Cyrus accepted the tea Auron brewed for him, took a delicate sip, and said, "Actually, I'm here about two things."
"First—your rewards. If I'm counting correctly, you've accumulated fifteen National Vault key fragments so far, right?"
Auron nodded. "Yeah. Fifteen fragments."
Cyrus smiled. "So that means you can open the National Vault once, with five fragments left over."
"Mm-hm. That's right." Auron nodded. He had a hunch where this was going.
"Alright, I'll cut to the chase. I'm here to deliver your new rewards—and to ask when you'd like to come collect them."
Watching Auron's eyes grow brighter by the second, Cyrus continued. "First, the Mega Evolution research reward: three National Vault selection opportunities. And yes, you heard that correctly. Three full opportunities."
"Three... full opportunities?!"
Auron couldn't contain his shock. He'd expected the Mega Evolution reward to be impressive, but not this impressive.
"That's right. Three complete chances. There are also some additional rewards on top of that, but those aren't as important—"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa." Auron cut in with righteous urgency. "Important! How is it not important? Even a mosquito has meat on it, Uncle Cyrus. Walk me through all of it."
"Haha. Fine, fine. First, money—a lot of it. Second, a villa right next to your house. Then there's your Research Institute purchasing clearance upgrade—you can now buy anything below S-rank directly."
"Of course, the earlier rewards for your Pokémon evolution research came with similar perks. After consulting your grandfather, all the physical rewards from those were converted to cash."
"Cash!"
Auron's eyes lit up. He'd just been agonizing over money, and here it was, delivered to his doorstep.
"Yep, cash. And then there's the reward for helping apprehend the Cardinals. That works out to four National Vault key fragments. But because you also helped capture several mid-level Church operatives, I tacked on an extra one. So now you've got exactly enough for five complete chances."
"That's amazing! Thank you, Uncle Cyrus!"
Cyrus waved him off. "Please. You did the nation a huge favor this time. We came out looking brilliant thanks to you."
Auron blinked. "Oh—because of Hoopa?"
Cyrus read his expression instantly. "Mongolia? Mongolia hardly counts as making us look good. Didn't you watch the news yesterday?"
Auron nodded sheepishly. "No... I basically slept the entire day."
"Fair enough. Well, yesterday America announced they've developed a Fossil Restoration Machine—a device that can revive ancient Pokémon from fossils."
"Fossil Pokémon?"
Auron paused, then started rifling through his memories. No wonder something had felt off. He hadn't seen a single Fossil Pokémon in this world. No Aerodactyl, no Cradily, no Omastar—none of them. So the technology hadn't been developed yet.
"Right, Fossil Pokémon. Any other time, America's announcement would've been a global sensation. But right now? Mega Evolution is burying it completely."
Cyrus was practically glowing. America had only released the news to prove they'd accomplished something recently. If the Dragon Kingdom hadn't gone public with Mega Evolution first, they probably would've sat on the Fossil Restoration Machine for a while longer.
"Ah. I see."
Auron's expression twitched. He genuinely hadn't expected the Fossil Restoration Machine to be developed this late. That explained their absence. Beyond that, though, he wasn't particularly interested.
Cyrus noticed his lack of enthusiasm and dropped the subject. Auron was still just a college freshman. International political maneuvering probably wasn't his cup of tea.
"Right. There's one more thing I came to discuss."
Cyrus's expression turned somewhat delicate. Asking someone to make snacks for you wasn't exactly in his job description—but when legendary Pokémon were involved, he had to swallow his pride.
Auron noticed his hesitation. "Go ahead, Uncle Cyrus. If I can help, I will."
Cyrus took a deep breath. "You know that the Dragon Kingdom's covenant legendary is Rayquaza, right?"
Auron nodded. "Yeah, of course."
He didn't just know—he suspected this Rayquaza was the same black Rayquaza from the movie in his previous life. Just as absurdly overpowered.
In the movie, that Rayquaza had taken a Latios and a Latias, and together they'd fought Groudon, Kyogre, the space-time dragons Palkia and Dialga, the Renegade Pokémon Giratina, and Kyurem.
(And honestly, Kyurem should count as two or three, right? He'd clearly fused with Reshiram and Zekrom and could freely shift between White Kyurem and Black Kyurem. No way that should count as just one.)
And the Dragon Kingdom's Rayquaza? After their covenant was forged, it had gone on a rampage—hammering every other nation's covenant legendary one after another, muscling its way through all of them.
So now Auron seriously wondered: was the Rayquaza that Hoopa summoned in the movie actually this one?
"Rayquaza really enjoys the food you make. I wanted to ask—would you be willing to sell the recipes to the nation? The terms would be very generous."
Auron gave Cyrus a wry smile and shook his head. "It's not that I don't want to sell. It's that I use Aura to regulate the food's state during preparation. Your people wouldn't be able to replicate it."
Cyrus sighed. "Right. Your family is the only one in the entire Dragon Kingdom with Aura."
"But I can make extra batches for you to give to Rayquaza. My own Pokémon eat the same stuff, so I always make a lot at once."
Cyrus looked at Auron with a pained smile and shook his head. "If it were just Rayquaza, that'd be fine. The problem is... we have more than just Rayquaza."
(End of Chapter)