Chapter 87: A Whole New Team
The news of Lord Lan's return spread throughout the capital on the very same day. Along with it, news of his adorable new appearance also made the rounds. This "adorable" was a direct quote from Queen Liz herself, and no one was allowed to refute it.
For a time, the area outside the palace was bustling with activity. Many residents of the capital wandered near the palace, hoping to catch a glimpse of Lord Lan's new form. But while the common folk couldn't enter the palace, certain others could. For example, the little blue-haired princess of the other branch of the Dragonite Clan, who had just turned ten this year.
"Lan~"
That afternoon, Iris charged straight into the palace, shouting and searching for Will everywhere. However, she scoured the entire palace and couldn't find the familiar figure. After running around by herself for half an hour, a tired Iris finally came to the courtyard.
"Sigh... where did Lan go?"
Iris sat on a bench in the courtyard and turned her head to the side. On the grass next to the bench sat a chubby orange Pokémon and a large, purple, wide-mouthed Pokémon. She didn't know where these two had come from, but she wasn't surprised by their sudden appearance. After all, one or two new Pokémon suddenly appearing by Liz's side was no longer a rare sight in her eyes.
Iris had come running the moment she heard Will was back, without listening to any other details, so she didn't know that the Lan she was familiar with now had a completely different look.
"...What are you running around for?"
Will and Golbat were sitting on the grass, leisurely sunbathing, when Iris suddenly came running back and forth.
"Ooh? Are you talking to me, big chubby guy?" Iris's eyes lit up.
She jumped off the bench and ran in front of Will, looking up at him. She had wanted to approach this somewhat cute Pokémon for a while now but was worried that being too forward might make it dislike her.
"So you didn't recognize me, huh," Will sighed helplessly.
That explained it. With Iris's personality, she should have immediately pounced on him the moment she knew he was back. At first, he had thought that maybe she had matured in the past two years. Thinking of this, Will couldn't help but look at the gardener auntie who was trimming branches in the courtyard. The auntie was smiling at them. Everyone clearly knew Iris was looking for him, but no one told her that the one sitting in the courtyard was him. They were clearly teasing the little girl.
"Hmm, you feel familiar," Iris said, suddenly frowning and staring into Will's eyes.
Gradually, her own eyes widened. She then threw herself forward, burying her entire body in Will's embrace.
"You recognize me now?" Will asked with a smile.
Although he didn't know how she had recognized him, he guessed it might have something to do with her Dragon Force. Could it have alerted her to his true identity? But that was just a guess. He wasn't a user of the Dragon Force, after all, and didn't know its specific effects.
"Lan! Lan!"
Iris fiercely nuzzled her cheek against his, with such force it looked like she was trying to start a fire.
She hadn't recognized him because of some special power. She didn't even know she possessed such a thing. It was because no matter how much his appearance had changed, the way Will looked at her had not. So, the moment she met his gaze, she immediately knew that this big, fat dragon was "Lan."
In the entire world, only the Pokémon named "Lan" would look at her with the same kind of gaze as her own mother and father.
"By the way, where's your Natu? Don't you usually carry it around?" Will raised a hand and patted the little girl's head, asking curiously. With how clingy she was to her Pokémon, how could they be separated?
"Hehe~" Iris had no idea what he was saying. Or rather, the little girl wasn't even listening, completely lost in her own world.
"Oh well... I should go check on Blaze and the others. After so long, he should have evolved into a Charmeleon by now," Will sighed, looking down at Iris, then stood up.
"Golbat?" Golbat was dozing off but quickly stood up when Will moved.
"I'm taking you to meet some friends. Oh, right, this is Iris. She's your friend from now on, too."
"Golbat."
"...Hello," Iris's attitude towards Golbat was rather cold.
She was a complete looks-chaser. A Pokémon like Golbat, which was neither cool, nor cute, nor majestic, nor elegant, really had a hard time earning her natural affection.
But with Will, it was different. Because they had already built a deep emotional foundation when he was a Dratini and a Dragonair, even though he had evolved into a "Shiny" Dragonite, Iris would still be very close to him.
