Froslass stared at him for a long moment. Then it shook its head firmly and made a soft sound.
It understood.
Lucien smiled. "Would you like to come with us?"
Two thousand years had passed since they had existed in the same era. Many familiar things were gone. Lucien felt the particular pull of shared history when he looked at Froslass, one of the few living things that remembered the same world he did.
But Froslass shook its head gently and declined. It made another soft sound. It wanted to stay. It liked this town and the people in it.
"Then stay," Lucien said. "Live well here."
Froslass nodded once.
Lucien turned and stepped through Hoopa's ring.
Lucien City. More than two thousand years of development had made it the largest and most advanced city in the Unova Region, and by most measures in the entire world. It was also the site of the Unova League headquarters.
"Back here again," Lucien said, looking at streets that were familiar and strange at the same time, the way a place feels when it has kept changing without you. Something from a thousand years ago moved through his mind, and with it came a quiet melancholy.
"Do you want to go to the inn?" Hoopa asked, drifting over.
"Yes. It's been a long time. Ash has already set out on his journey, so we'll stay here for a while."
The Pallet Town house had been bought out of simple curiosity, wanting to see the real Ash at the start of his story. Over the years, Lucien had established several places he moved between: the Pallet Town house, the inn in Lucien City, the wooden house in the Tree of Beginning. With Hoopa, none of these distances meant anything.
"Great!" Hoopa cheered.
They walked through several streets and arrived at an inn tucked into a quiet corner of the old city. The sign above the door read Loving Home.
Whenever Lucien had felt restless over the years, he would bring his Pokémon here and run the place for a while, watching Trainers pass through and listening to their stories. The inn had been closed long enough that dust had settled over everything. He opened the door, and with the Pokémon's help, cleaned and relit the fireplace. The warmth spread through the lobby quickly, bringing with it the comfortable atmosphere the place was known for.
He opened the inn management app on his phone and changed the status from closed to open.
Among Lucien City's many good inns, Loving Home had a particular advantage: good quality at a reasonable price. Trainers who had spent their travel money on their Pokémon tended to find their way here. After reopening, no guests arrived immediately, so Lucien was unhurried. He brewed tea and used the Pokémon delivery app to order donuts for Hoopa and the others. Before long, a Pelipper in a blue delivery uniform landed at the window. Hoopa collected the order with enthusiasm and settled in with Mew and the others to enjoy it.
Lucien sat with his tea and let his thoughts move.
He had never handed the full scope of modern technology directly to his people. From the beginning he had believed that the people of this world, given a foundation and the freedom to build, would find their own way to something better than anything he could have planned. They had.
The technology of this era had reached a level that genuinely astonished him: global communication networks, aviation, aerospace, and some humans and Pokémon had even traveled to other planets to settle.
In the original course of events that Lucien remembered, people at this point in time were still using outdated video call technology. Every time he thought about the difference, the same feeling came over him.
What people could build, when given the chance, was extraordinary.
The phone rang.
A room booking notification appeared on the screen. He confirmed it through the app, exchanged a few brief messages with the guest, and indicated the inn was open. The guest would arrive shortly.
Another Trainer, perhaps. Lucien felt a quiet anticipation.
Fifteen minutes later, the door opened.
He had expected a Trainer. What walked in was a woman with long golden hair, pale skin, and the self-possessed bearing of someone entirely accustomed to making an impression and long past thinking about it. She appeared to be around twenty, dressed in a long black coat and black boots, tall and composed, her presence carrying a quality that was not arrogance but something closer to complete certainty about who she was.
Cynthia.
Lucien kept his expression perfectly neutral.
She was supposed to be in the Sinnoh Region. And yet some things about this world seemed to proceed regardless of what else had changed, Ash, Lance, Steven, Cynthia. Certain people appeared to move toward their destinies with a consistency that suggested something deeper than coincidence.
He collected himself quickly.
"Welcome to Loving Home."
Cynthia nodded slightly. Her eyes moved through the lobby and settled on two unfamiliar Pokémon on the sofa nearby. She frowned briefly, then returned her attention to the front desk.
"I booked a single room online. I need to check in."
"Of course." Lucien brought up the reservation with a tap. "Ms. Cynthia?"
She nodded.
He handed over the room key card. "Room 302, third floor. The bedding is fresh and the fireplace runs all day. Call down if you need anything."
Cynthia accepted the key card. Her gaze moved back across the lobby, this time settling on Lucien himself. The mysterious Pokémon, the inn's particular atmosphere, and the man running it, none of it quite fit the category of ordinary innkeeper. He seemed to sense the question forming in her mind.
"Just a traveler who enjoys running a quiet place," Lucien said, taking a sip of his tea with a gentle smile. "Though I'm curious why the Sinnoh Champion came to Unova and chose this particular inn."
Lucien City had no shortage of high-end hotels. Given Cynthia's position, there was no practical reason for her to be here.
