Imperial Capital International Airport, 1:00 PM—Julian landed.
In the past, he always traveled alone. But now, he had a little tail following behind.
Walking through the airport corridor at a leisurely pace, Julian moved alongside Lily. Today marked the start of the new semester at Imperial University.
At the terminal entrance, they could already see representatives from various top universities in the capital, all there to welcome their incoming freshmen. Naturally, Imperial University was among them.
And as it turned out, Julian actually knew the person assigned to pick up the freshmen.
Despite Julian wearing a mask, Luis recognized him instantly and walked over excitedly.
It had been almost a year since they last met.
But soon, his attention was drawn to Lily standing beside Julian.
'Beautiful, pure, and elegant.'—that was Luis’s first impression of her.
Before Luis could ask, Julian spoke up: "This is Lily, a freshman. She’s… a friend."
Julian wasn’t sure how to exactly introduce her. Saying "the daughter of my uncle’s business partner" felt too long-winded, and saying "Matthew Cross’s daughter" would expose her identity—something Lily didn’t want.
Not because she wanted to keep a low profile—but because way too many people played "Pokémon Glory", and with the awful gacha odds in the game, she was afraid if people knew her father was Matthew, CEO of Penguin Group, she’d be bombarded with complaints every day.
Just as Luis was about to probe further, a cold voice sounded from behind him:
"Friend? What kind of friend?"
Julian, standing right in front of Luis, had already noticed the person behind him.
Even when facing a Champion-level Leafeon, Julian hadn’t flinched—but now, his expression changed. A rare look of panic flashed across his face.
Julian suddenly felt incredibly awkward, as if he’d been caught red-handed. Even though nothing had happened between him and Lily, being seen with another girl by Nicole still made him inexplicably guilty.
He hadn’t even told Nicole he was returning today.
Though a few days ago, Luis had asked when he’d be back, and he’d casually mentioned it.
So now, the evidence was clear.
Julian turned his gaze sharply toward Luis.
Luis felt wronged—he’d just happened to bump into Nicole on campus the day before and mentioned in passing that Julian was returning today.
He never expected Julian would actually bring a girl back with him.
'You haven’t even finished what’s in your bowl, and you’re already eyeing the pot?' Luis couldn’t help but admire Julian’s audacity.
'As expected of my Brother—daring enough to play around with the granddaughter of Champion Duke.'
"I came to pick you up."
Nicole’s expression remained as calm as ever, as if she wasn’t the slightest bit angry about the girl beside Julian.
"I thought you were busy with your research project, so I didn’t tell you," Julian explained.
This wasn’t an excuse—it was genuinely the reason he hadn’t mentioned his return to the university.
"Julian-gege, who is this…?"
Lily looked at Nicole with a timid, innocent expression.
[T/N: It's like Oppa or Onii-chan in mandarin.]
Julian turned to look at her, as if asking, 'Are you serious right now?'
Hadn’t she been calling him "Senior Julian" this whole time?
'What is this, the classic "manipulative innocent girl" routine?'
"Nicole. My girlfriend."
He had already sensed that beneath Nicole’s calm exterior, a cold wave of suppressed fury was rippling through her aura. So he quickly threw out the title without hesitation.
A faint blush colored Nicole’s cheeks, but she didn’t refute it.
Meanwhile, Lily’s expression remained unchanged. Instead, she smiled sweetly. "Oh, so you’re Sister Nicole! Julian-gege has mentioned you before. He said you’re always busy researching Pokémon… Very passionate about your field. I’m sure you’ll win the Arceus Award one day!"
On the surface, her words sounded perfectly polite, even complimentary.
But why emphasize that Nicole was always busy with research? The implication was clear—that she had no time for Julian.
"Ahem. Lily, you go with Luis. He’s here to pick up freshmen," Julian said, deciding it was best to cut off her little act before things escalated.
Without waiting for her response, he grabbed Nicole’s hand and quickly walked away.
Lily stomped her foot in frustration, then turned to Luis. "Is Nicole really Julian-gege’s girlfriend?"
"Uh… probably? Maybe?" Luis answered with extreme uncertainty.
Meanwhile, Julian and Nicole were now riding on the back of his Dragonite. The flying saddle was wide enough for both of them to sit comfortably.
"Don’t get the wrong idea. Lily is Matthew Cross’s daughter. He and my uncle are business partners, so I was asked to escort her to campus," Julian explained quickly.
"Matthew? The guy you and Celebi are always cursing out?" Nicole asked with a bemused expression.
"…Yes," Julian admitted slowly, then quickly clarified, "Mostly Celebi, though. I only curse occasionally."
"I’m a civilized young man of modern society."
Nicole nodded faintly.
"I’m serious!" Julian insisted.
Seeing Julian acting almost like a kid trying to defend himself, Nicole couldn’t help but smile.
"You were in Wyvernia for so long. What were you doing?"
"Exploring secret realms, what else?" Julian shrugged.
He had spent over eight months exploring, which wasn’t actually that long by trainer standards—especially considering how many realms he had gone through.
For many trainers, just entering one secret realm usually meant three to four months of commitment at minimum.
So, if your partner was a Trainer and you weren't, you might go months without seeing them, and with no signal inside secret realms, you couldn’t even contact each other.
Being a trainer was one of the most popular and lucrative professions, but it also had the highest rate of… infidelity.
Many male trainers spent long periods away from home, and when they finally returned, they might get an "unexpected surprise".
No matter how strong a couple’s bond was, if one person was constantly absent while someone else was eager to dig at the foundation… well, sometimes the home got stolen right from under them.
Cases of trainers killing their cheating spouses or lovers happened almost daily—it was so common that it barely made the news anymore.
"Oh, right—this is for you."
Julian pulled a fruit from his backpack—though in reality, he’d retrieved it from his system space under the guise of rummaging through his bag.
Even Nicole, who rarely showed emotion, couldn’t hide her delight when she saw it.
"Mhm. Found it in a Wyvernian secret realm. There were exactly three—one for my mom, one for my aunt, and one for you," Julian said.
As the name suggested, the Beauty Berry had remarkable skin-preserving and youth-enhancing effects. Eating just one could noticeably slow aging, keeping one’s appearance fresh and radiant.
It was a highly sought-after treasure among female trainers and wealthy socialites.
A single berry could fetch a higher price on the market than a pseudo-legendary Pokémon egg.
After all, to many women, maintaining their beauty was far more meaningful than owning a rare Pokémon.
However, Beauty Berries only appeared in Advanced-level secret realms or above, and even then, the chance of them appearing was absurdly low.
Julian had explored 35 Advanced-level secret realms and only found three—so yeah… that’s how rare they are.
Upto 30 chapters ahead on :-