At this moment, 1 Willow Lane.
Sam had just finished breakfast as usual and was getting ready to head to the library for his part-time job. Just as he packed his things, a knock came from the door.
"Is that Penny?" Sam thought, turning his head to urge Vincent, who was still dragging his feet. "Hurry up, Miss Penny will be waiting."
"Oh, okay!" Vincent quickly started eating.
Sam then glanced at the family photo hanging nearby, took a deep breath, and went to the door with a smile. He pulled it open: "Good morning, Penny. Vincent is—Dad?"
At the door stood a somewhat scruffy, disheveled-looking man.
"What?" Vincent instantly jumped up from his chair.
Jodi, who was still busy cooking inside, froze in her tracks.
"Dad, you're really back?!" Vincent jumped up in excitement.
He didn't care at all why Kent looked so disheveled; he was simply overjoyed by his father's return.
The next instant, the sound of something heavy crashing to the floor came from inside.
The loud thud made Kent flinch instinctively, but because he was tightly hugging Vincent and Sam, he forced himself not to hide away in fear.
"What happened?" Vincent turned his head and saw that Jodi had dropped her utensils on the floor.
"You really came back—" Jodi choked up and hurried forward to hug Kent. "I'm not dreaming, am I, darling—I'm not dreaming, right?"
"It's not a dream, I'm back." Kent said, patting Jodi's back comfortingly. "Let's go inside first. I'm a bit tired; I need to rest."
Jodi quickly moved aside to make a path. After Kent went inside, she wiped her tears and took Vincent to Penny for school.
"Miss Penny! My dad came back!" Vincent shouted excitedly the moment he saw Penny holding hands with Jas and Leo.
"Is that so? Congratulations," Penny smiled. "Let's go, time for class."
Vincent hopped over to Penny's side. He looked around and, seeing no spot for himself, couldn't help but pout.
Jas immediately stuck her tongue out at Vincent and hid her other hand.
"—" Penny had just been racking her brain for a solution when Leo proactively reached his hand out to Vincent.
"Hmph!" Vincent pouted but still took Leo's hand. "I'm only letting you have my spot because you just got here!"
"Mm." Leo nodded. "Thank you."
Penny looked down at Leo's head, then at Vincent.
"That's really nice."
"What?"
"It's really nice that your dad came back," Penny said.
She was genuinely happy for Vincent, that he wouldn't have to grow up in a single-parent household anymore.
Of course, knowing Jodi, even if she were alone, she could have raised Vincent to be happy.
This was completely different from her own situation—but Pam was doing much better now too, and Penny had gradually stepped out from the shadows of her past entirely.
She felt that she now had the courage to run toward the future she wanted.
On the other side, Ron.
Ron, who was busy planning the pasture and installing fences, inexplicably sneezed twice in a row.
"Are you catching a cold, meow?" Meowth asked, looking up.
"I don't know. Probably not?" It wasn't Ron bragging, but in the year since coming to Pelican Town, aside from getting injured by that bomb, he really hadn't gotten sick.
He thought about it but couldn't figure it out. Ron just felt his eyebrow twitch inexplicably, so he reached into his bag and rubbed the Rabbit's Foot, which finally calmed him down.
"Indeedee."
"It says you must have a guilty conscience, meow."
"?" Ron turned his head to look at Indeedee.
Nonsense, he had been doing good deeds all day.
Indeedee gave Ron a meaningful look.
"—" Ron silently turned his head away.
"Indeedee."
"It says—"
"No need, I don't want to know." Ron said, handing a large pile of fences to Meowth's and Indeedee's paws. "Since you're so free, go set up these fences. Here's the blueprint."
"Indeedee."
"You're just abusing your power to get back at us, meow." Meowth paused. Seeing Ron look at Indeedee, it added, "That's not what it said. Meowth is the one saying that."
Saying this, Meowth grabbed the fences and ran off with Indeedee.
"Honestly." Ron gave a bitter smile, let out Shaymin and Bellossom, and signaled them to use Grassy Terrain on the grass seeds he had just laid down.
"Shay~"
"Bellossom~"
"Is that all for the pasture preparations?" Robin walked over and asked.
She had been here every day except holidays for this period of expanding the farm and building the new barns and coops. Rolling up her sleeves, she patted Ron's shoulder.
"Yeah, that's it." Remembering his trip to Kalos, Ron said, "I'll be relying on you to look after the farm for the few days I'm away."
"No problem." Robin patted Ron's shoulder again and smiled. "Though with how efficient Indeedee is, I probably don't even need to intervene, right?"
"Just help keep an eye on things occasionally," Ron said. "I'm not exactly sure when I'll be back this time."
Aside from delivering the rings and Warp Totems he had prepared for Abigail and the others, Ron also planned to try and sell his improved version of Stardrop Tea.
If he could open up a market for it, he wasn't planning on continuing to expand the livestock farming scale.
Even if he did, everything would be based in Kalos.
To avoid any potential leaks or mishaps on the farm.
However, opening a factory and raising animals in Kalos would require a massive capital investment. Unlike Pelican Town, everything there required approval procedures. On top of that, land prices weren't cheap, and the construction wouldn't be as miraculously fast as Robin's.
Plus, to keep things confidential, strict security measures would be needed.
In short, everything had to be carefully planned for the long term. It was better to start with something like Stardrop Tea, which would obviously sell well and wouldn't carry any risk of exposure.
As Ron pondered this, he finalized the farm's upcoming plans with Robin, then turned his attention to preparing items for Abigail and Haley.
Ron prepared two sets of every useful ring he had.
This included, but was not limited to, direct life-saving measures like the Ice Rod and the Frog Egg. Ron even grabbed some Rainbow Hair Dye—something purely for the visual effect.
With everything packed, Ron went into the cabin and added the dress Emily had brought into his backpack as well.
Once fully prepared, Ron checked the ingredients in the fridge. Confident that even if he was delayed for half a month, no one would go hungry, he finally left the farm, heading to the clinic to check on Emily's condition.
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