Cynthia completely ignored the little incident from earlier and continued enthusiastically exploring the island.
"So this is the cliffside ocean-view house Lance wanted?"
Far below them, waves crashed against the graphite-black cliffs, exploding into sprays of white foam. The constant roar of the sea was exhilarating.
Sitting on Garchomp's back, Cynthia took in the scenery and suddenly felt like she'd gotten the short end of the deal.
Back in the group chat, she'd teased Lance about having nowhere to let his Dragon-type Pokémon roam. Now she was flying around on her own Flying-type Pokémon, only to discover that Luther's photographs had been nothing like the real thing.
Luther hadn't captured the feeling of standing above those enormous waves as they surged beneath your feet at all!
A section of the cliff jutted outward like the ram of an old warship. From a distance, combined with the churning waves below, it gave the whole place a sharp, powerful sense of charging straight through the sea.
"Diantha gave you that camera ages ago. No wonder Harold shook his head when he saw your photos the other day. Your photography skills really are terrible!"
Was that really his fault?
Luther scratched his head. When Lance had chosen this cliff, everyone had been joking around and asking whether he planned to use it as a place to keep his birds.
Cynthia's face practically screamed 'I want it' and 'what a shame', but Lance had already claimed the spot. She had no reason to compete with him for it.
They flew low along the coastline. As they went, Luther spotted quite a few landscapes and interesting terrain features he'd missed during his first inspection of the island, giving him even more ideas for future development.
He wasn't sure how long they had been flying when he checked their position again and realized they were almost back at the Pokémon Center on the western side of the island.
Luther noticed Cynthia looked like she wanted to make a few more passes around the island and quickly stopped her.
This was definitely her old habit acting up again.
With such a huge island and so many possible places to build, if Cynthia kept hesitating over every choice, everyone else's houses could be finished before she finally decided where to put hers.
Lucian and Bertha had both chosen a stretch of higher ground on the eastern side of the island. They planned to build houses there with views of the sea.
The location faced the open waters of Sinnoh, meaning they'd be able to watch Pokémon Trainers returning from the sea every day. It was a pretty spectacular sight in its own way.
Luther was about to recommend the same area to Cynthia, but then he remembered that she liked having some peace and quiet while still being close to activity.
That gave him an idea.
He motioned for Cynthia to follow him, then flew with her on Altaria to a gently elevated hill about a kilometer from the Pokémon Center.
Below them was a large stretch of flat land, more than enough space to fence off for Cynthia's ranch and build her estate.
The hill itself could also accommodate a large pavilion where she could enjoy the ocean view while still being able to look out over the relatively lively Pokémon Center.
And according to Luther's plans, there would inevitably be various facilities built near the docks to support ships coming and going.
Cynthia was still hesitating.
She stamped her foot against the ground, looked around, then paced back and forth.
Garchomp sighed and gave Luther a look that clearly said, 'Please do something about this.'
Luther grabbed Cynthia and stopped her mid-pace.
"That's it. We're going with this spot. You get an ocean view, you're still close to the lively areas, and there's a huge stretch of forest nearby. The environment, terrain, and location are all good."
"I still feel like there's an even better spot somewhere on the island..." Cynthia muttered.
Luther decided to bring out the big guns.
"You invested ten million. You can pick one or two more plots later if you want. But right now, we need to settle on the first one. This is it. I've marked it down for you. If you find somewhere better later, come back and tell me."
It was a rather forceful approach, but with Cynthia's chronic indecisiveness whenever she had too many choices, Luther had no choice.
Sure enough, forcing her to make a decision worked.
Once Cynthia seriously examined the spot Luther had chosen for her, she nodded repeatedly with satisfaction.
Garchomp gave Luther an approving nod as well.
Apparently, she had suffered quite a lot from Cynthia's indecisiveness over the years.
When they returned to the temporary construction camp, Lucian and Bertha were sitting on a pile of stacked logs, chatting and laughing. They both seemed to be in excellent moods.
"Oh, look who finally came back. Cynthia and Luther!" Bertha smiled as she stood up.
"So I take it Cynthia has already found a nice piece of land with Luther as her guide?" Lucian asked curiously.
Just moments ago, Cynthia had been agonizing over whether each location was good enough. Now she immediately dragged Lucian and Bertha over to the plot Luther had marked out for her.
There was absolutely nothing there yet, but Cynthia spoke about the place with such enthusiasm that it sounded as though everything had already been built and all she had left to do was sit in the pavilion on top of the hill with a cup of tea and admire the ocean.
Cynthia's excitement quickly got Lucian and Bertha excited, too.
When they reached the beach on the eastern side of the island, Bertha and Lucian rode their respective Pokémon around, searching for locations they liked.
Cynthia had originally planned to look for a second plot for herself, but Luther barely had to say anything before she started helping Bertha and Lucian choose their own land.
Bertha was worried that as she got older, she wouldn't be able to handle the strong sea winds, so she chose a wooded area slightly farther from the coast.
Given how much land she wanted, though, Luther would have to prepare himself for some serious clearing and logging.
That would probably be one of the things he'd need to work on over the coming months, finding a peaceful way to communicate with the Pokémon living there and negotiate the clearing process with them.
Lucian ended up becoming Bertha's neighbor. His ranch would be right next to hers, only a short distance away.
The two of them apparently had surprisingly similar tastes when it came to choosing land.
"What a strange feeling." Bertha suddenly looked out at the ocean, seeming almost amazed. "To think that you can agonize over a piece of land, going back and forth between deciding and changing your mind..."
Lucian laughed and continued, "When the Pokémon League gave me my first paycheck, I immediately used it to buy a house in Sun Heart City so I could settle down. But I don't remember feeling nearly as excited as I did while we were agonizing over these plots just now."
Cynthia felt the same way.
Wasn't a house just a house? Somewhere to live?
She'd always thought Sun Heart City was a perfectly good place to settle down.
Yet somehow, she was already looking forward to seeing the houses built on this island and wondering what the island would become in the future.
Garchomp suddenly turned her head toward the distant sky.
Dragonite flew rapidly over them, heading off into the distance.
Cynthia clicked her tongue and forced herself not to think about the plot of land Lance had claimed before anyone else.
"Looks like Lance came to check out his land, too," Luther said, looking up.
That left only Caitlin and Hakuya who hadn't chosen their plots yet.
Diantha was tied up with her promotional event, so she'd asked Luther to take some photos of several good locations for her to choose from later.
Hakuya was stuck dealing with the complicated transition process for the Sinnoh League's Elite Four and couldn't get away.
As for Caitlin, the Unova Psychic-type Elite Four member whom Luther had never met, Cynthia said she was already on her way to Sinnoh.
Caitlin was one of Unova's most outstanding Pokémon Trainers and one of the rare people capable of wielding psychic power herself.
"Her personality is actually pretty good. It's just that, to outsiders... you might find her rather arrogant."
Cynthia gave Luther a little warning in advance.
(End of Chapter)
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