Chapter 298: Cynthia: "Caitlin, You're Being Awfully Arrogant"
In the suite's living room, Caitlin sat elegantly on the couch, a book cradled in her hands.
"Caitlin, still not asleep?"
Cynthia, emerging from Mammon's room, spotted her immediately.
"Half an hour left. I'll wash up shortly, then put on a face mask." Caitlin checked her watch, closed the book, and set it aside, giving a languid yawn. Ten o'clock already — close to her usual bedtime. Naturally prone to sleepiness, and with genuinely disciplined habits besides, she reliably started feeling drowsy right around this hour every night.
"Team Galactic's already been resolved. If the Sinnoh League doesn't stir up anything further, we should be able to leave Sinnoh fairly soon." Caitlin glanced over at Cynthia — her own mood, lately, had been quite good. No more of those chaotic fox-spirit types showing up to "practice technique" with Mammon; Cynthia really was reliable, after all.
"I'll head back to the League tomorrow and talk with the chairwoman. Already decided." Cynthia had made up her mind.
"Couldn't ask for better. Mammon truly is the chosen one of this age — no one in this world could possibly stand in his way." Caitlin's smile carried a faint, genuine glow, her tone brimming with admiration for him.
"..." Cynthia said nothing, though privately she thought much the same — Mammon really was extraordinary, beyond reason. Even the God of Genesis, Arceus itself, had taken such a favorable view of him, extending genuine goodwill and even granting him power directly. Without exaggeration, Mammon truly was the protagonist of this entire era. Who could possibly stand against him?
"But Caitlin — don't you think Mammon might be a little too accomplished?" Cynthia's gaze settled on her. "How exactly do you intend to make him devoted to you alone?"
"When did I ever say I wanted Mammon to love only me?"
Caitlin returned the question with total, easy naturalness.
"?" Cynthia blinked, caught off guard.
"You don't fully understand Mammon, Cynthia. What men want, fundamentally, boils down to power, wealth, strength, and beauty."
Caitlin's tone remained perfectly composed.
"And Mammon is an ordinary man in that respect too — he has those same ordinary desires, just like anyone else. I've spent nearly a year at his side now. I know him well." Well — Caitlin had, after all, personally witnessed and overheard a great deal.
"On this particular front, Mammon isn't a very disciplined man. He's simply too exceptional — naturally, that draws attention, and plenty of shameless women throw themselves at him regardless." While she'd initially felt real displeasure toward the women who pursued Mammon, over time, Caitlin had gradually grown accustomed to it. She still disliked them, sure — but she'd adapted.
"Then what about you?" Cynthia looked at her, puzzled.
"But if Mammon genuinely were the faithful type, I wouldn't have had any opening to begin with, would I?" Caitlin smiled faintly, her tone still elegant and composed. Though the actual content of what she was saying was considerably less "composed" than her delivery.
"I never expected that becoming Mammon's woman would mean having him solely to myself. That's simply not realistic."
"But..."
Caitlin paused here.
"I will become Mammon's wife, and bear the fruit of our love together with him."
The golden-haired noblewoman's voice carried genuine, unshakeable conviction — this really was her honest belief. She had no objection to Mammon's current dalliances; as far as Caitlin was concerned, none of those women posed any real threat. Practically none of them had genuine staying power. Just a way for Mammon to hone his technique, so to speak, and sample a bit of variety along the way.
"Even if he ends up with more than just you as a wife?" Cynthia felt her friend's reasoning was, frankly, a little unusual. Where did all this confidence come from? Cynthia genuinely couldn't wrap her head around it. Sure, Caitlin was exceptional — but wasn't it entirely possible this world simply never ran short of prodigies? Dawn, for instance, or those "monsters" of a girl and boy over in Unova.
"I have complete confidence in earning Mammon's favor above the rest."
Caitlin smiled, radiant and at ease.
Right — why wouldn't she have confidence? In looks, she lost to no woman alive. In strength, she was a formidable psychic, a Champion-tier Psychic-type specialist, and she even had the baby Lugia Mammon had entrusted to her. In terms of closeness to Mammon, she was his most intimate colleague, practically inseparable from him. Why shouldn't she win?
"Caitlin, you're being awfully arrogant." Cynthia found herself genuinely at a loss.
"Who is Mammon's girlfriend, anyway?" Cynthia asked, feigning idle curiosity.
"Some new trainer currently out on her journey, apparently somewhere in Alola," Caitlin said, after a moment's thought.
So Caitlin doesn't even know, then. Cynthia found this even harder to process. Good grief — Caitlin didn't even know who her main rival actually was, this whole time? How was she supposed to fight this romantic battle at all?
Cynthia decided her friend's only real "strength" here might genuinely just be stubbornness.
"I'd suggest you confess your feelings to Mammon sooner rather than later, Caitlin. Things might not develop the way you're expecting them to." Cynthia felt obligated to offer at least that much advice. Caitlin was her friend, after all — since she had such "grand ambitions," might as well support her, however reluctantly.
As for herself...
Cynthia's own feelings remained thoroughly conflicted. She'd held the line today, hadn't gone all the way — but that was only today. If Caitlin hadn't warned her beforehand, Cynthia genuinely might have found herself sleepwalking straight into bed with Mammon by now. Only the guilt toward her friend had kept her holding firm.
But Cynthia had no idea how much longer her resolve could actually hold. What if she ended up sleeping with Mammon eventually — even getting pregnant — while Caitlin was still stuck making no progress at all? Cynthia genuinely didn't know how she'd face her friend if that happened.
