Apparently, dying and reincarnating into a different universe was not going to stop the education system from worming into his life to make him miserable.
"Small talk is a fundamental part of dinner etiquette," the teacher was droning on in front of the class. "It prevents the room from delving into uncomfortable silence and keeps both guest and host entertained."
The night before, Nathan had ridden out of the banquet in a carriage so fancy it would have put the fairy godmother to shame. They had arrived at a castle that the other royal siblings had called home.
"Some common small talk topics are the weather, the well-being of an acquaintance…"
Nathan had been led to his room, and he swore he'd seen entire apartments smaller than it. But the size of the room had only lingered in his mind for two seconds before he was overcome with exhaustion.
"For today, your assignment is to pair up and keep your partner entertained for the rest of the class."
Cantis had told Nathan it was normal to experience fatigue after a body transfer, and he should just sleep it off. So he'd taken her advice.
"There are pamphlets in front of you to guide you. Begin."
Before closing his eyes, he had looked out of the window. The stars were still misaligned, but they twinkled brighter.
"Do you have a partner?"
Nathan blinked, unsure if he was the one being talked to. He looked at the girl standing in front of him.
"Pardon?"
The girl offered him a small smile. "Do you have a partner, Your Highness?"
"I don't."
"Would you be alright partnering with me, then? I'm afraid my friends have already paired up with each other."
Nathan didn't see any reason to refuse, so he said, "Okay."
The girl immediately brightened and sat down across him. "I'm Theresa Sterlin Everston! Second-born daughter to the Chief Administrator of the Everston Estate." She held out a hand.
"Damien," Nathan said, then paused. He didn't know his surname. Great. It wouldn't really matter, considering that she already seemed to know him, but it did feel kind of rude to just say the first name. And Damien, on its own, sounded pretentious enough to come off as an attitude problem.
Theresa didn't seem to mind, though. Nathan shook her hand.
"We should start," she said, reaching for a pamphlet.
Nathan couldn't help but find her forwardness a bit weird. So far, from his experience, he had assumed people were avoiding him. The boy he had tried asking directions from when he first got to school had wordlessly pointed in the direction and power-walked away from him the moment the interaction was over. The girl he had accidentally bumped into in the hallways on the way there pretty much ran away from him when she saw his face.
It was unflattering. What kind of image did the original Damien have?
He'd tried to ask Cantis, but she'd run off yelling "FREEDOM!" into the first garden they'd come across, and he hadn't seen her since.
It did leave Nathan wondering if this girl, in particular, was unaffected by him, or if everyone else was overreacting. It was possible she had approached him with an ulterior motive in mind. But she didn't look like it.
He tried to get a read on her. Loose shoulders, relaxed posture. Her smile looked like it was second nature, as if it was her reaction to anything and everything. There was a lack of the tell-tale elegance he'd been seeing in the other students so far, but it seemed intentional rather than unlearned.
"How is the weather today?" Theresa asked, her tone bright and almost comically earnest.
Nathan stared at her. "It...exists?"
"So it does! I barely noticed it at first, but it's super obvious now. It's been a while since it was sunny! Spring must be arriving. It still feels rather cold in here, though. Do you think it's warmer outside?"
"...Maybe."
"I do think the walls block out most of the heat here. It's a good thing, too! I've always preferred cooler temperatures. How about you, Your Highness?"
"I don't really have a preference."
Theresa nodded. "Fair enough."
The conversation fizzled out, like Nathan was sure it would. It was almost sad how the girl had carried the entire conversation on her own. Then again, what else was Nathan supposed to say about the weather? There was only so much you could talk about when pursuing such a shallow topic.
After a beat of silence, Theresa let out a small huff of laughter. "This has gotten a little awkward, hasn't it? I suppose there isn't much else to discuss here. Let's move on to something else."
Nathan almost applauded her for her tenacity. He would have just sat in silence for the rest of the class if he were the one expected to take the lead.
"Hm…" Theresa scrutinized the pamphlet. "How about hobbies? What do you do for fun, Your Highness?"
Usually, he'd say reading, but if the books here were completely different from the ones in his world, he'd have no idea about any books Theresa might bring up. And if he slipped up, he might even be exposed as a fraud. Or, worse, an imposter from another world. Was there a separate punishment for that? Nathan didn't think a category like that had even been made yet.
"I draw sometimes," he said instead. This wasn't untrue. He'd taken art lessons for nearly five years. He did sometimes draw.
"That's great!" Theresa said, beaming. "I draw sometimes, too. Want to see?"
She pulled out a pen and doodled something on her small talk pamphlet, pushing it over to Nathan when she was done. Nathan picked up the pamphlet and snorted.
It was a smiling stick figure with two pigtails, uneven lines sprouting from the stumps of its limbs to signify fingers and toes. The figure was holding out a flower. There was an arrow pointing at the whole stick figure, labelled Bob.
"Bob says hi," Theresa said.
"Beautiful," Nathan commented.
"I know, right?" Theresa said, grinning. "It's my best work to date."
"I can see why. The emotions in this are particularly evident, especially with that melancholic smile. You can really see Bob trying his best to offer only the best of himself to others while his own world crumbles around him."
Theresa blinked at him for a moment before letting out a soft laugh. "Close, but not quite! You see, Bob is currently returning from a date. He took the flower to his lover, but his lover declared that they were not good for each other and left him! So he's on his way home now, but he's keeping a smile on his face anyway. That's why the flower is drooping, too. It's wilted, just like his love."
"Tragic."
"Very much so."
Nathan picked up her pen and, next to Bob, drew another figure— a little taller, a little angrier. He gave it a cowboy hat. Then, for no reason at all, he drew two enormous eyebrows.
"This is Sir Bartholomew Ignatius Featherstonehaugh III," Nathan said, writing the name down on one side. Due to the length, this took a considerable amount of time.
"Can I call him Barty?" Theresa asked once he was finished.
"You can't. He'll take off his hat in disgrace."
Theresa gasped. "But then he'll have nothing left on him! Scandalous!"
"He doesn't have the best concept of decency, I admit," Nathan said sadly, "You can see it in his frown."
"Does he have a lot troubling him, too?"
"Who, him? Oh, no, if something troubles Sir Bartholomew Ignatius Featherstonehaugh III, you'd better assume that thing won't see the light of the next day."
"Even if it's an inanimate object?" Theresa asked, tilting her head.
Nathan nodded gravely. "Especially if it's an inanimate object."
"He needs friends."
"And a life."
Theresa laughed. "The two greatest things in the world."