Reserves (Extra Chapter)

Lance paused in his stride.

He rubbed the tip of his nose with a touch of awkwardness, and after a moment of thought, decided not to hide it any longer—there was really nothing to hide anyway.

He pulled a silver badge engraved with the Pokémon League emblem from his pocket. "Uh, challenging Sabrina was indeed part of my plan, but I actually have another identity."

"An Alliance Investigator?"

Seeing the badge, Xia Yan said the identity it represented with a furrowed brow.

"To be precise, an Elite Four Reserve for the Alliance," Lance added, putting the badge away.

A reserve.

He was born in Viridian City in the Kanto Region, growing up just like an ordinary person, and had no idea he belonged to the Dragon Clan.

It was only later that the Dragon Clan found his father, and found him.

Out of consideration for his future, and due to the talent he had displayed since childhood, his father brought him back to the Dragon Clan located in the Dragon's Den of the Johto Region.

At the same time, he caught a Dratini in the Dragon's Den, further displaying his talent, so the Dragon Clan recommended him to the Alliance to become an investigator.

Thus, he became a reserve as he was now.

Seeming afraid that Xia Yan would misunderstand, he explained again, "I didn't deliberately hide anything."

"I understand."

Xia Yan interrupted his explanation.

Lance was doing the exact right thing by handling it this way.

If he went around telling everyone he was an Alliance Investigator and how amazing he was, someone like that would have to have something wrong with their brain.

Especially when he was still only a reserve.

"So, you have a mission coming to Goldenrod City?" Xia Yan's eyes lowered slightly.

The biggest problem in Goldenrod City was Team Rocket, but this matter shouldn't be much of a secret within the Alliance. After all, although Team Rocket's active presence in Goldenrod City was covert, expecting to escape the Alliance's eyes was clearly unrealistic.

It was just that Team Rocket's network of connections in Goldenrod City and throughout the entire Johto Region was intricate and complex; the optimal time to completely uproot them had already passed, and appropriate beating and suppression were the correct approach.

Therefore, Lance's coming to Goldenrod City shouldn't have been because of Team Rocket.

Although Xia Yan couldn't quite be considered a member of Team Rocket, he had after all already seen quite a few traces of Team Rocket behind the Silph Pokémon Battle Club. This was currently his main, or even his only, source of income, so being investigated or taken down was no good news for him.

"Yes and no," Lance answered ambiguously.

"Hmm?"

Was he lecturing on philosophy right here?

Lance smiled awkwardly. "Actually, it's not a secret either, but the Alliance deliberately covered up the news because it isn't a good thing. Making it public might cause some rather bad negative impacts."

With him putting it that way, Xia Yan's interest was piqued.

Only after looking around the dense woods and listening to the occasional sounds of wild Pokémon did Lance lower his voice and say, "You know about the Alliance Elite Four, right?"

"Of course."

The Alliance established the positions of one Champion and four Elite Four members in each region, representing the highest combat power of the Alliance in that region, and also serving as a form of military deterrence.

Moreover, whether it was the Champion or the Elite Four, they wielded considerable power in their respective regions and were the veritable high-ups of each region, even able to determine the direction and development of the regional Alliance to a certain extent.

"Then did you know that the Elite Four actually have reserves as well?"

"The Elite Four have reserves too?"

Xia Yan was somewhat surprised.

This was indeed something he hadn't expected, but since it was the specific system of the Alliance, it was inevitable that he wouldn't know.

"Yes." Lance nodded, his expression turning somewhat solemn as he said in a deep voice, "But just a short while ago, one of the Elite Four Reserves stole something very important to the Alliance and betrayed the Alliance."

Betrayed the Alliance?!

There was drama like this?

No wonder the Alliance would blockade this kind of news. Once made public, it would probably deal a huge blow to the Alliance's prestige.

There were two possibilities for betraying the Alliance: one was that he wasn't part of the Alliance to begin with, and the other was that he left the Alliance for some purpose not permitted by the Alliance.

But no matter which one it was, it wasn't a good thing.

To put it mildly, it showed the Alliance was poor at judging character; to put it grandly, when even an Elite Four Reserve could turn out to be a traitor, there was no guarantee that someone like that might not exist among the Elite Four themselves.

This was something the Alliance had to absolutely prevent.

"So you came to Goldenrod City to investigate him?" Xia Yan asked again, his expression somewhat peculiar.

It wasn't that he looked down on Lance, but given Lance right now, let alone compared to the Elite Four, wasn't there still a significant gap between him and an Elite Four Reserve?

Catching the meaning behind Xia Yan's expression, Lance said helplessly, "After he left, he quickly concealed his identity and vanished without a trace, leaving not even a single clue for the Alliance to track. I just had a hunch he might be in Goldenrod City, so I came. To be precise, this isn't an Alliance mission; it's my personal action.

Of course, challenging the Goldenrod Gym is also a very heavy reason for coming."

Put that way, Xia Yan understood.

Lance was just a blind cat stumbling upon a live rat—he was purely trying his luck.

By the way, I'm going to challenge the Goldenrod City Gym and Sabrina.

"And how does that have anything to do with this blackout?" Xia Yan pressed.

"I don't know."

"You don't know?"

Seeing Lance looking like don't ask me, I have no idea either, he was momentarily left speechless.

"I just figured that if he's really hiding in Goldenrod City, maybe this whole thing was his doing. I did a bit of investigating earlier because of the blackout, and the only thing I can be certain of is that the previous line issue was man-made."

Hearing this, Xia Yan breathed a slight sigh of relief.

Neither the Elite Four nor the prospective Elite Four were opponents that he and Lance could handle. If the target was at the Power Plant, going over there now would be sending themselves to their deaths.

However, since it was all just Lance's speculation, it was comparatively not that dangerous.

With the entire Pokémon League being so vast, featuring so many regions and cities, surely the other party wouldn't obediently cower in the Kanto Region, right?

Putting himself in the other's shoes.

If Xia Yan were that prospective Elite Four member, he reckoned he would already be in a region where the Pokémon League's grip wasn't as firm.

Places like Alola or Galar, for instance, were all great options.

Dangling right under the nose of the Kanto League, wasn't that like lighting a lantern in a latrine?

"We still need to be careful. If we encounter any unexpected situations, I think notifying the Pokémon League at the first opportunity is the most reliable course of action." Xia Yan still added that sentence.

"Yeah, I know my limits." Lance replied.

The two of them had already penetrated a certain distance. Having passed the initially relatively safe zone, they were about to enter an area where wild Pokémon were much more active.

Although they might not pose any particular threat to the two of them, necessary caution was still required.

"Weedle, stay on alert." Xia Yan said to Weedle.

"Woo—" Weedle's deep purple little eyes blinked. Without needing Xia Yan's reminder, it had already been paying attention to the surroundings the moment they entered the forest.

Me, Weedle, taking extreme caution!

Doing the exact same thing was Lance's Dratini.

Although Dratini looked quite delicate, it was not sloppy at all when it came to getting things done, which showed that Lance's cultivation of it was still very much on point.

They hadn't walked for long.

"Woo!"

"Muwu!"

Almost simultaneously, Weedle and Dratini both let out warning cries.

Xia Yan and Lance followed their line of sight.