Azhure: And more lore stuff regarding Alicia.
Voice: …
Manegia
Year 1421
Sometime after Alicia left the light chamber.
“Huh? Fancy seeing you up here, Rose,” Amelia greeted her, spinning the swivel chair to her direction, wondering why the vampire was up on the second floor with her legs reinforced with her loyal maneg.
“Hello, Amelia,” Rose greeted back. Watching the scientist twidling a Catalyst, she chuckled, “Fufu, I remembered when you first came here. You hid behind your brother all the time.”
“Haha,” the scientist laughed sarcastically. “I wonder why?”
“Anyway, have you said what you wanted to say to Alicia?”
“Not all,” Amelia replied guiltily, putting down the Catalyst she held. “I didn’t tell her that I already have a conclusive theory of her Vague Orders’ origin, with your help convincing me my own theory.”
“I see, though I believe it would be better she did not know now.”
“Right, if you say so.” Amelia sighed, “Rose?”
“Yes, Amelia?”
“I’ve only met her three times and in the first meeting, her dad beat me up. Why do I feel so worried about her?”
“Is it not obvious? It is our Maneg Souls that wanted us to care about her.” The vampire took a seat on a nearby stool. “Look at Owen and Russel. Even if they often argue with each other, at the end of the day, they will still help each other.”
“I know… Ugh, why do I gotta be a psychologist to even know what Maneg Souls are? But yeah, I’m concerned that if she kept that attitude, sooner or later she’s gonna break doing Court Wizard work.”
“Yes, and I think you should go and tell Ronald about your discovery of Alicia’s Vague Orders. If it is true then her father should know about it and I do not believe I can convey the technicals properly.”
“…” Amelia stood there silently. She smirked in a dejected tone. “I don’t think I wanna go to the guy who punched me in the face repeatedly until his daughter could even register what was happening.
“That’s why I came to you first.”
Kaomagi Earth
Year 2018
“Well?” Ronald said in a sharp tone. “What do you want, Amelia?”
“…” Amelia, however, stood there nervously.
She was definitely unwelcomed here, but it’s not like he held a grudge against the experiments she did with his daughter, right? No, scratch that, he definitely does. And to be fair, Amelia did request the operators to transfer her right inside the room where the Bell patriarch was staring at the black sky.
Judging by the tray of eaten snacks on the low table, he probably had a personal talk with Owen and Voice if the natural ability to sense other Maneg Souls aren’t failing her. And speaking of them, their Maneg Souls (and for Voice, a part of it) turned around when she transferred and were about to reach this room.
Amelia took and deep breath and…
CREEK
“I got an accurate idea of what Alicia’s Vague Orders manifested from.” Owen and Voice paused midway as the former opened the door hearing Amelia’s statement. Thank goodness I didn’t stutter, she thought.
“So you do know about it, Amelia,” Voice spoke and it didn’t take a genius like Amelia to know her shift from her usual behavior. “Mind giving them a recap?”
“I’ll get to it.”
They settled themselves in and Amelia explained what she just explained to Alicia days ago, giving a quick recap of her Vague Order theory as she doesn’t know if they knew about it.
“And my daughter simply ordered a [Fireball] like Owen told her and it came out with loyal maneg,” Ronald repeated. “[Mundane Orders], is that right?”
“[Mundande Ordering],” Amelia corrected. “But yes.”
“Right, and it stemmed from my daughter being a ‘passive listener and observer’?”
“Correct,” Amelia said and sipped her lukewarm tea. “For example, I gave name [Mundane Ordering] and she just accepts that without any input even though it’s her Vague Order for her to name!
“Alicia is the kind of girl that would just watch what was happening in front of her and listen to what others say without any objections nor opinion.” Amelia turned to the white-haired boy, “I’m sure you noticed in missions with her, Owen?”
“Now that I think about it,” Owen muttered with his head down, holding his chin, thinking. “Yeah, she kinda does. She only asked in briefings and leave it at that and she never did complain about what she has to do and just does it. Actually, she’s like that even more ever since she’s Court Wizard!”
