Upstairs in the study.
Will watched as Iris's furious mother left with a worried expression, feeling a little puzzled.
Iris's mother had co storming over, not because Liz had kept Iris at the palace without permission, but because Iris had actually skipped her lessons that afternoon to co and find him. As for why she had left looking so worried... Will couldn't guess what Liz had said to her. It was just a sleepover; what was the big deal? It wasn't like she hadn't stayed over before.
Click.
The door opened, and Liz walked in.
"Lan? What the..."
Liz's eyes lit up when she saw Will, but then she froze, staring at the large hole in the wall. She rembered there used to be a window there. Now, there was just a gaping hole.
Will stood with his hands behind his back, in the posture of a wise master.
"Pfft... chubby baby."
Liz couldn't help but cover her mouth and giggle. She walked over and rubbed Will's belly. Then she left the study to order soone to replace the door and window with extra-large ones tomorrow.
"What brings you here, Lan? Did you miss too much?" Liz asked gently as she ca back in.
With a large hole in the wall, the late autumn evening breeze was quite chilly. Feeling the cold, Liz dropped all pretense of decorum and threw herself into Will's embrace. She had two years of missed hugs to make up for.
"Don't ss around, I ca to ask you sothing serious. What's the situation with the Kingdom of the Land?"
Will scooped Liz up with one arm, letting her sit on it, and then carried her to a wall in the study. On the wall, two maps were displayed side by side: Johto on the left, Kanto on the right. In the middle, a long mountain range—Mt. Silver—separated them, represented by the gap between the two maps.
The map had been hand-drawn by a traveling rchant and looked very rough. But Will could, based on his mory, ntally convert it to the map from the future Era of Leagues, which made it easier for him to understand. Mt. Silver was located where the Indigo Plateau would one day be. The Dragonite capital was just to its west. As for the capital of the Kingdom of the Land, Liz had marked it with an 'X' on the map, a place that corresponded to the future Viridian City.
The direct distance between the two capitals was actually very short, only a little further than the distance from the Dragonite capital to Jubilance Town. The great road that had appeared out of nowhere a few years ago, connecting the two regions, was located right in the middle, south of the capitals. To the left, it connected to the vast plains of Johto; to the right, to Kanto's largest forest, the Viridian Forest.
This geography presented advantages and disadvantages for both sides, with no clear superior, which made the situation sowhat dramatic. The plains made it easy for the Dragonite Kingdom to advance and transport supplies, but they were difficult to defend. The Viridian Forest was a huge natural barrier for the Kingdom of the Land, but it also made it difficult for them to advance their own troops. It blocked the enemy, but it also blocked them.
And yet, the plains were right at the doorstep of the peace-loving Dragonite Kingdom, while the labyrinthine forest stood before the aggressive Kingdom of the Land. That was what made the geography so ironic.
"Nite?" Will asked, pointing a hand at the Kingdom of the Land's position on the map and looking at Liz on his arm.
"Hm? You want to know the current situation with the Kingdom of the Land? It's about ti I told you. You can put down now," Liz understood him instantly.
After she was on the ground, she took several docunts from her desk, glanced at them to refresh her mory, and then began to explain.
"A year ago, the civil war in the Kingdom of the Land officially ended. The victor, naturally, was that King of the Land, Sakaki the White."
"Sakaki?!" Will's eyes widened.
That's right. This was the first ti since coming to the Dragonite Kingdom that he had heard the true na of the Land King. Before this, no one had ever ntioned it, and Will had naturally assud it was still ruled by the Silph clan. When he had left two years ago, he had only known there was a civil war and had assud it was due to tyranny, not that there were remnants of the old regi stirring up trouble.
Hearing this now was terrifying. The feud between the future Johto Champion, Lance, and the leader of Team Rocket, Giovanni, had actually begun with their ancestors a thousand years ago. And what's more, the one at a disadvantage was the noble-born Lance, not the commoner Sakaki.
If I hadn't appeared, who would have been the original winner of this war? The question surfaced in his mind but was quickly suppressed. Whatever the original tiline was, he would not let Liz fail now.
