Pokemon Paldea [372-373] (Patreon)

Chapter 372 – Chairwoman Geeta’s Shock & the Coin Thief at Naranja Academy

The always unflappable Chairwoman of the Paldea Pokémon League, Geeta, actually froze for a brief moment.

Right after that, her fingers, which were already interlocked, tightened slightly, as if she were forcing herself to stay calm.

On the surface, Geeta still looked as serene as ever, but just from the creases on her gloves one could tell: the usually meticulous chairwoman was anything but calm inside.

Geeta took a deep breath and slowly said,

 “Could you please say that again?”

Lucas blinked. He hadn’t expected such a big reaction from her, and repeated,

 “I convinced the King of Bountiful Harvests from Galar’s ancient legends into coming to my farm.”

Geeta: !

Shock? Delight? Or something more complicated?

Geeta herself wasn’t sure what she was feeling. She gently massaged her suddenly throbbing temples, then pulled out her portable communicator to look up relevant information.

Even though Galar was technically a neighboring region, Geeta didn’t actually know that much about its history and myths—at best, just the stories about the Sword and Shield heroes and the Darkest Day.

Having a basic grasp was enough. Just the mass of issues in Paldea alone kept her far too busy; where would she find the leisure to study Galar’s legend of the King of Bountiful Harvests?

Lucas waited quietly while Geeta browsed through the information.

A short while later, Geeta set down her communicator and exhaled deeply. Her eyes, now carrying a hint of shock, turned toward Lucas.

To be blunt, after reading through that extremely niche legend in Galar—so obscure that even the mythological materials had to be requested from subordinates—her first reaction was that this so-called King of Bountiful Harvests probably didn’t exist in this world at all.

If a being really existed that could make all flowers bloom, enrich the soil, and ensure bountiful crops, then why did so many cities in Galar still rely on importing goods from other cities—or even from Paldea—to keep functioning?

Not to mention, the King of Bountiful Harvests legend completely contradicted the Galar myths she did know: Galar had once been ruled by a royal family, not some mythical king who governed the entire region.

But… even though all her rationality told her the King of Bountiful Harvests was a fiction, the moment Lucas calmly mentioned it right in front of her, Geeta felt that even without seeing the being in person, she ought to believe him.

“Did the King of Bountiful Harvests come to Paldea to spread its faith?”

As expected of the Paldea League’s Chairwoman and Top Champion, once she made a decision, her mind worked with frightening clarity. She went straight to analyzing what the King of Bountiful Harvests’ true motive might be.

“If its power is truly as the legends describe… the Paldea League is willing to fully cooperate in spreading its faith!”

In Geeta’s view, if everything was real, the existence of the King of Bountiful Harvests would catapult Paldea into a phase of rapid development. Using public welfare and people’s livelihoods as a stepping stone, its influence could radiate to every industry, allowing them to surpass the other leagues’ achievements.

As if she could already see Paldea’s glorious future, Geeta felt her long-quiet heart begin pounding hard again.

This rapid-fire outburst from Geeta left Lucas a little stunned. Seeing her so fired up—like she was ready to launch a grand political blueprint the moment anything was confirmed—Lucas paused suspiciously, then carefully said:

“Is there any chance that, in reality, the King of Bountiful Harvests got tired of being a king and stopped wanting to answer the endless expectations of its followers? So it chose to leave Galar with me and work on my farm as just an ordinary farmer?”

The instant Lucas said this, Geeta’s expression cooled from ignited to utter disbelief.

Her eyes widened, and she uncharacteristically lost her composure again as she stammered,

 “…What did you say?”

Lucas sighed and patiently repeated the whole story to Geeta.

Then, he moved on to the reason he had specifically called her here.

Because of Calyrex’s arrival, the farm would definitely be entering a period of rapid development.

Right now, the agricultural zone still had some undeveloped space, but in the foreseeable future, thanks to Calyrex, the farmland would gradually become insufficient.

The farmland running out wasn’t the truly urgent problem, though. What really mattered were the other issues this shortage implied.

As the Pokémon on the farm became more and more diverse, the current monotonous environment would obviously no longer be able to meet everyone’s needs—like how Regice, Glastrier, the Sandslash couple, and Vulpix all had to share a single cold storage area.

