History - Backstory, FC Prologue, FC Chapter 1 & 2
Spoiler warning for Trails in the Sky FC and SC. In addition, this is very long. You've been warned.
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Once upon a time, in a village called Hemel located on the border between the Liberl Kingdom and the Erebonia, lived a young boy. He was rather timid, and relied on the kindness of others - in particular, that of his sister Karin and a man by the name of Leonhardt, who was a close friend of the two and acted as a big brother figure of sorts for the boy. Despite his timid nature, however, the boy was happy, as he had people who cared about him.
That boy’s name was Joshua Astray.
His life proceeded normally, until one day - ten years before the start of the game - the village was attacked by invading soldiers at the start of the Hundred Days War, who set fire to the buildings and slaughtered innocents. Though Leonhardt attempted to hold some of them off, one of the soldiers eventually caught Karin and Joshua. The young boy tried to fight the soldier off, but to no avail; while he managed to severely injure the man with the gun he had dropped, it only served to provoke him into attacking the boy, but the attack failed to hit its mark. Rather, his sister took the hit for Joshua. By the time Leonhardt arrived to deal with the injured soldier, it was already too late to save Karin, and after giving her harmonica to Joshua and asking Leonhardt to take care of him, she died with a smile on her face, happy that she was able to protect her brother.
Claiming that Joshua was also happy would be a complete lie, however. The boy utterly broke, essentially going catatonic as a result of the events he had witnessed. He refused to speak, barely ate and hardly reacted to anything, only playing the harmonica that used to belong to his sister. Though Leonhardt attempted to take care of him, nothing seemed to undo even part of the damage done to the boy that day.
After some time, the two encountered a wandering magician by the name of George Weissmann. He offered to heal Joshua’s heart, provided he would be compensated for his efforts. Specifically, he requested that the two join a secret society by the name of Ouroboros, and so they did.
Unfortunately, Weissmann was hardly what one would consider a good person, and soon enough, he realized that given the boy’s state, it would be child’s play to twist his existence into whatever he wished. Rather than only attempt to restore Joshua to the same state he was in before the attack on Hamel by using his ability to block out memories, he instead did just that, but also altered his heart into that of a killer by blocking out his ability to feel fear, compassion and remorse. For the first two years that followed this, after asking Leonhardt to train him because he wished to assist him, the boy ended up being sent on missions frequently, and killing became something he did on a daily basis.. He was ruthless and efficient, not even hesitating to use methods that would harm or even kill innocent bystanders if he had to. Soon enough, his feats would earn him the rank of an enforcer within Ouroboros - specifically, Legion XIII, the “Black Fang”.
It’s worth noting that at some point, Joshua and Leonhardt were tasked with taking out a branch of the D.:.G Cult. When they did, they also discovered a young girl by the name of Renne, who had been sold to the cult by her parents and had been abused ever since. At Joshua's request, they end up taking her with them, and she essentially ends up being adopted by the two, as she easily spends the most time with them after joining Ouroboros and the three actually seem kind of happy together, considering the circumstances.
Five years after the events at Hemel, Weissmann gave Joshua an assassination order. His target was none other than Cassius Bright, a powerful hero who had protected the nation and its queen in the past. Before Joshua sets out, Weissmann places him under suggestion, supposedly to strengthen his heart for his mission, but at the time it seems to have little effect on him. The assassination ultimately failed, as Cassius proved to be the significantly stronger one of the two. Since Joshua’s face had been seen, other members of Ouroboros attempted to kill him, but Cassius fended them off, taking the boy back to his home and adopting him. From that day on, his name was no longer Joshua Astray, but Joshua Bright, and Cassius raised him alongside his daughter Estelle, as if he had always been his own son.
In truth, the other members were never supposed to succeed in killing Joshua for his failure: the true purpose of his mission was not to kill Cassius, but to act as a spy for Ouroboros, by gambling on the fact that Cassius was likely to protect his would-be assassin from his attackers, rather than finishing him off himself. When the other members of the society attacked Joshua, a large portion of his memory was wiped. In the years that would follow, several of the other members would occasionally check up on him, and, with a little aid courtesy of Weissmann’s earlier suggestion - which served as a sort of mind control that could be activated with a certain trigger - have him pass on the information he gathered about Cassius to them.
In the five years that followed, Joshua returned to living a mostly normal life, recalling only part of what had occurred prior to his attempt to assassinate Cassius, and even those few memories seem to gradually become more and more vague as time passes. He and Estelle worked to become Bracers, like Cassius, and eventually, a while after Estelle's 16th birthday, they take the test to become Junior Bracers and pass it successfully. Their first job - on the same day as the test - is to bring two children who had gone to the Tower of Esmelas (known for being a breeding ground for monsters) safely back to the town. While they manage to locate the children, they succeed primarily due to Cassius showing up in time to save the group from an ambush by a monster.
Later that day, Cassius informs them that he will be leaving on an important job. The two agree to carry out some of the other jobs he had accepted earlier in his place, and see him off the next day. These all proved to be relatively simple jobs: dealing with monsters at the Perzel Farm, retrieving a septium crystal from the town’s mines for the mayor as it is to be given to the Queen as a gift (which proves to be a little more complicated, as a collapse in the mines causes monsters to appear there, requiring the duo to help out the miners there before they can complete the delivery), and taking a reporter for the Liberl News and his camerawoman to the Tower of Esmelas to take photos of the area. During the last job, they encounter an archaeologist who calls himself Professor Alba, who claims to be investigating ruins like the tower. Since the area is dangerous and the man had apparently been fleeing from monsters, the group takes him back to town with them once the job is done with, but they soon part ways again.
As the duo returns to the guild to report about completing the final job Cassius had left for them, the mayor appears at the guild, reporting that his house had been robbed. After investigating at the crime scene, the evidence there pointed to none other than Josette, a supposed student of the Jenis Royal Academy who had been at the mayor’s house when Estelle and Joshua retrieved the sepith crystal for him - the one thing that had been stolen in the robbery. The two, together with their mentor and senior bracer Scherazard, track the girl down, and eventually find her hiding in the nearby Mistwald. However, while the group manages to recover the crystal, they fail to arrest Josette, as an airship commanded by an ally of hers arrives in time to allow her to escape.
When the three return to the guild, they receive their first recommendation for doing such great work over the past several days; receiving a recommendation from all regional branches in the kingdom is the requirement for a promotion to senior bracers. But before they can leave to head home for the day, the phone goes off: it’s a call from the Bose branch of the Bracers Guild, noting that the airliner Linde had disappeared, and that Cassius was on board when it went missing.
Though initially shocked by the news, the trio ultimately decides to head to Bose (by foot, as the airliners cancelled their flights until the Royal Army finished investigating Linde’s disappearance) to find Cassius… and to find out just what had happened.
Before leaving, the three stop by at the Rolent Bracer Guild to inform Aina that they will be leaving. While Scherazard remains behind temporarily to discuss a job she’d intended to do, Estelle and Joshua head to the clock tower. The two briefly speak about what had happened there during the Hundred Days War - the tower had collapsed during an attack, and Estelle’s mother Lena had died to protect her - but soon enough, they meet up with Schera again and head off toward Bose.
Though they have to stop at the Verte Bridge Checkpoint momentarily to acquire a Gate Pass to be given permission to go through, it doesn’t take them very long until they arrive in Bose. There, they learn from Lugran, the overseer of the Bracer Guild’s Bose branch, that the Royal Army is investigating the situation, but very little information about the results thus far have been provided. This is because one of the people involved in the investigation is General Morgan, a man famous for repelling the Imperial Army’s invasion 10 years ago… as well as for hating bracers. Due to his orders, soldiers of the army are actively blocking people, bracers included, from investigating several areas, hindering the search immensely.
But fortunately for the group, Bose’s Mayor Maybelle submitted a request to the guild asking them to conduct their own investigation. After Estelle and Joshua switch their registration to the Bose branch, the trio accepts the request and after a little bit of searching, they meet up with the mayor. At her request, they head to the Haken Gate to attempt to get some information out of General Morgan, hiding their identities as bracers to do so.
