Spring arrived, and the residents of the territory became busy.
Miners went to the Mine to extract clay and limestone, and with the help of Bouffalant, transported it back to the territory.
Blacksmiths and others used the power of Simisear to fire the clay into bricks.
After a winter of accumulation, the number of bricks in the territory had already filled an open space. Once another batch was fired, they could officially begin building brick houses and paving stone roads.
After his morning training, Draconis was on his way back when he saw Megan by the pond, feeding Magikarp.
Seeing Draconis approach, Megan nervously stood up and bowed: "Prince Draconis!"
"No need to be so nervous, Megan." Draconis smiled and shook his head, then turned his gaze to the six Magikarp that had surfaced.
Under Megan's meticulous care, the six Magikarp, both in appearance and spirit, were in a very healthy state.
"It seems they've been very well taken care of by you," Draconis said.
"This is all what I should do!" Megan said somewhat reservedly.
The six Magikarp were also staring at him in unison.
Draconis: "..."
He shook his head helplessly, looking at the scene before him, a picture involuntarily surfacing in his mind.
— A timid girl protected by six fierce Gyarados. If anyone dared to bully her, what awaited him would be six Hyper Beams fired simultaneously.
Hiss, how terrifying!
However, Draconis was actually quite looking forward to that day.
He smiled and told Megan to get along well with the Magikarp, then turned and left.
Watching his receding figure, Megan finally breathed a sigh of relief.
She squatted by the pond and said to the Magikarp: "That's Prince Draconis, His Highness is a very good person! Thanks to him, my brother and I can live in such a nice house and eat such delicious food!"
When they were slaves, they were at the bottom of the Royal City, eating cold, hard, poor people's food like black bread, and sleeping on hard plank beds.
If they accidentally made a mistake, they would be beaten by the adults in the Royal City... For Megan, that was a very terrifying memory.
The Magikarp seemed to sense Megan's emotions, and they splashed out of the water, leaping up and then falling back down.
"But now, everything is slowly getting better!" Megan said happily.
*
Upon returning to the territory's main hall, Draconis let Snivy and Dratini go play by themselves. He sat at his desk, took out a quill, dipped it in ink, and began writing a letter on parchment to the Old King, who was still in Eindoak Royal City.
Although he was not the original owner and had no relation to the Old King, Draconis felt that, given his current identity, he should still report his safety to the other party.
Besides inquiring about the situation in the Royal City, he could also take the opportunity to ask the Old King for a batch of skilled personnel and a group of Pokémon that were being exploited in the Royal City.
The letter was quickly written. The next problem was how to send it back to the Royal City.
Draconis sat at the table, contemplating their current options.
The Pokémon world was vast and sparsely populated. They had lost their way in a Blizzard earlier, so they didn't know their current location in the Unova region, nor the direction to the Royal City.
Secondly, there was the issue of who would deliver the letter. Because this was the Pokémon world, it was easy to encounter danger on the road. If they were not careful, the messenger might perish along the way.
"If only there were Pokémon specifically for delivering letters..." The image of a Pelipper flashed in Draconis's mind.
Just then, Old Butler Alfred suddenly walked in from outside.
"Your Highness, are these the Apricorns you were looking for earlier?"
Draconis looked up and saw that Old Butler Alfred was holding several bright red Berries with a slightly pungent smell.
Those were... Red Apricorns?
Draconis paused slightly, then asked: "Where did these come from?"
Alfred smiled: "Your Highness, you asked me about them before, so I recently had the patrolling knights keep an eye out. They found these special Berries in the nearby forest."
Draconis took the Red Apricorns in his hand. Their size was no different from the Poké Balls Draconis was familiar with, and they were also very light.
They were indeed Apricorns... Draconis searched the technology tree for related technology, but regretfully found that the current satisfaction level was not enough to exchange for it.
Since that was the case, they could only try to figure it out themselves first.
But before that, they had one more thing to do.
Draconis asked: "I've already written the letter to be sent back to the Royal City, but I don't know how to send it back. Alfred, do you have any suggestions?"
"Hmm... someone in the territory might remember the way they came," Alfred pondered. "Perhaps Your Highness could send people to search for towns or villages nearby. If we can find one, we'll be able to ask for directions to the Royal City."
"In that case, I'll leave this matter for you to arrange," Draconis nodded.
"Understood." It was a butler's duty to share his master's worries.
"Oh, and have Morik come over!" Draconis said, looking at the Berries in his hand.
While Alfred went to call him, Draconis used his quill to draw the approximate shape of a Poké Ball on the parchment.
Regarding the development of modern Poké Balls, Draconis remembered there was relevant information in the anime.
If he remembered correctly, a Pokémon Professor was researching Primeape himself. Due to an error in the dosage, the Primeape became weak and hid in his glasses case.
This meant that Pokémon had the habit of shrinking their bodies and seeking out small, hidden places to hide when they were weak.
But then another question arose: even without a Poké Ball, could he just use an empty bottle to get a Pokémon to hide inside?
"In any case, let's first try to see if we can create a Poké Ball," Draconis thought.
Alfred quickly brought the blacksmith, Morik, over.
Draconis handed him the Poké Ball blueprint and the Red Apricorns, and said: "Take a look. Can you turn this Red Apricorn into this shape?"
"This is?" Morik looked at the round ball on the blueprint with some confusion, but he still honestly replied: "I think so."
First, cut the Apricorn in half with a knife, then use a metal ring to fix the upper and lower parts of the Apricorn. This way, the object could be opened and closed freely.
"But there are currently no suitable materials in the territory," Morik said with some difficulty. "There have been traces of iron ore found in the Mine, but we didn't dare to go deep because there seem to be many monsters inhabiting it. Our miners only dare to dig for clay on the outskirts."
"Iron ore..." Draconis couldn't help but think of the Aron that Christina's ecological notes mentioned inhabiting the Mine.
He pondered for a moment, then asked: "What kind of monsters?"
"There are stones with two arms that float, and also large monsters like snakes, made entirely of stone!" Morik said with some fear.
That monster had appeared once when they were digging for clay. It was like an earthquake, with the ground rumbling.
Listening to this description, two Pokémon figures appeared in Draconis's mind.
Geodude and Onix.
"I'll go take a look later," Draconis said.
He would see if he could cooperate with the Pokémon on that mountain using food. If not, he could also forcibly Mine the ore through battle.
After all, with Snivy present, and Onix, being Rock and Ground type, being quadruple weak to Grass, Snivy had a great advantage.
...
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