After the battle, Lucien and the others took a short rest in the wilderness outside the Giant's Chasm.
Serperior and Dragonite were badly wounded. Even after using healing medicine, their physical exhaustion lingered, so Lucien returned them to their Poké Balls to rest properly.
"Without realizing it, a whole month has passed since I left the territory… It's time to go home," Lucien thought.
He turned to the three Swords of Justice behind him and extended an invitation.
"Cobalion, Virizion, Terrakion, we're heading back to Lucien City. Would you like to come with us and see the city I've been building?"
"Heh, I've been looking forward to it!" Terrakion grinned with excitement.
"In that case, we will trouble you," Cobalion replied with formal courtesy.
Virizion simply smiled, eyes filled with anticipation.
A short distance away, Kyurem remained silent, watching.
Lucien glanced at it, but he knew they had one more matter to settle before heading home:
The monster incident in Lacunosa Village.
The villagers believed Kyurem had come at night and eaten people.
Lucien looked up at Kyurem and asked:
"Kyurem, since arriving on this planet… have you ever visited that village?"
"I rarely leave my cave. I have never gone to a human settlement," Kyurem's deep, resonant voice replied.
Lucien let out a breath of relief.
As he suspected , the man-eating monster wasn't Kyurem.
However, Kyurem's appearance alone was terrifying enough that bringing it to the village openly would only cause panic.
Lucien paused to think, then took out a special Poké Ball made from an Apricorn.
"Kyurem, could you enter this for now?"
Kyurem looked at the ball for a moment…then calmly transformed into a beam of light and entered it.
The scene Lucien had imagined, Kyurem instantly breaking the Poké Ball, never happened.
Of course. A legendary of Kyurem's caliber could easily control its power.
That made things far easier.
Lacunosa Village
Lucien and the three Swords of Justice arrived smoothly.
The villagers who saw him first lit up with relief and joy.
"Master Beastmaster!"
But when their eyes fell on the three legendary Pokémon behind him, their expressions twisted into horror.
"B–Beasts!"
The Swords of Justice: "…."
"No need to panic," Lucien reassured them. "They're my friends."
Only then did the villagers realize these "beasts" were actually the noble Pokémon their Master Beastmaster commanded.
"Master, thank goodness you're safe!"
The villagers were overwhelmed with relief. Half a month ago, Lucien had gone into the mountains to help them repel a monster, but he had never returned.
Many feared he had been eaten.
Some villagers had tried forming a search party, but they heard a terrible scream partway into the mountain and fled back in terror.
"Village Chief," Lucien asked, turning to the old man who had taken him in, "while I was gone… did anyone go missing?"
The old chief shook his head.
"Thankfully, Beastmaster, no. Not a single villager has disappeared in the past two weeks."
Lucien exhaled in relief.
As darkness fell, the chief invited Lucien and his group to stay the night and prepared a hearty dinner.
During the meal, Lucien requested the record of missing villagers over the years and began reviewing the list.
As he skimmed the names, Cobalion finally asked:
"What exactly happened in this village?"
"In the past few decades, people have been disappearing from this village one after another.
The villagers believe they were eaten by Pokémon," Lucien explained succinctly.
"Pokémon… eat humans?"
All three Swords of Justice were visibly stunned.
Lucien nodded, organizing his thoughts before continuing:
"There are over a thousand Pokémon species in this world.Just like humans, some are good, and some are dangerous.Just as humans can enslave or harm Pokémon, some Pokémon can harm humans."
For example, the Chandelure line, they literally consume human souls. Or the Sandile and Mandibuzz in the desert that prey on travelers."
Cobalion, Terrakion, and Virizion were taken aback.
They had never considered the matter so broadly.
But Lucien was right, the world of Pokémon was vast and diverse, and conflict among species was natural.
"Everything has two sides," Lucien said, noticing their troubled expressions. "Pokémon sometimes hurt humans, and out of fear, humans sometimes hurt Pokémon. It's unavoidable."
"But… if we keep working at it, I believe we can change the way humans and Pokémon see each other."
He smiled softly.
Like the utopian world depicted in the anime.
Pokémon are intelligent. They have emotions, memories, and instincts. If even one ancestor witnesses harmony between humans and Pokémon, that memory becomes a seed, passed down generation after generation.
A seed that teaches their descendants: Humans feed us, help us grow, fight beside us, and protect us."
'That kind of world can't be created in one or two generations,' Lucien thought. 'Reaching it will require conflicts, setbacks, and time.'
The three Swords of Justice grew silent, deep in thought.
Lucien's words struck them far more deeply than he realized.For the first time, they questioned whether they themselves had misunderstood humanity.
Lucien smiled lightly and added:
"What we need to do is convey our ideas to all humans and Pokémon, so that everyone can understand each other correctly, and know that humans and Pokémon, and Pokémon and Pokémon, don't necessarily have to fight. We can coexist peacefully and live together in this world."
The three Swords of Justice looked at him and suddenly understood something:
Humans were not as black-and-white as they once believed.Lucien was proof of that.
At that moment, Lucien's eyes narrowed.
Something strange stood out in the list of missing villagers.
Most of the missing individuals over the years were…handsome, strong young men.
This pattern triggered a memory in Lucien's mind.
A certain Pokémon.
Froslass.
Froslass- Ice/Ghost-type.
A Pokémon said to be born from the spirit of a woman who perished on a snowy mountain, binding itself to an icicle.
Some legends said she was the reincarnation of a woman who died alone in the cold.
Lucien remembered its Pokédex entry clearly:
On blizzard nights, Froslass would descend the mountains and knock on the doors of human homes.
Anyone who answered would be greeted with breath cold enough to freeze them instantly , and then carried back to its den as decoration.
Froslass was said to target handsome men in particular.
Some regions even had rumors of Froslass using ghostly curses to punish "misbehaving" men.