Early the next morning, Sprigatito was already rolling back and forth across the bed, staring at Aiden with those huge magenta eyes in a blatant attempt to manipulate him.
“Meooow~~”
Sprigatito had gone full baby voice.
And all because of a promise Aiden had made after yesterday’s Gym battle.
“You worked hard out there.
Is there anything you want?”
Sprigatito had thought about it for quite a while before finally making up her mind after watching a video Snivy had found online.
She wanted Aiden to take her to a dessert shop that had recently become extremely popular.
Unfortunately, dessert came after breakfast.
Snivy, who took nutrition very seriously, flatly rejected Aiden and Sprigatito’s plan to run out for ice cream first thing in the morning.
So Sprigatito had resorted to rolling around on the bed and shamelessly begging.
Snivy remained completely unmoved.
“Spriga!”
‘Snivy, you have no heart!’
“Sni!”
‘I’m doing this for your own good!’
“Spriga…”
‘You sound like an old lady…’
Whoosh!
A vine wrapped around Sprigatito and hoisted her into the air.
All four paws immediately began flailing.
After struggling for a while, her tail finally drooped in defeat.
“Meow~”
‘Kitty was wrong…’
Aiden: “…”
Snivy: “…”
Watching the two of them bicker, Aiden couldn’t stop the small smile that appeared on his face.
Then his attention shifted to Golurk’s Heavy Ball.
Compared with Sprigatito and Snivy, who were constantly fooling around with each other, Golurk usually preferred remaining inside its ball.
Even when Aiden released it, Golurk would simply stand there in silence.
It never refused an instruction, and Nurse Joy’s examination had confirmed that it was perfectly healthy.
Even so, its complete lack of expression still worried Aiden a little.
“Wish I knew an expert on Golurk…”
With that thought, he opened his phone and searched online for information about the species.
Unfortunately, ancient artificial Pokémon like Golett and Golurk remained poorly understood.
There simply wasn’t much useful information available beyond the basics.
Aiden eventually gave up and checked the numbers on yesterday’s video instead.
The view count was still climbing nicely.
He nodded in satisfaction.
Still, there was an old saying about how failing to plan ahead inevitably brought trouble sooner or later.
At the moment, the only unreleased footage Aiden had left was the Nimbasa Gym challenge.
Once he finished editing and uploading that, his content pipeline would be completely empty.
Which meant—
“I need another trend to latch onto…”
Aiden suddenly realized he had somehow accumulated a ridiculous number of things to do before breakfast.
…
Just then—
“Audino!
Audino!”
Someone knocked on his door.
Audino stood outside and informed him that he had a visitor.
Aiden raised an eyebrow.
That was strange.
If it were Lacey, Audino probably would have simply let her come find him herself.
If it were Officer Jenny, she would probably have kicked the door open.
Which meant anyone else had to be…
Aiden ran through the short list of people he knew in Nimbasa City but wasn’t especially close with.
Then his eyes lit up.
“Did the guy from Maractus Town decide the promotion worked too well and come over to pay me extra?!”
The more he thought about it, the more plausible it sounded.
He barely knew anyone else in the city.
The thought of more money flying into his account instantly put a grin on his face.
“Thanks, Audino~”
“Audino!”
Wearing her nurse’s cap, Audino gave him a graceful little bow in response.
Aiden wasted no time.
With Sprigatito and Snivy in tow, he hurried toward the lobby.
…
When he arrived, however, the visitor was not the man from Maractus Town bringing him extra money.
Instead—
“Elesa?”
Aiden blinked.
He certainly wasn’t going to complain about seeing a beautiful woman first thing in the morning, but he had no idea why Elesa would come looking for him personally.
“Just call me Elesa.”
She smiled, an Emolga perched on her shoulder and curiously studying Aiden.
Before he could ask what she wanted, Elesa explained herself.
“I brought the Pokémon from yesterday’s battle in for checkups.
And while I was here, there’s something I wanted to ask your help with.”
“Me?”
Aiden became even more confused.
What could Elesa possibly need from him?
Advertising?
She was vastly more famous than he was.
Battling?
Her main team was still far beyond anything he could currently handle.
As for everything else…
Aiden genuinely couldn’t imagine what he had that Elesa needed.
Still, there was no reason to turn down an opportunity before hearing it out.
More importantly—
“I know a really good dessert place.”
Aiden immediately attempted to lure his newest potential benefactor toward the shop Sprigatito wanted to visit.
Elesa clearly failed to detect the sinister intent behind the suggestion.
“Sorry…”
She looked genuinely apologetic.
“I have a runway job coming up soon, so I’m trying not to eat anything too high in calories.”
Apparently, she thought Aiden had been offering to treat her, which made her feel even worse about refusing.
After thinking for a moment, she brightened.
“How about this?
I’ll treat you instead.”
Since she was asking Aiden for a favor, she figured that even if she couldn’t eat much herself, she could at least bring Emolga along and buy Aiden and his Pokémon something nice.
“Works for me!”
Aiden accepted immediately.
Then, just as he happily started toward the door—
Snivy’s vines wrapped around him.
“Sni!”
‘Breakfast first.’
“…”
Aiden looked toward Sprigatito.
The little cat was covering her mouth and snickering.
He stared at them both in complete speechlessness.
…
By the time Elesa’s Pokémon finished their examinations, Aiden had also eaten breakfast.
Afterward, he led her to the dessert shop.
“Oh, this place.
I’ve seen it online before.
It’s pretty popular.”
Elesa, who had insisted only a little while ago that she couldn’t afford to eat high-calorie food, took one look at the display cases packed with colorful desserts and immediately revised her position.
‘I’ll just look.’
Then—
‘I’ll just smell them.’
Then—
‘I’ll only have one bite.’
And finally—
‘Well, I already ate some.
I’ll just work out harder afterward.’
That was how, under Aiden and Sprigatito’s increasingly astonished stares, the stack of empty plates in front of Elesa continued to grow.
“Never judge a book by its cover…”
Aiden strongly suspected this was the real reason Elesa had specifically requested a private room.
He had no idea why such a small dessert shop even offered private rooms in the first place, but it had certainly worked in Elesa’s favor.
If anyone photographed one of Nimbasa City’s most famous supermodels demolishing desserts at this rate, the footage would explode online.
At least locally, it would become a major story almost immediately.
People naturally judged others by appearances, after all.
And Elesa gave off the impression of someone decisive, disciplined, mature, and completely in control of her impulses.
Aiden had to admit he rather liked the contrast.
Still—
“So what exactly do you need my help with?”
He leaned back in his chair.
“Just so we’re clear, my rates aren’t cheap.”
“And whether I agree to help or not, I’m definitely not paying for these desserts.”
Elesa seemed to remember that she had, in fact, come here for a reason.
Looking slightly embarrassed, she wiped the corner of her mouth and smiled.
“Sorry.
It’s been a long time since I let myself eat like this, so I got a little carried away.”
Then her expression became more serious.
“The reason I came to find you is because…”
She looked directly at him.
“I want you to become one of Nimbasa City’s prides.”