Chapter 26: The Kindergarten's Problem Child
"There's actually a real kindergarten?!"
Will was shocked. He was currently on a plain in the northernmost part of the Dragonite Kingdom's capital. In this place was a school built specifically for infant-stage beasts and those who had just recently matured.
When he first arrived, Will was astonished. He had never imagined that in an era where even the human education system had not yet been established, a Pokémon education system was already being attempted.
But after attending class for a day, he realized something was wrong. This was less of a Pokémon academy and more of a pet finishing school. The beast scholars here weren't teaching these young Pokémon about battle or knowledge. They were teaching them how to dine gracefully, how to walk elegantly, and where to go to the lavatory.
"..."
Will lay by himself under the cool shade of a tree, sighing as he watched a Meowth stroll elegantly across the lawn in front of him. He understood what was going on now. The Pokémon who came to this academy to be educated were all the Pokémon of nobles. And as nobles, they naturally had to learn aristocratic etiquette. Even their beasts were no exception.
This was a good sign, but also a bad one.
The bad sign, of course, was that it was delaying the Pokémon's rapid growth period. This golden stage of development, right after leaving infancy, was being wasted on learning such useless things. This was the Era of Primal Beasts, not the Era of Leagues. In the Era of Leagues, it wouldn't matter if you learned etiquette or spent all day eating, drinking, and sleeping. But in this era, wasn't this just asking for death? When an enemy came knocking at their door, was this etiquette going to save the nobles?
But the reason it was a good sign was that it also proved these nobles were beginning to treat their Pokémon as members of their families, and not just as simple tools. Would those nobles make their own horses learn etiquette? No. Because they were just tools for transportation. These nobles would only send their own children to etiquette school or hire private tutors.
At the same time, this kindergarten also served as a research and observation institute for the beast scholars. They would silently observe the different habits of different Pokémon in order to record and study them.
"No! This is a complete waste of time! I don't want to be a Dratini any longer!"
Will stood up in frustration, looking out at the thirty or forty young Pokémon on the grassland. He did not want to live a life where he had to molt twice every single day for a year. He had to evolve, fast!
"Then allow me to help you all get on the right track."
An evil smile spread across Will's face. He scanned the area and noticed that there were very few large Pokémon on the plain. At 2.5 meters long, he was already one of the biggest. This was probably because most people were still afraid to raise Pokémon that were already huge in their first stage.
"Let's start... with you."
Will's gaze finally settled on a Shuckle. This Shuckle was only 0.6m tall. In the Era of Leagues, that would be an average height, but in this era, it was either malnourished or had definitely not yet left its infant stage. Whatever the case, Will was confident he wouldn't lose to it.
"Shuck?"
The Shuckle was startled to see such a long serpent approaching it and immediately withdrew its head and four limbs into its shell.
[Withdraw]
It was an innate skill for Shuckle, which raised its physical defense.
"Muda da!"
Will didn't care about any of that. With a flick of his tail...
[Twister]
A Dragon-type special attack was unleashed. A silvery whirlwind rose from the ground and swept towards the Shuckle.
"Shuckle~"
Hit by the attack, the Shuckle's eyes immediately turned to swirls.
"Yep, definitely a baby," Will nodded, looking at the one-shotted Shuckle. He was only level five, so his Twister wasn't very powerful. The entire whirlwind was only about a meter high; a newborn tornado, you could say. Yet the Shuckle was still taken out in one hit. There was only one possibility: it was so weak because it was still an infant. Otherwise, with a Pokémon like Shuckle's insane stat distribution, knocking it out would be extremely difficult.
Too bad I can't see an experience bar. I don't know if I get EXP for beating up babies. I'll just have to try a few more times. Will glanced at his status screen, but there was no change.
And so, he began to look around, selecting his next target. But things obviously weren't going to go as smoothly as he thought. Because of his actions, all the beast scholars and other Pokémon on the plain had now noticed him.
"Lord Lan! Look what you've done!" Scholar A rushed over to check on the Shuckle's condition. Relieved to find it was only temporarily fainted, he stood up, preparing to reprimand Will.
"Stop! Lord Lan is not like the other beasts!" Another scholar, Scholar B, grabbed his arm and stared warily at Will, afraid he might suddenly go berserk. His reminder made Scholar A immediately realize the situation. These noble-owned beasts were hatched from eggs and had lived beside their masters since birth; they had no wild instincts.
But Will was a wild beast that Her Majesty had brought back from the wilderness.
Will glanced at them, then simply walked away, returning to the shade of the tree and pretending to be a good little boy.
"Whew... it seems Lord Lan has no intention of attacking us."
"Perhaps he just had a disagreement with this turtle-beast?"
"I don't know. Let's take it back for a full diagnosis first."
"Alright."
Seeing Will lie down and not move, the two scholars breathed a sigh of relief, then picked up the Shuckle and left.
After the two of them were gone, Will stood up with a smile. This time, his eyes landed on a Teddiursa that was 0.5m tall and, without a doubt, still an infant.
One minute later, the villainous Will had caused the once-adorable, thumb-sucking Teddiursa to faint.
"Alright, before those two get back, I'll keep fighting. I'll aim to gain two or three levels today."
Will forcefully "stood up," lifting his head to scan the area for any people. Confirming he was alone, he began to wantonly bully the babies.
"Hiyah!"
"Take this!"
"Oof!"
...
In the evening, when Scholar A and Scholar B returned to the small plain, they felt as if their world was collapsing.
The Teddiursa was sitting on the ground, wailing its eyes out. The Houndour had a large bump on its head and was barking furiously at Will, who was dozing under a tree in the distance. Besides them, the ground was littered with a host of other fainted Pokémon: Rattata, Weedle, Bellsprout, Sandshrew, Meowth... As far as the eye could see, every single Pokémon was either lying on the ground or injured.
"Good heavens! What happened here?!"
"What in the world happened?! Can someone tell me!"
The two scholars clutched their heads, on the verge of a breakdown as they looked at the scene of carnage.
The Shuckle, who had been brought back, trembled in the back, staring at the great serpent under the tree. The serpent seemed to sense its gaze, opened one eye, and gave it a "friendly" smile.
The Shuckle's eyes rolled back, and it fainted from fright.
The Pokémon that were still conscious saw the two beast scholars arrive and immediately ran over to tattle. Although the scholars couldn't understand what they were saying, from their gazes and gestures, they could clearly see that the cause of all this was the cute, well-behaved looking Dratini under the tree.
"Lord Lan..."
"Is, without a doubt, a problem child..."