"Do you like Queen Liz and Lord Lan that much? I don't know where you heard their story, but if they knew, I'm sure they would be smiling in the afterlife," Jace said, patting Will's thigh to comfort him.
Will sucked back the tears that had been about to fall. He glanced at Jace but couldn't be bothered to chew him out. Although Jace had ruined the atmosphere, his own sentintality had faded. He was just a little... lancholic.
"Since you like them so much, I'll tell you more. Sit, sit," Jace said, plopping down and patting the grass beside him. He hadn't thought much of Will before, at most just wanting to defeat him. But now, seeing how much he admired his ancestors, he felt this Sceptile had good taste. He was willing to befriend a Pokémon with good taste.
"You're going to tell ? Haha, alright. Go on," Will raised an eyebrow and smiled, then settled down to listen. He wanted to hear how his descendant was going to tell his own story.
But he was soon mistaken. Because Jace wasn't telling the story Will had personally experienced, but the story of what happened after he had died.
"Although most people believe that the war between the Dragonite and Land Kingdoms had a profound and absolutely positive impact on the world today," Jace began, "when the Dragonite Kingdom fell centuries later, many people began to question it. Did unifying Johto and Kanto actually have any aning? What do you think?"
Will was stunned for a long ti. He couldn't give a specific answer. He knew almost nothing of what had happened in the thousand years since, so he had no way to judge if that war had been aningful.
"Of course it did!" Jace said, his voice full of passion. "No matter what anyone else says, that war benefited the entire land of Johto and Kanto!"
He looked so agitated that it seed he had argued with others over this issue before.
"I once heard soone say that the war was aningless, because in the end, the land of Johto was still plunged into endless war, and the Dragonite Kingdom disappeared from history, as if it had never existed. The mont he said that, I treated him to a nice, fragrant slap across the face," Jace said, swinging his arm through the air with a grin, as if reliving how satisfying that slap had been.
"So what if the Dragonite Kingdom is gone? Its contributions to this land have not disappeared! If not for that war, it's impossible to know if Johto and Kanto could be working hand-in-hand today. Perhaps the Pokémon League would have never even been established on this land. Look at the history of other regions! Humans and Pokémon slaughtered and enslaved each other. In so places, that situation only began to fade three or four hundred years ago. Now look at our continents. That change began a thousand years ago. How many fewer humans and Pokémon had to die because of that?"
Jace spoke for a long ti, discussing the significance of that ancient war from every angle. Will listened silently the whole ti. The rights and wrongs of history are judged by those who co after. As a participant in that war, it was not appropriate for him to join this discussion. Besides, he truly didn't know the long-term impact of that battle.
"To put it simply, today, the most populous and powerful region in the world is Kanto. And isn't that because of the three hundred years of peace our Dragonite Kingdom created? You call that aningless? If the battlefield of the Three Kingdoms War hadn't been in Johto, the most powerful region today would be Johto, not Kanto!" Jace said, puffing out his chest, a little indignant. He was from Johto, after all, and certainly hoped his ho region could surpass its rival.
"Anyway, never mind that. Let's talk about Lord Lan. You're probably more interested in him, right?"
"Ah, no. I'm not interested," Will said, waving his hand. He had no curiosity about how his descendants talked about him.
But Jace ignored him and started talking anyway. "According to my own great-great... grand-aunt—the woman who stood beside Queen Liz, the second queen of the Dragonite Kingdom, Queen Iris—she said that Lord Lan's strength was, and I quote, 'unfathomable'."
Hearing this, Will's toes began to curl. He wanted to dig a three-bedroom apartnt out of the grass and hide in it. He looked up, thinking. He didn't know what the adult Iris was like, but the child Iris could have definitely said sothing like that.
"And as for the great naval battle of that war, it was an earth-shattering event! With a single Hurricane, Lord Lan sent the entire army of the Land Kingdom, thousands strong, packing back to their hos!"
"...Oh-oh-oh!!" Will jumped up and turned to run. Jace had the nerve to say it, but he didn't have the face to listen.
"Hey, hey! Where are you going? This is all written in my ancestor's diary! No one else knows this. I don't usually tell people..."
"It's a good thing you don't. Otherwise, I'd jump in this river and drown myself right now," Will thought, turning to see Jace was still chasing him. He sped up, not daring to look back. He just kept his head down, walking away from the statues, not even daring to look ahead.
Thump!
Suddenly, he ran into sothing soft and chubby. He looked up. A cream-colored belly. Hey, this is familiar, he thought.
"Nite?" the soft voice sounded as the owner of the belly sat up.
It was a Dragonite, over four ters tall. This physique was definitely up to the standards of the Era of Primal Beasts.
"Sorry about that," Will said, looking up at the Dragonite's face. There were fine wrinkles around its eyes. It wasn't obvious, but they were there. For a Dragonite, which has a very long lifespan, to show such signs of age, it must have lived for over a thousand years.
But... in the instant their eyes t, both of them were stunned.
