Chapter 95 - Among Us

"Ninety-nine… One hundred!" Gem exclaimed with a heavy sigh before laying down on the floor out of exhaustion.

[Daily Quest progress = 50%] Lady announced briefly.

"Okay, now for the discipline tests…" Gem said with her worn-out voice.

"I wonder what they're doing right now?" Gem thought to herself while reaching the lights on the ceiling wishfully with her hands.

The warmth of her body clashing with the cold wind that was breezing inside her room from the open window.

Gem thought opening the window would help her feel the heat from the bright sun more but instead, she was met with the cold breeze that was still better than the still conditioned air inside her room that the maids thought would be better for her.

"More Hot Chocolate…" Gem murmured while reaching for the cup of hot chocolate on her bed but since she was too tired and weak to do so, she couldn't help but feel dizzy and almost as if she was on the verge of death.

She was feeling just fine whenever she was moving her body but when she stopped, it was when every pain felt like it was streaming to her all at once.. But Gem knew she couldn't continue moving forever, especially since there were still at least three days for this 'evolution' to be finished, Gem knew she had to look for another way to complete her tasks and stay moving at the same time.

[Astral training is advised to be done inside Solitude.] Sir Gemini repeated the words he had been repeating since that morning.

"Why do you keep saying that Mr. Gemini? You know I won't do it anyway, right?"

[Astral training is advised to be done inside Solitude-]

"Because this and because that… Blah, blah, blah." Gem cut Mr. Gemini's words off. "Okay, I remember now… Something about the risks of letting something that belongs to Solitude out to the world, right?"

[More than that, Master, your health is at stake here.]

"Why does that even matter? It's not like I'm going to die."

[You can die, Master.]

Upon hearing this, Gem's eyebrows immediately furrowed as if Mr. Gemini just said something so ridiculous.

"What?"

[Solitude can't help with exhaustion, master. Please know your limits.]

"Tch," Gem said before shifting her position to the floor.

"Here it goes again…" Gem said and squeezed her stomach the moment she felt the wave of cramps coming at her again, "Hot… Choco…"

***

"I can't believe them! How could no one notice us? I mean even if we were inside those weird invisible things, it's impossible that no one noticed us fighting up that tower, right?" Lei ranted while kicking the straw scattered on the floor of their cave with electrical bars on the front while Von was just sulking on a corner not far from him.

Somehow, Lei and Von seemed to have switched places since Lei was usually the quiet one and Von would most probably be the one who was supposed to bombard Lei's ears with complaints now but it went the other way around.

"How could they even pass through the protective bubbles?" Von murmured while looking down at his feet like the sad boy that he is.

"Exactly! And Petunia! I'm sure she had something to do with it!" Lei said, feeling more irritated now that he recalled what Petunia just did in front of his face.

"Petunia made me drink a sleeping potion…" Von said and pouted even more after realizing that Petunia might really be their enemy after all.

"She's a traitor."

"I wonder who else is a traitor among us…" Von said and buried his face between his knees.

"Hey, you alright?" Lei looked at him with concern and moved closer to comfort him.

"I just feel like everything's been a lie, you know? Petunia, mom, everybody else. It's like they have been avoiding me on purpose and they even let us get abducted like this…"

"That's not true, we haven't heard from their side yet…" Lei said, giving the girls the benefit of a doubt and trying to calm the situation down even though he was as angry as Von himself in the first place.

"Does that matter?"

"Of course it does," Lei said and hugged Von even though he was just lying.

"In the end, you're still the only one I have left," Von said and buried his face even more between his knees because of embarrassment. "I'm sorry." 

When Lei heard this, he was genuinely surprised.

"It's not your fault."

"If only I didn't drink that potion we could still have the opportunity to run away from them. Heck! We didn't even see where they brought us and how they did it…" Von complained while punching the dry dirt below them that was also full of scattered straws.

"I'll get us out of here," Lei said and stood up, looking at the electric bars that the Crones used to lock them inside a small cave, Lei could guess that these old people aren't just brainless kidnappers that kidnapped them for no reason.

Lei only knew about the old women's intention of eating him for dinner which meant they only have until midnight to escape, but how?

"The electric border is too dangerous for us even with our current resistance levels…" he murmured while trying not to touch the electricity that was blocking their view from whatever's outside of this cave.

"We need something non-conductive, like a thick shirt… or something," Lei said while still observing the sparkling electric bars in front of them.

"Will this do?" Von said and offered his hoodie to Lei.

"I'll try," Lei said and tightened the black leather gloves from his hand before clutching onto Von's gray hoodie for protection.

"Be careful," Von said and stepped aside.

Lei was actually hoping for the shirt to protect him from the electric bars' explosiveness, but to their dismay, the electric bars only burned Von's hoodie in just a second without letting Lei's hands even an inch out of the electric bars.

"Ouch!" 

"Oh no! My hoodie…" Von said and mourned for his favorite hoodie that was now turned into ashes along with the dusty brown land beneath them.