Studying with the newbie[Rui::Morning]

Although extremely dedicated, Albrecht basic education was just lacking, and it showed in his grades, they were barely satisfactory. Being stubborn and determined, he still pursued excellence and the teachers took note of that so instead of letting the young cadet stumbling and struggling they recommended that he studied with other students and even gave him name of students he should seek out for aid, a guy named Rui was particularity spoken well about despite being new to the Academy. Of course the teachers would warn the students in advance that the Knight would seek them for help.

Right after classes the Cadet would begin to look for this Rui, not without taking some time to swallow his pride of course, he asked around and was led to the newbie's location in no time. Albrecht hesitated, but approached the other student calmly.


The cadet's voice was deep and had a stern tone, almost militaristic. He also wore a serious expression on his face.

Rui was sitting at the table of the Literature Club, in "their" very own and rather spacious club-room. Apparently at one time, the Literature Club had been one of the leading clubs on campus, even being advertised on a Seven Stars Academy brochure that Rui once read. Unfortunately for Rui, the brochure was rather out-dated, being only accurate back in the time-frame when children besides Rui still read paper brochures. Thus despite its lofty recognition and spacious club room...it now had a membership of one person.

He was not actually reading any literature in the room. He joined the Literature Club not because he reads a lot, but merely because he used to read a lot. When he had a lot less personal freedom as a younger child, he read a lot to fantasize about the world outside. Upon interacting with the world outside and learning that it mostly sucked, literature lost some of its appeal. Rather, he was reading a trade magazine while sipping on some tea he had made for himself, an incredibly bitter herbal tea he had imported from the Chinese jungles for a surprisingly affordable price.

It was actually slightly inconvenient, as the wind from the open window often blew through his page and once almost blew his side-braid into his tea. It was actually surprisingly hard to both sip tea, keep the magazine on the right page, and read the magazine at the same time.

However, Rui still immediately turned to face the man who had burst into his room, apparently sternly looking for him. His voice seem gruff, almost like a drill sergeant. Some people might have thought they were in trouble, but Rui figured he hadn't done anything wrong. He was probably just gruff because some people are always like that! To Rui, clearly, this young man was here to join his literature club! A proposition that he was utterly indifferent to. Having another member of the club had both its upsides and downsides, which Rui didn't want to personally evaluate. Plus, regardless of his own concusions, Rui knew he needed to be polite and friendly to new members.

Rui put his tea over his magazine to keep the pages down, before turning to the man.

"Yes...and yes. Of course. Something up?"

Rui tilted his head at the man, as if he were confused as to why the man was looking for him. Though not because Rui was actually confused, having already had a pretty good idea why the man was looking for him. It just happened that Rui was, of course actually wrong.

Albrecht relaxed and nodded, not surprising that he was considering how empty this club room was. Albrecht never payed much mind to clubs himself, he already had plenty to do between studying and training, he heard there was a fencing club but rapiers are wildly different from a Langschwert, and not nearly as good either. Still, he wondered what club used this room... maybe a question for later.


He extended his right hand, offering a handshake for the literature club president. Once the introductions were out of the way, the Forgotten spoke again.

"I'm not sure if the teachers talked to you, but they said you could help me study since you are a very bright student... according to them. So i'm here to ask, could you please help me? I'd even do something in return if you do." Albrecht was desperate to say the least, he wanted to improve his grades and if it hurt his pride a little bit in the process... so be it, it is the price for excellence.

Rui's head tilted just a little more when this Mr. Albrecht Frost introduced himself and put out his hand.

It took just a second for Rui to realize Albrecht was looking for a handshake. He immediately reached out and grasped the outstretched hand and gave it a shake.

At first, Rui was rather surprised by how formal Albrecht seemed, and he replied more on instinct than with any planning, "Oh, yes. It's good to meet you too."

Rui gave an honestly perplexed look at Albrecht. He had never heard about being particularly good at school. Of course, he did get decent grades, but largely for unfair reasons (repetition), not hard work. In a way, he was surprised that the teachers were paying attention. He never "volunteered" in class or showed any interest in academics. They must be simply monitoring all of the grades for some reason!

Furthermore, that was not at all the request he had expected. It knocked him a little off-kilter, "Oh...uh...what?"

He actually found Albrecht's last comment remarkably amusing, because it struck Rui as quite awkward. A little too desperate for help. But then again, this guy seemed remarkably straightforward. And he apparently went specifically to Rui. How could you say no? Plus, favors done for people were a great thing to dangle over them later.

