7 An awkward dinner

I found out something about souls and holy mother of all f*cks it is awesome. That's right, I have understood what souls are.

Souls are mana.

Okey not exactly mana, but a different version located within sentient beings. If mana is the source of all life, then souls are the source of individual consciousness. Souls are a variation of mana, a slightly different yet extremely similar type of energy that makes up the actual consciousness of a person.

Now it shouldn't be confused with Od, which is the magical energy in living organisms, souls are, if my theory is correct, what allows humanity to be so influential in the world. I believe they are all connected through the 'collective unconscious', which is unique to humans. Basically other living beings besides humans don't have souls, pretty messed up but not really if you think about it enough.

This Od is stored in the circuits which are in the soul, the soul is actually what allows humans to replenish the Od, other living being can't replenish Od because they lack a soul, that is also why other living beings like animals can't use magic, because they lack a soul containing magic circuits.

Now there should be some exceptions to this, I believe it is indeed possible for animals to be born with a soul and possess magic circuits, but those should be exceptions. It would make sense if creatures of myths like the Nemean lion were actually animals born with a soul and who could subconsciously use Od to strengthen themselves.

I feel like there should be more to it, like maybe also being kind of like an individual marker? Something like a fingerprint of sorts, but if I tried to actually study that I would be in way over my head.

Well, this whole soul thing really puts into perspective the 'I think therefore I am' quote. The philosopher basically got it backwards, I have a soul therefore I am, and I am therefore I think.

I am not sure of how Alaya or Gaia fare up in this explanation, but whatever. Maybe once you get strong enough laws of common sense no longer apply to you? Or maybe they do and Alaya and Gaia do have souls? Are they even conscious though? Like do they have an individual consciousness or are they just the collective consciousness or unconsciousness of humanity and the world? Sigh, so many questions and none of them are relevant right now so let's ignore them.

Anyway, understanding this about souls was absolutely great. Alchemy in the FMA universe uses the soul, more specifically the gate of the soul, as the energy for the alchemy to be performed. In theory people here should not have access to this type of soul energy, or at least not as much, which means that even if I sell my transmutation circles, they won't be able to use them as greatly as me because they won't know how to combine and manage mana and soul energy appropriately.

*Knock* *Knock*

"It is time for dinner my lord, I will escort you to the dinning room." said a maid politely from the other side of the room.

Huh, my lord... I quite like the sound of that. Not bad at all.

"Yeah give me a moment." I reply.

Being escorted by the maid through the mansion located right next to Atlas itself was quite the experience. First of all she didn't say anything unless I asked her and even then, the answers would be so short and dry that it took away all the possible excitement I had.

Arriving at the dinner table I was met by the sight of who I assume to be my grandfather seating at the head, my uncle at his right, my mother next to my uncle, who I will assume to be my grandmother to my grandfather's left and an empty chair next to her.

The maid takes the empty chair next to my grandmother and pulls it out before indicating me to sit.

They all look at me for a moment as I sit down.

"Pleasure to meet the both of you, I am Dio Salvatore." I say while looking at my grandparents.

My grandfather nods in return while my grandmother decides to act like a normal human being and introduce herself.

"Likewise, I am Regina Kaiser and this is Zarabos Kaiser." she said while pointing at my grandfather.

Kaiser huh? Like Emperor in German? Well it appears every single family for which I am a descendant has some... grandeur delusions.

After what can only be qualified as the most awkward dinner ever, in which the only six lines were spoken between my grandfather and me.

"I was told you developed your second transmutation circle by yourself."

"Indeed, it turns whatever I am transmitting into firearms for me to fire."

"Have you started learning bio-alchemy?"

"Not yet, there weren't many books about that at home and it doesn't particularly interest me for now."

"Hmm, you may take a look at the library, there should be something there that would interest you."

"Very well, thank you."

Oh yeah, totally not a weird conversation. Honestly I expected them to be a bit more pushy to get me into the whole family bio-alchemy subject but they didn't seem to care.

If I had to take a guess I would say that my mom isn't the heir so that are waiting for my uncle's kids to be born or something to teach them about it but I can't be sure, especially since it seems that my mom, despite not being the heir, did study about this.

Once the dinner was about to end, my grandfather decided to finally open some conversation... or so I thought, actually he just made an announcement and then remained silent.

"We will be attending the birthday of Latio Crudelis Hiram in three days. Even though she will only be two years old this year and that is no reason to celebrate, she is to be the new heir of the Crudelis family and they will announce it formally."

Yeah, no one even answered that, they all just nodded like the inepts at social interactions they are.

Anyway, I am quite glad about being able to visit the library. The magic crest passed down my father's family and engraved on my left arm is focused on healing spells so maybe there is some bio-alchemy that I could combine with it in order to improve it further.

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Author note:

It was really complicated calculating Latio's age. Basically she is 25 when Rin is around 20. Rin is 7 at Fate/zero se Latio should have been around 12. Currently there are still 10 years to go until Fate/zero so she should be around 2 years old or so.

Anyway don't worry about her though, she won't be actually important to the story.