Looking at Ember's relieved expression, Julian smacked his lips and said, "You've got good luck—otherwise, stupid people don't live very long."
Thinking about it, that made sense. If the person who came hadn't been him, even if they had managed to find Ember, they might not have had any treasures capable of treating her injuries.
Even if they could have used some medicine to barely keep her alive, the two of them would most likely still have died inside the secret realm.
So from this perspective, Ember's luck was indeed very good.
But as soon as Julian finished speaking, Ember's hand reached straight toward his ear—only for it to be blocked, as if by an invisible wall.
"Hmph, so having Psychic makes you a big deal, huh?"
Ember huffed, angrily pulling her hand back.
"Having Psychic really does make me a big deal. And mine is Master-level at that, the only one in the world, which makes it an even bigger deal."
Julian looked at Ember with a mocking expression. That look infuriated Ember so much that she reached out her hand again, only for it to be blocked once more.
"Should you really be bullying your own cousin?" Ember said indignantly.
Julian looked at her flatly. "You're the one bullying me."
He felt speechless—this woman really knew how to turn black into white.
"So, what should we do now? When I rode Charizard in and saw the gate, I realized this was a Top-tier secret realm."
"If we can't find the exit gate, we'll be trapped here forever."
Ember stopped messing around and said with a worried expression.
She knew it was a Top-tier secret realm, and she still rushed in.
Even though the situation at the time was dangerous, she could have just had Blaziken Self-Destruct. That way, she wouldn't have needed to hide inside this secret realm.
Maybe Blaziken's explosion could have even killed the attacker outright.
Blaziken: 'Thanks a lot for your advice—really "appreciate" it.'
"It's fine. I've already had Deoxys go look for the exit gate. But this Top-tier secret realm is probably very large, and the energy inside is dense too, so Deoxys will need some time."
Julian said calmly.
The denser the energy within a secret realm, the shorter the scanning range of Deoxys's psychic, and the greater the interference it faced.
"Then roughly how long will it take?" Ember quickly asked.
"No idea. Could be seven or eight days, maybe even half a month," Julian shrugged.
Hearing that, Ember looked at him in disbelief. "Deoxys is a First-class Legendary—how could it take that long to find the exit gate?"
In her eyes, a First-class Legendary was supposed to be omnipotent, let alone simply finding an exit from a secret realm.
"What's the rush? As long as it can be found, that's enough. Besides, even if you got out right now, that guy has surely already fled the Hearth family by now."
Julian's presence at the Hearth family estate was no secret. As long as that person wasn't a fool, they'd likely have guessed why Julian had come.
And since they'd managed to bribe the guards at the secret realm entrance, they would definitely know that Julian had entered the Flame Mountain secret realm.
And why would Julian suddenly enter the Flame Mountain secret realm? Obviously, to search for Ember.
So unless that person had a hole in their head, they'd have grabbed their things and run the moment Julian stepped into the secret realm.
Because they wouldn't dare gamble on whether Julian could find Ember. If he didn't, great—that would be the best outcome. But if he did, then their end was sealed.
Betting one's own life on this—sure, if they won the gamble, they stood a very good chance of becoming the Hearth family heir, even the next family head—the payoff was huge. But they likely wouldn't make that choice.
At the very least, Julian wouldn't. After all, the number one rule for a villain was to preserve one's own life above all.
"No, it won't be like that. As long as we quickly find the way out, you can sneak me out and then tell my father and grandmother that you never found me. If that person hears about it, they'll definitely choose to come back," Ember said with a cold smile.
Julian felt that was unlikely and was just about to say something, but saw Ember looking at him with a scornful expression. Then she continued, "You're thinking that he might suspect it's a trap, so he wouldn't come back, right?"
Julian nodded—that was exactly what he had been thinking.
In response, Ember's gaze toward him grew even more strange.
"You think everyone has got it as good as you?"
"This is about becoming the future successor of the Hearth family. Since he has already gone through with the assassination attempt on me, he won't give up as long as there's even a sliver of hope."
"As the sole heir of the Walker family, you'd never understand just how desperately, how fiercely, and how ruthlessly we direct-line members fight for the identity of the heir."
As she said this, there was a somewhat wistful expression on Ember's face. Her position as the heir had also been obtained through struggle—one that had been stained with the blood of her own kin.
To be honest, Ember didn't actually feel much anger about the fact that someone had tried to assassinate her. In a major family, this sort of thing wasn't really anything out of the ordinary.
The position of the heir was much like that of the crown prince in ancient times—standing just below one person and above tens of thousands, yet also fraught with immense danger.
There were far too many people who wanted to knock you off that perch.
But unfortunately for them, that person had failed. So now it was Ember's turn to strike back. And once she got out, she was determined to personally wring his neck.
"Well, I guess it makes sense."
Julian could acknowledge most of what Ember said—but betting his own life for the position of heir—Julian would never do such a thing.
"Slow~"
At this moment, Slowking had already finished preparing dinner and was calling Julian and Ember over to eat.
It was already past six in the evening.
"Slowking, long time no see."
Ember walked up to Slowking and patted its head.
"Slow~"
Slowking nodded.
Having been unconscious for the past few days, Ember hadn't eaten anything, only barely being fed some water by Chimchar using leaves. So now, smelling the dinner Slowking had prepared, her stomach instantly growled with hunger.
She immediately turned into a glutton, finishing an entire dish in under ten seconds.
This speed made Celebi and Jirachi feel a strong sense of crisis, afraid that if they ate any slower, Ember would devour everything, they too began eating much faster than usual.
The amount Slowking had prepared for dinner wasn't particularly large—just the usual portions. And it was well aware of Ember's appetite.
But it hadn't expected that after not seeing her for a few years, her appetite would have grown so much. And spurred on by Ember, Celebi and Jirachi were also eating significantly more than usual.
Watching the amount of food rapidly decrease, and judging by the pace of the three of them, it was clearly not going to be enough.
Now even the usually calm Slowking became anxious. The dinner it had prepared wasn't enough to satisfy the guest—wasn't that a great humiliation for a chef?
"Slow!"
Slowking called out to its little apprentice, Magearna, telling it to stop cleaning up for now and hurry over to assist—they needed to make more dishes.
Otherwise, not only would the guest go hungry, but in the end, even its own trainer might not get enough to eat.
*****
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