The day before graduation, Allen held the gift from the Jubilife TV reporter in his hands.
It turned out to be clothes—and they were ridiculously expensive. He wasn't sure if they had forgotten to remove the price tags or if they had left them on intentionally, but either way, it didn't really matter.
There was only one store in town, and usually, his grandma made all his clothes. But as he felt the fabric in his hands, he had to admit—these were far better quality than anything from back home.
The nicest sweaters even had a tag that read: Made in Galar with 100% Pure Wooloo Wool.
Which meant they were imported.
Of course, the price tag alone made him break into a sweat.
He couldn't forget—there were still two eggs in the incubator back home, and the incubation fluid alone cost a ridiculous 60,000 PokéDollars each. If the six-month period ran out, he'd need a lot of money to replace it.
The real question was: how the hell was he going to raise that kind of money?
That was when he was hanging out with Cynthia and Caitlin, just like usual, when he noticed a Cascoon nestled in the nooks of branches and piles of dead leaves, using silk to attach foliage to itself as camouflage.
They were different from Silcoon, which preferred to cling to nearby branches. Silcoon used thick strands of silk to secure itself, ensuring it wouldn't be accidentally dislodged from its shelter.
Allen carefully picked up strands of silk that had fallen from both Cascoon and Silcoon, examining and comparing them.
"Huh… the wiki says Cascoon's silk is more lustrous and superior in texture to Silcoon's, right?" Allen murmured as he felt the thin yet strong silk in his hands.
He began to mull over his plan.
"But Allen… are just the three of us really enough?" Cynthia asked curiously, deep in thought.
"Of course, it's enough," Allen said decisively.
"Gible can handle the digging, and Gothita can take care of the psychic work. That's enough!"
Cascoon preferred to dwell in dark areas, away from sunlight. When their cocoons first formed, they were soft and pliable, but over time, they hardened. Once cracks began to appear, it was a clear sign that evolution was near.
Fortunately, right behind his house, there was a grove of Oran Berry trees that were perfect for Cascoon. These trees were resilient, resistant to disease, and didn't attract pests. The leaves were fresh, tender, and long-lasting, and the trees produced excellent Oran Berries.
With kindergarten now just waiting for graduation, Cynthia and Caitlin started coming to Allen's house daily after he explained his plan to them.
Raising Cascoon wasn't easy. Although the silk they produced was highly valuable, the profit margins were slim. Cascoon silk was a luxury material, but demand wasn't high enough to offset the costs. With a limited market and no way to scale production efficiently, making a fortune from it wouldn't be simple.
But of course, the demand wasn't high enough in Sinnoh. However, with his connections to the professors, why not ask them to help?
He could reach out to clothing manufacturers, tailors, textile industry leaders, artisan craft makers, and even high-end luxury brands in Kanto and Galar who might be interested in buying the silk.
This wasn't a business anyone with limited knowledge and connections could thrive in—but that wasn't the case for him.
Allen wanted to build a greenhouse, but Cynthia and Caitlin weren't sure what to do. Even with Gible and Gothita helping, he ended up having to build it crudely, despite understanding the concept.
He turned to the two little ones and said, "We're making a home for the Cascoon. Remember how much warmer it was to stay inside when it was snowing than to stay outside? It's the same for Cascoon."
So, every day, they would go to the area behind Allen's house. Bit by bit, they mixed mud and stones to build the structure, working together to create a proper home for the Cascoon.
"Gible, dig!" Cynthia commanded, watching eagerly as the small Dragon-type Pokémon sprang into action.
"Oohh, has Gible already learned it?" Allen asked, intrigued.
"Of course Gible is the best!" Cynthia said proudly, a smile on her face.
Gible crouched low, its claws sinking into the earth. With a quick spin, it sent dirt flying as it burrowed into the ground, creating small trenches. The soil loosened beneath Gible's powerful claws, shaping the foundation of the greenhouse.
