"Unexpectedly romantic." Ron applauded in his mask, watching Marnie step by step make her way to stand in front of Lewis.
"He doesn't actually think we can't recognize them, does he?" Maru asked from the side.
"Who cares." Haley clapped vigorously, showing absolutely no sense of loss over relinquishing her title as the Flower Queen. Right now, she was genuinely happy for Marnie and Lewis. "Marnie finally got her wish."
On stage, Marnie teared up as she watched Lewis place the laurel wreath on her head.
"Yay!!" Jas cheered loudly.
"This is the happiest Flower Dance I've ever had. Thank you, Lewis," Marnie said softly.
"Me too."
Saying this, Lewis looked at Ron not far away, feeling genuinely grateful for Ron's proposal from the bottom of his heart.
Time flashed forward to the 26th.
Today was Pierre's birthday.
Pierre got up early in the morning and started tidying up the grocery store as usual.
He rarely let his personal life affect his business. Even during Pelican Town's festivals, as long as there was a chance to make money, Pierre would set up a stall in some corner, earning an extra cent wherever he could.
Pierre yawned as he wiped the glass windows.
Today was an exception. He had originally prepared to spend the day uneventfully, but Abigail's unexpected return made Pierre look forward to his birthday for the first time in a long while.
Thinking this, Pierre turned his head and glanced at Abigail's tightly closed door.
Meanwhile, at the farm.
In the summer, because the Starfruit planted on Ginger Island had matured and been brewed into Starfruit Wine, bringing in a massive wave of income, Ron no longer planned to plant Hops.
Although the income from Hops was stable, they had to be harvested every day, and they also had to be put into the kegs daily to brew into Pale Ale. Even if he dumped all the work onto the Rattata, it was still a bit of a strain.
Besides, for the sake of planting Tea Saplings, the Rattata now had more important work to do.
Calculating this, Ron decided to go to the Oasis and buy another batch of Starfruit Seeds.
However, he would only plant this one batch in the summer. On one hand, the scale of the Ancient Fruit plantation on Ginger Island was continuously expanding. On the other hand, he needed to clear the land; once the Rattata collected enough summer forage items, Ron would craft those forage items into Summer Seeds and plant them in large quantities on the farm.
With this in mind, Ron boarded the bus to the desert.
Sailor was also on the Bus today. Because it had finished catching all the fish that could be caught in the spring with Willy, Sailor had taken a vacation recently, specifically coming to the desert to hang out with Sandy.
Aside from Sailor, there was also the other Rattata—the one who loved collecting accessories.
Once it saved up enough pocket money, it would make a trip to the desert on its own to custom-order some accessories it liked from Sandy.
Occasionally, it would also drop by Emily's place, or take various colored ores to Clint and have him craft them into exquisite gemstone accessories.
The gems were bought from Sailor, and Sailor fished them out of various trash cans.
Although this Rattata had thought about rummaging through the trash cans itself, maybe its luck wasn't good enough; whenever it dug through the trash, it could only find disgusting garbage or useless things like food.
On a related note, it had also made a little discovery. Once, when it was rummaging through a trash can, it realized that a trash can lid could surprisingly be worn as a weirdly shaped hat.
However, it seemed people didn't really like it when it wore it out, so it rarely took it out anymore.
Taking a glance at the Rattata, who was currently holding a book with a solemn expression, flipping through the patterns in preparation for custom-ordering accessories later, Ron waved his hand grandly and announced that he would reimburse whatever accessories it custom-ordered at Sandy's today.
"Rattata?! Rattata!" The Rattata raised its head in surprise, staring at Ron with burning eyes.
"Really." Ron nodded to assure it. "You can also use any of the accessory materials on the farm as you please."
"Rattata!!!" The Rattata immediately cheered.
Sailor, who was acting as a high-priced secondhand dealer beside them, took a glance and then looked away with a guilty conscience.
Fortunately, Ron was quite open-minded about this and didn't press Sailor about the accessory materials.
"Rattata, Rattata, Rattata." The Rattata excitedly flipped through the booklet in its hands, showing Ron the pictures of the accessories it wanted.
This booklet was obtained from Emily. To be precise, its original owner was Haley; it was a fashion magazine Haley used to read often. After Haley decided to travel to Kalos, she had transferred ownership of these things to Emily. After going around in circles, a few of them were given to the Rattata.
"You want this one, and this one too." Ron patted its head. "Let's make them all then, I'll pay later."
"Rattata!" It cheered again, but then remembered the trip to Kalos. It couldn't help but turn its head and ask solemnly: "Rattata?" (Will there still be the Kalos trip after buying all these?)
"Rattata, Rattata." (If I can only choose one, then I'll have to make a sacrifice, Rattata.)
Seeing it looking so conflicted right now, Ron patted its head again. "You can pick whatever you want in Kalos too."
"Rattata!!!!" The Rattata felt like today was the happiest day of its life.
After making the promise to the Rattata, Ron opened the Pokédex and, based on its characteristics, began looking up its various stats.
After a bout of searching, Ron stopped on a certain page. He then glanced at the Rattata in surprise.
Probably because it needed to earn pocket money, it had been working very hard on the farm, thus accumulating a lot of potential value, much higher than the other Rattata.
Besides that, it also had another stat that the other Rattata didn't have: Beauty.
If he remembered correctly, this stat was related to Pokémon Contests.
Perhaps because it had accumulated quite a few accessories, plus its enthusiasm for grooming its appearance, this particular stat was absurdly high.
Although there was no reference value to compare it against, Ron wasn't sure what kind of ranking this stat could achieve in a Pokémon Contest.
So Ron asked softly, "Do you want to participate in a Pokémon Contest?"
"Rattata?" The Rattata snapped its head up to look at Ron. "Rattata?"
"If you want to." Ron turned his head to glance out the window, pondering. "Hmm... then do you want to go with Haley, or wait until I travel to Kalos and take you to compete?"
Ron himself had no plans for Pokémon Contests, but if it wanted to go, he could accompany it.
"Rattata, Rattata!" It quickly grabbed the hem of Ron's shirt and called out happily. "Rattata!"
"You want to come with me, huh." Ron thought for a moment. "Then it'll be a while longer."
"Rattata!" It happily clutched Ron's hem, then cheered again: "Rattata!!!"
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