After a night of passion, Icarus slept in the small house until dawn. It wasn't because he felt sorry for Luna, but simply because tomorrow's match wouldn't begin until 9:30 AM.
As for Luna, since they had already agreed to establish a Mental Contract, there was no longer any need for soft-hearted tactics.
Of course, that was only what he thought inwardly. There was no reason to actually say it aloud.
Still, Luna felt somewhat touched. In the past, Icarus would always leave immediately after satisfying himself and return home alone. This was the first time he had stayed the night with her.
The night passed quickly.
Early the next morning, after getting dressed with Luna's help and eating a simple breakfast together with his Pokémon, Icarus headed toward the Gym.
At around 9:10 AM, he spotted Airi and Stone anxiously waiting outside the entrance.
"Brother Icarus, where did you go? I went to your house this morning, but you weren't there!" Airi asked the moment she saw him.
"Uh… sorry for making you worry. I got up early today because a small family contacted me. They said they valued my potential and wanted to invest in me, so I went over this morning to hear their conditions."
Hearing Airi's question, Icarus suddenly felt like he'd been caught red-handed. His thoughts raced, and in the end, he decided to tell them about Luna—though naturally, with a heavily modified explanation.
After all, since he planned to bring Luna into the team as logistical support, it would be impossible to hide her from the two forever. He might as well prepare them in advance.
"So what conditions did they offer, Brother Icarus?" Stone asked curiously.
"Uh… let's head inside first. We can talk while we walk."
Seeing more and more people gathering nearby, Icarus quickly gestured for them to enter the Gym before continuing.
As they walked down the corridor, he began telling them his carefully prepared story—half true, half false.
"At first, that small family wanted me to marry into their family. They offered a very beautiful direct-descendant daughter, a high-level cultivation manual, a basic Body Tempering Art, and a full set of Pokémon training resources."
"T-Then… Brother Icarus, did you agree?" Airi immediately became nervous. Her delicate face tilted upward as her light-blue eyes stared at him uneasily.
"Haha, with my current strength and future potential, how could I let myself be tied down by a woman? Besides, Stone and I already have advanced manuals from practicing the Body Tempering Art. Of course I refused."
Seeing her anxious expression, Icarus laughed and rubbed her long blue hair.
"Mhm! Brother Icarus will definitely become a Superior-level Trainer in the future. By then, just like Captain Sam, plenty of people will be sending beautiful maids to your door anyway," Stone suddenly chimed in, as if he had noticed something.
"Exactly! Brother Icarus, you absolutely can't agree to marrying into some family. There'll be no shortage of beautiful women for you later!" Airi quickly added.
Hearing their words, Icarus quietly let out a breath of relief.
It seemed Airi herself wasn't particularly resistant to the idea of a powerful Trainer having multiple women around him. After all, in this world, the existence of maids made such arrangements extremely common.
"Then they proposed a second condition," Icarus continued. "A marriage alliance without me marrying into the family. In exchange, I'd need to provide three mid-level cultivation manuals as a betrothal gift, while the dowry would stay the same."
"No way!" Airi immediately protested. "They just want your Pokémon cultivation manuals! And marriage can wait until after you reach Elite-level. Only then would that position actually benefit you!"
"I think Airi makes sense," Stone nodded. "For us, high-level manuals aren't impossible to obtain anymore. There's no reason to hand over the position of wife to some small family that doesn't even have a Superior-level Trainer. A concubine or maid would make more sense."
"Right. That's exactly what I thought too," Icarus said with a smile. "So the final arrangement became this: they'd give me a collateral-family girl as a maid, and after I become stronger, I'll help their family a few times within my ability."
"You didn't agree to marriage… that's good," Airi sighed in relief at first.
But after hearing the second half, her expression dimmed slightly.
Still, after everything he had explained—and considering how normal the maid system was in this world—she ultimately remained silent and accepted it.
"A maid in exchange for only a few favors?" Stone looked confused. "That family must really be struggling."
"It's the Greenveil Family," Icarus explained. "The one that sold off shops and assets recently. Most of their high-level combat power was wiped out not long ago. They gave Captain Sam and several other major families huge gifts and a lot of maids just to preserve their family name.
"They only agreed to this because they saw my potential and knew I have a good relationship with Captain Sam."
Then he continued explaining further.
"Besides, this maid used to work at a Pokémon Center and has good Pokémon knowledge. I'm planning to add a logistics-support member to our team anyway, so I agreed.
"We only have a few Pokémon right now, but feeding costs are already high. Tonight's auction supposedly has a Mental Contract for sale, so I plan to bid for it and train her into a half-breeder, half-support Trainer."
After finishing, Icarus looked at the two seriously, waiting for their reactions.
"I don't mind," Stone answered first.
"So that's the situation…" Airi hesitated twice before finally nodding. "Then… I don't object either."
Hearing that, Icarus inwardly relaxed.
The first step had already been taken.
Soon afterward, the three changed the topic and chatted casually while waiting for the matches to begin.
Before long, the announcement echoed throughout the Gym.
"Contestant Icarus, please proceed to Field 2!"
"Contestant Icarus, please proceed to Field 2!"
"Contestant Icarus, please proceed to Field 2!"
After completing verification procedures, Icarus and his opponent stepped onto opposite sides of the battlefield.
"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Top 8 elimination round!"
The referee's voice boomed across the arena.
"Standing to my left is Keli Asada, the current genius Trainer of the Asada Family!"
"And standing to my right is another rising dark horse among commoner Trainers—the sixteen-year-old Icarus!"
The crowd immediately erupted into cheers.
"Asada! Asada!"
"Keli, crush him!"
"Dark horse! Dark horse!"
"Icarus! Beat that genius! I put 200,000 on you!"
"Fight for the glory of the Asada Family!"
Starting from the Top 8, the Gym had officially opened betting under the guarantee of the town's three major powers.
Earlier, Icarus had secretly handed his bank card to Airi and asked her to bet 2 million on his victory.
The odds were 1:1.6.
If he won, he would receive 3.2 million total—a net profit of 1.2 million.
Of course, those odds also showed that most people favored Keli Asada instead.
After all, Keli's lineup was extremely powerful:
A Charmeleon with Superior-lower aptitude and mid-level strength
A high-tier aptitude Scyther
A specially trained Rhyhorn designed to counter Flying-types
All of this information had already been compiled into a booklet being sold outside the arena yesterday.
And now, under the deafening cheers of the crowd, the referee loudly announced the rules.
"This battle will use a 3v3 format!
"In the first match, both sides will send out Pokémon simultaneously and engage immediately!
"The winning Pokémon cannot be recalled!
"Starting from the second round onward, the winning side gains the first move advantage!"
Hearing the rules, Icarus' expression became serious.
His original plan had been to lead with Pidgeotto, but now he hesitated.
If Keli predicted that and sent out Rhyhorn first, Pidgeotto could be crippled immediately.
The booklet specifically mentioned that Rhyhorn had been specially trained to deal with Flying-types, with extremely accurate Rock Blast and Knock Off attacks.
If Pidgeotto lost early, the rest of the battle would become extremely difficult.
Meanwhile, the referee had already reached the end of his announcement.
"When I say 'start,' both contestants must immediately release their Pokémon simultaneously. Failure to do so will count as an automatic loss for the first round!"
The entire arena fell silent.
"Battle… begin!"
As the referee shouted the command, both Icarus and Keli Asada threw their Poké Balls at the exact same moment.