Alchemy working and becoming widespread in the Mana Khemia universe would have the same effect on the death rate that the advent of modern medicine did here. Or more. Alchemy dying out or being outlawed? No more cures for cancer or the plague. You know how Jess' parents are about her in order to maintain their sanity? They'd have to go back to everyone feeling that way about all children under a certain age if alchemy was outlawed. That's what child mortality was like. Not to mention adult mortality.

According to the game, people are indeed suspicious of alchemy. If alchemy were to become associated with black magic and outlawed, the results would be horrific. The way alchemy students are quarantined in the school to prevent the spread of knowledge and not allowed out until they're licensed and the way they tossed a dying girl in jail for experiments that don't seem to have killed anyone instead of just indulging her? They not only need to prevent people like Mull and Palaxius (Atelier 1 & 2) from using alchemy to kill people, they also need to protect its reputation and ability to save lives at any cost.

I don't think this excuses people's reaction to Vayne at the end of the game, but it is an explanation. Atelier Iris 2 barely touches on what it meant for a world to lose alchemy, but consider that the events of that game happened for lack of a cure jar.

This and the following chatpers are going up now because my arm was twisted by fanart. Of the kittypile. I'll post a link to it on my profile if the artist gives permission.

There were more people in this workshop than Roxis was used to, so there wasn't space for him to have a work area to himself that he could just leave set up all the time. Flay, like Tony, didn't use the workshop and Pamela seemed to dabble about as often as Renee did, but Jess was almost always fiddling with something, Nikki actually did her homework, and Vayne was this workshop's equivalent of Roxis, in that he did all the actual work.

He soon learned that new guy or not, no one was going to force him to do chores when that was what Vayne was for, and Vayne, unlike Roxis, didn't glare at them. He sometimes said that something wasn't a good idea, raised his eyebrows or would be making snarky comments if he had any skill with words, but he always went along with whatever crazy thing the others were doing this time. Roxis had to admit there was a certain fascination to it, like watching a city burn.

It wasn't that Vayne was afraid they'd be mad at him if he put his foot down, he just seemed to shrug, go, 'if that's what you want,' and then go along with it to see what happened. It wasn't that he didn't seem to know how to say no, it was more like the idea of saying it never even occurred to him. How on earth did he get those grades with such an empty head? The concept of creating a recipe had never occurred to him? Really?

Being ignored didn't bother Vayne, he was probably used to it, living with a cat, but Roxis quickly found that the perfect way to drive him quietly insane was not to let him help.

And Anna, the new member, insisted on doing all the cleaning and straightening up herself. Since it was Vayne's job to do everything in the workshop by default, her saying that it was a mess had made him feel bad. For the first few weeks he kept hovering around or glancing at her while she was sweeping, after she'd said no when he asked her to give him the broom and let him do it, and Roxis considered watching that out of the corner of his eyes one of those little quiet joys in life.

As was his new kitten.

Not to mention that little drama mostly kept Vayne too distracted to attempt making friends with him. No, the problem was Nikki. Roxis just wanted to get his homework done, watch Vayne be uncomfortable, work on his research, and leave the workshop each day before the insanity contaminated him. Did she really have to keep trying to make friends with him and chattering in his ear?

And Anna's constant nagging was also distracting. Even if he mostly wasn't the one she was nagging he still heard all of it.

They eventually decided that he was more of a problem than Anna, judging from how they forced sacrificial-lamb Vayne to talk to him before confronting her. Probably they were worried about her sword and demonstrated willingness to use it on people. Well, on Flay, which didn't really count.

They found him being quiet and working hard more disturbing than obsessive-compulsive nagging cleanliness. That said a lot about them, not that it wasn't all already obvious.

Not to mention they seemed to think they were clever, and just because he wasn't impressed and didn't want to get involved in their useless banter…

"But it's pretty fun, talking like this," Vayne said, not just happily, but as though this was some fascinating discovery that he had made and was kind of proud of. As though this trite little platitude was not only actually true, but something that he had observed instead of being told. Had been not news to him, news was something you were told, but some amazing discovery that had changed his life for the better. 'Wow, being around other people is actually really awesome! Who knew? You should try this, it's great!'

It was then that Roxis started to actually consider the possibility that Vayne might be for real. Or really, really crazy. Perhaps his cruel remarks to Roxis had been inspired by that insanity. Maybe he was one of those unfortunate souls with split personalities that kept getting mistaken for cases of demon possession. Or maybe Vayne was just possessed by a demon instead of actually being an evil, deceptive serpent.

