Chapter 131 - Acting

"Do you want to dance?" Von suddenly said, blocking Gem's view from the people dancing in the ballroom.

"H-Huh? No. I don't know how to dance like that," Gem said while covering her face.

"You've been too shy today, what's up? You're not usually like this." Von said, putting down the plate and paying more attention to the conversation he suddenly started with Gem.

"J-Just don't mind me," Gem said and ran away from Von.

"What's wrong with her?" Von whispered to himself before paying attention to his food again.

"Gem! What happened?" Fily waved at her while she was running towards the balcony but Gem did not notice her.

"Is she crying?" Lei said and ran through the crowd to catch up to Gem..

When Lei reached the exit, he immediately hid his presence as he went into a halt, watching Gem make deep breaths while watching the mountain in front of them.

"What happened?" Fily suddenly held Lei's shoulders which removed his concentration and revealed them both to Gem.

"Fily! Lei! What are you doing?" Gem asked after seeing the two in a weird position where Fily looks like she was just about to jump to Lei for a piggyback.

When the two heard this, their eyes suddenly wandered away from each other and answered with completely contradicting words.

"Fily wanted to go to the bathroom,"/, "Lei said he wanted to bring me to the fountain," which made Gem crease her eyebrows and giggle silently.

"Are you two okay?" she asked whilst laughing.

"How about you? Why did you suddenly run away?" Fily asked with concern as she walked towards her.

"N-Nothing. I just wanted to go out," Gem awkwardly said and covered it up by changing the topic, "Look! There's a cat chasing a bird outside."

"Is that Petunia?" Fily said after recognizing the silver-white fur and the purple ribbon wrapped around the cat's neck from a distance.

"Petunia? But isn't she sleeping?" Gem said and finally paid attention to the accidental scene unfolding in front of them.

"Why is she chasing a bird, wait, is she talking to that bird? Ah, Petunia lied to us. She said she couldn't talk to animals!" Gem ranted which Lei and Fily only saw as cute.

"Wait, I'll message her." Fily offered and opened up her stat-hut.

[Fily: What are you doing over there, Petunia?]

[Petunia: Over where? How did you know I'm awake?]

[Gem: Did you also lie to us about you being asleep? What are you doing?]

[Petunia: No! Wait, I can hear your voices, I'm coming there with a new friend of mine.]

Petunia said and ended the conversation which made the three of them confused about what just happened.

"Is it just me or does Petunia seemed worked out?" Fily said which was then followed by Gem,

"And she's not riding her Gummy cloud, I wonder what's wrong."

"What are you guys doing here, and why is Petunia awake?" Von suddenly entered the balcony while munching on some dessert he picked up from earlier.

"We don't know," Fily said as Von offered them each a plate full of sweets.

"Thank you," Gem said when Von finally gave her a cup full of her beloved hot chocolate.

"I guess Petunia's onto something," Lei said which was followed by another round of speculation from the kids before a raven landed on Gem's head and started pecking it.

"Huh? Why you-?" Gem groaned and tried to shoo the bird calmly but her reflexes told her to kill it.

"H-Hey, wait!" Petunia suddenly shouted right before Gem's hands crushed the bird she picked up from her head. "That's Monica."

"So? It disturbed my hot chocolate time!" Gem complained with a straight face while still clutching Monica using her right hand which made Petunia more concerned.

"Monica? Where have I seen that name before?" Fily mumbled while recalling why the name sounded familiar.

"She's the princess of this house." Petunia simply said which made Gem and Fily simultaneously remember where they saw the name before.

"The girl with purple hair from the paintings?" Gem said and loosened her hand slowly to let the raven go.

"Yes, and we should be careful, the wolf has been looking for her since last month and we need to save her," Petunia said with a dramatic tone which the bird was nodding to.

"Are you sure that this is Sir Graham's daughter and not just some random bird?" Fily asked.

"Yes! I don't talk to real animals so how else could I understand her?"

"What happened to her, though?" Gem asked while looking closely at the raven's eyes.

"She said she was cursed, but I believe she also took the same potion as mine," Petunia said, which the kids immediately understood.

"But if you're Sir Graham's daughter then, shouldn't we tell him now about your existence? I thought you were dead! What do you think about my purple hair?" Gem voiced out her thoughts enthusiastically without a break which made the rest exhausted for her.

"What? Is that really her hair?" Monica asked Fily while marveling at Gem's identical hair to her human form.

"Nope, she can transform her hair."

"She can transform?! Willingly?!" Monica said in surprise.

"Yes, I guess so."

"Tell her to change her hair this instant! She shouldn't run around looking like me or else the wolf or the people who cursed me might treat her instead!"

"And why is that?"

"I don't know, maybe because they hate me or they're jealous of me? Our family is the richest in this place and there's a lot of people who envy us."

"And you think one of them is responsible for your so-called 'death'?" Petunia added to Monica's argument.

"Yes," Monica answered, which made Petunia agree with her.

"Monica said you should change your hair color. It's not even helping that you look a lot like her. One gossip about Sir Graham's daughter coming back to life everybody will freak out and the killers might attack again targeting you, Gem."

"Exactly, that's what I want." Gem said with an innocent face which made Von understand why she was acting like that earlier.

"Oh! So you, earlier… you were just acting?"

"Yes."