The village of Fruitvale had returned to its usual peace.
Outside the village, the Oddish that had evolved into Gloom continued to guard the grasslands.
With two hundred Gloom emitting their distinctive smell, it truly could be described as "a fragrance wafting for miles."
Perhaps thanks to the stench from the Gloom, no magical beasts had approached Fruitvale Village during this period.
Of course, a faint unpleasant odor now constantly lingered in the village, but compared to before, the villagers' attitudes had changed completely.
Peter, especially, could deeply feel this change.
During this time, he continued to patrol the village with his Gloom, and the villagers would greet him with friendly smiles.
"Aven, that day during the battle, you purposely let the villagers participate in the defense, didn't you?"
Sutter had observed everything clearly. At this moment, Aven's earlier words resurfaced in his mind:
— Some things must be personally experienced before people will cherish them.
Now, the villagers had clearly realized: without the Gloom protecting the village, they knew exactly what fate would await them. As a result, they deeply valued the Gloom.
"Mhm, it seems to have worked very well," Aven said with a smile, then added, "However, we still need to find a way to deal with the Gloom's smell."
Sutter immediately looked puzzled. "Deal with it? How?"
Aven didn't answer directly. Instead, he gave a mysterious smile — after all the preparations, it was finally time to act.
During this period, the Gloom leader had been feeling very content.
Whenever it walked through the village and saw the kind looks from the villagers, its heart felt sweet.
However, precisely because of this, it cared even more about Aven's promise to help them control their odor.
Although the villagers didn't seem to mind their smell anymore, deep down, the Gloom leader was still very concerned.
Only by controlling its stench could it live with the villagers without guilt — it didn't want to trouble them.
I wonder what the master has called me here for... the Gloom leader thought, quickening its pace.
Arriving at the farm, it hesitated slightly before entering the house.
At that moment, the door opened, and Aven came out, smiling at it.
"Come on in," Aven said warmly.
The Petilil on his shoulder also waved to the Gloom.
After a slight hesitation, the Gloom entered the house, carefully following Aven upstairs to a room.
Scanning the room, it noticed many neatly arranged herbs on the floor.
"Sorry, Gloom," Aven said, squatting down and gently patting the confused Gloom on the head. "I promised a while ago to help you control your odor, but I've delayed it until now."
The Gloom was momentarily stunned, then its heart filled with emotion. Shaking its head vigorously like a rattle-drum, it indicated that it didn't mind.
"You asked me before how you could train yourself to control your smell. Now, I'll show you."
Upon hearing this, the Gloom's face lit up with pure joy — Pokémon never hid their emotions.
Then, under the Gloom's curious gaze, Aven picked up a small wooden stick and lightly scraped off the drool at the corner of its mouth — where the stench was most concentrated.
Seeing this, the Gloom felt a little embarrassed.
During this period, its master often helped them wipe their mouths. It guessed that maybe its master disliked how dirty they looked...
Aven simply smiled, lifting the stick with the collected drool and saying:
"This is the key."
"Stench and fragrance aren't always absolute opposites," Aven explained while taking a small wooden bottle from the table and gently opening the lid.
Immediately, a strong stench filled the room — far more pungent than the Gloom's natural odor.
The Gloom took a sniff and instantly recognized that it was indeed its own smell — but somehow much more concentrated.
"Don't doubt it. This is an extract refined from your drool," Aven explained.
It had taken a large amount of Gloom drool to produce this small bottle of essence, which was why the process had been delayed for so long.
"And of course, it's one of the main ingredients for making perfume."
With that, Aven moved to the desk to start preparing perfume using the essence.
Fortunately, back in my previous life, I learned how to make Gloom perfume to earn money, Aven thought.
Gloom perfume had been one of his Pokémon breeding house's best-selling products, loved by both trainers and Pokémon.
The Gloom watched curiously as Aven focused intently on his work.
Can my drool... really turn into something fragrant? it wondered.
Time passed quietly as Aven carefully worked.
Finally, the liquid in the bottle began to clear, and a faint sweet fragrance started to drift out.
The Gloom sniffed — and froze completely.
It's usually squinty eyes opened as wide as they could go, filled with disbelief.
The drool that had once smelled terrible was now emitting a sweet, delightful scent!
The change was so drastic it was almost impossible to believe unless witnessed firsthand.
My own stench... really can be turned into a fragrance!
"Stench and fragrance aren't absolute," Aven said gently.
"So never believe that destiny is unchangeable. With effort, you can change it."
Hearing these warm words, the Gloom's vision grew misty.
It looked at Aven and nodded vigorously.
At that moment, the inferiority complex that had long haunted its heart finally began to fade.
It firmly believed that with hard work, it would one day fully control its own odor — and just like this perfume, it would spread only sweet fragrance!
(End of Chapter)
(TN: Hey sorry if I haven't been replying to any questions, I scheduled update everything at once last week and I haven't been translating after that all week because I was pretty sad and depress. The bonus chapters I promised will be release sometime this week.)
(TN2: Also I just found out that the author wrote this on 2021 and Pokemon Legend: Arceus was released on Jan 2021 so this isn't set on Hisui at all but on an Ancient Sinnoh made by the author himself but hey the author did splendidly with the Pokemons he mentioned which so far matched the game except for the different forms ( I was so confused about Sneasel on later chapters when the author keep describing it as a black with red hair haha), also I think I won't be changing the City's names because except for Marina City the other's description are vague and I don't wanna mess up or edit later if I'm incorrect.)