Chapter 197 - Stay

Maybe it was because Gem did not know her actual age and only saw her as a mere cat, but that was still a punch in Heize's grace that she tried so hard to keep by being the best in her business.

"I won't do that, okay? As I said, I promised Petunia my cooperation and I'm not someone who backs down on her words."

"Good to hear that, but I still hate you for attempting to replace Petunia with that dumb plan and spreading a werewolf chaos in the nearest town. Did you know that because of what you did there, Petunia sacrificed all of her resources into making that reverse potion that could potentially save her?" Gem asked but Heize could not answer because she just had access to these memories and it was not a good one.

She thought she deserves a beating for it and what other way to get a beating from something bad you caused than getting scolded by a literal child?

"She only needed my Energy slimes back then which I have now, but then, everything else is gone. There's no point anymore, that's why she was so desperate to look for you. She even left her memories just to avoid the tracker that could possibly break our trip because we would prioritize her. You're lucky you're Petunia's friend or else I would have hurt you now by now, witch of the north, so watch your mouth and just do as I said," Gem said with spite that made Heize realize just how special Petunia meant for her.

When all along she thought that these people were just using Petunia for power and fame, there was a hidden bond that she was too stubborn to acknowledge earlier while watching Petunia's memories play inside her head.

Maybe it's because of the fact that Petunia was never the person to get along with just anyone the last time she saw her, Heize thought she was the only person that got Petunia wanting to protect her, and of course, that was just all in the past, but whether Heize would like to admit it or not, Petunia was also the only other person she considered as a friend, aside from those animals that she experimented on every time she'd take on her human form.

"Look, I didn't mean for any of that to happen, but because I'm practically at fault in this one, admittedly so, I would gladly pay for it with a sentence or a punishment if that's what you guys want, but for now I just really want to help Petunia. I am sorry for thinking that I should replace her instead of saving her and I would like to pay for that now," Heize said with all of her heart.

She had been labeled as the ice-hearted witch within this area, but when it comes to Petunia, it was like Heize's heart just stopped freezing and melted just for her.

"Okay, I agree. Let's focus on finding Petunia first and let's stop talking about things. I don't want to talk to you anymore. I don't want to talk to you and I don't want to hurt you yet so don't make me. Keep silent and I will spare you, in the name of your friend," Gem said, still salty about watching Petunia's self-proclaimed 'Best friend' who just betrayed her and getting even more annoyed every time she sees her.

***

Back in the real world, Petunia was still asleep in Poker's arms, and on the other side of the building, the guards were all still confused about what just happened and was happening.

"Calm down everyone. We are really sorry about the commotion that an intruder started, we would like to announce that this intruder has been contained and you're now all freed from her glamour spell that she used to take control over you, so you can go home now and leave the rest of the stuff here up to us. We still have a teammate to find and the commander to search for," Venedette announced to all the confused people that were gathering in the garage area.

When Gem brought Heize inside her Solitude, Heize's glamour just suddenly stopped working, "So that's how she was doing it," Von said while inspecting a very thin silk-like thread that just suddenly appeared in front of them where Heize was just standing earlier.

As it turned out, Heize's fake fur was made of the same spider-like threads all along and this thread was also the medium that Heize used to charm all of those people into working for her.

"Not going to lie though, that must be a lot of hard work. And the silk, it looks so pretty. I wonder how I did not notice this before?" Lei said while inspecting another clump of threads on the floor where Heize just suddenly disappeared from.

"She was using an anti-matter coat which made it invisible as long as it was attached to her," Fily said while picking up a strand of the white silver-like thread that was unbelievably shiny even though it was just like a strand of hair, but thinner and more complex.

"It also had traces of advanced technology that isn't available in Clandamascarene yet. And judging from her choice of location, I think I now understand why she chose this place full of trespassers and illegal vendors of stuff from other countries."

"What kind of advanced technology?" Von asked, seemingly being interested in the technology-silk as well.

"Neurolink, the same thing that Stat-huts use," Fily said and placed the pinch of wires she gathered from that bunch.

"So does this cut her connection to those guards?" Venedette asked.

"Yep, like a puppet master whose strings were cut from their puppets," Fily said with a little bit of sarcasm in her voice to hide the fact that she was threatened by this cat for knowing something she was not allowed to but also glad at the same time for finally having a copy of this thing.

"That's actually cool, I wonder how she was able to keep all of these connections to those people," Von said.

"Well, it's not actually that hard, you just need to make physical contact with them and get their emotions to act up so your thread will go directly to the emotion section of your brain."

"So you mean I also had a string like that on me by the time I believed she was real?!" Lei said and then cleared his throat to hide the sudden burst of emotions that Fily was describing.

"Yep," Von said and picked up a very thin and long string that was connected to his ears and showed it to Lei.

"So that was why I thought there was something tingly inside my brain all along!" Lei said and cleared his throat again.

"Can you take this off?" Lei said and handed the single strand of silk-like material to Fily who only looked at it and whispered something to Von.

"Pull it," she said before ignoring the both of them completely.

"The commander's still gone," Venedette greeted her with the warmest greeting ever the moment she went closer to her.

"Then should we find him?" Fily asked and Venedette nodded enthusiastically like a child.

"We should have asked that cat first about him too but I forgot," Venedette said apologetically and even scratched her head aggressively for believing that it was her fault.

"It's okay, when Gem and that cat finally come back to the real world, I told her to show us her location immediately and ask that cat about where she put the other missing people at. Who knows? Maybe the commander is also there where Petunia was being kept?" Fily said to cheer Venedette up.

"I really hope so, I don't want this crisis to become something worse."

"I hope so too," Fily said and called the two boys out to follow them back into the garage where Venedette just explained everything that she could to the confused people around her.

"So can we leave now or do you need our help to find your teammate and the commander?" one of the guards said, which made some of the people who were already leaving stop on their tracks and pay attention to what Venedette was going to say instead.

"If you don't have any family waiting for you at home or you just really want to help us, then it would be greatly appreciated. We don't have that much time left here in the Alps but I just want to say how very thankful I am for the hospitality you have shown us, we enjoyed the trip-"

"More like on-the-job training, you know?" Von suddenly said to the person beside him which caused Venedette, to pause her speech and continue when the crowd became silent.

"Thank you for your understanding," Venedette said, ending the speech with a very humble remark before waiting for all the people who wanted to leave, leave, and those who wanted to help, stay.