The always unflappable Chairwoman of the Paldea Pokémon League, Geeta, actually froze for a brief moment.
Right after that, her fingers, which were already interlocked, tightened slightly, as if she were forcing herself to stay calm.
On the surface, Geeta still looked as serene as ever, but just from the creases on her gloves one could tell: the usually meticulous chairwoman was anything but calm inside.
Geeta took a deep breath and slowly said,
"Could you please say that again?"
Lucas blinked. He hadn't expected such a big reaction from her, and repeated,
"I convinced the King of Bountiful Harvests from Galar's ancient legends into coming to my farm."
Geeta: !
Shock? Delight? Or something more complicated?
Geeta herself wasn't sure what she was feeling. She gently massaged her suddenly throbbing temples, then pulled out her portable communicator to look up relevant information.
Even though Galar was technically a neighboring region, Geeta didn't actually know that much about its history and myths—at best, just the stories about the Sword and Shield heroes and the Darkest Day.
Having a basic grasp was enough. Just the mass of issues in Paldea alone kept her far too busy; where would she find the leisure to study Galar's legend of the King of Bountiful Harvests?
Lucas waited quietly while Geeta browsed through the information.
A short while later, Geeta set down her communicator and exhaled deeply. Her eyes, now carrying a hint of shock, turned toward Lucas.
To be blunt, after reading through that extremely niche legend in Galar—so obscure that even the mythological materials had to be requested from subordinates—her first reaction was that this so-called King of Bountiful Harvests probably didn't exist in this world at all.
If a being really existed that could make all flowers bloom, enrich the soil, and ensure bountiful crops, then why did so many cities in Galar still rely on importing goods from other cities—or even from Paldea—to keep functioning?
Not to mention, the King of Bountiful Harvests legend completely contradicted the Galar myths she did know: Galar had once been ruled by a royal family, not some mythical king who governed the entire region.
But… even though all her rationality told her the King of Bountiful Harvests was a fiction, the moment Lucas calmly mentioned it right in front of her, Geeta felt that even without seeing the being in person, she ought to believe him.
"Did the King of Bountiful Harvests come to Paldea to spread its faith?"
As expected of the Paldea League's Chairwoman and Top Champion, once she made a decision, her mind worked with frightening clarity. She went straight to analyzing what the King of Bountiful Harvests' true motive might be.
"If its power is truly as the legends describe… the Paldea League is willing to fully cooperate in spreading its faith!"
In Geeta's view, if everything was real, the existence of the King of Bountiful Harvests would catapult Paldea into a phase of rapid development. Using public welfare and people's livelihoods as a stepping stone, its influence could radiate to every industry, allowing them to surpass the other leagues' achievements.
As if she could already see Paldea's glorious future, Geeta felt her long-quiet heart begin pounding hard again.
This rapid-fire outburst from Geeta left Lucas a little stunned. Seeing her so fired up—like she was ready to launch a grand political blueprint the moment anything was confirmed—Lucas paused suspiciously, then carefully said:
"Is there any chance that, in reality, the King of Bountiful Harvests got tired of being a king and stopped wanting to answer the endless expectations of its followers? So it chose to leave Galar with me and work on my farm as just an ordinary farmer?"
The instant Lucas said this, Geeta's expression cooled from ignited to utter disbelief.
Her eyes widened, and she uncharacteristically lost her composure again as she stammered,
"…What did you say?"
Lucas sighed and patiently repeated the whole story to Geeta.
Then, he moved on to the reason he had specifically called her here.
Because of Calyrex's arrival, the farm would definitely be entering a period of rapid development.
Right now, the agricultural zone still had some undeveloped space, but in the foreseeable future, thanks to Calyrex, the farmland would gradually become insufficient.
The farmland running out wasn't the truly urgent problem, though. What really mattered were the other issues this shortage implied.
As the Pokémon on the farm became more and more diverse, the current monotonous environment would obviously no longer be able to meet everyone's needs—like how Regice, Glastrier, the Sandslash couple, and Vulpix all had to share a single cold storage area.
