This time, it truly was the most typical example of having barely warmed his seat before having to attend another meeting again.
However, this meeting was different. Cain would participate as Champion, representing the Hoenn League, in a meeting of the entire Pokémon League. This was also the first time Cain participated in a meeting of this kind.
So... he could not be late.
Following Juan, he arrived at a special meeting room in the deepest part of the Hoenn League.
All regional leagues had a meeting room like this, and the layout was also exactly the same, precisely to match the meeting room of the League's central headquarters.
When the image projector was activated, the images of Cain and Juan were projected into the office of the League's central headquarters on Mt. Silver.
Although Cain and Juan had arrived in a hurry, they clearly were not the first to arrive.
"Oh, Juan and Cain, the two of you really were quite fast." The council elder looked at the first two to appear and greeted them with a smile.
"Elder," Cain and Juan said at the same time.
When Juan was still young, the council elder had already had this same appearance. After several decades, he still showed no change at all.
The council elder smiled and nodded.
"Cain, congratulations. You have finally become Champion. The level-based incident classification system you are currently implementing in the Hoenn region has caused an enormous discussion throughout the entire League. I do not know how many people want to go to you to learn from your experience."
"As expected... if the League wants to continue developing, it still needs young people like you. You have ideas, you dare to act, and you also dare to assume responsibility."
He did not hide his praise toward Cain in the slightest.
Although the council elder knew Cain's identity, even so, he did not hide his appreciation and admiration for him. It was the same as when he had once learned that there were problems with Giovanni's identity, yet he had not hidden his admiration for Giovanni either.
In the council elder's eyes, in reality, there was not too much of such a thing as opposing identities. Although he was the overall president of the Pokémon League, in reality, he did not have too many prejudices toward others.
Perhaps it was because he was influenced by Arceus.
From Arceus's point of view, he also did not have a clear stance. It was not that he necessarily had to support the Pokémon League, only that, with the Pokémon League managing it, the entire Pokémon world could develop better.
And the better the Pokémon world developed, the more at ease Arceus would be.
As someone who shared a portion of Arceus's power, the council elder, to a certain extent, had also inherited Arceus's will.
That was why he did not have too many prejudices against Cain. Even toward the current Giovanni, in reality, he also did not have too many prejudices.
Only, Team Rocket had begun to act, and that would inevitably cause suffering and death. That was what he did not want to see. That was why he convened this meeting, so that the people in charge of the leagues of each region could gather and discuss it.
Because he had perceived that Team Rocket's movements this time were different from previous times. This time, it was very possible that it would be a great campaign sweeping across the entire Pokémon world. If it was not handled well, perhaps the Pokémon League really could be destroyed.
Although, for Arceus, the destruction of the League would only mean changing to a different support group, the bloodshed that would occur in the middle would probably make the Pokémon world regress by at least twenty years.
While Cain and Juan were conversing with the council elder, the images of the other regions appeared one after another. All of them also knew that Cain had become Champion, and they expressed their congratulations to him one after another. But how many of those congratulations were truly sincere already depended on each person's interpretation.
Under the council elder's direction, the content of the meeting did not go beyond Cain's expectations.
In general terms, it was still about how to organize the defense.
The presidents of the leagues of each region also expressed, more or less, that the underground forces of their regions had lately been far too quiet, as if they were vaguely planning something.
If only one region were like this, there would not be too much of a problem. But if all the regions were the same, that already explained many things.
It was like the calm before the storm. The longer this tranquility lasted now, the greater the impact that would erupt afterward.
After everyone finished discussing this topic with a heavy mood, the council elder changed the subject and directed the attention toward Cain.
The main reason was still the level-based incident classification system that Cain had proposed. The council elder had seen the changes in the Hoenn region, and had also seen a possibility of perhaps saving the League from its decline, as well as the possibility of accelerating its development.
Moreover, if a level system like this were implemented throughout the entire League, without a doubt, the benefits for the whole League would be much greater than the drawbacks.
For this reason, Cain even specially separated, point by point, the benefits of this system, its intentions, and the methods for handling various sudden situations.
For a time, Cain obtained the recognition of even more League presidents.
However, having participated both in the meeting organized by Team Rocket to discuss how to deal with the League, and in the League's meeting about how to defend itself against Team Rocket and multiple underground forces, made Cain feel something very strange.
It was as if... everything were under his control.
That feeling was fascinating.
But just as Giovanni did not ask Cain to reveal the League's arrangements, the council elder also had no intention of asking him to reveal what Team Rocket's objective was.
Both of them, with great tacit understanding, excluded Cain from their considerations.
When the meeting ended, the council elder cast Cain an extremely meaningful glance, a glance that made it impossible to understand what exactly he wanted to express.
But from this moment on, it represented that the battle between the League and the future pre-form of Team Rainbow Rocket had truly begun.
Both sides were already prepared!
(End of chapter)