Chapter 43: Sponsorship
'Maybe I would been better alone,' I thought, looking at Amanda angrily throw her harness away before stomping up to me.
After cooling her down, I went into the tent indicated by Celia only to be teleported into a room full of machines.
"Chan..cha," A pink rotund Pokemon waddled up to me and pushed me into a chair.
Not knowing what to do under the expectant gaze of the Chansey I pointed at my swollen wrist, which was concealed by my loose shirt.
The Chansey ran away like it was auditioning for an energy drink ad before returning with a kit and a woman.
"Don't mind me, Chansey can handle minor injuries. I am just here to supervise," the woman said glancing at me with dark brown eyes.
She didn't quite fit in with the official nurse's outfit. Wild green hair cascaded down her head, while green spectacles accentuated her soft features.
She was wearing a white coat different from Nurse's white apron.
The Chansey softly applied a paste to my wrist before neatly bandaging it.
"Thank you," I said to the pink Pokémon, causing it to shyly lower its head before it began to gaze back and forth between me and the egg it was carrying.
The Chansey repeatedly looked between me and the egg, before tearing a small piece and stuffing it into my mouth.
The egg just melted on touching my tongue giving rise to a refreshing feeling course through my body, taking my exhaustion away.
"She was conflicted. That doesn't happen often," the woman murmured.
"Anyways, you are in the main camp. Only trainers with serious injuries or trainers who can't walk are supposed to be teleported here."
"You are free to go, but you should thank whoever your friend in clan Reich is, my guy," she said motioning to a door.
I nodded at that.
I exited the cabin to see that I was back at the camp. Instead of going back to my cabin, I decided to wait for Madlyn as she too would be teleported like me, due to her injury.
"Hmrgh!" someone cleared their throat behind me, making me turn back.
The old man from before was standing behind me, still glaring at me.
'What's his problem?' I thought looking at him.
"Hello!" I greeted him, waving my hand.
"You should stay away from Lady Celia. I will even offer you a sponsorship if you do what I say," he said looking at me with barely concealed loathing.
"Woah! Stop their old man. What's your name again?" I asked, trying to irritate him.
Just because I like to ignore my problems doesn't mean I let people walk over me or dictate what I should do.
This was going to be my first proper confrontation in my whole life if you don't consider my arguments with my parents, still, it didn't mean I was afraid.
More importantly, I was looking forward to using witty insults.
"It doesn't matter. Here, this card contains enough money to buy you a mansion in any city. Take it and agree to never speak with Lady Celia again." He said holding a black card towards me.
Guessing what I was doing, he changed his offer to directly tempt me instead of trying to make me take a verbal agreement on his supposed sponsorship.
I really wanted to take the card and ignore his condition, but I don't know how law enforcement here would react if he accused me of stealing the card after I took the card and spent the money in it.
'Maybe I am too paranoid, but with the recent jackpot, the cons outweigh the pros of taking the card,' I decided.
I gave him a once over raising an eyebrow, not reaching out to take the card.
"Wow! Does Celia know you go around offering her friends money to leave her?" I asked with my most irritating voice.
"You better behave, boy, clan Reich can stop anyone from ever sponsoring you," the butler said raising his voice.
I hugged my body and spoke mockingly.
"Hoo! please don't. You will ruin my dream."
"Are you just stupidly protective of Celia or is it somewhat more sinister? Can't see her talk with a boy. Is that it?" I taunted him.
Veins throbbed in the butler's head at my taunts, but he didn't show his anger outward. Instead, he took a deep breath to calm down and spoke.
"You won't do any more pranks on her and behave with proper decorum when interacting with her."
"Listen!" he shouted when I was going to interrupt him.
"She is going to lead clan Reich one day, I don't want you to distract her from her duties or Mew forbid influence her. I will provide you with whatever you want in your sponsorship," he said looking towards my clothes indicating what he was talking about.
"Shove your sponsorship, where the sun doesn't shine. I will behave what I feel like to when I am with Celia," I said motioning with my fingers to indicate where I wanted him to shove the sponsorship.
"Take this," he said shoving a thick file into my arms.
"Lady Celia pitied you and offered a sponsorship on behalf of clan Reich. I told her showing favouritism would cause dissent among the clan elders, but she didn't listen. You better not disappoint her boy," he said through gritted teeth before walking away.
