Chapter 157 - High Kick

"Uhmm, so…" the timid nerdy kid said with a bit of nervous fidgeting which made Venedette soften her approach a little bit.

"Go on," she said.

"I-It was my fault. I was supposed to aim Bruno's gun somewhere near you guys to scare you away but I didn't know Bruno could perfect his aim and actually hit one of you, his aim is usually hopeless on a normal basis but somehow his aim became perfect this time. I'm really sorry Princess, please forgive us," the nerdy kid said without looking at Venedette and bowing the whole time while pleading with his hands together. He seemed as if he also wanted to go down on his knees but Venedette didn't let him do that anymore.

"Why would you do that? Why would you try to scare us away?" Venedette asked in her mellow voice.

"B-Because everybody here hates you, including us. We were supposed to participate in the upcoming tournament too, but ever since you announced your team, we lost all hopes in ourselves. We thought it was unfair, they're younger than us but why are they chosen-?"

The kid stopped talking the moment he made contact with Venedette's eyes.. He was so comfortable in nagging his friends about the topic that he forgot the fact that he was talking with Venedette this time, his rival.

"Why would you think that to yourself? Did everyone over here thought the same? Just because we're joining doesn't mean we're not allowing you to join anymore. What's stopping  you?" Venedette asked in full seriousness.

"Our parents. They said we're no match for your team, so when we heard you were coming here, we planned for a surprise attack to show them how deserving we are to fight. But I'm not really planning on hurting Gem. That was not really our intention. I'm so sorry."

"Okay, that's good enough, can you tell your friend to also speak with me, I don't like being ignored too much, thank you." Venedette smiled at the nerdy kid called Lorenz before letting him go.

But just as the door to the interrogation room opened, Lanzo was pushed back on both sides by Von and Lei who both had dark expressions painted on their faces.

"Von, Lei…" Venedette stood up from her seat in utter disbelief because of Von and Lei's sudden violence.

"So it was you," Von said before slamming Lorenz to the wall and crossing his arms in front of him like a mean boy that he was.

"Hey, what are you doing?" A deeper voice said from the door who saw all the commotion whilst being held by two guards on both sides. 

It was Gonder who had just been called back to the interrogation room per Venedette's request while wrapping up Lorenz's confession.

"Von, Lei, What are you doing here? Get out," Venedette said in a stern tone but the two seemed too occupied to hear her.

While Gonder was struggling to get out of the two guard's hold, a flying kick suddenly entered the room and passed through Lei who tilted his head swiftly to avoid the flying kick that was now on Lorenz's face, knocking him down like the broken bamboo tree that he looked like a lot.

"Yahh!" the girl who entered the room with a flying kick said and shook all the hair out of her face only to see Lorenz laying down on the floor with a reddened left face.

"Oh no! What the hell you guys?!" Karizze growled at Von and Lei even though she knew it was her fault anyway and was just too embarrassed to admit to it.

"What the hell to you too! Do you realize what you just did to our friend and now to yours?!" Von shouted back at her.

"What the hell Karizze! Why would you kick Lorenz in the face!?" Gonder said from the door which reminded the three of them about Venedette and the chief commander's presence, watching over them while they bicker with each other.

"I didn't mean it!" Karizze said in full defensive mode while hurrying over to her father who was then carrying her now sleeping baby sister in his arms.

"Come here you two," Venedette said, calling over to Von and Lei who were both very upset and confused at the same time, because according to what they just overheard earlier, these three, or four including the baby, were the ones responsible for hurting Gem because of jealousy.

But looking at them now, it seemed almost impossible for these dorks to achieve such great heights without anyone's guidance, especially an expert who could definitely hit the bullseye that was either Von or Gem who were both on the same spot, just perfect for the ice bullets to hit either one of them.

"Where's Fily?" Venedette asked after gathering the two under her wings.

"She's over there," Lei, who was the calmest among the two, said while pointing his thumb at the one-way mirror behind them.

And not long after, the commander apologized to Venedette again while promising to help more with the investigation and dropping a report about Gem and Petunia, still not being back to where they disappeared from earlier.

"What are we going to do? We have an appointment later with the tribes and I don't think they could tolerate us adjusting the meeting again because of this sudden chaos." 

"I wonder what happened to Gem. Usually, she would just stay in Solitude for about five to ten minutes but it has already been an hour. I think something's wrong…" Von voiced his own concern after Venedette's worry which was then followed by Lei's speculation.

"What if Gem needs help and just couldn't ask for it because she got hit?"

"Hey! Why would you say something like that?! Solitude was the skill that saved Gem from countless threats to her life already, including that potion that Halma put in her drink. So why would you think about something negative like that? I'm guessing it's because of Petunia. She probably doesn't know how to get out of that place with Petunia and she's just in the process of figuring it out," Von said, offering another speculation that was more on the positive side than what Lei was suggesting.

"But what if Fily is right and Petunia's not there with her?" Lei said another one of his speculations that immediately sounded pessimistic to Von who was already ready to disagree with him but was quickly put to silent when Venedette agreed with a serious note.

"I think we should check that area and look for Petunia's collar. Solitude doesn't transmit signals to the real world but even if that's not the case, Petunia's Stat-hut shouldn't have been static for over an hour already. If she's still alive, she should have been moving even inside the solitude, or if perhaps she's not conscious anymore, her signal should still be moving because Gem would probably move her to another place," Venedette said, giving a reasonable explanation for Von to believe their speculation.

"But what about Fily? Are we just going to leave her here?" Lei asked which Von immediately stepped up to voice his opinion.

"I think it's better if you stay here and protect her since that's your expertise while mom and I could fly back to the location where Gem and Petunia disappeared and look for her collar to make things faster."

"I agree, nice thinking Von," Venedette said which flattered Von a little bit before remembering the seriousness of the case that they're handling right now on their own.

"Okay, if that's the case then I'll gladly accept it," Lei said while nodding, which gave Venedette and Von a sign to fly to the checkpoint once again while Lei ran back to the inspector's room behind the interrogation room's one-way mirror.

There he saw Fily with two female guards who were both standing beside her for security.

"I'll take it from here," he said, dismissing the two guards from Fily's side and taking care of the operation on this side.

"Can I ask for another interrogation with the female suspect this time?" Lei asked the female guard he just ordered to go.

"Roger that," the female guard said, recognizing his superiority as a royal's security guard before bringing Karizze and her father back to the interrogation room for another round of questioning while Lei and the half-asleep Fily just laid back and watched the two of them argue over there.

***

"Found anything yet?" Venedette asked Von while looking down at the never-ending line of immigrants or refugees trying to cross the checkpoint to go to a more free part of the country.

"Nothing, I think Petunia buried something there if only we could bother those people to step aside so we could dig," Von said and dived back down to try and persuade those impatient people to step aside.

Luckily, a family from the other side of the country who respected Von and the royal family finally gave them a chance to dig the snow and found Petunia's Stat-hut not long after.

"Mom! I found it!" Von shouted to his mom who was just staring blankly at the hail storm while flying above them.

"Mom!" 

"What?"

"I found it!"

"What?!" 

"I said I-" Von suddenly stopped talking when he realized something while holding Petunia's collar in his hands.

"Does this mean Petunia is not actually inside Solitude and Gem could be hurt on her own over there?!"