Gengar stated that when its trainer wanted to stuff a huge pile of takeout into its belly, it had firmly and strictly refused.
But then its trainer whispered in its ear: "Gengar, guess what would happen if Slowking ever found out that you licked the kitchen knife it uses to cut raw meat?"
"I think the first step would be tying you up, then slicing you with that knife, coating you in egg wash and breadcrumbs, and frying you until golden brown on both sides—the neighbor's kid would be drooling with envy."
"Deep-fried Gengar—sounds pretty good, doesn't it?"
Julian's low murmurs sent a violent shudder through Gengar.
And its struggling gradually came to a halt.
"Hehe."
A triumphant grin spread across Julian's face.
Then, with the help of his two little lackeys, he stuffed all the takeout into Gengar's belly, deliberately not putting it into the system space.
He did it on purpose just to mess with Gengar—served this jerk right for always using Lick on him.
"Alright, you can go now."
Julian waved at the delivery Pidgeot.
"Pidge~"
Pidgeot: "Remember to leave a five-star review!"
With that, it spread its wings and left.
Since Pidgey and Pidgeotto were so numerous, Pidgeot weren't exactly rare either.
Practically every city had panies dedicated to breeding Pidgey, Pidgeotto, and Pidgeot.
Their main tasks were delivering takeout, parcels, mail, and the like. Smaller deliveries were handled by Pidgey and Pidgeotto, while larger or urgent deliveries were assigned to Pidgeot.
This Pidgeot had delivered incredibly fast, so Julian even tipped it five hundred bucks.
Pidgeot: 'May you live a hundred years.'
Julian: 'Get lost.'
About half an hour after the takeout arrived, Magearna returned with Lucario and Zeraora, groceries in hand and a joyful expression on her face.
"Mage~"
Magearna: "The fish vendor today gave me a twenty-percent discount! When Slowking-sensei goes, he only ever gets ten percent off, you know."
Since Slowking and Love frequented that market so often, all the vendors recognized them, and of course, they recognized their little follower, Magearna, as well.
Because of this, that market had bee the best and most diverse place in Lake City for ingredient quality and variety—and naturally, the priciest too.
Yet people still flocked there to buy groceries. As long as you set up a stall there, you'd never have to worry about unsold produce.
And toward Slowking and Love, who had transformed this market, the stall owners were naturally very grateful—so every time the two of them came to buy groceries, they always got a ten-percent discount.
But this time, neither Slowking nor Love had e, and yet Magearna had actually received a twenty-percent discount.
Clearly, the stall owners in the market were very fond of Magearna, who had always tagged along behind Slowking and Love.
Seeing Magearna e out to buy groceries on her own, some of the stall owners joked that she must have officially graduated from her apprenticeship, and that's why Slowking had let her handle the shopping by herself.
And so, to celebrate Magearna's graduation, every stall owner gave her a twenty-percent discount on anything she bought from their stand.
It wasn't that they couldn't afford to give it away for free—it was that if they tried, she would insist on paying anyway.
The joyful aura was practically overflowing from Magearna.
"Mage~!"
Remembering how all the stall owners had said she'd graduated, Magearna felt both happy and pressured.
Tonight's dinner absolutely had to be perfect.
"Mage!"
She gave herself a cheering gesture.
Zeraora even seemed to see an invisible flame blazing from her body.
"Luca~"
Lucario: "I'll put the groceries in the kitchen."
"Mage~"
Magearna nodded and expressed her thanks.
Even though they already had space backpacks now, whether it was Slowking or Love, they both still liked bringing Lucario and Zeraora along when they went grocery shopping.
And the two Pokémon had seemingly e to treat this as a job of their own.
Seeing this, Zeraora followed Lucario into the kitchen.
"Magearna seems really serious about tonight's dinner."
Zeraora hadn't been part of Julian's team for very long, so it wasn't too familiar with the backstories of some of its teammates.
For now, it was only on fairly good terms with Lucario—its fellow grocery-carrying sidekick.
As for Kartana, their relationship was somewhere between rivals and friends. One liked showing off, while the other liked acting aloof.
"This is the first time she's cooking without Slowking and Love around, so she's paying extra attention to it."
Lucario placed the ingredients on the designated racks, sorting them by vegetables, meat, seafood, and freshwater fish—the entire process remarkably practiced.
Beside it, Zeraora's movements were noticeably more clumsy.
"That one in your hand is river shrimp, it doesn't go in the seafood section," Lucario said.
Zeraora corrected the mistake.
After putting the groceries away, Lucario covered them with specialized lids, not because there were bugs in the kitchen or anything like that, but to prevent the ingredients from being placed too close together and having their individual scents mix.
In fact, even if they did, the cooked dishes would hardly be affected at all, and no one would be able to taste the difference.
But Slowking insisted on doing it this way.
If every detail was controlled to the utmost, then the resulting dishes would reach the pinnacle of perfection.
And as Slowking's little apprentice, Magearna had naturally learned this practice as well.
By six in the evening, dinner was ready. Tina had also returned home from work a little after five. As for Jake, if he wasn't back by this hour, chances were he'd be out fishing until midnight.
"Mage~"
Magearna: "Time to eat."
The last dish had just been brought to the table, and she announced it to Julian, Celebi, Jirachi, and Tina, who were already seated at the dining table.
"Magearna, you're getting more and more capable. You can even prepare such a big table of dishes all by yourself now. Looks like our family is about to have a third chief steward."
Tina said with a smile, though it looked a little strained.
The two they already had made her life incredibly disciplined. Even on weekends, if she stayed up late binge-watching shows, she'd still be forcibly dragged out of bed by Slowking and Love the next morning for breakfast.
Then they would educate Tina about how skipping breakfast was bad for the stomach and could cause illness down the line.
As for her lack of sleep, in their words: 'Well, who told you not to go to bed earlier? Besides, you can always just go back to sleep after breakfast.'
If there really were a third steward in the future, her life would probably be clockwork down to the very second.
Throughout the entire dinner, Julian showered Magearna with pliments nonstop.
Things like: Magearna has the makings of a culinary god, and surpassing Slowking was only a matter of time.
Magearna listened, utterly delighted.
All ten dishes were finished. They were a bit short of what Slowking and Love could make, but that was only by Slowking and Love's standards—if you put this food out in the world, it was absolutely the work of a top-class master chef.
At eleven at night, Julian locked the door from the inside.
"Hurry, hurry, hurry! Julian, I can't wait any longer!"
"Fried chicken, burgers, pizza, roast chicken—here I e!"
The two little ones said impatiently.
"Gengar, e out."
Julian said to his own shadow.
"Gen~"
*****
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