Chapter Seventeen: The Seeker of Myths, Wang Luo

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The Celestica Ruins lay a considerable distance from the village, deep within the mountains.

Honedge spent the entire journey swinging its blade at the empty air. Yesterday, it had acquired some strange swordsmanship knowledge, and out of curiosity—and because it considered itself a genius with a sword—it was diligently studying it.

Before leaving, Guangtai went to the village to bid farewell to the old man at the herb shop. When Old Juru heard that Guangtai was heading to the Celestica Ruins, he paused briefly before breaking into a smile.

“Don’t worry. Although the ruins are far from the village, we have a Doduo that delivers supplies... Just ride it there.”

“So... since you’re going to the Celestica Ruins, could you deliver something along the way?”

A Doduo? Right—the village did indeed have one that made deliveries.

Doduo was also a common mount Pokémon. It resembled a kiwi with two heads. Its feathers were short, making it poor at flying, but in exchange, it possessed powerful legs and was said to be capable of running at a hundred kilometers per hour.

“Deliver something?” Guangtai asked, puzzled.

Old Juru nodded. “I believe I mentioned this before. There’s a small cabin on the mountain near the Celestica Ruins. An elderly man lives there. Everyone calls him Grandpa of the Mountains.”

“He keeps an Abra, and from time to time, outside researchers and adventurers stay at his cabin as well. The cabin stands in the Snowy Valley, where the snow never melts throughout the year and forms thick walls of ice. There are only two and a half months each year without snowfall, so it’s extremely cold.”

“He’s the guardian of the ruins. Every summer, we deliver supplies to him. The time has come again this year. During summer, you can enter the valley directly, but in autumn and winter, we can only leave the goods outside. The Abra will retrieve them with its psychic powers.”

Guangtai understood. The situation Old Juru described was not much different from what he had seen in the game.

There really was an old man in the mountain cabin, along with an Abra capable of teleporting people across vast distances—and even a computer connected to the network. Strangely enough, despite the Celestica Ruins being such a remote place, they had an internet connection. Not only the village, but even the mountain cabin was connected, though Guangtai had seen no signal towers anywhere nearby.

The power of science was truly magnificent.

At the same time, Guangtai remembered that the mountain cabin should also contain a guide who spoke in a distinctly peculiar manner, constantly saying things like “Oh my, oh my.” But since the character’s default appearance was that of a Hiker, his true identity had always been unclear.

Old Juru had mentioned this guide before. He was a merchant with yellow hair and a large backpack... Well, that still did not distinguish him much from a Hiker.

Yellow hair... Could he be one of those Hikers from the Alola region—the ones who wore green caps?

“Thank you so much. With a Doduo, we’ll be able to cut the travel time considerably!”

Guangtai accepted Old Juru’s request to deliver the supplies. The old man walked out of the herb shop with him and called over a villager who was preparing for a delivery.

This Doduo was exceptionally large, and it looked a little fat... It was quite different from an ordinary Doduo.

“Haha, this child is very sturdy, isn’t it? It once got lost after failing to find enough food and wandered into the village. Since it had such a large appetite—and the village had an abundant supply of food—it simply stayed here.”

“It’s much stronger than other Pokémon and larger as well, so it can transport a great deal of cargo.”

The old man patted Doduo’s body. Both of its heads let out cheerful cries.

“Duo-do!”

Free food and lodging, no need to worry about attacks in the wild, and all it had to do was deliver a few packages in order to live peacefully. Naturally, it was a wonderful life.

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Honedge flew in front of Doduo and greeted it.

“Yo!”

Although it was somewhat inferior to the royal mount Guangtai had once seen, its size was still acceptable. As a companion, it would surely be quite useful!

Honedge continued evaluating Doduo on its own, while both of Doduo’s heads tilted to the side, their round black eyes filled with confusion.

Then, out of curiosity, one of them pecked Honedge.

“Yooooo—!!”

After being pecked, Honedge immediately let out a meaningless shriek. It was so angry that it even blurted out its ancient dialect!

How rude. Did it have to peck everything just to see what it was? Had it never seen a flying sword before?

Doduo: “Duo?”

How were those sounds even supposed to be combined into words?

Guangtai heard Honedge’s cries. Although the villagers around him had no idea what it was saying, he could only sigh helplessly once more.

“All right, all right. Let’s go.”

With that, he grabbed Honedge by the hilt and mounted Doduo. The cargo was hung along both sides of Doduo’s furry body and around its rear, then secured firmly with a bird saddle. Reins had also been fastened to both beaks by the villagers.

The arrangement looked strangely familiar to Guangtai. It took him only a moment to remember.

Wasn’t this exactly what Yellow’s Doduo looked like?

Individually, Yellow’s Doduo was also on the larger side. By comparison, Gary’s Doduo in the anime was much smaller, appearing somewhat underdeveloped.

