"If outrunning logic were an Olympic sport, this guy would take the gold..."
Arthur stared speechlessly at the monitor. One of the feeds showed Zeth standing in the middle of a cave, gazing up at the ceiling with something dangerously close to awe in his eyes—like he believed his stare could cut through stone and glimpse the divine.
He flipped through the thick booklet detailing the hundred Bloodthorn Elites who had come to claim Pokémon Eggs this round, stopping at the entry for Zeth Lostrust.
The booklet, a gift from Rosaria, held only the most basic details: faces, names, and ranks within the Bloodthorn. Anything more would've meant revealing too much about her own forces—an unnecessary risk.
No matter how much she trusted Arthur, sharing even half the specifics of her personal army would've been nothing short of reckless.
What if he lost the book?
That kind of slip-up would be catastrophic.
Arthur had set up an alert system for whenever an egg was selected. The moment Zeth picked up the Magikarp Egg—now cradled gently in his arms—Arthur had switched the feed to observe his odd behavior.
Yes. A Magikarp Egg.
And the one outside, under the lake? That was a Poliwag Egg.
Which one was better? Honestly, he had no idea. But Gyarados, Magikarp's final evolution, was certainly more popular than either Poliwrath or Politoed. So he'd used the Poliwag Egg as a smokescreen, hiding the "better" egg—Magikarp—behind a waterfall in a cave he'd spent a fortune to safely blast open with multiple magic circles.
He'd hoped someone with sharp instincts would notice that cave. Someone with the insight to recognize the potential hidden inside the seemingly worthless.
After all, Magikarp was widely considered one of the weakest and most useless Pokémon. Right up there with Feebas.
But if nurtured—if evolved—they became titans among Pokémon.
That's why the right trainer mattered. He needed someone with vision, someone willing to see beyond appearances and endure ridicule to raise a Magikarp with care and patience.
Arthur had no doubt Zeth would become the butt of many jokes once the others saw his Magikarp flopping around and spamming Splash, K.O.'ing nothing but pride and expectations.
The trainer of such a Pokémon would need unshakable faith—not just in their Pokémon, but in the belief that what seems weak today could someday become legendary.
That was also why Poliwag Egg served as a smokescreen, while Magikarp Egg was made to look so regal, almost kingly—intended to make anyone who discovered it believe Magikarp held the potential to be a ruler in its own right.
But now, watching Zeth on the screen, he was starting to regret that decision.
Zeth was exactly the kind of person Arthur had been hoping for—someone who could raise a Magikarp with unwavering belief in its potential.
The problem was… that belief might be a little too unwavering.
"This guy doesn't seriously think Arceus is actually the god of Pokémon, does he?" Arthur muttered under his breath.
Any rational person wouldn't jump to that conclusion. But judging by Zeth's behavior, Arthur was forced to admit the guy had somehow convinced himself that Arceus was a literal deity.
He wasn't wrong—but he was right for all the wrong reasons!
Arthur shuddered at the thought of what might have happened if he'd used his own name in place of Arceus.
Just imagining someone bowing their head in reverence and saying, "This humble one accepts Your divine blessing, O Lord Arthur, Creator of all Pokémon!" made his skin crawl with secondhand embarrassment.
"Now that I look closely," he muttered, squinting at the screen, "Zeth kinda looks like Lance—the Flyin— ahem, the Dragon-type Champion... but with none of the coolness."
There was a resemblance—slightly in the hair, maybe in the jawline—but Zeth looked more like a knockoff version: all intensity, no charisma.
Maybe getting a Magikarp really was destiny.
Would he become a 'Dragon'-type Specialist someday?
Arthur made a mental note to remember Zeth's name, then scribbled it into his notebook, before turning his attention back to the other screens and the rest of the Bloodthorn Elites.
Originally, Lena had wanted to join him in observing the selection process, but she'd decided to stay in the Pokémon Breeding Room to keep a close eye on her egg as it approached hatching.
She could have brought the egg here, but the Breeding Room offered more convenience—and better conditions—for caring for a newborn Pokémon.
On the monitors, most of the Eggs had already been claimed.
Unsurprisingly, the Growlithe Eggs were incredibly popular. Anyone who found them immediately recognized them as Wentia's Pokémon, and they were snatched up without hesitation.
As for why there were so many Growlithe Eggs...
I swear I pulled them at random from the summoning circle! Arthur grumbled in frustration, recalling how his past self had kept drawing Growlithe Eggs—again and again.
After pulling out 55 Growlithe Eggs, he'd even considered resetting the whole thing.
55 out of 100 Eggs!
What kind of bizarre luck was that?!
