i became lucario

Chapter 21 Chapter 21
"You...you can talk!"

Mr. Gunten was surprised.

Riolu patted his head annoyedly, and then he had an idea and said:
"Uh...Riolu can communicate with other creatures...Why, don't you know?"

As long as you are confident enough, it is others who doubt yourself.

Mr. Gunton scratched his gray beard, and seemed not too sure:
"Is that so?"

"Indeed, Riolu has been too rare recently..."

"Hey... This shows that human beings' research on Pokémon is still insufficient!"

……

After a while, Mr. Gunten brought several trays of food similar to those of the humans dining around.

Even Mr. Gunten's Two-tailed Monster Hands won a set.

Looking at the Pokémon he has always loved and eating human food excitedly, Mr. Gunten narrowed his eyes slightly and fell into the memory.

"Ah, that's right!"

Mr. Gunten suddenly spoke and said:

"you……"

At this time, the three Pokémon were eating well.

The wisdom of Pokémon is certainly not comparable to that of humans who have undergone special evolution, but it is much stronger than beasts in the real world.

Riolu is especially aware of this point.

Just like now, the three Pokémon can almost all enjoy food in their own way, learning how humans do.

Their specialized bodies allow them to barely hold human tableware.

In this regard, the Two-Tailed Monster Hand did a particularly good job.

It is almost the same as a normal human being.

"...Ha, forget it."

Mr Gunten pauses:
"Let's wait until you finish eating..."

……

Satisfied, Riolu ate like a human, and even wiped with a napkin afterwards.

This made Mr. Gunten on the side even more shocked and pleasantly surprised.

"Why, Mr. Gunten doesn't want to eat?"

After wiping his mouth, Riolu tried to liven up the atmosphere.

Unlike the Pokémon, the meal in front of Mr. Gunten didn't seem to consume much.

"No, I'm not very hungry."

"After all... After all, I am old."

Mr. Gunten with gray hair and beard shook his head lightly with a smile:

"By the way... you guys, you know that you are..."

Mr. Gunten stretched out his hands awkwardly, and at the same time tried his best to add:
"Do you know what kind of world you are in...?"

Mr. Gunten seems to want to know how much this magical Pokémon in front of him knows about the world he exists in.

Riolu has a general understanding of the Pokémon world.

But now, it is an opportunity to obtain valuable information from the aborigines of this world.

So he pretended to shake his head, and said in confusion:
"...No, I don't know."

"Isn't this our world?"

"Humans, Pokémon..."

"Is there anything else you need to know?"

Seeing Riolu with a puzzled expression on his face, Mr. Gunten secretly heaved a sigh of relief.

Indeed, it would be too terrifying if Riolu showed the wisdom and experience of a mature human being.

"Then...then let me talk about it."

Mr Gunten pushed aside the plate in front of him.

The three Pokémon looked at him and listened to him talking:
"Humans, with Pokémon..."

"In general, that's right..."

"But in this world, specific things are much more complicated than what these two words cover..."

Mr. Gunten's long and short sighs were mixed in the old voice:
"How did this world come about?"

"That seems like a fairy tale..."

"The only things related to us are Pokémon and humans..."

"Like most people."

"After I became an adult at the age of ten, my family will face more taxes."

"As a last resort, I embarked on the road of trainer at that time."

"That's the only job that can lighten the burden on the family."

When Mr. Gunten said this, he said with a smile:
"Don't look at me now, I was very down and out back then!"

"It's just that, that was all 65 years ago."

"At that time, the Poke Ball hadn't even been invented in the world!"

"Trainer, it was a very dangerous profession at the time! It might even be more dangerous than going to the battlefield—however, that seems to be another form of battlefield—the battlefield between humans and Pokémon..."

Riolu listened carefully, while the strong chicken and the two-tailed monster looked at him intently.

"As long as you own a Pokémon of your own and register with the Pokémon League, you can enjoy the benefits given by the Pokémon League... at least tax-free, isn't it?"

Mr. Gunten blinked:

"So, everyone knows it's dangerous, but a considerable number of people have joined the ranks of Pokémon trainers."

"After all, if you're lucky, the Pokémon trainer will defeat the gym directors scattered all over the place... and even go one step further to defeat the Four Heavenly Kings and win the championship!"

Mr. Gunten seemed excited, as if he had returned to the time when he was a struggling young man decades ago.

"...Just like this, if you win all the way, you will be able to become a hero in this world!"

"Money, fame, status..."

"Once you stand at the pinnacle of this world, everything you can imagine will be yours!"

"Of course, you have to really win... to do it..."

"Ugh……"

"Let's put it this way, even if you just defeat the gym leader in a city or a small town and get the gym badge from them, you can still get quite generous rewards!"

"For trainers who aspire to the highest honor, badges can improve their training and ranking... Even for ordinary people who don't have such lofty ideals, trainers with a badge can enjoy various Welfare, live comfortably."

Riolu didn't ask a question like, "Did Mr. Gunten get his gym badge?"

At the beginning, when they entered the Pokémon Center together.

People were talking about it, and Riolu had already heard very important information at that time.

Mr. Gunten has not yet obtained the badge of the gymnasium.

Although Mr. Goto's combat experience and his careful care of Pokémon make him a rare master among everyone.

But it's a pity that such a master can't even get a badge.

"Is it very difficult to get a gym badge?"

Riolu passed his voice to Mr. Gunten through the waveguide translator.

Mr. Gunten shook his head:

"Difficult! Very difficult..."

"The city we are in now is called Heijin City."

"Black gold means steel."

"The black gold gymnasium can almost be said to be the simplest gymnasium in the nearby big towns."

"So, every year, countless newcomer trainers come to the Black Gold Gym to challenge."

"But even so, there are still very few people who have passed the challenge of the black gold gymnasium and obtained the badge from the owner of the gymnasium..."

(End of this chapter)