Chapter 374: Geeta's Shock: The Grape Academy Observations of the Backstabbing Little Person

Geeta, the Chairwoman of the Paldea Pokémon League, who was always composed, rarely froze for a moment.

Immediately, her hands, already interlaced, pressed together slightly harder, as if to keep herself calm.

On the surface, Geeta still appeared carefree and unhurried, but the wrinkles on her gloves revealed that the usually meticulous Chairwoman's state of mind was absolutely not calm.

Geeta took a deep breath and said slowly, "Could you trouble yourself to say that again?"

Luo Mu was stunned; he hadn't expected Geeta's reaction to be so strong, so he repeated it: "I kidnapped the King of Abundance from the ancient legends of the Galar region to my farm."

Geeta:!

Shock? Delight? Or perhaps an even more complex emotion?

Geeta did not know what her mood was at this moment; she gently rubbed her temples, which had suddenly started throbbing, and took out her portable communication device to look up relevant information.

Even though they were neighbors, Geeta was not that familiar with the history and legends of the Galar region; at most, she only knew a bit about Galar's heroes of the sword and shield and the story of the Darkest Day.

Having a concrete understanding was enough; just the myriad affairs of Paldea were enough to keep Geeta busy, so how would she have the leisure to learn about the legend of Galar's King of Abundance?

Luo Mu waited quietly while Geeta browsed the relevant information.

A moment later, Geeta put down the communication device in her hand, let out a long sigh, and looked at Luo Mu with an expression of slight shock.

To speak frankly, after browsing the legend of the King of Abundance—which was very obscure in the Galar region, to the point that even the content related to the legend had to be found by subordinates—her first reaction was that the King of Abundance probably didn't exist in this world.

If an ability like making hundreds of flowers bloom, fields fertile, and crops abundant truly existed, why did many cities in the Galar region even have to rely on trading with other cities, or even purchasing supplies from the Paldea region, to maintain their operations?

Moreover, the legend of the King of Abundance completely contradicted the Galar region legends she knew; clearly, it was the Galar Wang Zu that once ruled the Galar region, so where did this legendary king ruling all of Galar come from?

Yet... even though reason told Geeta that the King of Abundance did not exist, when Luo Mu mentioned the King of Abundance so calmly before her, even without seeing the person in question, Geeta felt she should believe Luo Mu.

"Could it be that the King of Abundance came to Paldea with the intention of spreading its faith?"

As expected of the Chairwoman and Top Champion of the Paldea League, once Geeta made a decision, her thinking became terrifyingly calm, and she immediately began pondering what the King of Abundance's purpose actually was.

"If its power is truly as the legends say... the Paldea League is willing to fully cooperate with it to spread its faith!"

In Geeta's view, if everything was true, the existence of the King of Abundance would completely drive Paldea's rapid development; serving as a cornerstone based on people's livelihoods, its influence would radiate to every industry, achieving the feat of surpassing other Leagues!

As if she could already see the future rise of Paldea, Geeta felt her heart, which had been dormant for a long time, begin to beat violently again.

Geeta's outburst left Luo Mu completely at a loss; seeing her excited expression, as if she would immediately launch her grand ambitions if everything proved true, Luo Mu paused suspiciously before cautiously saying:

"Is there a possibility that the actual King of Abundance grew tired of the identity of a king, no longer wished to respond to the endless expectations of believers, and thus chose to leave the Galar region with me to become an ordinary farmer on my farm?"

Hearing Luo Mu's words, Geeta's expression instantly cooled from "fired up" to "unbelievable."

She widened her eyes, rarely showing a loss of composure again, and asked with trembling lips, "... What did you say?"

Luo Mu sighed and explained it to Geeta once more.

Then, he mentioned the purpose for which he had specifically called Geeta over.

With the arrival of Lei Guan Wang, the farm would definitely enter a phase of rapid development for the coming period.

Although there was still some area in the current farming zone that could be developed, in the foreseeable future, due to Lei Guan Wang's existence, the farmland would definitely gradually become insufficient.

Insufficient farmland wasn't exactly a critical matter, but the other issues reflected by this situation were the real trouble.

As the Pokémon on the farm became increasingly diversified, the current monotonous environment would certainly fail to meet the needs of all Pokémon, just like Regice, Snowsledder, the Sandslash couple, and Vulpix sharing a single ice cellar.

