"Oh?"
Hearing the words changing one's appearance, Silas's eyes immediately lit up.
This thing… was pretty interesting.
In an instant, all kinds of possible uses flashed through his mind.
Don't misunderstand—he definitely wasn't thinking of doing anything shady, like changing his face to spy on people or anything like that. He would absolutely never do something like that.
Janine didn't notice Silas's sudden interest at all and continued complaining.
"Those disguise masks do a ton of damage to your skin. There's no way I'd ever make something like that.
"And honestly, who even uses such old-fashioned disguise tools these days? Don't you know how to use makeup?"
Silas blinked.
"But don't underestimate me," Janine added, seeming a bit embarrassed.
"I can still make some things for example, facial masks made from silk spun by Spinarak."
That kind of face mask was… quite different from a disguise mask, even though both covered the face.
But thinking about it, that was normal. After all, Janine was a girl—if she didn't care about things like that, that would be strange.
"By the way, have you caught any new partners here in Johto?" Janine asked.
"Want me, the Johto encyclopedia, to give you some advice?"
She lifted her chin proudly.
"Not yet," Silas shook his head.
"I rarely go out of my way to catch Pokémon."
Janine nodded in agreement.
"That's right. Anyone who catches every Pokémon they see doesn't deserve to be called a Trainer. If you can't properly take care of them as partners, then you shouldn't catch them in the first place."
Far away in the Kanto region, Ash who was competing with Gary in a fishing contest suddenly sneezed.
"You're not thinking of using getting sick as an excuse to run away because you're about to lose again, are you?"
Gary glanced at Ash with a mocking tone.
Feeling a sudden wave of malicious intent, Ash immediately forgot about the sneeze.
His face flushed red.
"Who are you calling a coward?! You're the one who's about to lose! And fishing as a Trainer—can that even be called winning or losing? I'm just having bad luck today!"
"Heh. Don't tell me you're unlucky every single day."
Gary's words stabbed straight into Ash's heart.
They'd grown up together, who didn't know who? So far, Ash hadn't beaten Gary in any kind of competition.
"Tsk. Kids really are full of energy."
Professor Oak, holding a cup of coffee and watching the two from the window, shook his head leisurely.
Still, he was very optimistic about that foolish kid, Ash. At the very least, Ash's love for Pokémon was far stronger than that of most people in the world.
And that alone was enough to make him a truly powerful Trainer.
Pokémon would always repay a Trainer's trust and care with real actions.
"Oak, come take a look at this—don't you think this data seems a bit strange?"
Professor Rowan's voice sounded from behind him.
"Coming, coming."
Professor Oak hurriedly finished his coffee and threw himself back into Pokémon research.
Hearing Janine's words, Silas shrugged.
His view differed slightly from hers, mainly because he simply couldn't afford to raise that many Pokémon.
Otherwise, with his slight collector's tendencies, he'd definitely catch plenty of Pokémon he liked.
His ideal life was that one day, when he was old, he'd live in a courtyard filled with many Pokémon—some cute, some fierce, some lazy, lying in the sun together with him.
"Ah, looks like I talked with you for too long."
Janine glanced at the time, then leapt up into the tree.
"Let's chat again next time. Or you can visit the Ninja Academy, just say my name. Bye-bye~"
Her voice gradually faded into the distance.
As expected of a ninja family, never taking the ordinary path, and incredibly agile as well.
"…But didn't she run off in the wrong direction?"
Silas scratched his head as he watched her disappear.
Do ninja get lost too?
He quickly let it go. Maybe she had other things to do, why worry about it?
Walking along the official road, the desolate wilderness gradually became lively.
A cluster of buildings resembling a small town appeared before Silas.
"Finally made it."
He stretched lazily.
Running into so many "familiar faces" along the way was pretty rare.
"Welcome to the dedicated rest area of Route 32. We wish you a pleasant day~"
Nurse Joy's sweet voice rang out from a speaker hanging high above.
