377 CH10 (374), Schnee-styled Vacation

We made it to the Snowflake Hotel at 8:30 a.m. and checked in right away before heading to the hotel restaurant for breakfast. One of the pages led the way and dad gave him 20 Poke for his help.

He could have given more but that was the best he could have given for the service/help, without seemingly flaunting his wealth, or looking like some nouveau rich throwing out money. We did not have any suitcases since all our stuff was in our bags of holding so the page left with his tip.

I was only slightly surprised to see that much of the breakfast selection was styled in winter shapes, but it seemed the hotel decided to stick to the gimmick. Once we were done with our breakfast, we checked out our rooms.

We went down to the lobby less than half an hour later to meet up with Weiss and her parents. They were already waiting for us when we made it there.

"Mikail, it's good to see you again," Weiss said before hugging me in greeting. "Good to see you as well Weiss," I returned both her greeting and hug.

"It's good to see you as well, Mr. Schnee, Mrs. Schnee," I said after letting go of Weiss. "Mikail, my boy, I've told you to call me Uncle. Calling me mister makes me seem like a stranger," Weiss's father complained and her mother mirrored his complaint, insisting on me calling her aunt.

"Sorry, it's a force of habit," I said placatingly since aunt willow was staring at me quite intensely when she mirrored her husband's complaint. The others laughed a bit seeing me swiftly raising the white flag.

After the greetings were out of the way, we made our way to the entertainment cavern with the Schnee family leading the way since they were locals and the actual owners of the place.

The cavern was way bigger than I thought it would be, and uncle Jacques explained that their family had expanded the cave for their business. Truly, the place was a winter enthusiast's paradise.

There were multiple slopes at various degrees of inclination and height for those that wanted to do some skiing as well as snowboarding. Additionally, some slopes were reserved for those that wanted to slide on sleds, and there were even sleds that were being dragged by Stantler that could be rented.

Weiss shared that the hotel occasionally organized some sled races for guests that were interested in participating. Apparently, one only had to have rented the Stantler service 10 times to qualify for the race/competition. It was a good business idea if nothing else.

Aside from the slopes, there were a few ice rinks for those that wanted to do some ice skating. The reason there were multiple ice rinks instead of a single big one was to avoid overcrowding it and to divide the guests according to their skating mastery.

A kid's rink and a beginner's rink were obviously the standard ones, but the stunt rink looked pretty interesting and reminded me of a regular skate park. However, that was not the only thing that could be found there since not everyone was interested in such "vigorous" activities.

Well, there was a winter garden that had all types of winter flowers as well as plants, a sculpture garden with various ice sculptures, mostly of different Pokemon or famous people, and a large ice castle that one could check out. The last one made me think of Elsa and gave me the urge to sing "let it go", but I managed to suppress the urge.

Those were the main sites to visit for the guests that preferred more sedated activities. The big ice maze was something of an in-between, it was quite interesting but not physically demanding. There were a dozen other small activities and areas, but these were the main ones.

We spent the next three days having fun at each one of the attractions. Mom liked the winter garden the most, while dad preferred the statue garden. I on the other hand had no clear-cut favorite since I found them all interesting enough.

Still, on our last day, Weiss decided to spice things up a bit by turning some of the attractions into private competitions between us. The first one was a maze run. We all went to different entrance points and whoever reached the center of the maze first was the winner.

The reason we could do that despite visiting the maze before was that the layout of the labyrinth got changed each night to keep the attraction interesting. There were no additional obstacles inside the maze, not counting the other guests, so we only had to focus on finding the correct path.

It might have been even more fun if some obstacles had been planted into the maze, but as I said there were other guests present, so that was not possible since it would have risked them getting hurt. Dad actually ended up winning that one.

The next competition was one between just Weiss and me. She had her father, or rather her father's Pokemon, create a small ice castle, and each one of us had a turn at playing castle defense. The one who held out longer was considered the winner, and both of us were respectively limited to three Pokemon below the gold stage.

Furthermore, leaving the castle was forbidden, and the attacking forces consisted of 50 bronze-stage, and 10 silver-stage Pokemon provided by the Schnee family. They attacked in waves since it was practically impossible to go through with the challenge if they all swarmed the castle at once.

This competition was practically a defensive tide/siege simulation. Well, I both won and lost this one. As for why it was considered both a loss and a victory, that was pretty simple. Weiss went first and held out for 63 minutes before the castle was considered sufficiently damaged and thus destroyed. She also managed to knock out 80 percent of the attackers by that point.

I and my Pokemon, on the other hand, ended up knocking out all 60 Pokemon after struggling for more than 30 minutes, but at the end of the siege, the castle was mostly destroyed which meant we had failed part of the main task.

