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Evergreen, having vomited up even his stomach acid, sat on the couch with lifeless eyes and thought for a long time. Then he said to his subordinates, "Dispose of him."
Seeing that no one was willing to move, Evergreen emphasized with a colder tone, "Dispose of him, don't you understand? His being alive like this is more painful than death. Go do it!"
In the crowd, someone gritted their teeth, zipped up the travel bag, and carried it toward the door. Maybe it was because Consort Qi in Lü Zhi's story didn't actually die, Shizukumo had been left alive.
But Evergreen didn't think so. He believed Luther did it on purpose. He believed that Luther wanted him to personally give the order to kill Shizukumo.
Evergreen saw clearly the fear and panic in the eyes of his ragtag group of followers.
'Is this what you wanted?'
'Not just murder, but psychological torture too.'
Evergreen wasn't unfamiliar with corpses. The lab of the ragtag group had plenty of Pokémon corpses, and he'd seen human ones on certain occasions. But a man lying inside a travel bag, unable to live or die, staring at him with two dark, hollow eyes, this impact was far more terrifying than any corpse.
Evergreen could even imagine Shizukumo's despair during his torture... and the cruel grin on Luther's face as he brandished tools over Shizukumo's body.
With a dry mouth, Evergreen waved for a drink. A glass of red wine was brought over.
One glance at the dark red wine made him inexplicably nauseous, and he slapped the glass away.
"Change it!"
The person with the wine returned to the bar, poured another drink, and brought it back. Evergreen was about to take it when he noticed the slice of lemon on the rim of the glass.
The faint sour scent of lemon water floated to his nose. He shivered.
Why!?
Why did just seeing lemon or lemon water make Evergreen recall that chilling expression Luther wore at the Mall!?
'Luther's cruelty wasn't an act. How could he have pretended so well?'
It had taken Evergreen nearly a year to earn Oleander's trust, but this man had done it in under two months? Now that he thought about it, the useless Shiran had been deceived by this demon since childhood.
All that talk about how Luther became oddly obedient after being ambushed by Pokémon, how he was under their control, what a joke that was, in hindsight!
That guy must've laughed himself silly at Shiran's gullibility, basking in pride over his perfect deception.
Suddenly, it all made sense, tonight's ambush was designed to exploit Luther's supposedly cautious impression of the ragtag group, catching him off guard and testing him.
But Luther saw right through it.
Then... was his appearance at the Mall also part of Luther's calculations?
That thought alone made Evergreen break into a cold sweat.
Gasping for breath, Evergreen held his head and tried to calm down, to stop this terrifying train of thought from spiraling.
Wait… When Luther spoke to him at the mall, hadn't he said something like "just testing whether I'm rusty at this"?
Had he done similar things before?
When? At the Pokémon Center? Right under Shiran's nose?
Lost in a chaotic swirl of thoughts, Evergreen was brought back to reality by a subordinate's voice.
"What should we do now?" The red-haired guy who had shown the most courage earlier asked cautiously.
"Do? Do what?"
The redhead said, "Shizukumo was an elite nurtured by the organization. Now that he's dead... how do we explain that to the others?"
"Explain? I'll talk to the leaders."
"What about the rest?"
Evergreen tapped the table. "Did you take a photo just now?"
The redhead nodded, holding back his nausea.
"Send them Shizukumo's photo. If they still want to continue, they should be ready for this kind of outcome. Tell them, this isn't even the worst of it. Luther told me about many other strange and cruel execution methods. And right now, he's running low on subjects."
Evergreen grabbed a ragtag group pendant from the table and tossed it to the redhead.
"Find a chance... return this pendant to Luther."
The redhead visibly trembled. He'd seen Shizukumo's fate with his own eyes. From the letter he read earlier, it was clear this guy was a complete demon. If he personally delivered the pendant to Luther, could he really expect to walk away unharmed?
"I'm not really the right person for this…"
"You are. You were pretty brave just now, weren't you? Remember, tell Luther it was all a misunderstanding. There's no tracking device in this pendant. This is my apology."
"Will he believe that?"
Evergreen rubbed his forehead. "He takes his roleplaying very seriously. As long as we don't disrupt his fun, he probably won't tear us apart."
With that, Evergreen headed back to the basement, shoved aside the liaison officer, shut the door, and opened a video call.
On screen appeared a figure reclining on a lounge chair, facing away from the camera.
"Old man, Shizukumo is dead."
It was a while before the masked old man slowly turned around. He coughed, then asked in a hoarse voice, "Luther did it?"
"I did."
The old man froze.
"This afternoon, he told me some bone-chilling stories. Then he reenacted one of them… on Shizukumo."
"What kind of story?"
Evergreen recounted the tale of Consort Qi and Empress Lü Zhi, and added the strange things Luther had said.
The old man stroked his chin, clearly puzzled.
"I want to know your opinion of Luther," the old man asked.
"Before I met him at the Mall, I just thought he was a pathetic nobody. A loser dragged into trouble because of his parents, tagging along with a team of Champions. Frankly, his presence didn't matter, he was just bait. Oleander dangled him in front of us to pique our interest."
"And now?"
Evergreen shivered. "He's a complete lunatic. A demon who manipulates people's hearts, deceives emotions, has no capacity for empathy, and finds pleasure in playing roles."
"And he follows through on what he says… This afternoon, he warned me, if anyone interrupted his game, he'd torture them in ways he knows."
The old man fell silent again, deep in thought.
"Those stories… have you ever heard of them before?"
"Never. I had our people dig up any relevant sources, but found nothing. It's like… he invented an entire history none of us know about."
"From what he said, it's clear he's tested those methods before… Maybe back at the Pokémon Center, in places Shiran never noticed. Every bit of data we had on Luther is now worthless. The only thing we really know is what Pokémon he owns, but this person…"
The old man sighed. "In that case, stop with the petty tactics against Luther. Since his target is also the Champions, that makes him a potential ally. We may even have to assist him in the future."
"What about the data on his parents?"
"We originally wanted that information because we were on the wrong path. Now, we want it to see if it contains methods for teaching Pokémon Moves they couldn't normally learn. But Luther himself is more valuable than the data now, you need to learn to make trade-offs."
Seeing the unwillingness on Evergreen's face, the old man continued.
"Evergreen, remember this, I don't have much time left. Your mind is something the group still relies on. Don't act on impulse just because you've been rattled. I don't need to tell you the risks you took with this test. Luther is extremely dangerous… he has no bottom line and acts purely on whim. You've already angered him. If you want to use him to keep Cynthia and Diantha occupied, then don't show your face to him again."
"I know you hate this. You're used to manipulating others, and now you've been outplayed. It's humiliating, and you want revenge. But are you sure you want to play Russian roulette with a madman? Life is more important than pride."
Evergreen sighed. He promised not to make any more mistakes, and the old man ended the video call.
But even without being told, Evergreen had no intention of approaching Luther again. A person that unpredictable, what if he snapped and came for him?
Evergreen had admitted defeat.
Originally, he should've delivered the pendant himself and personally explained everything to Luther. Instead, he was now brushing it off as a "misunderstanding" through a subordinate.
But Evergreen couldn't help imagining Luther leaping at him, locking him in a small room, fitting some torture device around his neck, and happily watching him scream until he died.
He really believed Luther would do it.
As for whether Luther would accept the pendant? Evergreen figured he probably would.
But as for what would happen to the subordinate delivering it… Evergreen couldn't guarantee anything.
(End of Chapter)