"I'll head to the Pidgey Post first."
With several destinations in mind, Silas glanced at the map and quickly decided where to go first.
The so-called Pidgey Post wasn't an official shop that bred Pidgey Eggs, it referred to courier shops responsible for delivering letters and goods across regions.
Nowadays, almost all Trainer-related institutions—such as the League Bounty Hunter Guild, the League Trading Platform as well as most ordinary people's deliveries, relied on the Pidgey Post.
Despite the name, their staff didn't consist only of Pidgey. Pidgeotto and even Pidgeot were excellent workers as well.
Of course, Pidgeot were relatively rare. Pokémon of that level were usually better suited for more meaningful tasks than delivery, unless you paid extra.
After all, even in the wild, an enormous flock of Pidgey might not have a single Pidgeot as its leader. That was a powerful raptor capable of dominating an entire forest.
The shop was called the Pidgey Post mainly because its founder had originally started the business using Pidgey for deliveries.
Branches existed in every town, but the headquarters was located right here, in the dedicated rest area along this Johto route.
That fact alone was quite surprising.
After all, big cities offered much better security.
According to the former head of the Pidgey Post.
"Pidgey, Pidgeotto, and Pidgeot are Pokémon that long for freedom and love the sky. Living in cities would suppress their emotions, which is completely wrong."
That was the official explanation.
According to Silas's own interpretation, what this really meant was that the Pidgey Post had to raise far too many Pokémon of these three species. Cities simply couldn't accommodate such numbers, whereas the wilderness was far more suitable.
Moreover, when the Pidgey Post was first established, it was nothing more than a small shop, and cost control was a major concern.
Even though the business had grown large over time, the location of the headquarters wasn't something that could just be changed on a whim.
In fact, the headquarters didn't directly handle the receiving and dispatching of mail and parcels. Instead, it primarily served a role similar to a training center for courier Pokémon.
A vast forest outside the rest area functioned as the living and resting grounds for its Pokémon employees.
The branches located in cities were more like temporary lodging points for working Pokémon.
Soon, Silas stopped in front of a building marked with a Pidgey-shaped sign.
Don't misunderstand, he wasn't here to let his Pidgeot work part-time at the Pidgey Post to earn money. He wasn't that desperate.
"Mr. Silas, correct? Gym Leader Walker has already informed me. Please, come in."
An elderly man dressed like a shop owner stepped out, greeting him warmly.
"You must be Mr. Genjiro. Sorry to trouble you," Silas replied politely.
That's right, the Pidgey Post was, in fact, largely affiliated with the Violet City Gym, meaning Walker's family.
Otherwise, the Pidgey Post would never have earned such widespread trust.
Many of the items entrusted for delivery were extremely valuable. Without the Violet City Gym's reputation as a guarantee, almost no one would risk losing their belongings by sending them through the Pidgey Post.
After all, who knew whether the Pidgey acting as your courier might get eaten halfway by a Spearow or worse, a Fearow?
Unless you paid a hefty fee to have a Pidgeot handle the delivery, even a Pidgeotto wasn't particularly safe as a messenger.
This reality alone completely extinguished Silas's fleeting thought of entering the courier business himself.
He simply didn't have the reputation or capability to guarantee the safety of everything sent.
While the Violet City Gym had indeed grown stronger economically and otherwise thanks to the Pidgey Post, that was only because before its establishment, the gym was already one of Johto's most renowned Gym Leaders' institutions.
"Gym Leader Walker's Pidgeot is currently training a new batch of employees in the forest area," Mr. Genjiro explained as he poured Silas a cup of hot tea.
"You may need to wait for a while."
"That's fine. I'm not in a hurry. I'll wait until today's training session ends," Silas replied after taking a sip.
His reason for coming was precisely to let his own Pidgeot seek guidance from Walker's Pidgeot.
As for what kind of guidance, there was only one answer.
