"Don't be shy. Just treat this place like your own home."
"Dinner will be ready soon. I'll just make one last bowl of seaweed and egg-drop soup. It's cold outside, so having some hot soup will warm you right up."
Meyer greeted everyone with a broad, welcoming smile.
"..."
"..."
By the time Ash and the others arrived at Clemont's home, Meyer had already almost finished preparing dinner.
After several of the girls helped carry the dishes to the table, everyone happily gathered around and began their meal.
Clemont's father, Meyer, was an easygoing and warm-hearted man.
Since most of the people sitting around the table were also around the same age, the atmosphere during dinner was relaxed, lively, and cheerful.
After dinner, a customer suddenly came into the electrical repair shop asking Meyer to repair an induction cooker, so he had to leave to take care of the job.
The girls also took the initiative to help clean up the dining table.
As for Ash, Clemont, Tierno, and Trevor—the boys who were all thumbs and had been thoroughly "rejected" by the girls when it came to cleaning—they gathered upstairs in the living room and started chatting.
They were all boys.
They were all Pokémon Trainers.
And for various reasons, all four of them had received their first Pokémon when they were six years old.
Therefore, whenever the four of them gathered together, as soon as the conversation turned toward capturing, raising, and battling with Pokémon, they always had endless things to discuss.
Of course, that wasn't the only reason Ash had come to the Kalos region this time.
Besides celebrating his girlfriend Serena's birthday, he had another purpose as well.
"..."
"..."
"By the way, Clemont, remember that artificial intelligence robot we discussed before?"
"How far along are you with its development now?"
After chatting for a while about raising Pokémon, Ash finally brought up the progress of Clemont's intelligent robot project.
"I'm roughly sixty percent finished."
"Thanks to several innovative suggestions you gave me, Ash."
"Without your ideas, I probably would've remained stuck in the same place with the intelligent robot's development."
Whenever Clemont talked about the development of the intelligent robot, his entire face lit up with excitement.
"An intelligent robot?!"
"Cousin, you've been developing an artificial intelligence robot recently?"
Hearing Ash and Clemont's conversation, Trevor looked surprised and curious.
Tierno, sitting beside him, also leaned his head over with interest.
For boys their age, besides Pokémon, robots were another subject capable of immediately grabbing their attention.
"Mm-hmm..."
Seeing Trevor's question, Clemont pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose and nodded seriously.
"Right now, I'm the Gym Leader of Lumiose Gym."
"Because Trainers are constantly coming to challenge the Gym, and there are also all kinds of other matters that need to be handled there, managing everything by myself takes an enormous amount of time and effort."
"Being constantly occupied with these matters not only leaves me with very little time to work on the scientific inventions I love, but there's another problem."
"When I turn ten, I plan to travel outside the city and go on a journey."
"If I'm constantly tied down by all the responsibilities at the Gym, I'll have even less time and freedom to travel."
"That's why I came up with the idea of creating an intelligent robot a long time ago."
"I want it to serve as a proxy Gym Leader for Lumiose Gym."
"When I'm busy working on inventions or when I eventually leave on my journey, the intelligent robot can accept challenges from Trainers on my behalf and take care of the other affairs at the Gym."
Clemont explained the original purpose behind his intelligent robot project.
"Wow..."
"Building an intelligent robot to manage your Gym for you? That's seriously cool!"
After hearing Clemont's explanation, both Trevor and Tierno's eyes practically lit up.
"Well..."
"It's not that impressive."
Being stared at with such excited and admiring expressions, the somewhat introverted and shy Clemont scratched the back of his head.
He was secretly pleased by their admiration, but at the same time, he couldn't help feeling embarrassed.
"By the way, Ash, do you also know a lot about intelligent robots?"
"Clemont just said that you've given him a lot of innovative suggestions for his research. What's that about?"
The chubby Tierno looked at Ash curiously.
"That?"
"It's because I also need an intelligent robot."
"When I learned that Clemont was researching this field, I started discussing the subject with him regularly."
Ash didn't hide anything from his good friends.
"Oh?"
"So you also need an intelligent robot?"
"What for?"
Trevor immediately picked up the conversation.
"Well..."
"Didn't I tell you guys before that Giovanni, the Gym Leader of Viridian Gym in Viridian City, took me as his disciple?"
"And Teacher Giovanni has already submitted an application to the Kanto Pokémon League, requesting that I become the sole designated successor to Viridian Gym."
"Now that my strength has been steadily increasing, Teacher Giovanni has already begun considering handing the Gym over to me."
"So once I take over the responsibilities of Viridian Gym and become its Gym Leader, I'll eventually face exactly the same problem Clemont is dealing with now."
"Although I'm not as obsessed with scientific inventions as Clemont is, I already have plenty of things to take care of."
"I have my Skill Online Shop, my online Pokémon clinic, my entertainment company..."
"On top of that, I have quite a large number of Pokémon under my command."
"Just training all of them takes up most of an entire day."
"And in a few years, once I turn ten, I'll also leave Kanto and travel to different regions."
"At that point, I'll have even less time to deal with the affairs of a Gym."
"So I also urgently need an intelligent robot to help me."
"I see."
Trevor nodded thoughtfully.
"Ash, you're already incredibly busy normally."
"If you eventually inherit the Gym Leader position, you'll be even busier and probably won't have any time to yourself."
"If you had an intelligent robot managing the Gym for you, then you'd naturally have a much easier time."
"Exactly."
Ash nodded.
As a professional Pokémon Trainer, the number of Pokémon under his command would inevitably continue increasing in the future.
On top of that, he had businesses, commercial ventures, and countless other matters to handle.
If he didn't find a way to outsource or delegate some of this work, then sooner or later he would become an unbelievably busy person.
And spending his time buried in trivial matters unrelated to his primary goal was definitely not something Ash wanted.
At the same time, a Pokémon Gym was something that could be passed down through generations.
It was essentially a high-quality fixed asset that could continue generating value for the family far into the future.
Ash had no intention of giving up something like that.
That was precisely why he had thought of having an intelligent robot take over the day-to-day management of the Gym.
"Don't worry, Ash."
"The development of the intelligent robot is already progressing quickly."
"At the absolute latest, I'll definitely be able to develop and build a reliable intelligent robot before we set out on our journeys."
Clemont spoke with absolute confidence.
Ash was a monstrous genius whose talent as a Pokémon Trainer was even greater than his own, as well as a close friend and confidant.
Naturally, Clemont took Ash's request extremely seriously.
And, of course, he himself needed an intelligent robot for exactly the same reason.
"Mm-hmm."
"I believe in you."
Ash nodded.
The conversation ended there for the moment.
But unbeknownst to everyone else, the significance of this discussion was far greater than it appeared.
Once Clemont successfully completed the intelligent robot, Ash would no longer have to worry about being chained to Viridian Gym in the future.
He could travel freely across the Pokémon world while still retaining control of one of Kanto's most important Gyms.
And the first step toward that future had already been taken.