Meanwhile, Gothita floated nearby, her eyes glowing with focus. She extended her small hands, and with a gentle hum of psychic energy, she used her Psychic powers to lift the heavy stones. The rocks hovered effortlessly, moving through the air as Gothita guided them into place, carefully arranging them where they were needed.
"Gothita, you're very good!" Caitlin said, clapping her hands happily, which made Gothita shy away slightly, her cheeks turning pink.
At first, Allen only wanted to build a small house for the Cascoon. But as the work progressed, the two little girls started to get carried away, excited by the process of building.
"Hey, hey! Gible, why are you digging over there? Ah, no, Gothita, it was supposed to be here!"
Allen sighed, watching as they playfully argued over the details. It seemed like they were enjoying themselves so much that the idea of just one house wasn't enough.
"Whatever," Allen muttered to himself. In this case, we can grow more Oran trees and nurture more Cascoon in the future.
As the project grew, so did their enthusiasm. What started as a small house slowly expanded—but their efforts didn't go unnoticed, especially in Caitlin's case. Every day, she returned home covered in dust, her once-neat clothes stained with dirt.
She even secretly washed them, afraid that her father would find out. But how long could she keep hiding it from him?
One day, Caitlin forgot to wash her clothes, too caught up playing with Gothita. That evening, her father came home earlier than usual, and when he saw her filthy clothes, he frowned. His first thought was that Caitlin was being bullied. Worried, he decided to secretly follow her the next day to see what was going on.
From a distance, he watched as Caitlin arrived at Allen's house, where she and her friends were hard at work. But when his eyes landed on the crude, square-like structure they were building, his mouth twitched.
That evening, when Caitlin returned home, her father confronted her. Panicked, she tried to avoid the question but eventually caved and told him everything.
What she didn't expect was that instead of getting mad, he looked thoughtful. Caitlin's father worked in construction—he was an expert in the field. Seeing how much Caitlin's personality had improved through this experience, he found himself deeply impressed.
Realizing that the children were serious about their project, he decided to support them. The very next day, he and his Machoke arrived at Allen's house, ready to help.
At first, he assumed they were just playing around—building something small, like a doghouse. But when he took a closer look, he realized the kids had already flattened out a massive piece of land for their construction.
"A greenhouse?" he asked again, making sure he hadn't misheard.
"That's right, Uncle! A greenhouse!" Allen grinned.
Caitlin's father took one look at the rough, uneven structure the children had built and sighed. He turned to his Machoke and said, "Tear it down."
Cynthia and Caitlin immediately protested, their faces filled with frustration. They had spent so much time working on it!
But Allen, to their surprise, readily agreed on the spot!
"It's fine," he said with a shrug. "Uncle knows what he's doing. If we let him handle it, we'll have something much better in the end."
And he was right.
What would have taken them another two weeks, Caitlin's father and his Machoke completed in just four days. Watching him work with expert precision—measuring, cutting, and assembling everything with practiced ease—left Allen in awe. He admired the man greatly.
Now, the only thing left was moving the Cascoon.
Cascoon were largely immobile, conserving as much energy as possible. Even when disturbed, they remained motionless—yet they were still fully aware of their surroundings.
Studies showed that Cascoon could remember the pain they endured and the faces of those who had harmed them. It was said that when they evolved into Dustox, they would seek revenge on anyone who had wronged them.
"This is why you need to be very careful when handling them. Understood?" Allen warned, looking at Cynthia and Caitlin.
Both of them nodded, though Caitlin looked a bit hesitant.
"When you hold them, you have to grip their spikes like this," Allen demonstrated, carefully placing his fingers around the Cascoon's spiny shell in a way that avoided direct pressure on its soft body.
The "spikes" on their cocoons are actually remnants of the silk they used to attach themselves to leaves and branches.
He lifted it slowly, ensuring that it didn't shake too much in his hands. Cascoon remained still, its tiny red eyes staring blankly ahead, but Allen knew better than to assume it wasn't aware.
