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Upon hearing the news, the children's eyes lit up with excitement.
"Is there really such a wonderful thing?" one of them exclaimed.
"That's amazing!" another chimed in.
Evan comforted the little ones and then brought them back to the orphanage for dinner.
However, when they saw the newly evolved Charmeleon, their amazement bubbled over into excited exclamations.
At the same time, a collective sigh of regret swept over them—they felt they had missed a once-in-a-lifetime event by not witnessing Charmeleon's evolution.
Not only did they miss it, but even Evan hadn't been there to see it happen.
"Well, there's not much to be said about that," he thought with a shrug.
The night passed uneventfully. When Evan woke up the next morning, he began preparations for the day's Pokémon-related tasks.
Gardevoir and Gallade carefully stacked several bags of energy cubes onto Machamp's sturdy shoulders, directing it to carry them to the designated clearing.
Isla and her two companions watched the entire scene unfold with disbelief.
"Brother Evan, isn't this a bit excessive?" Isla asked, her eyes wide.
"That's a ton of energy cubes!"
"Machamp has already carried out several bags," another added.
"Even if we owned a gold mine, we couldn't afford to use resources like this!"
Evan shook his head calmly.
"It's fine," he replied.
"These are just basic energy cubes. They're not that valuable, and no matter how many we use, it's worth it."
"Besides, this is a one-time thing. Once we're done, we won't have to worry about wild Pokémon raiding the orchard anymore."
His logic seemed sound, even if it was hard for them to fathom such abundance.
Still, Evan turned to the three assistants and gave them a suggestion.
"You should go take a look at the clearing later. If you come across a Pokémon you like, don't hesitate—challenge it, and bring it back with you."
The three of them immediately shook their heads in unison.
"No way!"
"I don't want another Pokémon!"
"Three is already too much to handle."
"And if I take in another one, I won't have any money left for cosmetics!" Isla added emphatically.
The resistance was unanimous.
Although Evan was generous with energy cubes and other necessities for their Pokémon, there were still countless other expenses—Pokémon food, accessories, and more—that fell on the trainers themselves. Raising three Pokémon was already a heavy financial burden for the group. Adding more? That was unthinkable.
"Besides," one of them muttered, "we're not full-time Trainers. Why would we keep so many Pokémon?"
Evan laughed, shaking his head. "Fair enough. I really don't have a counterargument for that."
"Oh, by the way," he added, suddenly remembering something. "It's the end of the month, isn't it? I need to pay you for last month's work."
He scratched his head sheepishly. "Sorry about the delay. I'll sort out your wages in a bit."
The assistants nodded, visibly brightening at the mention of their overdue payment.
Although last month had only been half a month of work, the new month had already flown by, and it was definitely time for them to be paid.
Evan had no intention of holding back their wages.
Since last month's work only spanned half the month, he decided to calculate their pay accordingly.
With this in mind, Evan walked over to his breeding house's account book and opened it. The three assistants exchanged glances and quietly gathered around, waiting for him to sort out their wages.
For them, this was a first.
Evan reviewed the account book and addressed them directly:
"I'll calculate your wages with a commission on the energy cubes you helped make after you started here," he began. "It'll be a combination of a basic salary and a commission from the net profit."
"For half a month of work, the basic salary is 5,000. Then there's the commission…"
Evan quickly ran the numbers. His net profit for the month had been substantial, largely due to the business generated by Violet. It was enough that the base salary seemed negligible in comparison. The commission was where the real money was.
"I'll give you a 1% commission," he announced.
"With a net profit of 52.3 million, that means each of you will receive 530,000."
"Send me your account numbers."
The three assistants stared at him in shock, momentarily speechless.
"Wait... Brother Evan," Isla said, her voice full of disbelief. "Isn't that too much? Did you calculate that based on all the profits since the breeding house opened?"
The other two assistants nodded, equally dumbfounded.
"Yeah," one said. "That's way too much for us."
"We can't accept that," the other added. "The basic salary alone is enough. Forget about the commission."
Evan shook his head firmly.
"I promised you this, and I'm sticking to my word. There's no reason to feel bad about it," he said.
"Besides, you'll be busy in the future making intermediate energy cubes. Once you've mastered the process, I'll assign all the orders for intermediate cubes to you."
He gestured to the account book.
"Do you see my profits? Compared to what I'm earning, your salaries are nothing. If I'm making tens of millions, giving each of you 530,000 is just a small thing."
The assistants exchanged looks of disbelief but realized that Evan's argument made sense. Even though they were earning more than they'd expected, Evan's profits dwarfed theirs.
"Fine," Isla said with a resigned sigh. "I'll send you my account number."
The other two followed suit, all three of them sending their details.
Evan quickly transferred their wages, then smiled at them.
"Alright, that's done. Now get back to work," he said.
"Since you're not interested in catching new Pokémon, focus on learning instead. Once you've mastered the recipes, you can take the intermediate certification exam."
He turned to Violet and Daniel.
"You two, in particular, need to prepare for the certification. Isla, help them out where you can. After you've both passed, I'll teach you the advanced techniques."
Evan leaned back and added with a grin, "Who knows? Once you've saved enough, you could open your own breeding house someday."
The three assistants nodded, though they weren't entirely convinced.
"Honestly," Violet murmured to the others, "I think we're making more here than we ever would on our own."
Daniel agreed, glancing at his balance. "Yeah, this part-time job might just be too good to leave."
For now, the idea of opening their own breeding houses seemed far off.
"We'll think about it later," Isla concluded.
For now, they were content with the generous wages and the opportunity to keep learning under Evan's guidance.