At the gate, they are told that the general is currently out investigating, but that he should be back soon. The group opts to wait at the nearby rest stop’s bar, where they encounter a traveling bard from Erebonia. After a rather… interesting chat, they are informed that General Morgan has returned and go to speak to him. During the conversation, they find out that a letter demanding a ransom had been sent to both the Royal Family and Orbalship Co. by the Capua Family - the same family that Josette had belonged to. Unfortunately, due to a slip of the tongue on Estelle’s part, Morgan ends up realizing that the party are bracers, and proceeds to kick them out; in fact, the situation escalates so far that Scherazard and Morgan end up in a rather heated argument with each other, which is only stopped by the bard the group had met earlier interrupting them all with a song. Afterward, the general leaves, and the Erebonian introduces himself as Olivier Lenheim. As this is his first time in Liberl, he ends up asking the party to act as a guide for him, and they take him to Bose, where they part ways once again.
The group meets up with Lugran to tell him what they had learned, then head to Mayor Maybelle’s house to inform her about the same thing. In front of her house, they witness Nial and Dorothy attempting to meet the mayor, though her maid Lila refuses to allow them in. The party meets up with Maybelle and tells her what they found out, and accidentally mention that Cassius was aboard the airship as well - and that he’s their father. She reacts strangely, but not long afterward, the trio decides to speak to Nial to see if he managed to find any clues about the incident. In exchange for sharing their information with him, he brings two things to their attention: that the military’s new Intelligence Division, headed by Colonel Richard, is on the move, and that an eyewitness in Ravennue Village saw a huge shadow flying overhead on the night of the incident.
Afterward, the three head toward Ravennue Village to investigate the eyewitness report. Along the way, they encounter a red-haired man who appears to be acquaintance with Scherazard and recognizes Cassius, though he doesn’t seem to be particularly fond of him. After he leaves, Joshua recognizes him as “Heavy Blade Agate”: Agate Crosner, a senior bracer just like Schera.
At the village, the group first opts to speak to Elder Reisen, who tells them that the eyewitness in question was a boy named Lewey, and that the army had already investigated the area and found nothing. Lewey himself tells them that on the night of the incident, he saw two shadows, a small one and a larger one, heading in the direction of the abandoned mine north of the village. The group decides to investigate and, after returning to the mayor to retrieve the key for the mine, go as far as to take a look around the mine itself, as the army had not done so yet.
They eventually come across a large, open area in the mine, where both the Linde and the Capua Sky Bandits’ airship are parked, with the bandits currently being in the process of transferring some of the Linde’s cargo into their own airship. When the party confronts them, the leader of this particular group, Kyle, notes that they’re “not supposed to be here this early”. They lose, but before the three bracers can apprehend them, Kyle manages to use a smoke bomb to allow him and his group to flee.
After the smoke clears, the party decides to investigate the airliner itself, but to no avail; the Sky Bandits had already cleared it out completely, and neither the hostages nor its cargo were there. Just as they were about to leave in order to ask the army for their cooperation, said army actually arrived at the mine… and proceeded to arrest the party on suspicion of them assisting the Sky Bandits.
It’s not long before the party is let out of the Haken Gate’s prison again, however, as Mayor Maybelle has them freed after explaining the situation to General Morgan. She also ends up having Olivier freed, who was also in jail… albeit for stealing and drinking a bottle of Grand Chardonnay wine from the Alterose restaurant, rather than being suspected of helping the Sky Bandits. After talking the situation over with her, the four learn that during the previous night, the Sky Bandits had attacked the south block and robbed the weapons shop, the orbal factory, as well as several private residences. She once again requests that the group continue their investigation, and they do so - and along the way, they encounter Colonel Richard, who even helps the group out when some of General Morgan’s men attempt to keep them from investigating.
After speaking to several people, the group learns that someone at the inn down the lakeshore to the south of Bose had seen a strange bunch there not long ago who, according to the people at the inn, hadn’t even been staying there. They decide to speak to the man - a rather enthusiastic fisherman - and learn that the “strange bunch” was in fact Josette and someone else, and that they were supposedly planning to meet up again that very night. Thus, the group decides to try to spy on the two, passing away the time until the night by fishing, reading, drinking at the inn and talking about personal matters. That night, the three bracers - Olivier had passed out from drinking too much - do indeed end up seeing the two individuals, and sure enough, it is Josette, accompanied by none other than Kyle. The two meet up with two masked man that arrive by boat, with one of the two informing the duo that the Queen herself will be contributing to the ransom, as well as telling them about the situation regarding the army and the bracers.
Rather than remain and continue to simply spy on the group, however, the bracer trio decides to try to find the Sky Bandits’ airship… after Joshua spaces out briefly and mutters something about how his mind is playing tricks on him. They discover the airship in front of the Amberl Tower, and while debating what to do, Olivier meets up with the other three and suggests something to them: sneaking onto the airship so they can infiltrate the Sky Bandits’ own hideout. They do so.
At the hideout (which turns out to be located in the Nebel Valley), after dealing with three different groups of the bandits, they finally manage to locate the hostages, though Cassius is nowhere to be found. As it turns out, he disembarked from the Linde just before it left for reasons unknown, and there was no time to document the changes in the list of passengers. They decide that, since trying to help the hostages escape first is too risky, that they’ll go after the Sky Bandits’ bosses first.
When they do come across the room that the aforementioned bosses are in, they eavesdrop on them first - as it turns out, the third head of the Sky Bandits, Don Capua, has been acting strange, to a point where he even ends up hitting Kyle and threatening both him and Josette, not to mention that he actively considers having the hostages killed after receiving the ransom and continuing their large-scale crimes in the future. The group charges in and a fight ensues, though it ends with the party victorious.
Things start getting a little strange after the battle. Once Don recovers from the battle, his behavior is vastly different, and he doesn’t even seem to remember anything that happened since just a little while before the Linde was hijacked. Even his eye color differs a little; while they were red earlier, they’re blue now. Unfortunately, the ensuing confusion gives Kyle the opportunity to throw another smoke bomb, and the three bandits flee out of the room and head upstairs, in an attempt to make it to their airship. The party gives chase.
To everyone’s surprise, by the time the group makes it upstairs, the Sky Bandits have already been captured - by none other than the Royal Army, led by Colonel Richard and General Morgan! Though Morgan is as hostile toward the three bracers as ever, Richard manages to calm him down, and gives the party his thanks for the great service they did their nation. He leaves to handle the transportation of the hostages and cargo… followed by Captain Amalthea, as well as Nial and Dorothy, who intend to interview him.
At the guild, the group talks things over, and both Lugran and Maybelle agree that the army’s raid wouldn’t have been so successful if it hadn’t been for the party’s presence… even if Colonel Richard did essentially steal the show in the end. There are still unanswered questions, but as long as the Sky Bandits are with the Royal Army, there isn’t really anything that can be done about them. For their efforts, Estelle and Joshua receive another recommendation, and, just a few minutes later, a letter and a parcel addressed to the Bright family arrive - both had apparently been aboard the Linde. The letter is from Cassius himself, addressed to his two children; in it, he lets them know that he ran into some trouble with his work, and that he won’t be back until after the Queen’s birthday celebration, which is a few months off. He also tells them that they’re free to either continue working in Rolent or to pursue qualifying as a senior bacer.
The parcel, however, has no sender on it. Inside is only a black, hemispherical device - some sort of orbment, similar to a battle orbment but lacking in quartz slots - and a memo from “K.”, who was able to secure the item from some sort of group and asks that the orbment be taken to a “Professor R” so he can do an analysis of it. After mulling over the item for a while, the party suspects that it may be an artifact… and after a brief outburst from Estelle, she and Joshua decide to continue their journey to become senior bracers, keeping an eye out for any news about Cassius along the way.
Scherazard and Olivier head back to Rolent together by airship, whereas the two junior bracers instead choose to head for their next destination - Ruan - by foot which, while it’ll take longer, will allow them to save the money they would pay for an airship trip and to see more of the places they are meant to protect as bracers.
