Chapter 357: Diantha: "Which Slut Seduced Mammon Now?!"
Lumiose City.
When Mammon made it back to Lumiose City, cleanup efforts were still underway across the whole city. Since the entire city had been overrun by twisted vegetation, even with both League personnel and Team Rocket pitching in, there was simply no way to clear it all out in a short span of time.
Days more of work, at least — and on top of that, a great number of buildings had been badly damaged by the plant growth, rendered completely uninhabitable, requiring full reconstruction from scratch. Still, at least the crisis itself had been resolved — this kind of post-crisis cleanup work was something the Kalos League could reasonably absorb.
Worth noting — Mammon's own villa happened to be one of the "survivors," genuinely lucky given the circumstances.
By evening, Platinum and the others had made their way back as well.
"Mr. Mammon, what are you doing?"
Out in the courtyard, everyone had settled onto picnic blankets to rest, when they noticed Mammon dumping water out of a bag — and, strangely, there was a Poké Ball inside that same bag.
Platinum and the others watched, thoroughly curious.
"Don't worry about it, this one's just draining some water. Oh, right, let me introduce everyone — this is AZ, our newly-joined Senior Officer, and this is his good friend, Floette."
Mammon set the bag aside and introduced AZ to the group.
"Mr. AZ? What a distinctive name — and you're incredibly tall too."
Mei stared at AZ, genuinely astonished — she'd genuinely never seen anyone built quite like this before. And that Floette perched on his shoulder — why was its flower black? Was it a Shiny Floette?
"Born this way," AZ said, unbothered — over the course of his impossibly long life, he'd fielded reactions to his height more times than he could count.
"I'm Platinum. You can just call me Dawn, Mr. AZ."
Platinum introduced herself warmly.
"I'm Mei~"
"I'm Serena."
... And so on.
Once everyone had gotten acquainted, Mammon took a sip of his juice.
"Everyone did genuinely excellent work today — especially you two, Mei and Serena. Not only did you capture Lysandre and dismantle his whole scheme, you also caught Malva, the mole embedded in the Elite Four."
Mammon offered his praise generously to the group of four girls.
"Heheh~ piece of cake, honestly. That Lysandre guy was so arrogant, actually trying to take on all four of us alone. Genuinely too much ego for his own good."
Mei puffed her chest out proudly, mimicking Lysandre's earlier bold declarations. He'd been sweating buckets, calling for backup mid-fight — genuinely comedic to watch.
"Well, his actual strength only went so far, in the end," Mammon said with a light laugh.
Lysandre's nerve genuinely outmatched even Cyrus's, honestly — though it wasn't especially surprising either, given how young Platinum and the others clearly looked to him.
"You four each get an extra 20,000 merit points on top of your base mission rewards."
Mammon said with a smile.
"YES!!"
"Mammon, I love you!"
"Mr. Mammon's so generous! Heheh~"
The four girls were all thrilled — merit points were something genuinely, tangibly useful.
"And Duruo, Wuli, you two also performed extremely well this time — an extra 10,000 merit points for you."
"Zicao, Danyu, an extra 5,000 for you both. And for everyone else who took part in this mission and helped with Lumiose City's cleanup efforts, an additional 1,000 merit point bonus."
Mammon was genuinely generous.
"Thanks, boss~!"
"Boss is the best!"
"Boss, I love you too~!"
Zicao and the others were equally energized.
"No, no, no — Duruo, you rascal, don't think I didn't catch that. Mei and the others are one thing, but you don't get to love me too."
Mammon shot back at Duruo, half-laughing, half-exasperated.
"We're keeping this a heterosexual establishment, alright."
"Ha, sorry, I just couldn't think of another word on the spot."
Duruo scratched his head, a little sheepish.
"Hahaha~"
For a moment, the entire courtyard filled with laughter and cheerful chatter, the mood genuinely warm and lively.
AZ sat there smiling, genuinely enjoying this relaxed, easygoing team atmosphere. Trusting Mammon really had been the right call.
"For the next few days, if everyone's free, I'd appreciate a bit more of your help clearing out the remaining vegetation here in Lumiose City."
Mammon told the group.
This was a genuinely excellent opportunity to build up public goodwill — Team Rocket had already helped defeat a genuinely extremist dark organization, and now they'd be helping the people of Lumiose City rebuild their homes on top of that. Positive press would come flooding in on its own, wouldn't it?
"Mr. Mammon, don't even mention it like that — this isn't a burden at all, we're genuinely happy to help."
"Zicao's right — Lumiose City really has been through something awful."
"Yeah, Team Flare really went too far this time. Thank goodness Lord Mammon was there to handle that Zygarde thing — I honestly don't want to imagine what would've happened otherwise."