"Lan, where are you going? Take me with you," Iris said, hugging his big leg when she saw him stand up, afraid he would leave her behind. She hadn't gone out to play with him in a long time and was now super excited.
"Won't your mother spank you?" Will asked with a smile, poking her.
"Take me, take me~"
"Alright, alright. Get on."
Will scooped up the little girl, held her in his arms, and then flew into the sky with Golbat.
"Whoa~"
Flying in the sky again after so long, Iris waved her arms excitedly. Will ignored her and looked around. Having been away from the palace for two years, he couldn't immediately find the direction of the Pokémon Academy.
That's right. The Pokémon Academy. Because the laws of the Dragonite Kingdom no longer included the term "primal beast," all related institutions had been renamed. The Pokémon Academy, the Pokémon Research Institute, Pokémon Scholars, and so on...
Five seconds later, Will finally got his bearings and set off.
In the sky.
"So fast~" Iris shouted from his arms. In the past, it would take Will five minutes to fly from the palace to the academy. But now, even though he hadn't learned Extreme Speed and a Dragonite's speed stat is only 80, he was still much faster than before. Reaching the academy now only took a minute. After all, his level was much higher.
"When I left, I was the strongest in the academy. Now that I'm back, I should be the strongest in the kingdom, right? Maybe they'll even give me a title like 'Guardian Dragon God' or something, haha," Will couldn't help but grin as he looked at the rapidly approaching academy. To be blunt, in the entire Dragonite Kingdom, there probably wasn't a single Pokémon with a higher level than him. At most, the Pokémon of a few generals might be around his level.
He descended. A large number of Pokémon had already gathered on the plains below. No one was blind; they could all see the two giant Pokémon arriving from the sky. They all considered this academy their territory, and now that outsiders had intruded, they felt they had to investigate.
However, in the crowd below, a standing green bird Pokémon saw Iris in Will's arms and froze, its head tilting. Then, a spark of life appeared in its cloudy, vacant eyes. It flapped its wings and flew towards a small grove of trees inside the plains.
"Lan, look! It's Nattie! Why is she flying away?" Iris saw the flying Xatu and quickly pointed it out to Will.
"A Xatu? So it evolved," Will said, giving the peculiar Pokémon a second look. He hadn't expected Iris to have learned to send her Pokémon to the academy. But after a moment's thought, it wasn't too surprising. After all, Iris had always been smart. He used to bring her to the academy to fight all the time. Later, she had seen Liz send her other Pokémon to the academy as well. With her cleverness, even if she didn't understand the specific reason, she would know there was a benefit to doing the same.
So its level is at least 25. Not bad, Will nodded to himself. Although that level wasn't high, the problem was that its Trainer, Iris, was only 10 years old. By the time she reached Liz's age, 20 years from now, with her intelligence and the knowledge she had learned from him, her Xatu's level would definitely not be lower than his own current level.
As for how far she could go, Will wasn't sure. He could only wait and see. The only pity was that a Xatu's direct combat talent was not highly ranked in reality. Neither its stats nor its typing had anything particularly noteworthy. But that didn't mean it was useless. Because of its movepool, a Xatu could be a very powerful support player. Especially on the battlefields of this era, with armies of hundreds or thousands clashing, there was no opportunity for 1v1 duels. This gave a Xatu a great opportunity to shine. In such a battle, a powerful and competent support could have a huge impact.
As for where the Xatu had flown off to, Will found out a minute later. It had gone to get the gang.
When Will saw the Pokémon the Xatu brought back, his eyes lit up. The scrawny little Charmander had grown into a robust Charizard. The two frenzied Gyarados now seemed somewhat gentle, and it looked like they had become a couple. The mischievous Gligar now had a hint of a domineering aura, like a miniature Gliscor.
Adding in the Golbat he had brought back this time, Liz's team was truly brand new.
But the more Will looked, the more something felt off, and he finally had a sudden realization.
The leader of the Dragonite Clan, the founding queen of the Dragonite Kingdom... of her five Pokémon, including Will, almost all were Flying-types, and the only Dragon-type was Will himself! And looking at Iris, her two Pokémon were also Flying-types, with not a single Dragon-type.
"Well... Gyarados and Charizard are at least half-dragon, right...?"
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