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Icarus and the others had escaped, but the Arai Family's Third Branch was in an uproar.
The next day, the Third Branch sent someone to discuss the wedding arrangements with Icarus. However, after knocking on his door for a long time, there was no response. At first, they didn't think much of it, assuming he had gone out on some errand.
But when the messenger returned that evening and found the door still tightly shut, a bad feeling crept into his heart.
"There were only three days left before the wedding, and he had already been informed. There's no way he would have gone on a long-term mission."
With that thought, he immediately reported the matter to the head of the Third Branch, Arai Xia.
After hearing the report, the middle-aged man quickly checked the town's surveillance records. After carefully reviewing the footage from the streets and city gates, he found evidence that Icarus and his companions had left town. He also discovered records showing that they had sold their house through a real estate agency.
Bang!
"Damn brat! How dare he make a fool of me!"
Bang! Bang!
The moment he saw the evidence, he understood everything.
Icarus had run away.
Rage instantly rushed to his head.
"Father, what's wrong?"
At that moment, a young woman carrying a Hoppip entered the room after hearing the smashing sounds. Because she was about to get married—and had been quite satisfied with her future husband—she had worn a bright smile for the past few days.
Bang!
"Ryoko! Tell me honestly. Other than kissing you that day, what else did that brat do?"
Seeing his daughter only fueled his anger further.
"Um… after Tanji-kun kissed me, he… he also touched me…"
The black-haired girl's face immediately turned crimson as she answered softly.
"Bastard! Scoundrel!"
Arai Xia's anger intensified.
This wasn't just a pig eating the cabbage.
The pig had eaten the cabbage, run away, and left behind a complete mess.
"H-How could this happen? Tanji-kun… he…"
The girl finally sensed that something was wrong and asked anxiously. Of course, she assumed Icarus had met with some accident and never imagined he had simply fled.
"…That dog! He ran away! Took the reward and disappeared!"
Hearing this cruel truth, the girl's delicate face instantly turned pale.
"How… how could this be… He told me before… he said…"
She muttered blankly to herself.
"It's alright, Ryoko. Father will find you someone better."
Seeing his daughter's devastated expression, Arai Xia hurriedly tried to comfort her.
"But… but…"
"Waaahhh!"
Remembering all the sweet words Icarus had whispered to her in that small room—and those wandering hands—Ryoko burst into tears.
After crying for a long time, she finally wiped away her tears and raised her head with determination.
"Father, I want to become a real Trainer. I want to demand an explanation from Tanji-kun. Let me go there."
"There?"
Arai Xia's expression immediately changed.
"Even with your status, that place isn't safe. Ryoko, listen to me. Father will find you a better husband."
"No, Father."
The girl shook her head.
"I understand our branch's situation. We practically emptied our savings for this matter."
"I'm not only going there to demand an explanation from Tanji-kun."
"I'm also going to demonstrate our branch's sincerity to that side."
"I believe that, even if it's only for the sake of 'buying horse bones with a thousand pieces of gold,' I'll be relatively safe there."
As the legitimate daughter of a Gym family, even one from a declining branch, she had still received proper education. She was far from a naive noble lady.
After a long silence, Arai Xia sighed.
"You've grown up, Ryoko."
He gently stroked her hair.
"I'll have Uncle Dong take you there."
"Okay."
Ryoko nodded and hugged her Hoppip tightly.
"We'll have to work hard from now on."
With that, she left the room.
Watching her departing figure, Arai Xia seemed to age several years in an instant.
Being the representative of the Third Branch was not an easy position.
Afterward, the Third Branch quietly buried the matter.
Fortunately, the marriage condition had never been publicly announced as part of the prize package, so most people in town remained unaware of what had happened. Otherwise, the branch would have lost even more face.
Of course, among the influential families, the story had already spread.
After all, many people had seen Icarus being taken into a private room, and even more had noticed Ryoko's flushed face and slightly disheveled appearance afterward.
As for who spread the rumors…
That was difficult to say.
The Third Branch eventually chose to swallow the humiliation.
After all, the Gym was the Gym, and the Third Branch was the Third Branch.
The current Gym Leader had little affection for them.
They didn't even consider sending people after Icarus.
The branch only had one remaining Elite-level Trainer stronger than him, and that elder was already nearing the end of his lifespan. If anything happened to him, the Third Branch might be reduced to collateral-family status.
They couldn't afford the risk.
All they could do was curse Icarus and hope he died somewhere in the wilderness.
After all, in this era, traveling Trainers faced extremely high mortality rates.
