Chapter 90 - Petunia Is Expert At Lying

"Petunia!" Von said enthusiastically while looking at Petunia on her Gummy cloud that was floating towards them with an annoyed face.

"What happened?" she asked while looking around cautiously.

"I accidentally hit Lei to the ceiling," Von confessed while pushing Lei back to the ground when he tried to sit up.

"I'm fine," Lei said stubbornly and tried to sit up again but Von was really more stubborn than him.

"For all I know, you did it on purpose to make Lei repay for his 'betrayal', am I right?" Petunia said while grabbing the healing potion from her cloud.

"I did not! I was just too distracted when I pulled him off the ground and the rope was just too unstable!" he said, trying to defend himself so eagerly.

"I don't buy that." Petunia said even though she actually believed him.

"Tch!" Von could only exclaim while sporting an intense frown at Petunia who was now giving Lei the very basic healing potion that is the most essential potion in Petunia's hidden kit.

"All good?" Petunia asked while packing the healing potion back to her secret stash inside the Gummy cloud.

"Mmm." Lei only answered while looking down to the area where the fake maids were running after them earlier.

"On second thought, you should just take this." Petunia said and handed Lei the same bottle of healing potion that was now refilled.

"Aren't you going to ask about what happened?" Von asked which took Petunia aback for a few seconds.

"No," Petunia answered with a blank face, keeping her cold endeavor for use so the two of them wouldn't raise any more questions to her.

But then, Fily suddenly sent her a message saying;

[Fily: Keep them there. I already told the Crones where they are.]

"Cheeky child, do you want to be our food as well?" one of the old crones in disguise laughed at Fily for telling them where Von and Lei were hiding.

"Little girl thought we needed her help." Another one said using the same voice and a bunch of them laughed after her.

"Come on you hags, I'm just trying to make your work easier for your dumb a*ses," Fily said with a deeper voice than usual and a smile that was so bright even her eyes were smiling.

"This kid," the same one with properly tied brown hair and maid's clothing said while laughing dryly at Fily, "Get her."

Suddenly, the rest of them who were also impersonating the palace maids lunged at Fily, but Fily quickly reacted by using her super puff so the maids couldn't go near her.

"You're lucky I'm not allowed to hurt you till tonight," Fily said after sending them all five doors away from her.

"And why is that?" the leader asked which Fily only responded with a smiley shrug.

"Get her." The leader Crone said again which her sisters followed immediately

"Well, I guess I could still kill some of you and leave the others to capture Von and Lei," Fily said and took a handful of powder from her pocket.

"What made you so sure you could kill us anyway?" the first one to arrive near her said while throwing a claw at Fily's face which Fily immediately dodged thanks to her mediocre senses and superior calculations of how these Crones would move.

"One." Fily simply said and blew the powder to the first Crone's face, stinging her eyes and face with the hot chili powder in her hands.

"Two." Fily turned around and blew a convenient amount to the second Crone's eyes and nose.

"Three." She said and continued jumping around and spraying the powder directly on their openings without wasting a single powder thanks to the precision of her calculations.

"Fifteen," Fily said and landed in front of the remaining thirty Crones including the leader who was now surprised after underestimating her earlier.

Fily knew Crones aren't really the strongest opponent there is and if Crones could outsmart children, Fily's not your typical kid that would get attracted to candies absentmindedly.

"So, how many of you should I spare?" Fily asked amidst the crying voices of old women behind her.

"W-We'll just take the boys." The leader said. "Can you take us to them?"

"Sure." Fily said and led the way slowly, still with that confident smile of hers that served as a warning for the rest of the Crones who were now carrying their injured sisters to not try and do anything funny with her. 

***

"Have you seen my mom though? I just saw her earlier but then she suddenly disappeared without even helping us." Von said with spite in his voice, trying his best not to hate his mom even though he could feel that Venedette actually saw them and just chose to ignore them earlier without any explanations.

"No." Petunia lied again, but this time she was actually willing to answer Von's question even if they were just lying so that she could keep them staying in here like what Fily told her to do.

"Is the meeting done?" Lei asked this time.

"Actually no. Since you guys disappeared, Venedette told us to look for you first before we start the meeting." Petunia answered, improvising a new disaster prevention lie that would, at least, help lessen Venedette and their hate sentence from Von or even Lei.

"Mom's looking for us? Does that mean she actually didn't see us back there earlier?" Von said when he heard Petunia's lies that sparked hope in his heart once again.

"But where are they? Why are you the only one here? Didn't they see the message that I sent?" Von asked restlessly while peeking his head over the tower's railings to look for Venedette and the others, but since Venedette was still inside the building and the library's windows were tinted black, he couldn't really see anyone inside of it.

"Should we just go there?" Von asked himself which alarmed Petunia immediately.

"Actually, I just remembered, Venedette told me to tell you guys that we should just wait for them here while they deal with the enemy downstairs!"

"I'm going to help." Lei offered, which Petunia immediately opposed.

"No, she specifically told me to make sure you boys stay up here while they deal with those people downstairs. So please, sit down and let me do my job." Petunia said sternly which convinced the boys easily.

"Okay, fine," Von said and moved closer to Lei.

'At least I know my mom really cares about me.' Von thought to himself with a smile before sitting down as per Fily's request.