"Who is fighting who now?"
Lucas asked, holding two chicken drumsticks in his hands, handing one to Gengar as he stood beside Gardenia.
"It seems to be a battle between Elite Four Lucian and Mr. Steven."
Gardenia turned her head, looking at the large chicken drumsticks in the hands of Lucas and Gengar, and swallowed hard.
It smells so good—I really want to eat it—
Gengar finished the drumstick in two bites and then stared at the large chicken drumstick in Lucas's hand just like Gardenia. The difference was that Gengar was drooling, while Gardenia was not.
After taking a bite, Lucas handed the drumstick in his hand to Gengar.
"Gen gengar"
Hee hee.
Gengar happily took the large chicken drumstick and began to chew it slowly.
As long as I eat fast enough, it's all mine!
Gengar felt a small surge of pride.
Lucas watched the battle between Bronzong and Metagross on the field. It had to be said, Steven's Shinny Metagross was truly handsome!
Steven won the battle. Just as Lance was about to step onto the field, Lucas clapped his hands, attracting the attention of everyone present.
"Everyone, it's getting late. I came over to ask if anyone wants to try some different food and cooking methods?"
Lucas's words instantly attracted everyone's attention.
Cynthia knew that Lucas knew many interesting ways to prepare food. She was the first to raise her hand, like a little girl answering a teacher's question, which was quite cute.
"Cynthia is one, anyone else?"
Steven, as the second most familiar customer of the Breeding House, also raised his hand.
He wondered what interesting new thing Lucas would come up with this time.
Seeing this, Ash also raised his hand.
There were also Shauna and Tomoyo, who were sitting on small stools seriously watching the battle.
Finally, Steven and Wallace glanced at each other and joined in as well.
"OK, then let's go to the backyard. The rest of you can also head to the backyard garden to wait; I've already set up the lights."
Everyone nodded and followed Lucas into the backyard.
As soon as Lucian reached the backyard, he noticed many red earth blocks next to the newly built stove.
Could he be talking about these red earth blocks?
Lucian wondered.
The girls all sat in the garden, where Lilligant and Roserade served them tea and snacks. Lucas led the men, like Cynthia and Steven, over to the red earth blocks. Pointing at them, Lucas said, "We are mainly going to stack these red earth blocks into a castle-like shape, then use firewood to heat them until they are red-hot. We'll wrap the food in tin foil, drop it in from the top, and then cover it with the red-hot blocks. The temperature of these blocks will roast the food, giving it a fragrance of the earth."
Lucas said with a smile, "Of course, the main point is to pass the time and do it ourselves."
Cynthia was thinking about something, while Wallace was a bit helpless.
Playing with mud was not very friendly for a top Coordinator Trainer; it wasn't very dignified.
Also a symbol of dignity, Steven didn't mind at all. After all, mud was just like digging for stones, something he was very good at.
Lucas didn't pay them much mind, instead crouching down to start the work himself.
Everyone surrounded Lucas, watching him build a crooked fortress. Steven was the first to laugh out loud, "Lucas, it seems this doesn't have a foundation?"
Looking at Cynthia, who was covering her mouth and giggling, Lucas snorted, "Don't laugh, you won't be able to build a good-looking one either."
Steven tugged at his tie, "Then let me give it a try."
So Steven found a spot and slowly began to stack the blocks, imitating Lucas.
It went well at first, but when it came to the top, Steven hesitated. Finally, he carefully placed a large stone on top, and then, it came crashing down.
Steven narrowed his eyes.
Without saying a word, he started over from the beginning.
Wallace didn't believe it was that difficult. As a top Coordinator, he believed he wouldn't lose to anyone when it came to expressing beauty, so he also tried his hand at it.
"Where did I go wrong?"
Wallace looked at the pile of stones that had collapsed in front of him, frowning in thought.
Seeing this, everyone else also started to try.
The result, of course, was disastrous.
Lucas walked over to Cynthia's side, "Do you want me to help you?"
