CHAPTER 73 – THE DEAL

In the previous chapter we see how our heroes access the test without arousing suspicion and become Semi High Rank recruits, however, apparently Courtney had already discovered that Troy was a spy and that they were a spies too, the good thing was that Courtney wanted to desert because the aspirations of her boss were too crazy, so She offered a deal to our hero, all the information about Team Magma in exchange for helping her desert without any problem, our hero was convinced, however, he had to consult that decision with Looker, but when leaving Courtney's office he finds that a guy was bothering Lira and Koharu so he quickly intervenes.

...

With Ash.

"What, you are both girlfriends of this guy? it's just a Semi-High-Rank recruit, there's nothing special about it, instead I'm a High-Rank with great influence in Team Magma, you'd better leave this guy, he has no future!" – said the recruit.

"He is amazing, kind, honest and treats us excellent, much more man than you will ever be!" – said Lira.

"That's right, so get out!" – Koharu nodded.

"You've heard my girls, get out or suffer the consequences" – I said with a threatening tone.

"Your... a miserable Semi High Rank recruit and you dare to give me orders, I'll make sure to make you go through hell here!" – said the recruit.

But just as he was about to say something, Courtney intervened.

"What's going on here?" - She asked with some anger.

"That guy is harassing us!" – both girls said.

"Is that true?" - asked Courtney, raising an eyebrow.

"Of course not Miss Courtney, they're making it up..." – said the recruit nervously.

"We are not making it up!" – said Lira.

"That's right, this guy is a disguster and a bully, plus he threatened to make my life here a hell" - I nodded.

"Is that true?" – Courtney asked already angrily.

"N-No, of course not..." – the recruit tried to defend himself.

"Tell me your name and the name of the recruit who recommended you, right now" - Courtney said undeterred.

"S-I'm Samuel and the one who recommended me was Harry..." – he replied.

"I see, It seems that sometimes our selection criteria are not good, guards take this fool to the dungeon, and then I will take care of Harry" – She said snapping his fingers.

Suddenly, from God knows where two people appeared and grabbed the recruit's arms.

"N-No please, the dungeons no, I promise not to do it again, I swear!" – he begged.

"We don't want crude bullies on Team Magma, take them away and reflect on your actions" - Courtney said.

"Yes, ma'am!" – they both said.

And then they dragged him with the intention of locking him up in the dungeon.

"Thank you very much" – we all said.

"You're welcome, come, I will take you to your room" - Courtney said.

"Wait, you said our room, just one?" – asked Lira.

"Unfortunately yes, normally new recruits share a room with 4 others, at least those who do not have their own home or those who prefer to live here, sorry" – Courtney explained.

"It doesn't matter..." – said Lira.

Well it's normal, it is logical that I did not want to sleep in the same room as a boy she doesn't know, I just hope that protecting her from that thug gave me some points with her, I think she is a beautiful and very nice girl, I will try to conquer her if it is possible.

With that said, Courtney led us to our room.

"Here, the room can only be opened with a code, this is 3790, anyway, it is strictly forbidden to enter a room that is not yours, the one who does it will be causing his downfall and by the way, I will come early tomorrow to hear your answer, it is important to me after all" – said Courtney.

And then She just left.

Upon entering the room we saw that it was an enormously large room, almost as big as my house in Pallet Town, it had a 3 rooms, one of them had a bed in which 4 people could sleep perfectly while the other two had a standard size bed, a bathroom with shower, A living room with a huge TV and even its own router.

"I doubt very much that this room will be given to all recruits and less to someone with such a low position, what happened in that meeting in her office?" – asked Lira.

"You're right, you'll see..." – I said beginning to explain.

And then I told them the whole content of the meeting.

"Do you think he's telling the truth or just lying?" – I asked at the end of the explanation.

"I personally find it suspicious, but by not revealing the identity of the spy for so long... it makes me doubt" – replied Lira.

"True, she could have exposed it, but instead she chose not to, it may be true, anyway, she calls Looker and tell him" - Koharu added.

Latias and Pikachu at the time were watching TV, so I went to one of the rooms to talk, followed by Koharu and Lira.

Once sitting in bed with both girls by my side, I called Looker's phone.

"Good night Ash, Lira and Koharu, how did everything go?" - asked Looker.

"Well, better than I thought, but I have to tell you one thing..." – I said.

"Did something happen? You seem to be worried, if something has gone wrong I already have a plan to get you out of there, you just have to say it" - Looker said.

"It's not that, you'll see..." – I said beginning to explain.

Once finished, Looker didn't say a single word.

"Are you still there?" – I asked.

"Ah, yes sorry! I was reflecting on her proposal, I don't know how she found out that we had an infiltrated spy, Troy is one of the best spies that i have, which means that one of two, the first is that we have a mole and the second is that everything is true and she just wants to escape from there " - Looker explained.

"I know you're going to say I'm naïve, but I believe her" - I said.

