Chapter 19: Adopted by the Queen
The Poliwhirl seemed to just be curious, as it had never seen a Pokémon like Will before. After a brief greeting, it placed Will back into the lake.
"Are you the boss of this territory?" This time, Will didn't rush to dive back into the water but instead turned to ask the Poliwhirl.
"Yep," the Poliwhirl nodded.
This didn't surprise Will. After all, the Poliwhirl was massive, standing a full 3 meters tall. That was three times the size recorded in the Pokédex, an exaggerated height that surely came from an "Alpha" bonus.
"Then how long have you been the boss?"
"I don't know. A long, long time."
"..."
Will froze. He had forgotten that wild Pokémon had no concept of time. They had no idea how many days or years had passed. In fact, even his own sense of time had become much blurrier; he could only judge its passage by the changing of the sky.
Will thought for a moment and decided to go ashore to have a look himself. He just needed to move slowly along the riverbank. The Silph Tribe had started a fire near here once. He just needed to find traces of that fire to get a rough idea of how much time had passed.
"Can you help me get up there?" Will asked the Poliwhirl.
"Sure," the Poliwhirl nodded, scooped Will up again, and placed him on the ground.
Returning to land, Will felt a little uncomfortable. A Dratini's skin was probably too delicate; it would start to dry out after leaving the water. It was fine for a short period, but staying out of the water for too long would likely cause problems. This wasn't an issue for Will, however, as he only intended to look around the immediate vicinity.
After giving the Poliwhirl a nod of thanks, Will began to slowly wriggle forward along the bank. He squirmed for a good ten minutes and had only advanced a dozen or so meters. But those dozen meters were enough for him to make a judgment. The lake he had been reborn in was the same small lake that bordered his old territory. He just didn't know who that territory belonged to now. If it still belonged to his companions from his past life, then perhaps he could become the boss again in this Dratini body.
But he felt the chances of that were extremely low. Because as he scanned his surroundings, he couldn't see a single trace of a fire. This meant that a not-insignificant amount of time had passed since that great fire, at least a matter of years.
He now suspected that Wally, Milly, and the others might already be dead. After all, the average lifespan of Bug-type Pokémon was very short. Even a Champion-level Bug-type might only live for a hundred or two hundred years. Pokémon like Turtwig, Squirtle, Torkoal, and Tirtouga had lifespans of hundreds of years from the moment they were born, not to mention Ghost and Psychic-types.
So, he highly doubted he would ever see his old followers again in this life.
"Sigh... Hey, hey, hey!!"
Just as Will was sighing by the shore, looking out at the lake, he suddenly felt something pick him up, giving him a huge scare. Will struggled frantically, trying to dive back into the lake, but at his low level, he had almost no strength and was held tightly, unable to move.
"You..."
Will thought he was about to start over again. He angrily turned his head, ready to see which little punk dared to be so disrespectful to him, the great Beedrill boss. But when he turned, he froze.
Before him was a mature, beautiful face. But that wasn't what stunned him. What stunned him was that the face looked so incredibly familiar.
"Little one, what are you doing here all alone? Are you in a bad mood? This is my first time seeing you in this forest." The woman, who had the gentle air of a loving wife, reached out and softly stroked the small white fin on Will's head, then couldn't help but break into a smile.
Who are you? Hiss... Why do you feel so familiar? Could you be an NPC I saw in a game? No, that's not right, the games never had content for the Johto region during the Era of Primal Beasts...
Will frowned, looking at the woman before him.
Bzz~
Suddenly, his ears twitched. He heard a sound that was more familiar than anything else. The sound of a Beedrill's flapping wings!
Will turned his head to look behind the woman. Four Beedrill floated silently in the air. Each one was 3 meters tall, matching the final physique he had achieved in his past life.
These four Beedrill are very high-level! They definitely can't be the leader of their own swarm, so their levels must be at least 40, maybe even higher! Will made an instant judgment.
"My name is Liz of the Dragonite, Queen of the Dragonite Kingdom. You're such a cute little thing. Come home with me," Liz was so charmed by Will's antics that she decided to take this little primal beast back to the palace with her.
She had seen pretty much every Pokémon on Mt. Silver. The cuter ones were Pokémon like Pikachu, Nidorina, and Vulpix, but none of them had truly captured her heart. Only this little beast in her arms seemed to perfectly match her sense of aesthetics. Its every move was adorable. Even its soft, sweet voice was unbearably cute to her ears.
"?!"
Liz?!
Will the Dratini was completely dumbfounded. He never thought that the little girl from back then had actually survived, let alone become the queen of the Dragonite Tribe. No, it should be the Queen of the Dragonite Kingdom now.
Has the world already entered the Kingdom Period? No wonder Liz has Beedrill following her. Humans must have learned how to command the power of Pokémon by now.
Although the relationship between humans and Pokémon still isn't great, the main theme of this era should be war between humans... Will lowered his head, his mind racing as he analyzed the current situation. He didn't even notice that Liz had already stood up and was carrying him out of the forest.
By the time Will felt the gentle breeze of the plains, it was too late. But it didn't matter. In his opinion, becoming the Queen's Pokémon and growing up under her protection would allow him to pass through his vulnerable Dratini stage in peace and security. He might even be able to safely grow all the way to his final Dragonite stage. At that point, as a pseudo-legendary with a level of 50 or higher, he might not be invincible, but at least he wouldn't have to worry about being killed by humans again.
"By the way, how did I not see back then that this dirt-covered village girl had such good looks?" Will turned his head to look at Liz, who was holding him.
Liz returned his gaze with a gentle smile. Her fiery red, curly hair—a trademark of the Dragonite family—combined with her fair skin and gentle eyes, was a stark contrast to the little girl from back then. It was no wonder Will hadn't recognized her at first; no one would have believed it.
"Now then, I should give you a name," Liz said, frowning in serious thought as she held Will.
Five seconds later.
"I'll call you Lan."
"Lan? I knew you couldn't come up with a good name. I hope you don't insist on changing it when you see me evolve into an orange Dragonite," Will thought, shaking his head in resignation.
He didn't know that he had mistaken the name.