"Er... you two know each other?"
"Professor?"
The village chief and the old lady didn't have the same focus, but both sensed it...
Rope this guy is not simple.
"Er, you are?"
Rope asked, somewhat puzzled, as he looked at the excited girl.
Diana heard Rope's question and hurriedly came back to her senses from the state of being excited to the point of being confused, and then hurriedly organized her grooming with her hands and feet, and then said to Rope, "Hello Professor Rope, I'm a researcher of the Carolina Research Institute, and when you went to the Carolina Research Institute earlier to have a discussion with Professor When you went to the Carolina Institute earlier to discuss with Professor Carolina, some of my friends and I were listening on the side."
Whitley tugged on Rope's sleeve and whispered, "Diana."
"Oh yeah, your name is Diana right."
Rope had a big smile on his face before saying, "I didn't expect to see you here, what a coincidence!"
Diana was so excited to see Rope remember her name that her face turned red.
While the village chief and the old lady on the side tried a wink at each other.
"Alas, Mr. Rope, forget about that silly girl for now, let me finish the important things with you first. Diana, go to the kitchen with your grandmother first, Mr. Rope and I are here to talk business!"
The village chief pretended to be disgusted.
The old lady on one side also pulled Diana towards the kitchen. Diana was a bit flabbergasted, but still said, "Okay, then Professor Rope, we'll talk later!"
Rope smiled and nodded, then continued back to talk to the village chief about what happened earlier.
When they reached the kitchen, the old lady asked with some confusion, "What's wrong? You know him?"
The excitement on Diana's face hadn't dissipated yet, and she hugged her own grandmother's arm and nodded frantically in excitement.
"Recognize recognize! Recognize too much! I didn't think he'd remember me though!"
Diana's face isn't even just excited anymore, there's even a little bit of honor in it.
The old lady looked puzzled. She thought to herself that she was a good girl, how could she be so stupid.
As soon as Diana looked at her grandmother's face, she knew that she must not understand. In fact, this is normal, just like when you introduce your favorite beans to your own grandparents...
Who knows who...
If it were anyone else, they would have just said, 'Oh, you wouldn't understand anyway'.
Diana was quite patient, mainly because the one sitting over there wasn't an idol.
That's a legend!
"Grandma, that's not just a handsome guy! You know what professor means!"
Diana and her own grandmother explained excitedly.
"Yes, Professor Oak is a professor!"
Speaking of this, grandma was not sleepy anymore.
While tossing and eating the rice in the room, she said, "I'm telling you, Professor Oak can be really awesome! And he can also make Senryū. The latest one he made is called..."
"Stop, Grandma, I'm not discussing Professor Oak's new Senryū with you again!" Diana hurriedly shut Grandma's mouth. Otherwise it would have been an endless conversation for a while.
Grandma gave Diana a somewhat reluctant blank look, only letting your idol appear, not letting my idol talk isn't it!
Diana knew that she couldn't be stubborn with grandma now, or else there wouldn't be any end, so she simply didn't give grandma a chance to open her mouth and said, "Professor Rope is only about 20 years old this year, it's very powerful, and it's the youngest professor in the history of the world, and it's a professor in the field of mythological scholars, and we have always admired him. Him."
"And he's also a great trainer, having won the Kanto Indigo Plateau Conference!"
As Diana spoke, she realized that Rope's accomplishments were all she knew about her own aura. It was strong, but none of it felt very relevant.
Those in the relevant professions themselves would find it impressive. But people like Grandma and the others who didn't really care about the scientific research community and the trainer community other than Sinnoh certainly wouldn't find Professor Rope that impressive.
"Don't talk so much, let me just ask you, did you get a chance to invite someone to your home for dinner today?"
Grandma obviously didn't want to give her unscrupulous granddaughter who wouldn't let her speak a chance to show off her idol.
As soon as she said this, Diana had a somewhat lost and helpless expression.
