Chapter 167 - Reflection Of The Stars

It was four A.M. in the morning and Gem couldn't sleep a wink last night due to her worry about Petunia. 

When she saw Venedette leave the room at that time, Gem also decided to wake up and follow after her instead.

She saw Venedette checking with the Edelwessians about their supposed tour later and double-checking all the stuff that they need, but as soon as Gem got a glimpse of the glowing frozen lake from the balcony of the cabin they were staying at, she couldn't hold herself back and gazed at it like they were stars in the lake.

"How is that lake glowing?" she asked herself while tracing the line between the beach and the water that had an intense dark blue glow on it, very unlike the rest of the lake that only had a faint blue glow and dots of bright light that reflected the stars from above.

"Isn't that familiar?" Fily's suddenly said, surprising Gem who thought that she was still asleep all along.

Fily came out of the balcony and completely closed the door while smiling at Gem and the view behind her.

"What's familiar?" Gem asked when she finally reached the railings and leaned on it again to watch the sparkling blue lights from the frozen lake.

"The glowing lake, don't you think it's familiar?" Fily asked again while looking at Gem as if she was expecting something from her but Gem still had no idea what she was referring to.

"Familiar to what?" Gem asked again while looking at Fily, but instead of her enthusiastic eyes, this time, Fily was looking at her as if she was saying 'Are you serious?' to her with a poker face.

"Your slimes! Have you forgotten the glow of your slimes already? They might not be the same color but look at the glow, isn't that the same glow of your healing slime and energy slimes?" Fily said as if she couldn't believe that Gem was this too lost to even forget the glow of her own powers.

"Oh! You're right! How did I forget something so important like that?" Gem said and scratched the back of her head while Fily just laughed it out loud with a slight shaking of her head.

"Come to think about it, the energy slimes originally came from this lake right? Phyxies," gem asked while looking curiously at the glowing lake in front of them.

"Yup, do you think it might also have something to do with your problem?" Fily asked and looked at Gem in her peripheral view while wondering to herself if she should tell her theory to Gem or not yet.

"What problem? You mean how I could feed my necklace?" Gem asked and looked at Fily who quickly looked away from her because of the confusion in her head.

"Hey, is there something wrong?" Gem asked after noticing Fily's unusual attitude towards her.

"I don't know if I should tell you this now but I don't want to disappoint you if things go wrong," Fily said and looked at Gem with puppy eyes.

"What could possibly go wrong?" Gem said and smiled to reassure Fily that she could handle it, whatever her concern might be which made Fily a little less worried about telling Gem about her insane theory.

"So you know that the energy slimes actually came from the element in that lake, right?"

"Uhuh?"

"What if that's the answer to your problem all along? What if the element in there is just what you need to feed the Salamandite so you can finally unlock the remaining storage and use its power to the fullest?" Fily said but immediately pouted afterwards.

"But that was just my thought, I don't even have enough proof to prove that theory-"

"It won't hurt if I try," Gem said and shrugged, making Fily feel relieved and secured as if her worry was not that big after all.

"You know I don't always say stuff that's not true, right? Either I look for proof that this theory is correct first before I let you know or I won't tell you about it at all, but this time I'm really nervous. I don't know when we'll get the chance to go back here again, or finally open a chapter in the manual that could tell us all the things that we need. I want us to try all the things that we can do right now so we can't miss anything while we're still here, and besides, what kind of good is there in not trying?"

"Right, we have to try something at least," Gem said and retreated her eyes from the dark blue frozen lake to Fily with a subtle smile.

"Let's not waste our chance while we're still here."

"Maybe this is why Petunia decided to go on her own instead of asking us for company, I'll make sure to not waste the time that she sacrificed for us just so I could find the answer for my problem here and hopefully we can meet each other again soon halfway there," Gem said as a promise to herself.

"We should be the first to finish our task before Petunia, especially since she's only doing this by herself when we're all here to help you."

"That's right, let's not waste any more time. Let's go, I want to try eating the frozen lake now," Gem said with a smile after getting encouraged by Fily.

"Wait-" Fily tried to stop Gem from running back to the room after noticing the sunrise on the horizon.

But instead of watching the sunrise, Fily shook her head and followed Gem back to the room with a smile etched on her face.

"We shouldn't waste our time looking at the sunrise," Fily thought to herself while watching Gem wake Von and Lei up from their deep sleep.

Not long after, Venedette came back to the room and was surprised to see Gem and Fily who were now both in distress after failing to wake Von and Lei up from their deep sleep.

"Should we just leave them here?" Gem complained with a pout while trying hard not to kick Von with all her might.

"Good morning girls," Venedette greeted them with a smile on her face after seeing the both of them so enthusiastic in the morning.

"Venedette! These two are so hard to wake up!" Gem complained and ran to her with her eyes almost in tears out of the frustration from the two boys.

"Shh, I got this. You should go downstairs and eat now, the food is already prepared for you there, and then after that we'll go on a tour around Edelweiss."

"Okay," Gem said and wiped her tears before holding Fily's hands and going outside with her while Venedette took on the responsibility of waking the two boys up from their very comfortable sleep in the bamboo mattresses.

"Ah! My back hurts!" Gem heard Von complain from afar which almost made her lose her appetite. Good thing the food was too tasty to be ignored just because of Von.

"How can you say that when you looked like you didn't want to wake up just a few minutes ago?" Gem muttered with a pout while munching on her corndog as Von took the seat in front of her at the picnic-looking wooden table.

Lei then followed and sat beside Von while Von only looked at Gem as if she just exposed his secret to everybody.

"Where do you want to go first?" Venedette asked after sending them the itinerary of their tour.

But because their attention was still occupied by the food, Venedette just let them ignore her question and proceeded to the things that she was preparing.

Unbeknownst to her, Gem and Fily actually heard her question and looked at each other with the same thing in mind.

"I want to go to the lake first," Gem said and pouted again while still finishing up her food.

"The lake? You mean that lake?" Von said and pointed at the frozen lake just a few meters away from them.

"Uhuh." Gem nodded which made Von look at her in disbelief.

"Why not just go there now?"

"We need more time to complete our experiment there," Fily said as defense for Gem which still made Von confused.

"It's not like we're going to the tour right away, just go there and we'll tell mom to wait for you."

"Really?" Gem said and jumped out of joy after hearing what Von said.

"Do you want us to come with you so the Princess will have no choice but to wait for us?" Lei offered which made Gem and Fily both think.

"Hmm, that's a good idea," Gem said and saw Fily nodding her head in agreement.

"Let's do that then," Lei said and suddenly stood up which made Von panic a little bit.

"Wait, I'm not yet done eating."

"You can just follow after us once you're done," Lei said and led the girls to the lake immediately, leaving Von to rush his food just so he could catch up to them immediately.