"This sake was delicious. It was dry, but very easy to drink."
"Wasn't it? Its alcohol content was high, though, so it was best not to drink too much. It went down so easily that I nearly collapsed once."
"Hehe, really? Steven, were you a heavy drinker?"
"I wasn't a lightweight. I could drink a fair amount, but nowhere near as much as Sidney."
"Sidney was one of the Hoenn Region's Elite Four."
Sidney was one of the Hoenn Region's Elite Four, a Trainer who specialized in Evil-types. His expertise in Evil-type battles let him fight in tricky yet powerful ways, which had left a deep impression on me.
"Yes. Actually, Sidney introduced me to this sake when I went drinking with the Elite Four a while ago."
"Oh, you went drinking with the Elite Four? That sounded wonderful."
"I had plenty of connections with all four of them. Mikuri sometimes joined us, too."
"Mikuri came as well? That was quite the extravagant drinking party."
Needless to say, the Elite Four were not only outstanding competitors, but Gym Leaders as well. A drinking party with a lineup like that was far too luxurious.
"We usually drank at Sidney's or Mikuri's house, so it wasn't much different from this. What sort of relationship did you have with the Elite Four, Miss Shirona?"
"Me? Ryo was still underage, so we never had drinking parties, but we had gone out for meals plenty of times."
Shirona was on good terms with the Elite Four: Ryo, Bertha, Flint, and Gaoyang. I had been matched against them many times, and whenever I competed in the Pokémon League, I almost always won. Though victory had been a rare thing in last year's Pokémon League, it was fair to say that my relationship with the Elite Four