“Yes, and I’m pretty sure that was the foundation for [Mundane Ordering],” Amelia said. “It’s her nature to just accept and do what was told. That led to her loyal maneg to just so what she ordered without question.”
“Wait,” Owen interrupted. “Back in Qantasia, she did suddenly went and roasted that SaltWaters noble.”
“Oh, that was a Bell tradition,” Ronald explained. “We were taught to talk down any sabotagers or anyone similar who dare to go out upfront like that.” He said it with pride before realizing, “Hmm, that would mean my daughter did that because she was taught to do so…”
“Yes,” Amelia nodded and continued, “and she probably thinks the stuff we do on the Otherworldly Court was something beyond her, even though we kept breaking our rules. It makes that trait of her’s even worse!”
“Really? My daughter usually complains about her security detail I made,” Ronald rebutted, recalling his daughter’s rant because he had Clint and Alexa, with lethal weapons, to secretly watch over her and Owen when they visited the orphanage, a Bell tradition stemming from the fact that his grandfather, her great grandfather, was an orphan.
“Oh, I’m pretty that meant it was too unreasonable, even for her,” Amelia retorted. Owen nodded in agreement, having experienced it with his childhood friend first hand.
“Is that so? Anyway, I don’t really see the problem with it.” Ronald shrugged. “If anything, it-”
“Dammit!” Amelia cursed as she suddenly stood up. “That’s exactly Emilia Willows’ problem! Rin Fujiwara at least spoke up instead of bottling up inside her heart!”
BASH
SHATTER
In a flash, Ronald shot up and threw his fist towards Amelia. But, a small glowing white [Barrier] stood in front of it. But the nature of the light Element was ill fit for the Order and as such, it broke immediately, but its purpose was completed.
“…Had enough?” Amelia replied in a huff. “Urk!”
“W-What the?”
Anger and surprise turned into confusion and horror as they watched the scientist sitting back, taking out a handkerchief, and wiped off the blood she coughed up to her hand.
“To test the theory of the origin Alicia’s Vague Order,” Amelia casually explained, “I drained all of my disloyal maneg and gave an Order while adopting that mindset of hers. The result? I can use [Mundane Ordering] too.”
“What the hell!?” Owen exclaimed. “That’s dangerous!”
“I have sixty-five percent loyal maneg,” Amelia argued. “So I’m fine.”
“But even so,” Ronald said, calming down a bit. “Why would you do that?”
“I did it convince myself. And… I only reached that conclusion because I consulted Rose,” Amelia admitted. “She saw what’s wrong Alicia the same with Emilia – that’s why she told me about her. And since I was the one who started this I’m here.”
Both Ronald and Owen were silent, unable to do anything but listen to her words.
“Okay,” Amelia continued, now in a more pleading tone. “This is completely out of character of me but-”
“Well you’re not wrong, but you aren’t quite right either.”
Everyone faced the red pixie who suddenly spoke up when she was silent throughout the whole conversation.
“Now let’s forget that gloomy topic for now,” Voice chimed. “While your assessment about my master’s Vague Order was spot on, you forgot about the other one.”
“Right,” the scientist realized. “I’ve only researched [Mundane Ordering] so I still don’t know exactly for sure what you’re supposed to be. That’s the other reason I’m here…”
“Then what are you?” Owen asked. “I still find it hard to believe you’re a part of Alicia’s loyal maneg…” and he widened his eyes.
“Yeah, I’ll cut to the chase.” The pixie stood up, flared up her tiny butterfly-like wings, and floated upwards.
And she spread her arms and declared.
“I am the inner part of Alicia who had always wanted to speak up, assert her opinion, and take action because she wanted to, contrary to what you said, Amelia. Or at least that’s what I’m supposed to be.”
“In other words, the feelings that my daughter hide manifested in you,” Ronald deduced to which the pixie nodded.
“What! No way!” Owen exclaimed, not accepting of what Voice really was of Alicia. “I don’t even remember you being like that! It’s only just you being obnoxious!”
