Chapter 203 - Time

"So, how was your talk with Monica?" Fily asked the moment Petunia finally came back to them with a huge smile on her face.

This time, Venedette was the one talking to Monica now, probably about her family and how she had been all this time. 

And although they were close to leaving and never seeing Monica ever again, the big smile on Petunia's face says otherwise.

"What happened? Why are you smiling like that?" Fily said with a teasing smile to Petunia which made her blush even more.

"N-Nothing! We just talked about funny stuff, that's all," Petunia said and turned Fily around so that she could hide behind her.

Seeing this of course made Gem feel a bitter taste in her mouth, but thinking about how Petunia was attached to Monica and this could be the last time they'll be seeing each other, Gem just chose to keep her thoughts to herself and not be selfish about the situation.

"I'm sure I have plenty of time to play with Petunia and do more memorable things with her, unlike that raven girl," Gem whispered, convincing herself to just let it go and move on.

After all, there's something very important about her relationship with Petunia that Monica doesn't have access to, especially after this moment. Time.

"So, how's the gummy doing?" Petunia said and then peeked behind Fily to the gummy they were all making at the Hospital's warehouse just behind the main building.

It was a decent warehouse where some of the medicine was made and it was the perfect place for them to make the gummy cloud without all the destruction in the main building and while also using the tools that were available there.

Outside the warehouse was an outdoor gathering where patients get to play and hang out in the garden full of luscious flowers and greeneries which was said to be effective in curing their sickness and mental health.

"Did Venedette just really let us stay in here for a bit more before going back home?" Lei, the one doing all the hard work for Fily and Petunia, asked Von who was just chilling with his back on the cold brick wall and his hands inside his pocket while watching him do all the work for Petunia.

"Yeah, she did," Von answered and then looked away as if he was bored.

"She's so friendly, I've barely even talked to her this whole trip. It's like she has friends everywhere in the whole country," Gem said, unintentionally voicing out the other thing that was upsetting her this whole trip.

"Well, that's Princess Venedette for you, she's supposed to be like that. That's what Princesses do," Fily said, which made everybody glance at Von.

"What? I'm not a Princess," he said with furrowed eyebrows before taking in a deep breath to relax again.

"Fair enough," Gem said with a shrug and then proceeded to help Lei with the manual tasks for Petunia's gummy cloud.

Since Petunia was not a cat anymore and Monica coincidentally bought them three times the amount they initially needed to make a normal-sized Gummy cloud, the majority just decided to go with a jumbo-sized Gummy cloud instead with the time and the resources they have.

With Fily as the leader, Gem and Lei as the workers, and Petunia and Von as the bystanders, there's nothing really stopping them from doing it now, especially since Petunia would most likely need it immediately once they arrive back to Yvandir.

"Petunia!! Oh no, I'm going to miss you so much!" Monica said while running towards Petunia for a hug after finishing her discussion with Venedette.

"I know me too. But why the sudden goodbye? Don't tell me you're going to go now?" Petunia said and pouted as if she was upset.

"Noo, I don't want to go yet but Venedette gave me only thirty minutes to tell my dad where I am or I'll never be able to go outside again," Monica whined.

"But I thought your dad was the one who sent you here to deliver this to us?" Petunia said and pointed at the still incomplete Gummy cloud that Gem and Lei were both still busy making.

"Y-Yeah, about that…" Monica said and then received a big but weak punch from Petunia to her shoulders for lying to her.

"You escaped here on your own!? Why didn't you tell me that?!"

"I was going to tell you but I don't want to spoil our fun, I just really wanted to see you, even for the last time. And since you won't be coming back here anytime soon, I don't mind getting locked up in our house for safety purposes anyway," Monica said with a soft smile, "Let's just make this moment last and don't think about anything else, okay?"

"Ugh that was disgustingly cute," Gem said and rolled her eyes before going back to what she was doing to the Gummy cloud.

"You're such a kid," Fily remarked and then took it upon herself to push Monica and Petunia outside the warehouse so they could have that fun that they were just talking about, "Enjoy!" she said before closing in the door before them.

"So, I think we have until sunset to finish that so don't rush, people," Fily said after coming back to Gem and the others while removing the imaginary dust from her hands.

"Yeah, well I want to go back now so give me that, Gem," Von suddenly said and even grabbed the medium-sized spatula away from her so he could do the stirring instead.

"Oh, great then," Fily said and then urged Gem to sit beside her while waiting for the boys to finish.

***

"Snacks, anyone?" Venedette said while peeking inside the warehouse where she saw the four kids snoozing off while waiting for the Gummy cloud to mix on it's own after doing the initial mixing for it.

"Aww, my tired little babies, you should go upstairs and take a rest before we proceed back to the yacht. I'll just have to watch this from here, right?" Venedette carefully said to Fily who was the only one conscious enough while sleeping to hear her.

"Uhuh," Fily mumbled while scratching her neck, "Where's Petunia?" she added before going back to sleep.

"She's at the lobby waiting for Monica's dad," Venedette said and proceeded to carry the kids carefully to the bedrooms upstairs in pairs.

"Sleep well," she said and then took the whole giant bowl of Gummy cloud to the Yacht in preparation for their departure from the north side of Clandamascarene.

"I'm so glad we made a lot of progress on this trip, especially for you and Petunia. I just hope you'll grow to be strong warriors for the next six years so you can survive there on your own, especially after that new rule that they were implementing which will prevent me from joining as a participant. I'm really sorry," Venedette muttered to herself after placing Gem on her bed and then left with bulging tears in her eyes, afraid of what would happen if the rumored rule was implemented before the games start.

"Venedette isn't allowed to participate in the games anymore?" Gem repeated in a halfly-asleep manner while trying her best to get up, but since she was very tired from all of the things that had happened in the past days, she laid back and unknowingly fell to sleep again, pushing the important thought down into the abyss of her imagination and unconsciousness instead of thinking about it more. 

***

"When do you think that rule will be implemented?"

"The winners have a right to change the rules of the game so I think they'll push for that to happen before the next game starts."

"And by then we'll have no choice but to obey."

"That's so unfair! Why would anyone agree to that?"

"Well it's not actually unfair, they will probably make it look like they're just trying to balance the game to make it more appealing to the judges."

"And we can't do anything about it?"

"No, we can't," Venedette said in the middle of her politician friends in the north's conversation, "I'm sure the queen will do her best to stop this from happening but the other countries might have to agree with this new rule."

"Especially since the last two winners of the games had high-ranking officials in their teams," a young politician who was a stranger to them suddenly said while making his entrance down the stairs.

"Greetings, Princess. My name is Gideon Villanueal. I was sent here to have a talk with you as the representative of the Anais guild, so if you don't mind, can I have a little bit of your time, please? I believe our teams have a reason to support each other in the games, especially since we came from the same country, after all," he said in a very formal and respectful manner which made Venedette speechless.

"S-Sure, lead the way," she said and excused herself from the crowd, "This is the first time our guild was approached for a partnership, you know?" she said while feeling her loud heartbeat against her chest for being nervous about something after a very long time.