Although Ash admired and praised Clemont's father in his heart, he actually did not hold much contempt or disdain toward his own father.
After all, the fact that his father had failed to accomplish anything remarkable before successfully retiring from the Trainer profession could not entirely be blamed on him.
The threshold for becoming a Pokémon Trainer was indeed relatively low, but the profession itself placed extremely high demands on a Trainer's innate talent.
The real problem was that it took a considerable amount of time for a Trainer to recognize and understand their own talent.
By the time many people finally realized what their abilities were—and admitted that they simply could not achieve anything outstanding on the professional Trainer path—they had already wasted many years of their lives.
On top of that, being a Pokémon Trainer was a genuinely dangerous profession.
When Trainers traveled through the wilderness, encountering danger was inevitable, and it was surprisingly easy to lose one's life.
Not every Pokémon living in the wild was gentle, adorable, and friendly.
There were plenty of vicious and highly aggressive Pokémon, including some that actually regarded human beings as prey and hunted them as food.
Beedrill, Primeape, Ekans, Arbok, Ariados, and certain Ghost-type Pokémon that grew stronger by absorbing souls and life force...
If a Trainer encountered one of these Pokémon while traveling outside, then made even the slightest mistake and suffered an attack, there was a very real possibility that they would never make it home.
The Pokémon League even announced and published the number of Trainers who died every year.
Fortunately, Ash had no reason to worry about himself being a Trainer without talent.
Quite the opposite.
His Trainer talent was extraordinarily outstanding. One could even say that he had been born to become a Pokémon Trainer.
While many adult Trainers were still struggling desperately to establish themselves, Ash had not even officially debuted as a professional Trainer yet, and he had already achieved accomplishments along the Trainer path that ordinary people might spend their entire lives chasing without ever reaching.
Ash firmly believed that he would be able to bring his professional Trainer career to a proper conclusion.
He would not only retire successfully after achieving his goals, but would also leave behind countless legendary stories that people across the world would remember.
Perhaps, one day, some of those stories would even become myths.
...
After dinner, Ash and the other six did not stay overnight at Clemont's house.
There were simply too many of them.
So, just as they had done on their first day in Lumiose City, Ash and the others booked a luxurious suite at a hotel near Clemont's home.
After returning to the hotel, Ash chatted with Serena, Clarissa Joy, Misty, and the others for a while.
Afterward, he took his Pokémon to the bathroom and gave them all a warm bath before returning to the room.
This trip to Kalos had originally been planned around three main objectives.
The first was to bring Clarissa Joy and Misty over to meet Serena.
The second was to celebrate Serena's birthday, since they had been separated for more than half a year because of their long-distance relationship.
And the third was to ask Clemont about the progress of his research and development of intelligent robots.
Now, Clarissa Joy, Misty, and Serena had already met and were getting along extremely well.
Ash had also successfully celebrated Serena's birthday, while he had gained a clear understanding of the progress Clemont had made on the intelligent robot project.
In other words, all three of the goals he had originally set for this trip to Kalos had been accomplished perfectly.
Of course, the trip had brought him far more than those three things.
For example, there was the ongoing promotional tour for the Knight's Way.
Ash had been selected to participate in a performance battle against Wikstrom, allowing him to gain a much clearer understanding of the path from the Pseudo-Elite Four level to the Elite Four level.
He had also gained some clues regarding how to help his Pokémon comprehend spiritual will.
Furthermore, the [Weapon Empowerment] technique mastered by Wikstrom's Escavalier and Aegislash had provided an extremely important reference for Fearow.
It would be of great help in allowing Fearow to perfect its own combat techniques and eventually develop a mature fighting style and tactical system of its own.
It could be said that Ash had gained an enormous amount from this trip to Kalos.
As for his plans going forward, Ash intended to visit Professor Sycamore's laboratory tomorrow.
After that, he would return to Vaniville Town and spend several more days properly accompanying Serena.