Even Elite-level Trainers often formed teams before venturing into unexplored areas.
As for Trainers below the Elite level, what they called "traveling" was usually just following routes already cleared and maintained by the League.
At that moment, however, Icarus and his companions were comfortably resting inside a hotel in Pewter City.
After traveling all night, they had naturally needed rest.
To avoid trouble, Icarus deliberately chose a hotel owned directly by the local ruling family.
That evening, after waking up, the group gathered to discuss their plans.
"My idea is simple."
Icarus spoke first.
"We stay here for four or five days and avoid wandering around outside."
"We'll observe the situation first."
"This hotel has training facilities anyway, so we can focus on improving our Pokémon."
Airi immediately nodded.
"No objections from me. Marshtomp needs more training."
Ever since that night years ago, she had placed complete trust in Icarus.
Stone also nodded.
"I'll train Kangaskhan. Though Dragon-type materials really are expensive."
His Kangaskhan had recently reached the Ordinary Low Stage.
Unfortunately, Dragon-type resources cost a fortune.
Even an ordinary mid-stage Dragonair horn had consumed the entire 500,000 Alliance Currency prize he received for placing fourth.
As a result, Stone had become the poorest member of the group.
Whenever possible, he even went out hunting alone at night.
As for Luna, she naturally had no objections.
Over the past two years, she had become extremely skilled at caring for Pokémon.
Her Miltank had also reached the Ordinary Mid Stage.
Although its combat ability wasn't particularly impressive, its milk production alone was incredibly valuable.
The milk it produced was enough to feed all of their Pokémon, with plenty left over to sell.
Airi and Stone insisted on paying for the food, milk, and recovery services Luna provided.
Originally, Icarus wanted to give everything away for free, but they refused.
After some discussion, he charged them only sixty to seventy percent of the normal price.
Their reasoning had been simple:
"Brother Icarus, you paid for all the equipment, formulas, and materials used to train Luna. It wouldn't be right for us to keep benefiting for free."
Both of them were remarkably considerate.
"Alright."
Seeing unanimous agreement, Icarus stood up.
"Let's head downstairs and start training."
The group soon arrived at the hotel's training grounds.
Even though it was already evening, several Trainers were still hard at work.
"Graveler, focus before you throw!"
"Machoke, keep using Karate Chop!"
"Rhyhorn, Take Down!"
The training ground was enormous, divided into more than a dozen court-sized sections by reinforced steel fencing.
Since the four of them had nothing to hide from one another, they rented a single training area together.
"Come out, everyone!"
Icarus tossed four Poké Balls into the air.
"Sprout!"
"Pidgeotto!"
"Houndoom!"
"Squirtle!"
His four Pokémon appeared instantly.
"Weepinbell, Pidgeotto, and Houndoom—you three know what to do."
"Squirtle, you're with me."
The first three already had established training plans.
Only Squirtle still needed one.
"Sprout!"
Weepinbell immediately began attacking targets with Vine Whip and Bullet Seed.
"Pidgeotto!"
A white glow flashed around Pidgeotto as it activated Agility and began racing around the training ground.
Its assignment was simple:
Maintain Agility for as long as possible and adapt to the exhaustion that followed.
"Houndoom!"
Meanwhile, Houndoom ran laps around the field while continuously launching Ember attacks at various targets.
This technique was something Icarus had secretly picked up during his first Qingmu Conference.
It worked surprisingly well.
As for Squirtle, it followed behind its Trainer curiously.
"Squirtle?"
They stopped near Airi's training area.
Poliwag was strengthening its body because Airi planned to evolve it into Poliwrath.
A sturdy physique would be essential.
Meanwhile, Staryu was practicing its Psychic abilities.
With all the Psychic-type resources Airi had invested into it, Staryu's psychic power had already become exceptionally impressive.
"Huh?"
Icarus glanced around.
"Where's Marshtomp?"
"Oh, over there."
Airi pointed toward a distant corner.
"He's learning Mud Shot from Stone's Graveler."
Looking over, Icarus saw a massive Graveler demonstrating the move while a blue-green Marshtomp eagerly copied its actions.
Bang!
Graveler's Mud Shot slammed into a target and shook it violently.
Splat!
Marshtomp's attempt, on the other hand, barely produced enough force to make the target wobble.
"Graveler!"
Graveler patiently demonstrated the process again, showing how to gather, compress, and launch the mud properly.
"Marshtomp!"
Marshtomp nodded repeatedly, listening with complete attention.
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