"A Perfectly Ordinary" Class

He had thought running into A Quan was all the surprise today had in store for him, but he was soon proven wrong.

"Good morning, Teacher Jing He."

When he arrived outside the classroom, he saw Steven Stone, Roxanne, and another red-haired girl waiting at the door with books in their arms.

"You two?"

Jing He was a little surprised to see them.

As he recalled, neither Steven Stone nor Roxanne had enrolled in the Elective Course Pokémon Psychology, had they?

"Teacher, we both felt that we didn't understand our own Pokémon well enough, so we added your Elective Course afterward," Steven Stone explained with a smile.

Added afterward?

Jing He glanced at the two of them.

Did Canalave Pokémon Academy even have an option like "adding afterward"? He shook his head. The world of the wealthy was beyond his understanding. Then he turned his gaze to the beautiful, well-proportioned red-haired girl. "And this student is?"

"Hello, Teacher Jing He. My name is Flannery, and I'm from Lavaridge Town."

Before Roxanne could introduce her, Flannery stepped forward and introduced herself with a dazzlingly sunny smile.

Lavaridge Town. Wasn't Flannery the future Gym Leader of Lavaridge Gym? This fiery red-haired girl was no ordinary person either.

If Jing He remembered correctly, Flannery's grandfather, the future Lavaridge Gym Leader, had been one of the previous Hoenn League Elite Four!

"Hello."

Jing He smiled and nodded, but inwardly, he could not help grumbling.

One future League Champion and the current Young Master of Devon Corporation. One daughter of the Gym Leader from the Hoenn Region's largest city, and the next Gym Leader herself. One granddaughter of a former Elite Four member, also the next Gym Leader. Very good. What a truly "ordinary" Elective Course.

The group did not linger at the doorway for long. After exchanging brief greetings, they entered the classroom one after another.

The bell signaling the start of class rang at that moment.

Standing at the podium, Jing He swept his gaze across the entire classroom.

Aside from the three "unexpected" students—Steven Stone and the others—Pokémon Psychology was fairly "normal" overall.

Though it was a small classroom, it still had forty or fifty seats. Yet even counting the three of them, only about half the seats were occupied.

Moreover, apart from Steven Stone, Roxanne, and Flannery, most of the other students sat toward the back, leaving a stark "bald patch" through the middle of the classroom.

To most of the students present, Pokémon Psychology was merely an obscure Elective Course that was relatively easy to earn credits in.

As long as they attended class on time and did not leave early or skip lessons, the participation grade would make earning credits fairly easy.

In fact, Pokémon Psychology had always been like this in the past. The academy did not place much importance on the course, leaving everything to the instructor's discretion.

That was one of the reasons why Jing He, despite being from Hoenn, had chosen to apply to Silver University for college.

After offering a simple greeting and brief introduction, he picked up his textbook and began teaching according to the curriculum.

Although Pokémon Psychology carried the prefix "Pokémon," it was essentially still psychology.

Psychology was a theory-heavy subject that required a great deal of memorization, so the lectures were naturally quite dull. Not to mention the students in the back who had come prepared to slack off—even Steven Stone and the other two sitting in the front began frowning after listening for a while.

Flannery in particular, the so-called fiery and passionate girl, was yawning now. There was not a trace of enthusiasm left on her face.

To be honest, this tedious, boring, and even redundant theoretical knowledge had once given Jing He no end of trouble as well.

Memorizing every word by rote only meant that one possessed the key to psychology's door. If one did not truly understand the material, then it was no different from having learned nothing.

Still, since this was the freshmen's first Pokémon Psychology class, they showed some restraint and did not openly put their heads down on their desks to sleep.

As for the few students who were truly growing drowsy, their eyelids beginning to droop, Jing He chose to give them a hand.

Hah! A tall, skinny boy sitting in the farthest corner of the classroom suddenly shot to his feet.

Cold sweat beaded on his forehead, his pupils were dilated, and he panted heavily, as though he had encountered something utterly terrifying.

"This student, do you have a question?"

Jing He was not surprised by the boy's reaction at all. Instead, he asked with a smiling expression.

"N-No, no. S-Sorry, Teacher."

Only then did the boy seem to realize that he was in the classroom. He hurriedly sat down and wiped the sweat from his forehead.

His reaction surprised several students nearby. After they quietly asked him what had happened, they learned that he had nearly fallen asleep just now. The moment he closed his eyes, however, he had a very brief but horrifying nightmare and was frightened awake on the spot!

The same thing had not only happened to that boy, but to two other boys as well.

Thus, the first Pokémon Psychology class went unexpectedly smoothly. Not a single person fell asleep.

For a psychology teacher, that already counted as a success! When the dismissal bell rang, Jing He snapped his book shut with a clap, said, "Class dismissed," and strode out of the classroom without looking back.

Punctual to the minute.

Post-class questions?

Keep dreaming.

This was college. If they wanted to learn, they had to take the initiative.

Knowledge would not crawl into their heads on its own.

The other students naturally felt as though they had been granted amnesty, but for Steven Stone and Roxanne, who had genuinely become interested, this was Pokémon Psychology? Flannery let out a long yawn, squeezing two tears from the corners of her eyes as she curled her lips.

"Roxanne, this is the amazing teacher you were talking about? Why does he seem just like every other teacher to me? No, he's even better at 'Hypnosis' than other teachers. I'm sleepy to death."

Roxanne closed the notes she had taken throughout the class and pressed her lips together. "What you saw was only the surface."

Steven Stone wholeheartedly agreed.

"Didn't you notice? Even though everyone was sleepy, not a single person fell asleep during class."

"Yawn—"

Back in the consultation room, Jing He closed the door and let out a long yawn.

He could not blame those students. Even he, the teacher, had found himself wanting to sleep while lecturing about all that complicated theoretical knowledge.

He decided to make a cup of coffee.

"Koujie~~"

Accompanied by the huffing sounds of the Onix Coffee Grinder, Gastly floated out from Jing He's clothes with a mischievous grin.

Want me to help wake you up?

Jing He shot it a sidelong glance and said disdainfully, "With your Hypnosis? Are you sure you'd be waking me up?"

"K-Koujie!"

Gastly's face went pale as it recalled the thing it had seen in Jing He's dream when it first tried to hypnotize him. It shook its head repeatedly and gave an awkward grin, saying it had only been joking.

Jing He shook his head too and sighed inwardly.

It had only been a few days, yet the Energy Cubes he had bought not long ago were already nearly gone. Add in the household gas bill, and the expenses had already exceeded a thousand.

On his salary, raising even a single Gastly was becoming a struggle.

So he had begun considering whether he should open a psychology clinic outside the academy.

It was perfectly normal for academy teachers to have side businesses. Take Dr. Solanus next door, for example. Though he looked dusty and disheveled all day long, he actually owned a company! But in a place like Canalave City, never mind whether there would be clients—the rent for a single storefront alone made Jing He hesitate.

Knock, knock—

A teacher from the Academic Affairs Office suddenly pushed open the door, set down a sheet of paper, and left without looking back.

"Teacher Jing He, this semester's teaching arrangements."

"Koujie—"

Gastly immediately delivered the paper to Jing He.

He took a sip of hot coffee, perking up slightly, and gave the paper a quick glance.

An utterly ordinary schedule.

Just as he was about to set it aside, he picked it up again.

Hm? Autumn Excursion?

The destination was... Mt. Chimney? A hot spring trip to Lavaridge Town?

No separation by gender?

Based on everyone's response, if this gets recommended, I might release a few more chapters. The pacing will remain the same; I can only speed things up by updating more. This shameless author just wants to ask for more readers to keep following. What do you all think?