After Lord Wang left, the steward quickly asked, "Lord Axel, when do you think it would be suitable for us to leave the city?"
"Just wait a bit for me."
Axel hadn't cooked for his Pokemon yet today. His Pokemon were all pretty high level now, and they needed enough nutrition every day.
Unlike Pokemon in the games, Pokemon in the real world have their battle strength affected by all kinds of factors.
If they go too long without proper nutrition, they can even faint from hunger or have their levels drop.
Like Axel's Glastrier, and some of the other legendary Pokemon he had seen, they all had this happen to them.
When the steward saw Axel take out a huge tent from his backpack, and then pull out a pile of tools from inside the tent, he was completely dumbfounded.
'Confirmed, this guy is absolutely the Hisui crown prince!'
Not only did he have the power of the spatial dragon, he even had a space backpack this strong.
If the army had a few of these backpacks, their ability for rapid-strike operations would increase several times, even several dozen times!
"Emmm," Seeing that expression on the steward's face as if he understood everything, Axel couldn't help being speechless.
The Pokemon tech tree really was weird. Back in his era, even elementary school kids had space backpacks like this.
But Axel didn't know how to explain, so he simply took out a handful of Soft Sand and sprinkled it over Gible's biscuits.
"Steward Wang, do you want your Pokemon to eat some?"
If he guessed correctly, Lord Wang and the steward were likely relatives, which meant he should also be a Ground type trainer.
But to the steward, Axel's behavior was terrifying.
"You... you actually... no, can secret treasures even be eaten directly?"
This was way too extravagant.
Even for a last meal before execution, he wouldn't dare eat like this.
"Are you eating or not?", Axel twitched the corner of his mouth, unable to figure out why the steward had so much drama.
Artificial Soft Sand wasn't cheap, but it wasn't worth making that face over.
"No no, I don't dare," The steward waved both hands.
"Fine, then just wait for me."
Seeing how stiff and cautious he was, Axel didn't ask further. In a few quick steps he finished preparing food for his Pokemon, stuffed everything into their Poke Balls so they could eat on the road.
Axel planned to stay at the battlefield for a while, which would save time.
A moment later, the steward drove the carriage out of the city.
At the city gate, they even ran into a group of other trainers.
There were around a dozen of them, all wearing standard armor, looking like they'd be Axel's teammates tomorrow.
But Axel could only stay here for three days, and he didn't feel like socializing.
Seeing Axel uninterested in making friends, the steward understood completely and drove them far away.
These people were worthy of speaking to the Hisui prince?
'What a joke!'
But their appearance did remind the steward of something.
Not long after they left the gate, the steward turned back and warned Axel, "Lord Axel, the duel starts early tomorrow. It's very possible the Cao army's participants will check the field today.
"The Cao army is strong, and they've just killed Lord Lu Bu recently, so their morale is high."
"If you run into them, you must be careful."
"You mean I can fight them?", Axel looked excited.
He only had three days to stay here, and tomorrow he'd have to waste a whole day in the competition.
If he killed all the Cao army today, wouldn't he get to meet Diaochan earlier and talk deeply about Gardevoir's training?
As for whether he could beat them, Axel wasn't worried at all.
Even though the Cao army had numbers, Mewtwo... well, Mewtwo liked peace, so never mind.
But aside from Mewtwo, Axel still had Ho-Oh and Eternatus.
If it came to army-level warfare, Eternatus was an ancestor-among-ancestors type existence, a dragon of dragons.
Give Rayquaza a Gigantamax, and that huge black serpent floating above them would probably scare people into kneeling and calling him "Your Majesty" right then and there.
People of this era were pretty superstitious.
Even the less superstitious ones wouldn't last long after Ho-Oh and Gardevoir swept through them.
"No, absolutely not!", Hearing this, the steward was terrified.
"The only reason the Cao army hasn't acted is because Lord Lu Bu is already dead, and they don't have a proper excuse, so they agreed to a wager."
"If you kill all their participants, those famous generals will rush in."
"The Cao army is strong. Liu, Guan and Zhang together can even rival my lord Lu Bu."
"Fine," Seeing how frightened he was, Axel temporarily dropped the idea.
He wasn't afraid, but Pokemon were too destructive.
If a Heaven-King-class general broke past his guard and slaughtered people inside the city, the losses would be huge.
———
After some more travel, the steward tapped the carriage.
"Lord Axel, we've arrived!"
"Alright," Axel answered, stepping down from the carriage with Gardevoir.
In front of where the carriage stopped was a huge dense forest.
The trees of this era seemed bigger than those of later times. Just at the entrance, several trees reached over ten meters tall.
Looking deeper in, Axel could even see a bizarre tree more than fifty meters tall at the center of the forest.
It looked a lot like that giant Oliva from Pokemon Horizons, just way uglier.
It was a giant Trevenant.
Seeing Axel pause, the steward knew he was curious and quickly explained.
"This is one of Xiapi's well-known places, called Rottenwood Forest."
"Originally it was nothing special, just a group of Trevenant and other Grass-types living here."
"But as the nation declined and war broke out everywhere, this place became a battlefield several times."
"Over time, a large number of Ghost-type Pokemon appeared here, gradually pushing out the Grass-types."
"As you can see, the king here now is that Trevenant."
"And tomorrow, we'll complete the duel under that Trevenant's witness."
"If anyone breaks the agreement, that Trevenant will join the other side."
Axel nodded thoughtfully, feeling like this Trevenant's setup was basically like a Totem Pokemon.
Also, the fact that Trevenant could act as a referee was not something ordinary wild Pokemon would do.
'Could it be that the gods of this world are really influencing human affairs?'
"Alright, let's go in and take a look. And I'll let my Pokemon take a vacation."
"Please don't, my lord!", Seeing Axel about to release Pokemon, the steward rushed to stop him.
"Trevenant has set rules. No one is allowed to disturb the peace here."
"When passing through the forest, only one Pokemon can be released at a time."
"Only after that Pokemon is recalled can the next be released.
"This is one of the reasons my uncle said tomorrow will be difficult."
"So troublesome?", Axel frowned slightly, though his hands didn't stop.
'Trevenant is the rule, then what is my Ho-Oh?'
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