Chapter 443:
"Latias~"
On the way back from Alto Mare, Latias kept humming a happy tune, though Kaede couldn't quite make out the melody.
Her mood remained high throughout, and she even gave Kaede a piece of...
[Congratulations, Host, for raising Latias's Happiness Level from -30 to 85. Reward: Ten Bags of High-Grade Fertilizer, Ten Rare Candies, One Latiasite Mega Evolution Stone Set.]
Hmm... a set of stones that would allow her to Mega Evolve herself.
That was a bit... hard to process. But given the jump in Happiness Level, receiving Latias's own Mega Stone didn't seem too strange.
After handing the rogue sisters over to Officer Jenny in Alto Mare, Kaede didn't linger long.
It was already dusk. Kaede thought about telling Latias she didn't need to come to work today, but Latias insisted. Today's batch of Energy Cubes wasn't finished yet; she had to come back and complete her workload.
Well, finishing work on time is a good thing.
A slight regret was that during this trip, he didn't run into Ash and his group.
That wasn't strange either. After all, Latias, who would have been the catalyst, had spent most of the day at the Breeding House, so it was normal Ash wouldn't encounter her.
Looking at it this way, his presence seemed to have already affected two movie plots.
*Pokémon Heroes*, and *Pokémon the Movie: Black - Victini and Reshiram & White - Victini and Zekrom*.
Victini had already broken free from the guardian monument itself and was off who-knows-where playing with Mew every day, thus making another encounter with Ash was rather unlikely.
Kaede found this somewhat amusing.
Because he had basically never actively traveled outside the Eastova League, nor had he sought out anyone specific in this world. Yet he'd already run into quite a few "familiar faces."
Shaking his head, Kaede didn't dwell on it. He looked down at Giratina. "Giratina, sorry for the trouble. The new batch of Pecha Berry Wine is ready. I'll send a barrel over later~"
"…"
[Good…]
....
Day by day, the weather grew hotter. As the seasons turned, the sweltering summer, accompanied by the chirping of cicadas, stepped firmly into May.
Visible changes were everywhere: the stars in the sky grew denser, the moon shone brighter, and the green rice seedlings in the town's fields grew lush and thick.
In the blink of an eye, it was May 4th.
The Breeding House hadn't welcomed back Mew, but the town itself welcomed a new construction project.
A Gym was being built…
When Kaede first heard this news, he was merely curious.
But upon seeing the scale of the Gym's construction, he was shocked.
A National-Level Gym?!
It was well known that in the Eastova region, Gyms had tiers.
The more accessible ones were City-Level Gyms. The badges from these were needed for general competitions, like the Junior Cup.
Above those were Province-Level Gyms. The badges obtained from challenging these served as the ticket to enter the Pokémon League Conference.
But above even that, there existed National-Level Gyms.
The qualifications for this were specific: clearly, only Trainers bestowed with the title of Elite Four by the League could establish one.
In the entire Eastova League, those qualified to serve as National-Level Gym Leaders numbered only seven—the six Elite Four members and the former League Champion.
Currently, there were only two National-Level Gyms in the whole Eastova League.
One was the Inception Gym, run by the Grass-type Elite Four member. The other was the Zenith Gym, established by the former Eastova League Champion.
This carried immense prestige.
Generally, Trainers who could challenge such Gyms were, at minimum, those who had placed in the Pokémon League Conference.
The existence of such Gyms wasn't without purpose.
This was a policy promoted by Kazephyr five years ago: challenge National-Level Gyms, then proceed to the Galar region for the World Coronation Series rankings.
Of course, this challenge wasn't mandatory.
And now...
The third National-Level Gym in the Eastova League was to be established?
And it was to be built in Aogiri Town…
At first, Kaede wondered if it might be Kaito. Among the six Elite Four members, he was the only one who seemed to have endless free time, with his figure seen everywhere eating, drinking, and having fun—perhaps Kazephyr couldn't stand it anymore and assigned him this Gym duty.
But upon seeing the construction materials, equipment, and the Ice-type Pokémon helping out, Kaede was surprised.
The artificially created glaciers and various condensers clearly indicated this was an Ice-type Gym. In other words, the Elite Four member coming to Aogiri Town to establish an Ice-type Gym was the Ice-type Elite Four member—Rosaline...
"How strange..."
That was Kaede's first thought upon realizing this.
Because as far as he knew, Rosaline, the Ice-type Elite Four member, was the one among the six who was most consistently "away from home"—basically never within the Eastova League.
But now, she had chosen to found a Gym and settle in the Eastova League?!
Very strange.
The Gym site was next to the road connecting Aogiri Town to Aogiri City. The chosen area was vast, with large numbers of workers and Pokémon conducting surveys and construction. It seemed they aimed for completion before the year's end.
The establishment of a National-Level Gym wouldn't just mean more traveling challengers in the future. It would also bring significant development in transportation and the local economy.
Thus, the moment the news broke, the neglected land near the new Gym was frantically bought up. Various corporate executives began frequenting the town. The swiftest among them dared to start building a department store directly across from the Gym site.
Hmm, that seemed to be Ikeoka Sho's father.
"Feels like we've suddenly stepped into a period of economic development," Kaede remarked, heading back inside.
Beyond the main road, the areas on both sides actually belonged to Aogiri City. So the town would remain a town; no one would build houses too close to this side anyway.
He rarely went out these days.
Because whenever he did, he'd run into townsfolk who would then praise him for being accomplished.
Things like—"That kid Kaede, I've watched him since he was little..." or "It's all thanks to Kaede..."
They believed all the changes in town were brought about by him.
Kaede didn't really know how to explain this, so he usually just smiled and moved on.
Back home, while Kaede was still pondering what to have for lunch, Rotom suddenly flew over.
"Master, there's an unknown call incoming..."
"Unknown call?" Kaede had it connected.
From the other end of the line, a voice that was both unfamiliar and familiar soon came through.
"Hello? Is this Mr. Kaede?"