An absolutely guaranteed future regional Champion, someone whose talent overflowed at a glance.
Originally, the Drako family possessed enormous strength. In the Johto region, it was a colossus, and even if Lance had never existed, it would not have affected the Drako family's status.
Moreover, since Lance had been born in the Kanto region and felt a stronger affinity for it, after the Kanto Region split into Kanto and Johto, his goal had always been to become the Champion of Kanto.
And the League had also considered this acceptable, because if the entire Drako family were to assume the position of regional Champion, it would practically be equivalent to allowing that family to control half of an entire region. Their power would become too great.
But after this incident, it was likely that not only the general public would condemn the Drako family; the League would also seize this opportunity to strike them with a brutal cut.
Even if they had not originally intended to do so, after that conversation between Cain and the council elder, they would still act, and the cut would be as ruthless as possible.
After all, although the idea was "without destruction, there is no reconstruction," if it was still impossible to destroy something completely, it could first be weakened. Perhaps afterward it could truly be broken.
It was very possible that the Drako family would become the test subject through which the council elder began experimenting, and moreover, the best possible test subject.
A gigantic family with an extremely long history and influence so vast that it spanned the entire League was something impossible to ignore. If one wished to experiment on such a target, the effect would likely be magnificent.
Lance saw all of this very clearly. Although returning to Johto might not be enough to completely save the Drako family, at least it would prevent them from falling straight to the bottom.
And at this moment, Lance was also the hope of the Drako family. They would likely bring out treasures they had kept stored for who knew how many years, as well as special materials or tools, to help him raise his strength and seat him as Champion as soon as possible.
Seen this way, for Lance it was not entirely bad.
Cain sat down beside Lance and once again patted him on the shoulder.
"Have you already thought it through?"
If Lance truly did not wish to return to Johto, Cain was certain that the council elder would be able to stop him. And it would not even need to go that far: the president of the Kanto League himself would likely also be able to prevent it.
Lance looked at Cain, smiled helplessly, and slowly shook his head.
"I have no choice."
Hearing this, Cain did not say anything more.
With just those few words, everyone present understood what was happening. The one who probably felt the greatest impact was Steven.
As the son of a great family as well, he understood very well that sometimes one simply did not have the freedom to choose.
The reason he had been able to live with such freedom until now was only because his father had completely taken care of both the company and the family, leaving him free of worries.
But Steven also knew something about his father's physical condition. In the past few years, there was still no problem, but in a few more years... that was no longer certain.
Moreover, with his identity as the heir of the Stone family, he obviously could not occupy for long a position such as Champion with real power. At the very least, he would not be able to remain seated in that position for too long.
It was not something that could be resolved simply by promising that his family would never interfere with his decisions or judgment. Many times, even if one did not wish to, one would still be dragged along by circumstances. He could not simply watch as the Stone family suffered major losses of power, nor could he sit idly by as his blood relatives were sent to carry out extremely dangerous missions with no guarantee of survival.
Therefore, Steven felt that even if he truly reached the position of Champion, it would not be long before he stepped down.
But after all the effort he had made until now, if in the end he did not even aim toward that position, then he would truly have very few goals left.
Although, strictly speaking, Steven still had Cain before him.
No matter what happened, at the very least he would first have to catch up to him.
The atmosphere among everyone became somewhat quiet, and no one really knew what to say.
Each of them remained seated in the corridor, thinking about their own matters.
Not long after, the door to the meeting room opened. The expressions of everyone who came out were heavy. They did not exchange many words among themselves and simply left the room in silence.
Some even brought along their successors or disciples. For example, Drake called Cain and Steven, while the president of the Sinnoh region took Cynthia with him, and so on.
Those big figures did not seem relaxed at all.
Cain and Steven walked behind Drake without saying a word.
After leaving the League's main building, each of them summoned their Pokémon and began flying back toward Hoenn.
Only after they had already flown quite a distance did Drake's expression soften slightly, and he let out a sigh.
"What turbulent times..."
Hearing that, Cain and Steven looked at each other, then both moved closer at the same time.
"Master/Mr. Drake, what exactly was discussed in the meeting?"
Drake first looked at Cain, then at Steven, and finally his eyes settled on Cain. He guided his Salamence closer to Cain's Salamence.
Then, with complete familiarity, he directly jumped from the back of his own Salamence onto the back of Cain's Salamence.
Since Salamence knew that Drake was Cain's teacher and also recognized him, it did not show the slightest resistance and allowed him to climb on without any problem.
Bang!
Drake directly punched Cain on the head.
"Master! That hurts! That hurts! That hurts!"
Cain immediately held his head and shouted.
With his current psychic power and reaction speed, he naturally could have easily avoided Drake's strike, but he did not dare to do so.
In fact, he even had to suppress the automatic protection of his psychic power to prevent Drake from being knocked away by the rebound.
"Now you know what it feels like for something to hurt? But weren't you quite bold in front of the bishop of the Sacred Church, huh? Showing off? Acting tough? Thinking you were very strong?" Drake began scolding him mercilessly.
Cain did not dare to show the slightest resistance and allowed Drake to reprimand him as much as he wished. Evidently, during the council elder's meeting, they had already learned everything related to this battle.
Moreover, during the meeting, the council elder had even especially praised him, commending how promising he was at such a young age, how despite being so young he possessed such extraordinary strength, how, if it had not been for him, the League would probably have suffered devastating losses this time, and so on.
(End of chapter)