Therefore, the expansion of the farm's scope had already been proposed by the Oranguru butler, who had perceived this point.

However, the major Leagues in the Pokémon world paid more attention to the sense of boundaries with wild areas; in order to minimize impact on the living environments of wild Pokémon, most development and construction were built upon existing land.

Developing wild areas often required a series of complicated procedures and review times; by then, it would be too late.

Since he had connections, Luo Mu naturally intended to use this layer of relationships to save some effort—

Having connections and not using them, insisting on making trouble for oneself, wasn't having backbone; that was being a fool.

"I have also investigated that area near my farm. Because it is close to human settlements, basically no wild Pokémon appear there; if such a group does emerge during this period, I will naturally take responsibility for finding them a new residence or directly incorporating them into the farm."

After Luo Mu finished speaking, Geeta remained silent for quite a while before calming her emotions.

Even though her mood had temporarily calmed, the shocking news that the King of Abundance actually did not intend to be a king anymore still echoed in her mind.

Geeta took a deep breath and said, "I will keep an eye on the approval process to speed up the development procedures, but..."

Luo Mu seemed to have already perceived what Geeta wanted to say... or perhaps a certain existence had already known what Geeta wanted to say in advance; it used Luo Mu's mouth to express friendliness to Geeta.

"Since I have settled in Paldea, if there is a critical situation, I naturally will not stand idly by... that is what Lei Guan Wang said."

Whether it was a sudden natural disaster or a threat from ancient times or the future, if a true emergency arose, even though he was now merely a farmer, Lei Guan Wang would not mind demonstrating his power.

"That would be excellent."

Geeta's eyes shone slightly; with this, her last doubts completely vanished.

If one were to ask what worried Geeta most as the de facto ruler of the Paldea region, it would definitely be Paldea's resistance capability against "disasters."

The definition of disaster was not limited to ordinary natural and man-made calamities; the Paldea League also had ongoing plans for such contingencies, but what truly worried Geeta was Paldea's defensive power against the strength of legendary Pokémon.

It was funny to say, but while the Kanto region had legends of Ho-Oh and Lugia, and the Sinnoh region had creation myths, no such legends circulated in the Paldea region; there was only the Paldea Crater, which existed like Pandora's Box and needed to be strictly guarded.

One's position determines one's way of thinking; since she bore the future of all Paldea on her shoulders, while Geeta spurred herself to become powerful and live up to the name of Top Champion, she also worried about these seemingly shadowless "crises."

But now it was different; with this promise from Lei Guan Wang, the King of Abundance, she felt much more at ease.

At the very least, a situation like the conflict between the God of the Land and the God of the Sea in the Hoenn region across the Paldea sea, which caused the Paldea region to fall into danger, would not occur.

The evil behind-the-scenes deal between adults was perfectly concluded; in an exceptionally good mood, Geeta kindly reminded Luo Mu before leaving his office.

"Recently, there seem to be rumors of hauntings in the academy; valuable belongings of some teachers and students often disappear inexplicably. Although I have already asked Nemona to come to the academy to investigate whether it is a Ghost-type Pokémon playing pranks, you had best not keep important things in your office."

After speaking, Geeta waved her hand and directly left Luo Mu's office.

Luo Mu, however, fell into deep thought.

Hauntings? Valuable items disappearing?

This didn't seem like something that would happen at Naranja Academy.

After pondering for a moment, Luo Mu picked up the academy's internal communicator installed in the office and called Professor Professor Huangbo, who had just finished her class, to his office.

Nominally, Luo Mu was Professor Professor Huangbo's superior, so she jogged over and very respectfully greeted Luo Mu, even though in reality, Luo Mu was five or six years younger than her.

Luo Mu called Professor Professor Huangbo over not only to relay Shinji's feedback to her verbatim and tactfully remind her that she could make the teaching content slightly more diversified, but also to inquire about more detailed specifics regarding the haunting rumors.

When Luo Mu heard Professor Professor Huangbo say that the lost items were all shiny objects, mostly made of gold, and that even her good friend, Nurse Nurse Mimosha, had lost an important gold ring meant for her future spouse, his expression instantly turned strange.

