Pete carried the wooden box excitedly as he made his way back to the village.
His mind replayed the earlier events, and he still felt his heart racing.
But when he looked at the test tubes in the box, an uncontrollable excitement showed on his face.
It turned out the magical beasts were indeed not dangerous, just as Aven had said.
"From now on, I can go collect Gloom saliva there regularly," he took a deep breath, glancing back at the lush grassland behind him, where a Torterra was resting.
Suppressing his excitement, he continued walking toward Fruitvale Village.
This time, he had collected over 60 bottles of Gloom saliva. At two copper coins per bottle, that was 120 copper coins!
If that place remained undiscovered by others, he could earn this much every day—it was a great way to make a living!
"Oh my Arceus, Pete, where did you get so much Gloom saliva?"
Just as Pete was about to reach the village, he heard someone exclaim.
Looking over, he saw it was Enel, someone he was fairly close to. Enel looked stunned.
Crap, I've been found out… Pete's heart clenched. In his excitement, he had forgotten to hide the wooden bottles in the bucket.
"This is something I've been collecting for a long time. I was planning to turn it all in at once," Pete said nervously, praying silently not to be exposed.
Fortunately, Enel didn't pursue the topic. Instead, he excitedly shared another piece of news.
"What? You're saying Mr. Aven is now allowing us outsiders to approach the magical beasts?"
"As long as we can earn a magical beast's recognition, we can get one ourselves? You're not kidding, right?"
Pete was completely drawn in, shouting in surprise and joy.
"It's true—and that's not all!"
"If we can bond with a magical beast, we even have a chance to join the Fruitvale Village patrol squad!" Enel added, eyes gleaming.
"The Fruitvale patrol squad!" Pete shouted again in astonishment.
After living in Fruitvale Village for so long, he was very familiar with the patrol squad.
Joining it would not only change one's social status, but also came with a considerable monthly salary.
Compared to that, his little plan to make copper coins collecting saliva was nothing—completely incomparable!
"Huff… huff…" Pete started breathing heavily. "Join the patrol squad—I have to join the patrol squad!"
"But before that, we have to earn the trust of a magical beast, and then pass the selection process," Enel reminded him.
"Then what are we waiting for? Let's go find a magical beast!" Pete said excitedly.
"By the way, what do you think about those Glooms outside the village?"
"We've seen how strong they are—if we can gain their trust, passing the patrol squad test shouldn't be a problem at all."
Pete was thrilled. He felt this was a turning point in his life—an opportunity he had to seize!
"Well, it's possible… but how do we earn the Glooms' trust?" Enel asked, clearly tempted but also hesitant.
"We won't know until we try," Pete replied confidently. "Let me finish turning in my task first—then I'll go straight to find the Glooms!"
In the village, following Aven's announcement, the entire population was excited.
Everyone started taking initiative, convinced they would be the lucky ones!
…
In his study, Aven was poring over a map.
He was planning to build a breeding house and training grounds to house the Pokémons properly.
Of course, constructing those facilities would be a massive project—impossible to complete in a short time.
The area they currently lived in was too small and too close to Aspiration City to be ideal.
Aven felt the breeding house needed to be big enough to accommodate different habitats suited to the various types of Pokémons.
Ideally, it should be located near the Black Forest.
As the facility expanded, he hoped to gradually incorporate the Black Forest into the breeding grounds.
Now that he was a Border Earl with the right to expand his territory, he could find a way to include the Black Forest in his domain!
Knock knock knock!
At that moment, the door was suddenly knocked.
Aven responded, and in came Fessen, the newly appointed secretary. He had a hesitant look on his face.
"Just ask if you have something to say," Aven smiled.
Fessen exhaled, then said, "Lord Aven, are you sure you want to recruit commoners to form a knight order?"
As a noble with a domain of his own, Aven would certainly need to form a knight order.
Sutter and Fessen's suggestion had been to spend money to recruit formally trained knights from Aspiration City.
With Aven's current status as a Border Earl and his battlefield credentials, many reserve knights would gladly join him.
And if reserve knights were in short supply, they could always turn to retired frontline soldiers.
Give those soldiers a Pokémon and, after a short period of training, they could become qualified knights.
"Yes, this is part of my plan."
"In the beginning, they'll just be part of the patrol squad. Only after further training will they become knights."
"Of course, if reserve knights and former soldiers want to join us, I'll gladly accept them. But they'll need to tame their own Pokémons."
"I can give them the opportunity to befriend Pokémons—but whether they succeed or not will depend on their own abilities."
Aven smiled. His ultimate goal was to cultivate a large number of trainers, with knights merely serving as a transitional phase.
To be honest, in battles between Pokémons, knights didn't play a major role—especially at intermediate or advanced levels.
In fact, Pokémons could be very powerful even without trainers, like the Glooms and Mightyena.
What Aven was doing now was laying the groundwork. Once people became trainers, they could travel and capture more Pokémons.
If every trainer could have six Pokémons and raise them properly, their strength would far exceed that of knights.
"Oh right—have you reached out to the wounded knights and veterans?"
Aven suddenly asked, "If they're willing, I'd like to hire them to serve as instructors in my territory."
Hearing that, Fessen's frown relaxed. He nodded, touched, and said,
"I'm already in contact with them. Also… thank you for being willing to take them in."
"They are all heroes of Aspiration City and should never be forgotten by the people. I'm simply doing what I ought to do," Aven said with a smile.
Whether knight or soldier, once injured or disabled, they could no longer remain in service.
Although they received a reasonable amount of compensation after discharge, it was often not enough to support their continued livelihood.
What Aven was doing now was essentially giving these injured knights and soldiers a second chance.
The role of knight instructor would ideally be filled by able-bodied knights for the best training results—there was no doubt about that.
But Aven deliberately chose to involve those wounded veterans, offering them the same pay as the others. That made all the difference.
To Fessen, this was clearly Aven's way of helping these retired, wounded knights—just like how he had once bought unripe berries from orchard farmers during winter to support them.
Over time, Fessen had gradually come to see another side of Aven through the stories of people from outside the village.
It wasn't surprising that Fruitvale villagers loved Aven, but even outsiders felt the same—that was something else entirely.
Aven would be a kind and compassionate lord, just like Her Highness… A smile appeared on Fessen's face. He felt proud to serve such a lord.
"Don't worry. Just do as I said."
"As for the wounded knights and soldiers—take in as many as we can," Aven emphasized once more.
"In my knight order, every knight must earn the recognition of a Pokémon—just like all of you did in the past."
He paused, then continued in a serious tone,
"This is my bottom line. It must never be compromised!"
This time, Fessen said nothing more. With a firm and serious expression, he nodded in agreement, silently vowing to complete the task.
Then, this former knight, now secretary, left the room with a hint of helplessness and a soft smile at the corner of his lips.
Though he had initially questioned some of Aven's decisions, thinking it over again… this was simply the nature of the lord they had pledged loyalty to. He finally understood.
"I told you, trying to persuade him was pointless."
Outside the room, Sutter looked at the exiting Fessen and shrugged.
After their time on the frontlines, he felt he understood their lord very well—his companion, however, hadn't believed him.
"Yeah, it was pointless,"
"On the contrary… he actually persuaded me instead," Fessen replied with a wry smile and a nod.
He then recounted their conversation in the study, leaving Sutter momentarily stunned.
A few seconds later, Sutter suddenly turned around—pretending to fix his hair, but actually wiping away a tear from the corner of his eye.
Then, in a loud and spirited voice, he said, "Come on, let's get to work on what our lord entrusted us with."
(End of chapter)