Chapter 147 - Ice Bullets

"He's totally caught up with that ice shower," Fily said, regarding Von who was still star-struck by the hail storm behind them and shook her head while going behind Venedette who was already in line for the checkpoint.

Gem, on the other hand, was busy hiding her face with Petunia while walking behind Fily as if she was afraid of catching the attention of the people who were also waiting in line with them.

But since her teammates were all walking confidently like superstars amongst the crowd, Gem's wish of being unnoticed was already far-fetched. It was impossible for them to not stand out, especially by wearing colorful sleeveless coats in a crowd full of normal-looking people with normal padded clothes to counter the cold climate.

"Are you uncomfortable?" Lei asked while trying to catch Gem's eyes when she peeked and then immediately buried her face back to Petunia's snow-white furs after seeing everybody's gaze on her.

"I-I feel like they hate me," Gem said nervously which was then followed by a sudden poof of mist that seemed more like a bomb of dust, covering the entire area where Venedette's team was standing, subsequently hiding them from those people's piercing eyes.

"Sorry," Gem said to her teammates who were bothered by her Salamandite's sudden release of calming mist to calm and hide her from the people's eyes without notice from Mr. Gemini.

"Pfft, what the hell?" Von complained while fanning the mist away from him, finally paying attention to his surroundings other than the hail storm he was passionately watching before it got covered by Gem's calming mist..

[Should I cancel the release of Calming mist, Master?]

'Wait, I'm still gathering my confidence,' Gem said to Mr. Gemini and took a deep breath, inhaling the calming substance of the calming mist to calm herself down while Von just took off to the sky to get a better view of that interesting hail storm.

"Ahh, that smelled so nice," Petunia said in a relaxed tone while shifting her position in Gem's arms into a more comfortable one after overthinking about her current situation and how she could get away from her teammates without being noticed.

The checkpoint guards, on the other hand, were suddenly alerted by this uncommon puff of smoke that appeared out of nowhere on one of the lines where some of the most important people in the country were lining up, which forced them to dispatch a group for security purposes.

"Why did you do that, Gem?" Venedette said calmly while walking out of the smoke, only to be greeted by several armed guards in a white uniform suit coming down from a mini spaceship.

"Is everything alright, Princess?" the guards frantically asked after stopping in front of her.

"Everything's fine," Venedette said with an awkward smile which did not convince the guards too much.

"Step back Princess, we must look for the cause of this sudden ball of smoke," the leader guard walked in front of Venedette and into the smoke which Venedette contemplated whether to stop or not.

"We're really just fine, it was just an accident," Venedette explained to the other guards who were waiting for their commander's order beside Venedette.

"Do you want to stay here?" Lei suddenly asked Gem when he sensed the commander scouting inside the ball of smoke to determine where it was coming from.

But weirdly enough, the Commander was able to realize that the ball was not really smoke and just mist that froze in the air because of the cold temperature around here.

"Should I stop the mist now?" Gem looked at Lei for permission while still staying calm beside him.

"No, you can stop it when you're ready, I'll deal with this," Lei said and gave her a quick smile before disappearing through the thick cloud of mist around Gem.

"I should also go out," Petunia said while looking Gem for permission before jumping down and out of the shadows that Gem created to hide from the people's gazes.

"Are you sure it's not the enemies?" Gem heard the guard talking to Lei.

"Yes, sir."

"Bring me to her so I can confirm," the commander said firmly to Lei which he then reluctantly agreed to.

"Can I bring the commander there, Gem?" Lei asked without even seeing Gem which she also agreed on for security purposes.

Now that she was well hidden inside the ball of smoke, Gem was no longer afraid of the people's gazes that made her feel as if she didn't belong there. Letting the guard see her was not really a big deal, but when the guard came and actually saw her, something unexpected happened.

"Gem!" Lei shouted after seeing Gem got shot by what seemed to be ice bullets, judging from the missed marks on the floor beside her, it looked as if the bullets came from a machine gun.

When Gem disappeared, the mist that was built around her suddenly collapsed, exposing Lei and the commander who were the only other people inside the ball of mist when it happened.

"What have you done?!" Lei shouted and lunged at the commander which alerted the other guards to aim at him.

"It wasn't me! I swear!" The commander immediately said with both of his hands up as if surrendering while Lei was already positioned in front of him, ready to slice his throat in just one swift move but decided against it at the last second to give him a chance to talk.

"Put that blade down, kid, or we won't hesitate to shoot you," one of the guards on the backline said while two of his fellow guards were already holding Venedette's hands in a cuff.

"Lei! Calm down! What happened?!" Venedette shouted while keeping her body still so the guards wouldn't think she was trying to escape or do anything funny.

"You shot at her!" Lei growled at the commander who was shaking his head continuously to prove a point.

"Our guns have silver bullets, not ice," the commander briefly explained while looking at the trail of bullets behind Lei which supposedly hit Gem.

"You're lucky my friend didn't die because of that," Lei said and let him go, releasing the tension between him and the guard who was his number one suspect for shooting Gem.

"Give me that," Lei said and caught the white gun that the commander carefully threw at him, giving it a quick look and confirming that their bullets were indeed made of metal and not ice which immediately proved their innocence.

"Are you okay? What happened back there? Where's Petunia?" Venedette said after being released by the guards from her temporary cuffs.

"Where's Von?" Lei said in response without answering her questions.

"He's up there," Venedette said and looked up to see Von, still staring at the hail storm and not yet aware of the commotion that suddenly happened back down.

"I think Gem also brought Petunia to her imaginary world," Lei said with a calm voice even though his face was showing signs of his disappointment to himself after failing to protect Gem.

'What if those bullets hit Gem before she was even able to disappear to Solitude? And what if something bad happened to them? They should be back by now, what's taking them so long? And where did those bullets even come from?!' Lei's mind was suddenly overwhelmed with thoughts that resulted from his frustration with himself for not being able to do anything other than watching them get shot in front of him.

"Von! Come down here!" Venedette called to her son while flying to bring him back down to the line that was now in chaos after that unfortunate event.

"Please settle down, there's nothing to be afraid of, it was just a little misunderstanding," the commander announced to the people who saw the commotion and were now looking at Leviathan as if they were not accepted in this kind of place.

"What are they even doing here? It's not like this place can feed them the same food that they get to eat in the palace! We already have more than enough people here to share food and resources with! Don't be so selfish!"

"That's right! This isn't a place for bored and greedy Royals to camp in, get lost!" some of the people in line started throwing hate comments to Venedette and Von while they were landing back down to the ground.

And although this kind of hate was not new to Venedette anymore after experiencing many cases of slanders and hate in the places near the borders, she was concerned about Von and Lei's reaction to being criticized by strangers this much for the first time in their lives.

"What's beyond the checkpoint isn't part of your country anymore, Royals. You won't get the same treatment you got back there and we won't hesitate to voice our opinions against you. Are you sure you want to proceed to a place like this?" a woman's voice stood out from the rest despite being in the farthest line.

"We have our own problems to deal with and so do you, so let's not get ahead of each other and cross any lines, shall we?" Venedette replied in the most sophisticated way she could, reminding these people that she deserves their respect as much as she respects them.

"Now, who in heaven's name shot my pupil?" she added which caused a silent reaction from the once noisy crowd.