Bck Knight of Paldea

  Chapter 2

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  Discimer: Do not own anything.

  ****BKP***

  June 25, 198 - Medali

  Caln sighed with resignation, fanciful flights of imagination about challenging God aside, he had more important things to do right now.

  “Dee.” He called out while rubbing his temples.

  There was a blue fsh and another Pokémon, one that looked remarkably like DeeDee, only this one had horns that gently sloped upwards, fur that made him look like a little butler with a perpetual little frown, promptly appeared by his side with an elegant little bow.

  “Ee?” the little Emotion Pokémon asked.

  “Can you help me pce an order for four more berry blending machines and at least two hundred full sets of berries?” Caln muttered, thinking about how he needed to test out how exactly his system worked.

  “Dee?” The male Indeedee looked a little taken aback, “Dee dee?”

  “Yes, two hundred. I know we pn to pnt berry trees, but those won’t be ready for harvesting any time soon. Hell, we won’t even be able to start pnting before we’re done renovating this pce anyway, and that will take at least a few months.” Caln affirmed with some amused resignation at the fact that he about to spend a significant amount of money on Berries when he was supposed to making money from Berries.

  The raven-haired man paused as something else occurred to him, “Please include an inquiry for a complete set of kitchen equipment as well. Prioritize equipment to make Poffins, Pokepuffs and Masadas.”

  The butler Pokémon bowed again with affirmation and disappeared with another blue fsh to send a letter out by Squawkabilly to the shops in Mesagoza. It wasn’t that Medali didn’t have the equipment he was looking for, but Mesagoza was bound to have a better selection and at better prices too, even after accounting for the cost of additional transportation.

  Thinking about it now, he couldn’t really be bmed for not activating whatever his system was until now.

  Berry blending machines cost an atrocious 1 million Pokedolrs a pop st he checked, and they weren’t exactly popur in Gar where he had spent most of his travels. It was mostly a Hoenn thing if he remembered correctly.

  As far as he knew, only specialty dessert shops or breeder stores in Gar had them, and while those weren’t 1 million poke dolrs expensive, they weren’t cheap either.

  Plus, as a simple trainer on a budget, he had been satisfied as long as he and his Pokémon had enough to eat and weren’t malnourished, so he simply never had a chance to make one till he found that one old and dusty berry blending machine that had been left behind by the previous owner of the house.

  So, it absolutely wasn’t his fault.

  Nope.

  Not at all.

  If Arceus wanted him to activate this stupid thing sooner, maybe that stupid horse should’ve sent him a sign or something rather than let him blindly wander around for so long.

  From there, the next question was, if his system had been activated for Poke blocks, did that mean it was limited to those food items from the game?

  As far as he remembered, Poke blocks, Poffins and Pokepuffs didn’t really differ all that much in-game. Generally, they just buffed Contest stats, like Beauty or Coolness, and increased Pokémon affection, unlike what he had seen earlier.

  He was quite curious to see if there was any difference when he made them once he got his hands on some equipment. The kitchen in this stuffy little cabin was equipped with the basics, but st he checked, it hadn’t included equipment like ovens for Poffins, Pokepuffs or a deep fry machine for Masadas.

  The next thing on his agenda were Curry and Sandwiches…

  Sure, he wasn’t a particurly skilled chef or anything, but he had most definitely cooked more than his fair share of food during his eight years of travel, and he had never seen it activate till now, and he was absolutely, utterly sure he had made those at least once or twice before.

  Especially sandwiches, but there hadn’t been any notifications back then, to say nothing about the variety of dishes avaible in Paldea and had buff effects in the game itself.

  Either way, the first two were easy enough for him to confirm with the equipment and ingredients he had on hand, and he pnned to try it out ter to see if there was any difference now that his system had activated.

  At the very least, it was worth checking out.

  Anyway, there was nothing else he could do about that fucking thing until everything arrived, so he gnced at the small mountain of letters sitting on the coffee table in front of him.

  Sighing again, he began to shuffle through them with a slight frown.

  After the first few useless flyers and greeting cards of the “Welcome-to-the-neighbourhood!” variety, he found a soil analysis report.

  Bout fucking time this thing arrived.

  He had sent samples of the soil around the estate to the b in Mesagoza nearly a week ago. It had been the first thing he had done the moment he arrived.

