Carmine opened her mouth, then thought better of it.
Arven teased, "Don't tell me he's too scared to show his face?"
Baimu hadn't made a big announcement about his agreement with Kieran, but everyone still remembered the scene the kid had caused back then.
Carmine shook her head. "It's not that..."
"That boy's the Champion now~"
Lacey smiled as she spoke. When she looked at Nemona, she seemed to be turning something over in her mind.
Champion!
Penny and Arven exchanged looks.
Penny said, "Isn't the Champion of Unova... Iris?"
Kieran had beaten Iris? When had that happened? Why hadn't there been any news about it?
Baimu suddenly remembered what Shan Ren had told him. "You mean the Blueberry Champion?"
"Mm."
Lacey nodded.
Nemona helped explain. "Blueberry Academy has a student-run League Club. They hold battles all the time to rank themselves, and they call it the Blueberry League.
"The five strongest members are known as the Champion and the Elite Four."
Champion of what?
The Blueberry Champion!
Penny and Arven relaxed at once. For a moment, they'd thought Kieran had somehow become a Regional Champion in the six months since they last saw him.
"Last time I came here, I even battled the president of the League Club. I think his name was... Drayton?"
Nemona said, "Shouldn't he have graduated by now?"
"That guy's repeated a year three times."
Carmine folded her arms and huffed. "He's no good! He spends all day grinning, and you can never tell what he's thinking!"
At that, Lacey crossed her arms in a stern X. "Carmine, it's not right to bad-mouth people behind their backs, even if you have a point."
Even if she has a point?
Arven and Penny were speechless. Baimu, meanwhile, thought the name sounded familiar. He was sure he'd