Chapter 77 - Welcome To The Club

"Wait, you're not planning to come with us, are you?" Fily shouted along the hallway which caught Von's attention on his way to Venedette.

When Von saw Fily trying to catch up to Lei after saying those words, he immediately hid behind a pillar and decided to watch what was going on between Fily and Lei

"Where are they going? And what plan? What are they trying to do?" he thought out loud, stuck between wanting to go and follow after them instead of sticking to his original plan which was to go visit Gem and his mom in the clinic.

"This may be a chance for me to make Lei repay the betrayal he did to me this morning." he thought sinisterly before creeping behind Fily, trying to be discreet as much as possible on her way to the basement's camouflaged door with Petunia and Lei who just suddenly tagged along with them for unknown reasons.

***

"How are you feeling?" asked Venedette to Gem with a careworn face.

Somehow, Gem had been enduring all kinds of pain ever since last night, and although it did stop from time to time, Venedette still couldn't help herself but feel weak in the knees whenever she had to watch Gem endure such extreme pains in her stomach. 

She couldn't even sleep last night because of it. But the thing that made Venedette wonder the most, was the fact that Gem didn't want help from the doctors or take any kind of medication for the pain..

Why was that? Why did she choose to suffer instead of taking medications to ease her pain?

"N-Not good." Gem said with a forced smile, along with the words that she forced to say out her dehydrated throat.

"Oh my gosh." Venedette sighed and handed Gem the bottle of water again after hearing her dry voice and seeing her chapped pale lips.

"Are you sure you don't want to take some painkillers? Although these ones are for adults, maybe you can take it if I cut it in half?" Venedette said, trying to make Gem take the pills again but the girl was stubborn.

Gem shook her head at Venedette's offer and held her hand softy with a smile. "I can-" 

"Okay, I'm sorry, I'm just really worried, you know? Drink this water first then talk okay? Or take a rest at least, don't strain your voice too hard. I'll just be here to take care of you." Venedette said restlessly and flashed a smile to Gem to show her that she's going to be okay.

Gem nodded softly and smiled weakly to Venedette before turning around and crunching her stomach once again.

Since Venedette knew there was nothing she could do anymore, she just let Gem go and watched her overcome the pain patiently on her own. Which was why when Sir Grand knocked on the door and asked to talk to her, she immediately went outside with him to avoid seeing Gem in pain again.

"What's wrong?" Venedette asked Sir Grand who was fidgeting around with a stone tablet in his hands as if he had a very big problem with it.

"Remember the store where I found Von and Lei's earrings?"

"Uhuh?"

"Did you see an old lady at the counter? The one I was talking to?"

"No?" Venedette said truthfully. 

"You didn't see the old lady that I was talking to? Even inside that cave? You didn't see her go there after you?"

"No. When I went there, I immediately went to Von and Lei on the lower level where I heard them shouting at each other." Venedette said with a sweet and caring voice which she thought would help ease out the situation since Sir Grand was looking really anxious with his fidgeting and clearing of throat multiple times in between.

"What is it?" Venedette held Sir Grand's hands and looked at his dark, brooding eyes with sympathy.

"I think I just saw a crone on your island, Princess."

***

"Is this what I think it is?" Petunia asked Fily while looking suspiciously at Lei who was just standing innocently beside her.

Fily raised her index finger to signal Petunia to wait while she was catching her breath after walk-running behind Lei just to catch up to his long steps while trying to shoo him away.

"Where's Von? Aren't you supposed to be beside him 24/7? What are you doing here without him?" Petunia said, striking Lei's most sensitive ego as of the moment which made him scoff at her before deciding to throw a sarcastic remark instead.

"Do you want me to call him and tell him to spoil your plan for me?" 

"Call me to spoil their plan for him? how dare he think I would do something like that for his sake?" Von recklessly whispered not far from the group in the hallway which alerted their senses instantaneously.

"Did you hear that?" Petunia, who had the keenest senses among them said to Fily who was also feeling weird since earlier.

"I think so. While I was following Lei earlier, I felt like there was also someone following me from behind but I didn't pay much attention to it. I thought it was just my imagination from the exhaustion of following Lei. But now that you mentioned it, I guess there really might be someone following us since earlier."

"You only noticed him now? He's been following you since he saw us talking in front of Gem's room. How could you miss that?" Lei, who literally just disappeared for a second, came back holding Von in the back of his shirt while floating and sporting a very annoyed scowl at everyone present in this hallway.

"Ah. I knew it was you, your annoying voice was very hard to miss. I guess you and Lei are really inseparable, huh? Just when I thought I could finally hang out with Lei without having you in the way." Petunia said, smiling arrogantly at the both of them who instinctively moved away from each other because of her remark.

"Well, welcome to the club… I guess?" Fily said sarcastically before unlocking the door to the basement in front of them with her signature big friendly (but also fake) smile.