Cole, Diantha, and Lysandre were carried away from the Sea Spirit's Den by Articuno, Zapdos, and Moltres respectively.
After dropping them off outside, the legendary birds departed immediately. They needed to return to guarding the slumbering Lugia, as they couldn't stay away from the Sea Spirit's Den for long.
After the birds left, Diantha let out a long sigh, "Phew~ Finally, it's over!"
Cole nodded, "Indeed. Did everything go alright with your mission?"
Diantha nodded, "Don't worry, it's not a big deal. I'm not the only one who's failed to explore the Sea Spirit's Den over all these years."
To protect the sleeping Lugia, she decided to abandon this mission and keep the existence of the three legendary birds and Lugia secret.
"That's good." Cole nodded, strongly agreeing with her decision.
Lysandre suddenly asked, "Where do you think Xerneas and Yveltal are now?"
Cole's heart skipped a beat, but he replied casually, "Who knows? Don't tell me you're thinking of looking for them? I advise against it — those who meddle with forbidden things never meet a good end."
Lysandre shook his head with a smile, "You think too highly of me. Don't worry, I won't do anything foolish!"
Cole nodded, "Well, remember what you said today."
Lysandre continued smiling and nodding.
The three then traveled back to Coumarine City together.
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Upon reaching Coumarine City, Lysandre and Diantha announced their departure.
Cole took out two Water Stones and held them out, "These are for you!"
Diantha waved her hands, "How could we? These were gifts from the legendary birds to you."
Lysandre nodded in agreement, "Yes, we can't accept rewards we haven't earned."
Cole pressed the two Water Stones into their hands.
"Please take them as farewell gifts. I know these might not mean much to you, but they represent my sincerity. Don't you consider me a friend?"
Lysandre, being more straightforward, promptly accepted the Water Stone.
"Alright then, I'll take it. We'll always be friends!"
"Well, if you both insist, I'd seem ungrateful if I kept refusing." Diantha finally conceded.
At parting, Lysandre said, "Keep in touch!"
"Keep in touch!"
"Keep in touch!"
After Diantha and Lysandre left, Cole released his Talonflame and rode it toward Mt. Ascendant.
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As soon as Captain Talonflame appeared in the sky above the mountain, its subordinates spotted it. A flock of birds gathered around, chirping excitedly to show how much they had missed their leader.
Cole said helplessly, "Alright, alright, if you want to pour your hearts out, at least let me land first!"
It had only been a few days — was all this really necessary?
While this commotion was happening in the sky, Alfred spotted Cole from below and waved.
"Cole, you're back!" He shouted.
After dismounting from Talonflame, Cole asked, "Has everything been alright at home while I was away?"
Alfred shook his head, "Don't worry, everything's fine."
Then, as if suddenly remembering, he added, "Oh right, your acceptance letter has arrived!"
The middle school Cole had applied to was Fourth Middle School, where Alfred currently studied. Being close to Fifth Elementary, the acceptance letter had arrived quickly.
"Good, I got it. Thanks for your hard work these past few days, brother Alfred."
Then Cole went to check on the construction site.
Sure enough, everything was as Alfred had said — all was going smoothly, and the construction team was making excellent progress. In such a short time, they had completed half the project.
That evening, Cole returned to Blue Bird Orphanage with Alfred, had dinner with everyone, and viewed his acceptance letter at Meili's office.
In one month, he would be enrolling at Coumarine City's Fourth Middle School.
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The next day, Cole returned to Mt. Ascendant and began taking inventory of the Berry trees and seeds he had brought back from the Sea Spirit's Den.
His mountain had been fully developed with no spare space for planting additional Berry trees. To plant these new trees, he would need to buy another plot of land.
However, he had no money left. Although he had earned some money over the past two years, most had gone toward paying off debts, and what remained wasn't enough to buy another plot.
After much consideration, Cole went to see Ramos at the Coumarine Gym again and handed him a Water Stone.
Seeing the crystal-clear Water Stone that was almost completely free of impurities, Ramos asked in amazement, "This... where did you get this from?"
Cole explained, "I went on a trip and got this during my adventure."
"You're really lucky — evolution stones of this quality are incredibly rare." Then he asked, "What do you plan to do with it?"
