At the Walker family home in Lake City, Indeedee and Slowking were busy in the kitchen, while Magearna was helping them out as an assistant.
John had also returned to Lake City from the Imperial Capital.
But that wasn’t the main focus—today’s spotlight was on Henry’s wife, Alice.
When Julian had gone into the Ruins, Alice had only just regained consciousness. Now, more than nine months later, she was finally meeting the person who had saved her life.
It had been ten minutes already, and Julian was still being stared at by his aunt with an overwhelmingly grateful expression, making him feel a bit uncomfortable.
Alice truly felt indebted to Julian. If not for him, she might have remained in a vegetative state for the rest of her life, and Henry would have been left lonely and broken forever.
So, Julian had altered her fate—and by extension, that of Henry as well. Updates are released by novel-fire.ɴet
"Alright, sister-in-law, stop staring at Julian like that. He looks like he’s about to wet himself," Quinn teased from the side.
Julian instinctively nodded but immediately caught himself.
After shooting Quinn a glare, he asked, "Auntie, when’s the wedding date for you and Uncle?"
Alice’s face flushed slightly. "It hasn’t been decided yet… Mr. Walker said we should pick an auspicious day."
"Come on, sister-in-law, you and big brother already have your marriage certificate. Why haven’t you changed how you address us yet?"
"Alice, surely this old man deserves to hear you call him Dad?" John chimed in.
He was genuinely delighted that Alice had woken up. After all, if she hadn’t, his son would have remained single forever. And although the Walker family already had Julian as an incredibly outstanding heir, their lineage was still too sparse.
Now that Alice was awake, even if she and Henry had just one child—whether a boy or girl—it would be a blessing.
Of course, it’d be even better if they could go on to have a second or even third child—the more, the better.
Although Alice had been awake for a while, John had been extremely busy, and they’d only met briefly once before. Today was their first proper meeting.
As for Quinn, she had been in Lake City the whole time. Both being women, and with Henry having specifically asked Quinn to spend time with Alice, she had put aside her research work to keep Alice company. Over this time, the two of them had grown close like sisters.
"I’ve already consulted the almanac," John declared. "The 18th of next month is an auspicious date. I’ll visit your family then and discuss the arrangements with your parents."
His eldest son was finally getting married—no one was happier than him.
Alice felt both nervous and excited.
It was already the middle of this month, which meant the wedding was barely a month away.
"How is that soon? If there had been a suitable date this month, I’d have had you two marry immediately!"
The Walker family had always been decisive in their ways—if something could be done quickly, they wouldn’t drag it out.
"Dad, what about the guest list?" Quinn asked.
"Our side is small—just a few of us. Your mother’s relatives are more numerous, and I’ll invite some colleagues. Henry probably has plenty of business partners to call."
"Whatever the scale, we’ll make it grand," John declared with great confidence.
Henry’s wedding was a monumental event, second only to the birth of Julian, the third-generation heir, over twenty years ago. Naturally, it had to be celebrated with the utmost extravagance.
The Walker family lacked neither money nor connections.
"Alice, I’ll help you arrange the bridesmaids," Quinn offered.
Julian suddenly had an idea. "Uncle, how about I be your best man? I’ll gather a group of handsome young guys—we’ll totally outshine Auntie’s bridesmaid squad!"
The idea of groomsmen hadn’t even crossed Henry’s mind before, but since Julian brought it up, he decided to leave it to him—it wasn’t a bad idea at all.
Hearing Julian’s words, Quinn’s competitive spirit flared up. "Oh? Bring it on! Let’s see who comes out on top!"
"Heh, just don’t cry when you lose," Julian shot back.
Watching the Walker family's two troublemakers quarrel in high spirits, Henry suddenly had a feeling that his wedding might turn into a circus by the two of them.
But strangely enough, there was also a sense of excitement in his heart.
"Dad, how’s the Duraludon clan doing in the Oreburgh Great Wall secret realm?" Julian asked.
He had essentially wiped out the Duraludon population in the Ruin, making them an exclusive species owned solely by the Walker family worldwide.
The Oreburgh Great Wall was a Special Advanced-level secret realm, originally co-managed by the nation and the Walker family. But ever since John had become Champion, this special secret realm had become the Walker family’s private domain.
That was why Julian had relocated the Duraludon tribe there—he wasn’t about to let others reap the benefits.
The Oreburgh Great Wall was a Steel-type secret realm, saturated with intense Steel-type energy—far more suitable than the environment where the Duraludon had lived before.
Which meant the clan was living far more comfortably now.
"They’re fine, except they clash with the Aggron clan almost every day. Other than that, nothing unusual," Jake explained.
Both he and John had captured one Duraludon each—their choices had been the two leaders among the four Duraludon tribes at the Ruin.
Though these Duraludon were at the Elite–level, within Jake’s and John’s lineups, they weren’t strong enough to even enter their secondary teams.
Catching them had been mostly for show—after all, Duraludon was still a Pokémon that, at present, only they possessed in the entire world.
As for the clashes between the Duraludon and Aggron clans, Julian didn’t pay it much mind. In the wild and in secret realms, such conflicts were only natural.
After his uncle’s wedding was over, Julian planned to visit the Special Advanced-level secret realm the Oreburgh Great Wall himself.
Now that it was entirely their family's private domain, he could enter whenever he wanted. In the past, he could have gone in too, but he had always been delayed by other matters.
Later, when he finally had time, he'd either just returned from some Ruin or Secret Realm, or was just too lazy after finishing some other task.
"Duraludon has excellent potential," John remarked with great satisfaction.
In terms of base stats alone, Duraludon even surpassed Aggron by five points.
Moreover, Duraludon was a dual Steel- and Dragon-type.
Steel-type meant formidable defense, while Dragon-type gave it formidable offensive potential.
With both defense and attack combined in one, as long as Duraludon was trained properly, it could definitely become another signature Pokémon of the Walker family.
[T/N: I don't know if Archaludon hadn't been introduced when the author was writing this or if he simply forgot but I don't think we will see one for some time or ever for that matter. So, yeah just wanted to make that clear.]
Upto 30 chapters ahead on :-