Chapter 186 - Convincing

"Hey, can you forgive me now? I was just giving out my opinion," Fily said and even tried to kick her way out of the chair where she was being tied to but no one was listening to her, nor willing to help.

"Gah, this is so annoying. I hate dealing with these things when I'm awake!" Fily thought to herself before smiling fakely at the strict furry lover female guard in front of her to convince her to believe her words even just a little bit.

"I don't need your opinion," the guard finally responded with a stern voice and slapped a duct tape on Fily's mouth ruthlessly.

"Anyone else wants to talk bad about my Petunia?" the guard said to the crowd watching them while she coiled the excess tape back to its original position.

"No?" she said dismissively and raised her eyebrows to all the people who were just watching them silently. Some agreed with her and some believed Fily's words but just couldn't voice out their opinions freely.

"B-But that's your Petunia's teammate, right? Are you sure it's okay for us to wrap them in a chair just like that? What if Petunia sees this and hates us because of it?" Another female guard who had a softer expression stepped up and said.

"It's fine. I also did this to those two midgets who barged in the door earlier claiming that our Petunia isn't their Petunia. I mean how? How could it be so heartless to say that hurtful thing in Petunia's presence? Imagine being told that you're not the person you claim to be. Isn't that discouraging? Especially coming from your teammates," the angry woman said and even threatened to slap Fily using her forehands before walking away and putting the duct tape back to the toolbox where she found it first.

"Hmm," the kind-looking girl hummed and shrugged before walking away from Fily who had no other choice but to sit quietly and stay inside her little mind palace while waiting for help.

"I wonder where that real collar is… I haven't seen the commander's face among this crowd yet which only means that the fake Petunia brought him somewhere else. But where? And Petunia. She's also not here. I thought they would gather all the people from the precinct here but why is Petunia and that commander not here? What is she planning?"

"Think Fily, think!" Fily closed her eyes and altered her mind palace to be more effective under her control.

***

"Here you go," Lei said and raised the cup of water carefully to help the fake Petunia drink.

"What happened to you?" he asked while watching her drink.

But instead of answering, Petunia only pushed the cup of water away and shook her head to show her discomfort.

"Do you still feel like puking?" Lei asked worriedly while looking around to look for a place or thing that could help with Petunia's sickness.

"I-I'm so glad you recognized me," Petunia suddenly said which made Lei frown.

"And I can't believe Venedette and Fily just stood there and did nothing," he said with an upset tone.

"Why did they do that? Did they say anything about me? Why they don't believe that I'm the real Petunia?" the fake Petunia asked eagerly with wide eyes and immediately looked away to continue her 'weak cat' act.

"They didn't say anything in particular, that's also why I'm confused. Why aren't they saying anything? It's so unfair. And they're even planning to expose you for being a fake Petunia right now. I just don't know why they're so fixated on the thought that you're not really Petunia when you're clearly her," Lei said and shook the negative thoughts out of his head.

"Don't worry, I'll do my best to convince them that you're real and they're wrong," Lei said and flashed a small smile to Petunia to comfort her a little bit.

But in Heize's mind, all she was thinking about was how shameless and stupid this human must be to believe her poor acting skills.

'Now what should I do to make sure this person who claims to be Petunia's friend but failed to recognize her dies on the spot?' Heize thought and glanced at the water dispenser while grabbing her potion dropper from her hidden pocket.

"Are you okay? Why does your voice sound so hoarse? You should also drink water. I think the cold's creeping in your throat and if you don't melt that you may catch a sickness," Heize said and smiled while secretly putting a drop of lethal potion to the cup where she just drank from.

"Really? I don't think my voice is that dry. And besides, that's not important right now. I can sense Venedette from a mile away but her speed can easily catch up to us. I can't conceal our presence any longer, we need to go further-"

"Or back. We should just go back to the garage and tell them the truth. That I'm really Petunia and there's nothing to worry about."

"Except you don't look too good and you're puking rainbows earlier. What happened?" Lei asked, cutting off Petunia's words which annoyed her a little bit.

"That fake Petunia poisoned me. But don't worry, I already drank something to cure it. The cure's just taking too long to counter the poison that my copycat forced me to drink."

"Forced you to drink?! What? How? Why would you drink that?" Lei exclaimed, which weakened the conceal barrier that he was just building around him and Petunia earlier to get away from Venedette's senses.

"Well, she had all the guards under her control. If not for the cleansing mist that I thought of putting inside the air conditioner, we wouldn't be able to get away from that monster's hold and probably still be under her control right now."

"What? That's insane!"

"You know what's more insane? You just let your guard down and revealed your location to me, thanks for that glamour in works, fake Petunia," Venedette said and punched Lei away from the fake Petunia who just suddenly regained all her strength after jumping out of Lei's arms.

"W-What?" Lei said while trying to make sense of what just happened to him.

"You heard that right, Lei. This cat was trying to glamour you so you would believe her lies and help defend her, just like what she did to the female guards back at the garage."

"You're lying! I did nothing of the sort! It was the other Petunia wannabe who did all that! I was just trying to help them by releasing them from that fake's potion!" the fake Petunia said while staying cautious and walking in circles with Venedette around Lei who was still on the floor, confused.

"I don't understand. Why are you doing this, Venedette? Petunia?" Lei said while rubbing his eyes and pushing himself up from the floor.

"I already told you! Petunia isn't supposed to have her memories right now! Not without her collar. But look at this one, she doesn't have the collar yet she could still remember us? Why is that?"

"It's because I have found the cure, Venedette! Do you really think I would leave my collar there and risk losing my memories if I didn't have a plan!?"

"No, don't try to manipulate me too, I can see through your lies, fake cat. You're not Petunia. In fact, you're not even a real cat in the first place," Venedette said and pulled Lei away from her.

"You're so mean! I thought we were a team?!"

"See?! Petunia never does that! Petunia's not the type who acts on pure emotions. And you think you can fool me with that poor acting of yours? You may succeed in looking like Petunia. But you're nothing like her. At least on the inside."

"Wait! I don't understand! I can't make sense of it all! The other cat couldn't even speak, Venedette!" Lei said and turned around from her.

"Exactly! That's one of the symptoms that Petunia is actually suffering from, unlike this cat who's pretending to know it all."

"But Petunia can talk! Petunia is THE talking cat, after all!"

"That's right Lei, tell her what she's not realizing here," Heize said and prepared herself for another hypnotization, this time to Venedette who she sees as her most worthy opponent as of the moment.

Heize knew putting glamour in Lei would cost her a lot of energy, but the energy that it cost her was way more than what she was expecting. And yet Heize just couldn't tell herself to give up, especially with Venedette in front of her, and was willing to listen to her.

It was her ultimate chance to put the leader of Leviathan under her spell too!

'I don't know how much energy I have left and how much this will cost, but after having Venedette under my glamour, I'm sure I'll be able to make the rest of them believe me easily! Then I'll get Petunia's memories and continue her legacy for our family!' Heize said before attempting to glamour Venedette with all that was left of her powers.