Chapter 66 - To Be Special

"So you're saying that there are particles smaller than an atom? That doesn't make sense. I thought the atom was the smallest possible division of matter," Markus commented.

"You are right. Atom is the smallest division of 'matter'. The particles that make up the atom, or subatomic particles, give the atom its specific properties. They don't have any material properties if that makes any sense. They are usually defined by their quantum states, which is a probabilistic measurement as we cannot know for sure what their state will be at any given time," Guy clarified.

Markus furrowed his brows and pondered on the revelation. "I just can't get my head around it. I was already finding it difficult to imagine what an atom would look like, and now you're saying that there's something even smaller than that?"

Guy shrugged his shoulders and replied, "I can feel your frustration. Much of what exists around us is just the way it is. To comprehend them, we must shift our thought paradigm to accommodate it."

"I guess so..."

Guy sighed and concluded, "Why don't you spend some more time on it. Read through that workbook I gave you last time once again. Maybe that might lead to a breakthrough."

Markus nodded and returned to his room. Guy had set up an open-air classroom near the orphanage to conduct his future lessons for both Markus and for the kids he'd have to teach from the village.

'You know, it would really help if I had access to those high school level textbooks and beyond. I've nearly run out of material, and there is only so much I can teach him from the top of my head.'

(I can't help it. When I programmed the RoK, I hardcoded those restrictions. Unless you can rustle 4 more students, that section will remain locked.)

'But I got more than 10 students just from accepting this teaching job! Why wasn't that recognised?'

(They're recognising you through necessity. It is not a genuine acknowledgement.)

'How can you even tell them apart? I thought you world builders couldn't compute such complex emotions.'

(Well, I have a massive population to cross-reference from back in my world.)

While Guy continued his conversation with Mast, Kano walked out from behind the corner of the wall he was peeking off of and approached the chalkboard cautiously.

"A-A-tm, no! At-, ha! Parlit- parti- no... hmm," The boy strained his eyes and tried to make out the words written on the board while reading it out in a hushed tone. He hid so that he could easily occlude himself from Guy's vision, however, as a mage, it wasn't so easy for Guy to miss such an obvious source of sound.

Guy was drawn out from his internal conversation the moment he heard the boy's attempts. He didn't want to interrupt the boy and cause him to feel self-conscious, and so Guy maintained his silence and avoided drawing any attention.

"Suda- subal- subalomic. That doesn't make any sense..." The boy plummeted onto his buttocks and covered his face with his palms in defeat.

"Subatomic," Guy interjected.

"Huh? Ah!" The boy tried to stand up and make a getaway, however, he slipped and fell back on his buttocks.

"So-Sorry. I d-d-didn't mean to d-d-disturb you," Kano said apologetically.

Guy waved his hands, "Don't worry about it. Why don't you try reading from a little closer? Maybe that might help?"

The boy lowered his head shyly and complied. He walked up to the chalkboard and tried to read its contents once again. Unfortunately, he couldn't fare any better even after bridging the distance.

"I c-c-can't do it!" The boy blurted in defeat.

"Is it that you don't know how to read? Or that you're finding it difficult to read?" Guy inquired in a flat tone.

Kano stared at Guy blankly. Somehow, to him, those questions managed to dig into the root of his problems. Kano knew that he wasn't illiterate. He had been learning with his sister for over a year now. Yet, even though his sister had managed to grasp the concepts and build upon them, he was still stuck where they started.

"It's difficult," Kano answered.

"Hmm, are the letters moving around or dancing in your eyes?" Guy added with a smile, to which the boy nodded.

Guy scratched his chin lightly and furrowed his brows. "I want to try a few tests. Are you busy, Kano?"

Kano shook his head in response. Guy pulled Kano towards a desk and chair and had him sit. Kano followed Guy's instructions and prepared himself for the 'tests' Guy was about to send his way. Surprisingly, these 'tests' turned out to be a series of games that Kano had never seen before.