Because of this, Oranguru, having long since seen this coming, had already raised the proposal of expanding the scope of the farm.
However, the major leagues in the Pokémon world had been paying more and more attention to maintaining clear boundaries between developed land and wild areas. To avoid affecting wild Pokémon habitats, most construction projects were built only on land that had already been developed.
Developing new wild areas required a long string of complex procedures and review times—by the time everything was approved, it'd be far too late.
Since he had connections, Lucas naturally wanted to make use of them to save himself some trouble—
Having connections but insisting on suffering through everything alone wasn't integrity, it was stupidity.
"I've already surveyed the area around my farm," Lucas continued. "Because it's close to human dwellings, there are basically no wild Pokémon there. If, during development, any such groups do appear, I'll take full responsibility for helping them find a new habitat—or I'll directly bring them into the farm."
When he finished, Geeta remained silent for a long time before she finally managed to settle her emotions.
Even so, that shocking bit of news—that the King of Bountiful Harvests no longer intended to be a king—kept circling in her mind.
Geeta drew in a long breath.
"I'll personally keep an eye on the development process and speed up the approval… but—"
It was as if Lucas had already seen through what she was going to say—or perhaps a certain someone had already read her thoughts in advance and was now borrowing his mouth to express its goodwill.
"Since I've settled down in Paldea, if anything truly dangerous happens, I naturally won't sit back and do nothing. That's what Calyrex said."
Be it sudden natural disasters or threats from ancient times and the distant future—if things truly reached an emergency point, then even if it was just a humble farmer now, the King of Bountiful Harvests wouldn't mind showing off a bit of its true strength.
"That's even better, then."
Geeta's eyes lit up slightly. With that, her last lingering doubts were completely dispelled.
If there was one thing that worried Geeta most as Paldea's actual ruler, it was Paldea's ability to resist disaster.
By disaster, she didn't just mean ordinary natural and human-made calamities; the Paldea League had been continuously improving their contingency plans for those. What truly weighed on Geeta's mind was Paldea's ability to withstand legendary Pokémon-level threats.
It was almost ironic.
Kanto had the legends of Ho-Oh and Lugia.
Sinnoh had its creation myths about gods of time, space, and beyond.
Paldea, on the other hand, had none of those reassuring myths—only the Great Crater of Paldea, like a Pandora's box that had to be guarded with utmost vigilance.
Position determines mindset. Since she bore the weight of Paldea's future on her shoulders, Geeta pushed herself to grow stronger and worthy of the title of Top Champion, even as she constantly fretted over these seemingly invisible crises.
But now, things were different. With the King of Bountiful Harvests, Calyrex, making such a promise, she felt much more at ease.
At the very least, Paldea wouldn't end up in danger if, say, Groudon and Kyogre started fighting again on the other side of its seas, in Hoenn.
Geeta was in an exceptionally good mood. Before leaving Lucas's office, she kindly offered a reminder.
"Lately, there've been some rumors of hauntings at the academy. Some teachers and students have had their valuables disappear mysteriously. I've already asked Ryme to come investigate whether some Ghost-type Pokémon are playing pranks, but you'd better not leave anything important in your office."
After that, Geeta waved lightly and left Lucas's office.
Lucas, meanwhile, fell into thought.
Hauntings?
Valuables going missing?
That really didn't sound like something that should be happening at Naranja Academy.
After pondering for a moment, Lucas picked up the school's internal comm device installed in his office and called Dendra over right after her class ended.
Technically, Lucas was Dendra's superior, so she trotted in and greeted him very respectfully—even though, in reality, Lucas was five or six years younger than her.
Lucas had called Dendra in partly to relay Paul's feedback word-for-word and gently suggest she diversify her teaching content a bit, but also to ask her for more detailed information about the haunting rumors.
When Lucas heard that the missing items were all shiny objects—most of them made of gold—and that even Nurse Miriam's precious gold engagement ring had disappeared, his expression instantly grew strange.
