The challenge wasn't some sudden whim of Lisia's—it was the answer she had arrived at after careful consideration. She had already learned through her own channels that her uncle had lost to Lucas in a Contest. Although she hadn't obtained the specific process or recordings.
But she truly wanted to experience for herself how Lucas, a Contest novice, had managed to defeat her uncle in competition!
Lisia gazed at Lucas with high fighting spirit, believing that no one could say "no" under the eyes of an idol like her.
But who was Lucas?
With Nemona, he had still been considerate because she was his student, so he found it hard to refuse. But with Lisia, there was no such concern!
Under Lisia's incredulous expression, Lucas remained unmoved and said, "I understand what you're saying, but I'm sorry—I decline your challenge."
"Eh—?!"
Not expecting to be rejected, Lisia let out an incredulous cry. She wanted to say more, but her shoulders were pressed down. Both Juan and Wallace held her in place.
"Clinging persistently isn't the behavior of a proper lady, Lisia."
Juan said meaningfully.
Lisia turned her pitiful gaze toward her uncle, only to receive Wallace's nod in agreement with Juan's words.
"Guh… I understand. I was too abrupt. I'm sorry."
After apologizing, Lisia could only temporarily give up on the idea. She greeted the rarely ignored Steven, then dejectedly said she was going to train at the Gym's battle field.
After Lisia left with the key Juan gave her, the four men returned to the reception room where Wallace had hosted them earlier.
As the oldest person present, Juan spoke first.
"Sorry about that. The child has been a bit anxious lately, so she wants to seize every opportunity to improve."
Juan's appearance matched his demeanor—he was a gentleman. A meticulously neat light blue robe paired with a white cravat, plus slightly graying temples, gave him an added mature charm.
Lucas remembered that in the game setting, Juan's title was the somewhat ridiculous the Gym Leader with the beauty of pure water, which left people unsure where to begin with the roast.
Juan explained to Lucas why Lisia had suddenly challenged him. The reason wasn't complicated. It was simply that while Lisia worked as a Contest idol, she was also taking on various entertainment jobs arranged by her agency. The agency was trying to cultivate this child-star-turned-cute-girl into someone like Diantha—flourishing in both Contests and the entertainment industry, achieving notable success in both.
But humans have limited energy. At least for Lisia, balancing entertainment work and Coordinator training for Contests was quite difficult. When polishing her acting skills or memorizing lines, she inevitably slacked off on Contest training.
Although Lisia herself was exceptionally talented, the world was not lacking in talented individuals. They all trained with full effort on top of their talent. Under such circumstances, how could Lisia achieve victory? Since her debut, Lisia had yet to win a single Grand Contest. She was still far from becoming the top Coordinator she admired, let alone surpassing Wallace.
Therefore, on Juan and Wallace's advice, Lisia had given up most of her entertainment work and was focusing fully on preparing for the upcoming "Wallace Cup." She wanted to become a unique "Contest Idol."
"She's probably heard that you once defeated Wallace. The child might be thinking that since her uncle won't battle her, she'll challenge the person who defeated her uncle and learn from the experience… something like that."
Juan's expression was somewhat helpless. Although he also doted on his disciple's niece, he couldn't force Lucas, a guest, to accept Lisia's challenge. He could only try telling the story indirectly to see if he could help Lisia.
Wallace remained silent throughout. As the founder of the Wallace Cup, he strictly required himself to show no favoritism. He would not participate in his niece's (who was also half his disciple) training or the program arrangements for the Contest, to ensure absolute fairness. This was his principle as a person.
Steven, whose hobby was hard stones and who used related Rock- and Steel-type Pokémon, had no talent for Contests at all and couldn't chime in.
The topic was thrown back to Lucas. However, neither Juan nor Wallace had any intention of pressuring him. After all, Wallace had invited Lucas to Hoenn for a visit, not to freeload off him as Lisia's sparring partner.
Thus, Juan and Wallace chimed in together: "It's almost dinner time. I'll have Sebastian prepare now. You've been sitting on the plane for so long; you must be mentally and physically tired. After dinner, rest early. Tomorrow I'll take you to see many wonderful sights in Sootopolis City."
Before Lucas could speak, Steven timely mentioned that he planned to leave.
"Indeed, it's getting late. Then I'll take my leave as well. After all, Mossdeep City is some distance from Sootopolis City. If I set off now, I should be able to reach home before dark with Metagross's speed."
Steven didn't hide his "reluctant" gaze, but he also knew he couldn't shamelessly push further. He could only show a slightly regretful expression and exchange contact information with Lucas. He then returned to the courtyard and directly called out his shiny Metagross, soaring into the sky.
Only after seeing Steven leave did Terapagos in Lucas's satchel relax and poke its head out, letting out a soft cry.
"Bagogogo—"
Finally gone—That burning gaze was really too much for a little turtle that had only recently ended its shut-in life.
Sebastian was the human butler Juan had hired to manage the Sootopolis Gym. Lucas felt somewhat glad he had chosen Oranguru as his Pokémon butler. Otherwise, he would have despaired at a world where butlers were all named Sebastian.
After sharing dinner, under butler Sebastian's guidance, Lucas first went to the room Wallace had prepared for him and set down his luggage.
"This is the room where you will rest. If you have any questions or needs, please use the call bell in front of the door to summon me. I will come at once."
After leaving those words, Sebastian bowed slightly and withdrew from the room.
Sitting down heavily on the soft large bed, Lucas and Terapagos looked at each other. Victini and the others were tired from the afternoon's dress-up session, but Terapagos was still energetic because it had refused to show its face.
After thinking for a bit, Lucas, who didn't feel like resting quietly, asked it, "Terapagos, want to go for a walk?"
