"Squirtle. (Eevee gathered these? So hardworking...)"
"Riolu. (You're just too lazy.)"
"Squirtle... (I liked you better a few days ago.)"
Hearing Riolu's assessment of him, Squirtle began to miss the way she used to be.
By human standards, Riolu had still been at the babbling stage back then. She could only convey the general direction of her thoughts and wasn't good at articulating every word precisely.
But now, as Riolu grew, that ability had begun to improve as well.
And Riolu was a hardworking little maniac to begin with. What Squirtle considered taking it easy, she considered laziness.
To Squirtle, though, it felt more like playing along with a child. Fine, he'd get up early. He could always catch up on sleep at noon.
"Squirtle... (Wait, this little girl works so hard... What if I can't beat her in a few months?)"
Squirtle thought of a potential danger, but quickly put it out of his mind. It wasn't as though he never trained. He still practiced regularly, so his growth wasn't at a standstill.
Besides, the higher a Pokémon's level, the slower its progress. Once that initial burst of growth was over, improving further became quite difficult.
After putting away the fruit at the door, Squirtle and Riolu began their morning exercises nearby. Meanwhile, in the grass a short distance away,
Eevee, who had been watching them all along, returned to the burrow.
By the time Riolu and Squirtle returned, the little Eevee had begun moving around outside too. The evolved Umbreon was nowhere to be seen, but judging by where the little Eevee wandered, the wariness from yesterday seemed to have faded.
The Oddish had rooted themselves again, burying themselves in the soil before sunrise.
Unlike when she had left, Riolu neither took out a key nor scanned a