Chapter 37. The Most Beautiful Pokémon
Inside the Royal Capital of the Royal Dragon Kingdom, many people on the street saw Ryū flying overhead. "Whose Pokémon is that?" "So beautiful, so lovely." "It feels a bit sacred, like those dragons recorded in legends." "It's so big, it must be very powerful." "Does it look a bit familiar? It seems..."
Humans are visual creatures; there is no doubt about that. They usually judge the quality and strength of a creature by its appearance. If they encountered fierce Pokémon like Nidoking, Onix, or Rhydon, these people would definitely stay away immediately. Even though they knew the Pokémon in the Royal Dragon Kingdom's capital had owners and wouldn't harm people casually, they still couldn't avoid the fear in their hearts.
But if it were a Dragonair with an extremely high appearance, they would only stop and watch. Ryū, flying in the sky, didn't care what the people below were thinking. He just wanted to fly to the Royal Palace quickly and see Liz's expression when she saw him.
In the Royal Palace, Hestia, who was walking along the second-floor corridor, seemed to catch sight of something and turned her head to look out the window. "Is that... Lord Aran?" Hestia's face was startled at first, but she quickly calmed down. For at least half of the past 2 months, Hestia had been responsible for feeding Ryū and waking him up. With her familiarity, she could naturally recognize at a glance that this was the evolved Ryū.
The appearance of a Dratini and a Dragonair is not very different. It's more about the change in size and some detailed changes in body parts. Overall, it's still easy to see that a Dragonair is the evolved form of a Dratini.
If Ryū was not a Dratini at first, but a Magikarp or a Feebas, then Hestia might not have recognized him. "Lord Aran has evolved? So beautiful... Right, I need to tell Lord Liz quickly." Hestia looked at Ryū soaring in the sky and couldn't help but exclaim. She quickly came back to her senses and hurried toward Liz's office.
Inside the study, a knock sounded. "Come in," Liz's gentle voice said, and she raised her head to look at the doorway. "Lord Liz, Lord Aran is back," Hestia ran in, slightly out of breath. "Hmm? Why so early today? Could it be that this child skipped school again?" Liz frowned. She remembered that it didn't seem to be the time for school to end yet. This made her think of the past few days.
Ryuuki was scolded by her tutor, cried, and ran to the Pokémon Academy. She took Aran away, and the 2 of them hid under the stone bridge in the city for the whole day, only to be found by the guard team in the end. That day, Liz spanked the 2 of them hard. "No, Lord Liz, Lord Aran has evolved! He flew back!" "Ah?!" As soon as Liz heard this, she stood up with a 'whoosh'.
She casually took off the glasses on her face, threw them on the desk, and lifting her skirt, she went out toward the Royal Palace. Hestia sighed helplessly and could only continue to run to catch up. However, Hestia found that she couldn't catch up with Liz! She was a bit tired, but at least she was wearing flat shoes, while Liz was wearing high heels at least 8 centimeters high, and she was still running so fast.
Liz rushed out of the Royal Palace and immediately looked up at the sky. The noble and elegant figure was just flying down. "Aran!" Liz recognized at a glance that it was her Aran. At the same time, an expression of pleasant surprise couldn't help but appear on her face. What she feared most was that Aran would become ugly after evolving.
But now it seemed that Aran's appearance was still online; he had just transitioned from cute to beautiful, still very charming. "Ying! (Liz!)" Ryū immediately flew over when he saw Liz. Unfortunately, he couldn't stick his head into Liz's arms as he did when he was a Dratini. The small round bead on a Dratini's head had become a cute little horn after evolving into a Dragonair. This horn was quite hard and might stab Liz. So, he could only land on the ground and let Liz find an angle that wouldn't hurt her to get close.
"Aran~ You've changed so much." Liz walked forward, looked up, stood on her tiptoes with effort, and raised her arms to wrap around Ryū's neck. Ryū was very tall now. Even though 2/3 of his body was on the ground, he was still nearly 3 meters tall. Liz herself wasn't short; her net height was over 1.7 meters, but in front of Ryū, even standing on her tiptoes, she couldn't reach his head.
"Is it okay? Just a bit bigger." Ryū leaned down as much as possible so that Liz could observe his new form more easily. Anyway, he felt that the appearance difference between Dragonair and Dratini was not significant. "Let me take a good look at you." Liz held Ryū's head in front of her, blinked her light red big eyes, and carefully examined him.
The guards and maids standing in the front courtyard of the Royal Palace couldn't help but focus their eyes on him at this moment. There was no other way. A Dragonair's appearance was simply too high. It gave people the illusion that it was wrapped in an ethereal aura all over its body. They couldn't control their gaze from moving to Ryū. If asked which Pokémon was the most dominant in the entire Royal Dragon Kingdom, they might argue over this question. But if asked which Pokémon was the most beautiful, they would now basically answer 'Lord Aran'.
The entire Kanto and Johto Regions, excluding Legendary Pokémon, had only 1 that could be compared to a Dragonair in terms of 'beauty': Ninetales. A Vulpix needs a Fire Stone to evolve into a Ninetales. Ninetales are rarely seen in the wild, and the Royal Dragon Kingdom didn't know about the existence of such a Pokémon. As for Milotic, Gardevoir, Alolan Ninetales, Serperior, Sylveon... these Pokémon whose appearance could rival a Dragonair, or even surpass it, are more concentrated in other regions.
They were rarely seen in the Kanto and Johto Regions during the Alliance Era, let alone in the current Monster Era. Therefore, at this stage in the Royal Dragon Kingdom, no Pokémon could be Ryū's opponent in terms of appearance. "The small white fins next to your head have turned into 2 small feather wings. Does Aran fly with them?" "Your little nose is gone, what a pity, I liked pinching it the most." "The small bumps on your face back then were originally undeveloped horns." "What is this small blue bead under your neck for? It's cool to the touch, and there are 2 on your tail too."
Liz hugged Ryū, touching him here and there, extremely curious. She seemed to want to see every change in his body. At the same time, Liz's mood couldn't help but become a little apprehensive. Although the current Dragonair was beautiful, it was indeed not as cute as the original Dratini, which made Liz a little sad. She could no longer pinch Aran's little nose.
"Liz, how about I take you for a flight?" Ryū happily wagged his tail. He was very excited after just evolving, and he also wanted to show Liz his flying ability. Without another word, Ryū coiled his slender body around Liz's neck. "Huh?! Aran, what are you doing?" Liz was startled by Ryū's action. She subconsciously hugged his neck tightly. However, this was exactly what Ryū wanted.
The next moment, he took Liz and soared into the sky, flying toward the gray sky. "Lord Liz!!!" Hestia's scream sounded belatedly, but it was already too late. She could no longer stop Ryū.