But in the end, he decided against resetting.
In a way, those 55 soon-to-hatch Growlithe had already made their choice—they had chosen the Bloodthorn Elites as their trainers.
Perhaps it's because a royal army functions like the police force of this world? Arthur mused, recalling how Growlithe was a favorite of many Officer Jennys.
If he thought of it that way, Growlithe seemed like the perfect Pokémon for them.
Apart from Zeth's Magikarp, Arthur was also paying special attention to the Trainers of the fossil Pokémon, starters, Magnemite, and Munchlax.
Magnemite, in particular, caught his eye due to its unique evolution condition: it required three Magnemite to link together through a powerful magnetic force.
The trainer who received Magnemite was a middle-aged man named Orav. Arthur made a mental note to gift him the additional Magnemite he would need once it hit level 29—just shy of reaching level 30, the milestone required to trigger the evolution condition.
As for Munchlax... there wasn't much to observe apart from its insatiable appetite. Arthur was curious to see how its trainer would raise it into a Snorlax.
Unfortunately, Dratini hadn't been lucky enough to be pulled from the summoning circle.
Thinking about Dratini reminded him of an egg he had given to Rosaria almost a month ago, intended as a gift for the Dragon Race.
He only remembered her title—Sky Sovereign—but her name remained a mystery without the help of a Memora Potion.
Virely? Verelay? Virelyra? Whichever it was, he couldn't help but wonder how Dratini—the only Gen 1 Dragon-type aside from Horsea—was doing.
It should have hatched by now, but so far, there had been no news.
He'd ask Rosaria about it later.
Once every egg had been chosen by the Bloodthorn Elites, Arthur let out a relieved sigh.
So far, everything in Rastor's Safari Zone had been progressing smoothly. Well, everything except for Zeth—who seemed to have become a devout believer in Arceus, if that could even be considered an odd progession.
Arthur had no idea if that would be good or bad for the future of Pokémon, but he decided not to interfere. Let them believe whatever they wanted.
At least Zeth had returned to his usual self when interacting with others, now simply praising and bragging about his crown egg, while the others looked on enviously.
Until the very end, Arthur kept to the shadows, letting "Arceus" take all the credit. But, in truth, it was simply a fact: Arceus had indeed created the Pokémon world and all the creatures within it.
It was honestly for the best this way. The less anyone knew about Arthur's true role as the creator of Ocasia's Pokémon, the better.
And there was still the enigmatic Court Diviner lurking in the background. Spreading Arceus's name was just the first step in making sure Arthur wouldn't personally get tangled up in anything too troublesome or dangerous later on.
---
"All of them left?"
Arthur asked, his gaze fixed on Rosaria, who was followed by Reden, entering the room with an expression that spoke of exhaustion.
"Yeah, Wentia left with them back to Kross…" Rosaria sighed dramatically, "Ugh! Pretending to be cold and emotionless is always so exhausting." She crashed face-first onto the couch, lazily draping one leg over the backrest, looking every bit like a salted fish.
"Then just don't." Arthur said with a sigh, "Of course, I'm not saying you should drop your dignity completely, but at least tone down the act and relax a bit."
"That... sigh, forget it. You wouldn't understand," Rosaria replied, flipping her body upside down on the couch and absentmindedly scratching her thigh.
Arthur shook his head and turned his gaze away from the 'graceful' princess.
Without looking at her, he asked, "How's the feedback from the Bloodthorn?"
Rosaria flipped back onto her stomach and sat up, adopting a thoughtful posture. "Hmm... they all seem satisfied, happy even. And when Arceus's name was mentioned, they showed a respectful attitude."
Arthur's thoughts immediately went to Zeth, who had overthought the identity of Arceus. He asked, "What's their impression of Arceus?"
She paused for a moment, then replied, "It's not much, really. At most, they believe Arceus is someone who brought Pokémon from beyond the Sunless Veil—and anyone capable of that must be incredibly powerful."
"Sunless Veil…" Arthur furrowed his brow as he searched his memory. All he could recall was that it was a sea area shrouded in veil-like mist, with no sunlight filtering through. The waters were chaotic and full of dangerous sea monsters, plagued by unnatural disasters.
No sailor dared venture into it, and even the strongest didn't try to prove their strength by entering—because none had ever returned alive.
Thinking Pokémon might have come from beyond the Sunless Veil seemed like a reasonable assumption. After all, they didn't exist here before.
At that moment, there was a knock on the door. With Arthur's permission, Wentia entered the monitoring room.
"Back already? It's only been two hours since you left," Arthur remarked, surprised as he glanced at the wallclock.