Cynthia was quiet for a moment, looking at the darkening sky outside the window.
"I'm investigating a piece of lost history. Ancient legends connecting Unova and Sinnoh. I heard Lucien City holds old documents that might be relevant, so I came to look." She paused, eyes moving to the fireplace and the neat, unhurried atmosphere of the lobby. "As for this place, I prefer quiet over the Grand Hotel's kind of busy."
What she left unsaid was that while researching the history of Lucien City, she had come across references to this inn specifically. An establishment that had apparently been operating for nearly two hundred years with an owner who showed no signs of aging. The kind of detail that, to a mythological archaeologist, was not something to walk past.
Lucien understood immediately. Beyond being the Sinnoh Champion, Cynthia was a mythological archaeologist by genuine passion. The intertwined ancient histories of Unova and Sinnoh would naturally draw her here. It was not surprising at all, when he thought about it.
"Rest well," he said, and turned back to his tea.
Upstairs, Cynthia sat on the sofa and opened her phone.
Cynthia: I've arrived in Lucien City.
Caitlin: That was fast.
Cynthia: Yes. And I've found something interesting.
Caitlin: Interesting how? Did Unova unearth another ancient site?
Cynthia's fingers paused on the screen. Her gaze drifted toward the floor, as though she could see through it to the man sitting quietly by the fireplace below.
Cynthia: Not a site. An inn. The owner is unusual, and there are two Pokémon here I don't recognize. One of them reminds me of something in Sinnoh's older legends.
The reply came almost immediately.
Caitlin: ??? You don't recognize a Pokémon? Cynthia, are you certain? Is there actually a Pokémon in the world you can't identify?
Caitlin had grown up in a psychic family surrounded by rare Pokémon and ancient documentation. She understood exactly how extensive Cynthia's knowledge was. The skepticism in her message was entirely genuine.
Cynthia: One hundred percent certain. And this is the inn you mentioned before. Loving Home. The one that's been operating for nearly two hundred years with an owner who apparently doesn't age.
Caitlin: ...You actually found that place.
Cynthia: Yes. The owner's name is Lucien. His presence is unusual.
A pause on the other end, long enough that Cynthia pictured Caitlin pulling up documentation.
Caitlin: Lucien... Isn't that the name of the first King of ancient Unova? The founder of the Pokémon League? Though perhaps it's just a shared name.
Cynthia's eyes moved slightly.
Cynthia: Unova's historical records on that king are extensive.
Caitlin: I know. I heard that after King Lucien unified the world, he disappeared with his Pokémon companions. Nobody knows where he went or what became of him.
Cynthia: I see.
Caitlin: Dinner when you're back?
Cynthia: Yes.
Downstairs, Lucien sat with his tea, unhurried.
Hoopa looked up from its donut. "Lucien, who is that woman? She keeps looking at me from upstairs."
Lucien laughed quietly, eyes on the fireplace flames. "Just a scholar with a deep interest in the past. The next few days may be more lively than expected."
The fireplace filled the lobby with warm, golden light. Mew was curled in the corner of the sofa, tail moving slowly against the cushion, entirely at peace with the world. Hoopa occasionally glanced toward the top of the stairs between bites, its curiosity unsubtle.
Lucien held his teacup and let his thoughts settle.
More than two thousand years had passed since he had been the founding king of anything. He had long since become something else: a traveler, a recluse, someone who kept a quiet inn and a wooden house in a tree. Most people knew his name only as a legend.
Only scholars who pursued the buried truth with genuine stubbornness ever noticed the traces that time had not quite covered. And those traces, already well-dusted over by the centuries, were best left undisturbed.
Footsteps on the stairs.
Lucien looked up. Cynthia came down steadily, crossed the lobby, let her gaze move across Hoopa and Mew with the assessing attention of someone who has already decided they are significant, and settled her eyes on Lucien.
"Mr. Lucien. I have some questions, if you don't mind."
"Of course." Lucien set down his teacup and leaned back in his chair, entirely composed. "What would you like to know?"
"Is the Lucien City Legend true?" Cynthia asked directly.
"The city legend?" Lucien raised an eyebrow slightly.
"There's a well-documented account online," Cynthia said, her voice measured. "Loving Home has been operating for over two hundred years. You have apparently been here for all of it."
Lucien was quiet for a moment.
He genuinely had not known he had become a city legend. He spent most of his time in Pallet Town or the Tree of Beginning, returning to Lucien City only occasionally. Apparently, the inn's longevity had accumulated more attention than he had noticed.
"How can a person live that long?" Cynthia said, watching him carefully.
Lucien's expression remained perfectly unchanged. "Families can look alike across generations. Like Officer Jenny, or Nurse Joy. The same face, different people. A two-hundred-year-old legend probably just means a long-running family business." He paused. "That would explain it, wouldn't it?"
Cynthia looked at him for a moment.