How could there still be such a weird ring in this world, the kind that only appears in romantic light novels?

After receiving Luo Mu's advice and the huge, round promise that "you will definitely take my position in the future," Professor Professor Huangbo seemed to ignite with energy, rushing out of the office with full motivation.

Judging by her state, she probably didn't even plan to rest during her lunch break; she likely went straight back to start preparing for the afternoon classes, didn't she?

The office fell quiet once again; Luo Mu released Dragonite, Dudunsparce, Shuckle, and Nacli, letting them move freely within the room, then stroked his chin as he pondered the identity of that "ghost" who seemed particularly fond of stealing gold.

To be honest, this was far too obvious.

Even if any single element were considered alone, Luo Mu felt he couldn't be so certain.

But when the two elements of "ghost" and "gold" were combined, especially within this Paldea region, the corresponding Pokémon identity was practically shouting itself out.

To confirm his guess, Luo Mu poked the System, which was basically useless and had an even thinner presence than Mimikyu.

"Is it the one I'm thinking of?"

【It's the Coin Purse Pokémon, Host.】

Although the System wasn't much use, it had never made a mistake regarding information; since it said yes, it was basically certain.

Hmm, confirmed; it was indeed Greavard causing the trouble.

The moment he thought of Greavard, the figure of the Greavard he had encountered in the Asado Desert floated into Luo Mu's mind.

When he and Seeing Lei He had emerged from the tomb chamber, the other party's tracks had vanished completely; he didn't know if it was doing well now or if it was still living in the Asado Desert amidst the swirling yellow sand.

In a certain corner of the Naranja Academy library, a Greavard was happily counting the fruits of its efforts over this period.

Although the bookshelves filled with books looked somewhat terrifying from Greavard's perspective, thanks to the gaps between these massive shelves, it could move through them, traveling safely in any direction within Naranja Academy.

Greavard had already been in this huge academy for quite a long time.

It had come to this unfamiliar place from the distant Asado Desert.

Originally, Greavard had intended to secretly hide on that human who was very skilled at commanding Pokémon, thereby secretly leaving the crisis-ridden Asado Desert, but the plan ultimately failed because the other party didn't get on the vehicle.

Fortunately, although that woman driving had somewhat terrible driving skills, she still brought it out of the Asado Desert; filled with gratitude, Greavard took a small box of gold coins she had hidden in the gap between the car seats, secretly got off, and hid inside the library.

The environment inside the library was indeed countless times safer than the Asado Desert; it had successfully established its own base and, using this base as a center, began executing its plan—to collect 999 gold coins!

Their species was born to constantly travel in order to collect the target gold coins; Greavard wasn't sure which kind of gold coins it needed, so it simply began searching for everything shiny, especially items made of gold.

Greavard was an individual separated from its treasure chest, so it could only pile all the items it had collected into the gaps behind the bookshelves.

Greavard had observed carefully; even those humans who often held cleaning tools to sanitize the bookshelves would not reach their hands into the gaps behind the shelves—because these embedded bookshelves built against the walls were simply not suitable for frequent movement.

During the day, it hid within the gaps, waiting for nightfall before beginning its activities.

Under the cover of night, Greavard knew very well that the probability of its small body being discovered was extremely low, not to mention that Greavard possessed the innate ability of Ghost-type Pokémon to conceal its aura.

Looking at the golden items piled up "like a mountain" around itself, Greavard's eyes glowed slightly; it had already begun longing for the future when it would collect all 999 gold coins and evolve into the legendary existence among its kind!

"Ding~!"

Leaning against its most precious gold coin, Greavard cupped its cheeks as its consciousness slowly sank into a wonderful, beautiful dream.

"Woof!"

Just then, a somewhat distorted bark coming from far away caused Greavard to open its eyes.

A look of panic flashed in Greavard's eyes; its intuition and senses were all telling it that an unpleasant fellow was coming near.

The aura was undoubtedly that of its own kind, another Ghost-type Pokémon; according to Greavard's experience, since it was currently daytime, Ghost-type Pokémon like itself shouldn't be active at all.

Forcing down the urge to make a sound, Greavard looked left and right, finally hugging its most standard gold coin as it moved to the location where it stored its collected items, carefully hiding its body and the gold coin inside, hoping not to be discovered.

(End of Chapter)