Chapter 15: The Young Mist Users Conference

Thirty one days of vacation in the month of August were given to every boy and girl as a respite between the school year which ended and the next school year which followed.

After the graduation ceremony Zax got back home with his parents, already planning to spend the whole month at his big sister's place, training in the Inner Spirit formation.

To his great disappointment, Zax's parents had a different idea in the matter of how he should spend these precious vacation days. There was no chance that they would have let him shut himself in for a whole month. Regardless to the kind of training that he practiced, the support the he received from their eldest daughter and the unique attributes that even they could see in him ... As adults and parents to the boy, in their opinion it would have been unhealthy and irresponsible to let a nine years old engage in a closed doors training for the length of thirty one days. If by training in Zetsa's methods his soul will be refined, then by having a proper child's life his social values will improve and his personality will blossom to those of a decorous member of society.

And so Laylen and Marco struck a deal with their son. Zax will be allowed to train everyday up to ten hours, which was the equivalent of a long school day. The remaining fourteen hours of a day he will have to devote to reading, at least one hour of the day. Another two hours to catch up with his friends, better if he will go meet them. At least an hour in the company of his parents, which will be in the late evening, after the both of them will get back from work. And the rest of what was left of the day he will spend sleeping, or in Zax's case, performing a Somnolence Meditation.

August fourteen, year 5784.

A few days back Zax received an invite from Serah to join her on a trip to cave nineteen along with her mom and two others of their friends. The main destination of the trip was to the Young Mist Users Conference that was held annually in either cave nineteen in El-Eden, cave one hundred and seventy one in Tongguo or cave four hundred and ninety nine in Shitou.

The Young Mist Users Conference was a prestigious event that was meant for the high end of Kingdom Earth's coreless population to attend. Generally, high class children who were about to enroll to the first year of a post Core School would come and have the chance to present themselves in front of the scouts of great schools, receive guidance while having the opportunity to sample cold and hot Martial weapons, obtain pointers and advices from visiting experts, watch demonstrations of advanced techniques and even participate in mock battles with professional fighters from the Earth's Core's showdowns competitions, which were advertised by the Strong Arm League.

Naturally, such a big event was something that middle class families, such as Zax's, his friends' or any other family from cave twenty five, could not afford to buy the tickets to and provide their children this exclusive opportunity. But as it turned out, sometimes luck can very well make up for lack of money.

Three days ago, cave twenty four, restaurant Fourchettes Et Couteaux.

"Jinka! Where is Jinka?!" A short bearded man in a purple suit entered the restaurant, passing the reception desk as if it was not there and headed to the restaurant's kitchen. "Jinka?" he called as he entered the scorching kitchen.

"Here, owner Mitchello". Being the sous chef of Fourchettes Et Couteaux, Jinka, along with the rest of the restaurant's staff was accustomed to owner Mitchello frequent surprised visits, as well his gauche manner. Nonetheless, owner Mitchello was a cheerful man with a successful business and a capable staff; therefore it was a habit of his to treat his workers during their birthdays or personal special occasions.

Jinka was currently diligently preparing a duck as the main dish of a three course meal. In her job, there were very few things that could make her drop her knife, being addressed by owner Mitchello was indeed among them.

"Chef..." Abandoning the dish was still wasteful and Jinka had to bother the first person that could actually determine her every action in this kitchen. A young woman, Fourchettes Et Couteaux's chef, sighing for the fourth time since the appearance of her boss, replaced Jinka.

"Thank you, Alinor". Owner Mitchello thanked from afar. Knowing how bleak his chef's temperament can get when the wheels of her gourmet machinery are interrupted, he waited for Jinka to come to him.

"How can I help you, sir?"

"Not much, not much at all". Owner Mitchello laughed. "Let's talk here for a moment". He entered the chef's office and closed the door behind Jinka.

"Can it be kept for later, sir? It is the rush hour of the restaurant..." Jinka pleaded. In all her years working in Fourchettes Et Couteaux she was called only two or three times to talk privately with the owner, all for different reasons, sometimes for small matters, other times for subjects related to her job. If now was one of those "small matters" times, for the sake of a smooth work day, she would rather tend to the meals that she has to prepare.

"Is your daughter and husband, well, Jinka?" Owner Mitchello waved off her appeal and probed.

"They are, sir, our Serah graduated this July from her post Core School".

"I thought so. This is for your fillette, then". Owner Mitchello took out from pocket in his pants an orange envelope with a golden red seal. "My grandchildren are too young and Alinor's twins also a few years off".

"This?" Jinka rubbed her hands in her apron and received the envelope with gratitude. She did not pondered over what was in the envelope. Owner Mitchello, a high class individual such as him, was known to be a generous man. If he questioned her about her family and claimed to consider her daughter's age in advance, who can imagine how beneficial his intention could be for her.

"Open it later. I may see you there. If that happens then introduce your fillette to this grandpa as thanks". Owner Mitchello gestured for Jinka to leave first the chef's office and snatched an unguarded dessert plate before leaving himself.

Only when she arrived home Jinka opened the envelope, and along with a short introduction were four child tickets and one adult pass to the Young Mist Users Conference.

August fourteen, year 5784.

The group of five rode for two and a half hours and exchanged four buses before they arrived to the marvelous, top class, cave nineteen. Due to the low population of Kingdom Earth, cave nineteen of El-Eden was a huge underground resort with countless attractions. The biggest event of the year, the Young Mist Users Conference, was hosted in the enormous Lutlua compound.

The group of five supervised by Jinka counted, besides the one adult, Zax, Serah, Dane and Anet. The four minors were in shock from the moment they crossed tunnel forty six to cave nineteen. It was not the first rich cave they visited, but the caves in New Earth were so big that a person could spend a life time in the one cave he was born and never venture outside.

All five stood at the entrance of Lutlua compound, surrounding them was a sea of young and old who also were attending the conference.

"This guys look from a rich school..." Dane pointed at a group of twelve kids, seven boys and five girls, seemingly their age. They all wore impressive uniforms, a fashionable white blouse under a blue jacket. The boys wore blue linen trousers and the girls wore short blue skirts.

"Look at them..."

"Look at them..."

Serah and Anet said simultaneously and stared with sparkling eyes on another group, not too far away, of nine girls wearing stylish uniforms in different shades of garish red.

"So many rich people..." Zax also had to admit. There is a difference between a strong soul and maturity. Zax soul training only slightly affected his personality. Therefore, he, too, was captivated by the exalted bearing of the so many people who were streaming into the compound.

"Enough, enough, enough!" Jinka repeated herself three times and pushed the four children to the compound's entrance. "You four acting rudely in the presence of strangers. Imagine what they think! Do you want them to criticize you? Come on, some already looking at us standing aimlessly, let's go inside".

In cave nineteen the Lutlua compound inhabited one of the biggest areas. A row of five buildings, each ten stories tall, approximately eighty meters in height. The length of each building was nearly one hundred and fifty meters and the width was almost twice that size. As grand as the Young Mist Users Conference is, it still was an exclusive event with limited number of invites and so only occupied a fraction of the Lutlua compound.