Sometime before the First Treaty operation's final mission.

"Um..." Alicia mumbled. "Is there something you need, Amelia?"

She was just having her usual tea break with others when the maneg scientist suddenly barged into the fire chamber and dragged her into the second floor of the light chamber.

It was quite a while since Alicia last stepped foot into the place. Looking back, she was also suddenly pulled into this place by Amelia with the purpose of researching her Maneg Soul which ended badly.

"Well!? Spit it out, Evil Mad Scientist Lady!"

"Ugh!" Amelia groaned upon Voice's demand. "I can't make heads or tail out of your master!" And she pointed both arms to Alicia with open hands.

"Uhm..." Alicia mumbled, feeling awkward at the maneg scientist's foul mood. "I am sorry?"

To that end, Amelia groaned again.

"It's about your Maneg Soul or more specifically, your Vague Order," Amelia muttered to Alicia. "And to a certain extent, you," she continued, pointing her finger on Voice.

"What!?" The pixie jolted back. "Are you gonna make us lab rats again!? Didn't you learn your lesson last time!?"

"Yeah, yeah, I got really into it so sorry about that." Amelia apologized but also shrugged with a shooing hand gesture on the pixie. "Besides, aren't you satisfied with Ronald beating me up? Like, how could he commit violence against an innocent maiden like me, anyway!?"

"Not even the slightest! Besides, you ain't an innocent maiden, thot!"

"Guh!" A figurative arrow struck the Evil Mad Scientist Lady.

"Uhm..." Alicia raised her finger, trying to get their attention.

"Hm?" Amelia turned her head. "Oh right! As I said, I'm here to talk about your Vague Order."

"What about it?" Alicia innocently asked.

"It makes no sense." Amelia deadpanned.

"Huh?" Alicia blinked.

"...Are we here just so you can rant about it!?"

"Right you are," Amelia replied to the pixie. "And I also need you Catalysts for monthly maintenance, Alicia," she continued while presenting her hand for Alicia to give her Catalysts to.

"Alright then." Alicia opened her purse, pulled out her rod Catalyst, and hand it to Amelia. She also took off her necklace Catalyst and gave it the scientist too.

"Right then," Amelia said as she brought the Catalysts to her Catalyst-filled desk, where there was also a laser engraving machine to carve smaller runes. "Lemme check this for a sec-"

KETINK KETINK KETINK

Then, a bright distorted glow of red and white shone from Amelia's hands holding the fire Catalyst. A snake of white and red emerged from the light, landed on the scientist's hands, and gave a hiss.

Alicia jumped and Voice jerked back when the snake Maneg Beast suddenly popped out of existence. But Amelia seemed unperturbed and more to being annoyed...

SLAP

THUD

SHIING

CRACKLE CRACKLE

HISS

...as she literally backhanded the snake and unleashed [Beam] on the poor critter as it fell to the floor. Looking at the dispersed amalgamation, Alicia now knew why there were so many scorch marks on the floor which also meant that this happened frequently.

"What... just happened?" Alicia asked after snapping out of her shock.

"You know Maneg Amalgamations are made when maneg of two different Elements mix?" Amelia answered with a rhetoric question. "Yeah, there's a small chance to happen when you touched the Catalyst's battery, which I need to for the maintenance, with different Element than yours. The maneg inside it probably touched the maneg circulating in our body."

And Alicia recalled Aqua mentioning a small portion disloyal maneg are under the skin to carry Orders faster. There was also an Order to 'surge' your body with maneg, but it also manifests an aura around the body related to the Element and just wasteful.

"Well, you probably won't trip one up since you don't have disloyal maneg," Amelia continued. "But even then, there's still a chance you will with your fire Catalysts on your person, so you shouldn't."

"So is that why we generally do not use Catalysts?"

"That's the second reason. The first, as you know, is that we don't really need to carry around a bulky Catalyst of the same Element unless there's a mission that needs one. Though you're a different case."

Alicia smiled wryly as Amelia emphasized her. Voice scoffed at the maneg scientist.

"Well, I'm trying to make a Catalyst that could store a lot of maneg," Amelia continued, "so we'll be carrying one pretty soon."

