Clear Stream Village School (Please Keep Reading)

Clear Stream Village's teacher was named Sun Ting.

She looked to be in her early twenties, with the air of a wealthy young lady, yet she was not delicate or spoiled. Dressed in a pure and lovely white skirt, with no particular adornments, she appeared somewhat plain.

Yet no matter how plain her clothes were, Teacher Sun Ting seemed completely out of place in Clear Stream Village.

According to Old Man Qian, Teacher Sun Ting had graduated from Riel Pokemon Academy in Hia Kingdom's capital and was an Official Trainer with formal training.

Normally, an Official Trainer like Sun Ting, even if she chose to become a teacher, would at least take a position in a town on the level of Three Mountains Town.

According to some gossip Old Man Qian had picked up from who knew where, Teacher Sun Ting had apparently chosen this herself, which was why she had been assigned to the remote mountain village of Clear Stream Village.

As for why Teacher Sun Ting had come here, Old Man Qian did not know either.

When Mark and Old Man Qian arrived at the school, Sun Ting was organizing her lesson plans in the Rest Area beside the classroom.

It was obvious that she was a very conscientious and responsible teacher.

Sun Ting had already heard from Old Man Qian about Mark gaining Wisdom in his aptitude test.

After asking Mark a few simple questions, she assigned him a seat diagonally toward the back of the classroom.

Clear Stream Village was a small mountain village with a little over two hundred households, and the school had just over thirty students in total.

The school specialized in teaching knowledge related to Pokemon. As for the most basic early education, that was handled elsewhere—either taught by the parents in each household or personally overseen by the Village Elder.

Because the students varied greatly in age, the thirty-odd students were divided into three groups with three different levels of progress.

Every day, Teacher Sun taught one lesson for each of the three levels, while the other students studied on their own during the lessons.

Not long after Mark took his seat, the children from the village began arriving one after another.

Several familiar-looking Bug Catchers chatted about the Bug-Catching Contest. They said that placing in the contest would earn them a Scyther Pokemon Egg, and that they might even get the chance to join the Maple Leaf City Bug-type Gym in Fallen Leaf Province and become the final disciple of Bug-type Master Trainer Mackendy.

Much like Mark's experience before crossing over, as more people arrived, the whole classroom grew increasingly noisy.

A chubby boy named Li Lei started playing with his Caterpie and even asked Mark about things, acting very familiar despite having just met him.

Worth mentioning was that this chubby boy had the same Pokemon Egg Backpack as Mark.

It seemed Old Man Qian had given one of the remaining three Wimpod Pokemon Eggs to the chubby boy.

As for the other two, one had probably gone to Psychic Kid Lin Tong. Mark did not spot the other one in the classroom, so it had likely been given to someone else.

The classroom became more and more chaotic until Sun Ting and Old Man Qian finished their conversation outside and entered the classroom.

Compared to how she had been in the Rest Area, Sun Ting seemed like an entirely different person. She looked incomparably stern, and beneath her gaze, all the children in the classroom lowered their heads and became exceptionally well-behaved.

The sight before him made Mark recall his own childhood, leaving him somewhat wistful.

There had once been a time when he was also deeply afraid of teachers.

But now, he merely found it interesting.

Perhaps because he was older and more experienced, behind Teacher Sun's stern expression, he could see a trace of an adult's helplessness and inner conflict.

And that was indeed the case.

Sun Ting truly felt helpless. She had stubbornly rejected her father's arrangements, thinking she could come to the remote mountains of Hia Kingdom and bring these children of the mountains a bright future.

Instead, reality had taught her a brutal lesson.

In her imagination, the village children would study happily under her guidance, teachers and students would get along harmoniously, and student after student would enter Pokemon Academies, giving her father a resounding slap in the face.

But in reality, whenever she showed even the slightest kindness to these "simple and honest" children, those little brats would immediately push their luck and run wild.

Of course, that was not the main issue. The main issue was that almost none of these children had any hope of getting into a Pokemon Academy.

The only one with even a little hope was Lin Tong. Though the boy was not very diligent in his studies, he was clever. As long as he put in the effort, passing the Entrance Exam for a less prestigious Pokemon Academy would not be a problem.

Then, just a few days ago, Lin Tong had awakened psychic powers.

