Chapter 119 - I Don't Want To Go

"Did you get a good look at our newest headquarters?" Venedette asked the children on their way to the castle.

"Yes! It's so spacious and interesting! I feel like we'll have a fun time living there." Gem answered energetically, without even knowing Halma was now back to the Capital and won't come back here for at least, the rest of their lives.

"Yeah, We'll have fun trying to survive in there, somehow," Von replied to Gem's response nonchalantly, trying hard not to show how impressed he was with the advanced technology and convenient design of the whole headquarters.

"Come on Von, that's too early for that." Fily scolded him which Von only ignored.

"Does it have a name?" Petunia asked Venedette while Lei and Von were now arguing about the expedition that he wanted to be a part of with the girls.

"Levi-yacht," Venedette answered Petunia's question with a shrug.

"I like it.." Gem said with an excited smile, "Sounds close to our group's name, Leviathan." She added which made Venedette smile. 

"You're so quick to catch these things Gem, I'm sure you will find a way to unlock my Salamandite soon and find ways on how to feed it to unlock the keys inside, I wonder if mine also has keys inside?" Venedette said continuously which made Gem's eyes widen in shock.

"You got your Salamandite back, Venedette?!" Gem exclaimed while searching for the necklace in Venedette's shirt which she immediately picked up from the insides of her shirt to show it off to Gem and everyone.

"Yup, I got it back!" Venedette announced which caused an uproar from her children.

"That's such a good news! But sadly I haven't found anything that could help activate it yet," Gem said while frowning which made Venedette come closer to her and stretched her lips to a smile.

"In the right time, Gem. There's always a right time for everything." Venedette said which was a reminder for Gem to calm down and trust the process. "Nothing good comes from rushing, let's take our time and deal with this one by one, okay?"

"Okay!" Gem said which lifted the spirits of everyone around them again.

"But I don't want to go!" Von suddenly shouted which made Venedette and the others aware of his little argument with Lei at the back.

"What's wrong, Von?" Venedette said and motioned for Gem and the others to excuse her for a little bit.

"Lei wants me to come with him on Fily's trip around the country! I don't want to go on the ground anymore! Why can't you just go with them and leave me in the castle instead? It's not like something bad's going to happen soon. And besides, aren't you demoted from being my bodyguard to a member of Leviathan by now!?"

"Watch your tone, Von! That's still your friend you're talking to right there. I'm so sorry for his behavior, Lei. I hope you don't mind." Venedette said out of embarrassment from Von's rude behavior.

"Not at all, Miss Dette," Lei answered as if he was used of Von's nagging anyway.

How are they only two years apart? Lei was always acting as the mature one and Von was taking him for granted.

"I think you need an away time from Von this time, Lei," Fily suggested after seeing them fight even though she was the first person opposing Lei's involvement with their travel.

"Shouting is very unnecessary and rude, especially to a friend, Von. Why is it that you're never listening to me?"

"But I do listen to you. I was just upset, I'm sorry." Von said and quickly apologized to Lei and the guards behind them who were already falling behind from their team.

"Do you really want to stay in the castle and miss this trip around the country? You know you won't get to see your country for at least six months in the tournament, right?" Venedette said, trying hard to convince Von in joining their trip too so they could go on their first adventure as a team but Von had already made up his mind.

"I don't want to go," he said firmly after remembering the time when he desperately wanted to go down and live a new life there with Lei, but only to find out that it was the Crone's idea all along and he was just tricked into believing that it was what he really wants. That logic didn't even make sense for Von after thinking about it since he's the Prince of this island and there was nothing else that he could wish for. He had everything.

And besides, he knew his mom wouldn't be able to make the trip either due to her busy schedule and limits in the team since she was only acting as the stand-in leader until they grow up.

Unlike Gem, Von knew a lot about how teams in this tournament work, and if Venedette wouldn't be there to always take care of him, he know neither of his teammates would volunteer to do so either, so it was best to get out of their way instead for being weak.

"Okay, I'll just ask your father to keep you company while we travel for at least two days and one night," Venedette said, agreeing to Von's request but only with that condition.

"Okay," Von said politely after getting into an agreement with his mom.

"You can't back out from your words now, okay?"

"Okay," Von answered while nodding violently with a timid and slight smile.

"What? We're going to travel for that long?! But how about school and our training?" Gem complained.

"We can always do that later, your safety comes first as well as finding more clues about the locked storages in your Salamandite." Petunia said and slouched on her gummy cloud right after.

"I was really looking forward to seeing our teachers again and training though," Gem thought to herself.

"Don't worry, we're going to leave at weekends next week anyways so you could still attend classes this week and the weeks after that," Fily said, comforting her.

"Oh, really? That's good then." Gem rejoiced as they finally reached the entrance of the castle.