Breaking through to the Elite level.
Silas's Pidgeot had been stuck at the peak of Pesudo–Elite level for nearly three months.
While he knew that being stalled for a year or more was entirely normal, he still felt anxious.
Before this, Pidgeot had never experienced such a long period without a clear breakthrough.
It wasn't that it had stopped improving entirely—its abilities and move mastery continued to sharpen but compared to its former explosive growth, the difference was stark.
That imbalance naturally weighed on him.
Every Pokémon had a different way of breaking through to the Elite tier, but as the same species, Walker's Pidgeot could undoubtedly provide valuable experience.
When Silas made the request the day before, Walker had agreed without hesitation.
He was also curious, if this youngster's Pidgeot managed to reach Elite level before the Silver Conference, just how much shock would it cause?
A Trainer in their second year with an Elite–level Pokémon, that would be headline-worthy.
The two men exchanged a few words before falling into silence.
The generation gap was simply too large. Silas had no idea what to talk about with Mr. Genjiro, who was nearly fifty.
According to Walker, Mr. Genjiro had served as the headquarters manager for over twenty years, since Falkner was a child.
Even more impressively, both his father and grandfather had previously held the same position.
Simply put, this family was a textbook example of generational succession, true insiders of the Violet City Gym.
Otherwise, Walker would never have entrusted one of his main Pokémon to their care.
"Why don't I give you an overview of how we train Pokémon at the Pidgey Post?"
Mr. Genjiro suggested after some thought.
"These aren't classified secrets?"
Silas asked, rubbing his teacup thoughtfully.
"Not at all," Mr. Genjiro replied bluntly.
"If it were confidential, I wouldn't say a word without Gym Leader Walker's approval."
His straightforward manner was likely the reason he managed the headquarters rather than a city branch.
This kind of personality was great for Pokémon, but less so for social niceties.
Fortunately, Silas didn't mind at all and listened with great interest.
Training Pidgey specifically for courier work was extremely difficult.
First, they had to be able to navigate long distances on their own.
That requirement alone eliminated a large portion of candidates.
Some Pidgey simply weren't smart enough.
Short routes might be manageable, but cross-region travel increased the difficulty exponentially.
Second, they had to be fast, which meant having solid potential.
For a courier, speed was essential—otherwise accidents were inevitable.
Even though the Violet City Gym could absorb losses, frequent incidents would make it impossible for the Pidgey Post to survive.
Just these two conditions ruled out over 90% of all Pidgey.
After that came countless additional training stages.
According to Mr. Genjiro, out of every hundred Pidgey, successfully training even one courier was already considered good.
On top of that, factoring in annual casualties among courier Pokémon, the headquarters had to train tens of thousands of Pidgey every year just to barely sustain expansion.
Silas silently clicked his tongue.
Ten thousand, just thinking about it was absurd.
He finally understood why this area had developed into a dedicated rest zone around the headquarters.
Such rest areas were extremely rare along wilderness routes. Most routes were truly wild, with no human presence at all.
The manpower and resources required to raise that many Pidgey each year were astronomical.
No wonder the Joy family had established a dedicated Pokémon Center here to provide support.
"You really don't have it easy,"
Silas said sincerely.
And training wasn't even the end of it.
Courier Pokémon lost during transport—such as those chased down by Fearow—were also handled by this very manager, who had to issue rescue missions.
Silas remembered taking such temporary missions himself in the past, the pay had been substantial.
That realization made his courier business idea even more unrealistic.
"Manager, the Olivine Ranch has a shipment they'd like us to deliver."
A staff member suddenly entered, interrupting their conversation.
"Already? It's only May," Mr. Genjiro frowned. "Ask Ranch Owner Ailian to come in and discuss it."
Silas raised an eyebrow.
What a coincidence.
Olivine Ranch was precisely his second destination on this trip.
After all
That was his Ampharos's hometown.
..
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