After Miles's loud call echoed through the room, everyone in the classroom turned their gazes toward the source of the commotion.
Upon seeing David's arrival, they all began whispering among themselves. The Novice Cup finals had been broadcast live on television and streamed online, so they had clearly recognized David as the tournament's champion.
Most of the new students looked at David with open curiosity, murmuring quietly to one another, while the students from the former Class 1 were far more relaxed about his presence. They smiled warmly and offered congratulations on his Novice Cup victory.
David thanked each of them politely, and after navigating through the crowd with some effort, he finally reached Miles and his friends' seats near the back.
"Yo-ho! Welcome back! As expected of our great Champion—you draw everyone's attention the moment you walk through the door," Luke said with a wide grin. Before David could even sit down, Luke had already thrown an arm around his shoulder and begun teasing him.
"Yes, yes, this is exactly the treatment a Champion deserves. Are you jealous? If you're jealous, then work harder! Believe in yourself, and you'll get there too. Satisfied with that response?" David was already accustomed to Luke's playful teasing. Instead of denying the attention, he generously acknowledged it before turning the tables on his friend.
After finding an empty seat and settling down amid their shared laughter, David took a breath and overheard Willow and her friends discussing Imperial Capital No. 1 High School's new principal.
Having just arrived, David didn't understand the specific situation yet, so he remained quiet and simply listened attentively.
"I heard that not only is there a new principal, but this guy apparently has a really strong background. On his very first day in office, he demoted several teachers who had been coasting along on their seniority for years," one student whispered.
"Exactly! I also heard the new principal recruited a new Battle Strategies teacher who will be specifically responsible for teaching our Class 1," another added.
"I wonder what this new teacher will be like? To be specially recruited by the principal himself, he must be an incredibly powerful Trainer!"
Listening to the others chattering excitedly, David also grew curious about this mysterious teacher he hadn't yet met.
To serve as a Battle Strategies instructor for the best class at Imperial Capital No. 1 High School, the teacher would need to be genuinely strong. If he turned out to be incompetent, even a special invitation from the principal wouldn't matter—the parents certainly wouldn't accept it.
Given the family backgrounds of most students attending Imperial Capital No. 1 High School, if this Battle Strategies teacher proved to be a fraud, he'd probably be confronted and criticized harshly by the parents themselves.
"He should at least be a Professional-level Trainer of the second tier," David judged silently.
As for the principal himself, David felt no particular curiosity. After all, he'd heard plenty about him from his mother during a family dinner some time ago.
The new principal of Imperial Capital No. 1 High School was named Arthur, and he came from the Cloudspire Alliance military forces.
That's right—the Alliance in this world maintained an actual military force. Unlike the child-oriented anime where Officer Jenny seemed to handle everything, in a realistic world environment where Pokemon existed everywhere, dangers were very real and present.
Wild Pokemon could be dangerous, and criminal organizations utilizing Pokemon for illegal activities were even more dangerous.
Clearly, relying solely on Officer Jenny appearing regularly in every city alongside a handful of ordinary police officers, as depicted in the anime, simply wasn't sufficient for maintaining order and safety.
Within the Cloudspire Alliance alone, there were over a dozen S-rank high-danger Secret Realms on the surface that remained incompletely explored, plus more than thirty A-rank Secret Realms. Many of these Secret Realms were comparable in size to small countries.
The number of Pokemon living inside these realms, and how many of them were high-level Pokemon, was nearly unimaginable.
If any accident occurred leading to a Pokemon stampede or riot, and it wasn't handled properly and swiftly, the consequences could be catastrophic.
Therefore, outside these Secret Realms, Cloudspire Alliance military troops maintained permanent stations.
Not only Secret Realms required such protection—dangerous wilderness forbidden zones and border regions with neighboring countries also had troops stationed. Due to the significant responsibility involved, the Alliance placed great importance on military service, being very generous with allocated resources. This made the military's welfare benefits and compensation quite attractive.
