"Rrr."
Hearing this, Articuno's blue face showed an expression of disgust.
"I know it's not necessarily the case, but you're the guardian of Snow Top Mountain, a Legendary Pokémon, no less. How can the information you give me be unreliable?"
As though he were doing it casually, Silas rummaged through the pile of materials and pulled out several small items, stuffing them into his dimensional backpack.
Articuno glanced at him but made no comment about what he was doing.
Whatever this guy took was of little use to its offspring anyway, so it didn't really matter.
As an Articuno that had lived for more than a thousand years, its collection was among the largest even compared with other Legendary Pokémon.
It didn't care about this small amount.
Besides, Silas had brought it plenty of gifts as well. It was only fair that they went both ways.
"Rrr."
After thinking for a moment, it answered Silas's question.
Silas nodded thoughtfully.
"Again, because the interval was too long? Time really is an incredible thing."
"Come on, come on. Tell me where else there are good things."
Without dwelling too much on such a common matter, Silas took out a map and placed it on the hard ground. He looked rather impatient.
For the past two-plus months, he hadn't done much besides completing missions. Almost all his remaining time had been devoted to "treasure hunting."
As for the source of his information about these treasures.
Naturally, it came from the Articuno in front of him, as well as the three Legendary beasts from Ho-Oh's guardians, who came and went without a trace.
The latter had no fixed resting place.
So although they didn't deliberately hide from Silas the way they would from ordinary humans, he had only encountered them a few times over the course of two months.
As a result, the one who had to suffer was the Articuno settled on Snow Top Mountain.
Silas had wanted to ask Zapdos as well.
Unfortunately, after Cynthia transferred the guardianship assignment to the Johto Pokémon League, it really wasn't appropriate for him, as an "Elite-level" Trainer from the Kanto region, to approach it.
"Rrr."
Articuno examined the map and shook its head.
"That's all? Don't lie to me."
Silas looked at it warily.
Last month, he had managed to coax a full six locations containing "treasures" out of Articuno.
Some were Pokémon habitats in the wild, while others were ruins rarely visited by humans.
But, admittedly, the number of these places was quite limited.
Even Articuno didn't know many such locations.
After all, when it normally "patrolled" outside, there was no way it could keep its attention focused on things like this.
The Legendary beasts, however, had provided considerably more locations.
Suicune in particular.
That guy spent all day running around the Johto region, and sometimes even traveled to other regions to purify water sources.
If Silas weren't a little more concerned about preserving his dignity, he would have wanted the three Legendary beasts to mark every single location on his map.
Articuno finally couldn't take it anymore.
It opened its beak and released a stream of pale-blue cold air toward Silas.
"Whoa! Murder! Somebody's trying to kill me!"
Silas let out an exaggerated cry, and the blue-purple light in his eyes instantly spread over his entire body.
By the time the cold air dissipated, there wasn't the slightest change in his complexion or condition.
Articuno belatedly glanced at him.
This human's Psychic power seemed to have grown stronger again.
What a monster.
Silas grinned.
"Come on, if there aren't any, then there aren't any. Why are you getting violent?"
Articuno had already become completely hopeless about this shameless human.
Why had the person who came to help it back then turned out to be someone like this?
"All right, let's talk business."
Silas quickly restrained his attitude.
"You're more or less ready, right?"
Articuno was silent for a moment before nodding.
"I've already spoken with several old seniors I know. The Pokémon League has said that it won't take any action against Snow Top Mountain.
"However, after your child is born, you'll still have certain responsibilities.
"Not only will you have to protect Snow Top Mountain, but when necessary, the League also hopes you'll be willing to go out and help."
Articuno's beautiful dark-blue brows furrowed when it heard this, but it still nodded in agreement.
Ever since Team Rocket had infiltrated all the way to the summit last time, it had realized that this place wasn't particularly safe.
Compared with that group of people with darkness in their hearts, it would rather cooperate with the League, which had a much better reputation.
And the Pokémon League was certainly not foolish.
Compared with a source of power that might not be possible to capture or recruit, naturally, securing its friendship with absolute certainty was more important.
Or rather, Articuno wasn't enough to make the League throw away its reputation and dignity.
If it were something like Rayquaza or another Pokémon of that caliber, there might be a possibility.
Moreover, leaving aside the fact that nobody could determine exactly when Articuno would actually give birth to its offspring, even if it did give birth and subsequently entered a weakened state, or even died not long afterward, Articuno would actually pose the greatest threat during that period.
