Maisy was right. Managing a business was a lot of work, especially a business the size of Maisy’s Debugging Depot.

In the next month, Maisy painstakingly walked Emmet through the intricacies of managing the business. This included managing profits, hiring and training employees, calculating and transferring wages, taking care of leasing issues, and registering the service in various job listings. Really, it was endless - throughout the training period, Maisy would often just go on and on in her explanations. Although Emmet was quick to pick it up, it was all no doubt time-consuming - in this month, as Emmet shadowed Maisy, he found that his time became pretty limited, and he was forced him to take on fewer tasks and spend some less time on his studies.

However, even so, Emmet was more content than ever. Above all, being able to spend multiple hours a day with Maisy was a true blessing. When he thought about it, he realized that this would likely be the last time in a long while that he would be able see her regularly (or possibly at all), so he made sure to savor every moment. Further, although the responsibilities of Maisy’s businesses were no doubt great, the benefits obviously outweighed the negatives.

As for Maisy’s rollercoaster ride, it temporarily closed down for the winter. As soon as it had gotten cold, and the first snow falls dotted the landscape, business had come to a standstill. However, since it had turned out to be so lucrative, Maisy recommended that Emmet reopen it in the spring. To make sure Emmet could handle it, Maisy periodically taught Emmet the various things she had learned about managing it in the past months - namely how to run the ride, do maintenance, pay fees, pass inspection, and collect taxes on the ‘village.’ Although Maisy had no way of showing Emmet directly, she trusted him to be able to pick it up where she left off.

In this time, Emmet also continued tutoring Tauruk, even increasing the number of sessions from once to twice or three times a week. As the year rushed to a close, both boys felt some pressure, and so the lessons increased in intensity and pace, causing Tauruk to struggle a bit to keep up. However, since Tauruk had since transitioned into a receptive and diligent student, they were able to overcome the hurdles.

Before Emmet knew it, the month had passed, and the end of year assessment arrived.

The last week before the assessment, Emmet dropped some of his other activities and dedicated a large portion of his time to Tauruk, patiently working with him to make sure he had all his bases covered. At this point, Emmet had not only given him lectures in every basic subject, but had made sure he knew the theory and could construct from scratch all of the basic formation types.

The last day before the end of year assessment, the two spent the entire day together, reviewing the entire cumulative material comprehensively. In this way, they could ascertain Tauruk would be able to pass the assessment, no matter what came up. Unexpectedly, perhaps it was the high stakes, or the common impending challenge, but this high-pressure situation served to create a bond between them, and the more time they spent with each other, the more they became comfortable in each others’ presence. By this point, the two unknowingly had become friends. If Tauruk really pulled it off and managed to pass past the cut, the two agreed to once again room with each other the following year.

Tauruk would often feel that the whole situation was mind-boggling. Just the previous year, he remembered becoming stressed out of his mind just before the assessment. Yet this year, even though the stakes were higher, with Emmet to talk to, he now felt much more at ease. Most of all, he just felt pressured to do well so he could carry Emmet onward to another two years.

The morning of the assessment came, and Emmet got up early with Tauruk to send him off. The two stood outside the door and exchanged some last words.

“Good luck, I know you’ll do well,” Emmet reassured.

“Ahhh….” Tauruk seemed a bit stressed, bringing his hands up and tugging at his hair. “Are you sure? I still feel like I don’t completely understand barrier formation theory… and that stuff about multilevel warding formations…”

“You’ll be fine,” Emmet laughed, placing his hand on Tauruk’s shoulder. “Don’t worry. With your current knowledge and skills, there’s no way you’re not at least within the top half.”

“Hah…” Letting out a short sigh, Tauruk seemed to be somewhat convinced. He glanced toward the clock formation on the wall. “I should probably go now. But Emmet...” he met eyes with his squire. “Thank you. For everything. Really.”

“Of course!” Emmet smiled.

The two shared a meaningful glance, and then Tauruk headed out.

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

A week and a half later.

Within a loud overcrowded fountain square, three teenage boys stood at a large ranking boards, tracing their fingers along the list and looking for their places. Their names were Fontezul, Torkam, and Ralun, and they were three of the students living in dorm 3C room 427.

