Seeing Pikachu wake up, Lumiere finally felt relieved, and he planned to take the opportunity to ask about clues related to Glameow. Otherwise, the commission would fail, and today would be a total loss!
Rowlet at his side looked eager to act—it was already prepared for a fight. This boss Pikachu had successfully caught the little princess's attention.
But Pikachu merely glanced at them and jumped down from the hospital bed.
Seeing this, Lumiere quickly called out, "Be careful, the wound on your tail hasn't healed yet!"
Pikachu didn't stop. Instead, it shouted, "Pikachu!"
Hearing its voice, the resting Emolga and the other Pikachu instantly woke up, then ran out the door together with it.
Lumiere hurried after them with Rowlet, but they were too fast. In the blink of an eye, they had already reached the entrance of the Pokémon Center.
In moments, streaks of yellow darted outside. By the time Lumiere chased after them, they were gone without a trace, nowhere to be seen.
"A bunch of ungrateful brats! I worked myself to death pushing you all the way here, and you don't even show a bit of thanks?"
Lumiere cursed under his breath. Sure enough, being too kind wasn't a good idea. Next time they met, he should prepare some mud balls and throw one at each of them!
But just then, a yellow figure suddenly reappeared in his field of vision—the boss Pikachu had come back.
And it had regained that queen-like aura from their first meeting, holding something in its hand as it stared at Lumiere.
"At least you've got a bit of conscience…"
Lumiere locked eyes with Pikachu. Just as he thought it was about to thank him, a mud ball suddenly shot over and smacked him right on the head.
"Damn it!"
After throwing the mud ball, Pikachu lifted its head proudly, the corner of its mouth curling into a disdainful smirk as it looked at Lumiere, then turned around and ran off.
"I'm numb. You still had to mess with me at the end? Don't let me catch you!"
Lumiere wiped the mud off his head. Though he was a little annoyed, he suddenly noticed that Pikachu's favorability toward him had risen to -10, with the description changing to "slightly dislikes."
So the favorability did go up after all. It was still negative, but now that they'd all run off, he could say that half a day had gone completely to waste.
And not only that—the cost of Pikachu's surgery had been borrowed from Cynthia when he made that phone call.
That little cabbage was a rich lady. It wouldn't be surprising if all of Volo's private stash was kept with her.
The money didn't need to be repaid, but for the next month, whenever Volo wasn't home, Lumiere had to cook for Cynthia.
"A total loss. The commission's gone, I got beaten up for nothing, and now I've got to be a nanny for Little Cabbage…"
Lumiere was on the verge of tears. How had his perfectly fine new life turned into this? Where had it all gone wrong?
Just then, his phone suddenly chimed. Someone had sent him a message. He took it out and saw it was from the Mutual Aid Society platform app.
"Nabi?"
"Big brother, Glameow has been found."
"What? Where did you find it?"
"It got a little injured, but it came back on its own."
"That's great. Be more careful next time—don't let it sneak out again."
"I will."
"Alright, that's it then…"
Right after sending that message, Lumiere suddenly realized that the commission had somehow been completed. The 200 Pokédollars reward plus the deposit had been credited directly to his account.
"I heard you searched around the neighborhood for a long time. Consider this a little extra compensation for your hard work. Goodbye, then."
Watching Nabi leave the chat, Lumiere froze for a moment. In some sense, did this count as fulfilling the agreement?
Then tonight, did that mean he didn't have to worry about Professor Rowan coming after him…
Time flew by in the blink of an eye.
Soon, a whole month passed, and Lumiere spent most of his days acting as a nanny. He prepared three meals a day for Little Cabbage, and when she went to school, he even had to secretly follow along to keep watch.
Sure enough, he caught several brats secretly taking photos of Little Cabbage during breaks. He gave them a lesson and let them go, confiscating all the photos.
But as a Trainer who owned the ultra-popular Pokémon Rowlet, he naturally attracted plenty of attention from students.
As long as he showed himself openly, he became the center of attention wherever he went, inevitably getting surrounded by students tugging at Rowlet's feathers…
He was even stared at with envy for a long time by a teacher who owned a Decidueye. Only after getting a photo together with Rowlet did the teacher leave, fully satisfied.
