Chapter 153 - Outdated

"Hey!!" Von shouted and ran to catch Fily's coffee after seeing her almost spill it down to the floor without even paying attention.

"Fily? Are you asleep? Is she asleep?" Von asked and looked at Lei in that last sentence.

"Maybe," Lei said and also went closer to Fily to double-check, "Yep, she has completely fallen asleep that fast."

"What time is it anyway? Wasn't she supposed to sleep at midnight?" Von said while looking at the orange sky through the window.

"Let's just let her. We're not doing anything anyway." 

"I wonder what mom and the other guards are talking about inside that room," Von said after seeing the lady that called Venedette earlier come out of the head's room where Venedette was currently in.

***

"Are you saying there's no one to blame for this accident? Accident? Really? My children could be in danger right now because of that very unlucky incident! What are the odds that ice bullets suddenly rained down on your people? Is this a common occurrence here? Because for all of my life, this was just the first time I've heard of such a thing," Venedette said while standing in front of the head's desk with her arms crossed..

"It isn't a common occurrence, ma'am. But so was your child's disappearance. We can't do anything until your child comes back and gives us a proper look at what exactly happened."

"But what about the surveillance radars? Weren't you able to detect anything suspicious through them?"

"Like what?" the middle-aged man wearing a navy green commander's uniform with a black square mustache said with disinterest to Venedette whose patience was already getting tested.

"Like outsiders lurking around your inefficient checkpoint or a machine gun, perhaps?" Venedette said while wandering her eyes around the various mini detectors she could find in the chief's office.

"Why would refugees bring weapons with them?" 

"Hul, are all your detectors this outdated?" Venedette said while grabbing a block of old detectors that she found laying around the chief's desk.

"As I've said, we don't see the need for extensive detectors when most of the people that pass through here are just poor refugees."

"But you do know that's just a lie, right?" Venedette said while keeping her eye contact with the chief who immediately broke eye contact with her because of the guilt that suddenly crept into him.

"You do know I'm the Queen's daughter and a representative for the upcoming Dekadalaw tournament, right?" Venedette said when her patience finally ran out.

"Tell your people to look for those people who did that to my groupmate and let us pass through this checkpoint immediately after Gem comes back." 

"That isn't-"

"Are you going to give more excuses or do you want me to expose the corruption that is happening here? You wouldn't want that to reach the castle, do you?" Venedette said with all confidence which made the chief commander clear his throat.

"Only in one condition," he said without even looking at Venedette which made Venedette raise her eyebrow at him.

"If you ever found out who did that to your member, please don't hurt them. Most of the people here are just weak beings who like to play-"

"What a bull," Venedette laughed after hearing the chief commander's very unreasonable condition, "If I can remember correctly, my adviser told me about all sorts of underground things that happen here, do you want me to list them down for you and also send them to the castle?" Venedette threatened with a smile.

"I'm telling you, especially if they turned out to be kids," the chief commander said while almost going down on his knees to reach out to Venedette.

"Why does it sound like you know these culprits?" 

"I- Uh… might have an idea who did this, but I'm not sure about it yet. I told my people to catch them already, just promise me please that you won't hurt them?" the chief commander begged again which made Venedette's heart soften a little bit.

"I'll think about it. If Gem comes back unharmed I might consider letting them go, but for now, I would like to talk to them, please," Venedette said, which relieved the chief commander a little bit.

"Thank you for your consideration-"

"I said I would consider it if Gem comes back unharmed," Venedette said firmly, clearing out what she said to lessen the chances of a misunderstanding happening between her and the chief commander.

"Yes, I understand, Princess," the chief commander said politely and stood up back to his original position which was very unlike him a few minutes ago.

Who knew the conversation would turn a hundred and fifty degrees just because of Venedette's confidence?

"Shall we?" the chief commander said while gesturing to the door which Venedette agreed to with just one nod, letting the chief lead her back to the lobby where she found Von and Lei sitting on Fily's both sides and seemingly taking care of her which made Venedette worry a little bit.

"What's wrong?" she mouthed to the boys who immediately saw and understood what she was trying to say.

"She's asleep!" Von mouthed and even acted out the words by pointing to Fily and doing a sleeping pose which made Lei a little bit embarrassed to those who saw Von do that.

"That's not good," Venedette thought to herself which even made her eyebrows furrow while following the chief commander.

"Where are you going? Mom?" Von spoke out which pulled Venedette a little back to reality and immediately stopped him from interfering.

"Just somewhere," Venedette replied before disappearing from Von's view on the left corridor.

"Aren't we supposed to come with her?" Von asked Lei who just shook his head to him.

"Our mission is to take care of Fily and wait for Petunia or Gem to contact us," Lei said which convinced Von to sit back down beside Fily and just wait with him even with his eyebrows furrowed and a little annoyed attitude.