"...Mandarin, French? I can speak English not well," he says in response, his accent thick.

Oh! That's surprising. Why is his English not so good? French, so is he from a French-speaking country? This is exactly what Tomonori had in mind. He switches to Mandarin.

"I speak Mandarin, but not French. Mandarin, Cantonese, Japanese, and English- and Classical Chinese, you need it for the exams. What do you speak?"

"French, Mandarin, Malay, and I have the English you heard and about as much Tamil. I do not tend to count my Classical Chinese since it is so common here but perhaps I should. I am from Singapore - those are its languages, except the French which I have from my parents."

"That's exciting. Do you think you could tutor me in French in exchange for English? I'm trying to follow every track."

"Every track? I would ordinarily be happy to tutor you in French but I have an English tutor already. He may die midway through the term, though, he seems that way, in which case it would be good to have a point of contact - hmm. Perhaps you could give me an advance payment for tutoring, which I could return if my tutor predeceases you?"

"Oh. I can artifice, I can alchemize, and I can write spells. What kind do you need?"

"Hmm... if you can write spells I may be interested in getting something from you separately, but that seems difficult to return in case of forfeiture. Artifice seems simplest - something I do not really need but that would help - can you make a washcloth that cleans and repairs itself? I must clean my gun every night, and even an efficient laundry spell adds up."

"My affinity is divination, specifically identifying and detecting. I don't have anything for self-cleaning laundry, but I do have a spell that will clean almost anything that fits within a cubic foot of space."

"Mm. The cleaning is not about the gun being clean, it is about the gun knowing that I love it. Divination... perhaps a magnifying glass, to see what needs to be repaired?"

"I could do that! Identifying problems is easy. So I give you the magnifying glass, and then you'll tutor me in French?"

"Yes. I have not tutored anyone in languages before, but I know French very well and if I turn out to be terrible at it then you can have your magnifying glass back."

Nod!

”Can I ask how your parents came to be in Singapore?

If that’s not rude.”

"They thought it would be better to have their child test for a seat as they do in Asia than to carry luggage for a seat as they do in Europe. So they moved. And they chose Singapore because it has so many languages."

"That is smart. It is good to come in having proven yourself, even if some people will still doubt you. You're very small but you seem wise."

"I very much enjoy pretending to be wise! And it is not such a bad thing to be very small. I was able to carry in a significant amount of tools, which is valuable for when I have maintenance shifts. And for disassembling the stupid dresser in my room."

"Oh, it's very good. I'm smaller than most. Not smaller than you."

Obviously. Tintin is very small. Tomonori wonders if he's just done growing or if he is having a very convenient puberty.

"Why do you think they have dressers? Did the original design have them and they didn't think about how stupid it was?"

"I really do not know. It seems like maybe a test of our preparation, but I am hesitant to assign that kind of motive to the school. Perhaps it just got overlooked in the last round of enhancements because the survivors fixed theirs in the first week and did not remember by graduation."

"Oh. That makes sense. People don't remember anything. I don't know how wizards learn so many languages but don't remember anything else. At least they build towers."