Anon_Y_Mousse

4.2k words, man was this a challenge to write

Walking out of the teleportation circle, Louis found himself in front of the school’s quadrangle. The area the quadrangle encompassed was so massive that a regular person could mistake it for an open plain instead of an area owned by an academic institution,

The ground had a “mystical” aura to it, as can be seen from the bluish-green grass and the tiny particles that looked like blue fireflies floating in the air. It was clear that the school was built in one of the most concentrated parts of the Great Leyline.

The residual magic in the air felt like Qi. As paltry the amount in the air was, Louis felt vitalized. It was a familiar feeling, a feeling which reminded him of home. He wanted to absorb it, every last drop, to take it for himself and add it to his power.

Sadly, this was mana, not Qi.

“Feels refreshing, doesn’t it?” Arthur commented.

“It feels amazing.” Carlos looked around like a kid in a candy store, exhilarated by the rush of power.

Meanwhile, Lucia was waving a white blade around, it was slightly vibrating, wanting to be freed from her grasp and launch into the air. She didn’t really care about the dangerous sharp magical object in her hand though.

Diana quickly took her wrist, crushing a small mana crystal in her other hand, immediately dispelling the white blade.

“LUCIA! Even if it’s a weak spell, it’s still dangerous! Where did you even get a dagger anyway?”

“Sorry, mom.” Lucia sulked, dejected.

Arthur scratched the back of his head “Well, she needs a dagger to defend herself, right?”

Diana approached Arthur, menacingly.

“Do you honestly think she’d need it here of all places? Anyone who manages to attack her will be immune to daggers anyways.”

Ignoring the domestic violence about to occur in the background, Louis started to scout his surrounding areas.

‘Activate flag’ Louis reminded himself of a drinking buddy of his, a sect elder who always managed to get lucky scouting talents. When the elder died at the age of 500, he had 30 apprentices who could be considered extremely talented geniuses; each and every one surpassed him.

Today, those geniuses were Louis’ potential enemy, so he needed a good eye for them. Literally, and figuratively.

He poured some Qi into his eyes, expanding his vision. He could see far enough that he saw the other side of the quadrangle where another section of the academy building could be observed.

He scanned around - mostly focusing on the other 4 dukedoms and the royal family.

Duchy of Carpov, Duchy of Fox, Duchy of Byrd, Duchy of Apus,  and the royal family itself, Sanchez.

The reason why the origins of the duchies are so diverse is that Invicta is more like a coalition of humans, united as one empire. That was what enabled them to be unconquerable.

The de Leon family of was always closely tied to the Sanchez family. When the humans first united, the duchies were named after the families that occupied them. Of all the original families, only the de Leon family had not betrayed the king.

The duchies were now occupied by the Kasparov, Brown, Wolfeschlegalstein and Enriquez families respectively. With the Enriquez family being a mere puppet of the Sanchez family.

‘I’ve eradicated my fair share of clans; it would be weird if all of the ducal houses were loyal.’

Moving on, he quietly scanned the area for any ‘dangers’, he knew there were people from the second to fourth year watching as well, so he could spot them too.

Strangely, the first person his eyes were drawn to was not someone from a ducal house; in fact, they were not even a human.

It was a white-haired dark elf.

To clarify, dark elves were not actually called dark elves because they had different colored skin or had different traits. In fact, they were biologically similar to normal elves. The girl for example, had the same albinism and lithe figure that was common amongst elves. The true reason dark elves were called dark elves was because of their nature.

The original elves were born from nature; hence, they did not dare lay a hand on nature. They were said to be beings that sustained on sunlight alone very much like plants. They were loved so much by nature that the trees turned themselves into houses for them, and even went as far as to produce clothes and food for the elves via magic when their biological needs grew.

To those who dare harmed nature, the elves were absolutely ruthless; they used the blessings of the trees to slay those who threatened nature’s resources for their own gain. Be it humans, dwarves or orcs.

The genocide committed by the elves was so bad to the point that they almost wiped out the orcs. The grudge held by the orcs towards the elves carried on to this day.