Because of this, Oranguru, having long since seen this coming, had already raised the proposal of expanding the scope of the farm.

However, the major leagues in the Pokémon world had been paying more and more attention to maintaining clear boundaries between developed land and wild areas. To avoid affecting wild Pokémon habitats, most construction projects were built only on land that had already been developed.

Developing new wild areas required a long string of complex procedures and review times—by the time everything was approved, it’d be far too late.

Since he had connections, Lucas naturally wanted to make use of them to save himself some trouble—

Having connections but insisting on suffering through everything alone wasn’t integrity, it was stupidity.

“I’ve already surveyed the area around my farm,” Lucas continued. “Because it’s close to human dwellings, there are basically no wild Pokémon there. If, during development, any such groups do appear, I’ll take full responsibility for helping them find a new habitat—or I’ll directly bring them into the farm.”

When he finished, Geeta remained silent for a long time before she finally managed to settle her emotions.

Even so, that shocking bit of news—that the King of Bountiful Harvests no longer intended to be a king—kept circling in her mind.

Geeta drew in a long breath.

 “I’ll personally keep an eye on the development process and speed up the approval… but—”

It was as if Lucas had already seen through what she was going to say—or perhaps a certain someone had already read her thoughts in advance and was now borrowing his mouth to express its goodwill.

“Since I’ve settled down in Paldea, if anything truly dangerous happens, I naturally won’t sit back and do nothing. That’s what Calyrex said.”

Be it sudden natural disasters or threats from ancient times and the distant future—if things truly reached an emergency point, then even if it was just a humble farmer now, the King of Bountiful Harvests wouldn’t mind showing off a bit of its true strength.

“That’s even better, then.”

Geeta’s eyes lit up slightly. With that, her last lingering doubts were completely dispelled.

If there was one thing that worried Geeta most as Paldea’s actual ruler, it was Paldea’s ability to resist disaster.

By disaster, she didn’t just mean ordinary natural and human-made calamities; the Paldea League had been continuously improving their contingency plans for those. What truly weighed on Geeta’s mind was Paldea’s ability to withstand legendary Pokémon-level threats.

It was almost ironic.

Kanto had the legends of Ho-Oh and Lugia.

Sinnoh had its creation myths about gods of time, space, and beyond.

Paldea, on the other hand, had none of those reassuring myths—only the Great Crater of Paldea, like a Pandora’s box that had to be guarded with utmost vigilance.

Position determines mindset. Since she bore the weight of Paldea’s future on her shoulders, Geeta pushed herself to grow stronger and worthy of the title of Top Champion, even as she constantly fretted over these seemingly invisible crises.

But now, things were different. With the King of Bountiful Harvests, Calyrex, making such a promise, she felt much more at ease.

At the very least, Paldea wouldn’t end up in danger if, say, Groudon and Kyogre started fighting again on the other side of its seas, in Hoenn.

Geeta was in an exceptionally good mood. Before leaving Lucas’s office, she kindly offered a reminder.

“Lately, there’ve been some rumors of hauntings at the academy. Some teachers and students have had their valuables disappear mysteriously. I’ve already asked Ryme to come investigate whether some Ghost-type Pokémon are playing pranks, but you’d better not leave anything important in your office.”

After that, Geeta waved lightly and left Lucas’s office.

Lucas, meanwhile, fell into thought.

Hauntings?

Valuables going missing?

That really didn’t sound like something that should be happening at Naranja Academy.

After pondering for a moment, Lucas picked up the school’s internal comm device installed in his office and called Dendra over right after her class ended.

Technically, Lucas was Dendra’s superior, so she trotted in and greeted him very respectfully—even though, in reality, Lucas was five or six years younger than her.

Lucas had called Dendra in partly to relay Paul’s feedback word-for-word and gently suggest she diversify her teaching content a bit, but also to ask her for more detailed information about the haunting rumors.

When Lucas heard that the missing items were all shiny objects—most of them made of gold—and that even Nurse Miriam’s precious gold engagement ring had disappeared, his expression instantly grew strange.

What kind of weird romcom-light-novel-style ring was that supposed to be?