Guangtai mounted Doduo, while Honedge slipped into his backpack. From a distance, he looked like a swordsman riding a fat, two-headed bird... It was a very strange sight.

Doduo’s speed, however, was astonishing. The landscape before Guangtai began rushing backward. Doduo’s two legs stretched into a rapid stride, and the air rushing toward them at high speed forced Guangtai to lower his body.

Before long, the village disappeared from view, replaced by broad expanses of brown and white as the temperature gradually fell.

Once they entered the mountain range, every rock and tree was covered in thick snow. The snow on the ground was slowly melting, gathering into streams and pools. Yet the farther they traveled toward the ancient sacred peak, the more extensive the snow became.

The sun still hung high in the sky, but the snow in the mountains showed no sign of melting. Snow-covered regions were naturally cold, but melting snow absorbed a great deal of heat from the air, causing temperatures to fall even further. That was why it was often colder when snow was melting than when it was actually falling.

Thus, after they entered the areas where the snow lay deepest, it was actually less cold than in the regions where the snow had begun to melt.

Doduo, however, showed no discomfort whatsoever. Technically speaking, a Normal- and Flying-type Doduo was twice as weak to Ice-type attacks. Perhaps its downy feathers kept it warm. Or perhaps this Doduo was simply... rather fat, and therefore not afraid of the cold.

Around noon, the mountain road enclosed by two massive walls of snow finally appeared before Guangtai.

Walls of ice and snow. The Snowy Valley. The Blizzard Zone.

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Legend said that, after crossing the sea from ancient Sinnoh, the people of Celestica gathered together with the ancient people of Johto who had migrated north. After exchanging their knowledge, they built a special temple to worship Almighty Sinnoh.

“That’s the Celestica Ruins.”

Guangtai spotted several wooden cabins. Unlike in the game, there were quite a few of them here, though they all appeared to be empty. There were also several fields nearby, free of snow and seemingly already plowed.

Hmm. Even the Blizzard Zone had farmland...

It reminded Guangtai of a similar village: Freezington in the Crown Tundra of the Galar region. It too existed amid a frozen wilderness, yet still possessed farmland where crops could be grown. That was presumably because the land there had once been transformed by the King of Bountiful Harvests.

Later, however, after the King of Bountiful Harvests vanished, the soil gradually lost its vitality.

Guangtai stared at the temple in the distance. The cabins were not as close to it as they had been in the game; they still had to travel some way farther. After rounding a snow wall, they reached a high point from which the flat-roofed temple could be seen.

Its exterior looked almost identical to the Ruins of Alph, the famous ruins of the Johto region.

Outside stood four enormous pillars, broken like spears.

There was also a polished stone marker identifying the site, much like the explanatory tablets commonly placed at historical ruins.

“Ah! Hello there! It really is cold, isn’t it~? Cold enough to freeze you solid~!”

“Oh my, oh my. Are you here to explore the ruins? Summer is the easiest season in which to enter this place. Whew... You certainly picked a good time to come.”

A frivolous voice with a slightly deep tone came from behind Guangtai. One of the nearby cabins opened, and a man stepped out dressed like a Hiker—or perhaps a backpacker.

No, although he looked very much like one, those clothes...

Guangtai’s eyes slowly widened, but he quickly concealed his expression. Fortunately, they were still some distance apart, and the man did not seem to notice the change in Guangtai’s face. Instead, he gazed toward the Celestica Ruins with an expression of longing and regret.

“It’s impressive that someone so young is already interested in the Celestica Ruins!”

“The fusion of Sinnoh and Johto civilization can be seen clearly in the design of the stone pillars here~”

“Oh my, oh my! How terribly rude of me. It isn’t very convenient to stand around talking, is it? Come with me to the mountain cabin ahead, and we can discuss things at leisure~”

The Hiker wore heavy blue clothing, with a garment resembling an apron tied across his chest and back. A large brown travel pack rested on his back. He wore a blue-and-yellow hat, and his bright yellow hair fell over his left eye.

“You’re the first person to come since summer began. The previous group of ruin researchers left some time ago. Hmm... I believe they were from the Johto region.”

Guangtai said nothing. He merely marveled inwardly.

This Hiker’s true identity had long been a subject of speculation. His manner of speaking was bizarre, utterly unlike that of an ordinary mountain man. He sounded more like a philosopher, and he appeared in such a distant, remote place as the Celestica Ruins, where he would tell the protagonist various myths concerning Johto and Sinnoh.

After Pokémon Legends: Arceus was released, speculation about this Hiker gradually began pointing toward a particularly unusual character.

What Guangtai had never expected was that the theory would prove correct.

The man before him, whose appearance closely resembled that of Cynthia, the champion of Sinnoh, was named Volo.