The referee panel, consisting of our parents, discussed who won, and they ended up deciding that the competition could be considered a draw. I did not complain since we had neglected to keep the durability of the castle in mind while supposedly defending it, even if we did take out the attacking force in the end.

Still, I had to say that playing castle defense was surprisingly fun, and my Pokemon agreed with me. I had broadcasted the castle siege to Utopia, so everyone got to see it. I was pretty sure that it would become one of their favorite games in the future, and I could see us playing it with everyone in Utopia.

We even had the members of the tide ready thanks to the Beedrill, Butterfree, Gyarados swarms, and the others that were not tasked with defense. Moreover, I did not mind pulling from my subspace pool for the tide. I was sure that some extra food was enough motivation for the subspacers to go all out.

Dying was nearly impossible inside Utopia anyway, or rather, they wouldn't die as long as they did not get one-shotted, and for that to happen the aggressor had to be at least multiple stages ahead of my Pokemon, on top of using a top-grade move, so I did not have to worry about anyone dying.

Well, at least from the main space since a minimal risk existed for the weaker subspacers, but that could be simply solved by only using those at or above the bronze stage. At any rate, it would give all my Pokemon experience in dealing with tides/sieges, so it was a great exercise, that I should have thought of beforehand.

Moreover, the experience today made me decide that I had to create a secret bunker between the first and the second property for the orphanage inhabitants so that they could retreat there within a few minutes of a tide or catastrophe alarm.

This castle defense had vividly demonstrated to me that, while defending against, stopping, or even routing a tide/swarm was possible, even if one succeeded, collateral damage was most likely unavoidable, so it was better to take precautions.

Anyway, my great takeaway from my self-inflicted draw aside, Weiss was not done with her competitions. For the final one, Weiss decided to hold a sled race, which I won thanks to aiding the 4 Stantler dragging my sled using both aura and my psychic abilities. You know small things such as reinforcing the sled and reducing our weight, drag as well as wind resistance.

Uncle Jacques was not too far behind me, having used his ice manipulation to help speed up his sled. After that, we went to check out of the hotel before we went to their home since aunt Willow and uncle Jacques invited us there for dinner.

They called ahead and asked one of the family cooks to prepare something to avoid losing time. Otherwise, aunt Willow would have loved to demonstrate her cooking skills, at least that's what she said.

Regardless of whether that was the truth or not, we saw some frames with family photos while lounging in the living room, waiting to be called for dinner.

Weiss's siblings were in some of the photos and Weiss shared that her older sister was out on her journey, and her younger brother was in a holiday camp the family organized for its junior members headed by no one else but her grandfather Nicholas Schnee, a Champion-Class trainer of the older generation and a Tier 4 Ice Elementalist.

I could see how proud Weiss was of her big-shot grandfather, which showed that she had a great relationship with him just like she had with the rest of her immediate family.

I asked her if she was too advanced for the junior camp, but she shook her head and said that she was going to join them tomorrow as well. I saw mom smile happily at Weiss's admission and even dad send me a meaningful smirk, but I resorted to the proven "play dumb, ignore them" strategy.

Still, I wished her all the best and she thanked me for the support. After that, the two of us listened to the oldies talk until we were informed that dinner was ready. The Schnees led us to the dining room, and as soon as we sat down at the table some family servants brought over the soup.

It was a vegetable soup that tasted pretty good. No idea what exactly was in it since the cook seemed to have pureed the vegetables, but I tasted carrots, potatoes, broccoli, as well as leeks and cauliflower, which are all winter vegetables. Nonetheless, the soup tasted great so I praised the soup/chef to Weiss and her parents.

Yet, even if the soup was great, the main dish was even better. They brought a Stantler steak with steamed carrots, potatoes, and broccoli on the side, along with a garlic sauce that complimented both the meat and the vegetables.

Moreover, the Schnee family had seen how much I ate during their visits to our home or when we went out to eat, so the portion I received was big enough to satisfy my appetite, which I was thankful for.

Once everyone was done with their food, I thanked them for the lovely dinner and gave my compliments to the chef, and my parents did the same. We stayed for another hour after dinner since directly leaving after eating was pretty rude.

I hugged Weiss while they sent us off and once more wished her all the best at her family camp. We made it back home within an hour but I still decided to head to my room after wishing my parent good night.

I planned to use the next three days until our second trip to handle some things I had decided earlier on, so I was going to meditate for an hour or two before I went to bed.

The first thing on my list was to head to the real estate agency after breakfast, so I sent a quick message to Mr. Anderson to ask whether he was available for a meeting, before I began my meditation session. Thankfully, he gave me a positive reply before I went to sleep, so I knew I could go ahead with my plans for tomorrow.

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I briefly considered whether I should use the title a Schnee-flavored vacation, but decided that would be too easy to use as ammunition.😂

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