Chapter 80 - Curiosity And The Cat

"Is it done yet?" Gem asked herself while looking at her belly under the blanket that was still hurting from the inside as if something was cooking in it.

When she realized there was no one in the room with her anymore, she let out a deep sigh and laid her body flat on the fairly soft white bed, staring at the ceiling as she waited for the next wave of pain in her stomach once again.

"How long do these things usually take before settling down, Mr. Gemini?" she asked while thinking deeply about the training and lessons that she was missing because of it.

[Four to seven days, Master.] Sir Grand answered immediately, making Gem's eyes widen with the utter shock of spending another three days of laying in this bed, enduring this kind of pain that comes and goes every other minute, just by herself without being able to take any medicine or attend the classes and training that she was really looking forward to.

"That's too long! How will I complete… my daily tasks… in this… in this condition, ouch." Gem said, feeling the currents of a million needle-like pain inside her stomach once again.

[You don't.] Mr.. Gemini suddenly said, which aggravated Gem.

"What do you mean I don't?! You just told me earlier that I could get over with this easily using my Healing slimes! I just have to find a way to-" 

Suddenly, Gem felt like puking.

But instead of letting it all out, Gem gathered her breath and swallowed it like the brave warrior that she was aiming to become, tasting the sour thing at the end of her tongue like it was just nothing. It was an unpleasant feeling but still nothing compared to the horror of not being able to train and make progress for three straight days of suffering.

"I just have to find a way to feed this little baby, right?" she continued what she was saying earlier to Mr. Gemini, pertaining to the Salamandite gemstone hanging from her neck.

[Yes, Master.] Mr. Gemini said which was then suddenly interrupted by Lady, showing a notification about their guild Leviathan on the virtual screen twice with the same unread message that was sent earlier this morning but was just silently delivered to her.

*Ding!*

[Notification: Two new members have joined the guild Leviathan.] showing both Lei and Von's profiles under Petunia's name as the fourth and fifth members.

"Venedette isn't counted as one of us?" Gem thought, distracting herself with irrelevant thoughts instead of thinking about her annoying condition 'which was also called evolution or menstruation or whatever they prefer,' she thought bitterly.

"Ahhhh, I should have asked them to bring my tablet up here with me so I could at least play with it while killing time."

[Sending message to Leviathan.] Lady suddenly announced out of nowhere which alarmed Gem. And then she remembered, Lady's settings were actually still in the voice mode and not just pure typing which apparently also gave her an idea of what she could do in the meantime.

Messages:

[Venedette: I will ask Sir Fred to bring it to you immediately.] Venedette replied coldly which made Gem pout and wonder what happened to her.

[Fily: Gem!! How are you feeling now? Petunia and I are actually in the basement so we can't bring you your tablet. Sorry! But we may be able to bring you a different tablet instead, soon.]

[Gem: Oh, cool. I wish I could say I'm fine but I'm really upset about this handicap. But don't worry about me, the pain is already getting tolerable the more I get to experience it, although It's still upsetting, I think I can handle it just fine. Anyways, what are you guys doing back down there?]

"She had been to the basement before?" Von suddenly assumed while they were in the middle of waiting for the mixture to be mixed perfectly by a machine.

"Yes." Petunia simply answered before turning her attention back to their conversation with Gem.

[Petunia: Helping you recover.] Petunia typed but her message was immediately blocked by Fily before she could even send it.

"What?!" Petunia exclaimed in disbelief. 

"What?" Fily raised her brows innocently but then she immediately dropped the act and warned them instead, "No one's going to tell her what we're actually doing here right now, got it? Just think of it as our surprise to her." She said, even flexing her ability to hack effortlessly to Petunia who was the only one who saw what she did.

"Fine." Petunia sighed and changed her reply to Gem.

[Petunia: Just finishing some unfinished business.]

"What did you guys talk about?" Von asked when he saw the two girls exchanging meaningful looks to each other as if they could communicate without using words.

And when none of them answered, he just shrugged it off and typed a comment to Petunia's message, saying:

[Von: We're also here to stroll around the hidden historical artifacts under the castle which I had no idea was just here the entire time.] Von typed bitterly with the intention of making his mother see how upset he was for not knowing anything about this place at all before Fily came.

[Venedette: What are you doing down there, Von? And is Lei with you?]

[Petunia: He is.]

[Venedette: Oh, okay. Just be careful there, alright?]

"Be careful? Why would she say that when she literally just forced us to join your suicide squad earlier this morning." Von said bitterly yet again which gave him a diverse set of stares, some of which were looking down on him and others were just either furious or concerned.

"Right… How did she even make you join when you were dead set on breaking us apart in the beginning?" Petunia asked Von out of curiosity which he thought was a great opportunity to strike back at her for scarring his ego.

"Do you know how many cats die every day because of curiosity, Petunia?"

"I was just asking. Tch." Petunia said, deliberately forming a not-so-good relationship with Von once again because of his arrogant nature.