The two arrive at the Krone Pass Checkpoint close to sundown, and therefore choose to stay for the night. When they speak to the private currently on duty, he warns them that heading down the path now would be suicide due to a large number of monsters appearing there lately. After speaking to the sergeant, they stay at the check point’s rest stop for the rest of the night, and following dinner, another guest arrives whom the two are supposed to share a room with - none other than Heavy Blade Agate, who the two had encountered earlier. During a rather heated conversation, he mentions having to do work that Cassius had “forced on him”, but chooses to go to sleep rather than attempt to explain anything further.
In the middle of the night, the checkpoint is attacked by wolves. Agate runs off to check the situation, and Estelle and Joshua follow him. The three come across two of the soldiers being attacked by a pack of wolves, but they refuse to accept help from the bracers - and soon enough, the trio hears a whistle from the other side of the checkpoint, where a lone soldier has also been attacked by another pack of wolves. The three fight them off, and once the situation is resolved, return to sleep after Agate briefly compliments the duo’s skill.
The next day, Agate leaves the checkpoint early, and Estelle and Joshua speak to the soldiers about the situation from the previous night, then fill out the paperwork required for them to pass through the checkpoint and head toward Ruan. The two eventually arrive at Manoria Village, where they stop at the resident inn for lunch. There, they come across a girl wearing a Jenis Royal Academy uniform, who’s searching for a little boy, about ten years old and wearing a cap, whom Joshua believes he may have met before, but as they haven’t seen the boy she’s looking for, they part ways.
Following lunch, the two notice a bird flying around, and on their way out of town, the two bump into a young boy with a cap - the same one the girl earlier had been looking for, and apparently, he’s looking for her as well. The two inform him about this, and he runs off…
…and not long afterward, Joshua notices that Estelle is missing something - her Bracer Emblem. More likely than not, the boy took it when he “accidentally” bumped into Estelle. After asking around, the two find out that the kid is one of the orphans from the Mercia Orphanage, and head there to attempt to get Estelle’s Bracer Emblem back. Once there, they come across the boy, Clem, and after a brief chase, Estelle catches him, but before being able to retrieve her emblem, the bird that the two had seen earlier swoops in, commanded by the uniform-wearing girl.
As it turns out, the girl’s name is Kloe, and she thought that a thief had broken into the orphanage. While Estelle chases after Clem again, the owner of the orphanage, Matron Theresa, and tricks Clem into admitting that he stole Estelle’s emblem, then makes him return it to her. The group talks about the previous events over some tea and apple pie, and in the process, Estelle and Joshua learn that Kloe really is a student of the Royal Academy, unlike Josette, and that she lives on its campus. Afterward, since the two are headed to Ruan, and Kloe also has a few things to do there, she agrees to show them around. As they begin to leave, they briefly run into Clem once more, who - after Kloe convinces him - apologizes for his earlier actions, though not without insulting Estelle.
In Ruan, they stop by at the guild, where the two are told that they won’t be able to switch assignments until the receptionist Jean returns, as he’s attending to a guest at the time. Instead, the two of them choose to go sight-seeing with Kloe. On the way back from the warehouse district, the three are stopped by three guys, who attempt to flirt with Estelle and Kloe. Eventually, they start to threaten Joshua, who intimidates them by remaining calm. Before the conflict can escalate, another man approaches, shortly followed by none other than Mayor Dalmore himself. Kloe recognizes him, as well as the younger man - Gilbert, the mayor’s private secretary. After they threaten to inform the Bracer Guild, and Estelle and Joshua reveal themselves as bracers, the three thugs run away. Mayor Dalmore then explains that they’ve been having hard times lately, but notes that Jean would be the one best able to supply details about the situation, then leaves together with Gilbert after exchanging a few more words with the trio.
Back at the guild, Jean is finally back, who soon compliments the duo on the way they handled the Sky Bandit incident. They switch their assignment to the Ruan branch, and are told that they’re expecting a member of the royal family to visit soon. They find out that the three thugs from earlier were members of a group calling themselves the Ravens, who have been misbehaving lately.
After watching the drawbridge go up, the three head to Hotel Blanche, and as luck would have it, they just had a cancellation for the room on the top floor. They head outside to see Kloe off, and she tells them about the campus festival at the end of the next week. Estelle decides that they should go, but until then, they’ll have to work.
After checking out their room, they come across a nobleman and his butler checking their room, seemingly interested in staying there. After he attempts to send them away, he reveals himself to be Duke Dunan von Auslese, the nephew of Queen Alicia. Though the two initially don’t believe him, his butler Phillip confirms the claims of his identity and, after an outburst from Estelle in response to the Duke’s behavior, offers them a large sum of mira in exchange for relinquishing their room. They pass on the room, but decline the mira and instead head down to the front desk in an attempt to claim another room… except by now, all of the rooms are booked.
While they’re there, Nial shows up, and they explain their situation to them. He offers to let them stay in his room, since he has some extra beds. The two take him up on his offer, and he notes that he wanted to pay them back for helping him with his story regarding the Sky Bandit incident and Colonel Richard’s achievements. They talk for a while, and find out that Nial is after another story, but he can’t say anything about it yet because it’s just too big. He then offers to take the two out and treat them to dinner, which ends with them having to bring him back to the hotel after drinking himself into unconsciousness.
The next day, Estelle and Joshua head to the guild to see if there’s any assignments for them, and around that time, the guild receives a phone call. As it turns out, the night before, the Mercia Orphanage caught fire and burned down, though it’s still unclear whether it’s an actual case or a simple accident. The two head to the remains of the orphanage to investigate, where they find most of it completely wrecked. Two details stand out, however: the hinge of the door looks as if it had been torn off prior to the fire, and something near one of the walls smells strange, not to mention that the fire damage is worse there. Joshua notes that the smell seems to be some sort of flammable oil, and that combined with everything outside being scattered around seems to hint toward someone having started the fire on purpose.
As the two talk about their discoveries, Kloe shows up, wondering why anyone would do something like this. Once she calms down, the three decide to head to the inn in Manoria, where Matron Theresa and the orphans are staying. They speak to Theresa, and from her, they learn that it most likely the fire likely wasn’t for the sake of a robbery, and it wasn’t for revenge, either. In addition to that, someone helped them out at night when one of the beams blocked the way through the entry hall - a silver-haired man, maybe in his late twenties, whom none of the villagers knew, but who didn’t strike her as a bad man. The mention of that man briefly seems to cause Joshua to space out, but soon enough, he notes that they should disregard him as a suspect. Shortly afterward, Mayor Dalmore and Gilbert show up, and Gilbert notes that he suspects the Ravens, but his suspicions are mostly disregarded. Dalmore offers to let Theresa and the orphans stay at his villa in Grancel until the orphanage is rebuilt, but she requests more time to think, and the two leave again.
A little while later, it turns out that Clem’s disappeared, having seemingly gone after the Ravens after hearing Gilbert’s speculation. They head back to Ruan, where they find him running across the drawbridge as it’s being raised. They follow him using a rental boat to head to the warehouse district, where they finally come across Clem trying to deal with the Ravens in one of the warehouse. They fight them, but they refuse to let Clem go - and eventually, someone else arrives: none other than Agate, whom the Ravens seemingly recognize. After punching two of them, they finally let Clem go, and after he warns Clem about his behavior, Matron Theresa arrives. After exchanging a few more words, Estelle and Kloe escort the two of them away while Joshua returns the boat. They speak a little more, and when Joshua returns, he reassures Clem about his behavior, while nevertheless telling him that he should leave fighting the criminals to them and support the matron and the other kids instead.
They part ways and the trio returns to the guild, where they report about the situation and learn that Agate used to be the leader of the Ravens. While Jean is telling them about him, though, Agate actually shows up, and interrupts vouching for the Ravens’ innocence, as they had been too busy getting drunk that night. He then says that he’ll take over the case, and after a brief argument, leaves again. After handing in the report for the investigation, Kloe asks if Estelle and Joshua could help out with the play for the campus festival, as there are two major roles that haven’t been filled yet. They agree, taking her request on as a bracer assignment.