After checking the necklace Catalyst, Amelia returned the Catalysts back to Alicia. "Alright, these two haven't got a scratch on their runes. You've been using them well," she praised Alicia.

"So can we get over with your complaining and be done with it!?"

"Patience little pixie, now we'll move on to the next subject," Amelia said as she pulled out a whiteboard.

Pulling the marker cap, the maneg scientist wrote 'Vague Order' in the middle of the whiteboard.

"As you know, Vague Orders are Orders using loyal maneg and are conveyed with broader instruction, hence 'vague.'" Amelia tapped the word twice. "But, it also ain't something you can make in the Training Grounds."

SHRAK

SHRAK SHRAK

SHRAK

SHRAK SHRAK SHRAK SHRAK

Amelia drew a circle around the words and four lines coming out at the bottom.

"Based on what Rose said and my own extensive research, Vague Orders are based on four things, classified as 'Origin.'" Amelia proceeded to write 'like,' 'hate,' 'wish,' and 'fear' at the end of each line.

"Like is based on what you like, pretty straightforward. If you're a Nature Fauna Wizard fond of squirrels then you could have a Vague Order good at forming one.

"Hate is the opposite of like, pretty obvious there. If you don't like fire then you might have a Vague Order dedicated to douse fire effectively.

"Now wish is closer to normal Orders in a sense, it is based on what you want. Like, you wished to throw a [Fireball] that would reach its target without expiring, then you might use loyal maneg instead, making it a Vague Order.

"Fear is different from hate. Fear Vague Orders is because you're scared of what made the Vague Order, not hating it. For example, a Fire Court Wizard scared of the dark may invent a Vague Order that is essentially a torch."

As the scientist explained all of that, she also jotted down the essentials below each Origin. Alicia was able to more or less catch up to what Amelia explained by referencing these.

"Sound illogical coming from me?" Amelia quirked. "I know." Well, Amelia did emphasize 'extensive'.

"And it's also why Vague Orders are vague since your loyal maneg is your actual soul and so already know about it as it's based on your inner self," the maneg scientist continued. "Heck, you can even give one without saying anything! Though it does take practice to show the intent to your Maneg Soul."

"Any questions?" She saw Alicia shook her head. "Good."

SHRAK SHRAK SHRAK

Then, Amelia wrote another word. "Now, Cherished Armaments are technically the most common Vague Order manifestation. You know why?"

"Because they cherished them?" Alicia answered, though weakly.

"Pretty much," Amelia nodded. "They go into the like Origin because of their emotional attachment to certain belongings. Might be an heirloom, keepsakes, or even Cherished Armaments of a perished Court Wizard." She said the last factor with a solemn tune.

"I see." Alicia rolled her eyes. "Then what about Rose's loyal maneg reinforced legs?"

"They go to wishes. I'll be blunt, keeping crippled body parts just to remember important events in their lives is deadweight to them." Well, Amelia's statement couldn't be argued. "Hence, they 'wished' for it to not hold back on missions. Formally, it's called [Reinforcement]. [Reinforcement]s that replaced entire limbs have their own unique names, however.

"Anything else you wanna talk about before we move to the next subject?"

"Then what would my Vague Orders be- Eep!"

Alicia yelped as a marker was just a shy centimeter away from her forehead. Amelia had tried to smack her with the marker, but she seemed to stop just as she was about to hit her.

"Sorry," Amelia retracted her assault. "I got a bad feeling if I actually hit you."

"Damn right, Evil Mad Scientist Lady!"

"But seriously," Amelia brushed off Voice's snap. "Didn't I just told you I have no idea what your Vague Orders is supposed to be earlier!?"

Alicia, taken aback, finally recalled it. "Ah, you were right..."

"Well, if I had to," Amelia continued. "Your Vague Order consists of normal Orders with loyal maneg due to your composition. I would classify it into one name for convenience's sake, something like [Mundane Ordering]."

"Alright then, we will go with that."

"You see!" Suddenly, Amelia snapped. "Can you at least have an input?"

"H-Huh?"

"Anyway, I still need more data to be conclusive." The scientist brushed her previous statement, making it incoherent. "So, what did you do at the Training Grounds?"

