Louis

Imaru Academy, the school for nobles, was a fifteen minute gondola ride from the Allyn Mansion. It was between the commercial and water districts, the first where the middle and high class shops sold the goods and the latter was were water parks, lakes and other water related activities would be.

The gondola was not big enough to carry all ten children, their baggage and their personal maids, so the group was divided into three: Jack, Calvin, Cecilia and Tina; Shea, Carla, and Nia; Louis, Amelia and Amber.

Amber rolled up the blinds as she stood to look out of the window. She stared at the canal, the water refracting the morning light, creating a glistening yet blinding. She was quiet and focused, much like when she was reading, so Louis did not disturb her, only watching her silently, not wanting to ruin the moment. Amelia laid her head on his knees and had already fallen asleep.

Louis grabbed the clay orb in his pocket and began to meditate. The clay orb looked like the standard issue orb that every noble child got at the naming ceremony, but this clay orb had been modified with the Soul Strengthening Array, a six star array that had replaced the original three star array within it. However, unlike the versions he gave his siblings and Amber, his had no container array, allowing the elements within it to rampage as he cultivate, unlike the movies that the other orbs would create. Although the effects had diminished since he first started using it, Louis could still use it until he reached the third realm, then it would become useless for him.

Once he put his qi into the orb, it felt like his soul and consciousness was sucked into the orb. Louis immediately fell into an ocean, head first, plunging into its depths within moments. This much, he was used to, so he immediately started swimming up to the surface, for air. But as he tried to do so, a wall of water pushed into deeper before swirling him up through the surface. Unlike the water, which would become a wave and continue to build momentum, Louis flew up into the air, but the sky was no safe haven for him. Gusts of wind threw him around while smaller yet sharp breezes would eat into his body as they passed by.

Louis wheezed as he was thrown around and cut, trying to breathe and heal himself with his own water elemental qi. Just as he was fully healed, the wind completely stopped, and his body began to plummet, but before he could hit the waves, the wind once more slammed him into the water. Unfortunately for him, the moment he hit the water, he became sandwiched between the wind and water. The water had no refuge for him, becoming stiff as stone the moment he landed. His bones creaked and Louis coughed, as he threw up whatever he had within his stomach, the large amount of ocean water he had swallowed as he fell in. The air above him was barely breathable but even that opportunity passed him by as he finally broke through the stone wall of water once again plunged into its depths, lacking the air he sorely needed.

Luckily for him, although the water pushed him quickly, its force was uniform and he felt more pressed against the wave than the chaotic wilderness like before. His water elemental qi began circulating throughout his body and he formed a thin membrane of water qi around him. Then his wind elemental qi began circulating, forming a larger sphere of wind around him, negating the wind pushing him against the wave and the force that wave pressed onto him. The wave smashed into the sphere, denting a part of it, but his qi immediately repaired the damage. Once the wave fell back into the ocean, the winds once again began their onslaught, but the sphere only tossed and turned, following the wind. Inside the orb, Louis remained upright, the wind only spun the sphere, preventing any of its force from reaching Louis, who finally found a moment of rest.

The winds and waves grew stronger as time passed and the sphere shattered more than once, plunging Louis into the chaotic forces of nature on more than one occasion, until his qi was fully exhausted and he was forced out of the orb.

All of the qi he had poured into the orb during the duration his soul was sucked into it, was now gone and only a quarter of his overall qi, save for the qi strands in his meridians, remained. Despite what he experienced in the clay orb, his complexion did not change a bit. He awoke Amelia when they arrived and the three of them followed the rest of the group to a giant apartment.

When they reached three story building, Jack and Calvin had already disappeared while Shea was in the process of moving her stuff in.

"Aren't you graduating, sis? Why are you moving your stuff out?" Louis asked, as he carried her bags into the house.

"I am, but I only work part of the time at the shrine, still learning and shadowing people as I gain experience, so I will spend the other half of my time here." Shea said, grabbing the bags in his hands. "Doesn't that make you happy?"

"Of course it does." Louis said, as he immediately walked out of the room and ran to his room.

Amber, Amelia and his maid, Silva, were already decorating the room and promptly kicked him out after he tried helping but ruined the aesthetic of the room. He left the house alone as he went to explore the campus, for this was the first time he had ever stepped onto the campus.

The academy made up an entire district by itself. Although only three hundred twenty students attended every year, the various restaurants, shops, servants and teachers made the total population over a thousand. Furthermore, since the shops both boosted quality and quantity of their goods, some of the nobles would run errands to the shops to buy goods, though they were only allowed on the east side of campus, where the shops were.