After Dendra received Lucas’s suggestions, she looked like she’d been set on fire with motivation, racing out of the office.

Judging from the way she left, she probably wasn’t even planning to take a lunch break and would go straight into prepping her afternoon lessons, right?

The office fell quiet again. Lucas released Dragonite, Comfey, Shuckle, and Naclstack, letting them move freely around the room, then rubbed his chin, thinking about the identity of this ghost that seemed especially fond of stealing gold.

To be honest, it was almost too obvious.

If you mentioned just one of the elements alone, Lucas wouldn’t have been nearly so certain.

But if you put “ghost” and “gold” together, and it was happening in Paldea… then the identity of the Pokémon behind it was practically screaming itself.

To confirm his guess, Lucas poked at his basically useless, presence-weaker-than-Mimikyu’s system.

“Is it who I think it is?”

【Yes, it’s a Gimmighoul, Host】

The system might not be much use in many ways, but it had never been wrong on intel. If it said so, it was almost certainly true.

Yup. Confirmed. It was Gimmighoul’s doing.

Thinking of Gimmighoul, Lucas’s mind immediately jumped to that time in the Asado Desert.

When he and Raifort came out of the tomb, the Gimmighoul had completely vanished. He had no idea how it was doing now. Was it still living in that sand-whipped wasteland?

…

In some hidden corner of Naranja Academy’s library, a Gimmighoul was happily counting up the fruits of its recent labors.

From Gimmighoul’s perspective, all those towering shelves crammed with books looked downright terrifying—but thanks to the narrow gaps between them, it could slip through and move safely anywhere in the academy.

This Gimmighoul had been at the academy for quite some time.

It had come here all the way from the far-off Asado Desert.

At first, Gimmighoul had planned to secretly latch onto that human who was so good at commanding Pokémon and leave the perilous desert by hitching a ride. In the end, because he never got into the car, its plan failed.

Luckily, although the woman driving had rather questionable skills behind the wheel, she still managed to take it out of the desert. Filled with gratitude, Gimmighoul took a small box of gold coins she had hidden between the seat cushions and quietly slipped out of the car, sneaking into the library.

The library was far safer than the Asado Desert. Gimmighoul had successfully built a base here and, using that as a center, started carrying out its grand plan—collecting 999 coins!

Its species was born with the instinct to wander tirelessly in search of coins until they reached that target number. Since Gimmighoul had no idea which kind of coin it needed, it simply began searching for anything shiny—especially gold items.

This particular Gimmighoul had long been separated from its treasure chest, so it could only pile all the items it collected into the gap behind a shelf.

Gimmighoul had carefully observed that even the humans who came with cleaning tools to dust the shelves never reached their hands all the way into that gap—after all, these wall-mounted, built-in shelves weren’t meant to be moved around often.

During the day, it curled up in the crevice, waiting for nightfall before moving.

Under cover of darkness, its tiny body was nearly impossible to spot, not to mention Gimmighoul’s innate Ghost-type ability to hide its presence.

Surrounded by a mountain of glittering gold, Gimmighoul’s eyes shone. It was already daydreaming about the future—when it would finally gather all 999 coins and evolve into the legendary form of its kind!

“Cling~!”

Leaning against its most precious coin, Gimmighoul cupped its face in its hands and slowly drifted into a beautiful dream.

“Woof!”

Just then, a strangely distorted bark reached it from far away, making Gimmighoul open its eyes.

Panic flashed through its gaze. Its instincts and senses all screamed that something troublesome was heading its way.

The approaching aura was definitely that of another Ghost-type—one of its own kind. From Gimmighoul’s experience, Ghost-type Pokémon normally didn’t roam around in broad daylight like this.

Forcing itself not to make a sound, Gimmighoul looked left and right, then could only clutch its most proper, standard coin and worm its way deeper into the pile of stolen goods, hiding itself and the coin inside, praying it wouldn’t be discovered.

Chapter 373 – Arresting the Coin Thief!

The footsteps quickly drew near to Gimmighoul’s hiding place.

With its sharp senses, Gimmighoul could tell that in addition to the barking Ghost-type, there was also a human walking alongside it.

Curling up tightly, Gimmighoul silently wished they would just walk past its hiding spot and leave.