Wentia nodded with an expressionless face, then glanced at Rosaria to seek permission to speak. When Rosaria gave a subtle nod, Wentia explained, "It took two hours to send the Bloodthorn back, running at full speed. Coming back to the village was quicker, though—we set up a hidden Teleportation Magic Circle just outside the village, so we can arrive here faster."
Arthur raised an eyebrow in mild surprise, but it made sense—they were here often. "How long ago did you set that up?"
"The moment I got Ponyta!" Rosaria chimed in, her tone cheerful.
"Huh? Then why did it still usually take you a whole day to get here?" Arthur asked.
"Because we weren't sure how it would affect the Pokémon, especially the egg," Rosaria explained. "So, we rarely use it."
Arthur nodded in understanding. Given that his Pokémon's shell and soul had essentially been summoned from the Spirit Realm, he'd assumed Teleportation Magic Circles wouldn't cause any issues. Still, being cautious was the smarter approach.
"Speaking of the Bloodthorn..." Arthur said as he pulled the booklet from the table, flipped through its pages, and pointed to Zeth Lostrust. "Please keep an eye on this person for me."
Wentia's eyes widened slightly, but she remained calm. Meanwhile, Rosaria's interest was piqued. She leaned forward and asked, "Why?"
Arthur hesitated for a moment before answering, "He reminds me of Reden, so I'm concerned."
"Me?" Reden, who had been unusually quiet until now, blinked in surprise and pointed at herself.
Arthur gave a silent nod, then turned back to Rosaria, waiting for her response.
The phrase "reminds me of Reden" made Rosaria frown slightly. Without further questioning, she gave a quick, decisive nod. "I'll keep an eye on him."
"What did I do??" Reden muttered, completely baffled. What's so strange about someone reminding them of me? Am I acting weird or something?
After chatting and laughing with Rosaria for a while, she suddenly glanced at her two royal bodyguards, then turned back to Arthur with a hesitant look.
"What's on your mind?" he asked.
"Well... could you give them one more Pokémon Egg each?" she said, gesturing subtly toward Wentia and Reden. "I currently have three Pokémon, and I want both of them to have three as well, so we can do proper 3-on-3 battles. Of course, I know I'm already asking for a lot, so feel free to name your price."
Of course, considering she was the one funding his research, there was no need for Arthur to name a price—but Rosaria, as royalty, still found it improper to accept too many free things, especially from someone she considered a friend like Arthur.
Arthur thought for a moment, but found no reason to refuse. He gave a small nod. "Alright. Any specific requests?" he asked, looking to the two women—both of whom looked genuinely surprised at the unexpected gift.
Wentia took a moment to consider. "Is there a Fire-Grass dual type?"
"There is… but it's not available yet," Arthur replied.
Scovillain, the only Fire–Grass dual-type, was from Gen 9—a long way off, considering Arthur had only just begun working on templates for Gen 2.
"I see..." Wentia looked mildly disappointed as she fell into deep thought.
Meanwhile, Reden perked up with surreal enthusiasm. "Can I get another Psychic-type Pokémon? One that can read my dreams, comfort my angel, and win arguments against my devil! This genius demands it!"
She struck a dramatic pose—pushing up her glasses with flair and raising her fist high. "My team isn't complete until I'm levitating from sheer psychic overflow!"
Arthur stared at her, speechless and struggling not to laugh, while Rosaria and Wentia both sighed and covered their faces in embarrassment.
"Alright..." Arthur quickly set up a summoning circle and pulled out a random Psychic-type egg.
He raised an eyebrow as he handed the egg—a Smoochum egg—into Reden's arms.
"Uh... take good care of it…" Arthur wasn't sure how to feel about her getting a Slowpoke and now a Smoochum.
Ignoring Reden, who was now talking nonsense to the egg, he turned his attention to Wentia, who was still deep in thought, furrowing her brows.
"Is there a Pokémon related to the sun?" She finally asked, her voice soft as she voiced her request.
Arthur nodded. He could think of a few, but most were from later generations, which he hadn't gotten to yet.
His current focus was on Gen 2, which he had barely started working on.
But among Gen 2 Pokémon, there was one that was, quite literally, the sun.
"I have the perfect Pokémon for you," Arthur said with a smile. He summoned an egg from the summoning circle and handed it to her.
He had just finished creating the template for this Pokémon a week ago.
The egg was small, pale yellow, and dotted with soft green speckles like tiny leaves. It radiated a gentle warmth, hinting at the quiet life growing inside, waiting to awaken in the sunlight.
The Sunkern egg!
Now... what should I ask from them? Arthur thought, pondering deeply. So far, nothing came to mind that his current funds and resources couldn't cover…