🎄 Christmas Special Discount 🎄
From December 23 to December 25, there will be a public 50% discount on the following tiers:
Intermediate Trainers, Advanced Trainers, Elite Trainers, Elite Four Trainers, Champion Trainers, and Legendary Trainers.
🎆 New Year Discount 🎆
There will also be a 50% discount, but it won't be public. On December 31, the discount code will be published inside the chapters, so stay tuned 👀✨
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That the League had placed an undercover spy inside Team Magma was no surprise to Cain.
What did surprise him was that this infiltrator had reached such a depth.
An Executive of Team Magma... that was truly astonishing.
Could it be that within Team Aqua or Team Rocket there was someone in a similar situation?
Cain's heart tightened a little.
Masking his expression, he asked calmly: "Were you looking for me for something in particular?"
Erick sighed, his expression full of helplessness: "The appointed time to deliver the report has arrived, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get in touch with the old man. I remembered what he told me before: if I couldn't contact him, I should come look for you. If you're someone the old man trusts, there shouldn't be a problem."
Hearing this, Cain understood immediately.
"So that's how it was..."
To ensure stability within the Hoenn League, the news of Drake being injured had not been made public.
Wattson's injury had already had a huge impact on the League; if it also became known about Drake, chaos would likely be inevitable.
At the very least, the League's prestige would plummet to rock bottom.
That Erick wasn't aware of this within Team Magma was only natural.
"In a few days you should be able to get in touch with Mr. Drake," Cain said in a calm tone.
Upon hearing this, Erick was stunned.
"Did the old man run into some problem too difficult to handle?" he asked.
Cain slowly shook his head. That was something he really couldn't say.
"In any case, in a few days you'll be able to speak with Mr. Drake. As for the information, it would be better to give it directly to him," he added. The truth was that Cain had no interest in getting himself involved in Team Magma's affairs now.
If he could avoid them, all the better.
Hearing that reply, Erick no longer insisted.
The fact that he had sought out Cain had been a forced decision.
If he could contact Drake soon, then waiting a few days wasn't a problem.
Nodding, he turned around and left.
The relaxed, smiling expression on his face slowly faded away.
As an infiltrator, although he didn't wear a literal mask like Cain, in reality that kind of "true mask" was easier to maintain than a false one.
Passing by Cain, just by feeling his presence, it was as if he were a completely different person.
The imposing aura of a true Team Magma executive.
Erick paused briefly. His voice reached Cain's ears clearly: "Sometimes, after spending so long inside Team Magma, one ends up forgetting one's own identity. There I've also seen many of the mistakes the League has made. Cain, tell me... what is really happening to this world?"
The voice was faint, as if asking, and at the same time like a murmur.
The fact that it was heard so clearly was proof that Erick truly meant to say it to him.
Cain froze on the spot, feeling the presence behind him disappear.
However, those words left him deep in thought.
"So he's fighting on the border between good and evil, discovering evil within good and goodness within evil?" he murmured with a complicated expression.
In a sense, that young man resembled Cain. He himself was a high-ranking member within Team Rocket and, at the same time, a chief-level researcher for the Pokémon League, carrying the expectations of the new generation.
But there were also differences.
Cain had already lived another life and understood all too well the cruelty of this world.
He had moved from evil toward good, so he wasn't too surprised to find shadows within goodness nor was he deeply moved by the light within darkness.
Erick, on the other hand, had walked the opposite path: from good toward evil.
As a direct descendant of the League, since childhood he had been molded with the ideology that the League represented good and Team Magma represented evil.
But within that "evil," he had found a precious goodness.
That had shocked him deeply. And digging deeper, he also discovered that within the so-called "good" of the League there existed evil.
That clash shattered the ideas he had grown up with and shook his will.
Team Magma, even while being an underground force, had given opportunities to the poor who could never have hoped to become trainers, offering them the option to change their destiny.
The League, proclaiming itself just, valued social hierarchies far too much and often ignored the struggles of people at the lowest levels.
All this, Erick saw with his own eyes.
That was why he was now confused, not knowing whether what he was doing was right or wrong, nor even what path he should follow.
Cain had suffered the harshness and corruption at the bottom of the Pokémon world, and because of that, upon approaching the League, he could understand the errors hidden behind the façade of justice.
Erick, however, had lived in an idealized utopia; upon coming into contact with the darkness of real society, he was struck and left disoriented.
"A man worthy of pity," Cain sighed silently.
Surely, right now Erick was experiencing a deep inner conflict.
"Should I tell Mr. Drake about this?" he thought, as a spark of doubt flickered in his eyes.
There was room for maneuver.
He pulled out his communicator and sent a brief message to Drake, informing him that Erick had come looking for him.
As for the young man's emotional state, he hesitated for a moment, but ended up deleting what he had written.
He put the communicator away again.
"Only those who go through these experiences can come to understand things that others will never notice..." Cain murmured.
After that, he left the hall in order and walked toward the backyard.
It had been a false alarm.
Though the truth was that Erick's strength was not to be underestimated.
Cain could feel from him an intense threat.
"Bzz—"
Just as he finished with that matter, another of his communicators vibrated in his pocket.
He took it out and checked it.
"Well, one after another..." he said with a hint of helplessness in his voice, though more than anything it sounded like pleasant surprise.
The message came from the Kalos region.
More precisely, from Lysandre, of Team Flare.
Before leaving for Ho-Oh's space, Cain had asked him to send people to search for a place forgotten by humans: Nebel Plateau.
And after a month and a half, Team Flare had truly found that place.
He put the communicator away.
"The Nebel Plateau... if I recall correctly, in these times a certain legendary Pokémon should be living there..." Cain thought.
That place wasn't marked on Kalos maps.
It was a territory forgotten by humanity, where many Pokémon lived cut off from all human contact.
And among them, there resided a legendary Pokémon: Volcanion.
However, what most piqued Cain's interest was not Volcanion, but the kingdom that had taken science to the extreme: The Azoth Kingdom!
And, in particular, the greatest achievement of that arcane science, that power which had almost led the entire kingdom to ruin.
(End of Chapter)