That was also thanks to the school not stopping him—otherwise, getting inside at all would've been questionable.
The Pokémon School had many powerful Trainers, and Rotom cameras monitored everything, so they felt at ease.
Another reason was that they wanted to give every Trainer who wished to learn about Pokémon a chance.
Even if you couldn't attend classes, you could still sit in on public lectures, experience the atmosphere, or ask questions. That part was handled quite well.
However, due to his packed schedule, Lumiere couldn't take on commissions during this time. Still, he managed to squeeze in a tiny gap to get his Trainer license.
For 10 Pokédollars, he was now a legitimate Trainer. It wasn't much different from before, but having it was better than not.
As for the Pikachu incident, it seemed to have come to an end. Last weekend, while Cynthia was reviewing after lunch, Lumiere quietly returned to the abandoned construction site.
But he didn't find any trace of the Pikachu at all—not even a single sign of them. Everything remained just as it had been after Rowlet's Discharge had ravaged the place. They probably never came back. It was a bit of a pity…
Today, the one-month term had finally ended. He was done being a nanny and could return to being himself!
Serving Little Cabbage was pure torture. She looked cute, but who would've thought she had decision paralysis? Every day she needed two hours just to decide what dish Lumiere should cook. Who would dare marry her in the future…
That night, after bathing with Rowlet in his arms, Lumiere flopped straight onto the bed. Eating well every day had made the little princess seem a bit chubbier.
After a month together, he realized that Rowlet only looked a bit dazed on the surface—in reality, it was incredibly sly.
He'd caught it several times scamming snacks from kids at school by acting cute.
But no matter how much he scolded it, it never changed. There was nothing he could do—after all, they were poor and couldn't afford snacks…
Aside from that, there was one unexpected discovery he made while training Rowlet, after secretly learning battle knowledge at the Pokémon School.
As long as it put on a battle outfit, Rowlet didn't need any training at all. Every skill worked flawlessly—it just followed commands directly.
There were no useless Pokémon, only useless Trainers. With a maxed-out account already handed to him, the pressure was now entirely on Lumiere…
The next morning, he was sleeping while holding his little princess when someone suddenly knocked on the door.
After no response for a long while, the door was abruptly opened. Footsteps entered the room, gradually approaching the bed.
Half-asleep, Lumiere didn't notice anything wrong—until a sudden chill hit him as the blanket was pulled away.
He jolted awake. Seeing that familiar smiling face, he immediately curled up, clutching himself because he wasn't wearing any clothes.
Then he shouted in panic, "Holy crap! What are you doing?! And when did you get back?!"
"Last night," Volo replied with a grin, casually tossing the blanket back over him.
"…" Lumiere hurriedly grabbed the blanket and wrapped himself up.
Volo had shown up many times over the past month, taking commissions everywhere and traveling all over the world. No one knew what he was after—apparently he'd even gone to the Unova region recently.
"Don't you know how to knock?" Lumiere asked angrily.
"I knocked for ages. No one answered, so I thought you were dead."
"Then shout!"
"Little Cabbage was resting. I didn't want to wake her."
"…"
Speechless, Lumiere finished getting dressed before asking, "So what do you want this early in the morning?"
"Good news!"
"Little Cabbage still has class today. Don't I need to keep watch?"
"Missing one day is fine. But I've got a commission here—want it? It's from Professor Rowan! You know Professor Rowan, right?"
"Of course, but I can't take commissions in Sandgem Town, can I?" Lumiere was puzzled. Sandgem Town was an hour's drive from Jubilife City.
Volo explained, "I'll take it, then bring you in as assistance. We split the points."
"What the hell? You can do that?"
"Don't underestimate a gold-rank member!"
Lumiere was silent for a moment. He rubbed Rowlet's head in his arms, then eyed Volo suspiciously and asked, "Be honest—why are you being this nice?"
"I'm heading to Iron Island for another commission. I wanted to grab a Sandgem Town one along the way, but I didn't read the details. After accepting it, I realized I probably won't have time to do it."
"So you're dumping it on me and making me your tool?"
"Don't jump to conclusions. How about splitting the reward fifty-fifty?"
"Nope. Thirty–seventy!"
"Fine. I get seventy, you get thirty. That's my final offer."
"Damn it! Have some shame!"