The group fell into easy conversation from there — young people, after all, always find common ground to chat about.
Mammon watched them all with a smile, casually dumping the water out of the bag again — Yveltal really was leaking an unbelievable amount, the bag already refilling this quickly.
—
At seven that evening, a visitor arrived at the villa.
"Miss Viola?"
Mammon looked at her, genuinely curious.
"Mr. Mammon, I'm so sorry to disturb you this late."
"No trouble at all. Please, sit — though I'm curious what brings you here, Miss Viola?"
Mammon gestured for her to sit, smiling.
He could tell she'd clearly changed into a fresh, clean outfit specifically before coming.
"It's like this — you're already aware of today's events, Mr. Mammon. I managed to capture a great deal of footage — your Team Rocket engaging Team Flare directly."
Viola's tone carried genuine excitement — right, she hadn't evacuated with everyone else today, she'd stayed behind and gotten a great deal of footage.
"Oh? That's not exactly wise of you, Miss Viola. If you'd run into real danger, that wouldn't have gone well at all."
Mammon raised an eyebrow — Viola's nerve really was something else.
"Yes, but opportunity and risk always come hand in hand. I noticed — that massive serpent summoning all that vegetation, that was the one you personally took down, wasn't it, Mr. Mammon?"
Viola asked, carefully.
"That was the legendary Zygarde, forcibly controlled by Team Flare. Team Flare really was willing to do just about anything."
Mammon clicked his tongue, genuinely impressed, honestly, by Lysandre — the Ultimate Weapon and Zygarde, two genuine trump cards deployed together — the man had clearly come prepared.
"Thank goodness you were there, Mr. Mammon."
Viola offered genuine admiration — she'd noticed, even from a distance, that even Diantha herself had been completely helpless against that black-and-red Zygarde.
"You flatter me. Was there something else, Miss Viola?" Mammon said with a smile — though the underlying message was already a polite nudge toward the door.
He'd invited Diantha over tonight, after all, and by his estimate, she should be arriving in another ten minutes or so.
"Well... I was wondering if you might have time, Mr. Mammon, to sit for another interview at some point?"
Viola caught his hint clearly enough, but chose her words carefully regardless.
"You know how it is — people online are genuinely curious about you and Team Rocket right now, and today Team Rocket helped the League protect all of Lumiose City."
"If you'd be willing to do another interview, I'm confident it would absolutely go viral."
The previous interview had already lit up the entire world — but Viola understood clearly, that had only been the beginning!
All of this, of course, depended entirely on whether Mammon was still willing to continue giving her interviews.
Seeing Mammon's lukewarm reaction, Viola realized he clearly wasn't especially interested in the idea.
She gritted her teeth — but she genuinely didn't want to let this opportunity slip away!
"If you're willing to give me just one more chance, Mr. Mammon, whatever you need — we'll do it, no matter what!"
"Oh?"
Something sparked Mammon's interest at that, and he looked Viola over, top to bottom.
The living room fell into a sudden, brief silence.
Noticing Mammon's gaze lingering on her, Viola instinctively pressed her legs together.
"Seems Miss Viola isn't quite the type to settle for an ordinary life, is she."
Before long, Mammon smiled.
There wasn't any real mockery in his tone. Viola pressed her lips together at that.
"I don't have your kind of heaven-given talent, Mr. Mammon, but... I do hope to build a genuine career of my own."
Yes — if she hadn't genuinely wanted to make a real name for herself, she would never have taken the risk of interviewing Mammon in the first place.
"Being able to speak that honestly does earn you some genuine respect from me, Miss Viola."
Mammon rose to his feet, stretched, and gave Viola a meaningfully lingering look.
"In that case, come to my room — let's discuss this properly. What do you say?"
Discuss what, exactly, that requires going to his room?
Viola wasn't naive — she was a journalist, after all. But still...
Viola hesitated for only a single second before standing and following Mammon.
What was there really to hesitate over, anyway?
—
Meanwhile, not far from Mammon's villa.
Diantha, disguised, was making her way there when her phone buzzed.
"No need to come tonight — someone's already covering your shift."
Reading the message quietly to herself, Diantha's striking face twisted into something genuinely ugly.
"I dragged myself all the way out here for you, practically at your doorstep already, and NOW you're telling me to go home?!"
And here she'd been planning a nice little surprise for him tonight, too!!
Given how well Mammon had performed today, Diantha had actually been in a genuinely good mood heading over — after all, if Mammon hadn't stepped in, she genuinely didn't want to imagine how things might have ended.
But that good mood had just completely evaporated.
Diantha was practically grinding her teeth to dust. Which absolute slut had gone and seduced Mammon THIS time?!
Damn it!!
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