Burgundy grit her teeth as she came to the stark realization that, in the year since her initial loss to Cilan, she had yet to achieve anything in terms of revenge. Every encounter had ended with her resounding defeat at his hand (or, even worse, defeat before she even had the chance to face off against him). All she had to show for her efforts was a C-class connoisseur license—hardly impressive when compared to his A-class license.

As much as she had celebrated receiving the certificate on thick paper declaring her new position, Burgundy knew full well that she needed to study much more if she wanted to actually do anything with her license. She needed to reach A-class if she hoped to make proper evaluations on her own, in a shop, and she needed at least a B-class license if she wanted to make her own evaluations as an assistant. In short, her C-class license was useful mostly as a stepping stone-much like a gym badge.

"How pathétique," she complained to Georgia over the Xtransceiver. "I never made a dent on that bête!" She folded her arms across her chest, sticking her nose up and letting out a little humph. "That no-good excuse of a connoisseur. I didn't even make it to the Pokémon League!"

"Well maybe if you focused a little less on that ridiculous revenge of yours, you might've actually accomplished something noteworthy," Georgia sneered. Burgundy's brow twitched as she glared at the girl she hesitated to call her friend. Evidently, the pink-haired girl found Burgundy amusing enough to exchange numbers, but the words "supportive" or even "friendly" hardly described Georgia. "What did he do to you, anyway?" As always, Burgundy didn't bother to answer Georgia's query.

She already knew Georgia—and perhaps any other witnesses to her quest—viewed her ostentatious displays of hostility unreasonable, at best. Even Cilan seemed mostly bemused by, though strangely tolerant of, her actions. And even Burgundy would, privately, admit that as much as Cilan's arrogance grated on her nerves, she could hardly blame all her vitriol on that once vice, the way she wanted to. She couldn't expose the logic that had directed her anger away from her family and towards an outward source. She wouldn't.

"How drôle. If I recall, you didn't make it to the League, either," Burgundy sniped instead. Georgia scoffed, and Burgundy belatedly recalled that Georgia never showed much interest in defeating the gyms aside from Opeleucid's.

"I'm not the one whining about it! If you called me just to complain about how you feel so unaccomplished, find someone else to pester." Tension hung between them until Georgia spoke up again. "Look. If it bothers you that much, just go out and do something about it. Catch a new Pokémon or something. That's what I'm doing. Next time I see Iris, my team is going to crush those dragon-types of hers. Of course, she'd better be able to actually control them. How else can she call herself a dragon master?"

"The same way you call yourself a dragon buster," Burgundy shot back. Georgia's eye twitched. "Peu importe. I'll crush that crétin the next time I see him."