433 CH66 (430), Aftermath

*sigh*

"What a drag," Exeggutor finally said, not letting go of his impassive look. "I got the gist of the events from my escort, so we can save that explanation," Exeggutor declared neutrally before his gaze turned stern.

"I want to finish this up as swiftly as possible, so one of you better start telling me the terms you've agreed upon," Exeggutor finished and Sandslash was once more the one who stepped up.

He began listing everything that was agreed upon between the leaders of the tribes, and he also mentioned that all leaders as well as subleaders would have to be bound to the psychic contract. After Sandslash was done with his report, Exeggutor turned to me.

'Was that everything, or did he leave something out?' Exeggutor asked me telepathically and I nodded before replying telepathically as well.

'Yes, that was everything. At least, as far as the negotiation between the tribe leaders is concerned. I made a personal agreement with the Arbok tribe leader that I would like you to act as a witness to. Though there's no need for a psychic contract for that one, just a warning to follow the agreement should be enough,' I replied while mentioning the personal deal between me and boss Arbok.

Still, I forewent the option to request a psychic contract for us, since I did not want to get into a contract like that through a psychic I did not trust as an intermediary.

I might see no problem with letting Exeggutor act as the intermediary for the "peace" agreement, but that was because I did not have to take part in it myself, or I would have insisted on bringing in an order-approved psychic so that I could have someone I could trust to at least act as a supervisor to ensure that Exeggutor did not try something funny.

Not that I thought that Exeggutor would try something sinister, but I was not willing to take any risks with something as binding as a psychic contract.

Some might think that was hypocritical of me since I was forcing the others into one, but I would reject any such allegations since I was not refusing, but just stipulating that someone from my "side" had to be present in such a situation.

Besides, I even let them go with Exeggutor as the psychic of their choice, so I theoretically gave them a choice. Well, ultimately, I was not part of the contract, so there was no reason for me to worry about all that. Exeggutor's reply closed the subject anyway.

'I'll give him a warning,' Exeggutor assured, before staring at the assembled leaders. From the looks on everyone's faces, I could tell that Exeggutor was telepathically talking to them right now. It did not take long before Exeggutor gave a satisfied nod.

I then saw Arbok briefly flinch, and after that happened Exeggutor gave me a smile along with a nod before leaving/teleporting away. Exeggutor's exit was swiftly followed by the tribe leaders, who followed suit.

Well, they had to gather the bodies of their fallen comrades before that, but once they did that, they left, and aside from Sandslash, they all gave me a dirty look but did not interact with me in any other way before they left along with their tribe members.

Honestly, I found the behavior of the other leaders a bit funny, since it took 15ish minutes before the Linoone as well as Furret tribes were able to leave due to them having to gather their deceased first. I could not help but feel amused, seeing how they acted as if I was not there for the whole thing.

Only Sandslash actually decided to talk to me before leaving, and even that was just him saying "bye". He was actually the first to leave since he had the least number of bodies to retrieve.

Once everyone else had left, and only my Pokemon, as well as the Ekans/Arbok tribe, was left, boss Arbok gave the order for them to move their bodies to the storage, along with the bodies of the Pokemon the other tribes had left behind because they did not belong to one of their tribe members.

I had no illusion as to why they were storing those bodies, but I left it be since it was not really my problem. This too was part of nature and all that jazz. Anyway, while the Ekans were busy with moving bodies I asked boss Arbok to hold up his part of the deal, and he did, even if he looked quite a bit reluctant to do so.

Still, a look at my many Pokemon, that were still hanging around the area, and he called his lieutenants over. They had lost one member during the tide, but there were still 3 gold-stage Arbok, and even though they looked a bit reluctant to follow the command of their boss, I ended up gathering my 2000 ml C-Class Arbok Venom thanks to those three.

By the end of the venom milking, each one of them looked weary as hell, but I knew that they would be good to go once they ate as well as rested for a day or two, and since they just signed a congressional pact, they could do so without any worries. Anyway, once that part was done, he told the other Arbok, to take out the Shed Skins they left inside their nests.

He did not allow me to look for those by myself and I could understand why he did not want me to enter their nests. There was more there than just the Shed Skin after all, and him not wanting me to see them made sense, so I just watched the Ekans work while waiting for the Arbok to come back with my bounty.

They kept bringing over skin after skin, and I did not stop them when they continued bringing out more skins even after I counted the 25th one I needed to fulfill the minimum requirement to complete the mission. In the end, they piled up 47 D-Class as well as 8 C-Class Arbok Shed Skins, and I happily put them all away.