Everyone understood this principle.
"Three years. That's enough, right?"
Silas gave it a time frame.
"Rrr."
Articuno flapped its wings, indicating that it was more than enough.
"Then I won't be coming over after today."
Silas, who had been sitting cross-legged on the ice, slowly stood up.
Looking carefully, there was actually a tiny gap between his hips and legs and the surface of the ice.
Even after standing up, his feet were still hovering above the ground.
This was one of the methods Sabrina had taught him for training his Psychic power.
At first, he had found it rather difficult to get used to.
He would accidentally shoot into the sky like Iron Man, or suffer from dizziness and malnutrition after using his powers for too long.
But as time passed, Silas's control over his Psychic abilities had indeed improved at an astonishing rate.
"Alolan Ninetales, we're leaving."
Silas turned around and walked out of the cave without the slightest trace of reluctance.
The snow-white Alolan Ninetales followed behind him with elegant steps, waving its tail at Articuno to bid farewell.
"Boom!"
A violent rumbling sound came from behind Silas.
Inside the cave, Articuno looked at the entrance it had sealed with ice and felt increasingly exhausted.
Perhaps it was because of its body.
Or perhaps it was because of that human.
Standing atop the icy rock, it flapped one wing and disappeared deeper into the cave.
However...
Compared with the clean cave entrance of the past, three lifelike miniature ice sculptures had appeared in one corner at some point.
One was a bird Pokémon, one was a fox Pokémon, and the last was a young human man sitting cross-legged on the ground.
"Rrr..."
On the summit of Snow Top Mountain, where the wind and snow were blowing harder than usual, an indistinct cry echoed through the air.
The Trainers resting at the Pokémon Center looked toward the highest point of the mountain with fervent gazes.
They knew that was where the guardian of Snow Top Mountain resided.
Unfortunately.
Because of regulations issued by the League, Snow Top Mountain would be completely closed off for the next three years, and climbing above halfway up the mountain would also be prohibited for five years. Their chances of seeing it during this period were essentially nonexistent.
Even if it was under circumstances where it had saved someone.
Closing off an area was a very common method of protecting a Pokémon habitat.
Even Viridian Forest would occasionally be closed for a month every decade or so.
Although a place as large as that could not completely prevent people from secretly entering in violation of the rules, that one month was enough to allow Viridian Forest to recover considerably.
Apart from those in the know, nobody would ever discover that a Legendary Pokémon on Snow Top Mountain was constantly growing weaker.
Near Snow Top Mountain.
In an unknown small town.
Silas calmly pushed open the doors of the Pokémon Center.
He paid no attention to the strange looks from the people around him and walked straight toward Nurse Joy.
"Excuse me, Nurse Joy. Here's my identification. I'd just like to book a room for one day."
Nurse Joy looked curiously at the handsome young man in front of her and quickly completed the registration.
After giving him the standard instructions, she hesitated before speaking.
"The weather is still quite cold right now. This place is also close to Snow Top Mountain, so you should make sure to keep yourself warm. A Trainer's physical condition is important too. If you start feeling unwell, your Pokémon will worry about you as well."
Silas smiled.
"Okay. Thank you for your concern, Nurse Joy. I'll head back and get some rest first."
It was the middle of winter, yet he was wearing an ordinary short-sleeved shirt that Yuriko had bought for him. No wonder people would say something like that to him.
After his voice faded away, Nurse Joy at the front desk was still frowning.
"What's wrong with you, Rika? Why are you so worried?"
Her friend beside her teased her.
"It's not that." Nurse Joy shook her head. "You know that Trainer too, right? His walking posture just now was really strange. It looked very unnatural."
"Oh, you're just being too sensitive."
The other Nurse Joy did not think much of it.
In this relatively small town, there naturally wasn't much work for them to do.
Likewise, there wasn't much gossip available for them to chat about.
Now that a famous Trainer had finally arrived, it was only natural that he would become the center of their conversations for a while.
Meanwhile.
After returning to his room, Silas lay on the bed with one leg crossed over the other.
Around him, all twelve of his Pokémon were sprawled lazily across the floor in various poses.
The past two months had really worn them out.
Not only did they have to train every day, but they also had to participate in a large number of battles every few days.
"Beep."
The notification sound from his wristwatch rang out.
"Marked item No. 32 has been sold. The buyer has transferred the payment into your account. Please check and confirm receipt."
No. 32?