Will's assessnt of the Kingdom of the Land's threat level rose several notches. The main reason was that the Sakaki family produced no weaklings. Neither the future Giovanni nor his son, Silver, were people to be trifled with.
Liz, anwhile, was still explaining the situation. During their civil war, the Kingdom of the Land had also accidentally discovered that battling could accelerate a Pokémon's growth. And Sakaki the White was not as rciful towards Pokémon as Liz was. In his kingdom, they were still called "beasts" and "slaves." It was a true reflection of the dark side of the Pokémon world.
To quickly make up for the loss of military strength from the civil war, Sakaki had implented a number of policies. Initially, any Pokémon that resisted training or failed to et the daily standards, along with their Beast-Caller, would be subjected to cruel torture. So Pokémon, not wanting their masters to suffer, would grit their teeth and endure. But there were also so Beast-Callers who loved their Pokémon deeply and couldn't bear to see them suffer or die in the coming war, so they would secretly drive their Pokémon into the Viridian Forest. Those without families might disappear into the forest with their Pokémon. Those with families who couldn't leave would return to the city alone to bear all the consequences, so as not to implicate them. Generally, these people did not have a good end.
No matter how touching their bond was, it didn't change the fact that this was desertion. Sakaki had never forced anyone to enlist. Everyone who joined his army had done so voluntarily. Whether they wanted to earn rit to change their status or to improve their family's life, they were all volunteers. To beg to join, take the state's resources to raise a state-assigned beast, and then secretly release it... how could Sakaki possibly forgive such an act?
But unfortunately, despite the harsh consequences, there were still so who did this. The kingdom's military strength, instead of rising, actually fell, giving Sakaki a major headache and forcing him to change his policies.
The first step was to lower the training quota to a level that the vast majority of Pokémon could complete. Sakaki had unintentionally used the anchoring effect. Compared to the past, even though the current training was still very demanding, many found it acceptable.
The second step was to add rewards on top of the punishnts. Failing to complete the training would still result in punishnt, but exceeding the quota would earn rewards for both the Pokémon and the Beast-Caller. The rewards weren't amazing, certainly not comparable to military honors, but for the citizens of the Land Kingdom, who lived in a harsh environnt, they would strive for any resource that could make their lives easier, especially one they could earn every day.
This change imdiately led to a huge improvent in the kingdom's situation. Their military strength rose almost linearly, and many new recruits joined the army. This was not sothing the Dragonite Kingdom wanted to see. And they couldn't just copy the strategy. Their own training regin was already quite demanding; a sudden increase would affect morale. Besides, they couldn't afford the rewards. They might be able to sustain it for a while, but not for long. At least 80% of the Land Kingdom's wealth was concentrated in Sakaki's hands, while Liz controlled less than 10% of her kingdom's total wealth.
The difference in their societies reflected the difference between the two rulers. Kanto was full of poor, remote areas, with many villages and tribes still in existence. Only the capital, Viridian, was wealthy. And even there, you could still find people who had starved to death in the streets. In Johto, on the other hand, you could hardly find any villages or tribes. Any inhabited place was at least a town, and the larger ones were not much different from the capital. You couldn't even find beggars on the streets, let alone people who had starved.
If a war broke out, Liz would even have to levy taxes on her own people.
Originally, the Dragonite Kingdom had wanted to stall for ti because the Kingdom of the Land had not yet discovered the thod to rapidly strengthen their Pokémon. But now, not only had they discovered it, but their implentation was even more effective. The situation was now reversed. Now it was the Kingdom of the Land that wanted to stall, and the Dragonite Kingdom that did not.
"If we continue to delay, the Kingdom of the Land's military strength will gradually catch up to ours, and may even surpass it. So... I don't think we can delay any longer. Perhaps... this war should be started by us," Liz said, putting down the docunts. She walked to the two maps, her expression grim.
"Do what you think you must," Will said. He didn't say more, just nodded and turned to leave the study, his own expression grave.
He now had one more thing to do. He had to go and see for himself just how developed the Kingdom of the Land now was. Otherwise, he wouldn't be able to rest easy. But this was not sothing to be rushed. He had to do it after he learned Extre Speed. He had no desire to die over there right as the war was starting.
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