Cynthia glanced at Lance and the others who were buried in their work, as well as Diantha and the others sitting in the garden drinking tea and chatting. She hesitated for a moment and then nodded.
Lucas taught Cynthia how to stack them hand-in-hand, and Cynthia smiled with satisfaction.
As soon as she looked up, she noticed everyone in the garden was looking at her and Lucas with smiles on their faces.
Lucas saw them too, but he just smiled gently and said to Cynthia, "Go rest in the garden for a bit. I'll go to the kitchen to wrap the food they need in tin foil so it's ready for them to use later."
Cynthia nodded and walked quickly to the garden to sit down.
Lucas looked at the others still playing with the mud. Lance and Clair were together, and Lucas could clearly hear Clair's complaints about Lance.
"It's all your fault. I told you, you can't put it like that."
"But I saw Lucas putting it like this?"
Wallace gave up on doing it himself and went to Steven's side, guiding him from the sidelines as the theorist, while Steven naturally became the man of action.
—
Lucian was with Shauna and Tomoyo. From the current situation, Lucian's team seemed likely to finish first.
As for Ash's side—
"Ash!"
Gary couldn't help but snap at Ash. They just needed to wrap it slowly and then seal the top, but Ash had brought over a stone as big as Pikachu and placed it directly on top, causing all their previous efforts to go to waste.
"I didn't mean to. I thought a bigger one would be easier to manage and we wouldn't have to seal the top. I didn't expect it to be so fragile."
Ash scratched his head sheepishly.
Gary: —
"Useless fellow."
Hearing Paul's words, Lucas felt strangely refreshed.
As expected, Paul would never be out of character.
"Paul, do you want to have a battle?"
Ash couldn't stand Paul's mockery and asked, clutching a Poké Ball in his hand.
Since Paul knew that battles were forbidden in the Breeding House, he directly ignored Ash and instead crouched down to stack the stones himself.
He felt that Lucas's arrangement had a deeper meaning.
The only thing left was Ash's constant chattering on the side.
Lucas was very satisfied with this scene. Indeed, no matter how much a man grows up, he still can't forget the memory of playing with mud as a child.
What is childhood? Whose childhood can be separated from mud—
Little Elites, Champions, all handled by a little bit of mud.
Under Lilligant's direction, Steven and the others' Pokémon began to decorate the dining area in the backyard. Lucas pulled Darkrai, who had come to deliver lotus leaves and bamboo, into the kitchen to help with the work.
Darkrai: ?!
He prepared the ingredients for the Barbeque, wrapped the food to be roasted in the earth mound with tin foil, put the rice and other things into the bamboo, nailed them shut to make bamboo rice, and then brought all the food to the large table in the backyard with Gothitelle and the others.
The large table was specially made by Lucas; it was detachable and had several holes dug in the middle, just right for the stoves to pass through for eating Barbeque.
He first put the bamboo rice into a large jar specifically for roasting bamboo rice, and then placed the grills on the stoves in the middle of the table.
Considering that different people have different tastes, Lucas specially prepared a mushroom soup base, a Charizard-level spiciness, and a moltres feather-level spiciness for today's soup.
After everything was ready, Lucas checked the time and began preparing the Pokémon's food.
In the backyard, Lucas's grills were almost smoking from the heat. One by one, fragrant dishes were produced and distributed according to each Pokémon's taste and appetite.
On the way, Lucas was called over by Steven and the others. Looking at the "earth fortresses" of various sizes in front of him, Lucas praised them a few times.
The one by Lucian, Shauna, and Tomoyo was the best-looking; Lance and Clair's was mediocre; as for Steven and Wallace's, it was massive.
Looking at the "earth fortress" as tall as himself, Lucas's face was full of black lines.
"Are you planning to throw me in there and roast me?"
Lucas asked crossly.
Steven and Wallace stood aside with smiles, "It was quite interesting."