"Bagogogo!" Terapagos revealed a happy smile and nodded proactively. It actually wanted to admire the beautifully maintained courtyard scenery again!
With the strongest navigation system, Lucas was confident he wouldn't get lost. Since he had no luggage on him except for a large-capacity spatial backpack, he set it down and, traveling light, headed straight to the courtyard with Terapagos.
The sky had completely darkened; it was probably not far from midnight. Yet the artistically avant-garde fountain continued to spray without pause.
Terapagos was somewhat curious. It acted spoiled for Lucas to pick it up, then carefully touched the water surface with its forelimbs. Although it was a little turtle, strictly speaking Terapagos was a land tortoise. It might know some swimming, but it definitely couldn't move freely in water like most amphibious turtles or sea turtles. Moreover, the place it had once lived was inland with few water resources nearby, so it had very little contact with water.
"Bagogogo"
Gazing at its own reflection in the pool, Terapagos became momentarily entranced.
But at that moment, a slightly discordant sound disturbed the courtyard's silence. It sounded like a Pokémon using a move.
"…That direction is?"
Holding Terapagos, Lucas looked toward where the sound came from. He remembered that when Wallace had introduced the Sootopolis Gym to him, he had said that area was the training hall where the Pokémon usually trained? Who would be inside at this time… No, who was inside? Recalling Juan's explanation earlier today, Lucas could roughly guess the answer.
After pondering for a few seconds, he decided to go take a look. After all, he was indeed a bit curious about Lisia's current level. When she first appeared in the anime, she had tied with Serena in a Contest. It felt like she still had a long way to go before reaching the top Coordinators.
Lucas didn't rudely open the door and barge into the training hall. Instead, he quietly moved to a spot with a good view and observed the bright interior through the transparent window. Terapagos in his arms also looked on curiously.
Inside the training hall, Lisia—wearing simple training clothes—was sweating as she seemed to be practicing the dance for her role as a Contest idol. Beside her was another figure. It was a large bird with a sky-blue body and fluffy cloud-like wings on both sides, almost the same size as Lisia. It was the humming Pokémon Altaria, a Dragon- and Flying-type with four times weakness to Ice. It also had the title "Dragon Clan Traitor." The title came from the fact that after Mega Evolving, Altaria's Flying type would be completely replaced by the Fairy type, which countered Dragon. This made Altaria a true Dragon-type nemesis—Dragon moves and Fairy moves were both super effective against it, while it was immune to Dragon moves. This near "defection" behavior earned it the title "Dragon Clan Traitor."
Altaria was also sweating, working hard to release moves and trying to make them collide into beautiful fireworks. Objectively speaking, Altaria's performance level was actually quite good. The spreading white mist felt like a refreshing breeze, and the meteor shower—abandoning power in favor of visual effects—gave a dizzying, enchanting feeling when it bloomed. It was much stronger than the students at Naranja Academy who hadn't even figured out how to perform properly when Wallace had come to hold the school Contest.
But that was only from the visual perspective that Coordinators emphasized.
After observing Lisia's training for a while, Lucas immediately spotted some problems. Like most Coordinators, Lisia focused more on the gorgeousness of moves and trained with that as her goal. Lucas also knew this wasn't a wrong choice, since Contests were places to showcase a Pokémon's beauty.
But judging from Lisia's goal, her current training was completely wrong! To put it harshly, Lisia was pointlessly wasting her life and time!
Lisia single-mindedly pursued the gorgeousness of moves while ignoring the essence of Pokémon training itself. Wallace and Juan could not possibly fail to see this. The two of them were true powerhouses who had reached the pinnacle in the coordinating field. It wasn't just about move gorgeousness—their Pokémon also possessed considerable strength. Therefore, they should understand that Coordinators couldn't just pursue beauty while completely abandoning everything else. That would be putting the cart before the horse.
Yet they hadn't pointed this out, seemingly with no intention of enlightening Lisia. Were they hoping Lisia would discover it herself?
That was possible.
But in Lucas's view, the most likely reason was still—"They've decided that when I notice this problem, I definitely won't stand by and do nothing?"
Wallace and Juan truly hadn't applied any pressure or interfered. Whether to help Lisia depended entirely on Lucas's own decision.
No matter what his initial purpose for becoming a teacher had been, over this past year, Lucas had fully embraced the role of teacher. Precisely because of this, with his "teacher's instincts," Lucas absolutely could not allow Lisia to waste her time so wrongly. After all, the girl herself possessed that talent. Lucas couldn't turn a blind eye. His instincts were urging him to guide that potential.
Of course, all of this was premised on the condition that Lisia's goal was to surpass Wallace, not merely to become an ordinary Coordinator or idol. Otherwise, this training method would actually have been sufficient.
"Whatever. Consider it a return gift for hosting me so thoughtfully this time."
With a sigh, Lucas, still holding Terapagos, voluntarily pushed open the door and stood in front of the somewhat surprised Lisia.
Facing the cute and sweet-looking teal-haired girl before him, Lucas said expressionlessly:
"Your training method is completely wrong. It can't be said to be a total mess, but it's also very far from your goals and dreams."
"Ha—?"
Lisia widened her eyes, not understanding what Lucas—who had refused her challenge before dinner and now came running to say these inexplicable things—was doing. Her Altaria beside her also tilted its head in confusion, its cloud-like fluffy feathers swaying.
Lucas didn't explain the girl's confusion. He continued his speech on his own.
"Aren't you very curious about how I was able to win against your uncle in a Contest? Now I'll tell you the answer. —Because my Pokémon and my commanding ability are both stronger than his. That's all! No matter how many points are deducted, as long as I make Milotic fall first, the victory belongs to me!"