"What's up, Rotom?"

  "There are a lot of people oalking about the farm. Some are even saying they want to e here to che."

  As a modern, fully trained assistant-type Rotom, it had no trouble uanding online tent.

  In terms of intellige was no different from a human.

  In fact, when it came to navigating the i, Rotom was exceptionally skilled.

  If it weren’t for the strict rule at Rotom School prohibiting students from posting ents online, Rotom figured its forum rank would be pretty high by now.

  "ht, that makes sense."

  "It’s probably because of the whole thing with beating Ting-Lu."

  After thinking for a moment, Natsume recalled the i.

  Ever since moving to the farm, his phone usage had steadily deed.

  Back when he was still in school, he used to g to his phone all day.

  During holidays and breaks, he’d spend most of his time lying around at home, pying on his phone.

  But ever since arriving at the farm, his free time had been taken over by fluffy or slippery creatures.

  Every m, the first thing he did after waking up et his shiny Furret for a while. While brushing his teeth, he’d chat with Lopunny.

  After meals, he’d have casual versations with o as it diligently ed up, some encement.

  His schedule for leaving the house was also packed.

  There was the farm patrol, cheg in with Sandssh, who was obsessed with farming. Then, he’d ask Mightyena and its family if anything had happehe night before.

  He also made regur visits to the Ursario collect whatever random objects they had picked up.

  Of course, he’d exge them for Pokéblocks.

  The Ursaring family was more than happy to trade—those items were useless to them anyway.

  Every so often, he’d stop by Vespiquen’s hive to collect Honey.

  Iernoons, he’d check out the training grounds, theime iing with the Ampharos and Dubwool herds.

  After all, unication was crucial for both humans and Pokémon.

  Without proper uniisuandings could arise.

  Like, say, ging the workers’ meals from high-calorie, rich dishes to light and low-quantity "healthy meals."

  That was just pin stupid.

  These versations took up a lot of time—aire afternoon would pass just like that.

  In the evenings, Natsume would finally have some time to py on his phone.

  Usually, he’d have a small, cute Pokémon like Ogerpon or Emolga in his arms.

  They even had a secret night-duty schedule to decide who got to sleep with him.

  Natsume himself had no idea this schedule existed.

  He’d only find out when he climbed into bed and saw whion had shown up that night.

  Of course, there were times when the "assigned" Pokémon got kicked out.

  For example, Corviknight.

  No one khe depths of Natsume’s frustration when he opened his door and found that big oaf crushing his bed.

  It hardened him.

  His fists, that is.

  Anyway—back to the topic.

  With his phone usage decreasing, Natsume had stopped keeping up with orends.

  There were tons of trending topics he had no clue about.

  Sometimes, he really felt like an out-of-touan from another p.

  "Mr. Natsume, have you sidered starting a video el or something?"

  "It could attract traffid be really beneficial for the farm’s development."

  Rotom suggested the idea as a matter of habit.

  This was something it had lear Rotom School.

  Helping Trainers grow their ventures art of its job.

  It couldn’t be helped—Rotom was just built that way.

  Trainers could focus solely on battling, but Rotom had a lot more to sider. (crossed out)

  Being well-versed in modern i culture, Rotom kly how to quickly boost a Trainer’s visibility and ine.

  In today’s fast-paced digital world, clout was everything.

  A Trainer with a strong online presence would naturally gain attention and resources—even their personal safety could be somewhat assured.

  And vely, Rotom was an expert at this.

  From branding and scripting to filmiing, and even at ma—

  Rotom could ha all on its own.

  No outside help needed.

  "Oh, that, huh?"

  Natsume was momentarily caught off guard by the proposal.

  To be ho, he had thought about it before.

  Something like Building My Farm from Scratch.

  There was a time when videos like that were really popur.

  The old Natsume had also dreamed of that peaceful, idyllic farm life.

  But for various reasons, he never went through with it.

  There were plenty of obstacles.

  Lack of proper equipment and skilled personnel was one.

  The sheer amount of work involved iing up the farm was ahere simply wasn’t time.

  But the most important reason was...