What kind of weird romcom-light-novel-style ring was that supposed to be?
After Dendra received Lucas's suggestions, she looked like she'd been set on fire with motivation, racing out of the office.
Judging from the way she left, she probably wasn't even planning to take a lunch break and would go straight into prepping her afternoon lessons, right?
The office fell quiet again. Lucas released Dragonite, Comfey, Shuckle, and Naclstack, letting them move freely around the room, then rubbed his chin, thinking about the identity of this ghost that seemed especially fond of stealing gold.
To be honest, it was almost too obvious.
If you mentioned just one of the elements alone, Lucas wouldn't have been nearly so certain.
But if you put "ghost" and "gold" together, and it was happening in Paldea… then the identity of the Pokémon behind it was practically screaming itself.
To confirm his guess, Lucas poked at his basically useless, presence-weaker-than-Mimikyu's system.
"Is it who I think it is?"
[Yes, it's a Gimmighoul, Host]
The system might not be much use in many ways, but it had never been wrong on intel. If it said so, it was almost certainly true.
Yup. Confirmed. It was Gimmighoul's doing.
Thinking of Gimmighoul, Lucas's mind immediately jumped to that time in the Asado Desert.
When he and Raifort came out of the tomb, the Gimmighoul had completely vanished. He had no idea how it was doing now. Was it still living in that sand-whipped wasteland?
…
In some hidden corner of Naranja Academy's library, a Gimmighoul was happily counting up the fruits of its recent labors.
From Gimmighoul's perspective, all those towering shelves crammed with books looked downright terrifying—but thanks to the narrow gaps between them, it could slip through and move safely anywhere in the academy.
This Gimmighoul had been at the academy for quite some time.
It had come here all the way from the far-off Asado Desert.
At first, Gimmighoul had planned to secretly latch onto that human who was so good at commanding Pokémon and leave the perilous desert by hitching a ride. In the end, because he never got into the car, its plan failed.
Luckily, although the woman driving had rather questionable skills behind the wheel, she still managed to take it out of the desert. Filled with gratitude, Gimmighoul took a small box of gold coins she had hidden between the seat cushions and quietly slipped out of the car, sneaking into the library.
The library was far safer than the Asado Desert. Gimmighoul had successfully built a base here and, using that as a center, started carrying out its grand plan—collecting 999 coins!
Its species was born with the instinct to wander tirelessly in search of coins until they reached that target number. Since Gimmighoul had no idea which kind of coin it needed, it simply began searching for anything shiny—especially gold items.
This particular Gimmighoul had long been separated from its treasure chest, so it could only pile all the items it collected into the gap behind a shelf.
Gimmighoul had carefully observed that even the humans who came with cleaning tools to dust the shelves never reached their hands all the way into that gap—after all, these wall-mounted, built-in shelves weren't meant to be moved around often.
During the day, it curled up in the crevice, waiting for nightfall before moving.
Under cover of darkness, its tiny body was nearly impossible to spot, not to mention Gimmighoul's innate Ghost-type ability to hide its presence.
Surrounded by a mountain of glittering gold, Gimmighoul's eyes shone. It was already daydreaming about the future—when it would finally gather all 999 coins and evolve into the legendary form of its kind!
"Cling~!"
Leaning against its most precious coin, Gimmighoul cupped its face in its hands and slowly drifted into a beautiful dream.
"Woof!"
Just then, a strangely distorted bark reached it from far away, making Gimmighoul open its eyes.
Panic flashed through its gaze. Its instincts and senses all screamed that something troublesome was heading its way.
The approaching aura was definitely that of another Ghost-type—one of its own kind. From Gimmighoul's experience, Ghost-type Pokémon normally didn't roam around in broad daylight like this.
Forcing itself not to make a sound, Gimmighoul looked left and right, then could only clutch its most proper, standard coin and worm its way deeper into the pile of stolen goods, hiding itself and the coin inside, praying it wouldn't be discovered.