"Mail delivery straight to the door already?"
Silas was genuinely surprised. He had asked about this before, but due to a lack of manpower, the Delibird Courier Company hadn't offered such a service at the time.
"Deli Deli~"
Delibird explained enthusiastically. It turned out that a new batch of Delibird trained by the company had recently graduated, significantly expanding their workforce, which finally made this service possible.
"Then that's perfect. Please help me register," Silas said at once.
With Delibird coming by daily to pick up and deliver mail, he would no longer need to make a trip to the Pokémon Center every few days.
When Silas left, he was holding a compact little mailbox. Its surface was coated with a special type of paint that Delibird could spot from high up in the sky, ensuring no deliveries would be missed.
Once installed in front of the ranch house, Delibird would come by every day to collect and deliver letters, making things much more convenient for him.
With that matter settled, Silas and Cyclizar headed together to Siebold's restaurant.
"Teacher Silas, what brings you here today?"
Siebold warmly invited him to sit. After greeting Blastoise, Silas's attention was drawn to the dish Siebold placed in front of him.
"This is…?"
"Oh, this?" Siebold explained with a smile. "It's a new dish I've been developing. It uses Slowpoke tail, Blastoise and the others absolutely love it."
"Blas~toise!"
Blastoise nodded and flashed an honest, satisfied smile.
Silas watched as it speared a piece with its fork and placed it into its mouth, immediately showing an expression of pure enjoyment.
Siebold handed Silas a clean small fork. "Want to try it? The flavor's quite good. Even Gyarados loves it, your Popplio will definitely enjoy it too."
"I'll give it a try," Silas said.
He picked up a piece and tasted it. The texture was surprisingly springy and tender, with a sweet-and-sour sauce wrapping around the slices of tail meat.
At first bite, all he could taste was the sauce.
But after chewing for a moment, the unique natural sweetness of the Slowpoke tail blended with the sauce in his mouth, creating a remarkably pleasant flavor.
"It's delicious! Especially the sauce, it's really distinctive," Silas commented.
Just as he finished speaking, Cyclizar shoved its head in, resting its forelegs on the table while its tail swished back and forth excitedly.
"Cyclizar wants some too?"
"Cyc!"
Seeing Cyclizar's greedy expression, Silas could only sigh helplessly and feed it a slice.
After chewing twice, Cyclizar gave a very ordinary reaction. It clearly didn't find the taste nearly as amazing as Blastoise did.
Siebold chuckled and didn't take offense, instead explaining, "The sauce I make uses ingredients favored by Water-type Pokémon. It's normal if Cyclizar doesn't like it."
Hearing this, Silas's eyes instantly lit up. Wasn't this exactly what he had been searching for—ingredients suitable for Water-type Pokémon?
"Siebold, do you still have some of this sauce? I want to make dishes that Popplio and Phione would like," Silas asked.
"Yes, yes, of course," Siebold replied knowingly. "Wait here a moment."
Before long, Siebold returned, carrying several additional special ingredients.
"This here is a claw shed by a Clauncher. The meat inside is exceptionally tender—perfect for Water-type Pokémon that are still growing."
"These are Slowpoke tails, you should try using them too, Silas."
"And this kind of seaweed grows deep on the ocean floor. The Grimer line loves eating it. It's best consumed fresh—once it rots, it produces toxins."
Three kinds of ingredients, all of them looking excellent.
The Clauncher claw could be steamed with minced garlic, the Slowpoke tail paired with other seafood for a mixed platter, and the seaweed turned into a fresh seaweed soup.
Just looking at them, Silas already had cooking methods in mind, and he was confident the results wouldn't be bad.
However, taking them for free didn't sit right with him. After thinking for a moment, Silas took out a Passho Berry from his spatial backpack to exchange.
[Passho Berry: A special Berry. When held by a Pokémon, it weakens the power of super-effective Water-type moves used against it.]
Seeing the Passho Berry, Siebold who had initially wanted to refuse—nodded and accepted the trade.
Thus, both of them obtained exactly what they needed.
After chatting casually for a while longer, Silas noticed it was getting late and finally took his leave, mounting Cyclizar and racing back to the ranch at top speed.
He wondered whether the little ones had behaved themselves and stayed indoors.
Creak—
The sudden sound of the door opening rang out as Silas and Cyclizar returned.
The moment he looked up, he saw all the Pokémon turning toward him at once.
"Min!!"
Minccino was the first to dash over, throwing itself into Silas's arms and burrowing into his embrace.
It rubbed against him repeatedly, its tiny paws gripping the corner of his clothes tightly, cheeks puffed out as it complained that Silas hadn't taken it along.
"Alright, alright—next time for sure," Silas coaxed gently.
After asking Cyclizar to carry the ingredients into the kitchen, Silas sat on the sofa with Minccino in his arms, pressing his cheek against its soft, fluffy belly, making the little one giggle uncontrollably.
Once Minccino was soothed, he looked toward the other Pokémon.
All three Meowth were at home. Alolan Meowth was curled up on the carpet napping, Galarian Meowth was restlessly sharpening its claws, and the regular Meowth was playing with a ball of yarn.
Morpeko was sprawled on one corner of the small sofa, sleeping soundly. Silas scooped it up into his arms and began kneading and rubbing it vigorously.
He even pried open its mouth to take a look—its front teeth had finally grown in, revealing a rice-grain-sized pointed tip.
"Your incisors are coming in!"
"Morpe!"
Morpeko beamed with joy, pulling out a roasted Berry seed from its pouch and holding it up high, asking Silas whether it could eat it now.
"Nope," Silas shook his head and explained patiently. "They've only just started growing. You'll have to wait a few more days."
"Mor~peko…"
Dejected, Morpeko put the snack away and flopped listlessly in Silas's arms, not wanting to move at all.
Nearly two weeks without proper snacking had clearly changed Morpeko.
The most obvious change was that it had slimmed down noticeably, and it was low-energy every day.
Still, it was manageable for now. Just one or two more days—once its incisors grew a bit longer, it could start chewing on some harder snacks.
Setting Morpeko aside, Silas opened his arms and caught Phione as it flew toward him.
Sure enough, in the middle of summer, nothing was better than hugging this little one—it was cool to the touch.
After comforting all the Pokémon gathered around him, he asked whether they were hungry.
All of them shook their heads. Kangaskhan had just given them Pokéblocks, and they weren't hungry at all.
"Alright then, I'll cook later," Silas said.
Calling Dolliv over, he placed it on the counter.
Silas began preparing dishes suitable for Popplio and Phione, the two Water-type Pokémon.
The large Clauncher claw had to be scrubbed thoroughly inside and out with a brush. He minced some garlic, drizzled olive oil over it for seasoning, and placed it all on a plate before setting it into the steamer.
With a claw this big, there was no need for complicated techniques—simple steaming was enough.
The only extra needed was a dipping sauce. The sauce Siebold had prepared worked perfectly; adding a bit of olive oil was enough to bring out a fresh, savory flavor.
While waiting, Silas processed the other two ingredients.
A pot of seaweed and egg drop soup, and a seafood platter featuring Slowpoke tail.
One after another, information about the three completed dishes appeared before his eyes.
(End of Chapter)