  After actually iing the farm, Natsume realized that the so-called peaceful rural lifestyle was absolute nonsense.

  There was nothing peaceful about it!

  There was always something to do, and he was stantly a mess.

  The most rexing part of his day was lying i night.

  As for anything else?

  Not even on his mind.

  But siht it up, maybe it was worth sidering.

  "I mean, I guess we could, but I’m not really good at this kind of thing."

  "If we do it, it’d probably just be me filming random stuff."

  Although he had no objes, Natsume still gave Rotom a heads-up.

  At the end of the day, rec videos wasn’t something Natsume cared much about.

  Whether it was ine or the resources it could bring—

  To him, these were just ig on the cake.

  If Rotom wao film, Natsume had no problem with it and fully supported the idea.

  But that was the extent of it. He wouldn’t ioo much effort into it.

  If he had the time, he’d rather be napping with his shiny Furret.

  Oh, wait.

  He almost fot.

  That little one was now a full-fledged muscle powerhouse.

  Hugging it…

  Felt absolutely awful.

  Just thinking about how his once soft and adorable shiny Furret was now striking poses and flexing muscles against a Machamp—Natsume suddenly felt a tightness in his chest.

  This feeling…

  Damn, was this a heart attack?

  "No problem, Roto!"

  Hearing Natsume’s response, Rotom’s eyes visibly lit up.

  Ieral sehey glowed.

  It had pletely filtered out everything except the word “agree.”

  As for the rest?

  Ah, Rotom seemed to have momentarily crashed.

  "I’ll give it serious thought!"

  Rotom did a mid-air twirl, looking utterly delighted.

  Ever si hatched in the north, Rotom had been raised with the belief that it should help its Trainer, ease their burdens, and solve their problems.

  That had been drilled into it eve left the Rotom Home.

  So after arriving here, it instinctively wao do something.

  Preferably something that would prove its worth as soon as possible.

  Hmm, this sounded oddly familiar…

  Like someone else had said something simir before.

  Right, Gardevoir?

  "Oh, that reminds me, there’s one more little thing, Roto!"

  As if suddenly recalling something, Rotom forced itself to stop zipping around.

  "A Mightyena with a red scarf around its neck said it found a fainted Pokémon at the farm entrance."

  "It told me to let you know, Natsume, or anyone else nearby."

  "Since I was already ing to find you, I took care of it, Roto!"

  "Huh?"

  This… was a small thing?

  Just as Natsume had started to rex, he slowly turned his head to look at Rotom.

  Rotom, meanwhile, met his gaze with a perfectly i expression.

  Holy, when Natsume had seen Rotom zipping toward him like a lightning bolt, he thought something serious had happened.

  But after hearing Rotom ramble about videos, he rexed a little.

  He figured it was just a newer getting a bit too excited and overwhelmed.

  But turns out—this little guy had been holding out on him?!

  Why did it feel like yet another unreliable character had joihe farm?

  "I’ll go take a look."

  Regaining his posure, Natsume smiled.

  Seeing his rea, Rotom secretly let out a sigh of relief.

  In truth, it never sidered this a minor issue.

  It had rushed over at full speed specifically to report it.

  But somewhere along the way, the topic had veered off-course.

  After all, back at Rotom School, it had accumuted so many ideas and pns that it was itg to put into a.

  Now that the opportunity had finally e, it just got a little… overexcited.

  O fialking about the videos, it realized its mistake.

  So, it tried to slip the important part in as an afterthought.

  Which, well…

  Was incredibly awkward.

  Holy, Rotom really wao find a hole to crawl into.

  If it were possible, it’d even look for a time mae.

  "Kirlia."

  "Kirluu."

  At Natsume’s call, a petite figure appeared beside him.

  If Gardevoir was an undeniable psychic queen,

  Then Kirlia sychic maiden.

  Having just begun mastering its psychic abilities, Kirlia was now showing its potential both in battle and everyday life.

  Back when it was a Ralts, aside from teleportation for self-defes other moves had been rather unimpressive.

  Promising, but nothing outstandi.

