Thanks to Metagross's Teleport, it took only a few minutes for Julian to travel from Lake City to Ice Sea City, where the Willow family resided.
When Julian arrived at the Willow residence, Anthony, the head of the Willow family, along with his eldest son Dylan, and Rowan were already waiting for him.
"Champion Walker."
Seeing Julian arrive, Anthony immediately went forward to greet him.
Although he was of the same generation as John, in the world of Trainers, strength was what commanded respect.
Given Julian's strength, let alone a Peak Pseudo-Champion like him—even actual Champions would respectfully address him as Champion Walker.
Although Julian held the title of a Champion, his strength had long since surpassed that tier.
Even without using the Black and White Dragons, the battle three years ago where his Metagross fought a peak Pseudo-First-class Legendary to a standstill was more than enough to prove Julian's might.
"Patriarch Willow," Julian nodded in greeting.
Thanks to his relationship with Rowan, Julian was quite friendly toward the Willow family.
Furthermore, long before Julian had made his debut, Anthony had visited his family.
Back then, Anthony had praised Julian, saying he was handsome, talented, and would definitely become a pillar of the nation in the future.
And as it turned out, he had been absolutely right. Though perhaps by now, Anthony himself had long forgotten those words.
But Julian still remembered.
After all, someone praising him so enthusiastically had left an impression. Even if a large part of it was because of his grandfather, a compliment was still a compliment, so Julian had secretly marked him down with a "good person" card in his mind.
"Rowan, what are you standing there spacing out for? Hurry up and pour some tea for Champion Walker."
Seeing his grandson still standing there foolishly, Anthony became somewhat annoyed.
"Grandpa, is that really necessary?" Rowan froze.
Given his relationship with Julian, surely they didn't need to be so formal.
"If I tell you to do it, you do it," Anthony's tone grew even sterner.
Watching Rowan reluctantly go off to prepare tea, a slight smile appeared at the corner of Julian's mouth.
It wasn't long before Rowan returned with the tea, and under Julian's grinning gaze, he resentfully poured him a cup.
"Good boy," Julian said as he lifted the teacup.
Those two words nearly made Rowan throw the tea straight into Julian's face.
'Pushing your luck, are you?!'
Watching Julian and his grandson interact, Anthony smiled inwardly. As long as this relationship existed, the Willow family would never fall.
Dylan, Rowan's father, shared the exact same thought.
Anthony was already over seventy years old, yet he still held the position of clan head.
It wasn't that he was greedy for the authority of the role—rather, each of his sons had their own shortcomings. The capable ones lacked political finesse, while the shrewd ones lacked sufficient strength.
Of course, there were suitable candidates for clan head among the other branches of the family, but people were naturally selfish.
Anthony certainly wanted his own direct line to continue overseeing the Willow family.
The other branches of the Willow family had long harbored discontent over Anthony clinging to the clan head position at such an advanced age.
Fortunately, Anthony's strength was formidable enough to forcibly suppress this discontent, but doing so only made that simmering resentment grow more intense by the day.
If no suitable successor emerged, Anthony would have no choice but to hand the position of family head to another branch.
Fortunately, his grandson proved to be exceptional.
From a young age, Rowan displayed astonishing talent, and after acquiring an Ice-type Ultimate treasure in a Top-tier secret realm, he broke through to become a Pseudo-Champion not long after, shattering the Willow family's record for the youngest Pseudo-Champion trainer in one fell swoop.
Even so, Rowan still wasn't qualified to take control of a family as massive as the Willows. Even if Anthony had entertained such an idea, there was no way to put it into practice.
It wasn't until Julian's meteoric rise that Anthony began to seriously consider this possibility.
Moreover, he had received information from the Hearth family that the family's old matriarch had already designated Ember as the next heir, directly skipping over her father's generation.
The reason behind that decision was very clear to Anthony.
But Ember, aside from being close friends with Julian, also shared a layer of familial connection as his nominal cousin.
Rowan, on the other hand, had no blood ties to Julian.
The Walker family's ancestors had never intermarried with the Willow family's ancestors.
Although that put him at a slight disadvantage, the difference wasn't particularly significant.
After all, Anthony was the strongest in the family. So with him around, and with the backing of Julian's influence, the odds of Rowan becoming the next clan head were extremely high.
Furthermore, Rowan himself was exceptionally outstanding. Over the years, Anthony had used his authority as clan head to heavily funnel the family's resources toward Rowan.
Now, not only had he caught an Articuno, but his strength had also broken through to the late-stage Pseudo-Champion level, making him even stronger than Pierce.
This just went to show that, given similar talent, those backed by a massive family often had access to far more resources.
After all, while Pierce was a genius specially nurtured by the military, he wasn't the only one.
The military was also divided into factions. Being a military genius didn't mean the entire military's resources would be concentrated on you—the resources you received came from the faction you belonged to.
Seeing Julian looking so smug, Rowan felt that this guy's personality was just as rotten as ever.
Among all of them, only Ember could keep Julian in check.
"Champion Walker, you should already be aware of the situation in the Land of Extreme Ice, correct?" Anthony asked.
Julian nodded while sipping his tea. "Mm, I know. This child has already filled me in."
"Alright, that's enough!"
Rowan's face immediately darkened.
Seeing Julian continue to push his luck, he felt that this guy was really getting carried away.
"How can you speak to Champion Walker like that?"
Although Dylan also thought Julian's personality was a bit insufferable, he certainly couldn't show it.
He could only put on a stern face and scold his son.
Rowan sulked in silence, opting to simply not look at Julian anymore to avoid having his veins burst from sheer fury.
"The continuously dropping temperature in the Land of Extreme Ice is most likely the work of some Ice-type First-class Legendary," Julian said.
Of course, he was just stating the obvious.
After all, given the constant decrease in temperature, as far as Typing went, could it possibly be the doing of a Fire-type First-class legendary?
It obviously had to be an Ice-type.
"Champion Walker speaks wisely," Anthony nodded, his face full of agreement.
At this moment, Rowan felt like he was only today truly getting to know his grandfather.
The man who was blatantly flattering someone was actually the same grandfather who had always been so cold and aloof.
And the one he was flattering was Julian, of all people.
An Ice-type First-class legendary being the culprit—anyone with even half a brain could figure that out.
'So people really can be this hypocritical.'
He, Rowan, would definitely never become such a fake person—those were the kind of people he despised the most.
As if sensing his grandson's contemptuous gaze, the corner of Anthony's mouth twitched a few times.
He made a mental note that once Julian left, he would need to properly educate this brat.
"In that case, does Champion Walker have any idea which First-class legendary is awakening?" Anthony asked.
"I'm not sure for now," Julian had a guess, but we wasn't certain.
From Ancient Stone Tablets, humanity had learned of the existence of quite a few First-class Legendaries.
Some had already appeared in the world, while others had yet to reveal themselves.
Of course, even more First-class Legendaries had never been recorded on those stone tablets, so humanity remained completely unaware of their existence.
As an Ice-type lineage family, the Willows knew Ice-type Pokémon like the back of their hand, but they truly had no idea that an Ice-type First-class legendary even existed.
*****
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