  He gnced through the report, noticing that it didn’t tell him anything he didn’t already know about the “ranch” his parents had brought for him, soil was mainly cy, some sand, very damp, yada, yada, yada, though Caln made a mental note to call his elder brother and ask for his opinion as well.

  After shuffling through a few more pointless bills and letters, his dark onyx eyes brightened as they nded on an officious looking letter with Medali’s symbol on it.

  Opening the letter confirmed that he had finally received the permit he had been waiting for from the city’s administration office that would allow him to begin the renovations he had mentioned to Indeedee earlier and start fencing off the estate.

  Then once that was done, he could finally let his Pokémon out of their balls to roam around while he pnted berries and other stuff.

  “DeeDee! Dee! I’m going out for a while. I should be back by evening.” Caln shouted as he briskly packed away the soil analysis reports into a briefcase and began to put his on coat to go out.

  “Dee!” The female Indeedee called back reassuringly from the kitchen while her partner merely grunted from the back of the cabin where he had been fastidiously cleaning.

  Swapping his indoor walking stick for an outdoor umbrel/walking stick, Caln grimaced briefly as he stepped out of the door and promptly felt the afternoon Summer sun hit him full in the face.

  His inner NEET roared at him to curl back up in a nice dark corner and Caln was tempted to acquiesce, but his OCD beat his inner NEET back into submission, so Caln could only square his shoulders and sigh as he released one his Pokémon from its Poke ball.

  A dark shadow loomed over him as the red fsh faded away, “COR!” and an absolutely massive, armoured crow cheerfully greeted him.

  The raven-haired man smiled faintly as he returned the enthusiastic greeting by patting the crow’s armoured chest, “Time to go to Medali for a bit. You still remember the way?”

  The crow animatedly rolled its eyes as if to ask if he was looking down on it.

  Caln just grinned weakly and climbed on to the Corviknight’s back before it took off with a great fp of wings.

  The journey to Medali took about 30 minutes by Air Corviknight, and Caln took the opportunity to “enjoy” the sun.

  By the time he arrived in Medali, it was already mid-afternoon and swelteringly hot, and he was already soaked with sweat under the coat. Thanks to his complete inability to tan, his bedraggled hair and sweaty, pasty white cheeks, he was pretty sure he currently looked like a gender confused Hex Maniac trying to make a run for it from the nearest mental hospital.

  Like most other Garians, and unlike his past life, he really didn’t do well with the heat.

  It was almost enough for him to regret coming to Paldea entirely.

  Patting his trusty mount again as thanks for the ride, Caln hurriedly returned Corviknight to his Poke ball and sprinted to the nearest bit of shade as fast as he could without trying to look like he was sprinting.

  After a moment to cool down and catch his breath, he trotted off to the only construction firm in town. Medali was indeed the biggest town in the Area Three, but thanks to the weather and the popution, there wasn’t really much need for construction, hence his limited options.

  He would have preferred to get a contractor from Mesagoza, but the distance and transportation of manpower and materials tripled, if not quadrupled the price compared to price of the berries and cooking equipment he wanted earlier.

  Thankfully, the construction firm’s office was air conditioned, and Caln heaved a relieved sigh the moment he stepped inside.

  The young woman sitting at the receptionist’s counter could only crack a smile at his obvious relief as she eyed him from top to bottom. The strange man who had walked in to her office looked… in a word, exhausted.

  Big eye circles, messy hair, sunken cheeks, pasty skin all pointed to someone who preferred the indoors.

  All that contrasted with his upright posture, firm shoulders and lean build went well with his meticulously fit coat, tucked in shirt, ironed pants and clean dress shoes that spoke of someone who was well trained and disciplined despite the walking stick / umbrel thing he was holding in his right hand.

  Strangely, he reminded her of a younger Larry, the Gym Leader of Medali.

  The strange man was even carrying a briefcase tucked under one arm just like Larry did.

  “Not from around here, eh?” She offered with some sympathy.

  Well trained or not, he clearly wasn’t used to the heat.

  “Gar.” Caln shrugged as he took his own closer look at the young woman.

  She looked slightly older than him, but he wasn’t entirely certain because the pin but professional white blouse and her dark brown hair tied into a neat ponytail gave her that cssic OL look that contrasted with the slight spray of freckles across the bridge of her nose.

  “Ah.” The young dy acknowledged sagely, “Most of us here learn to just deal with the head eventually.”

