Maisy’s rollercoaster ride was a big hit.

Well… not to students. Although the busy scholars of Gemini Academy all became aware of the humongous structure that had appeared on campus (having read the announcements of its grand opening posted everywhere), they didn’t rush to go ride the ride. It was 25 points each time, were they crazy? How could they sacrifice their precious points like that, just to go for a brief joyride on such a structure?

The whole thing was frankly ridiculous. Each and every student on campus was incredibly busy to the point of losing all of their sleep and even their sanity. Every week, it was like another arduous journey that they had to struggle to complete, leaving them no time or mental capacity for anything else. Thus, after witnessing the scale of Maisy’s Mega Marvel for the first time, they were all completely flabbergasted. No one could imagine how a student attending the school like them could possibly have the leisure time to build such a huge and unnecessary structure. Was the school such a joke for them? They were too bored, they needed to find something better to do?

Knowing that it was Maisy Harbinger who had built it, however, many came to an understanding. Out of all students, they supposed she had the funds, time, and genius to make such a thing happen. Although, they couldn’t help but still be completely and utterly dumbfounded. The gap was just too large.

Outside of the student population, however, it was a complete different story.

From the day of opening, hordes and hordes of city people flocked toward the new attraction. Technically, the campus was open to the public, so anyone could walk in and tour, and the visitors took full advantage - after exchanging their real money for on-campus points, they could freely purchase anything on campus. Thus, after hearing that the famous Maisy Harbinger was opening up a new rollercoaster attraction within the Gemini Academy, many rushed to try it out, including a large demographic of wealthy lords who didn’t have much better to do. Quickly, it became trendy to take their kids to the attraction and make a day out of it.

The reception to the ride turned out amazing. Visitor after visitor who came out to the ride loved it, many riding multiple times consecutively. Good reviews flooded out throughout noble circles, causing local publications to glow with positive words about the new attraction - as expected of Maisy Harbinger, her eccentricity was just as rumored! Around the area in campus, loud collective screams could be heard constantly crying out from the distance, annoying students. What was this? Was this still a school or an amusement park?

Around the base of the rollercoaster, a market economy suddenly began to develop. To take advantage of the crowd of people that would form every day, a few initial opportunistic students first started food stand and restaurant businesses around the walking area, each agreeing to pay a small tax to lease the space from Maisy. After that came some other recreational activity stands and souvenir stores, and eventually, a sizeable ‘village’ had formed around the originally grassy plain area. Becoming known as “Maisytown,” this village in of itself began to attract some tourists.

After receiving some noise complaints from annoyed students studying nearby the attraction, including some employees from the Maisy Debugging Depot, Maisy quickly installed a large sound-dampening formation array surrounding the entire area, which pretty much silenced the clamor. Still, everyone noticed a drastic increase in pedestrian traffic around the campus, and when seeing the new surge of sightseers, couldn’t help but shake their heads. This Maisy sure was scary - her empire was expanding!

As for Emmet, he continued to visit Koriander Basics for two hours every week to tutor Tauruk. Shockingly, after the first week, Tauruk seemed to have had a change in personality, diligently listening to Emmet’s explanations and thanking him at the end of every lesson. Thus, all the lessons were productive, and they made quick progress. Seeing how smooth the breakthroughs were, to cover material even faster, Emmet began assigning Tauruk a few pages of homework each time. Each week, Tauruk would complete these assignments without complaint, not afraid to ask Emmet questions when he was confused about something. Before they knew it, the two became much more comfortable around each other, conversing with each other normally.

The biggest change in their relationship, however, happened the fourth week. That day, Tauruk had walked in, bowed, and solemnly apologized for his previous behavior. Surprised, Emmet immediately felt that such a gesture was unnecessary, but quickly accepted it. He couldn’t help but be glad. He had hoped their relations could improve, and it looked like that was finally happening.

After that, it was like a barrier broke, and there was a drastic change in Tauruk’s attitude. Whenever he saw Emmet, he would smile and say hi, even coming over and chatting with him for a bit. The fifth week, he invited him for a casual meal, just between two friends, and through that, they were able to further mend their relationship. This change of conduct raised some eyebrows among the other boys in 427 - Tauruk would actively greet Emmet whenever he saw him, and when that happened inside their dorm, the other boys could only be stunned.