"Oh, sorry. I was just a little surprised. I didn't know the teachers thought of me like that. I'm not sure why they would." It still surprised him. Some students like to stick out with academic accomplishments. That was not Rui.

Rui turned his entire body towards Albrecht, "Well, I've got good news and bad news. I'm probably nowhere as good of a student as they think...but sure, I can absolutely try my best to help. For whatever that's worth."

Albrecht's brow raised, expressing visible confusion. The teachers had said his grades were really good, was he just modest? Or maybe he didn't want to do it and wanted to gently turn down, which was understandable. He could look for other people to aid himself, it's just that Rui was the first one on his list.

"I suppose they had high expectations for you due to high grades... Even if you are not as good as they say, you have grades better than mine." He spoke before nodding at the ASSW, this time his tone was a bit more lax."So... Thanks for deciding to help me."

There was a brief silence afterwards, Albrecht was quickly checking the classroom to see if he could figure out what this club was about on his, though there wasn't much to tip him off. Maybe he should just ask directly.

"I'm curious, this is a club room correct? What club exactly?" He had just kinda of barged in without asking for permission and went straight to the point, he had never been a tactful one, Lamina Sanctus constantly criticizes him for his lack of finesse. "Just one member is odd... Aren't there regulations that ask for a minimum number of members in a club?" Albrecht never got involved with clubs, but you can't really have a club with just one person, might as well go home and do whatever you want.

Rui looked a little lost in thought. "...the teachers are monitoring our grades? Uuu...maybe I should do a little worse in school..."

However, he snapped back to attention once Albrecht had a different question, "Oh! This is the Literature Club room." Rui brushed his hair back just a little, as he tried to play the role of the elegant Literature Club president.

Though that image might end up shattered by his next answer, "...yes, those are the regulations. For the time being though, I've lodged a challenge to the procedural validity of how those regulations were promulgated...which has stayed enforcement of that regulation for the time being."

He started playing with his hair-braid a little, "Though you know, considering all-around lax attitudes towards deadlines, myself included, that time being...is going to be pretty long. So no worries!"

Rui didn't like to get in trouble...but even if someone catches you breaking the rules, are you really in trouble if they're not enforcing the rule upon you in particular? From Rui's perspective, no.

Albrecht's eyebrows furrowed at Rui's first remark, one should always aim for excellence and giving their best, purposefully doing worse to stay under the radar was somewhat pathetic in the eyes of the Crusader, but he kept such thoughts to himself if he were to express it he'd more than likely be offending Rui.

"Literature Club? Wouldn't it be better to go home and read at comfort of your house since you are on your own?" Unless his parents mistreated him or he lived in poverty he saw little reason for a person to stay after school to read literature. "I'm sorry, i shouldn't be asking things like this, i'm sure you have your reasons to be here." Albrecht shook his head before quietly listening to Rui's answer to his other question.

"That sounds like a lot of effort, you must really like this literature 'club'."Again, can it even be called a club with only one member? Regardless, Albrecht continued."Since you are helping me study, i could try to help you should the numbers ever become an issue... I probably could use my status as a cadet somehow." He folded his arms as a thoughtful expression formed on his face, maybe he could affect the bureaucracy somehow or even drawn in new members using the popularity of the cadets.

Rui put his hand up to his mouth and gave a very small, subtle laugh. "Hah, no, no. It's fine. I really don't have any good reasons."

He was being honest. He only read in the literature club because he could charge all of the tea he drank to the club account instead of his own. And it wasn't as if he even needed the money. He really didn't need any extra source of money at all.

He blinked a little at Albrecht's impressed comment, "...oh no. It was a lot easier than you might think. Fun, maybe, even. But yes, you're always welcome to join. Attendance is obviously entirely optional, so a teacher ever bugs you on not being a member of any club..."

In retrospect, Rui figured out that maybe he shouldn't have been so forthcoming to the Cadet about his lack of fidelity to the spirit of the law. He knew little about Cadets besides that they were highly respected and known for enforcing the law. Then again, that was a goal that Rui wholeheartedly supported. Law and order were paramount. It's just that fiddling at the sides hardly hurt either of them, at least not in his mind.

He spun back to the conversation, "So um...what was it exactly were you looking for help with?" There would be a certain irony if the question was literature, which was surprisingly Rui's weakest subject.

"Not mandatory? Then i might consider. Training is intense so i'm busy a lot of time." He nodded in understanding, although part of him thought of it as something that would discourage people to show up to club meetings and not take it seriously but he had sidetracked enough already. "If you need more members that is." He promptly added.

Rui quickly set them back on their original conversation topic with his question, Albrecht would once again nod.

