The mont he was fully awake, Will shoved the baby bottle away. No matter how Hestia coaxed him, or even when she called Liz over to feed him personally, he refused to take a single sip. If it was soone else's, he wouldn't mind using it. But if it was originally his and soone else had used it, then he didn't want it anymore. It was tainted.
Helpless, Hestia could only fetch a new bottle for Will. Only then did he reluctantly drink his breakfast milk. But because of this incident, his impression of Iris worsened. She was, in his opinion, a complete brat.
At the Primal Beast Academy.
"Lan, where are you going?"
"Stop following ."
Will glanced at the little shadow trailing behind him. Iris had been stuck to him ever since she woke up this morning. If she were still strong enough to pick him up, she would definitely be clinging to him right now.
In reality, he didn't particularly mind Iris following him. Although she was a bit of a brat, the thought that she liked him so much—that she had such good taste—naturally made him a little more patient. But if she followed him, the beast scholar bodyguards assigned to her would follow as well. How was he supposed to "hunt" under those conditions?
"Stop following ," Iris suddenly said, turning to the two beast scholars behind her.
Will didn't think for a second that she had understood his words. Whether a Pokémon and a Trainer could communicate was not sothing that depended on the feelings of just one party. It required mutual affection and trust. It was all about the bond! The bond!
And setting aside how much Iris liked him, Will himself was not particularly fond of this stoic little brat. The Dragon Force also shouldn't grant its user the ability to understand the language of Dragon-type Pokémon. Therefore, Iris must have simply not wanted the two scholars following her.
"This..." one of the scholars said, looking troubled.
"Let's go," the other scholar said, pulling on his colleague's arm while pointing to the Pidgeot beside him. The hesitant scholar finally relented and left with him.
Although the two n left, the Pidgeot remained, circling high in the sky, watching over Iris from above.
"Alright, they're gone. You didn't want them following you, right, Lan?"
"?!"
Will's eyes widened. He whipped his head around to stare at Iris. He didn't understand how she could have known what he was thinking.
Could it be? Is this kid a psychic?! Will thought, both shocked and testing her. If Iris really was a psychic, she would be able to hear his internal thoughts and would give a response.
"Was I right? I saw you leading around in circles. I figured you didn't want to be followed," Iris said with a blank expression. She walked over to Will, squatted down, and hugged his head, giving it a nuzzle. "Besides, I heard from my father that Lan spends his ti at school beating up all the other beasts. You're a very energetic little guy."
This little girl is actually pretty smart, Will thought, surprised. He truly couldn't tell that Iris was a clever child from looking at her expressionless face.
"Are you going to go fight other beasts now, Lan? Can I watch from the side?"
"...Then you can follow."
Will frowned, thought for a second or two, and chose to compromise. His choice didn't really matter. Whether he agreed or not, Iris would have definitely followed him anyway. As for the Pidgeot in the sky, that wasn't a big problem. He doubted it would interfere in a battle between Pokémon.
[In this academy, only beasts that have entered their sub-adult stage can participate in battle training.]
This was a rule that only the human scholars knew. A Pidgeot wouldn't be able to distinguish such things. In its eyes, battling was probably a normal occurrence at this academy.
Will led Iris all the way to his personal territory, the small lake.
"Co with . Hide here and don't move."
Will hooked the hem of Iris's dress with his tail and placed the little girl behind a thicket of bushes not far from the lake.
"...You be careful, Lan."
Iris was clever enough to guess the aning behind his actions. Before he left, she hugged him and gave his nose a firm, sincere kiss for good luck.
And in that very mont, Will suddenly felt the energy inside his body beco a little more active. The feeling was like...
I've been strengthened?! Did this kid just unconsciously use the Dragon Force on ?
Will stared at the little girl, who was just inches away, in total shock. He couldn't detect anything unusual on her face; she seed completely unaware that she had just used the special power within her. It seed she was just genuinely wishing for his safety.
She can use the Dragon Force at the age of eight... this kid is a prodigy. Could it be that Liz isn't the protagonist of this era, but this child is?
Will was dazed for a mont, but then he shook his head and turned to leave. This wasn't sothing worth investigating right now. With the ti he had, it was better to take advantage of this buff and go fight a couple of Pokémon kids to rack up so experience.
Iris obediently squatted behind the bushes and watched. She saw Will leave for a mont and then return with a jumping, yellow beast that had a sprout growing on its head. Iris didn't know it, but that Pokémon was called a Sunkern.
"It's kind of cute, but still not as cute as Lan," Iris muttered to herself from behind the bush.
Outside, Will wasn't playing dirty this ti. He had used dirty tricks and sneak attacks before because his level was too low and the gap between him and his opponents was too large. Without those tactics, he had no chance of winning. But now, his level wasn't that far off from theirs, and he had the bonus of the Dragon Force. There was no need for such thods.
It was the sa in his past life. Against enemies he couldn't beat, he would use a group beatdown to gain experience. Against enemies he had a chance of beating, he would fight them alone to monopolize all the experience.
There was another reason. He suspected that victories won through dirty tricks yielded less experience than those won in a direct, 1v1 duel, probably about the sa as when experience was split in a group fight.
"Will you battle with ?" Will asked, issuing a challenge to the Sunkern beside him.
Against the unruly Pokémon in the wild, it was best to just attack first. If you didn't, they would, and you would lose the initiative. But the academy was different; it had specific rules, much like in the Era of Leagues. If you didn't follow the rules, you would be ostracized. Just like the Fire-type Pokémon he had beaten up a few days ago, who were now all hostile towards him. They wouldn't even accept a battle invitation. If he even got close, they would bare their teeth and hiss at him.
To avoid a future where he couldn't find any opponents, Will decided to issue proper challenges from now on and fight fair and square. He would beat these Pokémon into submission, ensuring a renewable supply of opponents to harvest for EXP in the future.
The Sunkern's expression beca serious, and it nodded. It had accepted Will's challenge.
~~~
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