The photo's colors had already faded, and there were some scratches on it. The palm-sized picture showed two men. One of them bore a striking resemblance to Walter—about seventy to eighty percent similar.
That must have been his father.
As for the other man, Julian found him vaguely familiar, though he couldn't quite place him. However, what the man was holding in his hand was unmistakable.
Crystal clear, with a glossy, fleshy appearance, shaped like a mushroom—it was unmistakably the Glossy Ganoderma.
"See this? This is the Glossy Ganoderma!" Walter said proudly, pointing at the photo. "My father found it together with Champion Duke."
"Wait, you're saying that's Champion Duke?"
Julian blinked in surprise, eyes widening as he looked more closely at the familiar face in the photo. Now that Walter mentioned it, the man did resemble a younger version of Duke.
He looked to be in his thirties in the photo.
"Dad, how could that possibly be Champion Duke? If our family had any connection to him, we wouldn't still be living like this!"
"Young Master Walker, my dad loves to exaggerate. Don't take it seriously."
Lucas had heard this story from his father countless times. As a child, he believed it, but as an adult, he dismissed it as pure fantasy.
Duke was a figure of legendary status—what possible ties could he have had with their grandfather?
"You little brat, what nonsense are you spouting?!"
Walter glared at Lucas, furious that even his own son was undermining him—especially when he was telling the truth this time! If Julian wasn't present, he would've smacked the kid already.
"Walter is right. This man really is Champion Duke," Julian confirmed.
It made sense—Duke had been poisoned by the Poison-type Champion of Babath, and it was the Glossy Ganoderma that had kept him alive. This must have been the one he found in the Hara Desert—likely with the help of Walter's father.
But knowing Duke's character, if Walter's father had truly assisted him, he would've left them with substantial rewards. So why was Walter's family still struggling?
Well, "struggling" was relative.
Walter and both his children were at the pseudo-Elite level, with Walter himself being a Peak pseudo-Elite. By ordinary standards, their family's strength was already quite impressive.
But after the incident with Gliscor, they had lost most of their main Pokémon, and their current strength was a shadow of what it once was.
Still, now that Julian had confirmed the man's identity, Walter stood a little taller, looking smugly at his children who had always doubted him. "See? I wasn't lying!"
With Julian backing him up, his children had no choice but to believe him.
"Walter, did your father leave any records about how he found the Glossy Ganoderma?" Julian asked.
Having said that, Julian immediately started dialing his grandfather.
"My dear grandson, have you found the Glossy Ganoderma yet?"
His grandfather's urgent voice came through the phone.
Julian replied slowly, "No."
Then he added, "Grandpa, can you ask Champion Duke how he found the Glossy Ganoderma in the Hara Desert?"
"What are you talking about? The Glossy Ganoderma Duke used came from Drakoria's national treasury—it wasn't something he found himself."
His grandfather's puzzled voice came through the phone.
Now Julian was confused, looking again at the photo in Walter's hand—the person holding the Glossy Ganoderma, wasn't that the young Champion Duke?
Could it be that it wasn't Duke—just someone who looked like him?
But that didn't quite make sense either. Walter had also insisted this was Duke, meaning his father must have told him so.
"Grandpa, I'm sending you something."
Julian ended the call, then snapped a photo of the picture and sent it to John.
Then, he turned back to Walter.
"Walter, you're absolutely sure your father told you this man was Champion Duke, right?"
Walter nodded at first, then shook his head.
"My father only told me his surname was Aldridge. Later, when Champion Duke became the nation's strongest Champion, I saw his face and realized he looked just like the man in the photo."
"Since the man in the photo was also surnamed Aldridge, I assumed he was the champion."
"So your father never actually said that his name was Duke Aldridge?" Julian pressed.
Walter hesitated, as if trying to recall. After a long pause, he nodded uncertainly.
"Probably not. I was only about ten years old at the time, and it's been so many years… I can't say for sure."
Seeing how serious Julian was, Walter became extra cautious, worried that even a small misstatement could cause trouble. His words turned deliberately vague.
He wasn't stupid—surviving decades in the Hara Desert wasn't just about battling the harsh environment and wild Pokémon, but also navigating the dangers of fellow treasure hunters and explorers.
If he didn't have brains, he'd have been devoured long ago.
From Julian's questioning, he realized that the young man was urgently searching for the Glossy Ganoderma. That old photo had clearly given him a ray of hope—but now there was a problem.
At first, Julian thought the man in the photo was Champion Duke, but now he doubted it.
Julian didn't ask any more questions. He simply stared at the person in the photo in deep thought.
His grandfather had said the Glossy Ganoderma that Duke used came from the national treasury of Drakoria.
Yet the photo clearly showed him already holding it in his hands. Could it be that Duke had found the Glossy Ganoderma in the Hara Desert, placed it in the national treasury, and later retrieved it again?
If that were the case, it would all make sense.
"Jiggly~ Puff—"
His phone rang.
"Hello, Grandpa?"
"My dear grandson, the man in the photo isn't Duke—it's his younger brother, Troy. They were twins. This is the first time I'm hearing he even had a twin brother."
"Duke said that the Glossy Ganoderma was found by his brother and later stored in the national treasury. He retrieved it from there."
"His brother died during an operation against Celestria. As for how he found the Glossy Ganoderma, Duke doesn't know the details."
"Got it, Grandpa."
After speaking, Julian hung up the phone.
So, after all that back-and-forth, nothing had changed. The Glossy Ganoderma in the photo was the same one Duke had consumed—not a separate specimen.
He hadn't expected Duke to have a twin brother—that certainly explained why the man in the photo looked so familiar.
"Young Master Walker, are you… looking for the Glossy Ganoderma?"
Seeing Julian fall silent after the call, the atmosphere grew heavy, almost suffocating.
"Mn."
Julian nodded. There was no point hiding it—they'd already figured it out.
"You haven't found it yet?"
Walter asked cautiously.
"Obviously."
Julian shot him a glare. 'If I'd found it, would I still be sitting here talking to you?'
It was precisely because he hadn't found it that he was frustrated. He'd already spent five days searching the Hara Desert.
Celebi could only maintain his grandmother's condition for half a month. Subtracting the three days needed to return, that meant Julian now had just five days left to locate the Glossy Ganoderma.
*****
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