Dormitory? No. Ruins? Yes.

Lina left the faculty office and led Roy toward his dormitory, but as they walked, Roy began to sense that something was off.

He remembered Yina telling him that the student dormitories were in buildings not far from the teaching block, yet the two of them were currently walking in the exact opposite direction.

"Teacher Lina, aren't the Academy dormitories where we just passed by?"

"They are, but..."

Lina sounded a little embarrassed. The Academy was worried that Roy, as a Ghost-type Pokémon Trainer...

And also for the sake of the other students at the Academy, they had not arranged for Roy to stay in the student dormitory area.

Instead, they had assigned his dormitory to an area beside the school's back mountain.

Fine. He was still being treated differently.

Ever since arriving here from Mt. Pyre, whether it was the terrified reactions of the Bug Catcher and Scarface along the way...

Or Officer Jenny Liya telling him not to release Ghost-type Pokémon in the city, all the way to the fact that he could not even live with the other students now.

It all made Roy feel that people today truly misunderstood Ghost-type Pokémon far too deeply. Popularity Points were really hard to earn.

After walking for another twenty minutes or so, the outline of a mountain appeared before Roy.

If no one had told him, Roy would have thought they had already left the Academy.

"We're here. This is the Academy's back mountain."

Roy's dormitory was the rather dilapidated-looking building before him. It had once been a warehouse in Rustboro Academy's old campus.

It was hard to imagine such a battle-damaged building existing within a European-style academy. Roy's expression suddenly turned grave.

Beside him, Lina awkwardly began introducing his residence. Mainly because Roy had acted normally from the very beginning and had treated her normally as well; he should not have been treated differently.

In the end, Lina clenched her fists, made up her mind, and said to Roy:

"I'll report the issue with your dormitory to the principal and have him move you into the boys' dormitory for our class."

"That's not necessary, Teacher Lina. I prefer peace and quiet, so this place is quite nice. It's even a single room. I'll just stay here."

Roy did not really care. A single dorm room was great, even if it was a little run-down.

Would someone who had once lived in a coffin care about something like this?

Seeing that Roy truly did not mind, Lina let out a long breath. She could not guarantee what condition the warehouse was in, after all; it had been abandoned for a long time.

What Roy did not say was that his grave expression earlier had not been dissatisfaction with the shabby dormitory. Rather, he had unexpectedly noticed that the Ghost Power here was incredibly dense.

It was not even inferior to Mt. Pyre? What exactly was going on?

Roy walked up to the room and pushed open the old, heavy oak door, which looked as if it could fall off at any moment. Inside were many assorted pieces of junk that were no longer useful.

By comparison, the battered wooden door was actually the only decent piece of furniture in the room.

A little farther beyond the warehouse was the back mountain area, but it had now been sealed off with wire fencing.

Had some kind of accident happened? Why was it sealed off so tightly?

Lina explained that this had once been a small logistics warehouse for the Academy's back mountain, but after that incident, the entire back mountain area had been sealed off, and the small warehouse had been abandoned as well.

That incident?

Roy asked in confusion.

Teacher Lina suddenly lowered her voice.

"Legend says that a female student at the Academy committed suicide in the past because her love was unrequited, and ever since then, sounds can be heard from the back mountain every night after midnight.

"The Academy once hired several Gym Leader-level Trainers and a Pseudo-Elite Four-level Dark-type Trainer to investigate, but none of them ever came back. To this day, no bodies have been found, dead or alive."

Roy scoffed at such an urban legend, thinking it was most likely something the Academy had made up to scare students away from the back mountain.

But when he heard that several Dark-type Pokémon Trainers had entered and never come back out, he keenly sensed the suspicious point. Even Gym Leader-level Trainers had failed to make it out alive?

Could the urban legend Yina had told him about earlier actually be true?

And what was going on with the dense Ghost Power here?

A whole host of questions swirled through Roy's mind.

Duskull jumped out of its Poké Ball. Looking at its surroundings, it excitedly darted through the walls.

Lina was startled by Roy's Duskull, but seeing that it had no intention of hurting anyone, it was probably just curious about the new environment.

"Roy, be careful. Don't let it go around scaring people."

"Mm, don't worry, Teacher. They're good kids. They're very obedient."

Lina's expression said, Good kids? I believe you, my ass.

With its hands behind its back and its body hunched over, Duskull passed back and forth through the walls, having the time of its life.

"Then, Roy, I'll help you tidy up the dormitory. Afterward, we still need to collect your school uniform and textbooks."

Lina rolled up her sleeves and began helping Roy sort out the storage room. One look was enough to tell she was the domestic type who often did housework.

Roy handled the larger items himself, carrying them outside and sorting out anything useful to keep. He even dug out an old mountain bike from the deepest part of the storage room.

Neither the pedals nor the frame seemed to have any obvious problems from the outside. Only the chain was somewhat rusty, but it looked like it could still be ridden.

Inside the wheel hub was a ring of stamped lettering. The production date was five years ago, and the words "Miracle Bike Shop" were engraved on it.

Wasn't that the bike shop from the game?

Roy had once ridden through the entire game map on one. To get through all kinds of traps, he had painstakingly trained his skills and hand speed, only to be transported here before he could finish the game.

"This should be a first-generation mountain bike produced by Miracle Bike Shop. It might even be older than you," Lina said as she looked at the bike Roy had brought out.

"Teacher, does anyone still want this mountain bike? If not, I'll take it to ride."

"Uh... if you want it, take it. No one should want it anymore... probably?"

Yina looked at the creaking old bicycle and replied uncertainly.

Roy: Obtained a 99% new bicycle personally ridden by a beauty +1.

Duskull stopped passing through the walls and obediently sat in the front basket. From now on, this would be its spot.

Roy polished the bike until it gleamed, instantly delighting its bike soul. Still, it was harder to ride than even the old heavy-duty bicycles from his previous life. But bikes like this were usually extremely durable; at the very least, the first generation's quality was rock-solid.

After tidying up the dormitory and throwing out all the useless items, Roy set up a hammock for himself.

Duskull floated from the bike basket onto the hammock again, fully committed to lying flat.

Seeing how well Roy got along with his two Pokémon...

While Lina cleaned the room, Litwick helped illuminate the places she could not see, leaving Lina somewhat at a loss instead.

"Th... thank you."

Upon hearing Lina's thanks, the flame atop Litwick's head turned into a heart shape.

At that moment, Lina felt that Ghost-type Pokémon did not seem quite so frightening after all.

Roy followed Lina to collect a set of Academy uniforms and the textbooks needed for his classes.