In a study room within Koriander Basics.

Emmet sat at the table, tapping his fingers. He couldn’t help but be a bit nervous. How would Tauruk react, stepping into the room and seeing his own squire waiting to tutor him?

Emmet had discussed it extensively with Maisy. The idea was, in order for Emmet to continue to attend the academy past the second year, the most practical method of action was to get Tauruk into the top half of the rankings, thus allowing Emmet to tag along and stay at the school. To do this, they needed to help improve Tauruk’s understanding, and by extension grades, allowing him to place higher in the end of year assessment.

Over the past months, Maisy had tried numerous other ways to let Emmet stay at the school, many that included trying to upgrade him to a full time student. Even after getting rejected by ‘Stinger,’ she immediately worked to convince other members of high-ranking faculty of Emmet’s qualifications, utilizing the full extent of her fame to put pressure on them to act - working together, many of the board members had the power to override the headmaster.

However, the process was unexpectedly slow, despite Maisy being an influential figure. Many of the board members took literally weeks to respond to her, and only with formulaic answers that didn’t actually mean anything. She had tried to schedule personal meetings with a few of them, but the meetings that actually did occur were brief and meaningless, full of shaken heads and answers like “maybe, but we just have to wait and see.” She supposed it could be expected from an institution so large and prestigious - it was hard to put a dent within the bureaucracy within a short amount of time. Further, many were unwilling to go against the headmaster.

However, how could she put it… even so, there was a weird stillness with the board’s response. Part of it could be attributed to their busy schedules, but Maisy suspected something else - one related to social status. There was the simple fact that Emmet was a squire, and didn’t come from noble blood. By that truth alone, it provoked certain prejudices. Maisy didn’t know if that was the full reason, but there was no doubt that within this elitist society, there was a certain… tone used when describing those from ‘common’ birth.

Not seeing any progress within the slow school bureaucracy, Maisy quickly turned toward some other practical methods. And then, they immediately landed on the most obvious and practical option - they could focus their attention on Emmet’s student, Tauruk, and ascertain he would advance past second year and carry Emmet along with him. Although Maisy didn’t have a particularly good impression of Tauruk, many of the other options were somewhat unreliable, and she wanted to have a guarantee that Emmet could reach at least grade four. This method seemed to work the best within the school’s rules.

In this line of thinking, there was one other option Maisy had thought about - with her status, it was an easy matter to just forget about Tauruk and find someone else. Given any amount of time, she was confident she could search and find some other better-performing second year student who didn’t have a squire - if they were willing, it was possible to simply move Emmet from Tauruk to the new student. Although, such a thing seldom happened at the school, and there would likely be some complicated paperwork. Hopefully, the bureaucracy wouldn’t get in the way again.

However, Emmet quietly raised his objections to this method. Although he wouldn’t be entirely opposed to the plan if worst came to worst, he would still like to avoid that option if at all possible. Even though Tauruk wasn’t necessarily favorable, he felt a certain responsibility to Torhah, Tauruk’s father. Finding another student and abandoning Tauruk - would it look good to just desert Tauruk like that? It certainly didn’t leave a good feeling inside Emmet’s heart. Torhah was the reason he was even able to come here in the first place, after all.

Weighing all the options, Emmet was convinced that the best method of action was to stack their bets on aiding Tauruk as much as possible and help him climb the rankings. After all, it wasn’t like Tauruk was ever actively terrible to him, just distant and cold. Further, he wasn’t too below the halfway mark in the rankings - hopefully, it wouldn’t take too much to push him over the top.

Thus, throughout the second semester so far, Maisy had tried numerous discrete ways to boost Tauruk’s learning process, even scheduling appointments with his professors and employer and asking them to help him out (upon speaking with Maisy, all had immediately acquiesced). Yet, even with the extra help, it seemed Tauruk was still struggling. According to Maisy’s investigation, the boy actually didn’t have too much a problem with the written material, but consistently struggled with the constructions. Since the art of formations construction was a physically learned art, one full of rich experience, she eventually figured that he would most strongly benefit from specialized tutoring.

The was when Emmet stepped in. Although Maisy was willing to personally tutor Tauruk herself, Emmet felt that he should give it a try first. Tauruk was his student, after all - since it was for Emmet’s own benefit, he felt it should be him who should be responsible, especially since Maisy had already done so much. Despite her proclamation that he didn’t have to worry about anything and just focus on his studies, Emmet realized that he couldn’t always rely on Maisy for everything, and at a certain point, had to solve his own problems. It was probably better to start now.

Although, that was harder said than done. How could the prideful Tauruk bear to receive help from his own squire? It wasn’t like Emmet could just go up to him and offer him his services. In fact, he had actually attempted to do a similar thing multiple times in the past months, with no effect.

