Chapter 131: All Members Are Villains
Facing this question, the hijacked Stitched Shadow Army member was initially stunned for a moment.
He was probably hesitating whether this kind of matter could be told to an outsider.
However, Arthur quickly educated him: Weaklings don't need to think too much.
The sword at his neck could help him make the choice very well.
"Yes... Boss Liam has always not been particularly convinced by the Leader."
Arthur continued to press, "Was the incident in the Kubfu Alliance's South Sea also planned by Liam?"
Hearing this question, the opponent again became hesitant, wanting to speak yet holding back.
After Arthur provided some more "help," the person weakly opened his mouth and explained, "Not just... that incident, it wasn't just Boss Liam who participated. It's just that the actions of the other cadres were hidden from the Leader, so he wasn't allowed to know."
In that instant, Arthur's brows furrowed deeply.
The situation seemed even worse than he had imagined.
According to this person's statement, under the Stitched Shadow Army's Leader, there were only three cadres in total.
If the Crescent Bay incident involved more than just Liam, didn't that mean at least two of the three cadres were no longer following Leader Oliver's instructions?
Oliver, what are you doing, Oliver?!
Arthur had originally thought that the biggest difficulty on this trip would be how to meet his own Gengar.
But now, it seemed, what he would have to consider next was likely how to save his Gengar...
"Do you have any way for me to meet your Leader Oliver?"
Arthur asked in a deep voice.
Although, after subjectively identifying Leader Oliver's Gengar as his own from back then, Arthur's inner feelings towards this person Oliver had become very complex.
How to put it... there was an inexplicable feeling like a cuckolded husband meeting the homewrecker, or perhaps an ex-husband meeting the new partner?
Pah pah pah!
This metaphor deserved death!
Anyway, it just felt... quite awkward.
Originally, before coming, Arthur had even thought of avoiding Gengar's current master, and upon meeting Gengar, directly and forcibly taking him away, dragging him out of the quagmire that was the Stitched Shadow Army.
If Gengar didn't obey, he would beat him up!
Wasn't Honedge prepared precisely for that moment?
Yet now, it looked as though this Oliver himself was in a somewhat precarious situation.
Hopefully, he wouldn't implicate his own Gengar and put him in danger before Arthur even found his way to their door...
To have his Gengar assisting him and still manage to get the situation into this state, this person truly is useless!!
Arthur, while inwardly cursing Oliver bitterly, was simultaneously still pondering how to lend him a hand.
His mood was incomparably complex...
However, it was a great pity that the person he had hijacked was, after all, just a minor character.
"I, I, I... Where could I possibly take you to meet the Leader?!"
"Crap!"
Arthur let out a curse.
As steady and composed as he usually was, this was the first time he had been unable to control his emotions in such a manner.
...
Simultaneously, far away, over a hundred kilometers distant, within a secret base of the Stitched Shadow Army hidden along the Alliance border, the other two cadres, besides Liam, sat together, seemingly both waiting for something.
The female cadre, Dayna, in her thirties, propped her chin with one hand, while the other hand idly twirled her Poké Ball on the table. Her eyes flowed with expression, naturally exuding a mature charm.
After a moment of silence, she proactively broke the ice, "Before Liam went out to discuss business tonight, I definitely saw him take a Toxic Orb and three Qwilfish poison sacs with him. That doesn't look like the posture of someone going out to properly discuss business. It's quite possible that after tonight, we'll have one less cooperative partner. Aren't you going to stop him on the Leader's behalf?"
Facing her teasing, the cadre Linda, sitting opposite her, remained silent.
After an awkward silence of two seconds, Dayna rolled her eyes at Linda.
"Really boring. The Leader, in the past, never allowed us to harm or kill trade partners without reason. Liam doing this is openly challenging the Leader's authority. Aren't you angry?"
Linda remained silent for a few more seconds, then finally opened her mouth, speaking in a deep voice, "You don't need to probe me. We'll talk after all the lab results are out."