Reality, of course, rarely grants such wishes. Just when Gimmighoul was so nervous it felt like it couldn’t breathe, the footsteps stopped right in front of its shelf.

A woman’s voice, carrying a peculiar rhythm, rang out.

“Oh? Did you find something, Houndstone?”

The Ghost-type Pokémon called Houndstone sniffed carefully along the side of the shelf, only to discover the ghostly scent it had been tracking extended off toward another area.

Houndstone shook its head, the tombstone-like structure on its head shedding a light sprinkle of dust.

“Woof woof!”

It barked a couple of times toward the historical section of the library, then padded off in that direction.

Ryme, who had been summoned by Geeta to investigate the rumors of haunting, had no choice but to follow Houndstone toward the history shelves.

As an accomplished Ghost-type Trainer, she had tremendous faith in Houndstone’s nose. Even the most stealthy Ghost-type Pokémon couldn’t escape its tracking.

Well—except for the one that was practically an urban legend across Paldea, a mythical creature almost no one had seen clearly, let alone caught: Gimmighoul.

Of course, if they really couldn’t find anything no matter what, then she’d have to start suspecting that Gimmighoul was behind it.

As Ryme and Houndstone moved away, the Gimmighoul hidden behind the shelf finally let out a sigh of relief, collapsing bonelessly onto its little hoard as if it had just escaped death, and resumed waiting for nightfall.

A short while later.

Following the trail of ghostly energy to its densest point, Ryme and Houndstone found two people talking.

One was the Trainer who had defeated her, Lucas.

The other was a woman who looked just a little suspicious to Ryme—someone who, to her senses, carried a faintly bad vibe.

In the silent library, Houndstone suddenly started barking loudly at the shadows beneath the two people’s feet, and Ryme’s gaze locked straight onto the woman’s shadow.

As everyone knew, aside from a few Ghost-types that had fully tangible bodies, most incorporeal Ghost-type Pokémon could slip into the shadows of living beings or objects.

In other words—there was a Ghost-type Pokémon hiding in that person’s shadow!

Seeing Ryme barge over aggressively, Lucas stopped chatting with a very put-out-looking Raifort and turned a puzzled look toward the newcomer.

“Ryme, what brings you here?”

Ryme didn’t answer his greeting. She simply brought the loudly barking Houndstone over to Raifort and asked bluntly,

 “There’s a Ghost-type Pokémon hiding in your shadow, isn’t there?”

She phrased it as a question, but her tone was absolutely certain.

A flicker of surprise passed through Raifort’s eyes, but she opened her hands generously and said,

 “Yup. There’s a Ghost-type in my shadow. My partner, Gengar.”

As if to prove it, Raifort stomped her boot on the floor. Her shadow began to squirm as though it had come to life.

Within just a couple of breaths, a fat purple figure with a confident grin rose up from the darkness like something surfacing from water, revealing its round body.

The Shadow Pokémon—Gengar!

“Gen-gar~”

Gengar cheerfully greeted everyone, then hopped down, assumed a perfect diving pose, and plunged back into Raifort’s shadow, vanishing again.

Raifort’s blatant frankness made the rebuke Ryme had prepared die on her tongue. She frowned and turned to Lucas instead, asking,

 “She is…?”

Lucas didn’t mind that Ryme had ignored his hello. Rappers were all eccentric types anyway.

Shrugging, he pointed at the work badge half-covered by Raifort’s bizarre assortment of legendary-themed accessories.

 “History teacher at the academy—Raifort.”

Ryme: “…”

Her brows knitted slightly. She trusted Chairwoman Geeta’s judgment. If this woman had been personally selected as a teacher in the aftermath of the operation, then her character had already been thoroughly vetted. It was unlikely she’d be stealing from students.

Having read the look on Ryme’s face, Raifort more or less understood why she was here. She smoothly put on a wrongly accused expression and protested,

 “I was just complaining to Teacher Lucas about how my gold coins went missing on campus, too.”

“Miss Ryme, you’re not… suspecting me of being the thief, are you?”

Faced with Raifort’s innocent eyes, Ryme didn’t bat an eyelid.