  Caln nodded at that, “I’m Caln Wayne,” He introduced himself brusquely, “Is there anyone I can speak to about some work I would like done at my home?”

  The young woman perked up, “Wayne? The guy who bought the old orchard up north?”

  “That’s me.” The raven-haired man returned a stiff, not quite friendly, smile, “You’ve heard of me?”

  “Not a lot of people rushing to move in around here, and I already know all the other orchard owners.” The young woman observed dryly before introducing herself with a business-like tone, “Anyway, I’m Kelly, the owner’s daughter. What do you need done up there?”

  “I’m currently living in a cabin that was already built there.” The raven-haired young man expined, “I’m not sure if it’s better to demolish it entirely and rebuild something with a little more space or just expand the cabin as it is.”

  Kelly frowned as she tried to remember the cabin in question, “Depends on how much space you want,” she said slowly, “And how you pn to arrange the orchard.”

  Caln paused to consider his options, “Do you have any temptes or options I can take a look at?”

  Kelly brushed her dark brown hair back with a nod and efficiently began pulling catalogues out from under the counter, “We’ve got brick houses, shop lots, cabins, vils, mansions, even office buildings if you have enough space for that one. Feel free to take a look. Once you’ve decided on the overall look you want, we can customize from there.”

  Caln gnced at the catalogues with some interest, “Do you also have catalogues for other buildings? Like pces to keep Miltanks, Wooloo, and hens, that sort of stuff?”

  The young woman stiffened slightly and squinted at him dubiously, “You seriously thinking of starting a ranch up here?”

  Caln could only smile helplessly at the question, “That was the original pn, but I guess that that’s not a very not a common option around here?”

  “Weather is shit, soil is shit and It’s humid as shit.” Kelly replied bluntly, so bluntly that Caln had to blink, “Animals might work, but you’ve got your work cut out for you. The weather means you need to cut a lot of hay and buy feed to keep them fed whenever it rains. Which it does. A lot. Messes with the animals quite a bit too, cos they get depressed when they can’t graze and that reduces the quality of the wool and milk.” Kelly just shrugged with a somewhat apologetic grin, “So… we do know how to build the basics, but if you want the good stuff, you’ll need the guys with proper experience from Porto Marinada, Cortondo, Los Ptos or Cabo Poco”

  Caln nodded at that, it was more or less what he had expected, “Pn B was to pnt Berries. Lots of berries. And whatever else I could fit.”

  The young woman who was slightly shorter than him nodded at that, “We’ve got some Berry orchards around, but those are practically the only stuff that grows around here. Because of that, it’s kinda hard to make any profit out of just Berries, and it’s not like they weren’t already pretty cheap to buy in bulk.” She pointed out bndly, and then hesitated for a moment before continuing, “Look, I’m not trying to discourage you or anything, but the st guy who owned your pce did exactly that and gave up before he even hit the 6-month mark because he was losing money faster than he made it. Last I heard, he couldn’t wait to sell the pce to recoup his losses.”

  “It’s fine.” Caln brushed it off, “Money wasn’t really my objective anyway. I make more than enough just sitting around.”

  Kelly blinked at that before giving him a sly grin, “Oh really? You don’t happen to be looking for a dy for the house as well, would you?”

  “I’ll let you know when I do start looking.” Caln countered with a straight face.

  “Pity.” Kelly just clicked her tongue with some amusement, “So? Why’d you end up in this dump, stuck between a massive ke, a snowy mountain and a gigantic crater?”

  “You don’t think I chose to come here myself?” Caln quirked an eyebrow at the question.

  “Please.” Kelly scoffed, “If you had the money and just wanted to py farm life, you wouldn’t have picked this pce. The nd here is probably one of the cheapest around Paldea because it’s such a shithole. The only pce cheaper is within the Great Crater itself, and that’s purely because you’d need be to be a Champion level trainer to even survive in there. So, if I were you, I would’ve gone straight to Cabo Poco. Frankly, if we didn’t have Larry around, no one would even bother to stop by here.”

  Caln nodded subconsciously; he agreed with that assessment entirely.

  Even in game, he couldn’t remember this area very well.

  He just beat Larry like a drum and promptly went somewhere else.

  “They were even desperate enough to try and make this pce some sort of tourist trap for people heading towards Lake Casseroya or Mount Gseado.”