And Ash, on the side, "? Can we really roast Lucas?"
Lucas: —
If someone else had said this, Lucas might have thought it was a joke, but if this idiot said it—
He wouldn't actually take it seriously, would he?!
After all, if you told someone else you could manually create an Aura Sphere, they might not believe you and might even call you crazy. But if you told Ash you could manually create an Aura Sphere, he would probably say: "Really? I knew someone could use Pokémon moves."
Lucas turned his gaze to the "earth fortress" built by Ash's trio. As expected, it was small, ugly, and unstable.
Gary and Paul noticed Lucas's gaze and scratched their heads in embarrassment.
It's all Ash's fault.
In contrast, Ash was scratching his head, "Hehe, how is it, Manager? Doesn't it look good? After all, it's the result of our joint efforts."
"If it were a bit bigger, we could have stuffed Pikachu inside."
Lucas said.
Pikachu: ?! Pika?!
Ash: "Right? I also think it looks good."
He wasn't praising you at all.
After looking around, Lucas finally chose Steven and Wallace's "earth fortress." There was no other reason than it being big enough.
"Ninetales."
After putting the firewood inside, Lucas called out to Ninetales.
He had it breathe a mouthful of scorching flames inside.
Before Gengar could start a combo with its face scrunched up, Lucas interrupted it first, "Gengar, it's not that I won't let you do it, but for such a large fortress, we need even hotter flames so we can make it in time for dinner."
Gengar licked Lucas once and then forgave him.
Gothitelle didn't even look up as she prepared the drinks, then skillfully used psychic power to toss a Cheri Berry into Lucas's mouth. Lucas chewed it as it came.
"Does Lucas also like to use Thunder Wave to refresh himself?"
Ash asked.
Lucas: —
Everyone: —
Lance was about to say something, but then he remembered that the young man in front of him was fine even after taking a direct Thunderbolt. After thinking about it, he gave up.
The fire, enhanced by the moltres feather and Entei, was burning brightly. Soon, the originally red earth blocks were heated to a glowing red, and at the same time, a fragrance unique to the earth began to spread.
Cynthia, Diantha, and the others walked over, surrounding the 1.8-meter-tall "earthen fortress."
"It smells so good."
Nina said.
Everyone present nodded in agreement.
"We're not going to eat this block of dirt later, are we?"
Shauntal joked.
Lucas: "The food is all ready."
Brock: "I have to say, it really is a unique fragrance."
The earth blocks after burning were indeed very fragrant; it had been a long time since Lucas had smelled this scent.
As someone from a people who originally lived on the land, this fragrance carried an inexplicable sense of nostalgia.
Once the fire inside went out, Steven looked at Lucas: "Lucas, what should we do next?"
Lucas asked Gengar to bring a large iron shovel and opened the top of the fortress. The stones on top were all patted into the interior of the fortress, kicking up scattered sparks. After opening the fortress until it was only waist-high, Lucas glanced inside.
"Alright, we can put the things in now. We just need to cover this part up later."
Lucas first put in several marinated chickens, followed by other food.
"Can we put eggs in?"
Steven asked.
Lucas nodded, "Of course you can."
Without another word, Steven went to the kitchen and brought out a basket of eggs. Under Lucas's instructions, he wrapped them in mud and tossed them all in.
Lucas: "Ah, no— wait—"
Steven contentedly set the bamboo basket aside, clapped his hands, and looked at Lucas, "What's wrong?"
"There are a full forty-five eggs in there—"
"It's fine, Metagross and the others are here."
Steven said with a smile.
"Are berries okay?"
Diantha raised her hand.
"Should be fine."
Diantha nodded, then wrapped up the berries on the table and dumped them all in.
Lucas: ——
"Mushrooms?"
"Should be fine?"
"Mhm." Caitlin dumped all the mushrooms in.
Lance glanced at the table: a large pile of vegetables, eggplants, potatoes, corn.
He thought for a moment; since mushrooms were okay, these should be too, right?