"Got it?" he asked.
Cynthia mimicked his grip with determination, while Caitlin hesitated before trying the same.
"Like this?" Caitlin asked nervously.
"Yeah, just don't squeeze too hard," Allen reminded her.
Moving them would take time, but as long as they were careful, it would be worth it.
The insides of Cascoon cocoons were incredibly hot. Their cells were constantly generating and storing energy in preparation for evolution.
This was why, the moment multiple Cascoon gathered in a closed space, the temperature would rise almost instantly.
As soon as Allen, Cynthia, and Caitlin stepped inside the greenhouse, a wave of warmth washed over them.
"Huh? Why is it so warm?" Cynthia murmured, glancing around in confusion.
There was no fire, no heater—nothing that should have been generating heat. And yet, the air inside felt noticeably warmer than outside.
After hearing Allen's explanation, the two finally understood.
"Grandma, Grandpa, come here!"
As you know, the people of Celestic Town mostly relied on farming for their daily lives. But when Allen proposed his idea of harvesting Cascoon silk, Grandpa Drayton agreed on the spot and even assigned a piece of land for him to use—much to Grandma Dracelia's exasperation as she rolled her eyes.
Just like Caitlin's father, they thought it was nothing more than a child's passing fancy, something he would grow bored of in a few days. But when they saw the house, perfectly structured from mud and clay, and the rows of Cascoon neatly arranged, they were utterly shocked.
"Did you three do all of this?"
"Of course not! Caitlin's father helped us too," Allen casually explained.
"No wonder," they muttered, their skepticism turning into curiosity. Raising Cascoon seemed much easier than farming every single day, didn't it?
"Grandma, Grandpa, next you need to do this and this," Allen said, beginning to explain each step of the process.
Grandpa Drayton and Grandma Dracelia didn't question how Allen knew all of this. After all, they had seen him reading books about Cascoon over the past few days. When they asked him about it and listened to his detailed explanation, they realized he had truly come prepared.
Now, the roles had reversed. If yesterday it was Grandma Dracelia teaching them all about Cherubi and Cherrim, today, it was Allen's turn to teach them something new.
Unlike real-world silkworms, which produce silk through their salivary glands, Cascoon wraps itself in silk to form a protective cocoon. It likely secretes silk proteins from specialized spinneret glands located in its mouth.
Since Cascoon is a living Pokémon, ethical farming techniques would, of course, be used. They would collect the silk after Cascoon naturally molts, or they could stimulate it to produce excess silk without disrupting its lifecycle.
Biochemically, Cascoon's silk is similar to real silk, primarily composed of fibroin (a protein responsible for strength and elasticity) and coated with sericin (a gummy protein that holds the fibers together). However, its sericin might have unique properties, possibly making the silk more water-resistant or softer than traditional silk.
Once harvested, the silk filaments are carefully dried and sorted by length and quality. Higher-grade silk would be reserved for luxury fabrics, while shorter fibers could be blended into textiles for added strength.
"Allen, don't you think it's unfair that only Grandpa and Grandma are doing all the work?"
Allen paused, considering the question. They had a point.
After being cleaned, the silk fibers needed to be spun into yarn. If Cascoon's silk was a continuous filament, it could be carefully unwound into long, seamless threads. However, if the silk came in shorter strands, the fibers would need to be carded and spun into yarn using traditional textile techniques.
"That's okay, Grandpa, Grandma! We can ask other people to help, or we can work together. That way, Celestic Town won't have to rely only on farming! We could even become a supplier for the textile industry!"
And so, Celestic Town gradually began its transition. Over time, word spread, and more people got involved. What started as a small experiment eventually grew into a thriving industry.
Allen looked at the greenhouse with satisfaction in his heart. This was just the beginning—the first step.
"Next, it's time to graduate. Rustboro, Hoenn, here I come!"
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P.S.: He was accepted into Rustboro Trainer School in Hoenn by Professor Rowan in Chapter 45.