After returning to the Hoenn League headquarters, Cain simply went to give Juan a brief report on the situation, and then told him about the conjecture the two of them had reached.
Sure enough, from Juan he learned that he had more or less the same suspicion, but had not found a good way to respond.
Until Cain returned, and did so with such strength, his heart was finally able to calm somewhat.
However, after leaving Juan's office, Cain could not return directly to the residence he had within the League headquarters.
Instead, two people invited him to a special place, relatively quiet.
Using the pleasant excuse that they wanted to introduce him to some trainers.
And those two people who intercepted him were precisely the head of the Jenny family of Hoenn and the head of the Joy family of Hoenn.
At the initiative of both of them, they brought Cain to that place.
What appeared before his eyes was a room similar to a classroom. The difference was that here, of course, each seat was not as poor and simple as in an ordinary class. With just one glance, one could tell that the people seated there were not ordinary; at the very least, the quality of the clothes they wore was not something a normal person could afford.
After the introductions by the head of the Jenny family and the head of the Joy family, Cain learned that everyone present were heads of some well-known families in the Hoenn region.
The strength of these families, to a greater or lesser degree, was enough to encompass an entire city, and within their respective cities they were part of the small group that stood at the top.
Some of these families even directly controlled local Gyms, or held important positions within the League.
It could be said that everyone present were highly influential figures in Hoenn, yet now these outstanding individuals, upon seeing Cain, someone of common origin, did not dare to put on airs.
As soon as they saw him enter, they stood up enthusiastically to greet him. Some even felt that the introduction from the head of the Jenny family and the head of the Joy family was not enough, so they briefly introduced themselves personally.
Most of these families followed a model similar to that of the Stone family. To a greater or lesser extent, all of them controlled certain Pokémon resources. Although they did not possess a quantity of Steel-type Pokémon as large and formidable as the Stone family, nor were their aptitude and talent as extraordinary as that family's.
But that was only in comparison with a giant family like the Stone family. In the eyes of ordinary people, possessing such Pokémon resources was already like facing an insurmountable mountain.
If one truly had to compare them, the family of Whitney in Johto, which controlled Miltank as a resource, would at most rank in the middle within this room, and might not even reach that level.
If one had to speak of the most valuable resource in the entire Pokémon world, without a doubt it would be those rare Pokémon, or those with great talent and high potential. That was the true essence of the Pokémon world.
In reality, Pokémon themselves were not scarce or particularly rare in the Pokémon world, but Pokémon with high aptitude or great rarity were the most valuable.
For example, the pseudo-legendary Pokémon of each region. If a family could control to some extent the production of pseudo-legendary Pokémon, then that family would never be weak.
Such as the Drako family of Johto, or the Stone family in Hoenn. The Drako family controlled the Dragon's Den, and thanks to the efforts of generations of the family, that cave produced a stable number of Dratini each year, bringing enormous benefits to the entire family.
As for the Stone family, a family that began through mining, they also controlled to some extent the production of the pseudo-legendary Metagross in Hoenn. While strengthening their own family, they also obtained tremendous profits.
Of course, the Pokémon controlled by these two families were not limited to that. The Drako family also controlled a series of Dragon-type Pokémon such as Kingdra, while the Stone family also possessed a large number of Steel-type Pokémon such as Aggron.
However, families capable of reaching that level were still few. But this was how these families survived in the Pokémon world: if they could truly monopolize a species of Pokémon, then it would be difficult for them not to grow.
The two largest families were the Jenny family and the Joy family. These two families almost monopolized several Pokémon species, and their strength was impossible to calculate.
It was just that these two families were already completely intertwined with the entire Pokémon League; both their glory and their destruction would be tied to it.
As branches of such enormous families, the Jenny family of Hoenn and the Joy family of Hoenn could also be considered the leaders among all families in the region.
Although if one really had to make calculations, perhaps the Stone family was currently the strongest in Hoenn.
Seeing all those heads of large and small families, Cain did not show any coldness. On the contrary, he chatted and greeted them with a smile on his face.
He knew perfectly well what the intention of the head of the Jenny family and the head of the Joy family was.
The previous Cain had been nothing more than a young man who had just become a regional Elite Four member. The fact that he had reached the position of Elite Four was not because there was no one stronger than him in Hoenn, but because the general direction of the entire League was to delegate power to the younger generation, and coincidentally Cain was the strongest among them all, so he obtained that position.
But although Cain had also been the center of attention at that time, he had not yet truly entered the core of power in Hoenn, so these families, so proud of themselves, still felt themselves above him as long as Cain did not take the initiative to approach them.
Even the Jenny and Joy families, who already valued his potential at that time, shared the same policy: they wanted Cain to marry one of their own and serve their interests.
But now everything was different. A single trip to the Space-Time Continent had caused an explosive leap in Cain's strength, leaving everyone stunned.
(End of Chapter)