Silas thought about it for a moment.
Oh, it was a Water Stone of fairly decent quality.
"Piplup."
Prinplup staggered over to the bed and climbed onto it, looking utterly hopeless as it dragged itself over to Silas.
Yes, this unlucky little guy still had not evolved.
It wasn't because it wasn't working hard, though. It was because of a requirement Silas had imposed.
Because of this, for more than half a month, a large portion of Prinplup's training had been shifted toward move training.
Even so, Prinplup still felt as though the energy inside its body was swelling unbearably.
"Not using an Everstone is also a form of training for you." Silas rubbed the little guy's head. "But your item will arrive tomorrow. After that, you won't have to endure it anymore."
The light of hope immediately returned to Prinplup's eyes.
Its two wings tightly grabbed Silas's arm.
Silas was helpless.
"Really. I'm not lying to you."
"Piplup!"
Prinplup immediately became overjoyed.
Its body suddenly sprang up from the bed.
The other partners didn't even bother lifting their heads.
The older members of the team were still training their own abilities.
Escavalier was silently maintaining its knight's lance.
Dreepy and Gible, meanwhile, had not changed at all. They were still nestled beside Alolan Ninetales, doing everything they could to curry favor with her.
As Dragon-type Pokémon, the two little guys' growth rate certainly had not embarrassed their species.
They ate plenty of food, yet their levels had barely increased.
After all, under the same amount of time and with even less investment, Prinplup had already gone from the state it had been in immediately after evolving to a state where it would evolve into Empoleon on its own if it stopped suppressing itself.
By comparison, the two little guys, whose levels had only increased by single digits, really were just like Escavalier.
"Kia."
Escavalier, which was polishing its lance, sharply raised its head and looked toward Silas.
I know you're thinking something bad, even though I have no evidence.
Silas spread his hands.
I'm not. Don't overthink it.
Escavalier became even more certain of its own perception.
This was the greatest improvement it had made over the past two months.
As an outstanding expert in defensive counterattacks, Escavalier was now exceptionally good at catching onto its opponent's thoughts.
The training process and method were very simple.
Fight constantly.
Looking back over these past two months, Escavalier had experienced the most battles of all.
Prinplup came second.
The first six Pokémon were not worth mentioning. Gallade and Alolan Ninetales were currently in a period of rapid growth in strength, so they only needed a small number of battles to maintain their condition.
The last two little ones were simply too weak in combat. At most, they could beat each other up to train.
That left Escavalier and Prinplup, who were in the middle of the group, to shoulder the burden.
Judging solely by the degree of their improvement, the former was not inferior to the latter at all.
Their levels made that obvious. A level 55 Pseudo-Elite Pokémon was already a formidable Pokémon no matter where it was placed.
"Beep."
The wristwatch sounded again.
This time, however, it wasn't a notification from the marketplace.
It was a message from one of Silas's friends.
"The item can arrive tomorrow morning. I'll bring it over to you. I can also share one of my discoveries with you while I'm there."
The message itself was simple, but the person who sent it was anything but ordinary.
Silas raised an eyebrow and replied:
"You're a Champion, for crying out loud. Are you really this free? The Hoenn Champion keeps running around Johto all day. Does that really make sense?"
The other person quickly replied with a smiling emoji.
"What can I do? Johto doesn't have a Champion."
It was an extremely casual statement, yet somehow brutally cutting.
Fortunately, Silas wasn't from the Johto region. Kanto not having a Champion and Johto not having a Champion were two completely different concepts. They couldn't be confused.
"Tsk. What a narcissistic guy."
Silas complained to the air.
Thinking about it, Steven really did have a famous saying:
"Looks like I'm number one after all. I'm the strongest, and I'm amazing."
And the annoying part was that he was actually worthy of saying something like that.
As for whether he was really free or not.
As far as Silas knew, Steven owned properties in regions all over the world. There were at least a hundred of them in total.
The reason was very simple.
He only wanted places to stay nearby whenever he went digging for stones.
This top-ranked member of the NEET trio was notorious for being unwilling to bother with official affairs.
"Piplup."
Prinplup approached with a flattering expression.
Under Silas's tireless teaching, it could understand some human writing.
Naturally, it knew that this was the person providing the Water Stone it needed to evolve.
"Seriously, I'm the one paying for it here."
Silas grumpily pressed down on Prinplup's head.
Prinplup just grinned foolishly, completely ignoring whatever its boss was saying.
---
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