New Home Completed

On June 28, 198 of the Alliance Calendar, with the completion of the new house, Naoki's first summer in the Pokémon world officially came to an end.

That morning, after nearly two months of hard work, Kelly officially handed over the new house to Naoki.

She directed the construction crew and the special forces to load the tools and leftover materials onto the truck and then took Naoki on a tour of the house.

As they pushed open the door, Naoki was greeted by a large, spacious living room. However, the room was completely empty—there wasn't a single piece of furniture yet, making the house feel vast and open.

Kelly led the way, explaining, "This is the living room. As per your request, we've installed a new fireplace here. Once you light it in the winter, it'll keep the whole house warm."

Naoki's eyes followed her gesture toward a brand-new fireplace with transparent glass, beautifully set against the wall of the living room.

Kelly continued, "You'll need to stock up on plenty of compressed firewood as that's the main fuel for the fireplace."

With a bright smile, she added, "And, if you need firewood, I sell it at my store!"

Naoki: "…" Kelly was ever the entrepreneur, always seizing the moment to promote her products.

But he had to admit, he really did need some.

"Alright, I'll check it out later," Naoki agreed.

Kelly then offered another idea. "Alternatively, you could use the help of Pokémon. If you have a Pokémon like a Slugma, you could place it in the fireplace."

She grinned as she explained, "Slugma will treat the warm fireplace as its home, and the heat from its body can easily replace firewood."

"Slugma?" Naoki was intrigued by the idea and made a mental note of it.

However, he knew that Pokémon like Slugma typically inhabited volcanic regions with extremely high temperatures, making it difficult to find them elsewhere.

Plus, Slugma didn't live in the Paldea region, so if Naoki wanted one, he'd have to travel to another region. But for now, he had no plans to leave Paldea.

The season was changing, and he needed to prepare for autumn. That meant buying seeds for fall crops and planting them. He also needed to purchase some wooden barrels to begin turning the hops he'd stored in his utility room into beer.

"There are five rooms on the first floor," Kelly said as they continued the tour. "The master bedroom is to the right of the living room, and the open kitchen and dining area are on the left. The bathroom is all the way on the left."

She opened each door, allowing Naoki to peek inside.

"You can buy a bathtub later, whichever style you like," Kelly suggested. "After a long day of farm work, nothing beats a warm bath to relax and unwind."

Naoki nodded, clearly pleased with the layout and the possibilities the new house offered.

Seeing this, Kelly chuckled and led Naoki up the stairs to the second floor. "There are more rooms up here—five in total. There's a guest bedroom for when you have visitors, a study for working or reading, and a children's room. If you ever have kids in the future, they can stay here."

Children… Naoki hadn't even thought about that. At twenty years old, he wasn't exactly in a rush to settle down.

Sure, marriage might happen someday, but he wasn't worried about it for now. If he met the right person, great. If not, he was perfectly fine staying single for the foreseeable future. Everything would happen in its own time.

As they passed through the small hall upstairs, Kelly opened the doors to the other two rooms. "These are empty for now. You can decorate them however you like, depending on your needs and preferences."

Naoki nodded, satisfied with the layout, but then asked the most important question on his mind: "Where's the cellar?"

Kelly smiled, "The entrance to the cellar is on the first floor."

They headed back downstairs, and Naoki spotted a small wooden door in the southwest corner of the living room.

Kelly opened the door to reveal a staircase leading into darkness. It was so dark you couldn't see your hand in front of your face.

"The light switch is on the wall to the right of the stairs," Kelly said as she flicked the switch. With a crisp click, warm orange light from retro-style wall lamps illuminated the entire cellar.

"The temperature here is perfect for brewing wine!" Kelly added with a knowing smile that Naoki was starting to recognize.

Naoki sighed, "I get it. I'll come buy a barrel from you later."

With the money he'd saved over the past month, he figured he could purchase everything he needed in one go.

Kelly grinned, "I'll give you a discount."

After the tour, Kelly was getting ready to leave. Outside by her truck, she turned and said, "I'll be at the store all afternoon. If you need anything, don't hesitate to stop by."

"Okay," Naoki replied, already mentally planning when to move his belongings into the new house.

He also had plans for the old house. He wanted to transform it into a Pokémon tavern, but there were still some things he needed to prepare first.

After a brief moment of thought, Naoki asked, "By the way, Kelly, do you sell bar counters?"

Kelly blinked in surprise. "A bar?"

"Yeah," Naoki explained, "I'm planning to turn the old house into… a kind of tavern for Pokémon gatherings."

"Tavern? That's easy," Kelly said casually, thinking Naoki just wanted to give his Pokémon like Pawmo a fun place to play. "When you come by the store this afternoon to pick out furniture, I'll bring everything you'll need."

Naoki nodded. "Okay, sounds good."

Kelly waved as she drove off in her van.

Naoki turned to his Pokémon, who were eagerly inspecting their new home.

"This is going to be our new home from now on," Naoki said with a smile. "What do you think? It's a lot bigger than the old place, right?"

"Gaao!" Cyclizar nodded enthusiastically.

Meanwhile, Alcremie and Butterfree began exploring the rooms with wide-eyed curiosity. Koraidon, however, seemed unfazed by the change.

The little Alcremie found it tricky to climb the stairs, so Pawmo, ever the helper, carried it up on his back.

Watching the two small Pokémon vanish at the top of the stairs, Naoki sighed and got to work.

He opened all the windows to let fresh air circulate, then mopped the floors, scrubbing the entire house until it gleamed. By the time he finished, it was already noon.

Exhausted, Naoki headed back to the old house and collapsed onto the bed, his back and arms aching from all the cleaning.

At that moment, he realized that having a bigger house wasn't always a good thing—it meant a lot more cleaning, and doing it all alone was tiring.

As he stared at the ceiling, Naoki's mind drifted to the Pokemon siblings he had met a couple of months ago. He wondered if they had grown up, what they might look like now, and whether they still remembered him.