Chapter 36 - Upgrade

After dinner, I grabbed Fily to her room quickly without a word to Sir Grand or anybody else so that I could talk to her about what just happened back there.

"What was that??" I confronted her with a big question mark on my face.

"Nothing." She giggled which made me more suspicious of her.

"Fily!!" I was practically begging her to confess but she would always brush me off and run to the other side.

"You really thought I liked the first Prince?" She laughed at me even more which made me blush of embarrassment.

"I don't know! You were red… and… I thought… you- you just looked like someone who's in love!" I accused her with a pout.

Fily went closer to me, held my face with both of her hands and gently rubbed her cheek with mine..

"What do you know about love, Gem?" She muttered with her sweet voice that melted my fake anger once more.

"I don't know." I confessed to her.

I've only known about love since the maids in the manor were always talking about it but honestly, I knew nothing of it.

"Then let's leave it at that for now." She caressed my hair as she embraced me, facing the full moon from her window.

The following day was quite lively. Summer was approaching fast and so the sun was brighter each day.

"Goodmorning Gem!" Venedette was the one who woke me up at 7 a.m.

She brought me gifts and new books from the Jungle biome.

"Vendette!" I greeted her excitedly with a hug.

Thankfully, Venedette did not catch up to what we were talking about yesterday in the chatroom for Leviathan.

Fily was the one who came up with an excuse saying, "We were having a girl's night in my room yesterday," which isn't totally a lie since that was exactly what we really did after dinner.

We just intentionally left out the part that we were actually talking about her husband, the First Prince, and of course, it was clear to me now that Fily did not have a crush on him. She told me it was just a slight admiration, the same kind that I was feeling towards Venedette.

Crush, admiration.

So that was the meaning of having a crush all along!

I also tried to ask Fily more about love but she said that the topic was complicated and so another lesson for another day (or weekend) from Fily!

"Ahh, I'm so glad to be back!" Venedette laid on my bed as I rummaged through the gifts that she had brought for me.

"What are these Venedette?" I showed her a piece of stretchy fabric from one of the paper bags that she had brought home.

"Oh, that? That's a swimsuit." She said as she laid back to my bed after taking a look at what I was holding.

It was a one-piece dark blue stretchable fabric that had five holes and a design on the front saying 'Leviathan'.

"Wait. Is this going to be our costume!?" The words blurted out my mouth as I extended my hold on it in front of the mirror.

"Huh? That's just a swimsuit," I was relieved for a moment after hearing Venedette's answer to my question but then she added, "actually that's a good idea!" which made me slap myself in front of her for giving her a bizarre idea.

"What?" She made fun of my face that was on the verge of crying after hearing her 'idea'.

"Oh! By the way, I also bought you ponytails!" She said excitedly which shifted my attention from the stretchy dress.

"Here." She handed me a bunch of rubber bands with designs that I accidentally thought were bracelets at first.

"Like this?" I showed her my arm that was filled with all the decorated rubber bands that she gave me but she shook her head and took two from my arms.

"Like this." Venedette made me sit on the bed, facing the mirror as she was kneeling behind me, combing and fixing my hair with ponytails.

"Tada!!" She exclaimed after tying my long yellow hair into two high pigtails.

I tried to stand up to take a closer look at myself in the full-length mirror but then she stopped me saying, "Wait! I'm not yet done," and so I patiently waited for her to finish what she was doing since she looked like she was having fun with it.

I observed Venedette's maroon eyes as they shone with excitement just by playing with my hair. Does she like playing with my long hair so much?

"Okay, I'm done." She announced as I examined the braids, stars, flowers, and other kinds of decorations that she put on my hair.

"Isn't it pretty?" She flexed it even more and I couldn't help but agree with her.

"It is. Thank you, Venedette." I looked at her with a smile which made her even happier.

"Now what time is it? It's already 8 am? Oh no." Venedette panicked and then brought me with her outside my room.

"You haven't had breakfast right? Go to our meeting room after breakfast. I need to take care of something real quick." She smiled at me and then left hastily.

"Ahh, I almost forgot about the cat." I heard her mutter to herself before I decided to go to Fily's room and invite her with me for breakfast but she was already gone so I just ate breakfast on my own.

I arrived at the library at 8:30 and apparently, I was the last person that they were waiting for.

"Gem!" Fily greeted me and removed the pillows beside her, indicating that I should sit there.

I looked around and found Von floating in the air beside Lei who was sharpening his black stars.

What could be the agenda for today's meeting and what are these two non-members doing here?

I looked away after seating beside Fily when Lei suddenly looked at me, probably sensing that I was looking at them.

"Gem you're here." Venedette finally noticed my presence after being busy with her small tablet.

"Please take her here." I heard her say to the small glass tablet and after a few minutes, the door to the library was opened and two guards carrying a cat went inside our meeting room.

"Venedette!" The cat talked and jumped carelessly from the guard's hold to Venedette.

"Petunia!" Venedette welcomed the cat with a hug while I raised my feet from the floor out of instinct when the cat ran past me.

"A t-t-t-talking cat?" Fily stuttered which woke up Von from his flying sleep and looked at Fily like she was a crazy person.

"What do you mean a talking cat?" He snarled at her and furrowed his brows after seeing Venedette hugging a fluffy silver cat with a purple collar and a silver bell.

"She called her Petunia," I whispered to Fily who was still shocked about the talking cat.

"I know." She answered after a delay.

*ding!

[Notification: A new member has joined the guild Leviathan.]

"There we go." I heard Venedette talking to the cat as she guided its paws to press on something.

Don't tell me…

[Guild: Leviathan]

[Leader: Venedette Lorestifa]

[Members: Gem, Fily Dela Cruz, *New* Petunia Scholivia]

"Ven…" Fily could not believe it either.

"T-the cat…" I stuttered as I looked back and forth from my Stat-hut to Venedette and the cat who was looking at us innocently.

"A cat? Seriously?" Von was trying to suppress his laugh but was caught off guarded when the cat talked back at him.

"Yes I'm a cat, so what? By the way the name's Petunia. Nice to see you all, nyann."

And with that, we had a new member.

"Why aren't you two joining the guild?"

"Wait is this some kind of joke? How are you going to win with a cat-"

"The cat has a name and it is Petunia." The cat cut Von's speech.

"Oh okay. Ehem as I was saying…" I stopped listening to Von's mumbles when I realized how the cat- or Petunia managed to make Von say 'okay'.

Like… That's probably weirder than the fact that we have a cat on our guild, let alone Von and Lei have still not accepted the invite to join the guild from Venedette.

"-Does that make sense!? And how do you expect us to join a guild with a cat-"

The atmosphere suddenly changed when Von stopped talking.

Petunia was suddenly flying in Von's eye level and her large green eyes were undeniably demanding for dominance, her green aura filling the room with her chilly presence.

She is not just a normal cat. That's for sure.

"Like I said. The cat has a name and it's Petunia." She grilled the words into Von's mind and the mood went back to normal when she went back to Venedette's table in a purple cloud.

The purple cloud actually looked vibrant and jelly-like instead of an actual cloud that is made of evaporated water. It even had a glowing yellow moon and stars inside it.

"Von sit down. Let me introduce you all to Petunia, she's going to be a key member for our guild to upgrade." Venedette announced after that breath-taking demonstration of power from Petunia.