How did this relate to dark elves? Of course, even the elves were not immune to the concept of greed. Some elves wanted more from nature and secretly exploited the natural resources, the greed of the elves grew more and more until the elves were split into two factions: those that supported the old way of life that involved being guardians of nature and those that sought to make a nation within the Celestial Forest. They were split into traditionalists and the radicalists.

Of course, the traditionalists stood no chance against the radicalists, as the radicalists quickly industrialized and utilized the abundant reserves of mana crystals left unharvested over the years.

The war raged on for 50 years, and eventually the radicalists won, creating an empire ruled by a single dictator, the nation was known as Elvus Dominica. Due to war propaganda, these elves were widely known as dark elves by the other races, even though they were still technically elves. It was right in a way, though, as while they still had the few hundred years of longevity, they had long since lost the druidic arts necessary to control nature.

As for the elves, they weren’t completely wiped out, but they pretty much became mythical creatures who lived in seclusion.

The relationship of the Elven Dominion and Invicta was not exactly the best, but in order to form a defensive pact against the orcs and the dwarves, they exchanged political hostages.

The white-haired dark elf was none other than the political hostage the elves sent, the 3^rd daughter of the Empress, Llamiryl Urikalyn.

To Louis, the fact that she was the first one to stand out in the crowd meant that there was more than meets the eye to her story.

The current empress was actually quite young for elven standards, merely 50 years old. Their fertility worked different from humans, so they were only able to start having reproductive capabilities by the age of 35 at the very least.

Soul weapons didn’t care about this fact, as no matter what your race was, 14 years old was the best time to unlock your soul weapon.

That is why after 2 years of twiddling her thumbs in Invicta, Llamiryl would finally make her debut.

However, the next thing that happened shocked Louis. Llamiryl stared straight at him! Her grey eyes were clearly pointing to his position, and her teasing smile proved that this was no mere coincidence.

They were on the opposite sides of the quadrangle, which meant Llamiryl had very good eyesight. That alone was unremarkable. But staring at her grey eyes, Louis felt a strange sense of unease.

‘Wait, is she blind? Hehehe, another mystery to uncover.’ A normal reincarnated man might be scared out of his soul, but Louis was very interested in Llamiryl.

After a brief staring contest, they averted their gaze from each other, clearly having better things to do.

‘This may take a lot of time to describe, but it all happened in an instant.’ Louis inwardly chuckled.

He moved his gaze to a more familiar face, someone from the Sanchez family, the crown prince, no not him, the person behind him.

A woman with auburn hair with a cold and refined personality, her blood red eyes shined brightly, appraising the crowd much like Louis. She was his fiancée from the Enriquez ducal house. Probably a political marriage to strengthen the royal family’s hold over an unstable situation, her sister standing next to her with a worried expression proved this point. Both the crown prince and Ellysa Enriquez also turned 14 this year. 

Aside from that, Louis was disappointed; he couldn’t see anyone else who stood out from the other ducal households, not even those of a lower noble rank.

No, there was a baron’s son, from the Karpov duchy.

He did not know the man, yet he stood out to Louis, but he could only stare at him in contempt. Not because he was the son of a mere baron, but because of his brown eyes.

The boy’s brown eyes showed no ambition.

One of the things Louis hated the most was talented man with no ambition. What was the point of so much power and talent if you don’t use it to the fullest? Of course, given Louis current situation this was ironic, but he was always a hypocrite

‘A mere three huh, two in the first year, one in the third year.’ That was all Louis had to watch out for.

Of course, he was still on guard of the other students; he did not trust his flag blindly, after all. But he will be paying special attention to those three.

Satisfied, Louis nodded and deactivated his flag, he turned around and was about to call out to his family when a commoner girl with auburn hair was rocketing towards his position.

Shocked and slightly intrigued, he memorized her face, which was average in a cute way, which was emphasized by the freckles in her face. He could tell she was a commoner since her fashion sense was horribly outdated, I mean seriously, who of the younger generation still wears wimples?

She was screaming something about being late, and she trip and fell, her trajectory heading straight towards Louis.

Louis quickly dodged to the side, causing the commoner girl to plant her face firmly into the ground. She quickly stood up and dusted her clothes, apologizing to Louis.

