"Ding."
The doors of the Pokémon Center slid open automatically. After recalling Bellsprout and Pidgey into their Poké Balls, Icarus stepped inside.
"Automatic sensors. As expected," he muttered, heading toward the registration counter.
After turning along the familiar corridor, he finally saw a familiar figure behind the window—still playing on her phone.
"Gengar, why didn't you use Shadow Sneak?!"
"What? Rhyhorn still hasn't evolved? How are you supposed to tank that?!"
"Send Dragonite second! Dragonite second! Otherwise we can't win!"
Icarus stood quietly in front of the counter, watching Luna play League of Pokémon, a mobile game popular among ordinary citizens.
"Ah! I still lost… Dragonite's final evolution is just too strong."
A few minutes later, the word Defeat appeared on her screen. Only then did she notice a human-shaped shadow in front of her window.
"I'm sorry, Supervisor! I was wrong! I shouldn't be playing during work hours!"
Her instinct told her that it might be her superior, so she admitted fault immediately.
"Oh? You really understand your mistake?" Icarus teased.
She froze.
That voice—
Looking up, she saw him.
"Icarus! You're playing tricks on me?!"
He had promised to visit her, then disappeared for days. Now he showed up just to scare her?
"Hmph! You've gone too far!"
She sat down abruptly and turned her head away.
Icarus cleared his throat.
"Luna, I saw you were in the middle of a team battle. I even blocked your screen so others would think you were handling official business."
"Hmph!"
She continued pretending to be angry.
---
In reality, Luna's situation was far more complicated than it appeared.
Although she was only a staff member at the Pokémon Center, she came from a minor trainer family.
Recently, her family had suffered heavy losses during a forced hunting operation. Now, only one Pokémon with high-tier Normal-level strength remained. The mid-tier strength had collapsed completely, leaving just two low-tier Normal Pokémon.
Without sufficient combat power, a small family could not protect its inherited training knowledge or business assets.
Although such families were not officially recognized by the Alliance, they still needed at least one high-tier Normal-level Pokémon to survive.
Because of this, all family resources were being used to restore that last high-tier Pokémon's strength. If they could find another suitable Pokémon of the same species, an experienced trainer could quickly raise it back to high-tier status.
That was their priority.
As a result, there were no extra resources to train new family members—including Luna.
Even though her father was the patriarch, his strength came from the family's collective support. He could not act independently.
To stabilize their position, the family began arranging marriages.
Several girls from the clan had already agreed to marry into other families. One had even been sent to serve under an Elite trainer's household as a maid.
Luna refused.
She did not want to marry someone she did not know. Nor did she want to serve a trainer older than her father.
After much negotiation, her father secured her two years.
Before turning eighteen, she had to find a civilian trainer with strong potential and secure the family's future through marriage.
To protect her decision, her father voluntarily entered the inner forest to assist in Pokémon capture missions.
She regretted that.
But the decision had already been made.
So among this year's civilian trainers, she had been quietly observing.
There were stronger candidates than Icarus.
One rookie had a starter Pokémon with superior aptitude. Another civilian trainer had a Flying-type with promising potential.
Compared to them, Icarus's Bellsprout had decent low-tier qualifications, but Grass-types were common. Its combat explosiveness was limited, and its aptitude was not the best among the group.
Icarus was only one candidate.
And not a top-ranking one.
---
Meanwhile, Icarus had already begun reconsidering his priorities.
Now that he had Uncle Sam, an Elite trainer, as backing, Luna's family was no longer essential to his growth.
Seeing her still putting on an attitude made him slightly impatient.
He straightened his posture.
"Luna, I'm here on official business. I'd like to register my promotion to a Normal-tier trainer. Please handle it professionally."
"Hmph—even if you apologized I wouldn't—"
She stopped mid-sentence.
"What did you say?"
"I said I'm here to register my promotion."
She stood up abruptly.
"You… you've advanced to Normal-tier?"
Her eyes widened in disbelief.
"It's only been about two months! You've already gathered enough resources to break through?"
Her shock was genuine.
For a civilian trainer without strong backing, reaching Normal-tier in just two months was extremely rare.
And in that instant—
Icarus's position among her "candidates" rose sharply.
(End of Chapter)
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