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Faced with such a sinister scheme to cut off his path to success, he had plenty of ways to make the other party regret ever coming into this world.
Directly taking action to cripple the person, or even more thoroughly, making them disappear forever—that was the handling method he was familiar with.
But he couldn't say those words to Drake.
An elder whose identity was still a League Elite held a sense of vigilance and scrutiny toward him.
If he acted too brutal and bloodthirsty, it would only confirm the suspicions in the man's heart, and he might even be dealt with directly as a dangerous element.
Therefore, he had to provide a 'correct' answer.
An answer that befitted his age and his status as a righteous Trainer.
"I would gather evidence and then report them to the League's Tournament Committee."
Ariel spoke after some deliberation, his tone appearing as upright and firm as possible.
He even felt a flicker of amusement in his heart at his own hypocritical answer.
Drake fell silent after hearing this.
He didn't nod or shake his head; he just looked at Ariel.
That gaze was sharper than before, like two scalpels wanting to cut open Ariel's chest to see what kind of heart was hidden inside.
The air seemed to freeze.
Just as Ariel was wondering if he had said something wrong and the atmosphere became oppressively uncomfortable, a clearly visible trace of disappointment flashed in Drake's cloudy eyes. His expression was like he was looking at a stubborn, unteachable rock.
He shook his head, his voice carrying a sense of frustration at someone failing to live up to expectations.
"Report them?"
He let out a sneer, as if he had heard the funniest joke in the world.
"By the time you finish gathering evidence, the conference will be over! By the time you report it, they'll get a one-year ban at most—a mere slap on the wrist. And you? You lose an entire year of hard work, a chance that should have belonged to you!"
Drake took a step forward, the aura on his body suddenly shifting as the pressure belonging to a powerhouse washed over Ariel.
"You should,"
He stared into Ariel's eyes, enunciating every word. His voice wasn't loud, yet every word was like iron.
"...find a corner where no one is watching and twist his arm off!"
Ariel: "???"
He was completely stunned.
His mind went blank for a moment.
He had imagined that Drake might be dissatisfied with his answer, or might teach him to be tougher and seek revenge for every grievance.
But he never expected that this highly respected Dragon-type Elite would give an answer even more direct and... brutal than the real answer in his own heart.
Twist... twist it off?
For a split second, Ariel felt as if he had reached some bizarre resonance in the depths of his soul with this wrinkled, fierce-eyed old man before him.
So they were kindred spirits?
Looking at Drake's extremely serious face, he suppressed his urge to laugh and deliberately put on a naive, inexperienced front, speaking hesitantly:
"Mr. Drake... isn't that a bit too cruel?"
He wanted to see exactly where this old man's bottom line was.
Drake's weathered old face suddenly twitched.
It wasn't a smile; it was more like parched earth cracking in the wind.
"Cruel?"
The word spat out of his mouth.
Ariel didn't speak, maintaining his naive expression while his mind raced with calculations.
This old man was even more... intense than he had anticipated.
"Ariel, do you know that every Trainer who climbs up from the bottom, from having nothing, is cruel without exception?"
Drake's voice wasn't high, but it was incredibly heavy.
"Because the kind ones died halfway there long ago."
He continued, his gaze passing over Ariel to the boundless deep blue, as if he could see countless sunken, kind shadows at the horizon where the sea met the sky.
"Countless people want to stand at the peak and become powerful Trainers. But resources are limited; the very tip of the pyramid is only a tiny space. If you don't fight for it, if you don't snatch it, you can only be a stepping stone at the bottom for the rest of your life."
"If you fight and snatch, people will resent you. If you let one go today, he might stab you in the back tomorrow. To pull up weeds, you must remove the roots. Is this logic so hard to understand?"
Drake's gaze refocused, locking onto Ariel like a hawk.
That look was no longer a simple test, but a stripping away, as if he wanted to tear off all the disguises on Ariel's face and look directly at his deepest soul.
"Ariel, since you could make it to this step today and stand before me, it means you understand every single word I'm saying, right?"
"I am also a Trainer who climbed up from the bottom."
Drake said this sentence very slowly.
"So, there is no need for you to hide anything from me."
At this moment, the atmosphere grew quiet.
Ariel understood.
He understood completely.
What Drake wanted to see wasn't whether he was kind or cruel at all.
To this man who was like a sovereign of the sea, those labels were worthless.
What he wanted to see was sincerity.
It was whether, after experiencing countless darkness, struggles, and betrayals, he still retained that original intention of wanting to become the strongest Trainer.
This original intention wasn't naivety or kindness, but the most primitive and pure driving force.
It was a persistence where one could use any means to achieve a goal, but would never lose themselves within those means.
The more he disguised himself, the more hypocritical he became, and the more it seemed like his original heart had been worn away by those dark experiences, turning him into an empty shell that only knew how to calculate.
And Drake hated empty shells most of all.
This man, who had spent his life fighting storms and fierce Dragon-type Pokémon at sea, judged a person not by words, but by a beast-like intuition.
Ariel slowly exhaled a breath of turbid air.
He dropped his naive, inexperienced disguise.
The hesitation and simplicity on his face receded like the tide, replaced by a calm and coldness that didn't match his age.
His entire temperament underwent a world-shaking change within a few short seconds.
If he was like a piece of warm jade just now, then at this moment, he was an unsheathed blade.
"I'll tell the truth."
Ariel's voice changed as well; it was no longer the clear voice of a youth, but had gained a raspy texture—it was his own voice.
"If some blind fool really dares to scheme against me behind my back and makes me miss the competition..."
He paused, looking directly at Drake without the slightest flinch.
"I will find him on a night when no one knows, or in a remote, deserted corner, and give him a severe lesson."
"To what extent?"
Drake followed up with great interest, his body leaning slightly forward.
"At the very least, he'll spend the rest of his life in a wheelchair, reminiscing about what a stupid thing he did."
Ariel's tone was very flat, as if he were stating a trivial fact.
"But I won't stop my pace because of the ambush of such a petty person. It's just one Ever Grande Conference; if I miss it, there's always the next one. I will turn all that resentment and anger into the motivation for my training and become even stronger."
"Strong enough that next time, I won't just take the championship, but I'll also make all potential opponents weigh whether they have a future they can afford to lose before they even think about playing dirty."
His voice fell.
In Drake's cloudy eyes, the sharp scrutiny slowly dissipated, settling into something far more complex.
It was the confirmation of finding another ship on the vast ocean, the approval of an old wolf seeing a cub bare its fangs.
He slapped his rough hand against his knee, letting out a dull thud.
"Now that's more like it."
Drake nodded, the wrinkles on his face seeming to smooth out a bit. He felt more genuine recognition for Ariel.
This recognition was no longer the appreciation of an elder for a junior, but the confirmation between two of the same kind.