Chapter 204 - Back Again

"They're still asleep? Please wake them up boys," Venedette said upon landing their Levi-yacht back to its pod on Yvandir.

"Don't forget to turn off the lights, okay? And don't play with the controls. Just wake them up and shut the yacht down. I just need to do something real quick, do I have your word boys?"

"Yes, mom,"

"Of course, Princess," Von and Lei said before seeing Venedette take off the Levi-yacht.

"Should we really wake them up?" Von asked and then looked back, only to see Lei already on his way to the rooms on the second floor to wake the girls up.

"Lei! Wait!" Von said and then flew hastily in front of Lei to stop him, "Let's not wake them up just yet," Von said and even moved to catch Lei's eyes that were ignoring him.

"Please?" he added and then kneeled down which finally caught Lei's attention.

"Please what?" he said while sitting down due to his habits of not being used to Von being on the same level as him..

"Let's leave them to sleep for a few more minutes before leaving the yacht, please?" Von said which made Lei sigh.

"Fine," Lei said and then turned around to sit on the couch instead while waiting for Von's permission to wake the girls up."

"Yes," Von whispered with a victory pose after successfully convincing Lei to do what he wanted.

"I just need to finish that 100th level and I'll never play this game again," Von said before sneaking down to the entertainment room to play with the VR again.

***

"Huh? Why is it so dark outside?" Petunia said after waking up and noticing her windows not refracting any light from the outside.

"Is it nighttime?" she further inquired before putting the purple collar on her neck and looking at the time from it.

"But it's still 3 pm?" Petunia said and then looked at the window again with concern etched on her face, a little bit worried about what was happening and why the sun was already out when it was still just 3 in the afternoon.

Slowly, she made her way to the doors and found herself still inside the Yacht with Lei just chilling on the sofa on his own.

"Hey," she whispered to the napping Lei.

And when he did not respond, Petunia even moved carefully down the stairs, just in case something bad happened to them on the way or if they were attacked and invaded by another spaceship or something.

"Lei? What's happening?" she whispered after stepping on the couch Lei was sleeping on and still keeping cautious about her surroundings.

"Lei?" she then whispered aggressively this time, since Lei was not responding to her soft calls.

But instead of Lei waking up, Petunia suddenly felt a presence coming from the kitchen, and when she looked at it, she ended up having a staring contest with Von whose eyes couldn't believe what he just saw.

"Why are you creeping up to Lei?" Von asked awkwardly with a glass of milk in his left hand and the VR helmet in his other hand.

"Y-You're wrong?! I'm not creeping up to Lei!" Petunia suddenly said in a very defensive tone which immediately woke Lei up.

"What? What happened?" Lei said and removed the dust in his eyes from that short nap before finally noticing Petunia sitting like a dog beside him, making him flinch and move away from her in an instant.

"Noo! I was just going to ask what happened and why is it black outside?!" Petunia said in a defensive tone again, almost making her cry for not knowing how to deal with the situation as of the moment where these two boys were glaring at her as if she had just done something wrong.

A minute later, Petunia suddenly noticed Lei shifting his glare to Von who then immediately moved away from him.

"What?" he said and stood up as if nothing just happened.

"This is all your fault, why did you even want to stay here on the yacht when we're already here on the island?" Lei said with an intention to punch Von on the shoulders, but because he was holding a glass of milk on that shoulder, Lei just chose to calm down and not proceed with the punch that he was planning.

"Wait, what did you just say? We're already here on the island? Yvandir? Did I just hear that right?" Petunia said, further proving her reason earlier about just wanting to ask about the timeline by basically ignoring the two's look at her with suspicion.

"Yes, and can you just dress properly first?" Lei said and let out a deep sigh before going to the closet under the stairs for an appropriate change of clothes for Petunia who was just wearing Venedette's lingerie due to her strong objection about wearing pajamas last night.

"Oh, so that was why," Petunia said when she finally realized why Von and Lei were looking very uncomfortable near her earlier.

It was because of the very short and very thin black dress spaghetti-strapped that she was wearing through her whole sleep earlier.

"Where's Venedette?" Petunia asked when Von was already preparing to leave which made him stop on his tracks for a moment.

And without even looking at her, he answered, "She had something very important to do so she left us here to wait for the three of you to wake up so we can finally go back to the castle.

"Oh, so we can go back to the castle now?" Petunia asked and was surprised when Lei just threw something big and heavy at her.

"Hey! What's this-" Petunia asked and then the moment her hands sank inside the big thing, she immediately recognized what it was and embraced it dearly.

"My giant Gummy cloud!" she said with overflowing emotions, not even wanting to put the drooping cloud away from her face just so she could hide how touched she was for receiving something very beautiful from her friends just right after that trip.

But still, because it was the result of her friend's hard work, Petunia gathered all her power so she could put her unstable emotions aside for the meantime and said, "Thank you very much," to them before finally sobbing alone and quietly inside that big balloon of happiness for her.

"Hhuh," Lei only said and shrugged before proceeding to go upstairs after his little nap was disturbed so he could wake the others up already and go back to the palace where they could get enough rest for the day.

Von, on the other hand, sneaked his way inside the entertainment room immediately while Petunia was still sobbing on her own, "I can't leave this yacht without finishing this level," he said before proceeding to gulp all of the milk in his glass in one drink and put the VR gear on his head so he could play again.

"Petunia!!! Did you like it?!" Fily excitedly said while going down the stairs, "What is she doing?" she then added after seeing Petunia unmoving inside the giant Gummy cloud that they created for her.

"Petunia?" Gem said and moved closer to Petunia with a want to knock on her head like a door if she did not answer.

And after a few minutes of hearing nothing but Petunia's sobs, Gem finally lost her patience and knocked Petunia's head softly three times, forcing Petunia to remove the giant blanket around her head and glare at Gem like she just did something deserving of death.

"Why could you do that?!"

"Oh, I thought you were already dead in there," Gem said with a bit of sincerity in her words which Petunia did not believe.

"Hmph!" Petunia said and pouted with cross arms before receiving a pat on the head from Gem.

"But anyway, what are we still doing in the yacht if we are all already awake anyway?"

"Gem's right, I want to go back and see my pet now! I'm not a human person so it's a little bit uncomfortable for me to call him my pet anymore but I still want to go check on him now!"

"Then why don't you use this to go back to the castle already?" Gem suggested with her arms around Petunia's little shoulders and also while pointing at her giant gummy cloud.

"Hmm, maybe I should do that?" Petunia asked and looked at Fily and Gem for confirmation.

"Or, we could've just flown there already if we had a flight, you know?" Lei said, obviously very excited about the flight potion when Petunia already made it clear that they will do it soon, making Petunia roll her eyes at Lei for being impatient.

"We're going to do that soon, okay? Let's just take a rest, for now, I think we all deserve to take a break from this exhausting trip, right?" Petunia said and hugged her gummy cloud to try and see if she could control it without having the same level of skills that she had back when she was still a cat.

"Okay, I think we'll have to walk," Petunia said.

"Or run, do you want to race with me back to the castle, Lei?" Gem said energetically, starting a challenge that she thought was going to be easy by the amount of energy and energy slimes she had from that whole trip.

"Sure," Lei said, giving in to her challenge since it could be his only and final chance to prove his speed without the benefits from the flight potion yet.