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A level 68 Rhydon with Purple Talent should normally sell for around 1.6 million on the open market, but this particular clan wasn't worth nearly that much.
There were 32 Rhyhorn of varying aptitude in the clan. Several of the stronger males had fled before they could be caught, so most of the remaining Rhyhorn weren't especially valuable. In the end, they were bundled in with the Rhydon for a discounted total of 3 million.
The Lord Onix, which was skilled at using Dig, along with a handful of Vibrava carrying Green Talent, added another 200,000 to the total.
Since the acquisition price was set at triple the base value, the final sum came to 9.6 million League coins, rounded up to 10 million.
Spending nearly 50 million in liquid funds made even someone as wealthy as Gilbert wince a little.
Gilbert transferred 40 million in cash from the Gym's accounts onto an official Layered Peaks Gym card and solemnly handed it over to Nova.
Gilbert: "Your top priority now is to find yourself a Pseudo-Legendary Pokémon and start raising it properly."
Nova didn't need the reminder. He had already been looking forward to catching his first Pseudo-Legendary Pokémon.
Before this, he simply hadn't had the money, and he'd been afraid he wouldn't be able to care for one properly, so Mort had never filed a request with the Alliance on his behalf.
Now that Nova's position as heir to the Layered Peaks Gym was official, his main goal was obvious: a Garchomp, the same species that represented the Gym itself.
There weren't many Secret Realms in the Norlandia Alliance known for producing Pseudo-Legendary Pokémon. When Gilbert and Mort submitted the application for Nova, the only realms available to them were Ground and Rock type.
Still, Nova didn't fix his heart on one particular species. To him, talent mattered more than type.
Having earned more money in a single night than he'd seen across two lifetimes, Nova returned to his suite at the Cengluan Hotel, but sleep wouldn't come.
He wanted to share the news with someone, but scrolling through his phone reminded him that, despite all the Pokémon around him, he hadn't made many human friends since arriving in this world.
The few friends he did have didn't feel like the right people to tell about this kind of sudden fortune.
In truth, there was only one person he really wanted to talk to: Aresdra.
The two of them had relied on each other to survive in this world for eight years. Now that Nova held this card in his hand, it meant neither of them would ever need to worry about money again. It was their shared security.
Unfortunately, Aresdra was still deep in special training inside the Nine-Tailed Fox Clan's Secret Realm.
Nova opened his chat with her, typed a few words, and stopped. It didn't feel right.
He deleted the message, tried again, and deleted that too.
Whatever joy he wanted to put into words seemed to drain away the moment he looked at her small, gray profile picture. Nothing he typed felt like enough.
Midnight arrived.
Bored, Nova was still staring at his screen when he noticed Aresdra's profile picture suddenly light up.
That meant she was online, the girl he thought about constantly.
But that didn't make sense. Her training wasn't supposed to be over yet. How could there be any signal inside a Secret Realm?
Yet it wasn't a glitch or his imagination, because a message from Aresdra appeared right in front of him.
"Happy birthday, Silly!"
Nova checked the date on his phone.
August 21st, just past midnight.
He'd been so caught up running around the no-man's-land lately that he'd completely forgotten it was his seventeenth birthday.
He'd forgotten, but someone else had remembered.
There was no way to confirm what his birthday truly was in this world, but ever since regaining his old memories, Nova had simply kept the birthday from his past life. It was a small, quiet keepsake from that longer, duller stretch of time before all this.
Even back then, hardly anyone had paid attention to the date.
But here, there was a girl who remembered it clearly, and it mattered to her.
Nova: "How did you manage to get out?"
Aresdra: "I asked for the day off, just so I could tell you happy birthday!"
Before he could type a reply, a video call request popped up.
Nova scrambled out of bed and answered right away.
The face on the screen wasn't Aresdra's, though. Instead, a small, proud looking creature stared back at him with a sideways, faintly unimpressed expression.
It was an Alolan Vulpix.
For all its haughty look, it was undeniably adorable.
A pair of slender hands lifted the little fox aside, and Aresdra's face appeared.
Nova: "Long time no see."
Aresdra: "I missed you so much!"
She always said things like that more openly than he did.
They smiled at each other through the screen. The Meowscarada dozing nearby heard her voice and snapped awake instantly, shoving its face into frame and trying to push Nova out of the shot entirely.
"Meowscarada !"
Aresdra's eyes lit up the moment she saw it. She hadn't expected that in barely two months apart, Meowscarada would already look this grown.
Nova: "And what about you? Is this Vulpix your new partner?"
Aresdra held the little fox up proudly. "Sister Lennon gave her to me! Isn't she cute?"
For someone who always claimed she preferred strong, impressive Pokémon, Aresdra lit up completely differently whenever something this cute was involved.
It seemed no girl could really resist an adorable Pokémon.
The "Sister Lennon" she meant had to be Lennon, the Norlandia Alliance's current Fairy-type Elite. Since Lennon came from the Nine-Tailed Fox Clan herself, gifting Aresdra a Vulpix made perfect sense.
It also said a lot about how fond Lennon had grown of Aresdra, handing over a rare Pokémon so easily, and Aresdra was already calling her "sister" in return.
Nova was so happy to see her that, for once, his usually careful eye missed something important.
Ever since leaving the Nine-Tailed Fox Clan's Secret Realm, the place Aresdra was staying looked even nicer than his own deluxe hotel suite. It looked like some kind of high-end villa.
The money she had was still only what Nova had given her before he left for Purple Gold City. There was no way she could afford a place like that on her own.
It wasn't until another familiar voice came from her side of the call that Nova realized something might be off.
Thelma: "Already talking to your dear brother? You really did wait for the clock to strike so you could say happy birthday."
Thelma's face appeared in the frame a moment later, greeting him with a grin.
"Hello there, Aresdra's dear brother... Nova, was it?"
Nova had a sudden feeling that this might turn out to be his worst birthday yet.
Happy birthday? Somehow, he doubted it.