"The taste of happiness..."
Naoki raised an eyebrow and took a sip of the soup from the bowl.
One sip revealed the flavors of many crops mixed with the rich broth and the lively festive atmosphere, truly giving a warming sensation.
Naoki looked around.
He saw a girl feeding soup to a Pokémon, saw a toddler cozily snuggling against their parents, and Machamp gulping down the soup with large swigs.
This atmosphere, this feeling, indeed made it the most lively day of the year.
Everyone gathered to celebrate the harvest season together.
What a beautiful, leisurely life!
Naoki felt a slight emotion in his heart. He turned around to look at his large family of Pokémon.
The Indeedee siblings sat on a bench, eating Pokémon snacks prepared for them by the town.
The younger Indeedee was tasting them carefully, sometimes furrowing its brows, sometimes its eyes lighting up, as if saying which tasted good and which didn't.
Pawmot, draped in a red cape like a little hero, was surrounded by some Pokémon from the town.
In their envious and admiring gazes, Pawmot did a superhero takeoff on the spot, eliciting a burst of exclamations from the group of Pokémon.
The Gogoat were lazily standing on one side.
After learning that the milk they usually drank was produced by these three Gogoat, several children from the town gathered around them.
A daring boy even carefully reached out to touch the soft hair of one Gogoat.
Seeing the Gogoat wasn't displeased, he immediately widened his eyes, saying to his companions, "So soft!"
The Gogoat seemed to enjoy this atmosphere too, suddenly releasing their internal Grass Energy, creating a somewhat magical Grassy Terrain around them.
A chorus of exclamations followed from the children, who marveled, "So amazing!"
Watching this scene, Naoki couldn't help but feel, "The Gogoat are really popular!"
"Ma-aah~"
*
At 2 PM, the autumn Thanksgiving came to an end.
The full and satisfied townspeople gradually left. After bidding farewell to Mayor Thomas, Naoki also took his group of Pokémon and returned to the ranch.
With autumn deepening, the temperature slowly cooled, but today's weather was still nice. In the evening, temperatures were in the twenties, and the warm sun felt very comfortable on the body.
Not long after they returned to the ranch, a lively noise came from outside.
Naoki stepped out to find the town's children bringing their Pokémon partners to exchange pumpkin cookies with him.
Among them was a boy he met earlier that morning named Dick, accompanied by a Rockruff with pretty blue eyes.
Seeing Naoki come out, Dick's eyes lit up, and he handed over a small package wrapped in ribbons and wax paper:
"Mr. Naoki, I'm here to exchange pumpkin cookies with you!"
"Alright!" Naoki smiled and nodded, turning to have the Indeedee siblings bring out the pumpkin cookies he had prepared, and exchanged with him.
After receiving the pumpkin cookies, the boy shyly thanked him, "Thank you!"
The Rockruff standing beside him also barked enthusiastically, "Woof woof!"
"Mr. Naoki! It's our turn too!"
Another girl with a Tatsugiri on her head waved her little hand eagerly.
"Don't worry, there's enough for everyone."
Naoki exchanged pumpkin cookies with them. Once the exchange was complete, the group of children and Pokémon all thanked him in unison.
Watching this scene, Naoki thought to himself, these kids are pretty cute.
He glanced at Dick, who was full of expectation, raised an eyebrow, and asked, "Would you like to take a tour of my ranch?"
"Yes!" they replied in unison.
Naoki smiled and said, "Then follow me!"
He took the group of children to the pen for the Skiddo and Gogoat, explaining the ecology of these two Pokémon to them.
Next, he took them to the Pokémon House to show them the MooMoo Milk production process.
After leaving, everyone went to the Glass Greenhouse, where Naoki explained how the Combee gathered nectar and made Honey.
Finally, they went down to the Underground Cave, where Naoki explained about the helpfulness of Diglett in farming land and Naclstack in producing delicious and nutritious Rock Salt.
With every sentence Naoki spoke, the group of children would exclaim with excitement, "Wow!"
They seemed very curious about everything and became interested as Naoki explained.
At the end, a girl said with longing, "When I grow up, I want to be a rancher too, like Mr. Naoki, raising lots of Pokémon here and living with them!"
Naoki nodded with a smile, "That's a great dream, but being a rancher is very hard work!"
Another boy immediately shook his head, "I'm not afraid! Mom says I'm strong! Fidough will help me too!"
The Fidough beside the boy promptly nodded, "Woof woof!"
"That's great." Naoki then looked at the other children and asked, "What about you? What dreams do you have when you grow up?"
As expected, at this moment, all these children expressed a strong interest in becoming ranchers, stating they wanted to be ranchers in the future too.