10 Attention

I spent the whole day lying in bed, not that I have a choice because my whole body hurts so much. It felt even more painful than the burns I experienced in that fiery border!

How is that possible? I don't know.

I just woke up after sleeping for 12 hours but was still bedridden.

They say my muscles are all very strained and that it was one of the most common side effects of flying. But I'm not the one who flew. I just got carried by Von. I wonder how he's doing now?

They weren't even able to bring him back to the castle because he collapsed here and is in even more pain than me. Overexerting himself like that. I'm glad he got what he deserves.

But this still hurts!

I remembered something in the back of my mind.

"Hey, gemstone! Can't you cure me?" I asked as my hand held it tightly.

It's not responding. I tried talking to it some more but it won't respond!

"Shall I throw you off the cliff again?" And talking about the cliff, they actually moved me into another room. I don't know which room but judging from the outside of the balcony, I think it's just beside my old room.

But wow~

The mood is totally different! It's much cleaner here and the walls don't look like stone bricks. Instead, it has this smooth texture and light green color that resembles my gemstone that won't talk to me.

There's no window on the right side of the bed, just tables and couches that fit the color of the room so perfectly.

And the window to the balcony, dissipating the light into much softer lighting! This feels like heaven... again.

Right... I felt like I've been to heaven... Where was that?

The gemstone! I wonder what other power it holds? And why does it help me at random times?

Especially when I'm about to die...

It doesn't want me to die...

But why?

Why won't it talk to me when I'm fine? And why couldn't it heal me completely like the last time?

I've got so many questions but there's no point in asking them here, now.

No one knows the answer to my questions. Only me, Venedette, and her family might have some clues.

I guess it's a good idea to live in the castle too.

I may be able to find the clues there...

"If only the gemstone would just tell me everything." I sighed so loudly that I didn't realize the door was opening until I saw a girl with big boobs leaning towards me.

"You're awake," she was wearing a white short and sleeveless dress with stripes of red in the ends, and a little cap with a red cross plastered in it, carrying the same gold tray that Venedette carried with her back then.

"W-who are you?"

"I'm the nurse here, now go drink your medicine," she said, handing me a small bowl of slightly gold liquid and a blue shiny pill.

I looked at her skeptically. This is medicine? Which one is the medicine?

I didn't get the time to ask her because she shoved them both in my mouth immediately upon realizing that I can't move. She put the pill first so I munched on it.

My face scowled when the taste registered in my tastebuds.

'It's so bitter!!'

"Oh my! Why did you chew!?" I was as shocked as her when she said that. She then quickly put the small bowl in front of my mouth which I thought was meant for me to sip on it.

But the golden thing did not make things better! It tasted just as acrid as the pill! If not, it made the bitter taste even stronger not just in my tongue but my whole body also felt the screeching sensation from it!

"That's tea.." the girl panicked upon seeing me almost cry. "I... should I get something sweet... Don't cry, it'll help you recover soon..." She tried to woo me but it was already too late.

I was already crying my heart out for that whole day.

But she was right, the medicine did help me recover sooner than I thought it would.

At least sooner than Von who was still bedridden inside the room beside Lei's.

I went to visit him today. It's day 4 and Venedette still hasn't come back, I guess she really went somewhere very far...

Thankfully, Von woke up the day after the incident. But he hadn't talked to me ever since. Every time I visit him, he either ignores me or casts me out of the room.

He's really rude. Maybe that's why his face turns red every time he sees me? He won't even look at me.

Is he that sorry and ashamed of being an a-hole to me these past few days?

I don't know. I just focused even more on trying to talk to my gemstone- who was very unresponsive and kinda like ignoring me. Was it upset? What did I do?? How do I talk to this!??

I've got so many questions! And I need answers so badly!

"Venedette please come back." I wished in the air, feeling like I wanted to cry like a baby again.

I used to only care about survival and didn't need to think about anything else, but now that I started having many questions, I felt like I entered a different level of life!

I am hungry.

I so need answers and food!

***

"Venedette!" I exclaimed, finally after five days of misfortunes and enduring the annoying phase of having no answers to my questions, the only person who I can trust finally came back! But she was carrying another girl in her arms.

"Who's that, mom!?" Von approached them.

Now I feel like I can understand why Von was so aggressive to me. This was how it felt all along, seeing your favorite person taking care of someone else. I felt a pang in my chest when I saw Venedette smiling at the girl with the most adorable smile ever and I noticed Von beside me making the same disgusted face like mine.

"Von, Gem! What happened to you!? I'm so glad you're okay." Venedette finally paid attention to us, but then after saying those words, she immediately went back to the girl on the sofa and completely forgot about our existence here!