 “Houndstone tracked the ghostly trail. Mistakes happen.”

The moment Ryme shifted the blame, Houndstone—still barking at Lucas’s shadow—stopped abruptly and stared at its Trainer with disbelief.

If I wasn’t famous for being loyal, I’d be cussing you out right now!!!

Lucas nearly burst out laughing. To hide it, he tapped his foot lightly on the floor and said,

 “Mimikyu usually likes to hang around in my shadow too, but it’s not here today. It’s probably been in my shadow so long that its Ghost-type aura seeped in, making my shadow’s ghostly energy stronger than normal.”

“So Houndstone, which instinctively followed the densest Ghost-type aura, ended up coming to us two who just happened to be standing together.”

With one sentence, Lucas neatly explained away Houndstone’s mistake and made it sound completely reasonable—earning himself a grateful nuzzle from the Pokémon.

Ryme felt a little sour about that, but she couldn’t argue. After all, she had just thrown Houndstone under the bus, so all she could do was ask Raifort seriously,

 “Raifort, you said you lost gold coins. Could you describe where you lost them, how you got them, and how many there were?”

“I’ll have my assistant log everything. Once we recover the missing items, we’ll check and match them up one by one and return them in full.”

Raifort: “…”

It was her turn to be tongue-tied, and her expression grew noticeably stiff.

She’d only just gotten her act together and gone legit again; there was no way she could explain the origin of those coins.

Lucas, who had just been chatting with Raifort earlier, already knew the whole story from her grumbling.

After their trip to the Asado Desert, Raifort had floored her beloved off-roader all the way back to Mesagoza.

When she parked at Naranja Academy’s lot, she’d even double-checked the dozens of ancient Paldean gold coins she’d hidden under the seat—spoils from her working years in her less-lawful past—and confirmed that they were safe.

A few days ago, when she heard about the hauntings and missing valuables, Raifort had gone to check on them again, and discovered that the box of ancient coins had completely vanished.

But since the coins were acquired through… slightly less than legitimate means, she couldn’t exactly file a report, so she’d just grabbed Lucas to complain.

With that in mind, Lucas stepped in to help her out.

 “More importantly, I already know where the culprit is. Do you two want to come with me to find it?”

Raifort and Ryme both froze, and Houndstone cocked its head, obviously not understanding how Lucas could know that.

If Raifort was just relieved, Ryme’s heart was in full upheaval.

She and Houndstone had been combing the campus for a long time, and now Lucas just casually said he knew where the culprit was?

Ryme fell silent, but she didn’t question him. She simply followed behind Lucas with Houndstone in tow.

If some random Naranja Academy student had told her they’d found the ghostly thief, Ryme would never have believed them so easily.

But coming from Lucas, the weight and reliability of those words were on a completely different level.

After all, Lucas was one of the very few Trainers this proud rapper genuinely admired from the bottom of her heart.

Raifort paused just a moment, then gave Lucas a deep look and followed as well.

This guy… really is like he knows everything.

Lucas finally stopped in front of a shelf of children’s picture books.

Raifort stayed quiet, but Ryme looked genuinely surprised.

She and Houndstone had just been here earlier and had even stayed for a bit before Houndstone was drawn away by the dense Ghost-type aura coming from Raifort and Lucas’s shadows.

The culprit behind the hauntings and the gold theft… was here?

Staring at the perfectly ordinary-looking shelf, Lucas rubbed his chin and asked Raifort,

 “Do you have your Grumpig with you?”

Raifort nodded and pulled out a Poké Ball.

 “I do.”

“Can it lift this shelf with Psychic?” Lucas asked. “My Dragonite could move it, but it’d probably damage the shelf. If it can’t, I’ll need to call in some backup.”

Raifort carefully examined the size of the shelf, then mentally compared it to what she’d seen Grumpig lift before.

 “It should be able to. Let’s give it a try.”

She sent out her Grumpig and had it attempt to move the shelf, which looked like it was solidly embedded in the wall.

Ryme knelt down to pet Houndstone’s fur, soothing its bruised heart after being scapegoated, then looked up at Lucas curiously.

 “The culprit is in there?”

“More or less,” Lucas nodded. “Some of the stolen items should be piled in there too.”

