Chapter 136 - Confidence

"Gem's taking too long in there, I hope she's okay," Fily muttered in distress while walking around to calm herself down.

"Von and Lei are already headed to the castle to help, you don't need to worry Fily, I'm sure Gem can handle that wolf on her own," Petunia said, totally forgetting about the fact that her language was still in cat mode.

"What? I can't understand what you're saying Petunia, damn it!" Fily groaned, smashing a big stone she could hardly lift in front of her.

"Guys!" Gem's voice suddenly came from behind, landing on the snow that Petunia created and still hasn't melted off.

"Gem!!" Fily approached her dearly.

"Are you okay? What happened? Is this blood?!" Fily panicked after seeing the black liquid stains in Gem's shirt after switching the gown out for more comfortable hunting clothes back at the castle.

"I need you to listen to me, okay? The wolf will come out in two minutes but we shouldn't kill him. He's not himself anymore and there's only a little time we can work with to get him to the mansion's swimming pool," Gem started while looking at Monica, "He's going to go after you and you're the one who's going to lead him to the swimming pool. I just need more time to influence the pool's water with Energy slimes and the two of you should drink it together, along with the wolves attacking the village tonight, did you understand what I'm saying?!" Gem said restlessly.

"What about me, what do I do?" Fily asked, getting all worked out for a plan that Gem was leading for the first time.

"Inform the others about it and make sure they won't kill the wolves!"

"But we'll need more than Energy slimes to reverse the potion!" Petunia meowed before realizing her handicap and opting for the message function instead.

"I didn't think of that…" Gem said while fidgeting her fingers around the black pearl that she stole from the wolf earlier, "Send me the ingredients."

[Petunia: … I don't have enough of this in-store, but my lab might have some generous amount of spares.]

"I just need a little bit of these and the Energy slimes should be able to multiply its effects," Gem said and prepared herself for the moment of truth.

"Remember, just focus on bringing him to the pool, okay?" Gem said as a reminder to Monica with Petunia translating it before hiding behind the trees and waiting for the wolf to come back to the real world.

"He's here!" Monica muttered to herself and flapped her wings to dive on a lower level, catching the wolf's attention before proceeding to the Mansion.

[Petunia: I don't have chamomile tea.] Petunia chatted after showing Gem all the ingredients that she needs to mix with the Energy slimes in the pool.

"They should have that in the castle, Fily?"

"Okay," Fily responded to Gem's words immediately.

"This better go well," Petunia wished while sacrificing all the ingredients she saved for her own cure.

***

"Mom! We're here to help!" Von shouted from a distance after passing through the mansion and into the front yard where the young wolves were currently being caged at.

"They're… small," Lei muttered after dropping safely to the ground while Von stretched his arms immediately from carrying Lei all alone.

"We're done. What happened to the big wolf you said you were dealing with?" Venedette greeted the two while clapping dirt off her hands.

"Gem's dealing with it," Von said and moved closer to the nine medium-sized wolves contained inside three separate cages with three each.

"Why did you tell me not to kill them? I mean not that I'm going to kill these little wolves mercilessly. Are they those kidnapper wolf's kids?" 

"They're the stolen kids, mom," Von answered Venedette's question while taking pity on the kids in the cage, locked inside a body not their own.

"They are?!" Venedette shrieked in surprise.

"At least that's what Monica, Petunia, and the others were saying." Von shrugged.

"They should be here any minute now," Lei added, which made Venedette less worried about them.

"Are you sure they could deal with that wolf on their own? Why did you even leave them in the first place?"

"Because you told us to help over here!" Von complained to Venedette while also asking the same question himself, "Why did I let them send us back here and leave them on their own?" 

"Should we go back?" Lei offered, which Von immediately agreed to.

"I'll come with you," Venedette said and went ahead of them already.

"Does she even know where to go?"

"There's a reason why we have trackers, Von. Now go, I'll stay here to watch these kids," Lei said and pushed Von to go already.

"Okay, fine," Von said, accepting Lei's courteous offer since he didn't want to carry him anymore.

[Fily: Meet us at the pool with the pups. P.s. Bring chamomile tea.] Fily sent a message directly to Lei.

"Chamomile tea? What for?" Lei asked himself but did what Fily asked anyway.

"Where are you taking those, Sir?" A soldier stood in front of Lei's way while he was carrying two cages at once.

"To the pool. The Princess ordered me to take them to the pool," Lei said respectfully to the soldier and saw him looking in Lord Graham's direction.

"We'll come along." The soldier said after getting confirmation from their boss to escort Lei to the swimming pool while anticipating for the others to arrive as well.

[Fily: We'll bring the big wolf there, please tell them not to kill it.]

[Lei: I think Venedette should do that, she has more influence here.] Lei replied in an awkward tone to which Fily only replied with;

[Fily: You can do it. Go Lei.] obviously taking advantage of the situation to tease him and his introverted personality towards new people.

"Damn you Fily," Lei cursed and took a deep breath to muster up his courage to face his minor fears.

"This is nothing," he whispered to himself before delivering the message to the mansion's personnel and draining his spirit plus confidence, one by one.