Coupled with strict regulations and diligent oversight by several Alliance Council members, the internal reward and promotion system remained transparent and merit-based.
This combination led many people from ordinary backgrounds with average talent who still wished to pursue the Trainer path to view joining the military as an excellent career option.
Principal Arthur himself could be called a legend—a true rags-to-riches story of someone who rose from humble beginnings.
His background had been quite ordinary, even poor by common standards. He grew up in a single-parent household, barely raised by his mother who worked various odd jobs while supplementing their income with Alliance welfare subsidies.
After becoming a Trainer, he lacked proper resources, and his displayed talent at the time appeared quite average. He could only rely on minimal Alliance welfare benefits, without sponsorship from large corporations or key official support programs.
Through tremendous effort, he barely managed to gain admission to a very ordinary university with an unremarkable Trainer program.
After graduating from university, he had barely reached the Superior Trainer level. However, unwilling to abandon his pursuit of becoming a stronger Trainer, he made the bold decision to enlist in the Cloudspire Alliance military.
At that time, Arthur, whose strength remained quite ordinary, naturally received no special treatment in the military—a place that valued strength and results above all else. He started everything from the absolute ground level.
However, it proved to be a fortunate coincidence. His firm obedience to orders, fearlessness in the face of danger, and the courage and attention to detail honed by his difficult childhood environment made him exceptionally well-suited to military life and culture.
After joining the military, Arthur quickly began distinguishing himself from his peers. As his military merits accumulated, so did the resources and training opportunities he received. Not only did his Pokemon's strength grow substantially, but his official military rank also rose steadily.
Twenty years of dedicated service and hard work in the military transformed him. He became not just a high-ranking commander, but his Trainer strength also reached the Elite level through years of frontline combat experience and the acquisition of numerous rare resources earned through his achievements and contributions.
However, due to his early years of overexertion and accumulated injuries, his physical condition had deteriorated somewhat. Recognizing this reality, he chose to retire early from active frontline duty.
After retirement, he received strong invitations and recommendations from several important political figures, which eventually led to his appointment as principal of Imperial Capital No. 1 High School.
So it wasn't inaccurate to say he had a strong background. He was an Elite-level Trainer himself, though his strength might be slightly less specialized than a typical Elite Trainer who focused on individual battles. Military Trainers were generally more experienced with multi-person coordinated combat, excelling at handling large-scale battlefield situations and managing multiple wild Pokemon simultaneously. However, they didn't possess the same advantage in one-on-one high-level Trainer battles, making it difficult for them to defeat Professional Trainers of equivalent rank in such settings.
Additionally, being a veteran military figure, he naturally had numerous old comrades and former superior officers supporting him from behind the scenes. For someone who had survived real battlefields and life-threatening situations, demoting a few teachers and administrators who had been lazily coasting along on tenure was absolutely nothing.
Honestly, if the previous principal of Imperial Capital No. 1 High School hadn't been so utterly irresponsible in his management, and considering that these problematic individuals had actually contributed meaningfully to both the school and the Alliance during their younger years, many people in authority had simply chosen to turn a blind eye to their current behavior.
Many times, as long as things didn't become too excessive or publicly scandalous behind the scenes, the higher-ups were simply too busy to actively pursue disciplinary action.
However, with the new principal taking office, as the old saying goes: "a new official lights three fires upon taking office." Arthur had been appointed specifically to revitalize and reform Imperial Capital No. 1 High School, so his first order of business was naturally to rectify the school's atmosphere and culture.
What had been done previously could be overlooked and forgiven, but now that the new principal had arrived, if anyone continued engaging in underhanded schemes and lazy behavior, weren't they simply asking for trouble and consequences?
It presented a perfect opportunity to make examples of these individuals and properly reform the overall atmosphere of Imperial Capital No. 1 High School.
During their animated conversation, the closed classroom door suddenly opened, and a figure walked purposefully into the room. Upon seeing this entrance, the discussions among students throughout the classroom gradually quieted down until silence filled the space.