“Don’t worry, you aren’t late, but please mind where you are going next time.” He politely said to the girl.

She bowed one more time before going on her way.

‘A commoner eh, she must have found some sort of good fortune.’

Arthur approached Louis and pat his son in the back.

“That’s my boy! Your reaction time is absolutely stellar, you and Carlos should go take the entrance exam now, your family will be cheering you on, but I’m sure you both won’t need it to pass.”

Louis and Carlos nodded, and headed to the training area of the quadrangle, it was currently repurposed for the entrance examination, all the freshly enrolled students stood in front of the area.  At the training area appeared to be a multitude of proctors which came from all sorts of origins, they all took a background check to prove that they did not show bias for nobles or commoners. Not that they decided the score, it was just that sabotage was possible.

An old scholarly man stepped forward, he made a verbal gesture towards his throat, using a spell that amplified the loudness of his voice.

“Attention fresh enrollees of Great Leyline Academy!” all the students stood at attention.

“The entrance examination is the first part of your entrance ceremony to the school, we expect you all to pass, yes, all 1,638 of you are expected to pass this examination. With the amount of time and money your parents invested into you, you are expected to easily pass this examination. The examination is different each year, but it always involves low level spells that you can cast without mana crystals. If you fail this, then you must find another way to awaken your soul weapon.’

The students nodded, enrolling at Great Leyline academy did not only require money, but it also required some previous magical achievements by the enrollees. So, in one way or another, they were all supposedly good at magic.

“I will not waste any more of your time, that is the job of the principal in the soul weapon awakening ceremony.”

Laughter was heard from the crowd.

“There are 600 instructors here for you all, line up in alphabetical order from left to right. Each person will only take 5 minutes.”

Louis’ surname was de Leon, so it did not take long for him, Carlos took the test and easily passed, everyone was free to watch as a different problem was presented per person, it was amazing how they could prepare a unique set of questions for each student.

Louis stepped up and was met with a female instructor, she nodded upon seeing him.

“Louis de Leon, right?”

“Yes, ma’am.” Leon was the son of a duke, so all eyes were on him.

“I want you to kill these hounds without using an offensive spell.”

Two starving hounds were in a cage, they ravenously barked at Louis and the crowd, desperate to be released.

Leon nodded and spoke a word, casting a spell that was quite common to the extent that some commoners used it in parties.

“Presto.”  He applied an odor of roasted chicken on the two hungry hounds, a being with even a small spark of intelligence would be able to laugh this off, but the two desperate hounds were anything but that.

They smelled each other as prey, and mauled each other to death.

The proctor nodded and smiled in approval.

The crowd watching them was also impressed, they all knew that Presto was a low-level spell with many creative uses, and Louis used it brilliantly.

The test continued on, the instructor asking Louis to accomplish tasks such as utility, warding, divination and even healing without using a spell that directly solved the problem. Louis completed all the tasks splendidly, and returned to a seat beside his family. He grew disinterested in the examinations, as none of the test actually revealed the serious capabilities of the students. Louis knew many crafty individuals, if one can’t even twist their way of thinking a little, they could not expect to make it far in the cultivation world.

Louis also had to drive of the hordes of nobles and commoners praising him and trying to curry favor with him, Carlos was not as able as him and was quickly surrounded, but one glare from Diana had them all running.

Meawhile…

“It was amazing how Big bro Louis cleaned the furniture with a floating sword! Oh, and the way he took out the splinter from the horse’s foot with a sword and cauterized the wound with the burning sword was cool too! And when you deflected a sword with a sword barrier…” Lucia complimented Louis excitedly.

Paul meanwhile was patting Carlos on the back, who failed to consider his younger sister’s interest in swords.

Louis had attained a complete victory over Carlos.

‘It feels like bullying a child…’

It was, in fact, bullying a child.

“All first-year students, all first-year students, proceed to the giant mana crystal for the soul weapon awakening process.”

Louis and Carlos stood up, everyone wishing them good luck. Louis proceeded to look for the giant mana crystal, but found out it wasn’t really that hard. The mana crystal was the height of some buildings and shone very brightly.

Usually, soul weapon awakening would be done one by one, but Great Leyline Academy could afford to do it en-masse.

