Chapter 145 - Checkpoint

"Sorry for the inconvenience, Princess, but I'm afraid flying aircraft aren't allowed to pass through the border. You may need to come down along with your passengers to go through the security first before we permit your leave." A forced audio suddenly played inside the heads of Venedette, Petunia, Gem, Fily, Von, and Lei, interrupting whatever they were doing and making them worry about the sudden inspection.

"I thought we already had a pass from the Queen?" Venedette said, seemingly responding to the radio signal which only Fily was able to notice.

"So the rumors about the strict security over here wasn't just a rumor after all," Petunia said while watching Venedette have trouble dealing with the sudden interruption.

"We're candidates for the tournament, I doubt there's anything else you need to check when the Queen herself was the one who permitted our leave." Venedette tried to reason again, but based on her expression, the guards did not seem to believe her statement.

"Mom! Did you hear that-?" Von suddenly said after running back to the navigation room and paused when he saw his mom's expression, "I guess you did." He added and took a deep breath while having his arms planted to his knees for support.

"Why did you run?" Lei asked after catching up to him..

"I know right?" Von said and took his time reaching the nearest couch to him, which was also the couch where Gem and Petunia were seated, but regardless of them, he just sat on the couch and laid on it while lowkey kicking the two girls off and contemplating about why he wasted his energy by running when he could have just flown his way to the door.

"Ahh, I must have been out of it!" he said while expressing his annoyance by kicking the couch with all his might which made Gem roll her eyes on him and just carried Petunia to another chair instead.

"Sorry about that," Lei whispered while crossing paths with Gem which made Gem feel less annoyed and more concerned about the situation.

"I'm going to stop the Yacht after this storm and then we'll go down, is that okay for you?" Venedette said out loud.

"I'm okay with that," Gem said and shrugged, which she was quickly embarrassed about because of Fily's expression, telling her to stop talking.

"Okay, we'll do that. Thank you for your understanding," Venedette said and ended the call, which was evident when she suddenly looked their way.

"Von, you think you can help me carry them?" Venedette asked with her hands on her hips as if she was feeling anxious about something.

"I can manage, Gem doesn't weigh anything anyway," Von said, which Gem immediately took as an insult.

"What? Am I really that light?" Gem asked with a slight pouting face.

"Yes, I can't even feel someone between my arms when carrying you," Von teased even more.

"If that's the case, then, shouldn't you be the one also carrying Petunia instead of the three of them riding Venedette?" Gem thought rationally which alarmed Von.

'I thought she would also give up on getting a ride from me and ask Venedette to carry her instead. Why is she so clingy? I didn't sign up for this,' Von complained in his mind while scratching the back of his head. 

'Ah, why did I lie about that? Gem would already cost me an arm, what more Petunia?' Von thought to himself and shut his eyes tightly to assess the situation when Lei suddenly patted him in the back.

"I didn't know you're this willing to help," Lei said in a serious tone although it was pretty obvious that he was just teasing Von.

"I wish I just didn't come to this trip," Von said in between his gritted teeth while forcing a smile to Gem and the others, thinking about how he suddenly became their elevator from the floating island (Levi-Yacht) to the ground.

"Don't you want to see the violent ice bullets from the ground? I heard the checkpoint's just after the storm and you could still see ice bullets from up close over there," Lei said while putting a white flag on the digital table near their location, that surprisingly was also here in the navigation's room considering that Fily created the map and the plan on the other table in the living room.

"Fair enough, but I still don't like being treated as their elevator," Von said while glancing at Gem and Petunia who were smiling like they just did something exceptional to be proud of.

"Can't I just hack their system and be done with it? I'm seeing a lot of people on the list with an estimated time frame of twenty minutes each. If we wait in line, it could take us at least eight hours just to pass through their security check. It's not like we're outsiders trying to get in so I don't see any problem in doing so," Fily suggested to Venedette while fidgeting as if she was running out of time.

"You're right, but we still need to follow the rules, or else we could get eliminated from the tournament," Venedette said in an apologetic tone before focusing her attention back on the sky in front of them.

"Eight hours? Wouldn't that be enough time to gather clues about this witch that we're looking for? Especially from those who came from the outside?" Gem whispered to Petunia which made Petunia anxious.

"Shh, stop saying that."

"Oops, sorry. But do you have any information about that secret shop that could help us? I think most of the people living on the other side would be able to recognize it with just a few keywords," Gem asked curiously.

"Don't worry, I got this," Petunia said with an annoyed eye roll.

"But aren't we supposed to work together? Come on, it's not like we'll get in the way of your secret mission."

"No. I said I got this, just do what I say and we'll have a clean success," Petunia said stubbornly.

"Okay," Gem said, admitting her defeat from Petunia's stubbornness with a pout.