Being a Pokémon Trainer is an incredibly expensive profession.
This isn't just the opinion of one or two Trainers, but a collective consensus among everyone.
After all, not everyone was like him, the noble young master of the Devon Corporation. Even if he didn't possess the superb Pokémon breeding skills of Lance or Wallace, he could still enhance his Pokémon's strength through the simplest method: throwing money and resources at them.
Thinking of this, Steven's gaze toward Hakuya was filled with admiration and awe.
Raising a Pokémon isn't simply about providing food to keep it alive; it also requires the necessary medical, combat, and daily maintenance resources. If a Trainer raises a powerful Pokémon, even if it is a common and not particularly rare one, the consumption of resources will be astonishing.
"To be able to raise such powerful Pokémon like Floragato, Alcremie, and Latias, just having superb breeding methods is definitely not enough. I imagine you must have also spent a massive amount of money and resources on them, right, Hakuya?"
Previously, Steven had already learned from Roxanne the reason why Hakuya came to the Trainers' School to work as a temporary teacher.
It wasn't to experience the teaching life, nor was it to train his Pokémon through teaching activities; it was simply because he was strapped for cash.
In an instant, the image of Hakuya investing massive amounts of money into raising his Pokémon, to the point of being forced to travel around while taking odd jobs to make ends meet, appeared in Steven's mind.
Therefore, this current Hoenn Champion couldn't help but let out a sigh of admiration in the end.
"This heart that loves Pokémon far more than it loves itself... it is truly too moving."
"..."
Hearing Steven's flattering speech, Hakuya's smile instantly became awkward.
Alright, this guy had absolutely gotten the wrong idea.
The reason his wallet was so empty right now was purely because his money had recently been deducted by roadside NPCs and drained by the toll fees for every floor he climbed in the Sky Pillar. If they were really talking about breeding, his rate of burning through cash wasn't actually as exaggerated as Steven imagined.
—The Pokémon Centers in the randomized world were clearly far more effective than those in reality. No matter how severely injured Floragato and the others were, as long as he handed them over to the Cyber-Nurse Joy in town, all damage caused by battles would be completely healed.
Therefore, aside from everyday Pokémon food, the monetary expenses for medical care, combat items, and so on were practically negligible.
However, Steven clearly had no idea that Hakuya possessed the ultimate cheat that was Randomized Emerald.
"In light of your contributions to the incident involving the interception of the super-ancient Pokémon, as a commendation, the Hoenn League will award you a pennant and a material reward of five million League Coins to assist you in raising your Pokémon."
Although Hakuya possessed an extraordinary temperament and his demeanor made people feel as refreshed as a spring breeze, Steven, as the noble young master of the Devon Corporation, could still tell at a glance that his family background was not wealthy.
Realizing that although Hakuya was handsome and incredibly strong, he might be living in poverty in reality due to investing massive amounts of money into raising his Pokémon, Steven felt admiration and chose to represent the Hoenn League in giving him a material reward.
"Alright, then I won't be polite."
Nodding, Hakuya accepted it without any pretense.
He would never complain about having too much money in his entire life.
Setting the distant future aside, just climbing the tower in the dungeon right now was extremely expensive.
He still hadn't rolled his desired Mega-green-caterpillar—
Seeing Hakuya's face full of joy, Steven couldn't help but smile as well.
To put it bluntly, based on Hakuya's current strength and achievements, even if Steven were to pass the Champion title to him right on the spot, the others in the League wouldn't have any objections whatsoever.
However, after his previous probing, Steven found that Hakuya currently didn't seem too interested in the Hoenn Champion title, making him feel a bit regretful in his heart. Since he didn't have much interest, Steven temporarily dismissed the idea of passing on the Champion title, opting instead to give Hakuya what he lacked most at this stage.
"The five million is considered the reward from the Hoenn League. Although it's not a small sum and is enough to support your Pokémon breeding for a long time, it ultimately won't last a lifetime. Therefore, in my personal name, I will provide you with additional material assistance."