"Dragonite (You look a bit like a friend I once knew. Your eyes...)," the Dragonite spoke first. She wasn't angry that Will had run into her. Her voice was gentle and elegant, like that of a veteran language teacher.
"...Is that so," Will's mouth fell open, then he nodded. That was all. He had felt the sa thing, and he had imdiately guessed her identity. For him, it had only been a year since he had seen her in Dragonite Valley. At that ti, she had still been an clingy female Dragonair.
"Can you chat with for a while? The more I look at you, the more you look like him," the Dragonite said, tugging on Will's arm.
"Yes, I can," Will nodded, stunned. He sat down cross-legged. He had never thought he would et a friend from a thousand years ago. Although, they hadn't known each other very well. But his heart was truly happy. After being reborn, he had thought he had no friends left in this world.
Jace, seeing Will sit down so obediently, rushed over and hugged the Dragonite. "Hey-hey~ Grandma Dragonite, sorry about that. He's my friend. Please don't be angry, don't hurt him." Jace thought the Dragonite was angry that Will had bumped into her. His own Grandma Dragonite's strength was terrifying.
"Nite," the Dragonite picked up Jace, rubbed his head, and then set him aside. She then sat down next to Will.
"The friend you were talking about?"
"He was the one I loved," the Dragonite said without hesitation. Pokémon can be shy, but they are also brave in expressing their love. In their world, there was no such thing as being a "simp" or "he who loves first, loses first."
"Was it... that Lord Lan?"
"How did you know?"
"Well, Jace said he was the most handso Dragonite a thousand years ago, so it's normal that you would like him," Will said, wiping his forehead, hoping he wasn't sweating. He really didn't have the face to say "strongest."
"Yes. He was very charming. Mmm, just like you."
"...Thank you," Will said, a little embarrassed. To be praised twice like that was a bit much.
"He once said sothing to ," the Dragonite said, looking up at the sky, her eyes clear and pure. The thousand years of history seed to have had no effect on her.
"What?"
"'As long as we're alive, we'll see each other again.'"
The Dragonite smiled, as if rembering that mont a thousand years ago.
"...But he's already dead," Will said, his voice low. "Give up. You can't wait for him anymore. There was no fate between you."
"I know. But I don't want to give up," the Dragonite said, her movents slow, but her head shaking with steady determination. "As long as I don't give up, our fate will continue."
"...Perhaps you're right," Will said, taking a deep breath. He would not try to persuade her further. Because... even after a thousand years, their fate had continued today. Though, only he knew it. And he had no right to persuade her. After all, he himself had not given up on Liz, and was still trying his best to continue his own fate with her.
"Jace, you can leave now," the Dragonite said, waving at him.
"...Alright," Jace said, looking at Will, then nodded.
"The backpack behind you... it's a human's, right?" the Dragonite asked, curiously leaning her head to look.
"Yes. I t a very kind old woman. She gave it to . There are very important things inside," Will nodded. This bag was very important to him; he basically carried it at all tis.
"Oh... how about I teach you a few moves? Is there anything you'd like to learn?" the Dragonite asked with a smile.
"Yes, there is. Dragon Tail, Dragon Dance, Dragon Pulse, and Scale Shot," Will said. These were four moves he had already mastered in his past life. He just hadn't had enough Dragon-type energy to recall them before.
"So many? That might take many days to learn."
"Perhaps... I'm a genius. One day might be enough," Will joked with a grin.
"Then let see, shall we?"
"Okay."
Will stood up. When he was learning Dragon Tail and Scale Shot, the Dragonite only had to demonstrate them once, and he had already recalled them. At this, the Dragonite was only surprised, not shocked. These were basic Dragon-type moves.
But then, when Will also learned Dragon Dance and Dragon Pulse in a short ti, the Dragonite was completely stunned. But it wasn't because of his talent. She stared at him for a long, long ti, opening her mouth to speak several tis, but ultimately saying nothing. She just quietly looked up at the sun. For the first ti, she felt it was so scorching. So hot that it could evaporate the tears in her eyes before they could even fall.
"How about that? My Dragon Dance, pretty good, right?" Will said, doing a strange dance as he ca up to her.
"...In this whole world, only you would do a Dragon Dance like that. Hahaha." The Dragonite raised a hand and wiped the corner of her eye. She seed to be so amused by his awkward dance that she had laughed until she cried.
Will grinned. Although he didn't think there was anything strange about his dance, seeing her laugh so happily made him feel much better too.
"By the way, let take you sowhere. A place Jace can't go."
"Huh? It's that important? Is it okay to take ?"
"It's okay," the Dragonite said, certain of it.
"Alright."
"I'll take you."
The Dragonite ca over and picked up Will. Such a large Sceptile, yet she lifted him with ease. This was the reason I wanted to co to the Dragonite holand in the first place, he now rembered.
She flew with him to a small flower garden in the furthest corner of the plain. It was sunny and fragrant. It was very quiet. You couldn't see a single human, or even another Pokémon.
"This is it?"
"Yes."
~~~
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