'It better be best to pretend I don't know what a spirit contract is...' Plutia thought.
"Aie. This is sad, how do you not know what a spirit contract is." Nicole said.
"I-I've never heard of it before..." Plutia said as she looked dejectedly somewhere else.
"Ah! I didn't mean it that way Plutia! I just meant that the school already covered this subject for us so it was weird for us to hear someone that doesn't know what a spirit contract is." Nicole hurriedly said as she tried to console Plutia.
"Right guys?!" Nicole asked the group as her eyes hinted them to agree.
"""Yes!""" The entire group said in unison afraid of what would happen if they didn't listen to Nicole. Nevertheless they did actually learn about the spirit contract in school so it wasn't really a lie.
Ben looked at the group with a grin on his face as he stroked his white beard. He looked at the group and then looked at Nicole.
'She must've been a really great leader if they're all listening to her.' He thought.
Ben then looked at Plutia with a analyzing gaze. He looked at her from top to bottom and from her dejected face when being consoled by Nicole.
'Aah... Just who's princess is this? She's acting so spoiled but she's cute at the same time. I guess that's what makes everybody want to protect her.' He gave a quick analysis about Plutia.
'If she makes a spirit contract with that black cat she'll have a guard even if she's away from the group. If she doesn't want to I'll try my best to encourage her. However from the looks of it she's really fond of the cat... Almost like she's obsessed...' Ben thought narrowing his eyes after he said the word 'obsessed'.
"Hey Plutia! Are you even listening to me? Please don't ignore me! I'm said I was sorry already!" Nicole shook Plutia's shoulder as she begged for Plutia's attention.
"Awawawawa please stop shaking meeee." Plutia begged Nicole.
"I won't until you accept my apology!"
"I accept, I accept it! So please, stop shaking me already!"
Nicole then finally let go of Plutia.
"Uuu~" Plutia with tears in her eyes that almost spilled when Nicole was shaking her back and forth.
"U-um it wasn't intentional... I swear on my life!" Nicole hurriedly explained to Plutia that she didn't mean to shake Plutia like that when she saw the tears in Plutia's eyes.
'''Oh my... This again...''' Everyone thought as they recalled the other time Nicole made her nearly cried and ended up apologizing to her.
"P-please stop crying little Plutia... I-if you're going to keep crying I don't think the black cat will want to make a spirit contract with you..." Nicole deliberately tried to find a random reason to make Plutia calm down.
Plutia when she heard this tried her best to keep her tears in. She then looked at the black cat with her eyes still wet and asked him in a sad tone, "Will you leave me if I cry?"
"Meow meow!" He replied.
(Of course I won't! Why would I?)
"Laura translation please?" Nicole said as she turned her gaze towards Laura with a sinister look in her eyes indicating she should play along with her.
"U-uhm, he said he would leave you if you cried..." Laura who saw Nicole's gaze shrunk a little and lied to Plutia.
"MEOW!" The black cat said as it shook its head side to side while looking at Plutia.
(She's lying! Don't believe her little girl!)
"Y-you'll leave me if I cry?" Plutia's voice started breaking as tears started forming at the rims of her eyes again.
'''Lord, its happening again.''' Everyone once thought again.
"Sister, don't you think that's enough? If you continue to make her cry I don't think she'll ever like you again and will probably avoid you." Brian said while looking at Nicole with a disapproving look.
"B-but brother! I-I was just trying to help her! She's the one that is always crying!" Nicole replied back while pointing her finger at Plutia who is looking at the black cat with a pained expression.
After Nicole said that she then turned to look back at Plutia's pained expression.
'Gulp'
'W-what have I done... I-if she d-doesn't l-like me a-anymore w-what will I do... We are all in this party together. I can't have her hate me otherwise we won't be able to work together... And if she hates me I-I don't think I'll ever be able to have a girls talk with her...' Nicole panicked as she thought to herself.
"Uuuuu..."
Plutia at this point actually had tears rolling down her cheek as she thought of the black spirit cat leaving her.
"""Ah!!!!! Don't cry little Plutia!""" Everyone said as once as they rushed towards Plutia to start comforting her.
"Wahhh!" Plutia started to cry loudly as she hugged the black spirit cat so it never could leave her and she curled up in a ball on the bed with her eyes closed as more tears gushed out of her eyes.
Laura finally exposed the truth of what the black spirit cat said.
"P-Plutia, it was a lie! The black cat said that he would not leave you even if you cried."
"R-really? *sniff sniff*" Plutia asked with her eyes wet and tear stains on her face as she looked up towards Laura.
"Really! Ask him yourself." Laura said as she gestured towards the cat.
*Nod*
"Meow."
(I really did say that, I even shook my head but you were already crying.)
"O-okay. Don't ever leave me please." Plutia said as she tightly hugged onto him as she stopped herself from crying.
"Meow."
(I won't leave you.)
"A-alright, once you've calmed down I'll explain to you the process of spirit contract." Laura said as she handed Plutia a handkerchief.
"U-un, I'm calm. So how do you make a spirit contract?" Plutia said as she accepted the handkerchief from Laura's hand and wiped her eyes.
"The process to making a spirit contract is a name and the contractors blood." Laura said.
"Blood!?" Plutia exclaimed in fright because she didn't really like getting harmed even though in her mind she thought, 'Ah... I really don't want to make this contract even though I knew beforehand that I needed to get my blood...'