“Doran...” a flat faced purple cloaked man enunciated softly, staring seriously down at a piece of paper. He was sitting at a nice desk, a lit-up pen in his hand. He intonation was slow, as if he had discovered something important.

“What is it?” The man named Doran didn’t look up from his paper, continuing to mark it.

The two men were grading exam packets side by side at large desks, each with large stacks of ungraded and graded packets sitting beside them. It was excruciating, but the job paid well, so they didn’t mind particularly much. Furthermore, they were grading the seventh years’ exams, so it was much more interesting and less formulaic than if they were grading say, a second year’s paper.

“Take a look,” the flat faced man passed his paper over toward Doran, an expectant look in his eyes. Upon seeing his colleague's movement, Doran stopped what he was doing and glanced toward him.

“It’s really that good?”

“Just look,” the flat faced man smiled knowingly, tapping his feet impatiently.

“Alright,” Doran acquiesced, picking up the paper and bringing it a short distance from his face. At first, his expression was bewildered, and then turned intrigued. He took a surprised glance back at the flat faced man and then put the paper down onto his desk and began flipping through it for proper examination.

He spent another fifteen minutes closely reading through the paper. The more he read, the more his expression turned stunned. By the end, his eyes were completely wide in astonishment, and he lifted the paper and turned back toward his colleague. “Jogar…”

“I know, I know,” Jogar’s face was brimming with anticipation. “The student’s name is Maisy Harbinger. I graded the rest of her packet too, it’s almost all good marks. I think I heard from the other graders that her constructions are top-par too. Especially after this, there’s no way she’s not making the cut. She’s gonna rise!”

“Yeah…” Doran looked up from his paper, an ecstatic look in his eyes. “I’m glad to have witnessed this moment. The Kamaran multi-directional mana separation problem… so its solvability has such great ramifications! I doubted at first, but her logic is definitely sound… this is an amazing development in the field! Fascinatingly convincing! And by a mere student!”

“That’s to be expected from the Gemini Academy, I suppose,” Jogar chuckled. “We have to show this to the headmaster. And publicise this. Immediately.”

--------------

After the end of year assessment, there was a two week break before the next year started, where none of the common services on campus, like the shuttle or food in the dining halls, would cost points. At the beginning of the third week, the break would end, and the new year officially begin, first year orientation starting up again. For many, this period was a much needed breather, the first chance they got to finally rest after a year of nonstop work. However, this period was also full of tension, as the results of the assessment would come out in the second week, notifying those who had not made it to leave.

Emmet walked into the administrations office, card in hand. Scanning around the room for a moment, his eyes lit up. He spotted someone he knew at the receptionist desk!

“Borokov! Long time no see!” He waved, running over toward the familiar third year student, his face full of smiles.

“Haha, if it isn’t Emmet,” Borokov smiled, waving back. “It’s been a while since I've seen you!”

“Yeah, I was pretty busy…” Emmet honestly said, letting out a short tired breath and placing his card onto the desk. “Could you please check the balance on my card? I was going to go use a machine, but since you’re here, it’s a nice excuse to come see you! I haven’t checked my balance since early this semester, so I’m hoping for a nice surprise, haha…”

At this point, it was a full week after the end of the year assessment, and with the new year looming ahead, Emmet had become curious about just how points he had amassed over the semester.

“Sure thing!” Borokov smiled, taking Emmet’s card and scanning it with his machine. “You said you’re busy? What have you been up to, still working at Maisy’s place?”

“Yeah, I plan to work there next year too. I’ve mostly been spending my time in the library! Ever since Maisy helped me learn to read, I’ve wanted to take full advantage!” Emmet explained. After their first meeting, Emmet had come to the admissions office several more times, and they had gotten to know each other pretty well. The last time they had talked, Emmet had told him all about his lessons he was getting from Maisy. Borokov had even kindly helped him with some words.

“That’s great! Always wanting to learn, aren’t you,” Borokov smiled, handing the card back to Emmet. He turned toward the screen. “Let's see, it says here that you have…” His face suddenly stilled.

“Hm?” Emmet craned his neck, trying to get a look. “What does it say? How many points do I have?”

“15… 15,000 points…” Borokov’s face was stunned. “Holy crap, lil’ dude! You’ve been grinding!”

