Chapter 55: The Most Talented Trainer

"What's the matter, young man?" Teacher Umura asked, frowning from the podium.

As a student in Crown Academy, it was impossible for any teacher to remember all of them.

Darren looked at them. The teacher was still angry, but the students below were all obedient and did not seem out of place.

"My name is Darren, and I'm a new student in this class... or should I say, a 'transfer student' who just arrived today."

"Transfer student? I haven't received any news," Umura said, looking suspiciously at the young boy, who was about ten years old.

All five of this year's new students had already found a place, and it had been a month since school started. Darren's sudden appearance was unexpected.

"Oh... I see. That's troublesome," Darren acknowledged that his arrival was accidental.

The teacher named Umura was clearly still angry. After he said "class dismissed" to the students below, he gave Darren a nod and left, saying, "I'll go find out what's going on. Darren, please wait here for a moment."

...

"What's going on in Crown Academy?" Darren widened his eyes. This was completely different from what Master Shozo had described.

Umura's departure immediately set off a lively discussion among the eight students in the class.

"Hey, are you really a transfer student? My name is Alex. My dream is to create a universal Pokémon food," a hedgehog-headed boyAlexuted in the classroom.

"New student, did you come here because you realized there were no placement exams?" asked another red-haired boy who was slightly older.

"Well..." Darren looked around the classroom. There were still a few empty seats due to the small number of students.

"My name is Darren, and I'm from the Fallarbor Town in the Hoenn region."

Walking to the nearest empty seat, Darren sat down directly.

"Was that the teacher for this class just now?"

"Are you interested in telling me what's going on? Ever since I arrived here, I've felt that something is off about the atmosphere in the academy," Darren asked with curiosity, looking at the group of young boys and girls.

Whether it was trainers, breeders, teachers, or students, it seemed that they were all troubled by the same thing.

A girl withAlexrt orange hair sat in the corner, resting her chin on her hand and gazing disinterestedly in Darren's direction, muttering to herself, "How arrogant..."

In the classroom, there were four boys and four girls, and the ratio was quite even, thanks to being in the breeding class. If they were in other classes, it would not have been so balanced.

"Hello, Darren, I'm Emily. Can I call you Darren directly?" The girl sitting next to Darren had brown hair tied in a single ponytail, looking friendly. When she spoke to Darren, there was a hint of nervousness in her tone.

"Of course," Darren smiled.

"So, Emily, can you tell me what happened?" Darren asked.

"Hahaha, let me tell you. I think our breeding class is pretty innocent," Alex, the hedgehog-headed boy, left his seat and came to Darren, eager to speak.

Speaking of innocence, a boy withAlexrt black hair and pale skin smiled helplessly. He looked weak, and when everyone's attention was on Darren, the boy took out a sketchbook and started doodling.

...

"The responsibility for the battles clearly falls on the trainers... our breeding class is not good at battles, whyAlexuld we be punished together?" Alex grabbed his hair in frustration, looking distressed and conflicted.

Even Emily beside him quickly nodded in agreement.

"...So, what happened exactly?" Darren preferred quieter children.

"It's a girl, a girl with long golden hair, who challenged the trainers in the academy," Alex said, getting excited. "Honestly, I've never seen such a beautiful girl before. And the most important thing is... her Pokémon are very strong. She hardly rested during the battle and defeated eleven trainers in a row, all of them from the graduating class."

"Not only that, even a teacher who challenged her lost!"

"Graduating class, eleven trainers? Plus a teacher?" Darren was almostAlexcked. "Is Crown Academy really that bad... and even the teacher... um, wait, how old is this girl?"

"Fourteen," the red-haired boy in the distance spoke up. "Not only that, as you heard, she is also an intermediate breeder."

Darren calmed down and remembered the group of trainers he had met initially. They looked defeated. If a fourteen-year-old girl had overturned the entire academy, even the teachers couldn't win against her, it was a blow to a prestigious institution with a hundred years of history.

"That trainer challenged the students, trainers from the advanced and graduating classes, and none of them were a match for her. In the end, even the last teacher who came out was defeated by her," Emily said.

"She is the calmest and most decisive trainer I have ever seen," said a dark-skinned boy. "When she battles, her victories are almost always overwhelming."

"A 14-year-old intermediate breeder... Is there really someone so terrifying challenging the Crown Academy?" Darren was surprised. The outstanding trainers who graduated from the academy could even achieve top three results in the League Conference.

Even someone at this level was defeated by a girl of the same age or even younger, who won eleven consecutive battles, including a teacher from a top-tier comprehensive school.

"This strength... is even stronger than Wallace, right?" Darren frowned.

"Who is Wallace?" Alex heard Darren's understatement and asked in confusion.

"Doesn't matter," Darren said. "Do you know any other information about that girl?"

"Of course, she is now a famous person at the Crown Academy. Almost no teacher or student does not know her,"Alex said. "She is from the Celestic Town in Sinnoh, the granddaughter of Professor Carolina, the director of the Sinnoh Historical Research Institute. It is said that she came to challenge the Crown Academy because Professor Carolina sent a challenge letter."

"Her name... let me think, it seems to be..."

"Cynthia!"

Cynthia!

"It's her..." Darren exclaimed.

"Huh? Do you know her, Darren?" Alex saw Darren's surprised expression and quickly asked.

"I know her, but not very well," Darren said to himself. If it was really that Cynthia, then almost no one in the whole Sinnoh could match her talent.

Cynthia, the future Sinnoh champion, was one of the only two original champions that Darren remembered.

One was Lance, the champion of the Johto region and the Elite Four of the Kanto region, known as the "invincible dragon master" by Ash.

The other was Cynthia, the only female champion who appeared and left a deep impression on Darren because of her outstanding appearance, calm temperament, and concentration during battles.

"Cynthia... it seems like I missed a good show." Darren regretted not being able to witness the fighting goddess's heroic posture during the battle.

He took a deep breath and calmed down, then looked at the eight students again and said, "If it is really the Cynthia I know, it is not unjustified that the Crown Academy lost. Perhaps in a few years, her name will resound throughout Sinnoh."

The eight prospective breeders looked at Darren in amazement. They thought they would hear some words of "not accepting defeat" from him, but they never expected this transfer student to boost someone else prestige.

"Haha..." The orange-haired girl who rarely spoke in the corner laughed. "You sound a lot like the teacher who lost the challenge. And, he also called that girl something... oh, right..."

"The most talented trainer."