Once I was done I wished boss Arbok good luck before I began recalling everyone but Horus/Xatu, Enji/Arcanine, and Gwen/Gardevoir. Considering all that happened, I did not mind the cold treatment Arbok gave me. I mean, he only gave a curt nod to acknowledge my goodbye but did not even reply verbally.

Still, as I said I could see why he was acting like that, so I let it be and focused on heading southward to Sandslash's territory instead. I had previously considered asking him to join me, and I decided to extend that offer to Sandslash before leaving.

It took me a few minutes to step into the Sandslash territory, and the moment I did, a Sandshrew popped up in front of me. Maybe they were on alert mode due to the events that just happened, but regardless of the reason, it worked in my favor since I simply asked to see boss Sandslash.

I did not expect Sandshrew to bring me to their home, so when he/she asked me to wait while it went to report, I did just that. It took less than three minutes for the Sandshrew to come back, and when it did, it was not alone.

"As I thought, it's you," boss Sandslash said upon seeing me, and I could just feel the love. Jokes aside, he looked pretty disinterested, so I decided to get straight to the reason why I came.

"Yeah, it's a me," I said the famous line of a certain Japanese-Italian before I gave him my offer to join the dark side. I did the whole spiel and even offered him cookies, but he ended up refusing. I tried to tempt him and even extended the chance to relocate his tribe after confirming that he had deep blue potential, but even that proved futile.

It was rather unfortunate, but not the end of the world, and while a light purple or even purple potential dark gold stage Sandslash was rather tempting, it was not something I couldn't do without, so I relented. He was the one missing out, not me.

After I decided to give up, I said my goodbyes, without telling him that he would rue the day he declined my offer since I was not a villain, and recalled Enji. It was already quite late, so I decided to postpone reporting to the order until tomorrow. Hence, I asked Horus to bring me home, instead of returning to Rota City.

I called mom on the way to give her a heads-up, so I was not surprised to see that she had warmed up dinner for me when I made it back home. We talked while I ate, and I told them how my day/mission went. They somehow managed to have an exasperated, frustrated, and "I knew it" look on their face when I told them how the whole situation devolved into me facing a tide.

Still, despite their obvious unhappiness at the mention of me deciding to face a tide instead of retreating, they kept quiet and let me finish my story/narration. Once I was done they just sighed before scolding me for a bit, but their scolding lacked any heat.

They were just doing it to voice their dissatisfaction with my decision even if they knew why I did what I did. Still, after scolding me for a few moments, dad told me that I did a good job, praising me for the strategies used by my side during the tide, as well as my method to enforce my will at the end.

Mom praised me as well, but she was more focused on the fact that I made sure to keep an eye on the health status of my Pokemon, and the fact that I was willing to cut the fights short to reduce the number of casualties.

Still, while she did praise my regard for Pokemon life even in such a situation, she also reminded me that I should only act like that if I knew that it won't harm my Pokemon.

When I asked about their rather tame reaction, they said that they had already expected something to happen since it was my first mission and in my case missions. I would have said that that was superstitious, but my mission did go off the rails.

Anyway, while I was talking to my parents, I made sure to hand out everyone's dinner inside Utopia. They certainly earned the meal. In fact, I gave everyone an extra portion considering how they had come back from a pretty big battle, and I told them all to relax after they were done eating.

I followed my own advice and moved onto the couch after I was done eating. We chose a comedy movie and watched that one while lazily leaning back on the sofa.

I naturally streamed the movie inside Utopia as well, since everyone certainly earned the chance to enjoy a relaxing/lazy movie night as well, so everyone got to enjoy watching a comedy while relaxing after filling their tummies. Moreover, they also enjoyed the healing/recovery effect of Utopia, which helped them recuperate from any injuries or even just the fatigue brought about by the tide.

It was a bit after the movie ended that I received a triple pack of good news. Abby/Gyarados, Ryujin/Gyarados, and Medusa/Gyarados shared that they all reached the (high) gold stage after eating something, truly relaxing for a while, and recovering from the scratches they suffered as well as the tiredness caused by the battles they went through.

I was obviously thrilled by the good news and congratulated all three of them, and once I went up to my room half an hour later, I directly entered Utopia after locking my door before paying the trio that "leveled up" a visit.

I had hoped that the high-intensity battles and situation during the tide would help some of my Pokemon advance or even breakthrough, and it was great to see that I was right.

I confirmed that all three had reached the (high) gold stage and told them that we would celebrate their progress either tomorrow or the day after tomorrow since it was already too late to do it today. They seemed happy with that, and I left Utopia after scratching their favorite spots for a bit.

I went straight to bed afterward, seeing how it was close to midnight, and I was planning to leave for Rota City after an early breakfast to report the completion of the missions I took.

-----------------------------

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