Chapter 112: Complex Historical Reasons
While driving over, David kindly explained to Arthur.
"A large portion of the poachers in this reserve are from the Star Brilliance Alliance. The people over there generally hold a very poor view of Kubfu and are extremely unfriendly. There are very complex historical reasons behind this, which can't be explained clearly in just a moment or two. Anyway, just remember to be careful if you encounter them, don't let yourself suffer a loss."
"Okay."
Arthur naturally agreed instantly.
However, in a place David didn't notice, the corners of his mouth were currently slightly raised in a peculiar arc.
In reality, he had come precisely to find these poachers from the Star Brilliance Alliance. If the opponents didn't appear, he would still have to expend effort to actively hunt them down; why would he care whether the other party was friendly or not?
The situation in these small alliances near Kubfu was relatively chaotic. Public security was very poor, and grey industries ran rampant. Poachers within such alliances generally had connections with local gangs and terrorist organizations, among which the Stitched Shadow Army was inevitably included.
After all, gains obtained from poaching were difficult to sell through legitimate channels and could only be sold to gangs or terrorists.
And the weak local security enabled these poachers to act without scruples. Over time, close relationships naturally developed.
Therefore, Arthur was looking exactly for them.
As for the historical reasons why these places were unfriendly towards Kubfu, he needed David's explanation even less.
Because he himself was a firsthand experiencer of that period of history.
All of this also traced back two hundred years ago.
At that time, on a global scale, the three major human alliances—Kubfu, Sinnoh, and White Eagle—simultaneously began expanding, initiating wars against Pokémon, demanding more space for development.
Then, after the wars fully erupted, the various small alliances across different regions naturally followed the trend, jumping in to fish in troubled waters.
Among these, some alliances were relatively tactful, seeking only to get a small share of benefits. But other alliances were not so easily satisfied, even fantasizing about stirring up storms and winds, wanting to overthrow existing regimes.
Because the human race, ah... since the dawn of history, they have never truly been united in heart. For thousands of years, it has always been this way...
And this was precisely the problem that the Peace Faction Elite Four members within the Kubfu Alliance worried about back then.
It was mentioned previously that during the era Arthur fought in, Kubfu once had up to seven Elite Four members at its peak.
Among these, two were radicals who believed in human supremacism;
Four belonged to the Peace Faction, advocating negotiation and communication with Pokémon;
The remaining last one was Arthur himself—due to having become an Elite Four member too recently, his seniority was still shallow, so he generally acted as a slacking neutral party who rarely expressed strong opinions.
Now, the question arises: the Peace Faction Elite Four members once outnumbered the Radicals two to one and also had broad support among the lower ranks of the military. Could it be that they were really just naive saints solely focused on visions of peace?
One must remember that in that era of warfare, Elite Four members were all individuals who had slaughtered their way out of mountains of corpses and seas of blood. Even if such people wished to save the world, the deity they likely believed in was the Namo Gatling Bodhisattva, using a Six-Roots-Cleansed Hyper Beam to deliver salvation.
Could such people produce saints? And could one era produce four of them consecutively? Was this reasonable?
Clearly, from every angle, it was unreasonable.
The actual reason was: during the war at that time, the three major alliances led by Kubfu, Sinnoh, and White Eagle almost independently bore the pressure from all the local Mythical Pokémon. Meanwhile, small alliances like Star Brilliance, which didn't need to directly confront Mythical Pokémon, were frantically engaging in scheming behind the scenes, at one point attempting an audacious coup to usurp power.
The Mythical Pokémon weren't stupid. They knew that only by curbing the military edge of the major alliances could they possibly truly end the war. As for those small alliances, they could be completely ignored; regarding the overall situation, they actually played a negative role within the human camp.
Back then, even Arthur, the newly promoted youngest Elite Four member, had, within just a few short years, beaten the Legendary Beasts, fought the Legendary Birds, witnessed Groudon's Precipice Blades, and faced off against Lugia by the sea for several months.
He rushed between numerous locations, never having a moment of leisure.
One can imagine how great the pressure was on Kubfu across various fronts at that time.
The true reason the Peace Faction advocated for peace talks with Pokémon was actually the fear that continuing such hard resistance would result in Kubfu's costs outweighing its gains. If, under the circumstances of constant backstabbing by others, the main battlefront were to suffer a Waterloo-like collapse, the consequences would be unthinkable.
However, in that era, Pokémon occupied far more land space than they do now.
Even with enormous risks involved, expansion itself remained an essential need for Kubfu.
Therefore, during the dozen or so years Arthur fought, he had never heard of the Peace Faction truly convincing the Radicals.
Both sides always held firmly to their own views, barely managing to work together.
It wasn't until the year after he transmigrated that, looking through history books, he saw the Peace Faction Elite Four members had finally won.
This victory was significant not just for the arrival of the great reconciliation, but more importantly, it pertained to the distribution of benefits after the war.
The demarcation of the reserves was negotiated between the Elite Four members and the Mythical Pokémon at that time.
For instance, within Kubfu territory, the reserves were basically only established in areas rarely frequented by humans, where terrain transformation was extremely difficult, such as deep mountains or large lakes.
Take the Mt. Moon mountain range as an example: any areas along the edges that were even slightly flatter basically became part of the human world, now developed into tourist scenic areas. Only the deep interior of the mountain range constitutes the reserve.
The Crescent Bay area was similar; the reserve's gateway, Guhuang Island, was already over a hundred kilometers offshore. Further beyond that was entirely deep sea; the easily developable shallow sea areas all belonged to humans.
However, this was within Kubfu territory!
Outside of Kubfu, it was a completely different scene.
Within the territories of those small alliances that had schemed back then, the borders of the nature reserves could be pushed right up to the outskirts of their capital cities.
The Star Brilliance Alliance is just such a typical example.
After the great reconciliation arrived, their current alliance territory is a full circle smaller than what Arthur was most familiar with two hundred years ago.
And that shrunken circle, "coincidentally," was all demarcated into the Viridian Forest.
Therefore, it's hardly surprising that their view of Kubfu isn't favorable.
Going back over a hundred years ago, their previous generation arguably hated Kubfu's first generation of four Elite Four members down to the bone.
In fact, Kubfu's initial four Elite Four members were never world-saving saints. Perhaps to Kubfu they were heroes, but regarding other aspects, based on Arthur's memories of working alongside them back then, it's difficult to simply define them as universally good people.
If it weren't so, Arthur wouldn't be so anxious now searching for the whereabouts of his own past Pokémon.
If those four individuals had truly been saints or saintly mothers, perhaps Arthur wouldn't even worry about the fates of his former partners now.
But the problem lies in the fact that he knows they weren't...
Conversely, those two Elite Four members from the Radical faction who believed in human supremacism back then, in Arthur's impression, actually seemed purer, their moral standards possibly even a bit higher...
Therefore, when he initially heard Celebi talk about Gengar's experiences, he already knew: for his Gengar to have survived until today, it must have been incredibly difficult.
(End of Chapter)
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