  But after evolving into Kirlia, the future psychic queen’s brilliance was beginning to shihrough.

  Before, Natsume had always relied on Gardevoir for teleportation.

  But since she spent a lot of time researg Pokéblock recipes, he decided to switch things up and use Kirlia instead.

  Us siblings, this little one spent most of its days wandering around the farm—

  And rec Corviknight’s trash talk.

  Yes, it was that Ralts who had secretly taken notes otle sidelines.

  A Corviknight fangirl, perhaps?

  At the very least, when it came to colleg and doting trash talk, Kirlia was more dedicated than most hardcore celebrity fans.

  " you take me to the farm entrance, Kirlia?"

  "Kirluu."

  It’s an honor to assist you, Natsume.

  Lifting the hem of its dress, Kirlia dispyed the elegance of a refined young dy.

  It was hard to imagihat this same Kirlia, when in battle, would hurl trash talk with a bright smile.

  That was something its esteemed senior, Corviknight, had taught it.

  Apparently, the trast made a greater impact during fights.

  And Kirlia took those lessons very seriously.

  So in daily life, it worked hard to be a perfect dy.

  No way was it going to turn out like its siblings.

  Even if they were strong, and even if Kirlia loved them—

  That didn’t stop it from disapproving of them.

  One was a workaholic with stant ay unless occupied.

  The other was a zy mutt whled with emotional regutiohings went wrong.

  "Kirluu."

  A blue light flickered as Kirlia, perched on Natsume’s shoulder, ed him in psychiergy.

  After sing the surroundings to pinpoint the destination, it activated teleportation.

  pared to Slowking ardevoir’s near-instantaneous teleportation, Kirlia’s had a slight dey.

  Maybe because of its personality—it didn’t like rushing things.

  In a way, that could be sidered… a strength?

  When Natsume appeared at the farm entrahe Mightyena family immediately gathered around him.

  The ever-gohtyena father wagged his tail like a propeller, cirg Natsume iement.

  He even tried standing on his hio paw at Natsume’s coat.

  Only to be firmly pushed down by Natsume’s hand.

  pared to him, the elder Mightyena brother standing calmly nearby felt muature and reliable.

  "So, what’s the situation with this little one?"

  Shifting his gaze from the Mightyena family, Natsume looked toward the small, slightly timid figure sitting nearby.

  A Purrloin, huh…

  That was rare.

  Yes, the Pokémon Mightyena had found at the farm entrance urrloin.

  No one knew why it had colpsed there, but Mightyena had carried it back.

  After being taken care of for a while, it had regained sciousness.

  But for some reason, it seemed rather shy and reserved?

  When Natsume looked over, its ears twitched—

  And it curled up even tighter, hugging its knees.

  Holy, there wasn’t much to expin.

  It had simply… fainted from hunger.

  Purrloin wao say that.

  But at the moment, it had no idea how to begin.

  "Woof."

  Taking small, measured steps, the elder Mightyena walked to Natsume’s side and offered a simple expnation.

  There wasn’t much to tell.

  He had just found this little one while patrolling.

  And the way he had found it…

  Well, it was certainly an iing pose.

  Face-down on the ground, one paw stretched forointing directly at the farm’s gate.

  So, Mightyena had picked it up and brought it back.

  The elder Mightyena, having finished his expnation, quietly stepped aside. In passing, he casually swiped his paw at his overexcited father, yanking him away.

  Now’s not the time to disturb Natsume, you dumb old man.

  "Hello, I’m Natsume, the owner of this farm."

  "Did something happen to you?"

  Sitting cross-legged on the ground in front of Purrloin, Natsume gazed at the little Pokémon with curiosity.

  Sihe farm had expanded, plenty of Pokémon had e seeking shelter.

  He had seen all sorts—both normal and etries.

  But this was the first time he’d entered a Pokémon that had starved itself unsciht at the farm’s entrance.

  Purrloin lifted its head, first meeting Natsume’s sincere gaze, then gng toward the elder Mightyena.

  After hesitating for a few seds, it slowly began expining its situation.

  Gcell