after hearing these words from, of all people, kids.

But what did she expect?

She chose the best kids in her country, after all.

"Okay. Give me a brief description of your problems." Venedette said which made the girls groan out of frustration.

"No. We're not going to add up to your problems Venedette," said Fily.

"That's not what I'm trying to do here. I just need to be aware of the things you're dealing with. That's all." Venedette said, defending herself after finally calming down and sitting on a chair in front of the girls.

"Mine's about the new training manual I discovered upon chance inside Solitude. It's called 'Astra Training Lesson' and the number one lesson was Activation." Gem shared willingly.

"She can't do anything to help with my problem so I thought it's fine sharing." Gem whispered to Fily who was glaring at her for biting into Venedette's twisted logic.

"Activation? As in how to activate the gemstone?" Venedette said attentively.

"N-No?" Gem's brows curled upon hearing Venedette's assumption. "I assumed it was a training manual for my new skills, so naturally, I thought it was an activation for my hidden skill Solitude."

"Oh." The excitement from Venedette's voice died down. "Okay, then what's the problem with it?"

"The problem is I don't know whether the tasks I was given from that manual will work outside of Solitude, which is over here, in the real world. I tried summoning the manual over here but it didn't work. I'm afraid the tasks may not count over here either."

"Then why don't you just try doing the tasks right now and see if it works immediately?" Venedette asked.

"I'm scared." Gem answered truthfully, calming down the storm of questions preparing to shoot at her because of this newfound information.

"It's okay, hon. Take your time." Fily said, reaching to pat Gem's hair who was just seated beside her.

"But hey, at least that's progress, right?" Petunia said, trying to cheer up the gloomy mood inside of this library.

"Right," Venedette answered in deep thoughts.

'So this was why Halma killed her? To make her go inside that Solitude for the training manual? But how did Halma know of this? Gem couldn't possibly have found that manual out of pure coincidence. Halma must be hiding something from me about these gemstones!' Venedette thought.

"Okay next, let's go with mine... since it's not really a secret anymore, yeah?" Petunia said, dropping her 'cheerful' face and just being her more stoic self this time.

"I need to transform back into a human or else I die. Simple, right? All I need is Gem's little Energy slime and some other pretty expensive rare ingredients, which I'm sure the Queen already has in store, so I'm trying my best to be a good pet for her. So there you go, see you guys either in the afterlife or… also in the afterlife. Since we're going on that dangerous tour afterward anyway. Well, a tooth for a tooth I'd say." 

"Don't worry Petunia. I'll really do my best to help you," said Gem.

"Sure sure." Petunia just said with a shrug.

"How about you, Fily?"

"Oh, nothing much." Fily laughed nervously, trying to evade Venedette's question since it was related to the secret they were trying to hide from Gem.

"Right, your intelligent ass would have been able to solve pretty much everything in just a heartbeat, right?" Petunia said, trying to cover up for her now.

"Yup, yup. That's right. That's totally it. Haha, problem who?" Fily said humorously which actually convinced both Venedette and Gem impeccably at this point. "We have enough time for me to unlock those chapters before the tournament anyway, so it's not really a big deal." 

"That's good to hear," Venedette said with a smile on the outside, but a cooking theory on the inside, trying to piece all these puzzles together of what seemed to be Halma's great big plan behind all these things that were going on with them.