At the Jenis Royal Academy, they meet up with Dean Collins, who decides to have dorm rooms set up for the two, since they’ll be spending a lot of time rehearsing with the campus festival so close. They meet up with the student council’s president and vice president, Jill and Hans, who tell them a little about the play: it’s the “Madrigal of the White Magnolia”, but for the play in question, the genders of the actors are reversed compared to their actual roles. Estelle’s role is that of a knight, whereas Joshua’s is a particularly “crucial role” - that of Princess Cecilia, the heroine.
Most of the rest of the duo’s time at the academy is primarily spent rehearsing for the play, though they do attend a few classes as well. On the day of the festival, the group chooses to spend what little time there is prior to the actual play having fun and speaking to various people they recognize, including Professor Alba, who is supposedly there to investigate a discovery within the Sapphirl Tower and was hoping the academy could provide him with some useful materials. They take him to the social studies room and head downstairs, where Matron Theresa and the kids arrive. When the subject shifts to the play, after a moment of hesitation, Joshua offers to take the kids to see the costumes intended for the play, and they agree.
However, shortly after taking them backstage, Joshua chooses to leave - apparently, the silver-haired man Theresa had mentioned was sighted on the campus, and so he’s decided to go looking for him. He chases him all the way to the old school building, but eventually loses track of him and stops on the building’s roof. While mumbling out loud to himself, Estelle and Kloe show up, having gone looking for Joshua after finding out that he ran off without leaving a message. Shortly afterward, an announcement calls all play personnel to the auditorium. They briefly tell Carna - a bracer they’d previously met at the Ruan branch - about the silver-haired man so she can keep an eye out for him, even if Joshua doesn’t believe that he’s their arsonist.
The play commences shortly afterward, and is very well-received; in fact, it turns out that the academy used the play to collect donations to help rebuild the orphanage, and they managed to earn a grand total of one hundred thousand mira with the help of some particularly famous guests, such as the duke and the mayor of Bose.
After the cleanup following the festival is done, Estelle and Joshua decide to head back to the guild, while Kloe decides to go to Manoria, and thus they head to Gull Seaside Way together and prepare to part ways. Before they can do so, however, one of the people from Manoria runs up to them and informs them that Matron Theresa was attacked near the village. He tells them that she and Carna were assaulted by a strange group, and that the kids are fine, but the two of them were knocked out. The duo sends him back to Ruan to inform the group, while they and Kloe head to the inn at Manoria to confirm the situation.
There, it turns out that Carna and Theresa weren’t hurt, but just knocked out with sleeping powder without side effects. Mary tells them that a group of masked guys attacked them and took the envelope with the donations from Theresa. Agate overhears part of the discussion, and after the duo gives him the whole story, he notes that the Ravens that were hanging out in the warehouse went missing… but given the fact that they’re easily intimidated, this isn’t the sort of crime that suits them. For the time being, the four decide to investigate the crime scene, but before they get there, Sieg, Kloe’s gyrfalcon, meets up with them, and leads them toward where he saw the culprits - to the Varenne Lighthouse.
After convincing Agate, the group heads into the lighthouse, where they come across some of the Ravens, but their eyes are oddly blank and emotionless, not to mention that, oddly enough, they seem to be much stronger than before. After fighting them, Agate and Joshua note that it seems as if they were being controlled, most likely using special hypnotic induction using a combination of drugs and suggestion. They head up the lighthouse and fight two more groups, until they finally arrive at the top.
There, they encounter Gilbert, accompanied by two black-clad, masked men. They overhear him speaking to the other about how the mayor was planning to build a series of vacation homes in the area where the orphanage was, and as the presence of the building would have lowered their value, they had it burned to the ground, as Matron Theresa would surely have been unwilling to sell her land. The party confronts them and wins, but to ensure their escape, the black-clad men threaten Gilbert. When Agate doesn’t believe their threats, one of them shoots Gilbert’s leg, and while he’s writhing on the ground, they move on to threatening the life of the unconscious lighthouse keeper instead. The party backs away and the two make their escape, though after a few moments, they nonetheless go after them, only to discover that they climbed from the lighthouse using a rope. Agate chooses to go after them, but the others remain behind to deal with Gilbert and the Ravens.
The next morning, the trio checks up on Carna, who’s doing much better. She holds on to the donation money - which had been in Gilbert’s possession - and then the party sets out to return to the guild. Along the way, Kloe remains behind, claiming to intend to inform the dean. Once at the guild, the duo informs Jean about the situation, and he informs them that the Bracer Guild can only do something about Mayor Dalmore if he’s caught in the act, as they are otherwise unable to act, though the Royal Army may be capable of doing something. Instead, Jean sends the two to head to the mayor’s estate and question him, while he contacts the Leiston Fortress HQ. Before they leave, Kloe meets up with them once more, and they head off to the mayor’s estate.
At the estate, a maid informs them that the mayor is currently meeting with a guest - Duke Dunan. Joshua claims that they also got an invitation from the mayor himself (as earlier, he’d told them that if the Ravens start making trouble again, they’re free to drop by and let him know), and the maid leaves them to meet up with Mayor Dalmore.
There, the mayor is attempting to talk the duke into buying a vacation home, as expected. The trio interrupts him, telling him about the situation. Though he claims to suspect the Ravens, the party quickly points out that the actual culprit is Gilbert, acting on Dalmore’s own orders. When confronted with the accusations, he accidently mentions the guys in black, despite the party not mentioning them. Eventually, Nial shows up, joining in the accusations with what he’d been investigating: namely, that Dalmore has a mountain of debts to pay off, and that he’s been diverting funds from the city budget. In addition to that, a year ago, he took several trips to Calvard, supposedly for sightseeing… but in truth, he’d amassed a debt somewhere in the realm of one hundred million mira there. However, none of them can prove their claims, which means that they still can’t arrest the mayor. Kloe calls him out on not simply selling some of his possessions, such as the estate they are currently in, rather than turning to crime. Finally, he gets up and opens a door hidden in the wall, sicing two large monsters on the party and causing the duke to faint in the process.
The party dispatches the monsters, but when the party attempts to arrest him, he takes out a wand of sorts and activates it, and in a blinding flash of light, everyone but him is rendered unable to move. The wand is actually the Chronos Rod, an artifact that just happens to be a family heirloom, and its effect is paralyzing those within range in the blink of an eye. He uses the opportunity to threaten the party, focusing primarily on Estelle, until Joshua - who is actually glaring for once - responds to his threats toward her with a rather brutal threat of his own, diverting the mayor’s attention to himself. Just before things take a turn for the worst, the black orbment Estelle has with her starts glowing with a blue-black light, then emanates a black wave, disabling the artifact’s effect and allowing everyone to move again.
Dalmore runs off into the room where the monsters had been hidden, which turns out to lead to a hidden passage, and the party (followed by Nial) gives chase. In the end, they arrive at a private dock, where the mayor has already left on his yacht. But fortunately for the party, there’s a small motorboat left, which they use to try to catch up with him… which works out relatively fine until the wind picks up and Dalmore’s boat gains speed. Before he can get away, however, a large shadow flies overheard: the airship of the Royal Guard, the Arseille. The airship blocks his path, and the female officer aboard - Julia Schwarz - arrests the mayor for arson, robbery, embezzlement and other charges.
At the landing port, Julia informs the party that she pressed Mayor Dalmore for information, but he can’t seem to remember the past few hours well and is drawing a complete blank regarding the arson and robbery, but his crimes are clear-cut enough that this doesn’t pose a problem. After some more talking, Colonel Richard and Captain Amalthea show up, complimenting Julia on her work but wondering how she was able to get there so quickly. They note that they will take over the investigation from here on, and then leave once more. Julia and the group exchange a few more words, then she follows suit and leaves as well.
Back at the guild, the trio reports back to Jean about the situation, and he also informs them that Agate was able to defeat the men in black despite being ambushed, but that he wasn’t able to capture them. They fled to Zeiss, and he gave chase - more likely than not, the group has something to do with the job Cassius gave Agate. They go on to speak about the black orbment, and Jean advises them to go to Zeiss if they wish to learn about its origin. After that, he gives them another recommendation for their work on the recent cases.
