Chapter 1068: The Mask Maker

Based on the intelligence shared by Long Ren.

All Baimu confirmed that the Pokémon that attacked him and Dragonite was the Paradise Guardian Dragon, Koraidon.

From this, another thing could also be determined.

The time Long Ren traveled here shouldn't have been much earlier than his own, even if he had disappeared for nearly a month in the future!

Was it done on purpose?

All Baimu gripped the Thousand-Universe Wrist pendant on his chest, still feeling that the path ahead was shrouded in fog.

Who sent Long Ren here?

And who sent him? How were the two of them supposed to go back?

He felt like he was playing an open-world game without a tutorial, and it was the "hard mode" where equipment from the previous version couldn't be brought over.

Fortunately, Long Ren's awakening gave him an extra helper; even if their Pokémon weren't by their sides, it at least bolstered his confidence a little.

He believed that there must be some special reason for them to have come here...

"Do you have anything to eat? I'm so hungry."

Long Ren clutched his rumbling stomach, interrupting his train of thought.

All Baimu turned his head to glance at the group of Kitakami villagers being held back by Dragonite in the rear, and said, "I'll have someone get you food in a moment. Don't forget what I told you; it will be very troublesome if you slip up."

"Don't worry! I get it!"

Long Ren said with a grin.

He wasn't some wet-behind-the-ears kid either; he had been active for even longer than All Baimu.

"By the way, you said your partner didn't follow you here?"

He tossed a Poké Ball to All Baimu and said, "Then I'll lend you my partner for self-defense for now. You have to treat it well."

"Fine."

All Baimu rubbed the Poké Ball and nodded.

Having a Pokémon on hand was better than fighting alone, and he trusted that Long Ren's Pokémon wouldn't let him down.

Walking past Dragonite, he looked at the village chief and the others at the head of the crowd, and was the first to speak with a smile:

"Sorry to trouble you all with our concerns. My brother here just woke up and hasn't fully recovered yet; could you spare some food?"

"Easily done, easily done."

The village chief chuckled, though he frowned inwardly.

Although he could understand that the other party didn't want outsiders approaching now that their companion had woken up, he still felt something was fishy...

Furthermore, their unclear identities and that terrifying dragon-beast made him feel uneasy.

Let's observe them a bit more.

He had already sent people to find out if what All Baimu said was true or false. Although Kitakami was located among the mountains, it wasn't isolated; every year during the Harvest Festival, it attracted people from nearby villages.

If they acted rashly at a time like this, not to mention whether they could deal with the dragon-beast, would the Harvest Festival even be able to proceed safely and smoothly?

Just treat them as guests who came for the Harvest Festival!

The village chief took a puff of his dry pipe, exhaling his complicated thoughts along with the smoke.

Returning to the banquet.

The villagers didn't mention Borro from the back mountain again, just kept asking him about strange tales from the outside world.

All Baimu understood immediately that the village chief had ordered them to keep quiet.

He felt a bit disappointed, pondering where he should continue to collect information...

Suddenly.

He thought of the young people and children who had been hiding outside when he went to find Long Ren earlier.

"Hmm..."

Perhaps they could become a new breakthrough?

After the banquet ended, All Baimu was led by a farm woman to a wooden house not far from Long Ren's.

Coincidentally, Long Ren had already interacted with the "breakthroughs."

The physique of humans in the Pokémon world was indeed extraordinary; after being unconscious for most of the day, he was full of energy in the blink of an eye.

All Baimu pricked up his ears to eavesdrop and found that the topic of conversation was focused on Dragonite.

It stood to reason that at their age, they would all be curious about the legendary dragon-beast, right?

Even looking into the future, Dragonite wasn't exactly a Pokémon you saw everywhere.

He walked over slowly, but unexpectedly, many children ran away as soon as they saw him, leaving behind a group of young people mostly around fifteen or sixteen years old who didn't leave.

Long Ren asked curiously, "Why did they leave?"

"Hmph, just little brats listening to their moms. Everyone was warned early on to stay away from you guys, especially your big brother here."

A young man with delicate features snorted.

Big brother?

Long Ren laughed, but accepted the title, "My big brother hasn't done anything bad, why stay away from us?"

"Because you're outsiders! And you have a powerful dragon-beast; who knows if you have ulterior motives!"

This guy was a big mouth, saying everything that came to mind.

All Baimu shook his head upon hearing this, and Long Ren laughed out loud: "Don't worry! Aside from rare Pokémon... beasts, we aren't interested in anything else!"

"Beasts? Aren't you traveling merchants?"

Another teenager asked curiously.