All he could do was stare at Vayne, who seemed to realize he'd said something weird and looked simultaneously sheepish and happy. Because he was happy here in this madhouse, and he wanted to share it with Roxis.

After Roxis managed to pick his dropped jaw up off the floor he knew he had better get out of there immediately in case this was catching. "I'm going to the library."

"Did you hear that? Maybe you were right all along. Maybe he just is that infuriatingly innocent and completely ignorant. Maybe he didn't actually mean to hurt me with those remarks. Maybe pigs do fly!"

The Mana of Wood knew he should wait until Roxis had stopped ranting, otherwise he wouldn't be able to get a word in edgewise.

"He just looks at me, and maybe he really doesn't get how infuriating it is that he's so perfect. Maybe he doesn't try because he doesn't get that there's anything to try to be. He's just such a child! No, a puppet, a perfect little slave who's only happy when he's being ordered around. Maybe Theofratus started dabbling before his mysterious death and made him that way, although one would think he'd pick a woman." If he were going to have brainwashed servants. It was a fairly common dark practice. "And that is just disturbing on so many levels. Can you imagine Vayne in a maid outfit? It's frighteningly easy!"

Roxis reached up and the wood mana took that as a cue to make the branch grow to drop the fruit in his hands. "He'd smile, and curtsy, and say, 'Yes Master,' and not see anything wrong with this picture. You know, that would explain a lot. Theofratus Aurelius was the most famous alchemist of the current era, if he went the way Palaxius did back in the time of the Empire…" He shouldn't say things like that aloud, things that would have to remain secret if they were true.

But, "If so, then someone has to do something about it. Or else he'll fall prey to someone the instant he leaves the academy. Perhaps that's why he actually likes Flay." Flay was definitely the type. "He needs to learn how to say no before he ends up like that again. Or perhaps I'm being too suspicious. Perhaps he really is Theofratus' son and he kept him locked up in the woods so that his enemies wouldn't know that such a perfect hostage existed. Maybe he just grew up trying to make his father happy with him so that he'd stay longer, and then when the man stopped coming he didn't know how to act around normal people and made them think he was possessed or crazy. That's definitely what he makes me think."

One of Roxis' mandragora plants ran up with something it had taken from a monster up ahead. "Yes, thank you." And the others kept insisting he bring someone along with him on supply runs when he was perfectly capable of taking care of himself, honestly.

"And having a mana that takes the form of a black cat is bad enough. I thought he was doing it to gloat, that no one had figured out he was evil even though there were such obvious signs, but what is the Mana of Sulfur doing, taking that form? Of course, given the popular connotations of that element," sulfur and brimstone, "perhaps he was Theofratus' familiar, not mana, and decided to take Vayne's soul next when he died. Well, that would be easy, he'd sign anything you put in front of him."

"But you like cats."

"Yes, but what does that have to do with anything? Sulpher's not really a cat." Roxis headed up the next rope ladder and looked around. "Over there, I think… If the rest of the students find out that Theofratus actually did have lands instead of being a wandering alchemist someone's going to drag him to her bedroom and then force him to get married for the sake of the child, and he'd have no idea what was going on. And I'd find that very amusing if it weren't for how the children would turn out."

Very few people who weren't nobility actually owned land. Alchemists were often given grants for services to various kings and archbishops, so they would have been snapped up on the marriage market the instant they got licensed if it weren't for the fact no social climber wanted to spend years living like a wandering monk waiting for it to pay off. Of course, that didn't apply to Roxis, whose family already had lands. He had needed to beat them off with a glare before Renee did something and they suddenly left him alone.

He didn't want to look a gift horse in the mouth, and he really didn't want to know what she'd told them. Ignorance was bliss when it came to some things.

"If it weren't for the fact he wouldn't recognize a hint if it were dropped from a great height onto his empty head he'd have a gaggle of them following him around." As it was, when someone gave him a sign he had permission to start courting them he didn't recognize it and they took it as lack of interest. "If he weren't so handsome he'd have a chance, but even though he has hair like an old blind man who cut it himself? Honestly, he's just too valuable a prize for his own good."

That, his mana agreed with him about.

"You'd think Theofratus had conjured up an incubus, or created life the way the ancients did. According to legend, anyway," Roxis added hurriedly. "He's like a pretty little doll." Roxis shook his head.

"Ohohoho, tell me more."

