Chapter 107 - Gossips

"What is happening?" Von asked in confusion to himself after being dropped by Yorela on the ground unintentionally for being attacked by Sir Grand.

"Von! Are you there?" Lei asked while trying to get his hands behind him out of the shackles that were preventing him from taking off the blinds in his eyes.

Similarly, Von was having a hard time guessing the situation himself, aside from the uncanny feeling of being surrounded by thousands of people that was almost as if they were pushing him farther to Lei and the Crone, Von had no idea if these people were his enemies or if they were just normal people whom he could ask for help. But nonetheless he still tried to ask for their help by giving them the benefit of his doubt.

"Help! Somebody help get these things off!" he said pertaining to the strong shackles on his hands while flinching from every touch he would receive from those people.

"Wait, is the Prince really asking for our help?" 

"Could this gimmick be real and that granny really kidnapped Von and Lei?"

"I don't know! For now let's just help them get out of those shackles!" the people said simultaneously and went to work immediately.

"Von!! Can you hear me?!!" Lei shouted desperately while kicking everyone that tried to get close to him.

The Crone, on the other hand, was getting mobbed by the same people who found Yorela's body splitting disgusting but also fascinating.

"Did you really kidnap the Prince?"

"Could you also do that?"

"Do you also have wings? Why don't you use it instead?" the people bombarded her with questions while still taking pictures that smelled like torture for the poor old Crone already.

"Ahh!" Von shouted when people suddenly held his shackles.

"Don't worry we're trying to help." One of them said and did his best to break the shackles on Von's wrists while the other person tried to remove Von's blindfold.

"T-Thank you." Von said and stood straight from his embarrassing position while the normal island people whom he asked for help just smiled at him. 

"No worries little Prince. We're always at your service." The guy who removed his shackles said with a shy smile. "Can we take pictures with you?" he added while scratching the back of his head.

"S-Sure." Von said hesitantly and posed for an awkward picture with them before looking for Lei who was also being mobbed by the audience but unlike Von, Lei was now on stage with a lot of fangirls eyeing and asking for his photograph every second.

Lei is really a famous person on this island, huh? Even more famous than the Prince whom he was dedicated to protecting with his whole life on the line.

"Lei! What are you doing there?" Von tried to catch his attention but Lei's attention was very far from him, particularly to the poor old Crone whom he thought would have Von beside her.

Since Von and Lei were both moved by the crowd away from that creepy old Crone, Lei had a harder time finding Von amongst the loud and rowdy crowd especially since Von was the only child being lost in a crowd full of big and tall adults.

Even from the stage, Lei still had a hard time looking for Von which he thought should naturally still be beside the Crone who was now also being mobbed like a main attraction in this event.

"Lei!" Von called even more while moving towards him but was interrupted when Fily patted his back while catching her breath at the same time.

"Gosh, you are so hard to find." Fily complained and attempted to pull Von to Lei but Von removed her hold from his wrist.

"What are you doing, you traitor?" Von said indifferently while wiping his wrist like Fily's touch had some sort of bacteria with it.

"What? Oh, that was all part of the plan, silly!" Fily said and laughed but Von didn't find it a laughing matter at all which made him even more upset.

"Who knows what kind of betrayal would you do to me again? Go away." Von said with a straight face and went ahead of Fily to Lei against the crowd, thankfully Lei already saw them and was on his way to meet with them halfway.

"Von!!! I'm sorry! I didn't mean it! We just really needed the two of you to be captured for the plan to work!" Fily explained in between her tired breathing every now and then while also pushing through against the crowd but Von was still not convinced of her intentions.

"Did mom know what you did to us?" Von asked which left Fily quite stunned.

"Now that is a tricky question." Fily muttered subconsciously while trying to formulate the best answer in this situation.

And when she looked up to finally answer, Von was already gone in the sea of crowd that was looking weirdly at Fily like she was some sort of an odd unwanted person in the group.

"They left me. They left me!!" Fily shouted in frustration without paying attention to the number of people looking weirdly at her after remembering her efforts of traveling as fast as she could from the castle to this village in the outskirts just to help keep them both safe.

"Are you lost?" a guy amongst the crowd asked Fily out of concern but Fily only frowned at him.

"I'm not a kid!" Fily groaned before taking a deep breath and calming herself down. "Thank you for the concern but I am not lost," she said calmly before flashing her signature smile to the people who almost recognized her with it.

"Isn't that the famous Maharlika under the Princess' care? Along with the outsider?" a girl asked the person beside her which started another gossip that followed Fily until she finally got out of that crowded place.

"Does that mean the Princess is also here? I mean the Prince is here along with Lei and the first Prince too, and now that Maharlika girl?"

"The event is for the Queen in the first place so I wouldn't even be surprised if the Queen comes here herself."

"Hey, that's going too far. The Queen wouldn't step in an unorganized place like this."

The gossip that Fily heard on her way said that she could only shake her head.

"What's with people and gossips?" she asked herself while also letting go of the thought immediately after seeing Sir Grand and Venedette's spectacular display of power on air against the flying Crone and a foreigner like herself which Fily immediately recognized at one glance.

"Herim."