"I suppose Math and Physics are my biggest obstacles as of now." The Knight promptly replied, he had sidetracked long enough and just wanted to get over with this as quickly as possible now. "Other subjects i can perform reasonably on my own."

Rui coughed to himself a little. This student was apparently very good at getting to the heart...of problems. Yes, in fact this club needed more members. Many many more members. Yet, Rui could not actually signal that. Rui knew how the world worked. Nobody wants to join a club that would accept anyone. Everyone covets that which they can't have while spurning that which they can.

"Yes...we could certainly consider accepting new members. Feel free if that would interest you!"

Hopefully, this was just vague enough to not seem desperate. Rui nodded as the student continued with his requests. Math was actually quite simple for Rui. Physics was quite difficult. One would think that they would be complementary skills, but they certainly weren't for him. He had a background in finance and accounting. And absolutely no background in anything that required spatial reasoning. Well, if he didn't know how to do something - there was only one solution - to fake that knowledge!

"Ah, great. I have a better background in math than people think I look like! Ahah." He knocked himself on the side of the head like an overly-cliche moe character. "Anyways, sure I can help! Is there anything in like uh, specific that is confusing. Or do you just need someone to test you?"

"Right." Albrecht was open to the idea of joining the Literature club. Not a lot of compromise, literature seemed interesting enough, people likely wouldn't bother him a lot and it helped him keep up the normal student facade for those around him, and if it got too crowded then he could just leave. Something to keep in mind for their next meeting. For now the Knight was... puzzled by Lui's body language. He had an eyebrow raised for a couple seconds, but he attempted to ignore it. Whatever the hell 'it' was.

"If you say so." He replied. First Lui acted humble but now he reaffirmed his knowledge on math. Odd but he wouldn't comment on that. He simply pulled some of his notes, they contained mostly equations and other Algebra problems. He didn't have anything related to physics on him at the moment. "In math i'm currently struggling with Algebra."

Rui was briefly terrified that he was going to be presented with some horrific vector calculus that he would have had to try to figure out on the spot - which would have likely led to failure and embarrassment. That terror immediately passed when he saw the actual questions the student was worried about.

Then another sinking feeling kicked in. There are two types of students who want help. Those with specific problems. And those who need to be told what specific problems they had. He was starting to worry that this student would be the latter. Uh...what...exactly about algebra? Like polynomials, right? Not like multivectors, right?" Rui sure hoped not. Linear algebra was a miserable experience for him. Was truly in one ear and out again. He braced himself for that possibility, simply due to the fact that he'd probably have to relearn it on the spot if it was.

He didn't know what algebra this student would exactly be studying. But he seemed big. And big probably meant being a third-year. And the third-year was probably when people got to linear algebra, Rui concluded.

"That's correct." He'd give the shorter student a nod. At least for now that was his only problem, though he would rather avoid bothering other students too often with his difficulties with school subjects. He could imagine how annoying it could get to have someone constantly hounding you to ask questions. Every time he requested for help from another student he also had to put his pride aside. "I apologize for bothering you like this. I'm sure you would rather be reading your books than to help a stranger." He scratched his cheek, letting a defeated sigh escape him. It would only be this once.

Rui put his hands up as if he were defending himself from something, "Oh no, no no no, I don't mind at all. Strangers are just friends who haven't been...destrangered yet!"

He shifted around in his chair in order to look just slightly pensive before continuing, "No, no, seriously, it's no biggie. I'm just slightly not sure what you're looking for help with. Do you have a problem that's giving you a problem? Wait, that sentence didn't make sense, did it? Problem while you problem...?"

He give a confused look at his own speech drifting off into weird places before his attention snapped back, "Or like you know? A certain concept that doesn't make sense? Or something."

Rui really didn't mind explaining anything that could help the student in front of him. He just really wasn't sure what he should be explaining. He could go off on a tangent about random algebra-related subjects, but he suspected this wouldn't help anyone's school performance.

Rui's outlook of the situation was interesting, it honestly sounded a bit like Astrid. Though he had to wonder, was the other student just attempting to be nice or did he genuinely believe in what he was saying. The Knight knew better to not ask these things, the conversation could grow awkward, but the thought remained in his mind.

"Hm..." The knight scratched his head, he knew what but he struggled to put it into words. After deliberating for a couple moments he spoke, there was a hint of self doubt in his voice at first. "Bhaskara... That's the name right? I have trouble remembering what's what. I also have issues expressing it in a graphic and finding the vertex."

Once that was out of the way, Albrecht couldn't help but ask. "Why did you decide to do this? Open a Literature Club that is."