When Dad said that, I began going through the list of restaurants I visited in Lilycove City so far. Still, considering the number of people in our group and the fact that this was supposed to be a celebration, which equaled noise, I felt the need to limit my selection to restaurants with private rooms. I really disliked it when others made a racket while I ate, so I felt it inappropriate to subject others to it. Don't do unto others what you don't want done unto you and all that. Eating should be an enjoyable experience after all.
Anyway, that decision left me with just 4 restaurants, and I eventually settled for the Cove Lily Hotel's restaurant for three reasons. One, they had the best private rooms out of all 4 options, which was not surprising since we were talking about a prominent hotel. Two, while it was the most expensive option, it was also the one that had the tastiest food out of the 4 relevant restaurants, though it did not have the best food among all the restaurants I had visited during my time in Lilycove City.
In fact, I'd say that it might only be able to barely squeeze into the Top 5, but that was fine since the food still tasted great. I wouldn't have chosen it otherwise, no matter what, which brought us to reason number 3. I remembered the girls mentioning in our group chat that they would be interested in seeing the Cove Lily Hotel as well when I mentioned my visit to the hotel after I went there to eat.
Decision made, I led the way as Dad said, and once the others saw the hotel they began to excitedly chat with each other. I noticed Ace, Aaron, Kinji, as well as Yu, exchange some glances after they figured out where we were going. I saw Kinji prod Ace with his elbow before Ace teasingly asked me if I had forgotten how big our group was and if I was sure that I wanted us to eat here since we, as in my parents and/or I, would be paying.
I knew that despite the "teasing" way Ace presented that question, he, and going by the previous exchange, the other boys as well were genuinely looking out for me/us knowing that a visit to a renowned hotel restaurant like this would be pretty pricey, and despite us being pretty well off, a big bill was still a big bill.
Dad spoke up before I could and assured them that it was fine. Mom supported him by saying that something like a first Badge deserved a proper celebration, especially if it was a 3-star S rank Badge like mine. She sounded especially proud when she mentioned the last bit. Ace and the boys let it go after my parents said that, while the girls, who had gotten slightly subdued when they heard Ace's words, returned to their excited chatter.
They even dragged the boys and me into their conversation. We all began to discuss the chances of us stumbling upon a famous trainer at the restaurant as well as which trainer we would like him/her to be, though we ultimately did not get to see any famous trainer during the three or so hours we spent at the Cove Lily Hotel, which was not surprising considering that we spent that time inside a private room. I mean, we only walked through the "regular" area of the restaurant on the way to the private room as well as out of the restaurant.
Still, no one was all that disappointed since we had a fun time, and interestingly enough more than half of them, including my parents, chose to stay the night in Lilycove City. I did not get to see the bill that night since Dad quickly covered it without letting anyone else catch a glimpse of it, and even after I asked him about it later on, he chose to keep it to himself. Going by his actions it was not hard to surmise that the bill had been high, but I was unsure how high it ended up being.
Well, we had enough money to afford to splurge like this on occasion, and if Dad insisted on keeping mum about it, all I could do was respect his choice. That aside, due to the way the evening went, we were only able to hold a short celebration of our victory inside Utopia since it was already quite late, though I did promise them that we would hold a proper celebration as soon as everyone was gone.
Palkiday was spent going around the city, visiting the places I found the most interesting, though with me acting as the tour guide that was no surprise. Unfortunately, we couldn't visit the Night Market since it wasn't open on Palkidays, so most of them, like Ace, Aaron, Misty, and Yoruichi, had to leave without being able to see it. My parents, Kinji, Yu, Jessie, Rose, and Weiss, however, stayed for another day/night, which meant the celebration with my Pokemon got pushed back by another day as well.
Nonetheless, the last group only ended up leaving after spending another day at Lilycove City, or rather they only left around 10 p.m., after spending a few hours walking around the Night Market. As soon as the last one was gone, I left the Teleportation Hub, found a secluded corner, and entered Utopia to spend a bit more than two hours with my Pokemon before going to bed.
The next morning, after breakfast, I made the decision to bring forward our weekly checkup since I had the meeting with Dr. Serizawa at 9 a.m. tomorrow, and I was expecting to spend at least half a day at the Research Facility on Mt.Silver, checking out the available Larvitar if not more. Hence, my decision to move up the check-up.