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The summary for chapter 3 and 4 can be found here.
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Once upon a time, in a village called Hemel located on the border between the Liberl Kingdom and the Erebonia, lived a young boy. He was rather timid, and relied on the kindness of others - in particular, that of his sister Karin and a man by the name of Leonhardt, who was a close friend of the two and acted as a big brother figure of sorts for the boy. Despite his timid nature, however, the boy was happy, as he had people who cared about him.
That boy’s name was Joshua Astray.
His life proceeded normally, until one day - ten years before the start of the game - the village was attacked by invading soldiers at the start of the Hundred Days War, who set fire to the buildings and slaughtered innocents. Though Leonhardt attempted to hold some of them off, one of the soldiers eventually caught Karin and Joshua. The young boy tried to fight the soldier off, but to no avail; while he managed to severely injure the man with the gun he had dropped, it only served to provoke him into attacking the boy, but the attack failed to hit its mark. Rather, his sister took the hit for Joshua. By the time Leonhardt arrived to deal with the injured soldier, it was already too late to save Karin, and after giving her harmonica to Joshua and asking Leonhardt to take care of him, she died with a smile on her face, happy that she was able to protect her brother.
Claiming that Joshua was also happy would be a complete lie, however. The boy utterly broke, essentially going catatonic as a result of the events he had witnessed. He refused to speak, barely ate and hardly reacted to anything, only playing the harmonica that used to belong to his sister. Though Leonhardt attempted to take care of him, nothing seemed to undo even part of the damage done to the boy that day.
After some time, the two encountered a wandering magician by the name of George Weissmann. He offered to heal Joshua’s heart, provided he would be compensated for his efforts. Specifically, he requested that the two join a secret society by the name of Ouroboros, and so they did.
Unfortunately, Weissmann was hardly what one would consider a good person, and soon enough, he realized that given the boy’s state, it would be child’s play to twist his existence into whatever he wished. Rather than only attempt to restore Joshua to the same state he was in before the attack on Hamel by using his ability to block out memories, he instead did just that, but also altered his heart into that of a killer by blocking out his ability to feel fear, compassion and remorse. For the first two years that followed this, after asking Leonhardt to train him because he wished to assist him, the boy ended up being sent on missions frequently, and killing became something he did on a daily basis.. He was ruthless and efficient, not even hesitating to use methods that would harm or even kill innocent bystanders if he had to. Soon enough, his feats would earn him the rank of an enforcer within Ouroboros - specifically, Legion XIII, the “Black Fang”.
It’s worth noting that at some point, Joshua and Leonhardt were tasked with taking out a branch of the D.:.G Cult. When they did, they also discovered a young girl by the name of Renne, who had been sold to the cult by her parents and had been abused ever since. At Joshua's request, they end up taking her with them, and she essentially ends up being adopted by the two, as she easily spends the most time with them after joining Ouroboros and the three actually seem kind of happy together, considering the circumstances.
Five years after the events at Hemel, Weissmann gave Joshua an assassination order. His target was none other than Cassius Bright, a powerful hero who had protected the nation and its queen in the past. Before Joshua sets out, Weissmann places him under suggestion, supposedly to strengthen his heart for his mission, but at the time it seems to have little effect on him. The assassination ultimately failed, as Cassius proved to be the significantly stronger one of the two. Since Joshua’s face had been seen, other members of Ouroboros attempted to kill him, but Cassius fended them off, taking the boy back to his home and adopting him. From that day on, his name was no longer Joshua Astray, but Joshua Bright, and Cassius raised him alongside his daughter Estelle, as if he had always been his own son.
In truth, the other members were never supposed to succeed in killing Joshua for his failure: the true purpose of his mission was not to kill Cassius, but to act as a spy for Ouroboros, by gambling on the fact that Cassius was likely to protect his would-be assassin from his attackers, rather than finishing him off himself. When the other members of the society attacked Joshua, a large portion of his memory was wiped. In the years that would follow, several of the other members would occasionally check up on him, and, with a little aid courtesy of Weissmann’s earlier suggestion - which served as a sort of mind control that could be activated with a certain trigger - have him pass on the information he gathered about Cassius to them.
In the five years that followed, Joshua returned to living a mostly normal life, recalling only part of what had occurred prior to his attempt to assassinate Cassius, and even those few memories seem to gradually become more and more vague as time passes. He and Estelle worked to become Bracers, like Cassius, and eventually, a while after Estelle's 16th birthday, they take the test to become Junior Bracers and pass it successfully. Their first job - on the same day as the test - is to bring two children who had gone to the Tower of Esmelas (known for being a breeding ground for monsters) safely back to the town. While they manage to locate the children, they succeed primarily due to Cassius showing up in time to save the group from an ambush by a monster.
Later that day, Cassius informs them that he will be leaving on an important job. The two agree to carry out some of the other jobs he had accepted earlier in his place, and see him off the next day. These all proved to be relatively simple jobs: dealing with monsters at the Perzel Farm, retrieving a septium crystal from the town’s mines for the mayor as it is to be given to the Queen as a gift (which proves to be a little more complicated, as a collapse in the mines causes monsters to appear there, requiring the duo to help out the miners there before they can complete the delivery), and taking a reporter for the Liberl News and his camerawoman to the Tower of Esmelas to take photos of the area. During the last job, they encounter an archaeologist who calls himself Professor Alba, who claims to be investigating ruins like the tower. Since the area is dangerous and the man had apparently been fleeing from monsters, the group takes him back to town with them once the job is done with, but they soon part ways again.
As the duo returns to the guild to report about completing the final job Cassius had left for them, the mayor appears at the guild, reporting that his house had been robbed. After investigating at the crime scene, the evidence there pointed to none other than Josette, a supposed student of the Jenis Royal Academy who had been at the mayor’s house when Estelle and Joshua retrieved the sepith crystal for him - the one thing that had been stolen in the robbery. The two, together with their mentor and senior bracer Scherazard, track the girl down, and eventually find her hiding in the nearby Mistwald. However, while the group manages to recover the crystal, they fail to arrest Josette, as an airship commanded by an ally of hers arrives in time to allow her to escape.
When the three return to the guild, they receive their first recommendation for doing such great work over the past several days; receiving a recommendation from all regional branches in the kingdom is the requirement for a promotion to senior bracers. But before they can leave to head home for the day, the phone goes off: it’s a call from the Bose branch of the Bracers Guild, noting that the airliner Linde had disappeared, and that Cassius was on board when it went missing.
Though initially shocked by the news, the trio ultimately decides to head to Bose (by foot, as the airliners cancelled their flights until the Royal Army finished investigating Linde’s disappearance) to find Cassius… and to find out just what had happened.
Before leaving, the three stop by at the Rolent Bracer Guild to inform Aina that they will be leaving. While Scherazard remains behind temporarily to discuss a job she’d intended to do, Estelle and Joshua head to the clock tower. The two briefly speak about what had happened there during the Hundred Days War - the tower had collapsed during an attack, and Estelle’s mother Lena had died to protect her - but soon enough, they meet up with Schera again and head off toward Bose.
Though they have to stop at the Verte Bridge Checkpoint momentarily to acquire a Gate Pass to be given permission to go through, it doesn’t take them very long until they arrive in Bose. There, they learn from Lugran, the overseer of the Bracer Guild’s Bose branch, that the Royal Army is investigating the situation, but very little information about the results thus far have been provided. This is because one of the people involved in the investigation is General Morgan, a man famous for repelling the Imperial Army’s invasion 10 years ago… as well as for hating bracers. Due to his orders, soldiers of the army are actively blocking people, bracers included, from investigating several areas, hindering the search immensely.
But fortunately for the group, Bose’s Mayor Maybelle submitted a request to the guild asking them to conduct their own investigation. After Estelle and Joshua switch their registration to the Bose branch, the trio accepts the request and after a little bit of searching, they meet up with the mayor. At her request, they head to the Haken Gate to attempt to get some information out of General Morgan, hiding their identities as bracers to do so.
