Chapter 166 - Priorities

"Okay, thank you for the wonderful story, Elder Song. That should be all for tonight. We have learned a lot thanks to you, I hope we could learn more things about this story tomorrow," Venedette said and stood up while bowing slightly to the rest of the elders who also stood up due to the pressure of Venedette standing up before them.

They were not yet interested in leaving as they still have each of their own theories that they would like to share with Venedette and the kids, but because Gem seemed too uninterested and displeased about the meeting already, Venedette just decided to cut it off and sent the elders outside, saying they should just continue the meeting tomorrow and that these kids should go to bed already.

When the elders were finally out of reach, Venedette went back to the children and saw them arguing with each other about what just happened.

"If only I knew this meeting would have been so boring and useless, I should have just gone outside to look for Petunia. What did we even learn about this silly story aside from a history that's not very important?" 

"How could you say that? It might be from the past already but history is still an important part of truly knowing the present, Gem," Fily said in response to Gem's complaint.

"I agree with Gem here, we should have just gone out to look for Petunia instead of sitting in this room with those old people and hearing their history story. We don't even know if what they're saying is real based on the fact that they're only just blabbering what they heard from their ancestors a long time ago. The story might not have been accurate in most parts because of the way they preserved it through oral tradition," said Lei..

"But still, isn't it a good start that we now know some of the hidden history behind the Salamanders and their Salamandites and the part that these were offerings from Gyu and Ida in exchange for the Phyxies?" Von said, defending his belief along with Fily.

"We don't even know if those stories are true though," Fily whispered to Von which made Von facepalm.

"See? Even Fily's doubting those people's stories. And what are we going to do with these stories anyways? Will it help me feed this? Or would it even help us in finding out how to activate Venedette's Salamandite?" Gem said while pointing at her and Venedette's necklace.

"That's enough, kids. We're here to ask for their help. I'm sure they've got a lot of other things to share with us tomorrow. For now, I don't want you to overstuff your head with all of this information that they just shared with us."

"Useless information," Gem said bitterly and immediately regretted it when she saw Venedette's disappointed face.

But instead of taking back what she said, Gem raised her chin again and opened another topic for their discussion through her question, "How could they help us if they don't even know what the Salamandites are? Or even the book of Salamandite that Fily still hasn't opened yet?"

"Hey," Fily said as she took offense to what Gem said but Venedette held her shoulders to calm her down.

"I understand your concern about prioritizing Petunia, Gem. But just because we didn't prioritize Petunia doesn't mean we don't care about her. We went here for the sole purpose of meeting with the tribes and Petunia going off the grid was not part of the plan. Whether we like it or not, we have a duty to attend this meeting at the designated time and it is Petunia's responsibility to come back to us alive. You must understand that even if things don't go our way, we must fulfill our priority for us to make progress, you understand that?"

"How could you say that?" Gem said in tears after hearing what Venedette just said.

She felt so different from the Venedette that saved Gem on their first meeting.

Sure, Gem was not her priority, but she still saved her. For what? Why couldn't she do the same for Petunia? Why is there a difference between them?

"You're a fighter now Gem, and fighters don't sacrifice their priority for the sake of their teammates. In fact, teammates are usually the ones who would sacrifice themselves for the team just to make sure that they would make progress. I know you're still too young to understand but I hope you can understand my words soon."

"That's a harsh way to put it, Venedette," Fily interrupted, "What Venedette is trying to say is that we should trust Petunia. She didn't go out on her own for no reason after all. She wanted to make progress as much as we do, although there are differences in the way our plans progress, we should just trust each other to do a good job and hope for the better. It is the loss of hope that destroyed our world in the first place, after all," Fily said with a friendly smile which made Gem focus on what she was saying and take each word to her heart, no matter how painful it was to accept.

"Why did you send them out so early, mom?" Von asked out of curiosity and discontent with the amount of stuff he got to learn from the old people while Gem was still busy crying over Fily's shoulders.

"Because they have already told us enough things to come up with a conclusion on our own."

"Conclusion about what?"

"Conclusion of how we could feed Gem's Salamandite," Venedette said as if she was already sure of the thing that was circulating around her mind ever since the old men started mentioning the element Phyxies.

"Let's get to sleep," Venedette added after getting lost in her own thoughts for a moment.

"Where?" Von asked and looked around, looking for doors to their room or even mattresses where they could sleep from but there was nothing.

"Here," Venedette replied, which only made Von's expression even more confused.

"Are we going to sleep on the floor??" Von asked in disbelief while double-checking all the four corners of this slightly warm and comfortable room but even after all his efforts, there were still no mattresses for them to sleep on, even blankets were nowhere to be found.

"Yes, that's the plan."

"What?! That's so… uncomfortable," Von held back his ugly words and decided to use a less harsh word instead for the last sentence.

"Not quite," Lei said after being the first one who laid on the bamboo floor with his back and finding it comfortable.

"Go to sleep. I don't want to hear any more complaints whatsoever. When we wake up tomorrow, we're going to visit the Edelweiss garden and see the biggest frozen Edelweiss variant that was said to have been the oldest living thing in this place, even before Gyu and Ida's second life from being frozen. And then we'll also get to see the cave of Shindeiku where the Salamander's fossils could be found, and last but not least, the lake of Iyuba which is full of frozen liquid Phyxies that glow during the dark. So we should wake up early to see it glow in the morning. Good night, Leviathan," Venedette announced while laying her back at the bamboo floor and feeling the warmth of the underground thermal while her eyes were closed.

Unbeknownst to her, Gem, Fily, and Lei were actually planning on escaping and going out to look for Petunia on their own, since Venedette decided to sleep early and give them more time anyway.

But just before Gem was about to jump off the not-so-high windows, her clothes suddenly held her back and kept her frozen in the air while Fily and Lei both became alarmed by it.

They thought it was just Von since Von was watching them escape earlier, but to their surprise, they saw Venedette holding Gem's back collar in the air and gazing down at them from the room with Von on her side as if he gave them away.

"Ahh, Von is such a traitor," Fily muttered in disappointment while walking back to the entrance of the cabins which made her recall the fact that this place has a second floor and there might be actual rooms in there.

But considering that Venedette caught them planning to escape in the middle of the night to look for Gem, she might not allow them to sleep in their own rooms instead of this huge empty room that they were staying in right now.

"As I've said, we're going to help look for Petunia tomorrow just before our pass to Edelweiss comes to an end, okay?" Venedette said while pretending to be asleep which made Gem's mood even sulkier.

"But that's too long, what if Petunia needs our help right now?" Germ complained even more while throwing a fit on the bamboo floor.

"Just go to sleep and focus on your task, Gem," Von said and shifted his position to look at the wall instead of Gem throwing a fit not far from him.