"Grandma, I've told you that people are so outstanding, why do you still think your granddaughter is worthy of them. As far as your granddaughter's current achievements are concerned, that little girl beside Professor Rope will probably be even better than me in a year or two."
Actually, Diana had misunderstood...
Whitley was already ahead of her in the researcher community right now.
After all, whether a student was strong or not, it was up to the teacher until they were out of school.
"Then again... people Professor Rope has a girlfriend, okay. Don't you guys even ask people if they have a girlfriend when you ask them about blind dates?"
To say that Diana didn't feel lost was bullshit. Usually when she saw someone on TV or something, she didn't have much of a feeling. Now that the real person was right in front of her, she didn't even have a chance...
"Who is his girlfriend! Even better than my girl!"
Grandma saw her granddaughter losing her mind and wanted to open her mouth to comfort her. In her heart, she had already made up her mind that no matter who Rope's girlfriend was, she would have to pick out a little bit of what made them inferior to her granddaughter.
"It's Champion Cynthia."
"Hey, it's her! She's not even... Champion Cynthia... that does seem so much better than you."
Grandma felt like she couldn't really find any aspect to compliment her granddaughter on when she heard that name.
It was clearly a world of difference. There was no comparison at all.
It was like your own child who worked for Alibaba saying, "Jack Ma[1]'s so-and-so is not as good as you..."
But he is the boss... this kind of words even if it is a comfort can not be said. What's more, you can really find something better than others to do.
Sinnoh no adult in any family would have nothing better to do than to compare their own child to Cynthia.
It's not comparable...
Diana herself didn't retort, just nodded silently. There are times when the gap is just too big to even dream about.
"Alright, don't be sad, then you take advantage of the meal and make a good relationship with others, maybe their professor still wants to find a way to promote you a bit."
Grandma went up to comfort her own granddaughter and said.
Diana, however, shook her head and said, "You and grandpa should not talk about this at the dinner table. It's meaningless and will only make people hate me. It's already a great thing that Professor Rope can remember me. Let's not talk about whether or not Professor Rope would help people with this kind of thing. In terms of relationship alone, we don't have this level of Dao with Professor Rope either."
"At the end of the day the most we can do is to have a meal together. There's some value in the stories Grandpa tells that can't be taken as a bargaining chip in exchange."
The old woman rolled her eyes, shoved a Sitrus Berry in her hand into Diana's mouth, and then said in a nonchalant voice, "All right! More oppressive nagging than an old man like me, you think we really don't know what we can and can't do?"
"Just trying to comfort you."
Diana, who couldn't speak with the fruit stuffed in her mouth, rolled her eyes, but didn't stop her hands from attentively helping her grandmother with the meal.
After all, this meal that Rope was invited to eat wasn't something that anyone had the opportunity to do at this time. After all, to be able to leave some impression in front of this kind of real big shot, for oneself, it was like changing one's life against the odds.
After all, if she really had to say, Rope would have treated herself much differently at the Institute if she had casually mentioned herself a few times in front of Professor Carolina. When it wasn't that she was dissatisfied with the position she was in now. But if one could take a step forward, who would refuse?
It was truly a matter of time and fate that Rope was out on an expedition to visit her home. Even Diana, who usually didn't think about such fly-by-night stuff, had the inevitable thought in her head of letting Rope give her a hand.
"Well, honestly do the dishes, you don't need to say anything, grandparents help you ask and help you think of ways to get him to help you."
The old lady said with a somewhat bitter smile.
After all, it was her own granddaughter, and they were both already old people. What should be done, what can be done they all have a scale in their hearts. So the old lady also knew what she should say now.
———————————
"Rope, that's pretty much it, is there anything else you want to ask?"
After finishing the notes in his own mouth, the village chief looked at Rope who had a frown on his face and said with some doubt.
Rope shook his head, then said, "No, nothing, just suddenly want to ask... village chief, in the end, how many villages are the same as yours, do you have some information in your heart?"
