I entered the living room together with my mother and saw my father sitting there patiently waiting for us with a small smile. My mother sat down beside him and I went to sit on the armchair so that I was kind of facing the two.
Kind of, because the armchair was on the right side of the coach and not directly across it. Anyway, I looked at the two and waited a bit for them to speak up.
"Son, while you were up there doing whatever you are doing up there on your lonesome," he teased me a bit, which made me groan, "your mother and I had a talk."
Since I was ahead of the rest of my regular peers biological maturity-wise, my next maturity a few months ago, more like half a year, made me look like 16/17 years old instead of a 10/11-year-old. That came together with something I would have liked to avoid like forever.
Because I was not going to school and could not get the necessary education from there, even if that was not even part of the elementary school curriculum, my parents saw it fit to explain to me the birds and the bees.
They took great joy and amusement out of seeing my embarrassment to the detailed explanation on the difference between boys and girls. On the feelings, I was most likely to encounter now that my body was ready to produce certain hormones.
I was not embarrassed by the stuff they were talking about but by the fact that I had to actually go through the event in the first place. Anyway, since then my father has taken to teasing me, his yet to be 8 years old son.
I might look like 16 and might be pretty mature, due to my circumstance and in their eyes due to my aura and psychic abilities. You know I was going to say that it was still wrong to tease one's 8-year-old child, but I kinda took the wind out of my own sails with my arguments.
I was physically 16 and my mental age as far as they were concerned matched or even surpassed that, so there was nothing wrong with teasing me. Damn it, I still hated it even if it was within his parental rights. Anyway, back to what he said.
"Okay. You talked, that's great. Communication is key, after all. I'm sure mom will forgive whatever you managed to mess up dad." I teased him right back, which made my mother laugh and my father grumble.
"Not that kind of talk. I didn't do anything wrong." He denied and I just had to add "this time" after he said that.
That actually made him chuckle a bit as well, but he turned serious pretty quickly.
"Okay, let's stop with the quips. Your mother and I talked for a bit and decided that we, as a family, are going to visit Rota on Kyoday. We'll stay there for the weekend and the following week to look around for a place you can live in during your time at the academy." He said and my mother nodded.
"What about the dormitories? I thought I was going to stay there?" I asked because that's what I had honesty been expecting.
"We know that you would have felt uncomfortable with that arrangement due to being unable to let out all your Pokemon. So, we decided that we should just get you a place of your own. Mind you, we'll rent it, not buy it, with the money we insisted on putting aside for you." My mom began answering my question before she suddenly stopped and looked at my father.
"Actually, why don't we just directly buy the place. He has a few million sitting around in that account, so buying a place would be no problem. This way he won't have to consider the opinion of the owner whenever he wants to do something with the place, besides it could be considered a good investment having a place in the city with the global Aura Guardian HQ." She consulted with my father, who seemed to consider the question.
"We'll have to take a look at the available places and their prices both rental and buy-out first before making a decision. If the owner is willing to sell in the first place, but it is certainly possible." He replied to my mother, before turning towards me.
"That's not only so that you don't have to hide your Pokemon or feel constricted, it's also so that your mother and I have a place to stay whenever we decide to visit you on a weekend." Dad continued and I had reflexively tilted my head in doubt.
You just get used to doing some things if you do them too often, so let's ignore my manly gesture of handsomeness. It still had the intended effect of my father answering my unasked question.
Even if he had to stifle a chuckle before he did so, which my mother didn't bother with by the way since she was giggling at my handsome and definitely not adorable gesture.
"Yeah, did you think that just because you're going to stay in Rota during your time at the academy, we would see each other only during the holidays? Please, there's no way that would happen. We would visit you at least once every month or two on the weekends." He said as if he was stating a fact like water is wet.
"Yep, we would have visited even if you stayed at the dorms. We would have simply booked a hotel or motel room for a night or two. There's no way I would wait for the holidays to see my baby boy. That would mean I would have to wait 4 to 5 months at a time. Nope, that's too long." My mother said, which made me smile a bit at her motherly indignation.
"Okay, got it. We're going to Rota in 3 days to look for a place for me to stay." I expressed my understanding and my parents nodded satisfied with acknowledgment.
"Right. Your father also wants to tell you something." Mom said before she nudged my father who released a sigh before he started talking/explaining.
"So, let me get this straight. Grandpa Clayton used to be part of a medium-sized clan/family called George Family, that occasionally produced ground/earth elementalists and strong ground-type specialists.
However, due to his lack of talent as either a trainer or with ground energy, he decided to leave the clan or whatever after his parents died in a mission or something. Did I get that right?"
I asked my parents while recapping what my father told me.
"Grandpa Clayton then changed his surname from George to Geo." Here I paused to shoot my father a "are you for real" look, and he nodded mortified. I just decided to proceed with my recap.