Long Ren naturally added to their backstory, "Who says you can't do other things just because you're traveling merchants? We also suppress and tame beasts!"

"Tame!?"

Several young people from Kitakami gasped.

In this day and age, there were no Poké Balls. Not to mention medium and large Pokémon, even many Bug-type Pokémon could make the villagers miserable.

Especially Kitakami, which relied on farming and suffered from insect plagues year-round.

Don't look at the fact that there were quite a few beasts in the village; they could at most handle small situations. For real insect plagues, the village chief had to go outside to invite real Beast Masters.

But even among Beast Masters, no one dared to say they could tame beasts!

These two people...

The teenagers looked at each other, then looked at the gentle Dragonite, and suddenly knelt down in unison, shouting in unison: "Please, Beast Master lords, teach us!"

No one was willing to be ordinary, let alone a group of fifteen or sixteen-year-olds.

But unfortunately.

"I can't promise you that."

Long Ren shook his head and said righteously: "This is the secret technique of us two brothers! How can we easily teach it to others?"

In reality, it was impossible to teach.

All Baimu muttered to himself, how could modern technological products like Poké Balls be casually handed over to ancients?

Long Ren looked like a brainless, hot-blooded youth, but he actually knew very well what he should and shouldn't do.

If it were Ash, and there were no Brock or Misty to stop him, he might have just agreed. Then, he would have left behind "ancient" Poké Ball artifacts, leaving a bunch of future archaeologists scratching their heads.

The young people of Kitakami begged repeatedly, but Long Ren firmly refused.

The noise successfully attracted other villagers, which also caused their parents to forcibly drag them home.

For a time.

Kitakami was filled with wailing.

The village chief came over specifically to apologize, and Long Ren smiled and indicated he didn't mind.

But the fact that they could suppress beasts slowly spread throughout Kitakami.

After the village chief returned home, he found several elderly village elders already there talking.

"Dragon-beast Master! I remember that in distant Johto, there is a group of mysterious Beast Masters who call themselves Dragon Tamers; I'm afraid it has something to do with those two!"

"Why not ask them to drive away the Hairy People on the mountain?"

"Why bother! After the Hairy People wore the masks from the Mask Maker, the villagers are no longer afraid, why do something unnecessary?"

"Why call it unnecessary! You also heard that war has broken out in the Northern Continent; what if the Hairy People bring the war here?"

"If the Hairy People had that ability, they would have done it already!"

The village elders began to argue.

The village chief slammed the table, "Enough! The Harvest Festival is imminent, don't stir up trouble! If there are any problems, we'll discuss them after the festival ends!"

In this era of relatively scarce resources, the festival, which symbolized a good harvest for the coming year, was very important.

The leader made the final decision, and the others stopped talking.

Inside Long Ren's wooden house.

After confirming there were no eavesdroppers, he told All Baimu the information he had heard.

"I heard people say there is a mysterious Ghost Pool on the back mountain."

"Ghost Pool?"

"Yes, they say if you look into it, you can see people who have already died. The adults in the village used to forbid them from going up, and after the Hairy People came, they were strictly forbidden from approaching the back mountain."

"Can see people who have died?"

"And there are glowing stones inside."

"Glowing stones..."

All Baimu immediately thought of the Terastal crystals in Area Zero, but what was the situation with seeing the deceased?

Did the entrance to the Spirit Realm overlap with the crystals?

Although he had the urge to verify it, considering that villagers might come to investigate the situation in the first half of the night, he had to suppress this desire.

All Baimu said, "Speaking of which, I have seen the Hairy People they talk about."

These words immediately aroused Long Ren's curiosity.

He asked repeatedly: "Are they really very hairy? And are they fierce with blue faces and fangs? Do they bring a little devil and eat people?"

"... What do you think?"

All Baimu glanced at him sideways and said softly, "That's just someone whose ancestors might have come from Kalos or Unova; they don't look like the people here, so they are called Hairy People."

"What about the little devil?"

"A Pokémon I don't recognize, um, quite cute."

All Baimu recalled the appearance of that Pokémon and said with certainty.

Long Ren was disappointed, "That's no fun..."

"Whether it's fun or not is beside the point; the top priority is to find a way back. You don't want to stay here for a lifetime, do you?"

All Baimu had long felt that this kid's thought process was strange.

Now it seemed, sure enough!

Long Ren said lazily, "There will be a way when we reach the mountain, relax, Champion. Time travel is also a rare adventure!"

"If I hadn't come alone, I would agree with you." All Baimu had been in the Pokémon world for nearly two years, and this was the first time he had been separated from his own Pokémon for so long.

