The cheers swept across Hammerlocke and did not stop. Below the fortress walls, farmers with tear-streaked faces waved thin fists in the air. Miners who had never known a free morning shouted until their voices broke.
Former conscripts stood with wet eyes. They understood: no more hunger, no more rags, no more someone standing over them and taking everything they had earned. Their own land. Their own lives.
Lucien raised his hand from the high platform and the noise gradually settled.
"From today, the Pokémon League is the governing authority of Galar." His voice reached every corner of the gathered crowd. "I appoint Chelsea as the League's first Chief Administrator, responsible for overall governance and legislation. All old royal documents are to be burned. A new code of laws will be established. Its two foundations are justice and coexistence."
Below, Chelsea straightened and replied without hesitation. "Your Majesty, I will not fail your trust."
In the days that followed, Lucien did not remain on any throne. He took Calyrex across the borderlands, using its fertile power to restore fields ruined by the war's aftermath and ensure that the food shortage did not worsen.
He visited the factories of Wyndon alongside the workers, adjusting machinery and establishing a wage system that rewarded effort.
He disguised himself and walked through the markets of the farming towns, listening to merchants and vendors talk about the new tax-free arrangement, noting every detail that still needed work.
The sky over Galar was clearer than it had been in a long time.
New problems arrived in the same breath as the peace.
The old royal authority was gone, but its foundations were not. Stubborn old noble families had simply changed their methods. In certain areas, they embezzled the League's grain allocations, continued to oppress common people, and used the uncertainty of the transition period to stir discontent and plot a restoration.
One morning in the Slumbering Town council chamber, a messenger arrived from one of the outlying towns, his face pale and his breathing short.
"Your Majesty! The mayor of the town has colluded with local wealthy merchants to embezzle the League's grain distribution. Farmers who refused to surrender their land have been forced into labor. The people are furious!"
Chelsea's hand came down on the table. "Your Majesty has just issued the decree. They dare to do this already?"
"Allow me to take troops and deal with it personally."
Lucien set down his pen. He was not surprised. The mountains and old noble networks of that area had always been resistant. He nodded.
"I leave it to you, Chelsea."
"Yes, Your Majesty."
He stood and walked to the map. "Take a delegation with you: citizens from other towns and Pokémon Trainers. Read the new League laws publicly, and listen to what the people there have to say. As for the mayor and the merchants, handle them according to League law."
Several days later, the delegation arrived at the town. The gates were open, but the usual warmth of recent weeks was absent. Most houses were shut. A guarded quiet hung over the streets.
The mayor and several merchants came to the gate and knelt in welcome, performing the correct gestures of submission while their eyes moved around the group with barely concealed wariness and contempt.
Then the Trainers from the Unova delegation released their Pokémon.
The mayor's expression changed.
Chelsea's assistant, a veteran administrator, placed the documents on the table.
"We are here by order of His Majesty Lucien to verify the grain distribution. The League's decree states that all grain and farming tools are to be distributed directly to the farming households without condition. Why are there still empty farmhouses in this area?"
The mayor sweat and stammered. "This is the town's reserve. For emergencies..."
At that moment, several farmers in worn clothing stepped forward from the crowd: the same families who had been forced into labor. They knelt and spoke plainly, describing everything the mayor and merchants had done.
The crowd understood immediately.
The reserves were theft. The emergency was a lie.
"We want Lord Lucien's justice!"
The anger that broke through was complete and immediate. The mayor and merchants went white before they could react. The surrounding villagers and the Pokémon delegation moved together and the matter was finished before it became worse.
The confiscated grain was returned in full and distributed to every farming household. When Calyrex's fertile power touched the terraced fields, golden grain stood where bare earth had been.
Lucien read the letter of gratitude from the town when it reached Slumbering Castle and let out a slow breath.
The Galar Region was stable in its foundations. Now came the longer work: reforming the old systems, building the League's full structure, and guiding the integration of humans and Pokémon across the entire land.
He knew this work well by now. The method was consistent: give the people knowledge and genuine partnership with Pokémon, let them see what it produced, and they would carry it forward without needing to be told. The role of the League was simply to prevent conflicts during the transition and keep the process moving in the right direction.
Time passed. Several months went by.
It was already early spring of year 154 of the Kingdom Calendar.
Under Lucien and Calyrex's management, and the administration of the newly established Pokémon League, Galar had begun to flourish in ways that would not have seemed possible a year earlier.
In the farming towns, humans and Wooloo lived alongside each other. Local farmers followed the Pokémon breeding guides issued by the League and found that milk and wool production had doubled within a month.
In Wyndon's factories, craftsmen worked with energy and purpose, and the wool goods and carpets coming in from the farming regions were being shipped across the continent.
Hulbury's port had established a formal connection with Unova, merchant ships moving steadily in both directions, the fishing industry developing along with everything else.