Thus, Maisy thought of a solution. She quickly got in contact with a tutoring agency on campus, called ‘Koriander Basics.’ She knew its founder, so the process was smooth. They set up an agreement - the agency would find a way to get Tauruk into their services, and then, when Tauruk came in to get tutored, they would station Emmet inside as the new tutor. This way, they could somewhat organically set up a meeting for the two boys to talk on even ground.

Hopefully, by then, Tauruk would see that Emmet really was qualified to help him, and then maybe he would be receptive to his aid. In Emmet’s eyes, this method was the best, as it challenged Tauruk’s fragile pride the least, and also had the possibility of improving their relations. If Emmet could pose as just one of regular tutors of the agency, Tauruk wouldn’t have as many suspicions that he was in some way patronizing him.

Although Emmet was at first still a bit nervous about his qualifications to assume this tutoring role, as he had never really officially tutored anyone before, Maisy quickly reassured him. After witnessing him mentor a whole dozen first year employees at her debugging service, she was more than confident that he not only had the technical qualifications required, but the teaching chops to do so. Just to be safe, Emmet got oriented a week early, entering the agency and meeting everyone there, and then doing a short tutoring session every day up until when Tauruk would arrive. He didn’t really have a structure to his lessons and just emulated what he did for the first years as Maisy Debugging Depot, answering students’ confused questions, but so far, it had gone well, each student seeming to gain a lot from what he had to say.

And thus, Emmet now sat at the table inside the small tutoring room, a notebook and some tools lying in front of him. He eyed the door a bit nervously. How would Tauruk react to seeing him?

Shf… The door slid open.

A slightly overweight, haggard-looking teenager stepped into the room. His face peered in, and then rested on Emmet. Immediately, his eyes widened.

“...Emmet…?”

“Hey, Tauruk!” Emmet tried to say as enthusiastically as possible. “Welcome to Koriander Basics. They told me I’m your tutor for today.”

“...” Tauruk stared at Emmet like he was staring at a ghost.

“Would you like to take a seat?” Emmet asked, gesturing toward the chair next to him.

“What’s going on?” Tauruk finally asked, gripping the door’s handle tightly. “What are you doing here?” His voice trembled, as if he was on the verge of losing it.

“Ah, um… I’m actually a tutor here…” Emmet explained. “I’m pretty experienced on all the topics you said you were struggling with, so they assigned me…”

Chk… Tauruk didn’t say another word, stepping away and closing the door behind him.

Emmet could only sigh.

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

“Receptionist!” Tauruk strode up to the front desk once again, this time a bit of urgency in his voice.

“Hm?” The receptionist looked up and made a curious face. “Is there a problem?”

“Where’s my tutor?” Tauruk asked. “You said he would be there, but I only see… someone else... there.”

“Hm?” The receptionist formed a confused face. She looked down and leafed through her booklet again. “He’s not there? It should be… let’s see, it’s Emmet who is your tutor for today… was he not in the room?”

Tauruk stilled, his face turning white.

“You know, you lucked out,” the receptionist looked up and smiled. “That guy is amazing. He works at Maisy’s Debugging Depot, and apparently, he has a nickname there as… what was it, yes, the ‘madman.’ Supposedly, he’s great about mentoring the first years at that service too. We’re lucky he’s taken his talents here!”

“...madman…?” Tauruk’s face froze like a still toy. Holding onto the receptionist desk, he wobbled a bit dizzily, almost seeming like he would lose his balance. “You said… the madman?”

“Oh, so you’ve heard of him!” The receptionist seemed to interpret Tauruk’s shock as amazement. “Yeah, it’s true, that guy is really incredible. Apparently, he’s really close with Maisy Harbinger herself. Maybe that’s where he got his insane skills.”

At that moment, the receptionist on the other side of the desk had overheard them and turned toward them: “Oh, Emmet, the ‘madman’! Yeah, that guy is awesome, I was super excited to meet him in person. He was super nice and even agreed to debug my level two warding formation for a discount price! Sure enough, it was quickly returned, even better and faster than before!”

“...”

Staring at the receptionists with whirling eyes, Tauruk’s mind was completely blank. He really didn’t know what to think.

What the hell was going on?!

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

Two hours later, Tauruk staggered out of the Koriander Basics building, his eyes hazy and his face completely stunned.

In two hours, his world had been turned upside down.

Never in a million years would he have thought that Emmet, a mere squire, could be so skilled, so knowledgeable - throughout this session, his preconceived notions had been challenged again and again. Tauruk still remembered that scene from the very first day of classes - Emmet had arrived late to first lecture, receiving the ridicule of the entire class, and embarrassingly failing to answer a teacher’s basic level question. What happened to that? All along, had he just been hiding his knowledge?