At the gate, they are told that the general is currently out investigating, but that he should be back soon. The group opts to wait at the nearby rest stop’s bar, where they encounter a traveling bard from Erebonia. After a rather… interesting chat, they are informed that General Morgan has returned and go to speak to him. During the conversation, they find out that a letter demanding a ransom had been sent to both the Royal Family and Orbalship Co. by the Capua Family - the same family that Josette had belonged to. Unfortunately, due to a slip of the tongue on Estelle’s part, Morgan ends up realizing that the party are bracers, and proceeds to kick them out; in fact, the situation escalates so far that Scherazard and Morgan end up in a rather heated argument with each other, which is only stopped by the bard the group had met earlier interrupting them all with a song. Afterward, the general leaves, and the Erebonian introduces himself as Olivier Lenheim. As this is his first time in Liberl, he ends up asking the party to act as a guide for him, and they take him to Bose, where they part ways once again.
The group meets up with Lugran to tell him what they had learned, then head to Mayor Maybelle’s house to inform her about the same thing. In front of her house, they witness Nial and Dorothy attempting to meet the mayor, though her maid Lila refuses to allow them in. The party meets up with Maybelle and tells her what they found out, and accidentally mention that Cassius was aboard the airship as well - and that he’s their father. She reacts strangely, but not long afterward, the trio decides to speak to Nial to see if he managed to find any clues about the incident. In exchange for sharing their information with him, he brings two things to their attention: that the military’s new Intelligence Division, headed by Colonel Richard, is on the move, and that an eyewitness in Ravennue Village saw a huge shadow flying overhead on the night of the incident.
Afterward, the three head toward Ravennue Village to investigate the eyewitness report. Along the way, they encounter a red-haired man who appears to be acquaintance with Scherazard and recognizes Cassius, though he doesn’t seem to be particularly fond of him. After he leaves, Joshua recognizes him as “Heavy Blade Agate”: Agate Crosner, a senior bracer just like Schera.
At the village, the group first opts to speak to Elder Reisen, who tells them that the eyewitness in question was a boy named Lewey, and that the army had already investigated the area and found nothing. Lewey himself tells them that on the night of the incident, he saw two shadows, a small one and a larger one, heading in the direction of the abandoned mine north of the village. The group decides to investigate and, after returning to the mayor to retrieve the key for the mine, go as far as to take a look around the mine itself, as the army had not done so yet.
They eventually come across a large, open area in the mine, where both the Linde and the Capua Sky Bandits’ airship are parked, with the bandits currently being in the process of transferring some of the Linde’s cargo into their own airship. When the party confronts them, the leader of this particular group, Kyle, notes that they’re “not supposed to be here this early”. They lose, but before the three bracers can apprehend them, Kyle manages to use a smoke bomb to allow him and his group to flee.
After the smoke clears, the party decides to investigate the airliner itself, but to no avail; the Sky Bandits had already cleared it out completely, and neither the hostages nor its cargo were there. Just as they were about to leave in order to ask the army for their cooperation, said army actually arrived at the mine… and proceeded to arrest the party on suspicion of them assisting the Sky Bandits.
It’s not long before the party is let out of the Haken Gate’s prison again, however, as Mayor Maybelle has them freed after explaining the situation to General Morgan. She also ends up having Olivier freed, who was also in jail… albeit for stealing and drinking a bottle of Grand Chardonnay wine from the Alterose restaurant, rather than being suspected of helping the Sky Bandits. After talking the situation over with her, the four learn that during the previous night, the Sky Bandits had attacked the south block and robbed the weapons shop, the orbal factory, as well as several private residences. She once again requests that the group continue their investigation, and they do so - and along the way, they encounter Colonel Richard, who even helps the group out when some of General Morgan’s men attempt to keep them from investigating.
After speaking to several people, the group learns that someone at the inn down the lakeshore to the south of Bose had seen a strange bunch there not long ago who, according to the people at the inn, hadn’t even been staying there. They decide to speak to the man - a rather enthusiastic fisherman - and learn that the “strange bunch” was in fact Josette and someone else, and that they were supposedly planning to meet up again that very night. Thus, the group decides to try to spy on the two, passing away the time until the night by fishing, reading, drinking at the inn and talking about personal matters. That night, the three bracers - Olivier had passed out from drinking too much - do indeed end up seeing the two individuals, and sure enough, it is Josette, accompanied by none other than Kyle. The two meet up with two masked man that arrive by boat, with one of the two informing the duo that the Queen herself will be contributing to the ransom, as well as telling them about the situation regarding the army and the bracers.
Rather than remain and continue to simply spy on the group, however, the bracer trio decides to try to find the Sky Bandits’ airship… after Joshua spaces out briefly and mutters something about how his mind is playing tricks on him. They discover the airship in front of the Amberl Tower, and while debating what to do, Olivier meets up with the other three and suggests something to them: sneaking onto the airship so they can infiltrate the Sky Bandits’ own hideout. They do so.
At the hideout (which turns out to be located in the Nebel Valley), after dealing with three different groups of the bandits, they finally manage to locate the hostages, though Cassius is nowhere to be found. As it turns out, he disembarked from the Linde just before it left for reasons unknown, and there was no time to document the changes in the list of passengers. They decide that, since trying to help the hostages escape first is too risky, that they’ll go after the Sky Bandits’ bosses first.
When they do come across the room that the aforementioned bosses are in, they eavesdrop on them first - as it turns out, the third head of the Sky Bandits, Don Capua, has been acting strange, to a point where he even ends up hitting Kyle and threatening both him and Josette, not to mention that he actively considers having the hostages killed after receiving the ransom and continuing their large-scale crimes in the future. The group charges in and a fight ensues, though it ends with the party victorious.
Things start getting a little strange after the battle. Once Don recovers from the battle, his behavior is vastly different, and he doesn’t even seem to remember anything that happened since just a little while before the Linde was hijacked. Even his eye color differs a little; while they were red earlier, they’re blue now. Unfortunately, the ensuing confusion gives Kyle the opportunity to throw another smoke bomb, and the three bandits flee out of the room and head upstairs, in an attempt to make it to their airship. The party gives chase.
To everyone’s surprise, by the time the group makes it upstairs, the Sky Bandits have already been captured - by none other than the Royal Army, led by Colonel Richard and General Morgan! Though Morgan is as hostile toward the three bracers as ever, Richard manages to calm him down, and gives the party his thanks for the great service they did their nation. He leaves to handle the transportation of the hostages and cargo… followed by Captain Amalthea, as well as Nial and Dorothy, who intend to interview him.
At the guild, the group talks things over, and both Lugran and Maybelle agree that the army’s raid wouldn’t have been so successful if it hadn’t been for the party’s presence… even if Colonel Richard did essentially steal the show in the end. There are still unanswered questions, but as long as the Sky Bandits are with the Royal Army, there isn’t really anything that can be done about them. For their efforts, Estelle and Joshua receive another recommendation, and, just a few minutes later, a letter and a parcel addressed to the Bright family arrive - both had apparently been aboard the Linde. The letter is from Cassius himself, addressed to his two children; in it, he lets them know that he ran into some trouble with his work, and that he won’t be back until after the Queen’s birthday celebration, which is a few months off. He also tells them that they’re free to either continue working in Rolent or to pursue qualifying as a senior bacer.
The parcel, however, has no sender on it. Inside is only a black, hemispherical device - some sort of orbment, similar to a battle orbment but lacking in quartz slots - and a memo from “K.”, who was able to secure the item from some sort of group and asks that the orbment be taken to a “Professor R” so he can do an analysis of it. After mulling over the item for a while, the party suspects that it may be an artifact… and after a brief outburst from Estelle, she and Joshua decide to continue their journey to become senior bracers, keeping an eye out for any news about Cassius along the way.
Scherazard and Olivier head back to Rolent together by airship, whereas the two junior bracers instead choose to head for their next destination - Ruan - by foot which, while it’ll take longer, will allow them to save the money they would pay for an airship trip and to see more of the places they are meant to protect as bracers.