Saying this, he fumbled in his suit pocket for a moment and pulled out a set of keys.
"Hakuya, this is a villa I purchased in Rustboro City. It's fully equipped with home appliances and facilities, and no one has ever lived in it before. As a testament to our friendship, I am gifting this house to you."
"Ah..."
Hakuya looked at the keys handed to him, his expression blanking for a moment.
Although due to the Alpaca secretly exerting its power behind the scenes, his League registration in reality showed that he was indeed from Littleroot Town, he only had his name registered and didn't own any real estate under it.
In the future, he would either have to hole up in Pokémon Centers everywhere, spend money to rent a place, or just go and buy a house himself.
And land prices in the Pokémon world were not exactly cheap.
Because many territories were occupied by Pokémon, the land area available for humans was not that large. Remote places like the countryside and suburbs were fine, but in a large modern metropolis like Rustboro City, land was truly worth its weight in gold. Let alone a large villa, even the most ordinary commercial housing would cost a fortune.
Regarding buying a house, Hakuya believed it was an inevitable step in his future.
His number of Pokémon would only increase in the future, and constantly freeloading in the dorms of Pokémon Centers wasn't a sustainable solution; he needed a large house eventually. Steven's move of gifting it to him for free could be considered doing him a massive favor ahead of time.
"Too rich."
Hakuya couldn't help but marvel at Steven's generosity.
He was so flushed with cash that it left Hakuya momentarily speechless, only able to summarize it with those two words.
"It's nothing."
Steven waved his hand, speaking as if it were an incredibly mundane and common occurrence. "I'm different from you, Hakuya. I don't possess Master-class Pokémon breeding techniques, nor do I have superb battle command skills. The only thing worth praising about me is this ordinary family background."
"???"
Hakuya's expression, however, was a bit sluggish.
Uh... aren't you being a bit too much of a humblebrag?
If I had as much money as you, I'd go right back to the dungeon shop and buy an Arceus egg right now, believe it or not?!
"Hey, hey, hey, Steven... When you told me we'd become good bros before, how come I didn't see you gift me a few villas? Isn't that treating people a bit too differently~"
Wallace crossed his arms over his chest, chiming in with a timely tease from the side.
"Get lost."
The corner of Steven's mouth twitched slightly, and he then squeezed out a smile as he looked at him.
As a similarly wealthy citizen of Sootopolis and a Contest Master with extremely high prestige in the entire Coordinator community, it was obvious that Wallace wasn't lacking a large villa like this.
So, it could be summarized in one sentence.
This guy was just acting like a daily annoying jerk again.
"I didn't expect that in your heart, Steven, our friendship amounted to only this. It's too much."
Wallace clutched his chest, putting on a heartbroken expression as if saying, "I truly misjudged you."
"..."
"Hakuya, you can just directly ignore that guy Wallace."
As if completely used to Wallace's annoying banter, the current Hoenn Champion was completely unmoved. Turning his head, he continued chatting with Hakuya about the villa.
—This large villa was located in the northern part of Rustboro City. It could currently be moved into directly with the keys. In a few days, Steven would change the owner's name on the property deed to Hakuya's, at which point the handover would be truly complete.
"We seem to have stayed in here for quite a while." Steven looked up at the wall clock in the office, reverting back to his usual elegant gentleman demeanor. "The celebratory banquet isn't over yet. I hope you continue to have a good time later, Hakuya."
"Alright."
Hakuya nodded. After calming his emotions slightly, he found that he still couldn't suppress the smile on his face.
No shit.
It would be a ghost story if he could actually suppress the smile pulling at the corners of his mouth.
An Easter Egg Dungeon with Rayquaza as the reward, a Feebas offspring of a Champion's Milotic, a bulging wallet, and a massive villa... He could only say that the rewards for intercepting Primal Groudon and Primal Kyogre this time were truly abundant. He hadn't come for nothing!