"Briefly, once."

"Doing what?"

"I worked as an court alchemist for some little lordling, a few countries over. Paid quite well. He wanted to be immortal, though, and was furious when I didn't fill his wish."

"Isn't that impossible?"

"That's the typical wisdom, yes. Politicians are not very good at wisdom, though."

"I'll remember that if I'm ever a court alchemist."

"I'm not gonna be a court alchemist. Sounds horridly boring."

"Spaceships are certainly more exciting."

"What if we find a court in space?"

"You'll have more freedom of movement if you approach them as ambassadors of Earth, and more freedom than that if you don't involve yourself with them at all. I certainly wouldn't join an alien court."

"I guess."

"Ambassador might be fun!"

"Dunno if Earth would acknowledge you as ambassador."

"I don't have to tell the aliens I'm not an official ambassador, I just need to look the part and act confident and run off before they get in contact with Earth proper."

Yep, that's her sister.

She starts laughing.

And then there's books to look at!

Books!!!

Many of the books are really old, and a lot lack titles, and a number are hand written. A lot of them are about medical alchemy. Many of them are coded, sharing shelf space with Dante's decoded versions. They're in a far, far wider spread of languages than Akira's library, with a small minority in Amestrian, and very few in Xingian - Akira's collection of Xingian alchemical texts is actually notably much larger.

She likes this library. It's got character.

They only get to read two of the books each, but Bellona's very excited about her two - the translated notes of an alchemist who worked on fireworks and of one who studied the composition and alchemization of gases. They can take the books to their guest room for the night, and can read them tomorrow and takes notes, but the books have to stay in the house.

El picks a journal of Johannes Kepler and a book on biology, since that seems to be somewhat a popular subject at the moment.

Dante pulls them off the shelf for the girls, and then lets them go to read.

El's biology book has notes tucked into it musing about the connection between the soul and the biological function of the body, and how the condition of one impacts the other.

Good to know. Just in case.

Bellona gets distracted midway through her explosions book.

"You know, I bet the trade for a soul's simpler than sensei thinks," she says. "Sensei is really sensible for an adult but all adults make stuff way too complicated."

"Lots of stuff is actually really complicated when you look at it close enough, though."