Startled, Roxis whirled around to see a great beast, like a white lion with a green gem set in its forehead. "Don't startle people who are standing on branches hundreds of feet off the ground!"

Her tail lashed, amused. "Is that any way to speak to the Mana of Light? So, you have a pretty little friend who might be in danger from dark powers?"

"He's not my friend. I would think the way I was insulting him would have told you that. It's pure speculation and likely slander, which is why I was saying it to my own mana in confidence." Eavesdropper.

"If he's that unique then I should examine him thoroughly. He may need my help, after all." Somehow, Roxis doubted that there would be much help involved.

"He already has a mana."

"You seem to doubt they're actually a mana. The power of light would allow me to break dark spells. A handsome young man, all alone in the world, in need of some… guidance. I wasn't intending to actually pact with any of the hopefuls, but this sounds very promising." She jumped over him instead of vanishing the way mana normally did, which told Roxis that she wanted him to follow her.

Well, why not? As much as she rubbed him the wrong way, this could only end well. If Vayne was under some spell then hopefully she'd break it and he'd stop being so infuriatingly like a perfect china doll, if he and/or Sulpher were a demon then he would have been right all along, and if the situation was entirely innocent then hopefully the Disciplinary Committee would stop keeping so close an eye this workshop, and by extension him. There was no actual downside, and, "What are you doing here?" Had they been following him?

Once again Vayne was the one to speak to him. "Well, you weren't in the library." He looked at the mana. "Hi, are you a friend of Roxis?"

She was almost licking her lips, watching him. "You're the most interesting thing I've seen in hundreds of years. And so handsome, too. I could just eat you up."

"Um, thanks, I guess?" Compliments always made Vayne sheepish.

Sulpher's fur didn't bristle, but it was clear he didn't like the way the mana was looking at Vayne, or the predatory way she circled them. "Very interesting indeed." She sat. "I've decided to pact with you."

"But I already have a mana," Vayne said as the others stared. Pacts with multiple mana were incredibly rare. Theofratus had two, three counting the Mana of Sulfur, it seemed. No one still living did.

She still seemed to be laughing inwardly as she looked at Sulpher. "I think it would be best, don't you agree? I've worked with alchemists for millennia, loaning them my mana power, and you don't have much experience with that, after all."

"You want to replace Sulpher?" Vayne seemed horrified by the idea, closer to refusing than Roxis had ever seen him.

"Oh no, I wouldn't do that." The way she said it, Roxis wouldn't put it past her. "I think we can work well together, don't you? For the sake of this dear little thing?"

Sulpher started to hiss, then he seemed to change his mind. He sat down and started to wash his paws.

"If it's alright with Sulpher," Vayne said to her.

She smiled, showing a great many teeth. "Good boy."

Roxis started to wonder if he should maybe be feeling a little guilty right about now. Mana were guardians of the natural order, and generally wouldn't tolerate demons and such. And if there wasn't anything unnatural about Vayne then he really was that ridiculously innocent and vulnerable to predators.

And Roxis had just led a predator right to him. One that had wasted no time in sinking its teeth into the nice juicy steak he'd told it about.

If it weren't Vayne he would definitely be feeling guilty. He reminded himself that he hated Vayne and this was just one more price Vayne would have to pay for being so obnoxiously perfect.

He tried to ignore how this mana instantly hit it off with Flay and Pamela.

Sulpher gets two mana and Vayne still doesn't get a clue. Mana Khemia 2 had the 'Something of Light and Darkness' support skills. I haven't put as much thought into how Vayne's skill set would change as I have Roxis and Nikki's, but while Roxis still has Purification and Judgement they're not actually from the Light Mana & Vayne has the 'laser death from above' skills but they work by throwing swords into the air which fall down over time.

Roxis' version involved summoning the light mana, and he summons mandragoras and other plant enemies and such here. There's also this magic circle shield he called in front of himself in the game that didn't count as an actual move, just part of his animation?

I had the 'megaheal' spell he casts in boss battles be potions in this universe, but I'll be making that shield into a spell. Since three people have already commented it, I have never seen Megaheal, as opposed to Teraheal (which describes itself as the ultimate healing spell) as a common skill on any piece of equipment. Thus, I am turning it into the name of an item. This is deliberate, not a research mistake, because of part of my philosophy on gameplay/story segregation and the fact having to use expendable potions on the tree in chapter one was better than a re-castable spell. It also ties it into X-heal, the first recipe he creates 'with Vayne.'