Among the rest of the class, the only relatively promising students were the Li brothers. However, the chubby Li Lei and his younger brother Li Sen were only eight and seven years old respectively, still far from the age of formally applying to a Pokemon Academy.

Sun Ting rubbed her temples, swept her gaze across the classroom, then looked twice more at the newly enrolled Mark.

For their first meeting, her impression of Mark was fairly good.

Mark appeared calm and steady, like someone who studied seriously. As for Village Chief Qian's introduction and praise of Mark, she would not consider that for now.

The reason was simple: over the past year, she had been thoroughly fooled by that old village chief surnamed Qian.

Whenever it came to the village children, the village chief praised every single one to the skies, making them sound peerless above and below heaven. But after actually interacting with them, she found them to be a complete mess.

So she did not hold much hope for Mark, the fool Old Man Qian claimed had suddenly become enlightened and devoted himself to learning.

Without hope, there naturally would be no disappointment.

Taking a deep breath, Sun Ting said, "We have another new classmate joining us today, so I'll tell you all this once again.

"For you, whether you are applying to a Pokemon Academy or directly taking the Trainer Assessment, you will need to pass a written test. Only after passing the written test will there be further assessments. Not only that, in recent years many Gyms in Hia Kingdom have also added written tests—basic assessments of Pokemon knowledge.

"So, if you do not want to spend the rest of your lives cooped up in this little mountain village, I hope you can take what we study seriously.

"Also, starting today, any of you intending to apply to a Pokemon Academy may come to me every afternoon. I will tutor you separately. In addition, I will teach you some guidance in physical fitness and Pokemon affinity."

After saying this, Sun Ting officially began the lesson.

Mark followed along and opened Hia Kingdom Pokemon Encyclopedia (II), turning to the page being explained. Caterpie sat in Mark's lap and read the book with him for a while, but soon became dizzy and continued pondering how to count backward.

Mark followed along with Sun Ting's lecture for about half an hour.

Overall, Sun Ting taught very conscientiously, explaining the key points and content in great detail.

But to him, her pace was simply too slow. Moreover, aside from the knowledge points in the textbook, Teacher Sun Ting offered almost no further elaboration.

In other words, for him, listening to Teacher Sun lecture at school was worse than studying on his own as he had before.

Thus, he listened to Teacher Sun Ting from time to time while spending most of the morning studying the Hia Kingdom Pokemon Encyclopedia (III) by himself. The morning passed quickly.

As Sun Ting announced the end of class, the classroom immediately erupted.

Several Bug Catching Boys were the first to charge out, racing from the classroom as if they had been let loose, and soon vanished from sight.

Only Mark and Li Lei, the friendly little chubby boy seated beside him, remained in the entire classroom.

Though he looked somewhat mischievous, the little chubby boy clearly loved studying. As soon as class ended, he hurried over to Teacher Sun to ask about several things he had not understood during the lesson.

Seeing this, Mark also asked Sun Ting about several things that puzzled him.

These included the "Complete Metamorphosis Pokemon" he had asked Old Man Qian about the night before, as well as other questions he had encountered while studying on his own these past few days.

As Mark continued asking questions, Sun Ting's expression visibly changed.

She did not know whether Mark had truly gone from being a fool to becoming enlightened, but judging from his current grasp of the textbook's contents and his serious attitude toward studying, he had a very good chance of passing the Pokemon Academy entrance trials.

The only problem was that Mark looked somewhat old. Most Pokemon Academies had an age limit of sixteen, after all.

However, Old Man Qian had told her that Mark was only thirteen.

Village Chief Qian was not especially reliable, but he would not deceive her about something like age. Besides, even if Mark really was over the limit, he could apply to one of the few Pokemon Academies without age restrictions.

With that thought, Sun Ting made her decision—he was the one.

Two years remained of the three-year agreement. She decided to spend those two years training Mark to enter a Pokemon Academy—preferably Riel Pokemon Academy, the best in the Hia Kingdom, or Great Earth Pokemon Academy on Three Rivers Mountain—and prove herself to her father.

Life was always full of all kinds of disappointments. Filled with renewed hope, Sun Ting clearly failed to notice the hint of distance hidden deep within Mark's eyes.

While Sun Ting imagined herself carefully teaching Mark over the next two years, Mark had already decided that he would no longer come to school and would study on his own instead...

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