"W-Well, I just do the [Fireball] Order exactly as Owen taught me."

"Then it should be a wish Vague Order because you tried to perform a normal Order and expected it to work. That would also make it the Trigger too."

"Trigger?"

"Oh, I forgot to teach you that." Amelia then wrote the word 'Trigger' on the board. "Trigger is the reason and the moment which gives birth to Vague Order. Again, it ain't like normal Orders that you came up with on the Training Grounds.

"For example, Cherished Armaments aren't made the when the Court Wizard laid their sight upon the item they liked for the first time since becoming one, they also gotta be in the right emotional moment with said item in their vicinity. Well, it is a little vague, but that's why they're called Vague Orders."

She then proceeded to write down note-like explanations below the word Trigger, just like with the Origins.

"Like and hate's Triggers are usually when the Court Wizard was thinking of something they liked and hated with a related entity in front of them.

"Wish's Trigger is the moment when the Court Wizard wanted the Vague Order to be created, no questions there.

"Fear's Trigger, on the other hand, happens when you're spooked of your socks and you ain't got a normal Order to solve that. Then, your Maneg Soul hastily creates a Vague Order to resolve that issue.

"Well, there could exceptions, but we're not talking about that. Anyway, you!"

"Nyeh!" Voice froze in a pose when Amelia suddenly pointed at her.

"When did she first appear?" Ignoring the pixie, Amelia asked Alicia.

"Um..." Alicia held her chin.

"Thank you. Now, are there any questions?"

"Hmm... I don't know... I do have something I need to ask."

"What is it?"

"I think it's about the voice probably coming from my Maneg Soul."

"Huh? A voice from your own Maneg Soul?"

.

.

.

"I can help you with that!"

As Alicia recollected that conversation with Alice, she explained, "It started when..."

"I see," Amelia said. "You see there, the Trigger for Voice to appear was when you talked about that voice on the day you were recruited with Master Alice and wanted answers.

"She appeared when you need it the most, making her a wish Vague Order. Though I'm pretty sure your little pixie just wants to show up cool and all, which she didn't."

"Hey!" Voice fouled, it seemed to Alicia that she didn't like the Evil Mad Scientist Lady snickering the part where she was crushed between Owen and Russel's foreheads the moment she appeared.

Though Alicia expected for the avatar of her Maneg Soul that snark further, but she didn't. Oh well.

"Anyway, you understood so far, Alicia?" Amelia asked.

"...I think I get the idea."

"Brilliant!" Amelia exclaimed as she put the marker cap back to its place. "This should be the end of this pep talk. Thank you for taking your time and I hope to see you again!"

The sudden end by Amelia threw Alicia off. However, she still remembered one last thing the maneg scientist didn't clarify.

"Wait," Alicia stopped. "You have not told me where [Mundane Ordering] came from."

"Oh, it came from you being a passive listener and observer." The scientist deadpanned.

"What?"

"Lecture's over, now shoo! shoo!"

Amelia pushed Alicia out of the room with Voice screaming bloody murder for some reason. As Amelia closed the door behind her, she sighed.

"Guess you didn't ask about Voice, huh?" she mumbled.

Looking back, that exchange still left Alicia confused. But she at least saw an example of it at this very moment.

BANG BANG BANG

DING DING DING

"The rifles aren't doing anything!"

"Dammit!"

The Wolfram soldiers shouted in frustration as their spinning bullets simply bounced off of Crea's [Shield].

Alicia didn't know her circumstances that led to it, as it wasn't her place to pry, but Crea was a staunch pacifist. She heard that Crea was so aversed to violence that she refused to order a simple [Lightningball] - this also meant her lack of rank.

Crea's Vague Order, [Shield], was the result of her pacifistic wish. As she would not learn offensive Orders, she instead opted for a defensive one.

By using her own loyal maneg, she could form a [Barrier]-like Order which she can place in any location in any shape (usually dome-shaped) by pure intent, no declaring meters from the center of gravity at all, to protect those in harm.

But...

RATATATATATATATATATA

"Shoot! Shoot- Guagh!"

"M-My hand! My hand!"

"You monster!"

How ironic that it made the monster 'immortal'.