“…What do you mean you’re ‘supposed to be’?” Amelia, however, was more intrigued with Voice’s closing sentence which somewhat ruined the statement and asked that.
“It’s about that one time my master left Owen to be friends with another,” Voice answered.
“Hmm? How did you…” Then Ronald remembered Voice was a part of his daughter’s soul, so she obviously knew about that. “How does that correlate to you?” he asked instead.
“Because there, she decided something for herself,” Voice explained. “And by the end of it, she felt really guilty for hurting Owen because of her ‘selfish’ actions.”
“And she’s been repressing it even since!?” Owen deduced as he stood up, feeling partially at fault for what his childhood friend had become.
“Yes,” the pixie nodded. “But that wish is still there even if she’s denying it. And that gave birth to me but at the same time distorting me into what I am.”
The room became silent for a while as revelations are being digested. Then, Amelia spoke.
“Interesting. So what would happen if Alicia were to finally accept that ‘part’ of herself?”
“Well, there’ll be two me’s!” Suddenly, Voice reverted back to her jolly attitude.
“Oh, please don’t,” Owen muttered in horror, unable to comprehend the consequences of such a case would happen.
“Or I’ll just disappear.”
“””..!””” Everyone stopped at her blunt declaration.
“But since I’m also regulating Alicia’s loyal maneg output, I’ll probably just take on whatever she has hiding left or just be an emotionless machine.”
“Voice… I…”
“Oh don’t worry about what’s gonna happen in the future!” The pixie shrugged off, reverting to her usual tone. “If it happens, it happens.”
“Well,” Ronald slumped on his couch. “Now I’m worried about the mission she has to go to… Maybe I should come too?”
“No, you do not need to participate in the last First Treaty mission,” Amelia denied. “Geez, your way too overprotective…”
“Forgive me,” Ronald apologized and went silent, contemplating something. Then, he continued, “my wife had failed her pregnancy thrice.”
“What?” Owen widened his eyes. Voice and Amelia showed similar reactions.
“I didn’t want to burden you nor Alicia of this knowledge. Two of our children didn’t survive before Alicia came to this world. Then, Irene and I tried to give Alicia a younger sibling but that did not work out, Alicia was too young to remember that.”
“I see…”
Yes, that would certainly justify his behavior. It was only natural to really cherish your only daughter born from two parents who by all means shouldn’t have met, a one of a kind girl who would never have a ‘doppelganger’ in another ‘Earth’
“Perhaps it’s because we are two different worlds that shouldn’t be possible to meet?”
“Nah,” Amelia rejected. “Spiri Raia’s Fantasy Law doesn’t affect your wife’s physiology – spirit arts there doesn’t need extra organs, just having a good relationship with spirits. It’s not your nor your wife’s fault.”
“Is that so?” Ronald quipped. “Thank you, Amelia.”
“Your welcome.”
Manegia
Year 1421
TAP TAP TAP CLICK
“Right, it’s done,” Amelia thought out loud as she stretched her arms.
After that conversation in Kaomagi Earth, Amelia decided to make the final update on [Avatar] and [Mundane Ordering]. Deleting the ‘may’s and ‘could’s and revising whole paragraphs as the theories were certain now.
But she did not immediately save and closed the records. She was eyeing on two paragraphs on the two separate Vague Order archives that were similar to each other, a recent addition.
They were, of course, about how the Vague Orders manifested due to Alicia’s stubborn attitude even if she hated what she saw and do on the inside.
Anyone could read this, including Alicia, Amelia thought.
In light of the revelation of Alicia’s Vague Orders, they had all decided that it would be better if she didn’t know about it so that she would change by her own will. Telling Alicia her problem would only make her try to do it because she was ‘told to do so,’ making it counterproductive.
However, Amelia couldn’t just delete these pieces of information, that would go against her pride as a maneg researcher. And thus, in those two paragraphs, Amelia selected them, except some parts at the beginning and the end, channeling her maneg and encrypting them with the following,
~Access denied, requires Amelia Ricken’s Maneg Soul signature~
Azhure: Next chapter should be the last.
Voice: RIght, now I’ll see what will you do to my master…