  Caln tilted his head curiously, “That sounds somewhat reasonable. Didn’t it work?”

  Kelly just shrugged again, “They’re pretty and all, but neither of them are exactly civilized. Plenty of wild Pokémon live in or around both areas and the League doesn’t have enough idiots willing to be stationed there long term to maintain public safety. Ultimately, the only people heading there are trainers, and those guys don’t stay around here for long anyway.

  “That’s a fair point.” Caln admitted with a sigh. Looking down, he tapped on the catalogues Kelly had offered to him, “Do you mind if I take a minute to look through these?”

  Kelly waved him off zily, “Just take ‘em home and come back once you’ve made up your mind. No rush if you’re pnning to stay anyway.”

  “it’s okay, I won’t take long.” Caln replied firmly as he began rapidly flipping through the catalogues.

  Kelly just looked at the man strangely but left to make a cup of tea for him anyway.

  When she returned, her eyes twitched at the sight of him already sitting there with the catalogues neatly piled up next to him, leaving 3 of them still open in front of him.

  “No way.” Kelly breathed out in disbelief, “I wasn’t even gone 5 minutes, and you’re already done?”

  Caln just shrugged, “Like I said, I don’t really have a choice. Besides, as long as the minimum standards are met, I don’t really care about the specifics. If I need anything more ter, I can just come back and give you more business.”

  As if to prove his words, he turned the 3 catalogues around and pointed, “One two floor cabin with 5 rooms and 3 bathrooms, one extra-rge Hoenn style open space dojo, one two floor mansion.”

  “…???”

  “… What?”

  “… Are you telling me to pick one for you or something???”

  “No, I want all 3. The cabin in the middle, the dojo on the left, the mansion on the right.”

  “…???”

  “… Why do you keep looking at me like that?”

  “… Do you think these are cabbages or something?” The bewildered woman spluttered, “If you count all 3 of them together, they’re at least 10 million poke dolrs. And that’s not even counting the furniture.”

  “I know.” Caln replied with a completely straight face.

  Kelly whistled lowly, “… You really weren’t joking about not being worried bout money huh? Fess up, you got kicked out of the royal family or something?”

  Caln couldn’t help but snort incredulously at that, “Royal family?”

  “I mean, look at it from my perspective.” Kelly replied with a gossipy glint in her dark brown eyes as she leaned in conspiratorially, “Some cute young man from Gar comes waltzing in with plenty of money to throw around, clearly doesn’t have a clue about what he’s doing here but is going to stay anyway. Too young to be some sort of reclusive researcher or retired trainer, probably means the money is from his family. I don’t know much bout Gar, but I think everyone’s heard about their royalty right? Too much money by half and not even a lick of sense. And anyone who can randomly point at 3 buildings to build no matter the cost, clearly doesn’t have much of anything that could even remotely be considered common sense, no matter how much money you were willing to burn.”

  Caln felt like he should be offended, but he could only make a resigned chuckle at the young woman’s deduction, “Don’t worry, I’m no royal, but you’re not wrong about the retired trainer part. I just lucked into some money while I was crawling around in the mud.”

  “I was a trainer too. I remember the mud crawling, sure, Graduated top ten from Naranja Academy even, but the millions? Nada.” Kelly grumbled half-jokingly, half out of serious envy.

  She wasn’t dumb enough not to notice the way he refused to answer directly, but as far as first impressions went, the young man in front of her seemed nice and approachable enough despite his exhausted demeanour, sunken eyes, dark circles and gaunt cheeks, that she didn’t feel like pressing too much on their first meeting.

  Besides, she had completely lost her motivation to work for the rest of the day for some strange reason.

  The two of us were trainers, how come I’m here wiping up after my dad while this guy can throw 10 million poke dolrs at random people for fun?

  “I’ll let my dad know. He’ll come by and take the measurements based on the designs you selected. Once we’ve tabled everything up. We’ll draw up a contract with the exact amounts before we start work, that good with you?” She squinted at him.

  “Is it possible to include fencing for the entire property?” The raven-haired young man questioned.

  Kelly just sighed and listlessly added another thing to her calendar, “Sure, sure. I’ll let my dad know. You two can decide on what kind of fencing you want when you talk to him. Build a goddamn moat for all I care.”

  She had already given up on making any sense with this guy.

  Besides, if he was here to stay, there would be plenty of time to gossip/ grill him ter on, she decided.

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