As his mind swirled, Tauruk found he truly did not know. It looked like after all, his dad had been completely right. This boy really was something special.

After receiving that mind-shocking revelation from the receptionist, Tauruk had at first spent some time sitting in the lobby, just thinking. For the first time, he had pondered on his view of Emmet. Was it possible… that his interpretation had been completely wrong? He had known that this boy had a job as a debugger, but just assumed that was some kind of manual trial and error thing, the kind of thing even a squire could do. To work for Maisy Debugging Depot, and be the ‘madman’ himself, someone even he had respected… how could not be unbelievable?

Even then, he didn’t know if he fully believed it. However, it seemed to be the truth. He had even asked several other passerbys if they knew about Emmet, and a few of them reaffirmed his reputation as the ‘madman.’ If this was a conspiracy, it was an extensive one.

After making up his mind, he had steadied himself and slowly dragged his feet back to the tutoring room. They could at least talk, and figure out what was going on. After all, he had paid for this tutoring session. If he walked out now, what would it all be for? He didn’t expect Emmet to teach him anything. But maybe if he at least begrudgingly gave it a try…?

That turned out to be the correct decision. Although, in the beginning of the lesson, Tauruk was at first stone-faced and reluctant, and the atmosphere turned undeniably awkward, he immediately realized that Emmet was the real deal. Within minutes, he began engaging seriously with Emmet, asking him difficult questions, and one after another, they were easily explained. By the end, Tauruk could only sit numb in dumb shock at the gap between them.

Over his entire educational experience, he had no recollection of ever hearing such clean cut and easily understandable explanations, and of such complex concepts! It was like Emmet’s words were magic. Tauruk would lay out something that he didn’t understand (no matter how much he asked teachers or read textbooks), and Emmet would just say a few short simple phrases, and then suddenly, everything would just make sense. All along, it turned out the concepts had been intuitive; they had just been surrounded by sheaves of complex language and roundabout explanation. An entire set of lectures from one of his professors had been elucidated to him from just fifteen minutes of explanation from Emmet.

Throughout the entire session, Emmet was incredibly patient, seeming to hold no grudge at all with Tauruk. With his steady and practiced cadence, it was clear he was used to doing this kind of thing, likely from other tutoring and mentoring underclassmen at his debugging job. But still, Tauruk was grateful for his calm attitude. After how he had treated Emmet over the past year and a half, he wouldn’t have been surprised if Emmet had some negative feelings.

After going over material from his classes, Tauruk soon got to the meat of his problem: he pulled out his two unfinished constructions and showed them to Emmet, hoping he could receive some help. Those two constructions were the two weekly constructions he had to do for his classes, and like always, he was stuck. He was planning to use a Maisy Debugging Depot coupon to fix one of them, but had figured that he should probably first go to the tutoring session to try to get his misunderstandings solved.

As soon as the constructions entered his eyes, it was like Emmet had entered another mode. His eyes had lit up, and he had immediately brought them over and examined them. A mere two minutes later, he had detected the problem in both. After explaining the error in Tauruk’s construction (the order of circuitry was flopped), he took eight more minutes more to debug the first one, his hands moving like a series of quick flashes. The second one, he left to Tauruk to fix, and gave some tricks of the trade for efficient and quick debugging.

At that moment, Tauruk finally knew. It was all true. Emmet was the ‘madman.’ Only a madman could debug a formation in less than ten minutes - that was an absolutely insane pace!

At the time, his jaw had hung low. A mere squire was actually the famed ‘madman’ of Maisy Debugging Depot. If others knew...

Now, two hours later, as he dazedly walked out from the tutoring agency building toward where he had parked his hoverboard, a moment of realization hit him. If Emmet was the ‘madman’... then that meant he likely really was close to Maisy Harbinger. If that was true… then all the strange things made sense. The coupons, the strange kindness of his professors, his bonus from his employer… it all fit together like a puzzle. They had occurred because of Maisy’s influence - Emmet had been silently helping him from behind the scenes the entire time. Likely, this entire tutoring session had been set up so that they could meet head to head and help him. Because of Tauruk’s stubbornness, he had to resort to something like this.

He stopped in his step, and his stomach lurched unexpectedly. He suddenly felt an enormous feeling of shame overwhelm him.

How stupid was he? Thinking about it now, he recalled countless scenes where he had nonchalantly ignored Emmet over the past year and a half, as if he wasn’t even worth looking at. After all, the boy was originally just a simple farmer. It was only because of Torhah, his nosy father, that he was here.

But now, Tauruk could see the overall context. It was him who had been the idiot the entire time. His stupid pride had blocked the truth.

Emmet, his squire, was completely superior. And he wasn’t ashamed to admit that.