Then he dumped them all in.
Next came all sorts of random things.
"Pudding won't work, get out of here."
"And you, who throws ice cream in there?"
"Gengar, where did you pull these two big salted fish from? They won't fit."
"Gen gengar."
I don't care!
"——Fine, fine, fine, give them to me, I'll take care of them for you."
After Lucas put the salted fish in, he had just let out a sigh of relief when he saw a scene that nearly scared him to death.
"Dash, put my rice vat down! That won't work! It really won't!!!"
"Garchomp, popcorn isn't made from rice, and those aren't soybeans for grinding soy milk or making tofu, it uses corn!"
"Vespiquen, put the flowers from the garden down! Roasted flowers won't produce honey!!!"
"Dragonite, put that flour vat down too! It'll explode!!!"
Lucas's roars echoed through the entire Breeding House.
Amidst his painful wails, Lucas successfully stopped the people and Pokémon. He then quickly covered all the food with the hot stones, using the shovel to break and pack the stones down firmly.
"Alright, let's eat. This will be ready in a bit."
Lucas hurriedly dragged everyone back to the dining table, then skillfully added meatballs and beef into the sticks.
Once the soup base came to a boil, the aroma filled the air, and everyone began to use their chopsticks.
Soon, everyone was focused on eating with their heads down. Seeing this, Lucas finally breathed a sigh of relief.
"Ah? Is it already over?"
Ash arrived with Pikachu and a bunch of random food; Lucas recognized that some of it was even poisonous——
"Where did you go?"
Ash set the food down, washed his hands at Lucas's prompting, sat at the table, and joined the ranks of those devouring the meal.
"Hiss—— Pikachu and I went to the forest to find food, hiss, so hot, so spicy, so good, so delicious—— but it's already over."
Lucas looked at him and suddenly laughed, "I can help open it up and put Pikachu inside."
Pikachu, who was eating with the other Pokémon nearby, heard Lucas's words and glanced at the high earthen mound, making a face like a terrified Wobbuffet.
"Of course, Piplup can go in too if it wants."
Piplup was just about to pop a meatball it had snatched from Pikachu's bowl into its mouth. Hearing Lucas's words, it hurriedly returned the meatball to Pikachu.
"Piplup, Piplup."
I'm dead.
Then it flopped backward.
Seeing their reactions, Lucas let out a wicked laugh.
Looking at the people and Pokémon buried in their food with no time to talk, a sense of accomplishment instantly filled Lucas's chest.
There is nothing more rewarding than seeing everyone too busy eating the food you cooked to even speak.
This is what every cook dreams of.
Lucas took out all the bamboo tube rice and distributed it to everyone.
"So delicious——"
Shauntal used her chopsticks to take a bit of the bamboo tube rice and put it in her mouth; the fresh scent of bamboo instantly filled her entire mouth.
Bang!
The bowl didn't break.
Lucas looked even more smug. Didn't expect that, did you? I replaced your bowl with a plastic one in advance.
Caitlin tried the bamboo tube rice.
Bang!
The bamboo exploded.
"So— so delicious, sorry——"
Caitlin lowered her head and apologized in a small voice.
Lucas looked at the bamboo that had fallen in front of him. What kind of play was this? Could this be the legendary 'so good it's explosive'?
Caitlin looked up and found that everyone was eating and no one was paying attention to her. She felt inexplicably down and didn't dare to eat any more food.
Cynthia was just about to give her own bamboo tube rice to her when she saw a brand new one placed in front of her.
"You——"
Caitlin looked at the smiling Lucas and was momentarily speechless.
Cynthia, meanwhile, was smiling gracefully.
"Eat up, it's fine. There's plenty more. Your liking it is my greatest achievement."
Looking at Lucas's sincere smile, Caitlin's face turned red, and she lowered her head to eat.
"Thank you——"
Lucas sat down next to Cynthia and joined the eating fray.