“15,000!” Emmet formed an equally shocked face. He had really accumulated that many points?

In actuality, he supposed it made sense. The second semester, he had started out fast, and only grew more and more rapid in debugging, resulting in a much greater overall income from commissions. Further, he debugged much more formations from the middle pile, resulting in significantly larger commissions. Although he had spent 3000 points at the beginning of the semester, reducing him to 2000 points… it seemed he had improved enough to gain a startling 13,000 more points after that! He was rich!

“Man, that’s almost enough for a pretty decent formations car!” Borokov couldn’t help but exclaim, reaching over and patting Emmet on the shoulder. “Good going!”

“Haha,” Emmet couldn’t help but be sheepish. “Thanks Borokov. Almost enough for the car you want, eh?”

“Oh, you still remember that?” Borokov chortled. His eyes turned dreamy. “No, that’s not nearly enough. You don’t understand my aspirations, Emmet! Someday, I’ll be driving around the sleekest, highest end car anyone has ever seen! Three inch shiny red Gorgesium plating, fully coated high-end glossy sun shingles, fourth-grade mana batteries, only the quickest and most mana efficient microcircuits, maybe a dual-engine...”

Sensing a ramble incoming, Emmet could only throw his hands up and back off. “Yeah, yeah, I get it. You want to be the coolest guy ever, with the coolest most powerful car imaginable. That was the reason why you wanted to be a formations expert in the first place…”

“Haha, now you get it!” Borokov laughed. “Just watch... it's gonna happen.”

“I believe you!” Emmet nodded his head in a placating gesture. His thoughts involuntarily turning toward his studies, he took a glance at the big clock on the wall. “Hm… I should probably go, I’ve got a bunch of reading to do.”

Borokov waved him off. “Alright, see ya later. Come visit again!”

“Of course! See you Borokov!” Emmet cheerfully waved him back and excited the admissions office.

-----------------------

“...Mais... arbinger…”

Hearing the familiar name once again, Emmet quickly turned his head. It happened again, he had overheard yet another piece of passing conversation casually mention Maisy’s name. Was he hearing right? Why was everyone discussing Maisy? Did something happen?

He had just exited from the admission office a few minutes ago and was riding his board leisurely down the street, pondering just what he wanted to do with all his accumulated points. It was just sitting there, so he might as well use it! However, who would have known, as soon as he stepped outside, he began to hear Maisy’s name left and right. Although it wasn’t uncommon for students to mention her, namely to discuss her debugging service, he even spotted two professors pass by who were discussing her.

He slowed his board and turned around to eavesdrop on the group that had just passed.

“No doubt, crazy impressive…”

“Yeah, it was apparently so groundbreaking that Stinger personally wrote it up and published it, crediting her as the expert behind the concept!”

“Stinger, that old grouch? Holy shit!”

“I heard that Horin Corp and the Damentan Conglomerate were battling to recruit her. Horin offered 300,000 per year starting salary!”

“Whoa…”

Emmet’s eyes widened. Had Maisy done something amazing? What had happened?

He hopped onto his hoverboard and rushed off to the Maisy Debugging Depot, hoping to meet her. To his shock, he discovered that he was blocked off. There was an enormous crowd surrounding it, and within it, several reporters carrying notepads yelling out requests for statements.

“Please, Miss Harbinger! Just a comment, that’s all I need! It’s an amazing theory you wrote on your assessment, what do you have to say about it?”

“Miss Harbinger, how do you feel about the publication blowing up within the formations world? Countless famous theorists have written follow up publications citing you, praising your insight as genius! How is your newfound fame?”

“Miss Harbinger, what do you plan to do after graduation? Horin Corp? Damentan Conglomerate? Surely, your potential is limitless!”

Emmet attempted to squeeze through the crowd of spectating passerbys, but after a brief minute of struggle, gave up. It seemed that Maisy was too popular right now. He would have to meet with her when work started back up next week.

-------------------

Three days passed, and finally the end of year assessment results came out.

Over the course of these three days, Emmet discovered just what had happened with Maisy. During her assessment, for one of the open-ended questions, she had shocked the graders by answering with an amazing and illuminating theory about the very nature of algorithmic microcircuit unsolvability! According to reports, the concept was now being termed Harbinger Complexity Class Equivalency. The theory stemmed from the unsolved problem called Kamaran multi-directional mana separation, and the related two sets of complexity classes, Atistonal and Bakastarian.

