Meanwhile, at the farm.
After bringing the purchased Stardrop to the kitchen, Ron studied it for a while, then turned to call Froakie, who was curled up by the window.
"Froakie?"
Froakie jumped down from the windowsill upon hearing the call, passed by the crowd of Rattatas huddled by the fireplace warming themselves, and jumped onto Ron's shoulder.
Ron held the Pokédex in one hand, checking Froakie's current level, while using a small knife to cut off a piece of Stardrop and placing it aside.
Speaking of which, a Stardrop was astonishingly large—almost as big as an entire Froakie—so Ron felt there was no need to give one whole fruit to each Pokémon. Perhaps they could share it.
Thinking this, Ron stared intently at Froakie's stats and brought this piece of Stardrop to Froakie's mouth.
Froakie sniffed at it, tilted his head looking at Ron for a moment, then couldn't help but reach out his claw to take it, stuffing it into his mouth in one bite.
The next second, Froakie squinted his eyes with a blissful expression.
Ron glanced at Froakie's reaction, vaguely remembering that the taste of Stardrop was different for each person, depending on the eater's favorite thing.
He wasn't using mind-reading at this moment, so Ron completely couldn't guess what Froakie was thinking of with this expression. But it looked like Froakie was extremely intoxicated right now, even starting to become a bit unsteady on his feet on Ron's shoulder.
At the same time, on the stats screen, Froakie's HP increased by 10 points after this bite of Stardrop went down.
But besides this, none of the other stats changed at all.
"So it's like in the game, only affecting HP—and stamina?" Ron pondered, petting Froakie's head.
Before Ron could finish thinking, he looked down to see that the crowd of Rattatas had somehow gathered around at some point, currently staring longingly at Ron, and at the Stardrop beside him.
Seeing this, Ron took the knife and cut the Stardrop into small pieces, distributing them down.
——
Meanwhile, in the Mountains.
The carpenter's shop also got up early today. Sebastian was still in his dreams when he heard a clanging sound coming from overhead.
Sebastian usually had the habit of staying up late, and occasionally would sleep until noon. Now that it was winter and terribly cold, although the basement temperature would be slightly warmer, Sebastian still huddled under his blankets, opening his eyes discontentedly.
After lying in bed for a while, confirming that there was no way to fall asleep today, Sebastian climbed out of bed and decided to go to the kitchen to find something to eat, to maintain his daily nutritional needs.
Croagunk, curled up on the sofa nearby, also climbed up upon seeing this.
The bed was big enough for Sebastian and Croagunk, but because Croagunk wasn't used to covering himself with blankets, he didn't sleep with Sebastian.
Croagunk puffed out his cheeks, and like Sebastian, hunched his back and began climbing upstairs.
Although he quite wanted to argue with the source of the noise, recently Sebastian had gradually learned to control his desire to talk back. So during the time it took to walk up the long passage to the first floor, Sebastian had already adjusted his mood.
Thinking this, as soon as Sebastian stepped out the door, he saw three people busy carrying wood.
"——What are you doing?" Sebastian looked at the wood the three were carrying, asking somewhat incredulously: "Moving?"
For such a big matter, didn't anyone notify him?
Robin was startled for a moment, then couldn't help but smile and say: "You're awake. I thought you'd sleep a bit longer, so I didn't tell you. Here's the thing—I discussed with everyone and we're planning to add a room for you on top of the garage."
"A room?" Sebastian first paused, then belatedly realized what he had heard.
This was something unimaginable before. He even felt like he might not have woken up yet.
Like a dream.
"Yes," Robin continued: "Perhaps sometimes you also want to rest in a first-floor room? Of course, if you still prefer the basement, that's fine too. It will still be kept there. But if you ever want to change your mood, you can move upstairs anytime. Of course, your garage is still there too."
Sebastian stared blankly at Robin.
"You—you don't like it?" Being stared at by Sebastian like this, Robin felt somewhat uncomfortable for a moment.
"—Thank you?"
This was something Sebastian had never experienced, to the point where he didn't quite know what the proper reaction should be for this matter. He could only dryly thank Robin, then walked toward the kitchen with synchronized steps.
Staring at Sebastian's back, Robin paused, feeling for a moment that she indeed owed this son quite a bit.
Maru had just put down the wood in her arms and ran into the house rubbing her hands.
"Goodness, it's so cold. I should have finished this before autumn. Dad is still sweeping snow," she said, rubbing her hands and pressing them against Robin's face.
"Hey?!" Robin jumped up from the cold.
Maru laughed, then rubbed her own frozen red hands. Turning her head, she saw Sebastian walking back with bread in his mouth.
"You're awake. Dad said you slept very late last night and told us not to wake you. Did we disturb you?"
Sebastian was silent.
But since Spirit's Eve, Maru had somewhat grasped the method of getting along with this socially awkward brother. So she said: "Then what are you standing there for! Come help out, this is your room!"
"Ah, oh, coming." Sebastian stuffed the bread in haphazardly, then picked up wood and followed Maru out the door.
Demetrius was still sweeping snow from the garage entrance.
Today's goal was to get the framework up here. Calculating it, at the latest by the day after tomorrow, Sebastian's room would be completed.
Originally he thought about simply converting his laboratory into Sebastian's room, but Robin insisted on making a room with better lighting and ventilation for Sebastian, so that idea was dropped.
But the good news was that with the new opening, they could install a ventilation fan in Sebastian's basement to ventilate that dark and somewhat damp basement.
Thinking about it, perhaps it wasn't that Sebastian wanted to be so gloomy—just that living in that environment made it difficult for him to become cheerful.
Thinking this, Demetrius swept the snow to the side and piled it up. Seeing Sebastian put wood down nearby, he couldn't help but speak: "Oh right, I saved a spot for you."
Seeing Sebastian look at him, Demetrius said somewhat uncomfortably: "For building snowmen——you had that, uh, very creative snowman before? If you want to build another one, you can put it there."
Saying this, he pointed to an open space not far away.
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