The two arrive at the Krone Pass Checkpoint close to sundown, and therefore choose to stay for the night. When they speak to the private currently on duty, he warns them that heading down the path now would be suicide due to a large number of monsters appearing there lately. After speaking to the sergeant, they stay at the check point’s rest stop for the rest of the night, and following dinner, another guest arrives whom the two are supposed to share a room with - none other than Heavy Blade Agate, who the two had encountered earlier. During a rather heated conversation, he mentions having to do work that Cassius had “forced on him”, but chooses to go to sleep rather than attempt to explain anything further.
In the middle of the night, the checkpoint is attacked by wolves. Agate runs off to check the situation, and Estelle and Joshua follow him. The three come across two of the soldiers being attacked by a pack of wolves, but they refuse to accept help from the bracers - and soon enough, the trio hears a whistle from the other side of the checkpoint, where a lone soldier has also been attacked by another pack of wolves. The three fight them off, and once the situation is resolved, return to sleep after Agate briefly compliments the duo’s skill.
The next day, Agate leaves the checkpoint early, and Estelle and Joshua speak to the soldiers about the situation from the previous night, then fill out the paperwork required for them to pass through the checkpoint and head toward Ruan. The two eventually arrive at Manoria Village, where they stop at the resident inn for lunch. There, they come across a girl wearing a Jenis Royal Academy uniform, who’s searching for a little boy, about ten years old and wearing a cap, whom Joshua believes he may have met before, but as they haven’t seen the boy she’s looking for, they part ways.
Following lunch, the two notice a bird flying around, and on their way out of town, the two bump into a young boy with a cap - the same one the girl earlier had been looking for, and apparently, he’s looking for her as well. The two inform him about this, and he runs off…
…and not long afterward, Joshua notices that Estelle is missing something - her Bracer Emblem. More likely than not, the boy took it when he “accidentally” bumped into Estelle. After asking around, the two find out that the kid is one of the orphans from the Mercia Orphanage, and head there to attempt to get Estelle’s Bracer Emblem back. Once there, they come across the boy, Clem, and after a brief chase, Estelle catches him, but before being able to retrieve her emblem, the bird that the two had seen earlier swoops in, commanded by the uniform-wearing girl.
As it turns out, the girl’s name is Kloe, and she thought that a thief had broken into the orphanage. While Estelle chases after Clem again, the owner of the orphanage, Matron Theresa, and tricks Clem into admitting that he stole Estelle’s emblem, then makes him return it to her. The group talks about the previous events over some tea and apple pie, and in the process, Estelle and Joshua learn that Kloe really is a student of the Royal Academy, unlike Josette, and that she lives on its campus. Afterward, since the two are headed to Ruan, and Kloe also has a few things to do there, she agrees to show them around. As they begin to leave, they briefly run into Clem once more, who - after Kloe convinces him - apologizes for his earlier actions, though not without insulting Estelle.
In Ruan, they stop by at the guild, where the two are told that they won’t be able to switch assignments until the receptionist Jean returns, as he’s attending to a guest at the time. Instead, the two of them choose to go sight-seeing with Kloe. On the way back from the warehouse district, the three are stopped by three guys, who attempt to flirt with Estelle and Kloe. Eventually, they start to threaten Joshua, who intimidates them by remaining calm. Before the conflict can escalate, another man approaches, shortly followed by none other than Mayor Dalmore himself. Kloe recognizes him, as well as the younger man - Gilbert, the mayor’s private secretary. After they threaten to inform the Bracer Guild, and Estelle and Joshua reveal themselves as bracers, the three thugs run away. Mayor Dalmore then explains that they’ve been having hard times lately, but notes that Jean would be the one best able to supply details about the situation, then leaves together with Gilbert after exchanging a few more words with the trio.
Back at the guild, Jean is finally back, who soon compliments the duo on the way they handled the Sky Bandit incident. They switch their assignment to the Ruan branch, and are told that they’re expecting a member of the royal family to visit soon. They find out that the three thugs from earlier were members of a group calling themselves the Ravens, who have been misbehaving lately.
After watching the drawbridge go up, the three head to Hotel Blanche, and as luck would have it, they just had a cancellation for the room on the top floor. They head outside to see Kloe off, and she tells them about the campus festival at the end of the next week. Estelle decides that they should go, but until then, they’ll have to work.
After checking out their room, they come across a nobleman and his butler checking their room, seemingly interested in staying there. After he attempts to send them away, he reveals himself to be Duke Dunan von Auslese, the nephew of Queen Alicia. Though the two initially don’t believe him, his butler Phillip confirms the claims of his identity and, after an outburst from Estelle in response to the Duke’s behavior, offers them a large sum of mira in exchange for relinquishing their room. They pass on the room, but decline the mira and instead head down to the front desk in an attempt to claim another room… except by now, all of the rooms are booked.
While they’re there, Nial shows up, and they explain their situation to them. He offers to let them stay in his room, since he has some extra beds. The two take him up on his offer, and he notes that he wanted to pay them back for helping him with his story regarding the Sky Bandit incident and Colonel Richard’s achievements. They talk for a while, and find out that Nial is after another story, but he can’t say anything about it yet because it’s just too big. He then offers to take the two out and treat them to dinner, which ends with them having to bring him back to the hotel after drinking himself into unconsciousness.
The next day, Estelle and Joshua head to the guild to see if there’s any assignments for them, and around that time, the guild receives a phone call. As it turns out, the night before, the Mercia Orphanage caught fire and burned down, though it’s still unclear whether it’s an actual case or a simple accident. The two head to the remains of the orphanage to investigate, where they find most of it completely wrecked. Two details stand out, however: the hinge of the door looks as if it had been torn off prior to the fire, and something near one of the walls smells strange, not to mention that the fire damage is worse there. Joshua notes that the smell seems to be some sort of flammable oil, and that combined with everything outside being scattered around seems to hint toward someone having started the fire on purpose.
As the two talk about their discoveries, Kloe shows up, wondering why anyone would do something like this. Once she calms down, the three decide to head to the inn in Manoria, where Matron Theresa and the orphans are staying. They speak to Theresa, and from her, they learn that it most likely the fire likely wasn’t for the sake of a robbery, and it wasn’t for revenge, either. In addition to that, someone helped them out at night when one of the beams blocked the way through the entry hall - a silver-haired man, maybe in his late twenties, whom none of the villagers knew, but who didn’t strike her as a bad man. The mention of that man briefly seems to cause Joshua to space out, but soon enough, he notes that they should disregard him as a suspect. Shortly afterward, Mayor Dalmore and Gilbert show up, and Gilbert notes that he suspects the Ravens, but his suspicions are mostly disregarded. Dalmore offers to let Theresa and the orphans stay at his villa in Grancel until the orphanage is rebuilt, but she requests more time to think, and the two leave again.
A little while later, it turns out that Clem’s disappeared, having seemingly gone after the Ravens after hearing Gilbert’s speculation. They head back to Ruan, where they find him running across the drawbridge as it’s being raised. They follow him using a rental boat to head to the warehouse district, where they finally come across Clem trying to deal with the Ravens in one of the warehouse. They fight them, but they refuse to let Clem go - and eventually, someone else arrives: none other than Agate, whom the Ravens seemingly recognize. After punching two of them, they finally let Clem go, and after he warns Clem about his behavior, Matron Theresa arrives. After exchanging a few more words, Estelle and Kloe escort the two of them away while Joshua returns the boat. They speak a little more, and when Joshua returns, he reassures Clem about his behavior, while nevertheless telling him that he should leave fighting the criminals to them and support the matron and the other kids instead.
They part ways and the trio returns to the guild, where they report about the situation and learn that Agate used to be the leader of the Ravens. While Jean is telling them about him, though, Agate actually shows up, and interrupts vouching for the Ravens’ innocence, as they had been too busy getting drunk that night. He then says that he’ll take over the case, and after a brief argument, leaves again. After handing in the report for the investigation, Kloe asks if Estelle and Joshua could help out with the play for the campus festival, as there are two major roles that haven’t been filled yet. They agree, taking her request on as a bracer assignment.