The check-up itself brought no big surprises, but I was happy to note that quite a few of my Pokemon had made visible progress, and I was sure that it wouldn't take long for one or two of them to advance to the next sub-stage or to break through. I told Hestia/Eevee, who was the only member of the Eevee Squad that had yet to evolve as much since she was in a bit of a hurry to advance to the (high) silver stage so that she could evolve to Flareon.
Anyway, once I was done checking the last member of our family, I finally announced the start of our victory celebration. We spent the whole day celebrating as well as relaxing since you had to have breaks to relax if you wanted to party the whole day to avoid burning out. We only stopped at around 9 p.m., and that was because I had to leave Utopia to travel toward the mainland, specifically to Mt.Silver for my meeting with Professor Serizawa tomorrow.
I naturally had no plans to travel the distance myself, so my next stop ended up being the Teleportation Hub. I had booked a teleportation to Rosewood City because Prof. Serizawa's Research Facility was located on the left/west half of Mt. Silver which was closer to Johto/Rosewood City than it was to Indigo City/Kanto.
I had booked a four-jump service, though thanks to the fact that the lady I hired had 3 psychic types, it took only 6 or so minutes for us to arrive in Rosewood City. I always had to marvel at the fact that people with (high) gold or (low) dark gold stage Pokemon actually bothered working for/with the Teleportation Hub when I saw them, and this time was no exception.
To be fair, the lady earned an easy and risk-free 30 to 40k through this one trip depending on what her cut was, which was a lot of money for something that took her only 5 to 6 minutes. That was close to half a million per hour which admittedly was an incredible hourly rate. Well, I guess I could see why they did what they did, I just could not think about doing the same, but I guess that was because I already had an easy and consistent stream of income that was filling my account without me having to do anything.
Well, I suppose I might be a little entitled due to my circumstances. I was really lucky that I got to work at Oak Lab and that I managed to have my name on some of the patents that were developed during my time there. Thanks to that I did not even have to bother selling some of the many many resources I had stored inside Utopia. Considering all this, I truly did sound like an entitled brat when I wondered how these people could bother working as teleporters. Thankfully, I never said that out loud to anybody.
Anyway, my moment of self-awareness aside, I thanked the lady and her Pokemon for the lift before I found a place to enter Utopia. I had to stay in Rosewood City for the night since I needed to go through a few checkpoints before I could enter Prof. Serizawa's facility due to the nature of Mt.Silver, or at least that part of Mt.Silver. The next morning as early as 7 a.m., I left Utopia before leaving Rosewood City. Once I was outside the city's perimeter, I called out Enji/Arcanine, sat on his back, and asked him to run towards the first checkpoint on Mt.Silver that I had to register in if I wanted to make it to Prof. Serizawa's facility.
I honestly kinda regretted that I refused the professor's offer to have someone pick me up and teleport me straight to his facility. No idea what I was thinking, but that decision resulted in me, or rather Enji running around for nearly an hour. We had to make 2 stops at alliance/ranger checkpoints before we finally made it to the facility at around 8:30 a.m.
Upon my arrival, I saw that Professor Serizawa was already waiting for me at the gate of the facility along with what I assumed to be two assistants. The professor gave me a smile along with a happy wave but remained otherwise silent as I dismounted Enji and recalled him after thanking him for carrying me around.
"I hope you enjoyed the morning air of Mt.Silver on your way here. It might be a bit cold, but you will be hard-pressed to find a place with fresher air anywhere on the continent," Professor Serizawa spoke up after I put away Enji's ball, and I was pretty sure he was teasing me. "The air was fine, but I could have done without the bureaucracy so early in the morning. I regret not taking you up on your offer," I admitted which earned me a chuckle from the professor and his assistants.
"Everybody hates paperwork," he said jokingly before seemingly remembering something. "At least anybody sane does," he corrected and I definitely agreed with him on this. "Just take it as a life experience," he proposed, "you'll come across many similar situations in your life, believe me," he followed up and I knew he was not cursing me even though it sounded like he was doing that.
"I really hope to avoid as many of those as I can," I freely admitted, and all three scientists on the other side gave me commiserating looks. "Good luck," Professor Serizawa said with a pat on my shoulder, and I could feel that it was heartfelt. All I could do was say thank you.
"Anyway, I've skipped over it earlier, so let me correct that," the professor began. "Welcome to my Mt.Silver facility," he finished with flair. "Now, please follow me inside so that we can start our exchange," he beckoned me to follow him as he made his way toward the entrance of the research building.
"Before we proceed, I need you to read and sign this agreement since we do need to keep a record of the exchange in writing," Professor Serizawa said before one of the assistants took out a thin stack of papers that she then handed to me.
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