Chapter 137: Slowking's Realization

However, this thought lasted for only three seconds in Giyuan’s mind.

The moment he turned around, he caught sight of several Pokémon “dancing” inside a mud pit.

Giyuan instantly felt a headache coming on.

That mud pit was the result of the water he had just splashed around.

In addition to the ecosystem garden inside, the estate also came with a small courtyard.

When they first moved in, the courtyard was covered by a patch of green grass.

At the time, Giyuan felt it would be a terrible waste not to grow something in such a spacious yard.

So, he and his Axew tilled a plot of land, getting ready to plant some berries and vegetables.

Little did he expect that before the berries could even sprout, the patch would be wrecked by this group of little rascals.

“Ahem.” Giyuan turned around and coughed a few times in their direction.

Aside from Cramorant, Zapdos, and Slowking, who hadn't joined in, the rest of the Pokémon instantly stiffened upon hearing the coughs. They dropped their heads and lined up to await their scolding.

Giyuan had previously told them to be clean Pokémon and forbidden them from rolling around in the mud.

Therefore, whether it was the youngest Ralts and Charmander, or old Gengar, everyone had been paying attention to this rule.

As a result, they had simply gotten too carried away playing today and forgotten to remind each other.

“Char……”

Charmander let out an embarrassed cry.

Giyuan had originally intended to lecture them, but seeing them like this, he suddenly found himself completely at a loss for words.

Besides, why were they so nervous?

He wasn't usually as stern as trainers like Paul, was he?

Feeling somewhat puzzled, Giyuan walked forward and immediately spotted the distinct shapes of footprints imprinted in the mud pit.

From left to right, they belonged to: Charmander, Axew, Roserade, Ralts, and Gengar.

Giyuan: “……”

Oh, boy. So they were just admiring their own footprints here.

Was it really that fun?

Giyuan had no idea, but to Pokémon, it must have been quite entertaining.

Otherwise, why else would even Gengar have joined in?

He stood up and said speechlessly, “Go on, keep playing!”

The Pokémon raised their heads in utter disbelief.

Gengar asked worriedly, “You aren't mad that we didn't listen?”

“Ralts……” Ralts’s little face wore an embarrassed expression.

Giyuan: “It's just jumping in the mud, not a big deal. Just wash up afterwards!”

With that, he turned around and walked back toward the house.

Gengar hurriedly asked, “Where are you going?”

Giyuan replied without looking back, “To go get your bathwater ready.”

……

That evening, in the bathroom.

Giyuan looked at the line of filthy Pokémon before him and once again felt a headache blooming.

“Weren't you just comparing footprint shapes? Why is there mud on your faces too?” Giyuan asked, pointing at Axew.

“Nata……” Axew’s dragon face flushed red.

It had no idea how it happened either; by the time it snapped back to reality, things had already turned out this way.

Giyuan: “……”

Never mind.

According to their sizes, he prepared a number of small bathtubs. After filling them with hot water, he reached out and lifted the smallest Charmander and Ralts into their tubs.

The other three big guys didn't need to be carried; they climbed in on their own.

Soaking in the warm water, Gengar’s face relaxed into an expression of pure comfort.

Giyuan then began giving them baths in an orderly fashion.

Washing away the mud with water and lathering up body wash, he soon had a row of fragrant, warm, and fluffy Pokémon in front of him.

He dried off Charmander and Ralts, carried them out of the bathroom first, and placed them on the sofa.

Then he returned to grab bath towels for the other three big fellows.

“Alright, go play!” Giyuan patted Roserade on the head and said.

“Klero~” Roserade wore a happy expression and turned to walk out of the bathroom.

“Phew……”

Giyuan let out a sigh of relief. He was finally done with the chores.

He looked at his reflection in the mirror.

Compared to when he first arrived in this world, his youthful face had clearly matured a bit.

Looking at this scene, Giyuan suddenly realized something.

If calculated by the age on his identification papers, he seemed to be eleven years old now.

Counting this year, before he even realized it, he was about to have spent two years in this world.

Giyuan felt a pang of emotion; time really flew by so fast.

Just then, Slowking’s voice came from outside.

“Giyuan, do you need any help?”

“No need!” Giyuan said quickly. Although his body was only eleven, his psychological age was a solid thirty-one.

If he hadn't time-traveled, he would already be an old man closing in on forty.

“Alright,” Slowking said. “Then if you need any help, you can call me.”

“Got it,” Giyuan replied.

Outside the door, Slowking turned around and left the bathroom.

Its trainer seemed somewhat different compared to other human trainers of the same age.

Mature, kind, polite, always putting himself in the role of the caregiver, and constantly forgetting that he was still just a ten-year-old child…

Slowking suddenly had the feeling that Giyuan was much older than ten.

What a troublesome thought……

Slowking thought with distress.

It looked at Gengar and the others in the living room, then thought of Squirtle and Coelacanth out in the garden.

For a ten-year-old child to single-handedly support this marvelous “family,” it must be very exhausting, right?

So, what could it do for him?

Slowking fell into deep thought.

……

After taking their baths, when Giyuan returned to the living room, several Pokémon were sprawled out across the sofa in all directions, drifting off to sleep.

Seeing this, Giyuan didn't go over to disturb them. Instead, he turned and entered the ecosystem garden, planning to have a chat with Zapdos.

By this time, it was already nine o'clock in the evening.

This hour happened to be when Oddish were most active, so the moment he stepped inside, Giyuan saw a group of tiny Oddish strolling in circles around the garden under the moonlight.

“Hi!”

Giyuan waved to greet them.

Seeing him return, the Oddish let out happy cries and began circling around him in delight.

“Alright, alright. I came to ask: have you seen a large yellow bird? Can you tell me where it is right now?”

Hearing this, the Oddish thought for a moment and pointed in a certain direction.

“Thank you! Then I won't disturb you any longer!” Giyuan stroked them and headed off in the direction they indicated.

Along the way, he saw a cluster of Slowpoke resting by the river, passed a pond inhabited by a school of Coelacanth, and finally spotted Zapdos perched in a large tree.

“Chirp!” Seeing him approach, Zapdos let out a cry.

“Shall we talk?”

Zapdos looked at him, then flapped its wings and flew down from the tree.

Giyuan had sought out Zapdos this time to talk about the incident during the day when it attacked Professor Birch.

Launching unprovoked attacks on others was a very dangerous behavior.

Giyuan figured that Zapdos might have acted that way because of its irritable temperament.

In the wild, approaching casually was viewed by Zapdos as a provocation and an invasion of its territory.

“……What I want to say is,” Giyuan said after a moment of thought, “could you please not attack others casually in the future? They bear no malice toward you.”

“How about trying to treat this place as a new home, and us as your family? Can you do that?” Giyuan said sincerely.

Although his sentences were a bit disjointed, he figured Zapdos should be able to understand his intent.

Hearing this, Zapdos simply stared at him with its sharp eyes.

Giyuan met its gaze in silence.

A moment later, the sharp feathers on Zapdos’s body gradually softened.

It lowered its body and gently rested its head against the shoulder of the young man in front of it.

A surge of joy welled up in Giyuan’s heart, and he seized the opportunity to stroke the fluffy feathers on Zapdos’s chest.