Once Louis reached the venue, he was approached by a man, probably an instructor, and was given a leaf.

“It’s a component for the spell casting.”

“Oh, ok.”  Louis said as he held on to his leaf, everyone else was approached and given similar leafs.

Next to the mana crystal was a man wearing mage robes, the robes were very well decorated that it reminded Louis of the imperial robes he used to wear. The man was clearly of a high standing.

‘That aura of death…” The man had a very dense aura of death, at least for the denizens of this world.

He spoke, without a voice amplification spell, yet his booming voice was heard by all.

“Good morning new students of Great Leyline Academy, I am saddened to say only 1630 of you passed. To the eight who failed, do not be saddened, there exists more opportunities for you all in Acieta. And for everyone who passed, don’t pat yourself on the back just yet! Passing is expected of you, what you all need to do is prepare for the future.” The principal paused for dramatic effect

“Now, as all of you are of age fourteen or close to the age of fourteen, I will be awakening all your soul weapons. We offer over 300 different courses for first-year students, but the introductory soul weapon course is a mandatory course. You do not have to use it, but I highly encourage you to do so. Even if your soul weapon may be trash at first, I guarantee you that it will have its usefulness.”

The principal took out a branch of a willow tree, and all the leaves in the students’ hands started reacting.

“Haha, that’s right! The willow branch is actually my soul weapon, it allows me to inject mana directly into people via the leaves. I know it sounds dangerous, but you can trust the old man.” His voice turned gentle, almost soothing.

Louis glared, to no one in particular.

“Activate flag” He recalled a Buddhist monk who was extremely lucky in life, he always happened to cross upon places filled with treasure. He was weak, but the Buddhist monk somehow made acquaintances with Louis and was protected until the end of his life. Louis actually wanted to use the flag of that one boy, but he did not have enough memories of the boy to make a flag. In any case, the flag would still be effective in giving him a good soul weapon.

“Without further ado, I will begin!” The principal raised his willow branch and put his hand on the giant mana crystal. He quietly spoke a chant quietly in Latin which Louis roughly understood as ‘World, bless thy souls’.

The principal’s entire body started glowing, no; it seems that the principal had mana circles etched directly on his body using some sort of invisible ink, they shined, giving the man his luminosity. Louis could not tell what most of them did, but all he knew was that the man’s aura of death involved those mana circles.

After a minute of chanting and some hand signs, the principal finished and put his branch directly on the mana crystal, In an instant, the giant mana crystal exploded into a thousand tiny particles, which went into the principal’s willow branch.

The leaf held by Louis began to glow a bright blue, he looked around and saw that everyone else had the same thing happening to them, he felt the mana move in the leaf, and it was injected directly into his soul.

Louis felt something being pulled out of his soul, but it wasn’t painful, in fact, it actually felt refreshing, as if that part of his soul wanted to be let go in the first place.

That part of my soul was not there in my first life.’

It seemed the principal didn’t have any malicious intentions, and really just awakened their soul weapons.

The blob of soul that separated from his body was a bright purple, he tried to control it and forge his soul weapon himself, to no avail. He inwardly sighed and just focused on watching the formation of his soul weapon.

The blob then started to turn into a square, and waved a little

‘I actually don’t want another flag as my weapon, but it seems its fate…’ Louis thought, disappointed, but what happened next was completely out of his expectations.

The square formed a round hole on itself, the ‘texture’ of the square turned very wooden. The square grew and peeled off its edges, turning into a rectangular cutting board.

The peeled off edges turned into a kitchen knife.

Louis was speechless.

‘I only started cooking when Li’er was around… shouldn’t my weapon as the Great Conqueror be a flag or a map?’

He originally thought the weapon was formed based on the person’s aspirations and memories, but it appeared there might be more to it.

The purple cutting board and knife was being pulled out of his body, but Louis didn’t want to show the true nature of his weapon.

He thought of the cutting board as a pan, as a wok and as an oven. It changed accordingly

‘Oh, as long as it’s a kitchen tool, it works. I knew Leonor’s lion on the handkerchief was not always there, but I never knew a soul weapon would be so… malleable.’ Louis, however, wanted to hide the very nature of his weapon.

