Now the question was, how exactly could one become a member of the Pokémon Breeding House?
"It's very simple. Just fill out the membership form and pay the annual membership fee," Aven explained with a smile. "The annual fee is one gold coin."
"Once you become a member of the Pokémon Breeding House, you'll not only enjoy exclusive member discounts, but you'll also have free access to most of the training facilities, and you'll get one free Pokémon health check-up each year..."
"In addition, the Breeding House accepts and issues commissions, and members also enjoy certain discounts in this regard."
It sounded pretty good... Leon thought to himself, breathing a sigh of relief. Becoming a member was much easier than he had expected — just a single gold coin for the whole year.
As for all the benefits Aven mentioned, Leon felt that just having access to the membership discount was more than enough. Even though he would have to pay a gold coin upfront, he would be saving a lot more in the long run — a choice anyone would make.
"I would like to become a member of the Pokémon Breeding House. Please take care of me, Mr. Aven," Leon said without hesitation.
Aven nodded and took out a membership form that had already been prepared, handing it over to Leon.
Name, age, home address, beast information...
"These are all basic details. The beast information refers to the Pokémon you wish to train at the Breeding House. Filling it out is optional, but keep in mind that the free health check benefit is tied to the information you provide here. You can update or change it later," Aven explained.
After listening carefully, Leon nodded. After thinking it through and finding no issues, he picked up a pen and filled in his details. For beast information, he wrote down Rhyhorn — since his only Pokémon was the Rhyhorn he currently owned.
"Congratulations on becoming a member of the Pokémon Breeding House," Aven said, accepting the membership form and the gold coin Leon handed over. In his heart, he let out a small breath of relief — apart from the villagers of Fruitvale Village, Leon was the first official member of the Breeding House in the truest sense.
Leon nodded excitedly and asked immediately, "Can I now have my Rhyhorn start learning the Rock Slide move?"
As he spoke, he pulled out 15 gold coins and offered them to Aven. Aven was a bit surprised that the young knight carried so many coins with him — it seemed Leon really was something of a loner.
"Alright, no problem."
"I'll bring your Rhyhorn to the farm for training shortly."
"However, you won't be able to participate in the training process yourself. Your Rhyhorn will likely need about half a month to learn Rock Slide."
"Once training is completed, I'll return Rhyhorn to you. If it hasn't learned the move within the expected time frame, I'll pay you a penalty based on the delay. Of course, you can also choose to cancel the training — in that case, after deducting boarding and meal expenses, I'll refund the remaining coins to you."
Aven explained the entire procedure clearly. Then, he took out a blank sheet of paper — before starting any official training, both sides would need to sign a strict contract.
A service contract... Leon scratched his head — this was the first time he had ever heard of such a thing.
Aven began drafting the contract right in front of Leon. As Leon watched, he nodded occasionally — the contents were simple and clear, and he understood the terms easily.
After both sides reviewed the contract and confirmed there were no problems, they each signed their names, marking the birth of the world's first commercial service contract!
...
Outside the farm, Peter had just finished his morning training.
"Phew, great job training, Mightyena."
Peter patted his Mightyena's head, then moved to a patch of grass to rest.
While resting, Peter took out some Pokémon food from his backpack, spreading the cloth-wrapped food on the ground.
Seeing the brown, pellet-shaped food, Mightyena immediately pounced happily and began munching away, making loud crunching sounds as it ate.
Peter silently watched Mightyena devour the food. He was honestly baffled — he knew that this food was made from Tangela's vines, yet Mightyena, who usually disliked vines, now loved this food.
Initially, Peter had only fed Mightyena a little bit of the food to try it out — but ever since that first taste, Mightyena couldn't get enough of it. It was completely hooked.
According to Aven, this Pokémon food contained abundant nutrients that would help Pokémon grow better and recover strength faster.
Thinking about it, Peter sighed again. A single bag of this Pokémon food cost one silver coin — he had spent quite a bit of money recently just buying food for Mightyena.
But seeing how much his Mightyena enjoyed it, he felt that it was all worth it.
As Peter and Mightyena enjoyed their rare moment of peace, he noticed Leon approaching from the distance, carrying a familiar cloth bag.
"Leon, did you visit the Pokémon Breeding House?" Peter asked as he stood up, glancing at the Pokémon food Leon was carrying.
Leon nodded, then looked at Mightyena happily munching on its food and let out a small sound of surprise.
He recognized the brown pellet-shaped Pokémon food — it was exactly the same as what he had in his bag.
"Is that food really that tasty?" Leon asked, looking a bit skeptical.
The bag of Pokémon food had been given to him by Aven as a membership bonus.
"Don't worry — take it back and feed it to your Rhyhorn. It'll definitely love it," Peter said, glancing complexly at the young knight in front of him, sighing inwardly. 'Another one falls into the trap,' he thought. But for a knight, affording Rhyhorn's food shouldn't be a problem — especially since it was special food made by Mr. Aven himself...
Leon nodded, planning to test out the food with his Rhyhorn once he got home.
One silver coin per bag really wasn't too expensive — especially compared to how much the knights' warbeasts usually ate in the form of berries. In fact, it was quite cheap.
Still, he wondered if the Pokémon food was truly as miraculous as Aven claimed.
Another thing he noticed was that these brown, pellet-like dry foods were extremely easy to store, making them ideal as military rations for Pokémon during marches.
The only thing he couldn't figure out was how exactly this Pokémon food was made — and whether it could be produced in large quantities.
Considering the low selling price, the ingredients probably weren't very rare...
(End of Chapter)