"Who exactly is that person?" Cain asked with a serious expression.
Brad looked at Cain. "If I really knew who he is, I wouldn't be alive here."
Cain was stunned. He had thought that Brad knew that person's specific identity; otherwise, how could he know so many things?
"I learned all of this thanks to the person who dragged me into this situation, and then, after exploring this continent on my own, I confirmed that what he said was true," Brad said in an indifferent tone.
As for the person who had dragged him into that state, he didn't know why, but the hatred he felt now was no longer as intense. Perhaps when someone is close to death, even the deepest hatreds can be temporarily forgotten. If he were to die carrying such a heavy resentment, he feared dying with too much frustration.
"So, you said earlier that you're not the only one like you here?" Cain asked again.
Brad nodded and spoke frankly. "That's right. People forced to stay here like me do exist, but they're very few. Do you know why the League says the survival rate upon entering here is seventy percent? Because there are almost no cases like mine, where someone is stripped of their spatial stone, their Pokémon, and even all of their resources."
"Most people, just like that person back then, chose to stay here voluntarily... or rather, their mission was to stay here!"
Hearing this, Cain's heart trembled. He felt that he was gradually looking at the key point.
"You mean... that person, without the League knowing, had already returned to the Pokémon world and secretly established his own force? And that every time the five-year period arrived, he infiltrated people into the League, sending his own here to stay on this continent, gradually occupying it and turning it into his secret base?" Cain said.
Even he himself felt a strong shock within. If his guess was correct, then that person's ambition was truly terrifying.
Brad looked at Cain in surprise. After observing him for a long time, he once again showed a complicated expression. "I don't know. Actually, your conjecture is exactly the same as mine when I learned all this. But whether that person really returned or not, I don't know either."
"And those who stayed here occupy the central area of the continent, right on the mountain you can see now. It's said that the Temple of Time and Space is there, where Dialga and Palkia once lived. It may hide some secret, but that's no longer something I can know."
"When I recovered part of my strength, I once went there to investigate, but I was discovered very quickly. It seems they have some kind of special detection method."
"If I hadn't escaped fast enough, I would probably already be dead."
After a brief pause, Brad continued, "In fact, I've always suspected that they wouldn't allow anyone who knew these secrets and wasn't one of theirs to leave this place. If I had had a spatial stone, they would surely have already come for me."
"What really makes it unbearable for me is that, back then, I regarded that person as my best friend. I never imagined that in the end he would stab me in the back."
"Not only did he take my spatial stone, he also kept all of my Pokémon. He even, to humiliate me, stole all of my resources... including my clothes."
As he said this, hatred flared once more in Brad's eyes.
To be honest, being betrayed by the person he trusted the most was the hardest thing to accept.
"Then why didn't he kill you? Wouldn't it have been simpler to eliminate you once and for all?" Cain asked doubtfully.
"I don't know. Maybe he thought that without Pokémon, it would be impossible for me to survive in such a dangerous wilderness," Brad shook his head.
If he hadn't had a moment of clarity and hidden in advance two young Pokémon he had never shown to anyone, he truly wouldn't have survived on this continent.
But before he could train Feraligatr and Haxorus, he also had to live in hiding and constantly on the run.
Only when he reached sufficient strength could he, with difficulty, secure his basic livelihood.
"Among the previous generation of people who entered here, who was the one who attacked you?" Finally, Cain asked the key question.
Not knowing who the figure hidden in the shadows was was understandable, but the person who attacked him, whom he had called a friend, he undoubtedly knew.
"Alex!"
Brad would never forget that name. Even his face was engraved deep in his heart, appearing before his eyes several times every day.
He spoke the name through clenched teeth, as if the scene of that betrayal were replaying itself before him.
However, upon hearing that name, Cain froze in place. He felt that it matched someone he already knew.
"Alex? The person you're talking about... wouldn't happen to be someone like this, would it?" Cain raised his right hand and, using his psychic power, drew a face in the air.
That face was very familiar to him, because it was that of the commander of the League's Second Legion: Alex, the real name of the Black Messenger.
For some reason, Cain felt that an enormous whirlpool was looming over him. If the Black Messenger was truly, as Brad said, a subordinate of that person...
"Do you know Alex?" Brad's face turned grim.
If Cain knew Alex and they had a good relationship, he wouldn't believe his words. And that seemed very likely to him, because he knew what kind of person Alex appeared to be on the surface: approachable and extremely easy to gain others' trust.
"If the Alex you're talking about is him, then I'm afraid you won't have a chance to take revenge," Cain said with a smile.
Seeing Cain's smile, absolute hopelessness appeared in Brad's eyes. Just as he had assumed, the person in front of him knew Alex and trusted him.
Cain noticed the change in his expression and understood that Brad had misunderstood the situation.
"The reality isn't what you think. In truth, that Alex is already dead... two or three months ago," Cain said.
(End of chapter)