"I understand." Caitlin's smile remained elegant, composed as ever.
Understand what, exactly?
Come to think of it — given how much of a philanderer Mammon clearly was, it really was strange he'd never once "made a move" on Caitlin specifically. Cynthia figured she ought to find a chance to ask him about it directly — Caitlin's looks, figure, and pedigree left nothing to be desired. There was no obvious reason for it.
The next day arrived.
Cynthia had already left early that morning, heading back to Lily of the Valley Island to speak with the League chairwoman. Mammon, meanwhile, woke up and spent the day wandering Hearthome City with Caitlin. Sinnoh's business was, for the most part, wrapped up — there was hardly anything left to occupy him even if he'd wanted to.
The original storyline's Sinnoh-arc movie trilogy had all been connected, tracing back to Arceus. The first, sparked by space-time ripples from Arceus's own gradual recovery and impending awakening, had caused Dialga and Palkia to cross paths in a rift between dimensions, each mistaking the other for an invader of its own territory, triggering a full-scale war. The second film, Giratina's, followed directly from the fallout of that first battle — the Distortion World destabilized by Dialga and Palkia's clash, prompting Giratina to chase Dialga down after it fled into the physical world. The third had Arceus, fully recovered, arriving at Michina to unleash a millennium of pent-up resentment.
But in this world, that original thousand-year-old misunderstanding had never happened at all — so, naturally, none of that space-time warfare or its follow-on drama had ever occurred either. Had to admit, that did rob things of a bit of potential fun. Not that it mattered much, though — Mammon had plenty of leisure to spare, happily spending the day exploring Hearthome alongside Caitlin.
Meanwhile, on Lily of the Valley Island.
Garchomp touched down, and Cynthia looked up at the towering League headquarters ahead of her, her feelings genuinely mixed. Odd, really — barely half a month since she'd last been here, and yet it felt like an entirely different lifetime. Well — she was the Sinnoh League Champion, after all, and she'd just spent that whole stretch of time alongside the leader of an evil organization, sharing nightly... intimacies, no less.
Cynthia gathered herself, recalled Garchomp, and walked into the League building. She took the elevator to the top floor and knocked on the chairwoman's door.
"Chairwoman Carter, it's me. Cynthia."
"Cynthia. Welcome back."
The Sinnoh League's chairwoman was a woman well into her sixties, greeting Cynthia's entrance with a warm, gentle smile.
"Yes. I'm sorry to have worried you."
Cynthia nodded to Chairwoman Carter.
"Sit. Tell me what's happened over this stretch of time."
Cynthia had only ever shared her recent movements with this one person. Chairwoman Carter, despite her age, was hardly out of touch — she genuinely worried about Cynthia's safety, seeing her, as she did, as Sinnoh's own hope for the future.
"Team Galactic has been dismantled by Team Rocket. Their leader Charon, along with all four executives, have been captured entirely by Rocket's people."
"That fast?" Chairwoman Carter adjusted her glasses. She'd anticipated this outcome to some degree, sure, but this quickly? Charon had, after all, been a Champion-tier trainer in his own right.
"The gap in strength between the two sides was simply too enormous. Mammon didn't even need to get personally involved." Cynthia said quietly. Setting Cyrus aside, the whole of Team Galactic had never stood a real chance against Team Rocket — Mammon, Kagura, and Caitlin had barely needed to lift a finger.
"So, Cynthia — how should we handle Team Rocket now?" Carter asked for her opinion. Managing the League's internal affairs was her own specialty, but when it came to dealing with an organization like this, she trusted Cynthia's judgment far more.
"I don't particularly want to say this, but as things stand, the Sinnoh League has no realistic chance of defeating Team Rocket."
"Chairwoman, I'd recommend we follow Hoenn and Unova's lead — negotiate with Team Rocket. As long as we formally recognize the legitimacy of their business enterprises, they won't move against us."
"Is that really alright?" Chairwoman Carter's graying brows furrowed.
"We don't have another option." Cynthia's voice was heavy. "If we insist on actually going to war with Team Rocket and trying to drive them out, the Sinnoh League will simply be crushed."
"Team Rocket isn't something we can handle. The only real chance of standing against them directly would require the Kanto League itself to formally intervene."
Cynthia told the chairwoman.
"I understand. But yesterday's raid on the prison by one of their executives — that was a genuinely severe act. I doubt the council members will agree to negotiations after that."
"If they don't agree, they can go take it up with Kagura themselves. The Sinnoh League isn't obligated to pay for their own foolishness and impulsiveness." Cynthia said flatly.
Those council members — every one of them so self-important in ordinary times, and the moment real trouble showed up, not a peep out of any of them. Fight Team Rocket themselves? Would they actually be the ones doing the fighting? All they'd ever do was throw their weight around from the safety of the sidelines, and the moment things went badly, they'd switch faces without a second thought.
"?!?"
Chairwoman Carter stared at Cynthia, genuinely stunned. This... was this really something Cynthia would say? In Carter's experience, Cynthia — young as she was — had always carried herself with elegance, composure, calm, and dignity. Even voicing displeasure, she'd normally do so with tactful implication, never speaking this bluntly. Calling the council members foolish, outright, to her face?
Carter considered for a moment, then decided to voice what she was thinking regardless.
"Cynthia... you seem to have changed. Somehow."
(End of Chapter)
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