While the Beautifly of the Hoenn region were world-renowned for their beauty, they were also the most widely distributed Pokémon in the region.
Consequently, the market price for a Beautifly was not particularly high.
Furthermore, wild Beautifly generally possessed low potential.
Thus, Ronan had no interest in catching one.
Before extracting the wings, he planned to treat this gemstone as a high-value decoration.
He wouldn’t display it in the shop, however; after polishing and cutting the rough edges, it would make for a perfect amber ornament.
As Ronan was deep in thought, the chime of the door’s bell interrupted his train of thought.
A man and a woman entered the shop one after the other.
The two shared similar facial features and appeared quite young.
The young man looked to be around twenty-one or twenty-two, while the young woman seemed slightly older than Ronan, perhaps eighteen or nineteen.
The pair walked toward Ronan, and the man spoke up.
“Hello, is the manager in?
We’re here to apply for the staff positions.
We already scheduled an appointment through the Aoba Breeding Center’s official website.” Ronan nodded.
“Please follow me.” With that, he led the two to a vacant table.
“Please, have a seat.” Ronan pulled up a chair and sat down.
“I am the owner of the Aoba Breeding Center.
Could you both please start with a brief self-introduction?” Though they were somewhat surprised, a sixteen or seventeen-year-old owner wasn’t exactly a rarity in the Pokémon world.
The man spoke first.
“Hello, I’m Chase Ogden, and this is my sister, Chloe Ogden.” Through their conversation, Ronan gained a basic understanding of the siblings’ background.
The Ogden siblings had grown up in an orphanage run by the League.
The brother, Chase, was twenty-one years old and an Intermediate Trainer.
Ronan clearly noticed a hint of awkwardness when Chase mentioned this.
He likely felt a bit embarrassed in front of a ‘kid’ like Ronan—since he assumed Ronan was even younger than his sister and thus viewed him as a child.
Meanwhile, his sister, Chloe Ogden, had worked in a breeding center since leaving the orphanage.
Moreover, while working at the breeding center, Chloe had always been an assistant to the resident Breeder.
She had picked up some skills in crafting PokéBlocks.
From the look of it, the Ogden siblings did have some talent.
Although they lacked the funds for a formal education after leaving the orphanage, they had done well to achieve what they had.
Becoming a Trainer was an expensive endeavor; for an orphan to survive in Rustboro City while looking after his younger sister was no easy feat.
Ronan asked a few more questions and was satisfied with their answers.
Finally, he asked if they were available for long-term employment.
Upon receiving a positive response, he decided to hire them.
After negotiating their wages and benefits, he agreed with the Ogden siblings that they would move in and report for duty the following day.
Having hired two employees, Ronan felt a visible weight lift off his shoulders.
After selling a few more Pokémon Eggs in the afternoon, he finally remembered there was one more thing he hadn’t done.
He went to the front desk of the breeding center and logged onto the Aoba Breeding Center’s official website.
The site had been custom-made for Ronan; it was simple to operate and easy to manage.
He opened a reservation channel on the site and uploaded images of the Murkrow he brought back from the farm and a Green-potential Shroomish he had selected from the nursery.
He then posted an announcement stating that the Aoba Breeding Center would begin selling Green-potential Pokémon.
Pre-orders would not be accepted; instead, a purchase window would open on the fifteenth of every month.
Only two would be available at a time, limited to one per person.
Successful buyers would need to come to the Aoba Breeding Center to collect their Pokémon, and a purchase agreement would only be signed after a one-week observation period.
The League had extremely strict laws regarding the protection of Pokémon.
If a Trainer was found to have abandoned or mistreated a Pokémon, they would face massive fines or even imprisonment.
Therefore, most reputable breeding centers of a certain size established specific purchase conditions.
Even so, this could not dampen people’s enthusiasm for high-potential Pokémon.
Compared to the even rarer Cyan-potential Pokémon, Green-potential ones were still expensive but far more numerous.
As for the even higher-grade Blue-potential Pokémon, they almost never appeared on the open market.
According to what Ronan knew, the most recent instance of a Blue-potential Pokémon appearing was a Bug-type that had surfaced at an auction five years ago.
Even as a Bug-type, it had been fiercely contested, with the price soaring to over 130 million.
This was because even within the Dragon Clan or the Shrine Clan, Blue-potential Pokémon were few and far between.
After resolving the website issues, Ronan headed to the ecological park behind the breeding center to check on the newborn Pokémon.
There were now over a dozen newborns living in the park, so it no longer felt as desolate as it had at the beginning.
The Mightyena he had caught in Petalburg Woods was lying peacefully under a large tree.
The Mightyena’s ears twitched at the sound of Ronan’s footsteps.
It looked up at him, let out two soft whimpers, and then tucked its head back in.
Ronan ignored the Mightyena’s perfunctory greeting.
As long as it kept a good watch over the Pokémon in the park, he wouldn’t make things difficult for it.
However, if even a single Pokémon went missing, he would make sure it realized that a person capable of protecting this kind of estate within the League was no soft-hearted pushover.