As soon as she cleared the space, Leah noticed the gift she had placed in the corner. She somewhat conspicuously blocked it with her body.
Fortunately, Ron was busy setting down the wood at that moment and didn't notice her small movement.
"Thank you." Leah said, hiding the gift before approaching the wood.
Although she didn't know what tree this wood came from, it carried a subtle fragrance and had beautiful wood grain patterns. Even without knowing the specific type, she knew Ron had definitely put thought into this.
Thinking this, she thanked Ron again.
"I didn't expect you to give me a gift first." Leah said.
"What?"
"Nothing." Leah shook her head and asked, "By the way, will you go to tonight's night market?"
Seeing Ron nod, Leah couldn't help but brighten into a smile. "I see, wonderful!"
After chatting with Leah for a while, Ron got up to say goodbye.
After delivering gifts, Ron still had farm work to attend to.
Tea sales in Kalos were unexpectedly good. Especially the flower teas, which sold surprisingly well in Kalos. According to the company in Lumiose, these teas were sold out as soon as they hit the market.
Ron prepared to try fumigating with different flowers, including the Fairy Rose he had bought from Pierre before departing for Kalos.
Because of Speed-Gro and Shaymin's help, the Fairy Rose had matured during these few days traveling in Kalos. After picking the Fairy Rose, Ron found a basket and peeled the petals off one by one.
Although roses themselves could be made into flower tea, compared to directly mixing petals into tea leaves, using petals for flavoring would naturally infuse the rose fragrance into the tea leaves.
This preserved the floral notes without destroying the tea's original flavor.
As for Stardrop Tea, because Stardrop production was limited, even if he wanted to make it, he would have to wait until next spring.
Notably, mature Stardrop plants were somewhat similar to fruit trees—the benefit being that, like fruit trees, they didn't require special care.
Therefore, Ron planned to plant any future Stardrop harvests on the Fern Islands, or Ginger Island.
After that, he would only need to make a special trip there during harvest time.
Ron pondered this while processing the tea at hand.
Time shifted to afternoon. Seeing it was about time, Ron went to the door and called out all the farm's Pokémon.
Team Rocket also lined up behind the Pokémon.
Meowth glanced at the front of the line and asked confusedly, "What are we doing, meow?"
"Rattata!"
The Rattata at the front of the line explained.
This was customary among the Pokémon. During festival-type events like this, Ron would distribute some money as holiday funds for the day, allowing everyone to freely buy what they wanted.
"We get some too, meow?!!!" Watching the line ahead, seeing Rattata after Rattata receive money and run off excitedly, Meowth became somewhat agitated. "We get some too, meow?!"
"Yes, yes." Ron said, giving Team Rocket a small sum of money. "Plus your wages. If you see anything you like at the market over there and don't have enough money, you can also ask me for an advance."
"You're such a good person, meow!" Meowth held the money, tears of gratitude streaming down his face.
After everyone received their money, Ron finally set off at sunset.
Speaking of which, Sailor wasn't in the line to receive money. It wasn't that he didn't want to buy anything, but because he had arranged with Willy to ride his old friend's submarine, he had already left early for the beach.
Besides him, the Geodudes who weren't very interested in the night market chose to huddle in the cave eating their rock feast rather than braving the snow to go to the beach.
Another exception was Rotom. Uncertain what it had experienced while wandering around Pelican Town, in any case, it was extremely resistant to leaving the farm.
So Ron didn't force it.
Arriving at Penny's door, Ron had just raised his hand to knock when Penny pulled the door open from inside.
Seemingly realizing her movement was a bit too quick, she smiled somewhat awkwardly at Ron. "What, what a coincidence, I was just opening the door."
With that, she hid a bag behind her back and walked to Ron's side. "Let's go, let's head out."
They walked toward the beach together.
Because of the night market, the port was currently hung with colorful lights. Boats were docked along the harbor, selling goods brought from all over the world.
Almost everyone from Pelican Town was here, scattered among various stalls examining the novel items within.
"Ah, a mermaid performance, meow!" Meowth pointed at a sign not far away and shouted to Jessie and James nearby.
Jessie and James each held a cup of coffee, drinking slowly.
This was complimentary from a small vendor near the Fish Shop. Following the principle of "don't refuse free stuff," both had accepted a cup without considering whether they would sleep tonight after drinking it.
"Drinking coffee on a snowy day feels quite nice." Jessie said. "My body feels warmed up—do you want to see that performance, Meowth?"
Meowth nodded repeatedly.
"Oh, they're just people pretending." Jessie said, but still led Meowth onto that small boat.
Ron glanced over there. Just as he was about to say something, he noticed Penny seemed to be deliberately guiding him toward a certain spot on the beach.
By the light of the colorful lamps, he vaguely saw what appeared to be a table there, with several people gathered around.
Before Ron could speak, suddenly a pair of cold hands covered his eyes.
"What's happening?" Ron asked.
"Nothing—please trust me and keep walking forward, okay?" Penny said softly, then added apologetically, "Are my hands too cold? Sorry, I clearly wore gloves."
"It's fine." Ron said, cooperating with Penny's forward movement.
Though he said this, Ron was quite a bit taller than Penny. Even with her on tiptoes, walking was somewhat strenuous, so the two of them practically moved at turtle speed to that table.
Then, the hands let go.
A cake covered with candles appeared before Ron.
"Happy Birthday!"
By the candlelight, Ron noticed that all of Pelican Town's residents had somehow gathered around the table.
Looking at the earnest faces in the flickering candlelight, Ron opened his mouth.
Just as he was about to say something, a heart-wrenching scream came from not far away.
"Ahhhhhh ghost, meow!!!"
"It really has a tail, meow!!!"
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