'Clever old foggy, all along he didn't have any choice other than to give me the sponsorship, but he used this chance to get me to undermine my friendship with Celia. It seems he doesn't want Celia to be friends with me.'
'I thought butlers are supposed to be cunning and manipulative, he wore his emotions on his sleeve. Maybe he is a bodyguard? Or was he testing me?' Many thoughts ran through my mind before I decided to concentrate on the file in my hands.
After reading the whole contract I tossed the file into a dustbin.
The amount was very high, it was a top-tier offer rarely given out to trainers outside of Clan Reich by them.
I get why he was upset, she was offering me a huge amount of money but it was the only good thing in the contract.
I have to undergo many tests by psychics who will evaluate my character.
Everything in my life will be dictated by clan Reich, from what I should wear to the order in which I will attempt the gym challenges.
I am sure that the butler added his own clauses to the contract as sponsors generally don't make their candidates go through etiquette classes.
If that wasn't enough to clue me in that something was wrong with the contract, the clause stating that clan Riech would decide which Pokémon I would catch definitely did.
Celia is too naïve. She just wanted to help me by giving out a high amount of money. But instead of going through the contract herself, she trusted her family to do it. Which they didn't agree to as seen from the weird contract.
'Maybe she believed in her supposed parent figure- the old man. Whatever it's not a loss for me, so who cares,' I thought and continued loitering around the medical cabin, thinking back to my earlier confrontation.
'I should improve my insulting skill too, my supposed witty insults are not witty at all,' I thought cursing my earlier self for not participating in online insult showdowns.
Amanda and Madlyn came from the cabin side by side, with Amanda letting Madlyn lean onto her, surprising me.
"Whoa! How come you are here, Amanda? I thought Madlyn would be the only one coming."
"My Grandfather has many friends in clan Reich, one call was enough to let me accompany the injured Maddy here," Amanda said, proudly, puffing her chest.
"Well, it seems like my help is not required then, I was waiting to see if Madlyn needed help with carrying her luggage to her cabin."
"See guys in the next round," I said before retreating towards my cabin.
Madlyn was not meeting my eyes the whole time I was speaking, most likely embarrassed.
'Maybe I am the weird one for not getting embarrassed and wanting to see Madlyn after what nearly happened,' I thought slowly jogging towards my cabin.
...…
(POV shift- 3rd person)
"Spill it," Amanda spoke, turning towards the blue-haired girl.
"What?" Madlyn asked confused.
"Don't play coy with me. He knows you were injured, and you avoided meeting his gaze the whole time he was here," Amanda said lightly nudging Madlyn's rib.
"In Madlyn speak, your behaviour converts to a girl blushing so hard, that her face looked ready to explode," Amanda spoke in a no-nonsense voice.
"I don't know what you are talking about," Madlyn said, shaking her head.
"But I remember someone so nervous around Leo that she even mentioned the brand of the brush her Charmander likes. When we met him on the first day of the camp," Madyln said with a glint in her eyes.
"You! don't speak nonsense. I just thought that as boys like Charmander line, he would be interested in knowing more about Liza," Amanda said fuming.
"Well, I don't remember you regaling Elizabeth's likes and dislikes to our class boys when we met for exhibition matches after we got our Pokemon." This time it was Madlyn's turn to nudge Amanda in the ribs, making her wince.
"And he looked bored listening to your drivel, too," Madlyn said teasing her friend.
"That's it! if one more word comes out of your mouth, I am leaving you here."
Madlyn's lips lightly rose at that before she became quiet.
They both walked silently towards their cabins before Madlyn spoke.
"You told your grandfather to not let my father know about my injury, right?"
"Of course," Amanda said looking upset at the insinuation that she would make a basic mistake when they knew each other for such a long time.
"What's the use in letting him know, your ankle will be healed by tomorrow morning after you use your medicine," Amanda said in a matter-of-fact tone.
"Maybe we should have given Leon some of our medicine," Madlyn said.
"His injury is minor compared to yours, he will be healed by tomorrow by the basic medicine administered by the adorable Chansey."
Madlyn raised an eyebrow at that.
"What? he is our friend, I asked the green-haired woman about his condition," Amanda said not backing down from Madlyn's judging gaze.
.........
I am 90% sure that there won't be a harem. But we will see, this story's focus is not romance after all.
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