At some point, a Poké Ball had already appeared in his hand.

He pressed the button lightly, and in a flash of red light, Comfey appeared beside him.

“If something small tries to escape, grab it with Vine Whip. Go easy, though. It’s probably pretty fragile.”

“Fey~”

Comfey looked toward the shelf that Grumpig had begun inching out of its snug, built-in wall slot and tensed up in preparation for action. Her little face was full of serious focus.

Under the watchful eyes of the three humans and two Pokémon, the shelf was finally pulled clear, revealing the scene behind it.

The shelf had been fitted almost seamlessly into a recessed space in the wall. Honestly, neither Raifort nor Ryme had ever even considered that the culprit might be hiding in there.

But under the bright library lights, beyond the dancing motes of dust, an enormous pile of glittering objects almost blinded them.

Ryme’s eyes went wide.

 “Oh my god!”

With her sharp eye, Raifort immediately spotted her missing ancient Paldean gold coins in that golden mountain.

“Cling!”

A clear, coin-like chime suddenly rang out, tinged with obvious panic.

The next moment, a tiny Pokémon, seemingly startled out of its wits, bolted from the pile. The antenna-like protrusion on its head trembled wildly as it scurried toward the gap between another shelf and the wall.

As an expert on Paldea’s ancient history, Raifort instantly recognized it.

 “Gimmighoul!”

Ryme looked even more stunned.

The Gimmighoul—almost impossible for anyone to catch?

As if remembering something, Ryme quickly shouted,

 “Careful! Gimmighoul can run really fast!”

But Comfey, who had been waiting for this moment, was faster than Ryme’s warning.

With a sharp “swish,” two emerald-green vines lashed out, overtaking the Gimmighoul just before it could slip into the gap, and wrapped it up tightly.

Now fully ensnared, Gimmighoul panicked even more, its tiny head whipping around frantically in all directions. But its struggles were feeble; it probably had less strength than a just-hatched Applin.

In its panic, it had even forgotten to grab its most precious coin. Yet even without that extra burden weighing down its escape, it had still been caught by Comfey.

Listening to its frantic “cling cling” calls as it wriggled in the Vine Whip, Raifort and Ryme exchanged a long look. They were staring at Gimmighoul like it was some extremely rare specimen, which only made it more anxious.

They both thought: today, they might actually be witnessing history.

The Gimmighoul that, according to rumor, no one had ever successfully caught… had just been nabbed, all according to Lucas’s seemingly prophetic setup.

Lucas, for his part, hadn’t really planned on taking in a Gimmighoul—at least, not until this incident was resolved and all the stolen items were returned.

After all, stealing was undeniably wrong.

But then a little line of text suddenly popped up in his vision, making him pause and look at the bound Gimmighoul in disbelief.

This is the same Gimmighoul from the toppled watchtower?

How had it come all the way from the far-off Asado Desert to Naranja Academy in Mesagoza?

Given how it could be blown away by a slightly stronger gust of wind, it was hard to imagine it had made that journey alone.

Just as Ryme and Raifort leaned in for a closer look, Lucas suddenly stepped between them and the trembling Gimmighoul.

He asked it,

 “Why did you steal other people’s things?”

Perhaps sensitive to the emotions directed at it, Gimmighoul sensed a faint warmth in Lucas’s tone and stopped struggling. It tilted its head up to see who was speaking.

When it finally got a good look at his face, it froze.

It was the human who had driven off that Palossand and gently returned its coin!

Gimmighoul suddenly felt its wildly hammering heart begin to calm. It did its best to understand Lucas’s question, then tilted its head and made a confused sound.

“Cling?” (What is ‘steal’?)

Lucas couldn’t understand the content of its cry, but he could hear the bewilderment in it.

Under Ryme’s and Raifort’s thoughtful gazes, he patiently asked again,

 “You don’t know what ‘stealing’ means?”

“Cling!”

Gimmighoul nodded.

Lucas fell silent for a moment, then pointed at the pile of glittering gold that had already attracted a crowd of curious Naranja students, and said seriously,

“All of that—those are other people’s belongings that you took without permission. That’s what ‘stealing’ is. And it’s not a good thing to do.”