"So you're telling me you made this all by yourself?"
Inside the Imperial Capital Research Institute, Marie, wearing a white lab coat, adjusted her glasses and gave the test tube of red liquid in her hand a gentle shake, glancing over the stack of test results Lucy had just brought in.
It wasn't that anything was wrong. If anything, the results in this report were almost too good to be true.
Marie looked at her son with a suspicious eye. How had she never noticed that her mischievous boy had a skill like this hidden away?
The brewing method still needed plenty of refinement, but according to the test results, this was, without question, a genuine high-grade potion.
Under the Cloudspire Alliance's official Breeder assessment system, if this potion really had come from her son's hands, he would easily meet the requirements to be considered for the rank of Senior Breeder.
Standing nearby, Lucy looked just as stunned. She had practically watched this younger brother grow up, and she already knew he had real talent as a Trainer. What she hadn't expected was for him to turn out to be this gifted as a Breeder, too.
After all, she herself had been working hard in Pokémon research since before she even graduated, and even now she had only reached the rank of Senior Researcher.
"Heh, it's not that impressive. Honestly, it was mostly luck. I didn't even finish the formula myself."
"It really was a stroke of luck. Because of, um, some special circumstances, I came across a senior researcher's notes, and I just made a few small changes of my own."
David chuckled, feeling a little awkward under the combined gaze of his mother and Sister Lucy.
Still smiling, he earned himself a sharp look from his mother. Even if David hadn't worked out the formula entirely on his own, did that really make it any less impressive?
To anyone who didn't know better, David's words might have sounded like he was humble-bragging. But his casual tone was misleading.
No one in their right mind would believe a Senior Breeder could just casually toss together the formula for a high-grade potion!
Think about it: if making a high-grade potion really were as simple as David made it sound, something anyone could whip up from a random notebook, then the title of Senior Breeder wouldn't be worth much at all.
And that wasn't even counting the fact that David himself had admitted to modifying the formula afterward.
Changing a few ingredients might sound minor, but in practice, it was something most ordinary Breeders simply weren't capable of doing.
David, who had no formal background in professional Breeding, was overestimating what an average Breeder could do and underestimating his own ability. Given the skill he had just shown, he could likely pass an intermediate Breeder qualification exam without much trouble.
As for David mentioning that he had unexpectedly come into possession of an unknown high-grade potion formula, Lucy hadn't fully processed that part yet. She mostly just assumed her little brother had been incredibly lucky.
Stumbling onto something like a unique high-grade secret formula was the kind of luck that could become the founding treasure of an entire Breeder school.
Finding something like that through pure chance was far rarer than simply finding money or resources, but the payoff was much greater as well.
Whether David eventually used the formula as his own personal calling card or submitted it to the Alliance in exchange for a share of the profits, it was a valuable asset either way.
There was no denying it: David had been remarkably lucky to stumble onto something like this.
Marie, however, was not so easily convinced. As David's mother, she shot him an annoyed look, well aware of exactly what kind of "good deeds" her son had gotten up to over this holiday.
First, he had clashed with the so-called End Church, an organization that, while not yet widely known, was tied to Yveltal, the Destruction Pokémon, and was certainly nothing to take lightly. After that, he had gone up against the Supreme Organization over the Sea God's Divine Power Crystal, deep within a sunken temple.
This troublesome boy seemed to run into one dangerous situation after another every time he left home. Who was to say this secret formula hadn't come from yet another dangerous place?
If it weren't for the Dragapult his father had lent him, David might already be wandering the Reverse World after a run-in with the Renegade Pokémon, instead of standing here showing off in front of her.
Both the potion formula in David's hands and the three Divine Feathers and Sea God's Divine Power Crystal he had brought back earlier were undeniably rare treasures.
The Sea God's Divine Power Crystal in particular was an exceptional find, even when measured against centuries of wealth accumulated by the Moore family.
The Sea Folk, even at the height of their power, had never quite matched the Moore family's influence, but they had still been a dominant force along the coastal regions of Cloudspire territory. As a treasure handed down through generations of the Sea Folk, a resource tied to a Legendary Pokémon like that carried immense value.
And now, all of these treasures her foolish son had brought home had become part of her research material.
Still, as his mother, she just wished he would settle down a little. All this excitement was hard on her nerves. As long as he stayed safe, that was really all that mattered to her.
David could only laugh and try to wave the comment off.
Honestly, though, his winter holiday adventures had been almost impossible to put into words.
Over the roughly month-long break, counting the Urshifu inheritance he had received from his maternal grandfather, he had somehow crossed paths with no fewer than seven Legendary Pokémon: the three Legendary Birds, Lugia, two Urshifu, and Yveltal. Technically it was eight, since a certain little someone had also been resting quietly in the shadows nearby, occasionally peeking out.
And that wasn't even counting his family's own guardian Pokémon, who was already far beyond the level of an ordinary Pokémon.
Thinking it over, David could understand exactly why his mother was upset. His luck really did sound a little absurd when laid out like that.
Most ordinary Trainers might never cross paths with a single Legendary Pokémon in their entire lives, yet somehow, in just one trip, Legendary-related events had swarmed around him like a kicked beehive.
He felt it was a little unfair, honestly. He hadn't even met a true Legendary Pokémon face-to-face himself, and yet all of this had still managed to happen around him anyway.
There really wasn't much he could do about it, was there?
If it weren't for the need for secrecy, and the need to confirm whether the potion he had made actually met standard, he wouldn't have wanted to reveal any of this in the first place.
"All right, that's enough standing around. If you're finished here, you can go! Dragapult will be staying with me for now. Once it cooperates with a full examination and I've recorded the data, I'll have Gallade bring him back to you."
Still busy with her experiments, Marie glanced at David, who was still lingering nearby, and told him plainly to leave.
There was no need to keep digging into her son's good fortune. As long as he understood what he was doing and wasn't putting himself in danger, that was good enough for her.
After leaving Dragapult behind in the lab, David found himself promptly "kicked out."
At the entrance of the Imperial Capital Research Institute, David shrugged, exchanged a glance with the Zorua beside him, then smiled helplessly and ruffled its head. Instead of heading back to his small apartment, he turned and made his way to the Moore family manor.
His mother had already agreed to let him set up a lab in his apartment, and had even arranged a professional team to handle the renovation. As for equipment, his family already owned the best gear available, so naturally he would just bring some of it home with him.
Setting it all up himself had never really crossed his mind.
A single top-tier Energy Cube production machine alone would cost at least seven figures.
People tended to underestimate just how expensive being a Breeder could be. To build a lab that actually met his needs, even his entire personal savings wouldn't come close to covering it.