"Mr. Lance, that's so mean, I clearly saw that first."
"But it's in my chopsticks, isn't it?"
Lance was smug, popping the meat into his mouth right in front of Ash.
"It truly tastes as beautiful as Milotic's graceful form."
Compared to the Barbeque, Wallace seemed to prefer the bamboo tube rice and the bamboo shoot feast.
Tonight's dinner had his help as well, and he had learned a lot from Lucas, Mime Jr., Gothitelle, Alcremie, and Meowstic.
"Brock's cooking is also very delicious; the fish was made by Brock."
Lucas said.
"Mhm, I really like today's fish. It's like a perfume filled with the scent of the ocean."
Erika huffed out a breath and said.
"Thank you for the compliment."
While one side discussed which dish was best, on the other side, Lance and the others were battling with their chopsticks. For a single meatball, they were using every trick in the book.
Lucas and Cynthia sat in the middle, looking at the two completely different scenes and laughing.
Suddenly, someone touched his thigh. Lucas looked down and saw it was Cynthia's hand.
Lucas decisively took her hand and continued chatting with Brock and the others.
After Caitlin noticed, her powerful psychic power caused the plastic bowl to fly away exploding.
Seeing this, Lucas gave a disdainful smile.
Heh, blonde loser.
Once the food on the table was mostly gone, Lucas stood up and took the shovel to the earthen mound. "Everyone, ready to dig up the treasure we buried?"
Everyone looked at Lucas expectantly. Lucas used the shovel to dig out all the food. Gothitelle and the others had already cleared the table, and Lucas placed the food on it.
"This is an egg."
Dawn opened one, found it was an egg, peeled it, and ate it.
"The taste isn't bad."
Next came all sorts of food.
After everyone had a taste, they gave it all to their Pokémon.
Pokémon: ???
However, Dragonite, Garchomp, and Gengar were quite happy. Darkrai was popping eggs one by one, its cheeks bulging.
"By the way, did Lucas catch Darkrai?"
Steven asked.
Lucas took a half-piece of salted fish handed over by Gengar, tore a piece off, and tossed it into his mouth. The more he chewed, the tastier it got.
"It's actually quite good."
Gengar chewed on the salted fish and puffed out its chest, "Gen gengar—"
I told you, when it comes to eating, you still can't beat me.
Fine, fine, fine, look at you getting all proud.
Lucas shook his head, "Darkrai is a friend of the Breeding House. Many of today's ingredients were brought by it from Poplar Town."
Darkrai didn't speak, just kept eating eggs.
One by one by one.
After finishing the food, everyone sat in their seats, chatting to digest. Lucas took out a camera.
"Everyone, shall we take a group photo?"
After finding a place with good lighting and setting the timer, Lucas ran over and put his arms around Lance and Lucian's necks, pulling them down to lie at the very front.
Click~
A perfect photo was recorded.
"We're leaving now, thank you for the hospitality."
Shauntal and Caitlin said their goodbyes and left.
"Thank you for the hospitality."
Diantha expressed her thanks and prepared to leave. "Champion Diantha, I also need to go to the Kalos region. Why don't we go together?"
"Alright."
After Diantha and Steven left.
Wallace also left.
——
"I'll notify you once I've fixed the time and location."
Next were Lance, Clair, Gardenia, Erika, and Lucian.
Ash and the others also left with them.
Only Cynthia remained in the backyard. She stroked Garchomp's dorsal fin. "I'm leaving."
"Safe travels."
"Mhm."
After everyone had left, Lucas stretched, glanced at the trash-filled backyard, and said, "Everyone, let's clean up, go soak in the hot spring, and then go to sleep."
"Gen gengar—"
"Lilli~"
"Gothitelle."
"Swoosh."
"Ni-ni~"
Enjoy
"To think there are such fresh bamboo shoots in winter, and Lucas brought out their fragrance perfectly. It seems I still have much to learn."
Brock sighed sincerely.
***************************
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