The campus was divided into five major sections: The four cardinal directions and the center. The north was a desolate place, with fences and guards patrolling to prevent any wandering person from entering as well as keep uninformed nobles from simply waltzing into the ruins. The east side had all the shops selling all the materials for professions up to three stars and a small selection of four star; restaurants when one was tired of the cafeteria; and many venues for various activities. The south side had all the classrooms on one half as well as all the buildings needed for the various professions - from alchemy to blacksmithing to arrays. The west side had all the dorms as well as the houses for the students from fourth grade and above, though this rule was often circumvented by having older siblings, just like how Louis had Shea, Carla and Amelia, who could share a house with him and Amber, who weren't old enough to live in one. The center of the campus had the gymnasiums and halls for more martial, physical and musical activities. The two cafeterias, one for the younger nobles and one for the older nobles, were also in this area.

Most of all, the center of the campus had the library, which was the first place Louis decided to visit. The library had four entire floors, which had more advanced books than the public library that Louis usually visited. There were books up to four stars for many professions, even for blacksmithing and alchemy, which only had a modest following in Allyn County, for the two main elements, wind and water, were not conducive for alchemy.

The library was not a rectangular building like all the other buildings on campus, but was shaped into a cross, with each side length the same. The south side had fire element related books, the west side had earth element related books, north side had water element related books and the east side had wind element related books. The library had four double doors, all of which were connected to the center of the intersection, each halfway between the two sides of library.

That intersection was called the Dome, for a giant glass dome, instead of a ceiling, allowed both sunlight and moonlight alike to filter through it. There was only one floor in the dome area, however, the other floors of each of the four sectors had tables so that the students can sit near the dome.

Louis walked to the south side, where the where the words 'fire' and 'alchemy' was written over on the threshold of the first floor door. Unlike the public library, all the books in one profession were together on a single floor, whether it was an one star book or a four star book. He walked straight to the back of the area, where all the advanced books were, but was stopped before he even reached halfway by a librarian.

"Are you lost?" A young woman asked, as she squatted to be at eye level with him.

"No." Louis said, shaking his head. "I came to read the four star alchemy books."

"Have you read the first two star books yet? You can't understand them without reading those ones first. Why don't you come back when you have? I can help you find some good ones." The woman said, holding out her hand.

"No good. I read those ones already." Louis said, shaking his head once more.

"I really can't let you read those books, they have already been reserved…" The woman said.

Just when Louis turned around and was about to leave, he bumped into a girl a few heads taller than he was. She had long silver hair that came down to her chest and chestnut colored eyes. She sleeveless shirt and black shorts that reached her knees.

She smiled at him for a moment before looking at the librarian. "Maria, it's fine to let him in. He's with me." She said, taking him by the hand. She bowed before Maria, before walking past her with Louis in tow.

When Maria was out of earshot, she released his hand and turned around, looking at him. "You are a reincarnator, are you not?" She asked.

Reflexively, Louis circulated the qi within his body and began to released it before the girl grabbed his hand and sealed qi pathways, preventing him from exerting his qi. Her own qi had a purity not inferior to his but its power was much greater, suffocatingly so. Louis fell to his knees, paralyzed.

"Calm down, I'm not here to fight, just here to talk." The girl said, looking at him in the eyes. "I'm Laura Eten, a reincarnator myself."

Louis frowned but eventually said, "Louis Allyn. A reincarnator."

She tossed him over her shoulder as she walked further back into the library. "See, that wasn't very hard. Are you an alchemist or just learning alchemy for fun? The four star books are still fairly advanced, if you are just beginning."

"Why does it matter if I am a reincarnator?" Louis asked. Although his guard was still up, he wouldn't want to ignite his qi and dantains over a superficial reason.

"Knowledge and camaraderie, mostly." Laura said. "It must exhausting acting your own age or being alone. With us, we can help each other and become companions who share your situation. Speaking of which, what is your speciality?"

"Qi and Soul pills." Louis said.

At the back of the library, the man at the desk was writing, filling a line within a moment and continuing nonstop, even when he looked up at Laura and Louis. He had silver hair and red eyes. His looks were sharp and refined, much like a scholar. He was about as tall as Laura and his frame was just as thin. If Louis could perceive the strength of this man's soul, he probably would not be as worried, but, just like Laura, that man's soul seemed to beyond his current abilities.

"This is Louis Allyn, our new member." Laura then put Louis on the chair in front of the man. "Can you get some qi and soul pill recipes? The three and four star kinds."

Jeremy grabbed two books in a stack beside his desk and toss it to Laura. Laura caught them and handed them to Louis without looking at them. "Only two?"

"We are lacking those pills. The other ones are useless for us." Jeremy said, as he continued writing. "He has to earn his keep. The knowledge and materials aren't free, after all."