“Ah... “ Ralun’s shoulders dropped. “2650th. I didn’t make it.”

“Me too,” Torkam’s face also slumped. “2987th.”

They both turned toward the third boy, Fontezul, who didn’t seem to be too happy either. “What about you, Fontezul?”

“Passed… just barely... 1898th,” Fontezul sighed lightly. “Worse than last year.”

“Hey, better than us,” the two other boys reassured, coming over to pat his back. “Congratulations, you made it!”

“Thanks…” Fontezul seemed to be a bit cheered up, but still, as he glanced toward his two friends, a trace of melancholy could be seen in his eyes. “But you guys… you all won’t be here next year then... It’ll just be me, huh?” He paused. “Oh… and Tauruk, did he make it? Where is that guy?”

“Tauruk… He left before us, with his squire,” the two other boys glanced toward each other. “He shouldn’t have left yet.”

The three exchanged some more weird glances, clearly a little uncomfortable with the topic. In the past few months, Tauruk had gradually become distant from the group. Often, he could be seen chatting humorously with his previously ignored squire, or hard at work studying even when there was downtime. The three had chalked the strange behavior up to pressure from the end of year assessment, but by now, they could clearly tell it was something more.

“Yes! We made it!” - a familiar two voices reached their ears.

The three boys looked over, spotting two familiar figures - Tauruk and his squire, Emmet. They were staring toward a spot on the board a distance away from them, jumping up and down and cheering together. Clearly, from their reaction, something good had happened.

“Tauruk, you passed?” The three walked over curiouslly and asked.

Tauruk looked over, and seeing the three boys, smiled broadly. “Hey boys! Yeah, I passed, haha.”

The three boys raised their eyebrows in a bit of surprise, bringing their gaze toward the board and locating Tauruk’s name. Quickly, they were astonished. “1387th…?”

They stared back at Tauruk and suddenly noticed that he looked a lot healthier now. His jutting gut was gone, and his skin seemed to have cleared up. Not only that, he was standing up a bit straighter. And it showed, in his ranking - 1387th place… that was more than a thousand places up from the previous year! What had happened, to allow him to improve so much?

“How’d you guys do?” Tauruk quickly changed the subject, casually patting his hand over Emmet’s shoulder and bringing him into the circle.

Although the three felt a bit strange with Tauruk’s squire standing there, they smartly ignored it and once again glanced toward each other with dejected looks. “Fontezul passed, but the rest of us didn’t...”

“Oh…” Tauruk’s voice lowered. “...then our group…”

“Yeah…” All four of the boys quieted down in a newly depressed mood. “It’s over after this year.”

A moment of depressed silence followed.

“Then… Why don’t we have a final party?” Tauruk finally suggested. “A final hurrah of the boys of 427.”

“Hey… I like the sound of that!” Fontezul slowly looked up, his eyes brightening.

“Same! Let’s do it!” The two other boys echoed immediately, their forlorn expressions reverting into excited ones.

“Great!” Tauruk smiled broadly. He casually patted Emmet’s shoulder. “You don’t mind if Emmet comes too, right?”

“...Emmet?” The three other boys glanced toward Emmet with blank expressions. “Your squire?”

“Yeah,” Tauruk nodded, gesturing toward Ralun. “Ralun, bring Jiro too. This’ll be the last time we’re together, so we should go all out.”

“...ah… alright,” Ralun nodded slowly.

“How about this time, we do something fancy?” Tauruk become enthusiastic. “Karaoke night at the Lordin! We’ve always wanted to do it, but never had the points.”

“Ah…” The three other boys looked hesitant. “I mean, that sounds nice, but I still don’t think we have the points…”

“I’ll cover it,” Emmet’s juvenile voice rang out.

“Huh?” The three other boys were startled, staring toward Emmet in surprise.

“I have a lot of points saved up,” Emmet explained, finding it kind of weird to finally be talking with these three boys. “I’m a squire, so I don’t have to spend much.”

“You wouldn’t mind…?” Fontezul’s eyes wandered over toward Emmet curiously. Over the past year, he had only ever seen the boy around, and never actually had a real conversation with him, so this was a first.

“Yeah, no problem!” Emmet smiled easily. “It’s for the boys of 427, right? Let’s end it with a bang.”