"Fine then~"
Dayna ceased her verbal teasing, raised both hands high, and gave a big, lazy stretch. Her beautiful body curves were generously displayed, her mature charm far beyond what those unripe fruits could compare to.
Subsequently, the two continued to sit at the table in quiet anticipation.
Not long after, a medical personnel member, dressed in a white lab coat, wearing rubber gloves on his hands, his face mask just pulled down to his chin, walked over and nodded in acknowledgment to the two seated cadres.
Then, he handed over a small vial containing a dark red blood sample and a stack of lab reports.
Dayna seemed to have a plan already well in mind, her expression a half-smile, half-not. She propped up her chin with one hand, gesturing for Linda to look first.
Linda looked at her deeply, said nothing, but didn't refuse either. She took the reports with one grab and began to read.
This small vial contained a tiny bit of blood that Dayna had painstakingly managed to secretly collect from Leader Oliver.
And the lab results... actually, she and Liam had guessed them long ago.
Now, it was merely a matter of showing Linda—this fool who always refused to believe them and was blindly loyal to the Leader—the truth.
Linda took the reports. The parts that were too professional in the middle, she couldn't understand. She quickly flipped to the final conclusion section.
In that instant, her hand actually showed a trace of obvious tremor.
Conclusion: Blood oxygen content far below normal human levels. Bacteria content in blood exceeds standard. Can be confirmed as taken from an already deceased corpse. Estimated time of death does not exceed 48 hours.
Linda couldn't help but forcefully clench the few pages of the report in her hand.
"The Leader... is actually a corpse? What exactly is going on?! What did you two do?"
She stood up, glaring angrily at Dayna.
However, facing her almost gushing killing intent, Dayna still appeared lazy and composed.
"Don't speak so carelessly now. This wasn't our doing. Rumor has it that long before we joined the organization, the Leader was already in this state, wasn't he?"
"He has rarely shown his face for many years now; whenever there were matters, it was always those two Pokémon who came out to speak. It wasn't as if this only started after Liam and I became cadres."
Linda's fists were clenched very tightly, but in the end, she could only, bit by bit, sit back down in her seat.
"You two knew long ago?"
"Yes, we had guessed some things long ago. Still remember I told you a few years ago? The Leader is just a moving puppet, that's all. From time to time, he even changes bodies."
"Then the person behind the scenes manipulating the puppet... who exactly is it?" Linda asked.
"I don't know. However, what can be confirmed is that the Leader's two Pokémon definitely have problems!"
"Gengar and Mismagius, heh! Ghost-type Pokémon are the most sensitive to the aura of living people. I don't believe that those two couldn't tell their own master was a dead man."
Linda remained silent for a long time, seemingly still digesting this astonishing news.
Until Dayna continued speaking, "Right now, there isn't that much free time to trace the mastermind manipulating the Leader. It's better to first think of a way to get through the current crisis. The Kubfu Alliance certainly won't be satisfied with merely taking down a few of our outer bases and arresting a few circles of outer members."
Linda let out a cold laugh.
She had long guessed what Dayna wanted to say.
"Yes, ah. If we don't hand over a head of significant weight, Kubfu won't rest easy. For that kind of weight, only the three of us and the Leader are qualified."
"Since the Leader is a dead man, then let him exert some remaining heat (serve one last purpose)."
"Appeasing Kubfu's wrath in order to preserve the organization... for a leader, it can also be considered dying for a worthy cause."
Hearing Linda make this statement, Dayna finally smiled, a smile of myriad charms.
This way, her purpose in specially bringing Linda to see the lab results today was also achieved.
At this moment, Arthur still didn't know that for him, there was currently one piece of good news and one piece of bad news—
The good news was that the person "Oliver" actually didn't exist; he was just a puppet disguised all along using a corpse. He no longer needed to feel the conflict of a cuckolded husband meeting the homewrecker, wondering if Bloodhoof should be his own...
And the bad news was...
Within the Stitched Shadow Army, it wasn't, as he had imagined, two cadres opposing Oliver.
Rather, all three cadres were villains!
(End of Chapter)
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