Along with this change, Tauruk suddenly became much more diligent in his studies, his productivity and work ethic rising to new heights. Maybe it was the power of shame, maybe it was the stress of the incoming end of year assessment, or maybe it was because he was grateful for the new help. But above all, it was probably because he was finally making headway in his classes. With the assistance of Emmet, it was like he could finally properly learn the material of his classes. He hadn’t felt such a feeling of bliss in a long time.

After Tauruk’s month-long tutoring package ran out, the two continued to have sessions independently, often right in their dorm study rooms for convenience. In reality, Tauruk wasn’t too bad at the concepts - he could even be considered talented, even within the context of this crazy school. However, at the core, he found physically constructing the formations difficult, and would spend hours just trying to figure them out. With Emmet, a constructions and debugging expert, assisting him, these roadblocks were cleared one by one.

There were dividends to this intense learning process. Within a few weeks, Tauruk’s grades had skyrocketed. The most recent two exams, he had received an A and an A-, respectively. Most importantly, Tauruk’s constructions had quickly improved in quality, at this point netting more high-B and A-range scores than anything else. Because of this sudden change, his status among his professors instantly rose, and along with it, Tauruk’s overall mood began to improve. Now that his time was spent more efficiently, he found more time to sleep, and gradually became more fit and energetic. Quickly, he began to lose his excess weight and finally shaved off his weird spotty stubble.

Within the second month of these sessions, Emmet was satisfied enough with Tauruk’s understanding of the current concepts to move on to introducing some new material not covered within any of his courses. The end of year assessment at the end of the second year would be even more difficult than the first year’s, and would cover a wider array of basic topics, so it was better to be over prepared than not. Knowing that the assessment was quickly coming, Tauruk smartly shut his mouth, buckled down, and became even more focused in his studies. It wasn’t only his reputation on the line, but Emmet’s livelihood too. After all that Emmet was doing for him, he couldn’t fail him!

As for Emmet himself, in this time, aside from tutoring Tauruk, his usual schedule continued pretty much as normal. Aside from continuing to debug more advanced formations, reading through more advanced textbooks, and taking on more and more complicated tasks, he found he had begun to spend more time with Maisy. The two would often chat together during breaks at work, and even spend some time together on weekends.

The last month of the year began.

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Once again, as the year approached its close, and the end of year assessment loomed near, students began to become increasingly stressed, desperately studying to keep up with everyone else. The weather got colder, and thus, less people came to Maisy’s rollercoaster ride, so the campus also got quieter.

Inside Maisy’s Debugging Depot, a large group of anxious first years surrounded Emmet, waiting to approach Emmet with their confusions. Over the months, Emmet had been an invaluable resource for them, kindly giving them explanations for concepts they were struggling with. Winning a reputation as a great teacher, as the year went on, he had only become more and more popular, and every break, there would be a growing queue of students patiently lining up to ask for some assistance.

Today was no exception. Despite work having already ended, a group of students still automatically gathered around to catch Emmet on the way out. Each student was stressed. In merely a month, they would undergo their very first end of year assessment. Were they ready? Would they do alright? They all automatically came to Emmet with their worries.

“Alright, alright sheesh!” Maisy came over and swept her hand around playfully. “He's already off work, you damn leeches! You can ask him whatever you want later.”

Peering toward Maisy, the first years all let out reluctant laughs. However, they still obediently backed off, thanking Emmet and packing their own stuff to leave. They could ask their questions tomorrow, they supposed. Emmet was always willing to help.

“Maisy,” Emmet turned and laughed. “There wasn’t a need for that. I have time today.”

Maisy only smiled laughingly. “Emmet, what do you think about taking a ride out tonight? Just you and me.”

“Hm…?” Emmet was surprised for a brief moment, but quickly, his eyes brightened, and he immediately acquiesced. “That’d be nice!”

“Great!” Maisy reached over to pat Emmet’s head, which was now up past her shoulders - this past year, he had grown another three inches. “Come with me.”