Thorsten was gently woken up a few hours later by a palace maid and taken to see the doctor after his bath—another thing he would have to get used to in his new body.
As the son of a noble, it was only natural that his basic needs and other daily routines were assisted by servants, but being bathed by them as well was neither on his radar nor explicitly mentioned in the game.
'Another thing I'll just have to get used to.' He silently thought to himself during said bath.
He had managed to get through it without acting too differently, but he couldn't help but feel that they had scrubbed away his dignity as well as any accumulated sweat.
Something else he had noticed was how extra careful the maids were during it which he attributed to Rowena having said something about his feeling unwell.
After being dressed, he was led to a spacious dining room to have breakfast, where a light breakfast awaited him—a carefully prepared meal of mixed berries and lightly sweetened grains, topped with thinly sliced fruit.
Thorsten, having slept in, had missed eating breakfast with the rest of his family. This gave him time to go through his memories of them and avoid any inconsistent behaviour.
But before that, he had another important hurdle to overcome—or rather, a series of hurdles to clear—before he could even begin forming any long-term plans: tutors.
As the scion of a noble family, it was only natural that he was to be educated on history, mathematics, literature, noble etiquette, politics and, most importantly, on how to socialise with other noble scions.
He was good with almost all of that except for the socialising aspect, as dealing with nobles, especially one's his own age, was something he wasn't exactly eager to do.
Yet, despite his preference, the original Thorsten was a character who excelled at using people. An ability he would have to acquire if things were to at least proceed on a similar path as they should have in RHR.
'Though, all things considered, I don't really mind the learning part.' He silently mused, pausing to take a sip of the bitter tea a maid had brought out after his breakfast.
Judging by the taste, it was likely some kind of herbal drink prepared under Rowena's instructions to help calm his mind. Personally, he didn't mind the bitter aftertaste, but his new taste buds were far too sensitive to let the flavour pass unnoticed.
He nursed the tea slowly as his mind worked to recall any information related to the contents of his lectures.
"Hmm..." he silently hummed a familiar tune as he filtered the information from what he had learnt on Earth.
_____
By the time Thorsten had finished sorting his thoughts, and tea, it was already time for him to attend his first session, or rather, his second because his waking up later had his breakfast taking from his first lesson.
He wasn't that bothered because it was supposed to be math, a subject he already had a considerable amount of experience in, as well as a master's degree.
And form what he gathered from Thorsten's memories, what knowledge and experience he already had would put him leagues above what he could learn from a tutor.
'Thank you~ modern education system.' he let out a small chuckle at the thought, which earned him a curious look from his tutor, Mr. Klein.
He was a currently going through basic multiplication using the number 7 and no matter how much he tried, he couldn't help him from letting his thoughts drift.
Mr Klein paused halfway through his explanation and gave him a pointed stare, "Is something the matter, student Thorsten?"
His behaviour wasn't something a normal tutor would dare direct towards a noble's child, let alone someone of his background, which made his reaction even more impressive.
But from what he gathered, his father had given him full authority when it came to matters of discipline in during their lessons. Meaning that if he saw fit, he could be punished, physically for any unbecoming behaviour during said lesson.
When his elder brother complained to their father about this, he had used him as an example and said that it was to teach them discipline.
And from what he gathered, it was also to ensure that the tutors could do their job without fear of their students slacking or giving half-a*sed responses during lessons. Granted, they would also be subject to dire consequences if they abused their authority.
"My appologies, Sir." instead of giving a bad response, Thorsten saw it better to apologize and let the moment pass.
"Don't let it happen again."
Mr. Klein also seemed not to mind due to the original having maintained a respectful attitude during their other lessons—is what he thought until he was given a sheet with sums to work out after Mr. Klein's explanation.
"You'll have fifteen minutes to complete all these problems—begin."
Thorsten received it silently began skimmed thought the 30 problems; most of it was simple multiplications and some of the other questions were addition and subtraction.
He took his time with the paper but hit a wall at the last question: [6x7÷2=__] The problem itself was simple, but he hadn't been taught how to do division problems yet.
Another thing he had noticed was how the symbols were slightly different from the ones used on Earth but the function behind them remained the same.
Thorsten raised his head slightly to glance over at Mr. Klein, who was leisurely sipping his tea will flipping through a textbook.
'Fancy son of a b*tch wants me to get this one wrong.'
He thought about solving it to get back at him but settled on what he saw as a decent compromise.
He couldn't help but chuckle at his answer and waited a few more minutes before handing in the paper, making it a point to appear as though he was having some difficulty with the questions.
Mr. Klein had him stand on his right while he went through his answers with slow, deliberate stokes of his pen, as if to torture him.
Thorsten kept the same, flat expression on his face; choosing to have his focus more on Mr. Klein's expression than the paper and keeping his expression in check.
The corner of his mouth would twitch ever so slightly every time Mr. Klein paused after marking a question, only to go over it again, before moving on to the next one.
From what he had gathered from his memories, the original Thorsten had already been quite the model student, so it wouldn't be strange for him to get 'most' of the questions correct.
And he reasoned that it would only benefit him if he could skip past the grade schooler problems to jump straight into the higher-grade formulae and questions—is the reason he came up with in his head.
Mr. Klein's pen slowed when he reached the final answer, and a tense silence settle over them.
Then, without looking at Thorsten, he spoke. "Explain this one."
Thorsten blinked, as though surprised to be asked, and leaned forward slightly to look at the paper.
"The last one, sir?"
"Yes." Mr. Klein finally lifted his gaze. "You have not yet been taught division."
Thorsten hesitated — not the hesitation of confusion, but the kind that came from searching for the right words.
"Well…" he began, rubbing his fingers together. "You said last month that division was just the opposite of multiplication."
Mr. Klein's brow twitched, but he said nothing.
"So I did the first part first." Thorsten pointed at the equation. "Six times seven is forty-two."
He paused, glancing up as if to check whether that much, at least, was acceptable.
"And then…" he continued, voice brightening slightly, "instead of dividing it, I just thought about how many times two goes into forty-two."
He tilted his head, genuinely puzzled by the confusion this seemed to cause.
"It goes in twenty-one times," he said simply. "Because two times twenty is forty, and there's two left — so one more."
For a moment, the room was silent.
Mr. Klein slowly tapped the pen against the paper.
"You were not instructed to solve it that way," he said at last.
Thorsten's shoulders tensed, just a little.
"I know," he replied quickly, then added, softer, "But the answer was already there… I just worked backwards."
Mr. Klein studied him closely now — not the paper, not the numbers, but him.
"…And you chose to take your time before submitting."
Thorsten nodded, eyes dropping to the floor.
"I thought if I handed it in too quickly, you might think I guessed."
That earned him a short, sharp exhale through the nose — not quite a laugh, but close.
"Hmph."
Mr. Klein straightened, setting the paper aside.
"You may sit."
Thorsten did so immediately, folding his hands neatly in his lap, his face once again the picture of an obedient child.
Inside, however, he felt a faint sense of satisfaction settle in his chest.
He hadn't overstepped.
He hadn't drawn too much attention.
And more importantly, he had shown just enough to achieve his goal.