Two days later.
Victor was nibbling on a youtiao and drinking the fresh soy milk that Gothita had ground by hand.
The moment the soy milk maker had arrived, Victor had taught Gothita and Mime Jr. how to use it.
So now he could enjoy delicious soy milk first thing in the morning.
Lilligant and Roselia opened the Breeding House's main door and hung out the "Open for Business" sign.
They looked at the large, rumbling truck outside, puzzled.
Victor heard the rumbling at the entrance and looked over.
Mayor Arthur, wearing a hard hat, rushed in.
"Owner Victor, you're up!"
Victor, his mouth full of youtiao, nodded.
Mayor Arthur came to the counter, catching his breath.
He saw the youtiao in front of Victor, a type of breakfast he had never seen before.
He casually picked one up and took a bite.
His eyes immediately lit up.
In the blink of an eye, he had finished Victor's breakfast.
Victor stared at the pot-bellied Mayor.
Do you have no shame? Coming here first thing in the morning and eating my breakfast?
When Gothita brought out a new serving of breakfast, Victor was incredibly moved.
As expected of a future Gothitelle. She's such a good caretaker.
Gothita handed Mayor Arthur a glass of soy milk. He took it, took a sip, smacked his lips, and then downed the rest in one go.
"What is this? It's quite good."
Mayor Arthur glanced at the cup, then handed it back to Gothita.
Immediately after, he grabbed Victor, who had just taken a bite of a new youtiao, and dragged him out the door.
"Come on, Owner Victor! The construction crew is here. Let's go discuss the specific plans with them."
Victor looked back at his breakfast on the table.
He reached out, trying to grab a youtiao, but it was just out of reach.
"Hey, wai—, my breakfast!"
Victor protested, but Mayor Arthur kept dragging him.
"Gothita, guard my breakfast for me!"
Gengar, having finished its own breakfast, glanced at Victor's plate.
It was puzzled.
"Gengar?"
(Victor's not eating?)
"Gengar—"
(Well, in that case, I won't mind if I do!)
Hearing Victor's muffled message, Gengar nodded.
It stuffed all the youtiao into its mouth, then gulped down the soy milk.
Wasting food is shameful!
With that, Gengar floated up and followed Victor.
Victor was dragged over to the construction crew by the Mayor. The supervisor was the same one from a few days ago.
They exchanged greetings, and the supervisor began to explain his plan.
Hearing it was serious business, Victor's expression also turned serious.
Well, I've already been dragged out, and my breakfast is gone. Might as well get to work.
"After surveying all day yesterday, we found our main problem. After we map out the road to a certain width, there are many trees and bushes blocking the path."
The supervisor pulled up the pictures his Rotom had taken yesterday and showed them to Victor and the Mayor.
Victor looked. It was indeed a problem. Because the road couldn't be too narrow, after they chose a suitable width, many untamed trees were now in the middle of the path.
At the same time, the more optimal route also cut through parts of the forest.
This led to another problem: if they chose the original, well-worn path, they could avoid more trees, but the route would be much longer. If they chose the optimal route, then these trees would need to be dealt with.
The group fell into thought.
"What if we move these trees to the sides of the new road?" Mayor Arthur suggested.
The supervisor shook his head.
"That would be very expensive, and it's not worth doing. Besides, we don't have enough manpower for that."
This road was too long.
They all knew it.
It took a normal person the better part of a day to walk its full length.
Even with the optimized route, it would still take about half a day.
"Why don't we just cut them all down?" Victor suggested.
"Absolutely not. That's completely out of the question," Mayor Arthur immediately replied.
Victor shook his head, looked at them, and said, "My meaning is, we cut them down, and then we replant new ones along the sides of the optimal path."
"And we can choose to plant berry trees. That way, the wild Pokémon will have food, and passing travelers or trainers can pick some if they're thirsty."
He explained his idea.
After all, in the Pokémon world, berry trees had a particularly fast growth cycle.
Other trees also grew much faster than normal.
"For every tree we cut down, we'll plant two in its place. We'll make this road even more perfect. That way, we won't have wronged the trees we removed."
Hearing Victor's words, the supervisor and Mayor Arthur exchanged a look.
The decision was left to the Mayor.
He was the mayor, after all.
Mayor Arthur hesitated for a good while, then gritted his teeth and nodded.
"Alright. Let's do it that way."
"But even just cutting them down will require a lot of manpower, which we still don't have," the supervisor added.
Victor thought about it. That was true.
Just as Victor was thinking they'd have to do it bit by bit, Vulpix gently rubbed its head against his pant leg.
Victor instantly understood what Vulpix meant.
"Don't worry about manpower. The Breeding House has plenty of Pokémon."
"I just asked them," Victor said, swallowing. "They are all very willing to help."
Hearing this, the supervisor and the Mayor were overjoyed.
With the help of so many Pokémon, they would indeed save a lot of time and money.
After the decision was made, Victor returned to the Breeding House, hung up the "Temporarily Closed" sign, and then got in the supervisor's car to mark all the trees that needed to be cut.
Like the marked trees, all the bushes also needed to be cleared.
Victor planned to plant flowers on the side. When they bloomed, the scenery would be beautiful.
Looking at the trees marked for removal, Victor felt a pang of regret.
But it was necessary for the road.
Victor explained the tree-cutting situation to Lilligant and entrusted her with organizing the forest Pokémon to help.
Lilligant nodded, then led Roselia back to the yard.
Victor, meanwhile, took out his phone and asked the seed shop if they had the seeds he wanted.
After he explained the situation to Grandpa Muji and his wife, they agreed at once and said they would deliver the seeds to the Breeding House that afternoon.
After hanging up, Victor went back to the kitchen and began to prepare a large batch of Poffins.
At the same time, he asked Gothita and Mime Jr. to prepare today's lunch.
...
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