At the Jenis Royal Academy, they meet up with Dean Collins, who decides to have dorm rooms set up for the two, since they’ll be spending a lot of time rehearsing with the campus festival so close. They meet up with the student council’s president and vice president, Jill and Hans, who tell them a little about the play: it’s the “Madrigal of the White Magnolia”, but for the play in question, the genders of the actors are reversed compared to their actual roles. Estelle’s role is that of a knight, whereas Joshua’s is a particularly “crucial role” - that of Princess Cecilia, the heroine.
Most of the rest of the duo’s time at the academy is primarily spent rehearsing for the play, though they do attend a few classes as well. On the day of the festival, the group chooses to spend what little time there is prior to the actual play having fun and speaking to various people they recognize, including Professor Alba, who is supposedly there to investigate a discovery within the Sapphirl Tower and was hoping the academy could provide him with some useful materials. They take him to the social studies room and head downstairs, where Matron Theresa and the kids arrive. When the subject shifts to the play, after a moment of hesitation, Joshua offers to take the kids to see the costumes intended for the play, and they agree.
However, shortly after taking them backstage, Joshua chooses to leave - apparently, the silver-haired man Theresa had mentioned was sighted on the campus, and so he’s decided to go looking for him. He chases him all the way to the old school building, but eventually loses track of him and stops on the building’s roof. While mumbling out loud to himself, Estelle and Kloe show up, having gone looking for Joshua after finding out that he ran off without leaving a message. Shortly afterward, an announcement calls all play personnel to the auditorium. They briefly tell Carna - a bracer they’d previously met at the Ruan branch - about the silver-haired man so she can keep an eye out for him, even if Joshua doesn’t believe that he’s their arsonist.
The play commences shortly afterward, and is very well-received; in fact, it turns out that the academy used the play to collect donations to help rebuild the orphanage, and they managed to earn a grand total of one hundred thousand mira with the help of some particularly famous guests, such as the duke and the mayor of Bose.
After the cleanup following the festival is done, Estelle and Joshua decide to head back to the guild, while Kloe decides to go to Manoria, and thus they head to Gull Seaside Way together and prepare to part ways. Before they can do so, however, one of the people from Manoria runs up to them and informs them that Matron Theresa was attacked near the village. He tells them that she and Carna were assaulted by a strange group, and that the kids are fine, but the two of them were knocked out. The duo sends him back to Ruan to inform the group, while they and Kloe head to the inn at Manoria to confirm the situation.
There, it turns out that Carna and Theresa weren’t hurt, but just knocked out with sleeping powder without side effects. Mary tells them that a group of masked guys attacked them and took the envelope with the donations from Theresa. Agate overhears part of the discussion, and after the duo gives him the whole story, he notes that the Ravens that were hanging out in the warehouse went missing… but given the fact that they’re easily intimidated, this isn’t the sort of crime that suits them. For the time being, the four decide to investigate the crime scene, but before they get there, Sieg, Kloe’s gyrfalcon, meets up with them, and leads them toward where he saw the culprits - to the Varenne Lighthouse.
After convincing Agate, the group heads into the lighthouse, where they come across some of the Ravens, but their eyes are oddly blank and emotionless, not to mention that, oddly enough, they seem to be much stronger than before. After fighting them, Agate and Joshua note that it seems as if they were being controlled, most likely using special hypnotic induction using a combination of drugs and suggestion. They head up the lighthouse and fight two more groups, until they finally arrive at the top.
There, they encounter Gilbert, accompanied by two black-clad, masked men. They overhear him speaking to the other about how the mayor was planning to build a series of vacation homes in the area where the orphanage was, and as the presence of the building would have lowered their value, they had it burned to the ground, as Matron Theresa would surely have been unwilling to sell her land. The party confronts them and wins, but to ensure their escape, the black-clad men threaten Gilbert. When Agate doesn’t believe their threats, one of them shoots Gilbert’s leg, and while he’s writhing on the ground, they move on to threatening the life of the unconscious lighthouse keeper instead. The party backs away and the two make their escape, though after a few moments, they nonetheless go after them, only to discover that they climbed from the lighthouse using a rope. Agate chooses to go after them, but the others remain behind to deal with Gilbert and the Ravens.
The next morning, the trio checks up on Carna, who’s doing much better. She holds on to the donation money - which had been in Gilbert’s possession - and then the party sets out to return to the guild. Along the way, Kloe remains behind, claiming to intend to inform the dean. Once at the guild, the duo informs Jean about the situation, and he informs them that the Bracer Guild can only do something about Mayor Dalmore if he’s caught in the act, as they are otherwise unable to act, though the Royal Army may be capable of doing something. Instead, Jean sends the two to head to the mayor’s estate and question him, while he contacts the Leiston Fortress HQ. Before they leave, Kloe meets up with them once more, and they head off to the mayor’s estate.
At the estate, a maid informs them that the mayor is currently meeting with a guest - Duke Dunan. Joshua claims that they also got an invitation from the mayor himself (as earlier, he’d told them that if the Ravens start making trouble again, they’re free to drop by and let him know), and the maid leaves them to meet up with Mayor Dalmore.
There, the mayor is attempting to talk the duke into buying a vacation home, as expected. The trio interrupts him, telling him about the situation. Though he claims to suspect the Ravens, the party quickly points out that the actual culprit is Gilbert, acting on Dalmore’s own orders. When confronted with the accusations, he accidently mentions the guys in black, despite the party not mentioning them. Eventually, Nial shows up, joining in the accusations with what he’d been investigating: namely, that Dalmore has a mountain of debts to pay off, and that he’s been diverting funds from the city budget. In addition to that, a year ago, he took several trips to Calvard, supposedly for sightseeing… but in truth, he’d amassed a debt somewhere in the realm of one hundred million mira there. However, none of them can prove their claims, which means that they still can’t arrest the mayor. Kloe calls him out on not simply selling some of his possessions, such as the estate they are currently in, rather than turning to crime. Finally, he gets up and opens a door hidden in the wall, sicing two large monsters on the party and causing the duke to faint in the process.
The party dispatches the monsters, but when the party attempts to arrest him, he takes out a wand of sorts and activates it, and in a blinding flash of light, everyone but him is rendered unable to move. The wand is actually the Chronos Rod, an artifact that just happens to be a family heirloom, and its effect is paralyzing those within range in the blink of an eye. He uses the opportunity to threaten the party, focusing primarily on Estelle, until Joshua - who is actually glaring for once - responds to his threats toward her with a rather brutal threat of his own, diverting the mayor’s attention to himself. Just before things take a turn for the worst, the black orbment Estelle has with her starts glowing with a blue-black light, then emanates a black wave, disabling the artifact’s effect and allowing everyone to move again.
Dalmore runs off into the room where the monsters had been hidden, which turns out to lead to a hidden passage, and the party (followed by Nial) gives chase. In the end, they arrive at a private dock, where the mayor has already left on his yacht. But fortunately for the party, there’s a small motorboat left, which they use to try to catch up with him… which works out relatively fine until the wind picks up and Dalmore’s boat gains speed. Before he can get away, however, a large shadow flies overheard: the airship of the Royal Guard, the Arseille. The airship blocks his path, and the female officer aboard - Julia Schwarz - arrests the mayor for arson, robbery, embezzlement and other charges.
At the landing port, Julia informs the party that she pressed Mayor Dalmore for information, but he can’t seem to remember the past few hours well and is drawing a complete blank regarding the arson and robbery, but his crimes are clear-cut enough that this doesn’t pose a problem. After some more talking, Colonel Richard and Captain Amalthea show up, complimenting Julia on her work but wondering how she was able to get there so quickly. They note that they will take over the investigation from here on, and then leave once more. Julia and the group exchange a few more words, then she follows suit and leaves as well.
Back at the guild, the trio reports back to Jean about the situation, and he also informs them that Agate was able to defeat the men in black despite being ambushed, but that he wasn’t able to capture them. They fled to Zeiss, and he gave chase - more likely than not, the group has something to do with the job Cassius gave Agate. They go on to speak about the black orbment, and Jean advises them to go to Zeiss if they wish to learn about its origin. After that, he gives them another recommendation for their work on the recent cases.
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The summary for chapter 3 and 4 can be found here.