"I need some money, so I was wondering if you could help me sell it."
"Sell it? You want to sell this?" Ramos immediately bristled, "Are you crazy? Once you sell something this good, it won't be easy to buy it back."
Cole shrugged nonchalantly, "What else can I do? I need money!"
After all, he still had three stones left after selling this one.
Ramos gave him a hard knock on the forehead and said exasperatedly, "You wastrel!"
After a while, Ramos said, "Fine, I'll buy this Water Stone. How much do you want for it?"
Such a fine item — he really didn't want to let it fall into someone else's hands.
Although he was a Grass-type trainer, there were certainly Grass/Water dual-type Pokémon. Research had proven that the higher the purity of an evolution stone, the faster the evolved Pokémon's strength would increase. This explained why purer stones commanded higher prices.
Cole chuckled, "You decide the price, Elder Ra. I don't know much about this business."
Ramos glared at him, "Always trying to act cute. Every time you come to me, it's never for anything good!"
He held up the Water Stone to the light, carefully examining and appraising it.
"Perfect! Absolutely perfect!"
In the end, he bought the Water Stone for P$4,000,000.
A regular Water Stone typically sold for around P$100,000, with higher quality ones going for several hundred thousand. But Cole's stone couldn't be priced on quality alone — it was collector-grade. Beyond its practical use, its greater value lay in collection.
Evolution stones of this grade were even more coveted by collectors than precious gems, and in terms of appearance, high-purity evolution stones were more beautiful too.
With money in hand, Cole immediately began searching for land to purchase.
Having experience from buying Mount Ascendant, he smoothly spent over 3 million to acquire another mountain near his property. This mountain was considerably smaller than Mt. Ascendant, so he named it Mount Olympus, after a mountain from mythology in his previous life.
To develop Mt. Olympus, he left the construction work at Mt. Ascendant under Alfred's supervision, while he took Daisy and the others to work on the new property.
Initially, they developed only a small plot of land, planning to plant the mature trees first. Seedling cultivation could wait — it wouldn't do for the mature trees to wither from delayed planting.
To Cole's delight, testing showed that all the mature trees brought back from the Sea Spirit's Den had indeed reached Grade A in energy rating. This made him even more attentive to these fruit trees.
After planting all the mature trees, he began cultivating seedlings while simultaneously preparing new ground on Mt. Olympus for the saplings.
The fruit seedlings sprouted successfully, and by the time he had planted them all, nearly a month had passed.
While Cole was still rejoicing over having acquired a batch of Grade A fruit trees, problems arose — the mature trees began showing signs of withering, and the newly cultivated seedlings grew increasingly weak, looking unlikely to survive.
He suddenly realized the source of the problem.
These fruit trees had originally grown in places with extremely high energy concentration. After hundreds of years, they had evolved to adapt to that special environment. Now that Cole had brought them outside, they simply couldn't adapt to the normal environment.
{T/N: In other words, you're not a rich Sugar Daddy like the one they used to have. Poor thing.}
Watching the Berry trees wither day by day, Cole was beside himself with anxiety. He couldn't eat or sleep properly, which worried Meili and the others.
To save this batch of fruit trees, he decided to try a different approach. He dug up some Berry trees from Mt. Ascendant and began grafting them with the new trees.
Grafting was a common method for cultivating Berry trees and improving their varieties. Though Cole had read many books about it at Ramos's place, this was his first time attempting it.
He separated the trunks and branches of both types of trees and divided them into two batches. The first batch used roots from Mt. Ascendant's trees grafted with branches from the new trees, while the second used roots from the new trees grafted with foliage from his common trees.
Whether these grafted fruit trees would survive — and what they might become if they did — only time would tell.
Before he knew it, it was time for Cole to start middle school.
He had been so busy that he nearly lost track of time. It wasn't until Meili reminded him that he realized school was about to begin.
Elementary school had only taught basic knowledge about the Pokémon world — something Cole could learn through self-study or even without attending school. But middle school was different. It taught specialized knowledge in various fields that couldn't be properly learned through self-study alone.
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On this day, he dressed himself neatly and, accompanied by Alfred, went to Coumarine City's Fourth Middle School to complete the enrollment procedures.
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