Just when I thought my day was going to be better with Venedette here, it got even worse just because of that girl! 

She was so in need of attention that Venedette had to take care of her the whole day! She didn't even answer any of my questions because she had no time to do so!

The girl was not even hurt anywhere! She was just over-dramatic and a sleepy-head!

When Venedette asked us to gather in the living room, I thought she would finally be able to pay attention to us or more particularly to my questions, but she was still all about that girl! 

I mean, what's the point of calling us if she will just take care of the girl in front of us? Was that her intention all along? To make us watch this disturbingly thick girl being taken care of by her?

I haven't even got the chance to know the girl personally but for some reason, I hate her already. Her interactions with Venedette are so annoying to watch! She feels like a very important person for Venedette and yet she acts like the most disabled child ever.

"Good news everyone! We can go back to the palace now, Halma made a deal with me. In exchange for taking in Gem, I was given the task of taking this cute angel here too with us in the castle! Isn't that great!?" she said and patted the girl's head that was laying on her legs while the rest of her body was laying on the sofa.

Now I can't help but wonder, can't she move? Is her body too heavy? Or was she too weak to move her body? Because ever since she came here, she was just laying either on the sofa or in Venedette's arms!

After Venedette's announcement, I felt someone glaring at me so I looked back and found Von, still with his permanent scowl but now I think it looks worse than his usual scowl.

"What?" I frowned back at him and he just gave me a 'tss' before disappearing.

Does he think it was my fault that this new girl is going to come in between him and his mommy like what he accused me of doing, and it was also because of me? 

It's not like I wished for this to happen… If only he knew how much I would like it if this girl never appeared in our lives. Especially to Venedette…

But hey, at least she's happy. She had been smiling at that girl ever since she came here and her smile was just… different. It felt brighter than usual.

Was this girl a good news for us? Definitely not. But if Venedette is happy, then so am I. I am happy for her. I should be happy for her. If only my heart would stop hurting… I guess I can't lie to myself that well.

"Venedette, can I talk to you now?" I tried to approach her. And although she was still having a conversation with the girl, the girl smiled at her and at me, giving me one of those bright smiles that she was showcasing to everybody to entice them ever since she came here with Venedette.

"Sure, just give us a little moment, Fily." Venedette said to the girl before coming with me outside of the manor.

"You know when I heard about what happened to you two from my intel, I became so worried that I almost rushed to fly back here just to make you guys safe. But the news came to me too late. She said you two were both fine now and there was nothing to worry about so I continued with my mission to bring that other fellow back here with me, on the orders of the Queen!" she overshared again until we reached the small table in the manor garden.

"The gemstone talked to me." I started, "But that was it. I can't get it to talk to me again ever since Von saved me. It was like, it would only respond to me when I'm in trouble or when I'm on the verge of death!"

"Scary… But what did you say? It talked to you... So it can talk? Just like our stat-huts? That's awesome! So what did it say?" 

"It said sorry. For not being able to protect me. It concluded that we were going to die from that fall and there was nothing it could do to help me but then Von stepped in. The gemstone then helped save Von so he could save me from that fall. I don't understand what exactly happened that time but I guess I have a connection with it. It felt weird but it was there." I said in full detail.

And as much as I didn't want to admit that Von saved me from that fall, there was just no explanation for what he did there. And it was his fault it happened in the first place, so I could just take that as his action to fix up his mess.

"My son is now saving people. That's such good news to me!" she misinterpreted my words again, skipping the important details so I had to go again.

"What do I do now? I'm confident I can make it talk to me again but I just don't know how… Maybe I can ask the gemstone how to activate yours so we can finally make progress!"

"Well, about that…" Venedette trailed off. "My necklace had actually been confiscated by Halma until I could prove that you are not dangerous and the gemstone was the real cause of that Supolice's death," she said like it was not a big deal.

"But-" I tried to reason with her but there was nothing I could say.

"But instead, we have this!" She tried to recover the conversation by bringing out a heavy golden book from her jacket's pocket and slamming it on the table for a dramatic effect

"Tada!" she exclaimed excitedly.

The book was the same book that Von picked up from the mountain's caves and deyum, it was heavier and shinier than the last time I saw it!

"What about it?" I asked, since the title was written in an alien language, I didn't think it would be more of a help to us other than her gemstone necklace.

"Turns out, the book was about our necklaces all along! Well, that was according to her at least… She can read the contents of this book from where it was written." she said, referring to the girl inside the manor in our field of view since the door to the living room was open.