The question Rope asked was one that stumped the village chief.
He frowned and pondered for a while, then said, "I really don't have any information on that. All I know is our village, and there are two other villages, and they may know of other villages as well, but whether it's the same as what I know, I'm not sure."
Rope's brow furrowed as well, honestly he instinctively had a feeling that a few villages shouldn't be as simple as he thought. But you'd have to say it was Arceus' layout...
From the Hisui region's era to the present layout is too outrageous... To know, time is the biggest enemy of all kinds of plans, even if you are a genius, taking one step and counting a hundred steps, it's impossible to be a certain later generation for a hundred years.
So Rope felt that there was bound to be something fishy going on in these villages.
"Village Chief, can I take a stroll around the village? I want to take a field trip to see what's relevant."
Rope spoke frankly.
"No problem, these villages of ours aren't anything golden, you can't tear down our existence."
The village chief said this while also laughing rather amusingly.
Rope couldn't help but twitch the corners of his mouth when he heard this...
He felt that the village chief was now like an old general on a theater stage. With flags planted all over his back.
Of course these days it was just a flash in the pan... could he, Rope, really tear down someone's village?
"Alright..! You guys have pretty much discussed it right. Then let's start eating first!"
The old lady set's voice came, Rope raised his eyes and realized that the old lady had already walked over with the meal in her hands. Whitley glanced at Rope and Rope nodded.
He did intend to eat the meal here, not because of a craving or anything else, but simply because he always needed some more reassuring reason for wanting to throw in the towel as well.
After all, these legends and stories were not as valuable as this meal in the eyes of the village chief and the old woman. Even though Rope felt that these stories were priceless.
So if he wanted to help promote the girl called Diana, he had better eat this meal himself to put the village chief and the old lady at ease.
And one did intend to ask Diana to do himself a favor is all.
During the meal, the village chief and the old lady, who were old and sophisticated, naturally would not let the scene cool down. The reason why the village chief was able to become the village chief was not only because his father was the village chief of the previous generation, but more importantly, he was really a smooth talker.
After many years of practice, the proficiency of these polite skills had only risen, not fallen.
Of course, Rope would be pretending to be confused if he couldn't hear the meaning of the words.
And Rope didn't like pretending to be confused on such unnecessary matters.
"Mayor, old lady, Key is Miss Diana."
Rope gave a greeting and then spoke seriously, "I have a request and would like to ask Miss Diana if it's okay."
The village chief and the old lady exchanged a glance, a little puzzled by Rope's path, but also decided to leave the decision to their granddaughter.
"What do you want from me?"
Diana was not ambiguous, as people get older, they will always know that there are only one or two chances in their life that can change their destiny, and if they miss one, it will be one less.
So there was no way she would turn down a situation like this that was clearly an opportunity.
"I would like you to join me in surveying those villages in the Sinnoh region that are just like yours." Rope said with a serious demeanor, "You're from this village, and I'd like you to help me search all of them together as a guide and liaison."
It wasn't a useless endeavor. Just because this current village wasn't xenophobic didn't mean that all the other villages weren't xenophobic. And that's the kind of situation where an intermediary who can put both sides at ease is something that's important.
Just as Rope was the bridge between the humans and the Pokémon, Diana was his chosen one, the bridge between him and those other villages.
"Okay, I promise."
Diana agreed with little thought. After all, as limited as her own knowledge of the other villages was, she knew full well that Rope had few options other than himself.
Take the grandparents?
Grandpa you ah you can't stand it with your old bones. Although she herself had spent more time outside. I've had less contact with the people of the village. But there's always a part of the old generation that's still there.
Rope chose her, of course, because of this reason.
As for politeness and excuses...
In the face of such fate-changing things, and those you genuinely like, make sure you don't hold back. If the deed is ripe, go up and give it a try, and don't leave yourself with regrets if you succeed or fail.
[1] A Chinese billionaire businessman and philanthropist who co-founded Alibaba