After her paper was published, countless experts responded with further publications detailing further reductions, beyond what Maisy had detailed. At this point, there were over one hundred additional open problems that had been discovered to be able to reduce to Kamaran multi-directional mana separation, all with varying degrees of complexity and impressively creative steps. It really seemed the entire Bakastarian set could possibly be reduced to it! If Kamaran multi-directional mana separation could really be solved in polynomial time, then the over five hundred other unsolved problems in the Bakastarian set were automatically also solved!

This one idea spurred the formations world into a frenzy. Within these three days, it seemed that every prominent formations expert had something to say about it, resulting in an endless stream of extensive publications. Many felt that Harbinger’s new illuminating theory strongly suggested that Kamaran multi-directional mana separation was unsolvable by nature, as the implications of its solvability were just too large. However, many others were enthusiastically manic, reinvigorating their efforts into the open problem. The flip side of the coin was, if they really could solve it, then they would also solve over five hundred other unsolved problems, dozens of which were much more significant than Kamaran multi-directional mana separation! This could mean the start of a new technological revolution, spurring a new age of humanity!

Upon hearing the details of the new theory, Emmet’s eyes had widened. He actually remembered Maisy studying this exact topic! After thinking about it, he couldn't help but excitedly smile and nod his head. He actually had a similar idea to her! Having become interested in Kamaran multi-directional mana separation before (since it was briefly mentioned in his Fundamental Algorithms in Formations textbook), he had taken a look at several other problems in the Bakastarian set, and eventually realized that many could reduce to it. Thus, he had a thought: maybe these reductions suggested it was unsolvable, because if you could solve it, then you instantly solve so many other unsolved problems! He remembered hesitantly telling Maisy her thoughts when she had prompted him, and was glad that all along, she had the same idea.

Unknowingly, he felt a great sense of validation. His stuttered out idea was actually something Maisy had thought, too! That meant that his line of thinking had been correct! A happy smile spread across his face. He suddenly began to feel that maybe he really should be more sure of himself, that his ideas were in fact good. Even though he didn’t start learning this stuff until much later than everyone else, he shouldn’t discount himself! When everything and everyone around you constantly told you that you were inferior to others, it was hard not to believe it. Unknowingly, Emmet was step by step throwing away that baggage.

Within all this craziness, the results of the end of year assessment finally officially came out. All the students crowded around the eight enormous plaques erected around the fountains, which ranked all of the students in each grade. Sure enough, Maisy had an impressive result, ranking 19th out of 250 and definitively making the cut to eight year.

Now that it was guaranteed that she would graduate, her eighth year at the academy would be especially leisurely. There would be no more tests. She was now officially part of a legendary class of formations experts who fully graduated from the Gemini Academy! Especially with her status as a new groundbreaking figure within the formations world, there virtually wasn’t a single place that wouldn’t welcome her with open arms.

However, there was another portion of campus that wasn’t too happy. Inside room 427 inside the 3C dorm, four boys were gloomily sitting on a mat.

“2697th…”

“3002nd…”

“1783rd…”

“2367th…” Tauruk finished it off.

The four boys sat in silence.

“Well, we knew it would be hard.”

“Yeah, but this… It’s too competitive...”

“At least Fontezul got 1783rd. That’s in the top half.”

The boys nodded unenthusiastically. Not even Fontezul was happy. He had gotten to know his fellow roommates extremely well for the past year, and didn’t want to part with them after only two years. Further, it wasn’t like he was guaranteed to pass the next year either. The second year, students would often get much more serious and much more desperate, doing anything they could to increase their assessment score. No doubt, it would be even more competitive, and if he didn’t keep up, he could dip down to the bottom half! No one wanted to get cut from the illustrious Gemini Academy after only two years, especially after all the work they had to do to get there.

“We worked so hard, too…” Tauruk rubbed his forehead tiredly. A year full of exhaustion and tireless work, and this was what he had to show for it? He was solidly in the bottom half. If he didn’t have some genius stroke of insight in the next year, he would probably be cut the next year! He couldn’t even imagine his father’s look were that to happen.

Maybe… he just wasn’t smart enough.