"Oh, right."

Long Ren chuckled and joked, "Why don't you tame one here? I happen to have blank Poké Balls."

"Forget it, we are people from the future. What if we can't take the Pokémon we tame here back with us? It would just add to the sorrow."

All Baimu shook his head.

He absolutely didn't want the Pokémon he tamed to wait for him for hundreds of years.

The two then talked about the Harvest Festival; if nothing was found in the Ghost Pool, something should happen during the festival.

After all, the timing was too coincidental.

How could the Harvest Festival happen right after they arrived?

"There are only a few suspects, let's go to the mountain tomorrow and ask Borro."

"Fine!"

With Long Ren's agreement, All Baimu returned to his room to rest.

Ancient nights had no entertainment.

And when resources were scarce, no household would waste lamp oil; they all extinguished their candles early and submerged into the pitch-black night.

The stars didn't seem to shine either.

The entire Kitakami village soon fell into a deathly silence, so quiet that not a single sound could be heard.

Late at night.

All Baimu suddenly opened his eyes and looked at the door that was slowly revealing a narrow gap.

He flipped up silently, his gaze deep.

This place, Kitakami...

"Catch the thief!!"

A sudden howl came from the direction of Long Ren, but the voice wasn't his.

The person outside the door trembled and hurriedly tried to retreat.

Who knew All Baimu was already close, grabbed the hand placed on the door frame, pulled and swung it violently, and slammed him to the ground with a bang!

"Ah!!"

He screamed, then began to beg for mercy.

In the distance, Long Ren seemed to have caught the thief, and Dragonite had caught a third one.

Amidst the continuous screams and pleas for mercy.

Candles lit up all over Kitakami, and torches gathered quickly, led by the village chief.

He looked at the three young men captured by All Baimu and Long Ren and sighed, "Sorry, honored guests, it is our lack of discipline, I hope you can forgive us."

"Village Chief Grandpa! We! We didn't come to steal things!"

One of the three was stubborn, but if they weren't stealing, why touch someone's window in the middle of the night?

"Since they are fellow villagers, then leave them to the old man to handle." All Baimu smiled slightly and pushed the person toward the opposite side.

Long Ren and Dragonite followed suit.

The village chief's eyes were shallow; he didn't expect him to be so easy to talk to, "... Thank you for your tolerance, honored guests, we will definitely give you an explanation. Take them away!"

The three young men were taken away.

Long Ren quietly came to All Baimu's side and whispered, "Just let them go like this? That's not how stealing is handled in Ferrum Town, right? Don't let them treat us like soft persimmons."

He hadn't actually been to Ferrum Town much, but its reputation in Orre was notoriously bad.

"Don't worry, that village chief is a smart man. If you're worried, have Dragonite release a Draco Meteor into the sky in a moment."

All Baimu patted his shoulder, his gaze sweeping toward the bushes in the distance, "Come out, they've already left."

Rustle...

Under Long Ren's expected gaze, the delicate-looking boy who had been crazily leaking information during the day appeared.

"Looks like I didn't need to remind you at all."

The delicate boy curled his lips, "Those three were after the little balls you have; they thought the little balls must be some kind of secret treasure. I heard them discussing it in the evening."

Hmm?

Did you leak the Poké Balls?

All Baimu looked at Long Ren beside him, and Long Ren spread his hands helplessly; to gain the trust of these children, he had no choice but to show off a little.

He hadn't actually used them, though.

All Baimu said, "Well, thank you, you..."

"My name is Cha Pu! I'm the child of the Mask Maker! I heard you were asking about the Hairy People on the mountain? My dad made masks for his family, we have a good relationship."

Cha Pu volunteered, "I can take you to find him!"

All Baimu and Long Ren looked at each other.

"Thank you very much for your help, but we have to be clear, we still can't teach you the method of taming beasts."

"... That's okay!"

Cha Pu was a little disappointed, but quickly wiped it away and said, "I just think Borro and his daughter are too pitiful. They didn't do anything, but were excluded just because they look different. I hope you can help him."

This kid is a bit strange.

How was he so sure that they would help Borro after finding him?

What if they were there to tame Borro's daughter? Wouldn't he be doing a bad thing with good intentions?

Hey!

All Baimu twitched the corner of his mouth, "Sure."

"It's a deal then."

Cha Pu nodded vigorously, then turned and ran away.

Long Ren asked curiously, "Didn't you already know that guy named Borro?"

"I know him, but I can also pretend I don't." All Baimu chuckled.

This place, Kitakami... it's a bit interesting.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 1069 =====