"Pallet Town! I, Ash, am back!"
The first thing Ash did upon returning to Pallet Town was neither go home nor visit Professor Oak with the good news. Instead, he asked for directions along the way and headed straight for Lu Chen's farm.
He ran so fast that Pikachu nearly fell off his shoulder.
Misty and Brock chased after him, panting.
"Lu Chen!"
Ash charged into the farmyard, holding up his Badge case, with eight Badges gleaming inside.
"Look! I got all the Badges!"
Lu Chen was sitting in a chair in the yard, pruning a Starf Berry sapling. At the sound of Ash's voice, he looked up at him, then at Misty and Brock arriving behind him.
"You got all eight Badges already? That was quite a bit faster than I expected."
Lu Chen nodded, put down his pruning shears, and got up to go inside.
When Lu Chen came back out, he was carrying a tray with several cups of freshly brewed hot tea.
Incidentally, both the teacups and the tea leaves had been gifts from Delia.
"Sit down first and have some tea."
Ash obediently sat down, took a cup, and drank a mouthful, only to cry out as it scalded him.
Seeing Ash embarrass himself, Misty and Brock both helplessly pressed their hands to their foreheads, wanting to pretend they did not know this embarrassing fellow.
Ash wiped the tea stains off himself and finally could not help speaking up.
"Lu Chen."
"You said there'd be a gift waiting for me when I came back to Pallet Town. Is that true?"
Lu Chen did not rush to answer.
He picked up his own teacup, took a sip, and leaned back in his chair.
"Don't be impatient."
"Now, let me tell you all a story."
Ash, Misty, and Brock all pricked up their ears. Gary also leaned against the doorframe without leaving.
"Long, long ago, there was an ancient city-state. Under their queen's rule, its people lived ordinary, peaceful lives."
"But one day, the flames of war from beyond their borders suddenly reached them. Countless invaders burned, killed, and looted, and their queen was gravely wounded while resisting them."
"Before she died, the queen told her daughter that, according to their local legend, when war reached their land and plunged it into peril, they should climb the mountain no one had ever scaled and seek the tallest tree in the world."
"As long as they found that tree, they would find the hero who could save them from their plight."
"With those words, the queen passed away in the princess's arms."
"The princess, still young at the time, looked at her homeland destroyed by war and the people who had died in it. She decided to take up this burden and climb that legendary mountain with the city-state's only warrior."
"After enduring great hardships, the princess and the warrior reached the summit that no one had ever reached before, covered in wounds, and saw that tree with their own eyes."
"But no matter what the princess did, she could not approach the towering tree that reached into the clouds. Even after she knelt before it for an entire day, nothing changed."
"The princess despaired."
"The warrior beside her told her that they could also choose to flee and leave this place."
"But the princess refused."
"At last, atop that mountain, the princess made up her mind: even without the hero's help, we must give everything we have to defend our homeland."
"The next day, the princess and the warrior descended the mountain together. By then, the princess had shed her immaturity and gained the spirit and resolve befitting a queen."
"With the warrior's help, the local people and their queen worked hard to bring about reforms. They eliminated their prejudice against magical beasts and stopped using violence to force them to fight."
"And so, once the magical beasts could fight wholeheartedly, the queen and her people finally worked together with them to drive out the invaders and defend their home."
"In the end, to commemorate their victory in that war, the princess and the residents built a castle and named it Cameran Palace."
"That young princess thus became the first queen of Cameran Palace."
Lu Chen picked up his teacup and took another sip.
Ash grew impatient. "Lu Chen! Keep going! What happened afterward?"
Misty pressed him too. "Yes, did that hero really not exist?"
"Right, was the local legend false?" Brock also spoke up, which was rare for him.
Looking at their impatient faces, Lu Chen smiled, a trace of reminiscence in his eyes.
"Of course the hero existed, and the legend wasn't false either. But I'm telling a story. You'll have to let me take my time."
"Later, the queen and the warrior were curious too. Was the legend of the hero false, or had some other reason kept the hero from appearing?"
"And through their diligent search, the queen and the warrior actually found that legendary hero."
"By chance, the warrior rescued two young people. They were a couple."
"Later, while treating their injuries, the warrior discovered that the boy possessed an incredible power."
"We later called this power Aura."
"Aura grants people the ability to sense their surroundings and enhances their physical strength. When their Aura becomes powerful enough, it can even allow humans to form Aura Spheres and learn moves that only Pokémon possess."
"Furthermore, as long as someone gains this power, a Lucario will follow its wielder."
"Later, that Aura Guardian chose to become the warrior's disciple and worked hard to grow stronger so he could protect his homeland."
Brock sucked in a sharp breath. "With power like that, no wonder he was called a hero."
"Yes, that really is an incredible power." Misty nodded.
"But why did the hero suddenly appear?" Ash scratched his head.
"The war was already over when the hero appeared. Wasn't that too late?"
Lu Chen sighed.
"Yes, this Aura Guardian did appear a little late."
"It wasn't until many years later, through a chance coincidence, that the warrior and the queen learned that the great tree they had sought help from was the legendary Tree of Beginning."
"They also found out why the hero had appeared so late."
"The reason was simple. The residents of Cameran Palace were actually something like the Tree of Beginning's outer guardians, but the Tree of Beginning was usually asleep and didn't care whether the people on its outskirts were doing well."
"Only when more than half the residents had died would the Tree of Beginning answer the prayers of Cameran Palace's people."
"But as chance would have it, thanks to the queen's determination and the warrior's help, Cameran Palace hadn't lost more than half its residents, so naturally, the Tree of Beginning hadn't responded in time."
"Several years passed before the Tree of Beginning noticed that Cameran Palace had asked for its help. Only then did it grant Aura to a kindhearted person. Only then did the queen and the warrior discover this."
"Huh? That was actually the reason?" Ash's eyes widened.
"What..." Misty was dumbfounded too.
Holding his teacup, Lu Chen said calmly, "So, people should still believe in their own strength and that of the companions beside them."
"What happened after that, Lu Chen?" Ash asked eagerly.
Misty also looked at Lu Chen with girlish romantic longing. "The warrior must have fallen in love with the queen, then married her, had children, and lived happily, right?"
Lu Chen pursed his lips.
"No. The story ended with the warrior choosing to leave Cameran Palace to become stronger."
"As for the queen, she was probably doing pretty well. Whether she later married and had children, I don't know."
"The Aura Guardian, on the other hand, married his girlfriend, and they had a boy. Their child inherited his Aura too."
Ash and the others stood there, stunned for quite a while.
How should they put it... the ending of this story felt far too rushed.
Why had the warrior just left Cameran Palace? Did his story with the queen end right there? That Aura Guardian's appearance was strange too.
Compared to everything that had come before, this was an outright botched ending.