After much reflection and gathering in my head all the information I had about her, I came to the conclusion that it was very likely that she was telling the truth, I know I am being naïve, but something tells me that everything is true and that she just wants to escape.

"If Ash believes her then me too" - Koharu said immediately.

"Me too!" – added Lira.

"Wow, it's amazing that young Lira believes in you that way in such a short time, i'm impressed" - Looker said.

Lira blushed, well, it seems that I gained points with the previous action, obviously she has no feelings for me, but what I did sowed a seed in her heart that I plan to make the most of.

"All right, if you say you believe in her, we will proceed to help her, but before let me look at her background, if she has any problem with the police, then I'm afraid collaboration will be impossible" - Looker said.

After a couple of minutes in silence, Looker spoke again.

"From what I can see in the database, she doesn't have any problem or even any kind of relationship with Team Magm" - Looker said.

"Are you sure it's that Courtney? I mean there must be a lot of Courtney in the world" - Koharu said.

"I have my methods, I have no doubts it's the Courtney you're telling me, so don't worry" - Looker said.

"Do we accept your offer then?" – I asked.

"Yes, accept and also give her the number that I will tell you next, I will talk to her about some matters, another thing, tell her not to hide anything to know, otherwise ... there will be no deal" - Looker said.

Then he told me to write down a number and hung up the phone.

"I don't know about you, but I'm super tired, I'll go to sleep" - Koharu said yawning.

Then she went to the room and made himself in the huge bed where of course I was also going to sleep, I, on the contrary, was a little hungry so I went to the kitchen to see if they had left us some food and indeed there was a lot of it.

I was going to make myself a simple sandwich with ham and cheese, I didn't feel like doing something more complicated, at least until Lira walked through the door.

"Good evening Lira, is there any problem? I thought you had gone to sleep" - I said with a smile.

"I've realized I didn't thank you for what you did before" - she said somewhat embarrassedly.

"No need to say thank you for something as simple as that, the important thing is that you are good" - I said.

"My mother taught me to say thanks when someone does something for you, so I'll say it, thank you so much for saving me" - Lira said with a smile.

"I accept your thanks" - I replied.

"Hey, if it's not too much to ask, I'd like to ask you a somewhat personal question, I know we've known each other for less than a day, so if you don't want to answer you don't need to do, it's just that I'm curious" - Lira said.

"Well... I will listen to the question and then decide if it is very personal or not" - I answered.

The truth is that I was surprised that this girl wanted to ask me a personal question, after all I thought she had not liked her very well in our first meeting.

"Okay, is it true that all the girls I saw before are your girlfriends or were they just pretending to be?"- she asked.

"Wow, yes you like to get to the point, but it's not a very personal question, if anyone asked me, I would give the same answer without hiding it, yes, they are all my girlfriends" – I nodded.

Truth be told, it's not a very personal question.

"Would you mind telling me your story? In this world polygamy is not very common, I would like to know why so many women are willing to share with you" - Lira said.

"I don't care, actually our story is short, but ultimately it's ours..." – I said as I began to explain.

A few minutes passed until I finished telling everything omitting some very personal details.

"It's a beautiful story... the truth is that I am envious of you" - Lira said with a somewhat sad expression.

"Why are you envious of us?" – I asked in confusion.

"Since you've been honest with me, I don't mind telling you, you see, in Johto specifically in New Bark Town which is my hometown, we have Professor Elm, a Pokémon researcher like Professor Oak in Kanto, who, in addition, he also offers initial Pokémon to novice trainers" – she began to explain.

Seeing that he was looking at her intently, she continued his explanation.

"In our Town, we only left three trainers this year, one is me and the other two are my childhood friends, Crystal and Gold, the thing is that Gold is my childhood friend, we grew up together and as often happens, I fell in love with him, I did not know if he felt the same for me, So I decided to wait until the beginning of our journey to confess to him and while trying to make him fall in love with me if he wasn't... so the day of our journey came and obviously I confessed to him, I thought we would be a couple, that we could travel throughout the region together, but he rejected me, told me that he had no romantic interest in me and that the person he loved was Crystal "– she continued explaining.

I see, it's sad and painful enough to love someone who doesn't reciprocate your love.

"I... I'm sorry" - I said.

"Don't worry, during this time I convinced myself of it and I tried to forget about him, I thought I could, I have lived many things during this journey and all those things have strengthened me both physically and mentally and the truth is that I still feel some nostalgia, I managed to forget those feelings, that's why your story seems so good to me, because you did try to fall in love with the girls and you had succeeded, which makes me think that if Gold really intended to stay with me, he would have done the same" - she continued.

"I'm sorry for everything, although I must say that your friend is not very clever to say" – I said.

"Why do you believe that?" - she asked.

"To let go of a girl as wonderful as you without even trying, is not very clever to say" – I answered.

"Why do you think I'm like that? We hardly know each other" - Lira said.

"Listen to me, I have a sixth sense and I assure you that I do not need to know you more to know that you are a wonderful person and a beautiful girl" – I said.