The ENPC had placed him in a technical school in Sfax, a city of suns and industrious ports. He took the assignment like one accepts a map: with curiosity and careful respect. The "perso" element had done its quiet work. It had shown him, and perhaps the selectors, that he could adapt—to new rooms, new people, new responsibilities. It also became his compass: he learned to let the persistent kindness in his choices be visible, to speak up in lab groups, to listen when others fought to be heard.