"Mr. Chairman! This is bad! Damian's come to Galar!"
Leon said in a deep voice to Rose after the call connected.
"Is that so? So he's finally here."
Rose, who was in Hulbury at the moment, didn't seem too surprised. This had been bound to happen sooner or later.
"Mr. Chairman, do you think..."
Leon didn't know how Rose planned to deal with Damian.
"Leave it to me, Leon. I'll handle it."
Rose's rich, mature voice made Leon nod.
After years of cooperation, just as Rose had absolute trust and confidence in Leon, Leon also had complete faith in Rose's abilities.
When it came to negotiations, Rose would never botch it.
Leon was absolutely sure of that.
After ending the call with Leon, Rose fell into thought for a moment.
"Oleana, check the passenger information for the recent flights from out of region. Find Damian's flight and landing point. I need to talk to him."
"Yes."
Oleana, who was standing behind Rose, nodded solemnly.
As long as they could find the city where Damian's plane had landed, Rose was certain he could locate Damian.
That was Rose's confidence.
Because in the Galar Region, as long as he wanted to, there was no one whose information he couldn't look up.
Because his name was Rose!
After becoming the Galar regional chairman, Rose had strongly developed every industry in Galar, and the largest enterprise in the entire region, Macro Cosmos, was under his control.
What kind of concept was Macro Cosmos in the Galar Region?
To put it simply: aviation, railways, energy, technology, the internet, construction, daily life, banking, logistics, securities, networking, and more—the leading companies in every field in Galar were all Macro Cosmos!
It could be said that if Macro Cosmos fell, Galar's economy would at least regress by decades!
That wasn't an exaggeration at all, because every industry in the entire Galar Region was supported by Macro Cosmos.
Saying that eighty percent of Galar's wealth was in Rose's hands wasn't an overstatement either.
Silph Co. in Kanto and Devon Corporation in Hoenn were already world-class conglomerates, but Macro Cosmos could absolutely stand alongside them, or even be wealthier.
And yet no one in Galar would question Rose, because he was truly giving everything he had for Galar.
All of this was visible to everyone.
Rose was responsible for growing Galar's economy, while Leon was responsible for leading Galar's Trainers.
That was the most important reason why Galar was growing so rapidly now, because the two people standing at the peak of Galar worked together in perfect harmony.
Hammerlocke.
Damian and Caitlin returned to Hammerlocke. According to the information Serena had left behind, the two of them quickly found the girls at a training ground in Hammerlocke.
At that moment, though, Dawn was in the middle of clashing with another Trainer.
"Hahaha! Nice one, girl! But now I'm gonna go all out too!"
The young man wearing a yellow hood laughed wildly in excitement and threw his Poké Ball.
Damian recognized him at a glance. This young man was Raihan.
How had Dawn ended up battling Raihan?
Damian was honestly pretty curious.
"Go all out! Archaludon!"
Raihan sent out his ace Pokémon, and the heavy Archaludon landed hard in front of him.
Hmm... so Duraludon can evolve here?
Seeing Archaludon, Damian couldn't help feeling a little regretful. He'd really wanted to see Raihan Dynamax Duraludon.
But this was the Truth World after all, not the fixed Gen VIII game version. Archaludon was extremely strong, so there was no way Raihan wouldn't let Duraludon evolve.
It wasn't like he'd go insane and refuse to let Duraludon evolve just because Duraludon could Dynamax, right?
"What a pity. Can't Dynamax here, or we could've really gone all out."
Raihan clicked his tongue, then hooked up the corner of his mouth into a sharp, excited grin.
"But this is already enough! Come on, girl! This is the final clash where we decide the winner, yo!"
Clearly, Raihan was already totally fired up.
The battle continued. On the field, Raihan's Archaludon faced Dawn's Mega Garchomp after its Mega Evolution.
Unfortunately, Raihan's ace, Archaludon, really was strong, and with its Ability, Stamina, it kept ramping up as the battle went on.
Stamina: When hit by an attack, physical Defense rises.
For an opponent like Mega Garchomp, who relied on physical attacks, this Ability was basically a natural predator.
Although Archaludon was weak to Ground-type moves, its own Defense was actually quite high.
And for Dawn right now, Raihan was still stronger than she was.
In the end, Mega Garchomp still went down.
"Whew~ What a satisfying battle!"
After defeating Dawn, Raihan flashed a huge smile and took a cool selfie with his Rotom Pokédex.
This was his habit. At first, he took selfies to remind himself not to forget the unwillingness he felt after losing a battle.
