Chapter 118 - Halma's Departure

"Let's go," Halma said after the sun completely disappeared from their vision and the sky turned to blue and dark blue to black not long after.

"I thought the gift would be inside the castle?" Gem thought innocently after recalling the weird interaction she had with Halma back at the castle and in front of the secret storage room.

"No, I wanted to give it to you as soon as possible since I won't go back to the castle anymore after this," Halma said which made Gem sad to know that Halma will go back to the Capital now and she won't be able to play with her again.

"I'm going to miss you, Halma," Gem said, which caught Halma, and even Fily and Lei both by surprise.

"I'm going to miss you too," Halma said while facing Gem to push the little strand of blue hair in front of her face to the back of her ears and give her a soft kiss on the forehead.

"A blessing, since we won't be seeing each other again soon," Halma said while the kiss on Gem's forehead glowed red which Fily thought looked more like a curse rather than a blessing.

"You can use it to see bad intentions from people around you, but use it wisely, you can only use it twice," Halma said, which Gem only nodded with fascination as she tried to touch her forehead and decided not to ruin the marking instead.

"Come," Halma gestured them to enter one of the newly built rooms inside this new place where they could hang out, and beyond the short tunnel was another open space under the island..

But unlike the sandy beach where they came from, this part was more like an indoor mechanical room with an abstract floor-to-ceiling window on the open, which Fily could only guess as the holographic one-way glass where you could only see rocks from the outside but everything from the inside.

"Woah! What is this place?!" Gem exclaimed in astonishment while checking out the computers and screens and even a steering wheel in front of the huge crystal window.

"This will be your new headquarters for the tournament. I hope you use it well." Halma said and smiled after seeing the fascinated smiles and sparkles in the children's eyes, well except for Fily who only nodded her head out of respect for Halma's thoughtful gift.

"Is this a vehicle like the zoomer which we rode earlier?" Gem said upon approaching the driver's seat which Halma was quick to stop her from touching anything.

"Only Venedette is allowed in this area, Gem," Halma said, which Gem immediately understood as a very important role that she couldn't fulfill yet without training, so she stepped out of the way and inspected the other parts instead.

There was a complete set of things in the open kitchen just beside the living area which was on the back while there was also a staircase to the second floor of the 'headquarter' which leads to a lot of rooms on the second floor.

The ceiling of the most important room was the tallest which was also composed of the tall and wide glass window made of real crystal according to Halma which makes it impact-proof from different kinds of attacks that they could experience while traveling outside of the borders just like the walls made of hard stone.

"Is this like a mini flying island?" Gem asked while looking at the stone walls.

"That's right," Halma answered, which made Gem's eyes sparkle even more.

"So it's like a spaceship inside a small island? Cool!"

"It's totally cool indeed," Fily said while looking meaningfully at Halma.

"What?"

"I didn't know you were this thoughtful about your daughter's wish."

"I'm not!" Halma denied with a calm face before clearing her throat and moving away from Fily in case she might notice Halma's softness once more.

"Why are there so many foods in here already? We won't be traveling soon," Lei said while looking at the cupboards and the refrigerator.

"Oh, about that." Gem said and moved closer to Halma, " Fily and I decided to go on a trip to find how to feed my gemstone and make more use of its powers during the weekends."

"Just the two of you?"

"If Venedette's not available then yes, just the two of us."

"That's unfair!" Lei said, suddenly having his emotions get the best of him so he cleared his throat to keep his cool before proceeding with a normal tone, "I want to join too."

"Okay? But aren't you supposed to watch Von 24/7?" Gem asked out of consideration which made Lei want to join even more.

"I'll just bring him with me."

"It's too dangerous, Lei. We shouldn't put Von in danger, he's a prince after all." Fily said, trying to push Lei away but Lei wouldn't forfeit.

"And I'm his bodyguard, I'll keep him safe," Lei said stubbornly, which was interrupted by the main door opening and closing with Von, Venedette, Sir Grand, and Petunia going inside.

"Petunia! Look! There's a dedicated room for your experiments here!" Gem said after hearing their entrances from the 2nd floor.

"For real? This is so cool! How come we didn't see anything from there?" Petunia said in confusion while pointing at the empty dark sky beyond the crystal glass window.

"Come! I need to check on the other rooms too!" Gem said excitedly which left Petunia with no choice but to just follow her instead of asking Halma again for her personal pet.

"Are you really going to go now?" Venedette said while approaching Halma, she couldn't put into words how thankful she was for Halma's treatment to both Gem and Petunia even though they were just nothing more than strangers to her.

"I really need to go as soon as Riveth arrives. I'll leave these kids to you Venedette, take care of them and raise them into the finest warriors we could get for this Country."

"For Clandamascarene, and for Demi. I will raise them into fine warriors and the pride for this upcoming Dekadalaw tournament no matter what, Ma. You don't need to worry about that."

"I hope so," Halma said before stepping out of Leviyacht, her latest gift to Leviathan. "Please tell Gem I said goodbye, and take care," she added with a slight smile to everyone which almost made Venedette tear up before going to the other door which contained her Royal spaceship that would take her directly to her own Castle in less than just a few minutes.