The Burning Fiend

Reynolds walked slowly in direction of the dorm as he enjoyed the view of the gardens and the elegant buildings, fountains and statues along the way, he was excited and happy as he realized this place would be his home for at least a decade. By the time he graduates he would have spent more time here than at his father mansion.

He finally made his way to the dorm 1987 and opened the door, he saw the common area that was connected to several rooms. "Hello? Is there anyone here?" he asked feeling nervous, after a few moments he heard the sound of someone running and one of the doors opened showing a smiling boy dressed in a lavished fashion.

"Hello, you must be one of my dormmate, right? I'm Yale, I am so happy you arrived I have been bored here for a couple of days. What is your name? Where are you from? By the way I'm 10 years old and you could say that I'm from the Holy Union as my father travels to much to said he belongs to one place". Reynolds was a little startled by so much information, but he was excited as well and smiled. "Hello Yale, I'm Reynolds and I came from the O'Brien empire, can you believe that I've been traveling for a whole year? I'm 8 years old by the way".

Yale said happily. "Well now I have a little brother, cool! Well do you want to go and have something to eat? I have nothing to do and classes will start in a few days, I'm expecting people from my family to deliver some stuff but they will probably arrive tomorrow."

Reynolds smiled. "Well, let me choose a room and leave my bag and we are good to go". The two kids started to explore the gardens of the institute and manage to find a nice restaurant to have lunch. "So tell me little brother, how was your travel? Was it boring to travel for a whole year?".

Reynolds took a pause from his attack to the delicious roasted chicken and said. "Well not really, I did not have any time to be bored as I was traveling with old man Frey and Grandpa Lomu. Grandpa Lomu is a rank 5 earth mage and he help me to meditate for an hour during every day, while old man Frey is a rank 4 warrior who instructed me in warrior training and the use of the spear every day as well."

Yale was surprised. "You are training as a warrior? Why? Don't you think that training both routes will make you waste time?" Reynolds smiled and said. "Well, not really. Apparently to train as warrior at the beginning one should not use a qi method and only gather the qi in the environment at the first and last light of the day accompanied by an hour of training each time, if you add an hour of spear training it is not much. After all you cannot meditate the whole day and doing some exercise helps to release stress. But if you ask as for why I'm trainning as a warrior, well my family is a military family in the O'Brien empire and most of the a.d.u.l.t member of may family hold positions in the army. My second brother is studying at the O'Brien College while my eldest brother already joined the army I don't want them to mock me saying that I cannot fight."

Yale laughed as thinking that his new little brother did not want to be teased by his family and that was the reason he was training as a warrior. "Well, as long as you are happy. Part of the stuff my family will send tomorrow is training equipment as I decided that I need some muscle to look good and be able to get a beautiful girlfriend, you can use it if you want". Reynolds looked confused for a moment and asked. "Old man Frey said that I must get a beautiful girlfriend by the time a turn 15, is muscle necessary for that? I guess that with warrior training I should no get much trouble then." Yale laughed at that and said. "Old man Frey is wise man, giving good advice to the young generation. Don't worry little brother you will have no trouble getting a girlfriend as most mages will only focus on meditation, you will have the advantage with your warrior training."

The two of them continued enjoying the food and returned to their dorm after a while. Reynolds went to his daily meditation and spent time playing with Yale before his warrior training, Yale followed along out of curiosity and boredom and even try to follow his routine regretting it half way as his body could not keep up, but was very excited to learn that his little brother was already a first rank in both warrior and magus system.

The next day an hour before lunch a new kid arrived at the dorm while the people Yale was expecting was busy moving boxes, Reynolds knew this kid was a first rank warrior like him the moment he saw him and thought that he had found a cheap sparring partner for his training. "Hello, I'm Reynolds and this is Yale. What is your name?" The new kid smiled and answered. "I'm Linley and I came from the Finlai Kingdom" Reynolds looked a little depressed as he said. "I have to travel a whole year from the O'Brien empire and you should have make your way in less that a day. Somehow I'm thinking life is unfair jajajaja". Yale continue. "Welcome my father spends most of his time within the Holy Union, so we could say that I'm a local. How old are you? I'm 10 years old and Reynolds is 8 years old?".

"I'm also 8 years old" Linley was half a head taller than Reynolds but Yale was a whole head taller than Linley. They continue to chat and as the people working for Yale finished and took their leave their last dormmate arrived. A kid with a similar height than Reynolds introduced himself as George, 10 years old, from the Yulan empire.

The four kids make the way to get lunch and they were surprised on how rich Yale was as he insisted on paying an expensive lunch to celebrate the arrival of his new brothers. During lunch Linley was happy to find out that Reynolds also trained as warrior and that, just like him, he was already reached the first rank. While Reynolds was excited by Bebe, Linley's magical beast and spent half an hour trying to lure him with food in order to pet him. He explained to Linley and the other that he had wanted a magical beast companion since he was 3 years old.

Linley and Reynolds decided to train together in the mornings as they would probably follow similar routines, classes started at 8 am so one hour of training at 6 am give them enough time for them to have breakfast. Linley had classes at 8 am and 4:30 pm while Reynold only had one class at 10:30 am. Reynolds also asked Linley to spar but was surprised to find that Linley had been training as a warrior for nearly two years and had never trained with weapons.

Reynolds told him of his experience and offer to teach him how to use a spear if he wanted, but after thinking for a while Linley felt he liked swords more as the family heirloom of his clan was the powerful blade slaughterer. So he made a point to visit the library and learn the way to use the sword, after he manage to get some proficiency he would join Reynolds in sparring sessions.