But later it gradually became a habit. No matter where he went or what he was doing, he would naturally snap one first.
"You're really amazing, Mr. Raihan."
Dawn comforted Garchomp and said with feeling as she looked at Raihan.
"I guess I still need to work harder."
Dawn hadn't expected even a Gym Leader in the Galar Region to be this strong.
"Ha~ Don't get discouraged, girl. I'm Raihan, the strongest Gym Leader in the Galar Region. Losing to me isn't embarrassing at all."
Raihan walked over, still wearing that trademark bright, sharp smile.
Even though he seemed full of arrogance and often used "I" when speaking, in truth Raihan had a pretty good temper.
And his mindset was always top-notch. He'd be happy when he won a battle, and he wouldn't get discouraged when he lost.
"And—tsk, you really are the strongest rookie I've ever seen. The girl Leon recommended probably isn't even as good as you. What the hell."
Raihan tilted his head and sized Dawn up, then scratched his head in confusion. This year's crop of rookies was really getting more outrageous by the day.
Especially this one in front of him—she hadn't even finished her journey yet, and she could already hold her own against him. At this rate, wouldn't she be able to beat him down in another two months?
And this wasn't even an isolated case.
"Thank you, Mr. Raihan," Dawn said with a blink. The girl Leon recommended?
Dawn had a feeling she was probably the local Galar "monster rookie."
Dawn was used to it. After all, it seemed like every Region had a "monster" with talent like hers, and it left her not even knowing how to complain.
Back then, Professor Rowan had even said she was a Trainer prodigy once in a hundred years...
But after joining Team Rocket, she realized she really couldn't live up to that "once in a hundred years" label.
Maybe it'd be more fitting to save it for her future daughter?
"I never lie. You really are the strongest rookie I've seen so far." Raihan waved a hand.
"So~ the girl over there, want to have a battle with me too?"
Then Raihan turned to Serena and grinned with an arrogant smile.
He had originally been wandering around Hammerlocke out of boredom, and then he saw Serena and Dawn's special training battle, which immediately caught his interest.
Raihan was a pretty battle-loving guy—or rather, strong Trainers were basically all battle-loving.
"Then I'd be honored, Mr. Raihan."
Serena naturally had no reason to refuse. Being able to battle a strong opponent was exactly what she wanted.
And especially someone like Raihan, a Champion-tier Trainer.
"Hahaha~ Come on, come on. I hope you won't disappoint me like those two juniors just now. Let's have a fiery battle!"
Raihan was bursting with enthusiasm. Once the battle itch got under his skin, it was really hard to get rid of.
And he was also full of anticipation for Serena.
Raihan and Serena began their battle, while Dawn trotted over to Damian and Caitlin.
"Mr. Damian, you're back."
"Yeah. Didn't expect you girls to run into Raihan, though."
Damian replied with a smile. That really was unexpected.
"Mr. Raihan talks a little oddly, but he's a really good senior," Dawn said with a blink.
"Yeah. Battling lots of different opponents is a great way to train, and Raihan knows a pretty wide range of stuff too."
Damian looked at the Torkoal Raihan had led off with, and his eyes flickered oddly.
In fact, Raihan had always referred to himself publicly as a Dragon-type Trainer.
But in reality, Raihan was actually better at weather teams, according to his League Card.
In order to pursue victory in any environment, Raihan had developed a whole set of skills for battling with weather.
This also directly led to the fact that Raihan's team actually had two weather setters. That's right—he ran two different weather conditions on one team!
Truly amazing.
"Mm-hmm~ I really did learn a lot. Mr. Damian, how rewarding was this trip for you?" Dawn nodded deeply. She had indeed learned how to deal with sandstorm weather through battling Raihan.
Then Dawn asked Damian.
"We've basically achieved our goal. Tomorrow we'll spend another day in Hammerlocke, then we can leave here."
Damian wasn't in a hurry. He had plenty of time anyway.
Just as he was about to enjoy Raihan's battle with Serena, his phone suddenly rang.
Damian picked it up and glanced at it. It was an unfamiliar call from his backup number, the one he usually used for "work."
"Hello?"
Damian answered directly.
"Hehe~ Mr. Damian, I've heard a lot about you."
A mature, magnetic voice came through the phone.
Damian raised a brow. He already had a pretty good idea who it was.
"Let me introduce myself. I'm Rose, Chairman Rose of the Galar League."
"Mr. Damian, I think we can have a good talk."
~~
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