The day after the charity reception and the meeting with the royal family, Richie began the difficult daily routine of fully immersing himself in his studies.
A week later, the transmigrator noticed that his memory in this body was far better than it had been in his previous life. Not eidetic—but close to it. It became clear how the child had been able to study ahead of the curriculum.
Richard did not immediately pay attention to his mental abilities, overwhelmed as he was by the sudden change in circumstances and the need to settle into his new life. Gradually, however, he began to adapt and notice various details. The initial stress subsided.
From the very beginning, the boy forced himself to think of Gerald as his father and slowly grew accustomed to the idea.
Now that the transmigrator had settled into Richard's body to some extent, he began to wonder how such a body swap could have happened at all.
Since he was not a scientist and could not explain it from a scientific standpoint, the transmigrator turned to the works of fiction he had once read.
In fantasy literature, characters' transmigration occurred in many different ways. Most often, they found themselves in another world in their own bodies. But there were also cases in which a soul was transferred into someone else's body. Authors usually relied on several common devices. The first was transfer by the will of a higher being—a god, demon, archmage, and so on. Another option was the rebirth of the soul (reincarnation) with the preservation of memories from a past life. The third involved the hero possessing special abilities: psychokinesis, magic, mutation, or an exceptionally developed and trained mind. Thanks to these superpowers, the protagonist could either reincarnate independently into another body or retain memories of a previous life after rebirth.
In Richie's situation, any of these explanations seemed partly applicable—and at the same time, none of them truly fit.
In his past life, the transmigrator had possessed no supernatural abilities and had not believed in their existence. He had been a realist to the core, believing in the power of reason and science. He did not believe in gods or reincarnation either. It was possible that higher beings existed—like a gopher that cannot be seen but still exists—but even now, Richard remained a realist. As a result, he came up with another explanation: a scientific one.
For example, a group of scientists could have invented a way to copy information from a person's brain. Other scientists might have developed a method of time travel that required overwriting the personality of a person in the past with that copied data. In that case, the body of a time traveler who had been struck by a cargo gravikar could be repurposed for experiments in the name of science. His memories would be read, recorded on a computer, and then somehow implanted into the mind of a child from the past.
Why not? It was no better or worse than transferring a soul into another body at the whim of some higher being. Moreover, this theory was indirectly supported by the fact that scientists of the future had long since learned how to extract information from the human brain and use it in virtual and augmented reality technologies.
Shortly before the traveler's death, advertisements for a new communicator that allowed for telepathy were everywhere on the holonet. This technology quickly received the unofficial name "technical telepathy," or technopathy, among holonet users. So why shouldn't there exist, somewhere in secret research institutes, a laboratory devoted to the study of temporal displacement?!
But Richie had no time to be distracted by such speculations; he had a goal, which he wisely divided into many smaller subgoals. As the saying goes, don't eat the whole elephant—cut up the carcass, store it in the freezer, and consume it in small pieces. This was precisely the principle the transmigrator followed.
His primary subgoal was to complete his studies as quickly as possible. And Richie made full use of the remarkable memory his body had gifted him, absorbing information like a sponge. The tutors could not get enough of the diligent young genius—as they saw him—and eagerly filled the child's head with more and more knowledge.
In his frantic pace, Richard failed to notice how another month and a half flew by, until a series of exams began—exams he had to take before a specially assembled commission. He passed all the fifth- and sixth-grade examinations with the highest possible marks: straight A's. It could hardly have been otherwise, since the body of a child with an excellent memory housed the mind of an adult.
The only subject that was credited automatically was physical education—and that was solely because Richard continued to attend fencing classes three times a week, for which he provided an official certificate.
Of course, he also practiced aerobics and fitness exercises six days a week every morning under the guidance of an experienced personal trainer. However, a trainer's certificate was not accepted, unlike an official document from a reputable fencing club.
The final exam was the most difficult for Richie—English. By the end of it, the boy was utterly exhausted and emotionally drained.
When he returned home, his father was waiting for him in the living room. Gerald immediately rushed to meet his son and pulled him into a tight embrace.
"Congratulations, Richie!" his father said joyfully. "You're a smart boy!"