He thought of one of his favorite quotes.

‘The world is a blank canvas, waiting to be painted.’

He was actually not very good at painting, but that would have to do.

He thought of a very oddly shaped cutting board that would still work as a cutting board somewhat. He turned the knife into a kitchen brush, which would be oddly shaped for a paintbrush. The pair could pass off as a canvas and a paintbrush.

He wanted to fool his enemies and peers, and while he could hide his soul weapon, what better way was there to fool your enemy than giving them false information?

The paintbrush and canvas appeared to everyone around him, but only few people saw it before Louis made it disappear. 

Louis slowly opened his eyes, taking in his surroundings. Some kids were already waving around their soul weapons.

He turned to Carlos, who was pumping his fists at the golden great sword that materialized in his fists. Carlos turned to him and had a condescending smile on his face, he had seen Louis’ soul weapon, and would lord his sword over him in front of Lucia later on.

Ellysa seemed to have formed a weird contraption, an object with barrel-shaped end and a trigger similar to some crossbows. Her soul weapon was very similar to the mana crystal powered firearms that appeared recently. Louis did not consider them much of a threat, however, a soul weapon was a different story.

The unambitious boy he was observing early was a third-year, so he couldn’t really find out what the boy’s soul weapon was.

As for Llamiryl, well, the woman was directly behind him.

The white-haired girl had a gentle and friendly expression on her face. Her grey eyes giving a creepy feeling,

She curtsied in front of Louis with her black dress.

“Mister de Leon.”  She spoke in a soft voice.

Louis bowed.

“Miss Urikalyn, third princess of the Elven Dominion, how may I help you today?”

‘She hid her soul weapon, but that would be what the public expects of her anyways.’

“I was wondering if mister de Leon already had a club in mind.”

A club was supposedly a recreational organization formed by students, anyone can make one as long as they had five members.

“No, but why are you asking me this early on?”

Llamiryl smiled, pleased with his answer. “Well, I would like you to consider joining a club formed by a friend of mine. We know that you’re very interested in the mystery of magic, so we thought to invite you.”

Louis considered his response for a moment. It would be best to give a vague answer.

“Sure, but who is this friend of yours and what type of club did he make?”

Llamiryl lowered her head.

“He will be approaching you, I just wanted to ask first and take the initiative. I will be excusing myself now.”

She turned around and walked away.

Louis thought of creating his own club, but getting in the same club with a potential enemy would be advantageous for him, especially since it appeared that they were desperate for members.

It had already been a few minutes since the ceremony finished, the principal smile and nodded, giving a gentle gaze over the crowd of newbies.

He spoke.

“I’m glad all of you have your soul weapon now. To those who hid them, I understand you all have your reasons and its totally allowed, but do consider that not using a soul weapon would be a fine waste of talent. Now as per policy, I have to inform you-“

The principal gave a lengthy speech about the responsibilities involved with soul weapons, an brief overview of how to use them and the usual words a senior would give to his juniors.

It seems that more information about how the academy works would be given at the later date.

“Now, you are all official students of Great Leyline Academy, the next two days are weekends, so you have plenty of time to consider the courses you will take. Make sure to grab a brochure by one of the teleportation circles.

Louis returned to where the de Leon family was sitting, Arthur was giving him a stern look.

‘Is he disappointed in my soul weapon or something? Perhaps suspicious?’

“That girl… Llamiryl Urikalyn… she talked with you right?”

“Yes, father.”

Arthur scratched his chin a bit.

“That girl gives me a bad feeling; try not to interact much with her, son. “

His gaze returned to the warm and doting one that he usually had.

“Oh by the way, nice soul weapon. Everyone was berating our family about being muscle-heads who can only wield a sword. I’m glad my son has artistic talent to break that.”

It would seem his worries were unfounded.

Anon_Y_Mousse

To those that guessed it was going to be a flag... you were wrong! To those that deduced it was related to painting through the cover, you were slightly right, but still wrong! It was actually kitchen tools, explanation on this later. It was actually forshadowed in the cover you see. The splatters on the cover were not blood, but tomato!(and a bit of mustard).