"He then left Sienna City and settled in Hope Town, got married, had you, and then the tide happened. However, the George Family sent no one to help out despite (probably) knowing of you guys were living here and that a Pokemon Tide was happening." I stopped again and received another nod.
"Your parents died, mom's as well, and you were orphaned. However, no one from the George family came to claim you and you landed in the orphanage." Another pause and another nod.
"You got older, started your journey together with mom, and due to your talent, and enormous luck," I whispered the last part, "you started to become well known as a strong newcomer. Somehow the George family got wind of your promising situation/future and send someone to you." I looked over and my father just signaled me to keep going.
"They offered to take you in, but you declined because you didn't like their tone, conditions especially about leaving mom, and the past with our direct family. After a few denials, they seemed I accept your refusal, but you did not fully trust them, which is why you decided to lay low for a while.
So, you two returned to Hope Town until you thought grass grew over the whole thing while still slowly getting stronger through regular training. You're currently strong enough or rather your trainer-class is high enough that messing with us in a violent manner won't really be worth it.
That's because the military/alliance would investigate the situation due to Expert-class trainers counting as strategic resources that can get called up in case of urgent close by emergencies." I paused once again and my dad gave me a smug nod that seemed to say "do you see how important I am".
"You just decided to tell me about them in case they got wind of my talents and decided to approach to sucker me into joining the family since you were sure they would just use me. You wanted me to know that we do not acknowledge any connection to them in case they decided to use the "familial" connection to trick me into something." I finished my recap and he nodded happily.
"Yeah, that's pretty much sums up everything I told you." He confirmed, as this time I was the one who nodded.
"Sure, I'll ignore/decline them if they show up. You said they or rather no one would dare to try anything while I was a student but particularly inside or near Rota, so I guess me ignoring/declining them should close the topic." I said while connecting the dots on why I had such a high talent with ground types/energy.
I turned to my mom, who had been quietly listening to us talk the whole time.
"So, mom. Any clans/families I should know of on your part of the family?" I inquired in humor, even if I was actually semi-serious about the question.
They both had to laugh at that, and my mother shook her head while answering me with a bit of mirth.
"Nope, not that I know of. My family was just a normal one." She said and I nodded at that.
"Alrighty then! Is there anything else you want to tell me?" I question the two and they deny it. We simply talk about our trip to Rota a bit more before I go up for the night.
Palkiday, as well as Dialday, pass pretty quickly and before we know it it's Kyoday and time for our trip. Our luggage was safely stored inside our bags of holding of the Silph.Co brand, so we had no extra luggage to carry around.
We asked Xatu to teleport us to Pewter City and from there my father had booked a teleportation straight to Rota City, specifically to South Rota City.
For you see, Rota City was apparently unique on the continent, because it could theoretically be viewed as 4 cities in one. To picture this, you have to imagine a pretty large lake, about 150-160 km² in size, with a ~20-25 km² landmass in the center that has a big castle on it. That castle is Cameron Castle.
Now, imagine 4 super-long bridges going from the landmass in the lake center towards the lake shores, one for each cardinal direction. Now, add a medium-sized city at each bridge end and you get Rota City, the city that consists of 4 cities.
Since everyone seemed to be so creative the 4 districts/cities were called South Rota, North Rota, West Rota, and East Rota. The Global Aura Guardian HQ and Aaron (Aura) Academy were located in South Rota, while the regions (Rota) Ranger HQ was located in North Rota.
Then there was the Knights Academy in West Rota because Knights as a "profession" were apparently still a thing in certain parts of the "human" world, and East Rota had the other elemental academies. So, all parts of the city had a protector/(s).
This was partly necessary and good because the gap between the city parts/districts was filled mostly by "wild" a forest. All academies used those areas for training purposes. The safety of the cities/districts was ensured by walls.
Anyway, once it was time for our appointment a gold-stage Alakazam teleported us straight to the Teleport Hub in South Rota City. From there we took a cab straight to the hotel my father booked a room at, to check in.
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IMPORTANT NOTE!!!! PLEASE READ!!!!
I have to make an announcement.
The first week of February is going to have updates as usual, but I have to take a break from writing for 2 weeks, from 07.02.22 until 20.02.22, due to having to focus on college exams and writing said exams.
Upload schedule will resume from 21.02.22 depending on the situation of Patreon (either 5 or 6 chapters depending on whether the first goal is still fulfilled or not).
As I said I won't have any time to write during that time so those 2 weeks will be considered as void (no make-up chapters).
Those that still want to become Patrons despite that, a heartfelt thank you. Those that don't want to do so, that's okay as well. Either way you have been informed by me on the upcoming situation in February.
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Thank you for reading.
This is chapter 1/6 for this week.
6 chapters this week as well because of the 2 weeks break that is coming.
Those that want access up to 5 advance chapters can find them on my patre*on. Sketches, drawings of the MC, Variants and maps can be found on my Patre’on.
If my second patre*on goal is reached the weekly release rate will be increased to 7 and 2 Bonus chapters will be released.
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