Most importantly, the relationship between people and Pokémon had undergone a fundamental shift. Pokémon that had been tools and property were now companions.
Children rode Corviknight through the forests. Old men sat in the sun alongside Oddish. Even the most remote villages had established Pokémon Centers.
And in the south of Hammerlocke, in what had been barren, neglected land, the people of Galar had built a temple to Calyrex, not in the Crown Tundra where legend had once placed it, but here, at the heart of the region it now openly protected.
The temple drew offerings from across the region. Calyrex had been recognized by the people of Galar as the god of agriculture and the true King of Abundance, and the Power of Faith that flowed from that recognition had elevated its strength to something that had no precedent.
One bright morning, Lucien stood on the top floor of the newly built Pokémon League building in Hammerlocke, looking down at the city below. Merchants from across the continent, Galar citizens, and Pokémon of every kind moved through the streets together.
Chelsea stepped forward and presented a thick file.
"Reports from all regions, Your Majesty."
Lucien took it and read through it. The new tax regulations had been implemented without significant resistance. The people were stable. The remaining old noble forces had been dealt with and no longer posed a threat.
The first cohort of administrators and Trainers from Unova had helped establish a functioning governance structure throughout the territory. Pokémon Leagues, Pokémon Centers, factories, all moving forward. In a short time, Galar would stand as the second official Pokémon League region in the world.
Lucien closed the file. A quiet smile crossed his face.
"It's done."
He took a slow breath. "I should return to Unova."
Chelsea went still. "Your Majesty..."
"I leave Galar to you, Chelsea."
Chelsea's eyes went bright. He straightened and bowed. "Yes, Your Majesty."
Before leaving, however, there was one remaining matter: Eternatus.
Its existence was a hidden danger. Left alone, it would awaken eventually, and when it did, the Dynamax energy it released would be uncontrolled and catastrophic. It was better to address it now, before that happened.
Lucien found Hoopa on the rooftop, stretched out in the sun with a pile of donuts. It opened one eye when it heard him approach.
"What do you want?"
Lucien tilted his head. "I remember the first time we met, someone said something very similar to me." He recreated Hoopa's voice and expression from that day with reasonable accuracy. "How dare you! The great Hoopa, coveting human snacks?!"
Hoopa's face flushed at visible speed. It grabbed a donut and threw it at him.
Lucien caught it and took a bite. "How is life here?"
"Hmph." Hoopa turned away.
Lucien did not press it. He could see well enough.
Over the past few months, Hoopa had changed. The initial ferocity had softened considerably. It spent its days in a rhythm it had apparently come to accept: taking donuts from the kitchen, basking in the sun, teasing Lucien and Kyurem when bored.
It could not beat Kyurem, which it had categorized as deeply unfair. Life here was more entertaining than the Kalos town had ever been.
The people did not bow to it as Lord Hoopa, but they brought it snacks without being asked, and sometimes Lucien himself would appear in the kitchen and make fresh donuts and ask about preferences as though this were completely normal behavior.
Hoopa had never in its existence received a gift it had not first demanded or taken by force.
It did not know what to do with that.
It was not going to admit any of this to Lucien.
"Hoopa," Lucien said. "Can you open a passage to the Fertility Temple? I need to speak with Calyrex."
Hoopa snorted, conjured a ring, and opened the passage without getting up.
They went through. Calyrex was at the temple's peak, floating above the structure, looking down at the humans who had come to offer gifts and prayers.
"Lucien. How did you get here?"
"I don't think we should wait for Eternatus to wake on its own," Lucien said. "Can your power locate it now? If we find it while it's still dormant, we can address it before the awakening causes any unnecessary damage."
Calyrex considered this, then nodded. "I'll try."
It closed its eyes. A blue psychic light spread from its body in expanding waves across the land. The earth trembled faintly. The vines outside the temple moved without wind. The life force of the surrounding wilderness gathered and drew inward.
After a long stillness, Calyrex opened its eyes.
"I found it."
"Where?"
Calyrex shared the vision through its psychic power. Lucien saw a barren, desolate stretch of land deep in the Galar interior. Beneath it, Eternatus lay dormant, enormous, still, like something that had been waiting in the dark for a very long time. Even sleeping, it was drawing Galar's energy into itself in a slow, continuous current.
"I see," Lucien said.
Hoopa, crouched nearby with its donut, ears perked. "Eternatus? Sounds powerful. I could just grab it with a ring and throw it into the sea."
"No need," Lucien said. "If Eternatus is startled awake, the Dynamax energy inside it will spiral out of control immediately. All of Galar could be affected." He paused, thinking.
"Though Dynamax itself isn't without value. If it can be managed and directed properly, it could become something Trainers use in battle once the system is mature enough to support it."
...
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