Once that was done, he could start considering his return to Kanto.
...
By nightfall, snow had begun drifting down once again against the darkened sky outside the hotel.
Ash pulled open the curtains covering the floor-to-ceiling window, grabbed a large cushion, and carried it over to the window.
He placed the cushion on the floor, sat cross-legged upon it, and began his meditation and training.
Recently, his life in Kalos had fallen completely out of its usual rhythm.
Although Ash did his best to take his Pokémon out for morning training every day, he simply could not guarantee that he would always have enough time for it.
Back when he had been in Pallet Town in Kanto, Ash would spend every morning personally training his Pokémon.
But now, several days had already passed since he had properly trained Pikachu and the others.
Previously, he had also gone to [Little Stone Bridge] and [Stone Bay] every day to treat injured wild Pokémon.
Every afternoon, he would visit the Pokémon Center in Viridian City and work there for nearly three hours.
His cultivation of the [Viridian Force] also provided him with a fixed amount of experience every day.
But now that he was in the Kalos region, both of his wilderness clinics were temporarily closed.
His online clinic was also suspended.
Even his daily afternoon battles at the City Arena had been put on hold.
At present, aside from spending two fixed hours every night cultivating his [Aura], and having the Pokémon Breeder Xiaocui take care of the Pokémon belonging to customers of his online store, there was almost nothing left that required his attention.
Fortunately, his Skill Shop was still operating normally.
Other than that, however, Ash's daily life had essentially become completely disconnected from its previous routine.
But precisely because there was so little he could do in Kalos at the moment—apart from operating the Skill Shop—the one thing he could still cultivate normally was his [Aura].
Naturally, Ash intended to keep at it.
~
In front of the floor-to-ceiling window where snowflakes were falling outside, Ash placed the large cushion on the floor and sat cross-legged upon it.
Before long, his mind sank completely into meditation and cultivation.
Meanwhile, Pikachu, Greninja, Pidgeot, Fearow, Gyarados, Milotic, and Venusaur were obediently holding tablet computers and huddling together as they watched videos.
Venusaur lay sprawled in the middle of the room, while Pikachu and Greninja leaned against either side of its body.
The two brothers, Pidgeot and Fearow, crouched on the floor with their feet tucked underneath them, one on either side.
Milotic and Gyarados formed the outermost ring, wrapping around Pikachu, Venusaur, and the others and enclosing them together.
Although the hotel room had heating despite the snowy weather outside, watching the snowflakes drifting down beyond the window still made the atmosphere feel cold.
At that moment, however, the group of Pokémon huddled together like this was not only warm, but also created an unusually cozy and heartwarming scene.
The personalities of Ash's Pokémon were all different.
Normally, when they played with their phones or did other things, each Pokémon would mostly mind its own business.
But all of them had been raised as battle-oriented Pokémon.
They were passionate about battling, and every one of them possessed a strong desire to become stronger.
Therefore, whenever they had free time, the Pokémon would often gather together and use their tablets to watch League tournament battles from different regions.
Sometimes they would also browse online and watch various battle videos.
Pikachu, Greninja, and the others were all extremely intelligent.
They could operate phones and tablets by themselves, and if they encountered something they did not understand, they could always ask Rotom for help.
The reason Pikachu and the others possessed such extensive battle experience and such impressive combat awareness today was not solely because of Ash's guidance.
Their daily training at the City Arena also played an important role.
But there was another factor that could not be overlooked.
They frequently studied and trained themselves like this.
Through all those countless hours spent watching battles, analyzing techniques, studying different Pokémon, and observing how powerful Trainers commanded their Pokémon, they had gradually accumulated an enormous amount of combat knowledge.
They were not simply waiting for Ash to teach them everything.
They were learning on their own.
And perhaps that was one of the reasons why Ash's Pokémon had developed such outstanding battle instincts and combat literacy.
They had become truly self-taught Pokémon.