It was fun in the beginning, but Kano quickly found it hard to keep up and began losing. He started feeling dejected, but Guy kept encouraging him and pushed him to move forward. Kano's first test was to match a set of cards with words written on them with cards that had pictures of the objects the words referred to. He managed to connect one or two, but he couldn't decipher the rest.

In the next test, Kano was blindfolded and placed in an empty area. Guy would shout out instructions that Kano had to follow to navigate in the field, such as "move two steps to the right", or "walk back by five steps".

There were other games like this, such as writing down dictated words or reading short sentences within a time limit and rewriting it without looking.

Kano quickly found himself feeling more and more inadequate with each passing test. Guy was observant of this and always maintained a jovial and encouraging attitude. His intention wasn't to discourage Kano, rather he was trying to confirm his initial diagnosis, that Kano was dyslexic.

Guy had a lot of experience with this learning disability because it wasn't uncommon back on Earth. Quite a handful of kids he'd worked with suffered from this disability and were often victims of excessive bullying. Through the years, Guy had become more perceptive in noticing the details and hints that pointed towards such disabilities and made it a point to rehabilitate these children as soon as possible. The moment Guy noticed Kano struggling to read, his mental radars quickly resounded with Kano's possible bout with dyslexia. In fact, he'd also gleaned some information from the elderly tutor about all the kids he would have under him, and he made a special note to pursue this hypothesis as soon as possible. It was just convenient that he managed to catch Kano so swiftly.

Kano sighed in defeat and sunk into the chair, "S-s-stupid..."

Guy unleashed a warm smile and started, "Kano, I want to undertake a large project, and was hoping you could help me out?"

Kano tilted his head and asked, "Why me?"

"Actually, it's something only you can do."

Kano's eyes sparkled with curiosity; he nodded enthusiastically.

"Wonderful! Quick, go and get Markus. We might need his assistance to get started!" Guy instructed eagerly and nudged Kano along.

As he saw the little boy running away, Guy walked towards the orphanage's storage room and retrieved multiple woven baskets. He then went down the steps into the village and borrowed a few shovels. When he returned to the orphanage, he saw Markus waiting with an anxious Kano.

"Are you guys ready?" Guy asked the two kids.

"What are we going to do, Master?"

Guy picked up the baskets and handed them to Markus. "We're going to shovel for clay!"

____

The trio worked tirelessly until sunset and shovelled muddy clay from the banks of the spring near the mountain. Kano and Guy would shovel the mud and fill up the baskets, while Markus acted as the mule that shuttled from the spring to the orphanage to deposit the harvested mud. The poor boy was pained all over by the time they finished their work.

Once they finished, Guy took the two kids a little ways upstream to take a bath and cleanse themselves after a day of hard work. On the way back, he carried the fatigued Kano on his back and let the boy fall asleep.

"Why were we collecting so much clay, Master?" Markus asked while massaging his back.

"It's for your little brother. I'm going to be teaching him," Guy answered.

Markus raised his eyebrows in appreciation, yet added with hesitation, "I fear it might be difficult. The tutor from the village told me about Kano's problem..."

Guy ruffled Markus' hair and chimed in, "Your brother isn't stupid if that's what you're thinking. He's different, he's special! Everyone has their strengths and weaknesses. If you judge him with the same criteria that are used to measure everyone else, of course, you'll find that Kano falls short. He may be weak when it comes to things that everyone finds trivial, but have you ever measured the extent of his strengths. I promise you that Kano will leave everyone else in the dust when it comes to that!"

Markus nodded with a serious expression and followed along. When they reached the orphanage, Guy carefully lifted Kano and handed him to Markus, and then left to his own bedroom.

After he arrived, Guy took off his clothes to prepare to go to bed. When he disrobed his outerwear, though, Guy noticed a large water stain marring the upper-back and shoulder region.

"Seems that he wasn't completely asleep," Guy commented with a smile and left the cloth out to dry.