"Ash, brother, hurry over! Your seats are right here."
"Ash, hurry up! Elite Four Wikstrom's seminar is about to begin."
"…"
"…"
Following closely behind Elite Four Wikstrom, Ash, Clemont, and Wrench hurried out of the waiting hall and into the packed venue. The auditorium was already completely filled, with people crowding every available seat, and the seminar was about to begin.
Ash didn't dare waste any time. He quickly followed Clemont to the very front row of the seating area and sat down beside Serena and the others.
Although today's Knight's Way lecture tour was technically Wikstrom's home ground, he wasn't the only person attracting attention.
The "lucky spectators" selected to participate in the exhibition matches that morning were also drawing considerable interest. Wrench was relatively unknown and was mostly there as an accompaniment to Wikstrom, so he didn't attract much attention.
Clemont, on the other hand, was a genius Electric-type Trainer from Lumiose City and the Gym Leader of the Lumiose Gym. Naturally, he received quite a bit of attention.
And then there was Ash.
He was a household name throughout the Kanto region and had already gained a modest reputation in Kalos as well. He was a bona fide celebrity genius among young Trainers.
At the beginning of the event, quite a few spectators had never heard of him. But after hearing the discussions around them and pulling out their phones to search for information online, they quickly became familiar with who he was.
Even those who had previously never heard of Ash were now learning his name.
And those who had been too proud or simply uninterested to know him before now knew exactly who he was, as well as his achievements and background.
"That's Ash over there~"
"The one holding Pikachu in his arms."
"Can a Pokémon like Pikachu, which girls usually keep as a pet, really be trained as a battle Pokémon? Personally, I think that Greninja accompanying him looks pretty cool."
"Greninja really is cool. But according to the information released for today's exhibition match, the three Pokémon he'll be using are Flying-type Pokémon called Pidgeot."
"Pidgeot? What's that? Is it unique to the Kanto region?"
"Mm-hmm. Pidgeot is the final evolution of Pidgey, Kanto's common early-route bird Pokémon. It's similar to Kalos's Fletchling and its final evolution, Talonflame."
"…"
"…"
The moment Ash, Clemont, and Wrench hurried into the venue, they attracted a great deal of attention and discussion. Most of that attention, however, was concentrated on Ash.
With his Aura abilities, Ash could naturally hear the conversations and whispers of the people around him.
He simply didn't pay much attention to them.
Ever since becoming famous, he'd encountered scenes like this countless times. He had long since grown accustomed to it.
"Trainers of Lumiose City, how are you all doing?"
Ash had barely taken his seat when the Knight's Way & Knightly Spirit seminar officially began.
The Steel-type Elite Four member, Wikstrom, whom Ash had already met in the waiting room, now stepped onto the stage wearing the same imposing knight's armor as before.
"Elite Four Wikstrom…! Elite Four Wikstrom…!!"
"Wikstrom…! Wikstrom…!!"
"…"
"…"
As one of the Kalos Elite Four, Wikstrom enjoyed tremendous popularity and prestige throughout the region.
The deafening cheers and enthusiastic cries from the audience, loud enough to make it seem as though they might tear the roof off the venue, were proof enough.
Ash also joined the audience in applauding and cheering enthusiastically for a while.
Only after Wikstrom raised a hand and gradually brought the atmosphere under control did he begin his lecture.
"Perhaps many of you Trainers are wondering why I would go to such lengths to organize this Knight's Way & Knightly Spirit lecture tour. Perhaps you're wondering why I would spend so much time and effort holding an event like this."
"Is it because I want my beliefs and values to receive your approval? Is it because I want all of you to become people who, like me, admire and practice the Knight's Way? Or perhaps I want to use this lecture tour to gain more supporters and followers?"
"I know many of you must have questions about why I organized this Knight's Way & Knightly Spirit lecture tour."
"So today, I'll begin this seminar by answering that very question."
"Among everyone gathered here, perhaps some already know this, while others do not. No matter how outstanding a Pokémon's natural talent may be, under normal training and practical battle conditions, a Pokémon can reach, at most, the peak of the Gym-Class level—LV.69."
"For a Pokémon at the peak of the Gym-Class level to break through and reach the Elite Four level, two extremely important conditions must be fulfilled."
"The first is to cause the power within its body, which has already become liquefied, to undergo a further transformation—solidifying into an Energy Core."
"The second condition is for the Pokémon to achieve true self-understanding and comprehend its own Mental Will."
"Only when the liquid power within a Pokémon's body transforms into a solid Energy Core, and only when that Pokémon comes to understand itself and comprehends its own Mental Will, can it break through the bottleneck of the Gym-Class level and reach the Elite Four level…"
Standing at the center of the stage, Wikstrom's voice rang through the venue like a great bell as he explained these secrets to the gathered Trainers.
"Eh?!"
"Whoa… So that's how it works…"
"…"
"…"
The moment Wikstrom finished speaking, the venue—which had only just fallen silent—erupted into a new wave of noise and commotion.
Only a tiny handful of people remained calm, their arms folded across their chests and their expressions showing no surprise whatsoever.
Everyone else looked utterly shocked.
It was as though they had just learned a great secret for the very first time.
But when one thought about it, their reaction was perfectly understandable.
Within the Trainer community, reaching the Elite level was already enough to make someone a formidable Trainer. A Gym-Class Trainer could even be entrusted by a League with guarding an entire city.
As for the levels beyond that—the peak of Gym-Class strength and the Elite Four level—how many ordinary people could possibly reach them?
That was precisely why every regional Pokémon League had only four Elite Four members rather than eight, twelve, twenty-four, or some absurd number of them.
When one dug into the reason behind it, the answer was simple.
Elite Four-level Trainers were already among the strongest beings in the Pokémon world.
A region might have more than four Elite Four-level powerhouses, but even so, such individuals were few and far between.
To ordinary Trainers, the Elite Four level was something they could only look up to from afar.
Naturally, ordinary Trainers had almost no opportunity to come into contact with, let alone learn about, the secrets surrounding the breakthrough from the peak of Gym-Class strength to the Elite Four level.
Ash, however, was from Pallet Town.
Professor Oak had once been a Champion-level powerhouse and was essentially Ash's "neighbor." Although Professor Oak had retired for many years, he understood that times had changed and circumstances were no longer what they had once been.
Because of that, he had never directly interfered with Ash or Gary's Pokémon training and development, nor had he given either of them much guidance in that regard.