A Gamer Into Trails

As always, Giliath demands your power stones!

*****

I now had an initial outlook of how the royal harem will look like, in the coming future. For now, it will hopefully become seven girls. Of which, I know the feelings of six of them, maybe five? I need to confirm how Sara feels about me. That kiss wasn't a greeting kiss, it lasted for a good moment, and our two tongues were exchanged during that. That isn't something you would do if you just initiated a greeting.

I could only imagine it was because I saved her adoptive father, Colonel Valestein. He was old enough to be Sara's Grandfather over being her father though.

Sara herself was orphaned at a young age, she was a victim of the North Ambria Disaster that struck the country two decades ago. A gigantic Salt Pale materialized out of nothingness, causing widespread disaster. Unfortunately, Sara's parents were lost during that chaos, and she became an orphan. 

Imagine fierce hurricanes rampaging across most of the country, but instead of it blasting hail and hard droplets of rain, it was pure, crystallized salt. And wherever the salt struck the ground or nearby terrain, it induced a process called salinification, causing everything around it to become pure salt. Even humans became salt-like statues. It was a fate worse than death. It was like receiving the Petrification status in the games, but a million times worse.

Sara was lucky enough to survive that disaster. But the point is, she was adopted by the Ex-Commander of the Northern Jaegers, Colonel Valestein. He's retired now, but if it went like it did in the Cold Steel Anime, he would have been backstabbed by his own commanding officers. As a whole, the Northern Jaegers were a pretty corrupt group, and I was lucky to have poached Jayna from them.

That may lead to further corruption within the Northern Jaegers, but like I've brought up a few times already, I ain't no hero. I'm just trying to live life out here to my desires and whims. I can leave that hero business to Rean, haha!

At the very least, it looks like Sara took Lavi under her belt to potentially become a bracer in the future, instead of joining the Northern Jaegers. That might leave a bitter feeling for the corp. she would be eventually assigned to, but I've met those couple of individuals during that battle. If they're right in the head, they'll leave the Northern Jaegers and join a different corp. All Jaegers are swayed by mira at the end of the day.

If I spend more time with Sara from here on, I'll probably have more chances to see Lavi too. Considering she's a couple years younger than Estelle, it'll probably be a few years until she takes her Bracer Exam.

Well, something to look forward to when returning to Erebonia, on top of meeting Tama's new form. I am very interested in that.

"So where to, boss man?", Lechter asked. A relaxed look appeared in his eyes as he moved his arms upward, resting his hands behind his head. Lechter only behaved like this when there really was nothing to do.

"Mmm. We do have some time on our hands now. The CPD already closed up shop for the day too. Elie did mention we can stay behind at the estate for a while if we have no immediate plans, but she still has some business with that priest. So Elie will be busy for a while. You said your farewell to Elie already, right?", Tio asked.

"I did. So there's no point in lounging around the estate anymore. It's 1PM, and the meeting I have with Heiyue won't start until 5PM. So we have four hours to burn.", I nodded my head at Tio's words.

And Lechter was right too. For once, I have nothing scheduled. This situation is one of those so-called "Free Days" you would receive during the Cold Steel games. This allowed folks to do some shopping, go sightseeing, fight various strong monsters, do bonding events, and so on. Yet hearing that, Lechter paused.

"Wait, come again? You're not meeting THAT Heiyue, are you, Young Master?", Lechter frowned.

"Oh yeah, you weren't there. I had a short drop-by with Heiyue's branch manager. Said his name was Cao. Apparently he wants to express his gratitude or something to me, so I figured I'd take him up on that offer. We have a meeting set this evening. It shouldn't take long, no more than an hour at most. I have a return flight at 7PM.", I answered.

"I highly advise you don't intermingle with those snakes, Young Master. Heiyue is too easily swayed.", Lechter replied.

"Oh trust me, I'm already working with a group of snakes. So coming across Heiyue isn't totally out of the question. If both of us can benefit something from this, then why not take the opportunity? Sure it's like walking into a lion's den, but I'm pretty sure I can beat your ass fair and square, Lechter.", I said with a confident voice.

"I ain't doubting your strength or anything, Young Master. Just be careful alright?", Lechter asked. It was rare for him to be worried about something, but I nodded my head.

"I will. But the point stands is we got four hours to burn.", I said.

It was more than enough time to be considered having a Free Day.

Presently, it was just the three of us. Lechter, Tio and I. Elie left with Kevin to continue their church duties. Sherryl left with Jillian, likely back to Jillian's apartment. Jillian stayed on West Street, as did Guy. So those three grouped up and departed. Noel was left to her own devices, and she retired for the evening. She lived in one of the apartments on East Street, together with her sister and parents. And boy were the Seeker sisters something.

There was even an event in the Crossbell arc that allowed Lloyd to go on a date with Noel Seeker and Fran Seeker. That was a very enjoyable cutscene.

We'll see if that happens this time around.

With the three of us left, we could be standing in the intersection at the north end of the Residential Street. To the northwest was Mainz Mountain Path, the first section of it. Eventually it would lead to Mainz, the mining town. Beyond that was a bunch of mountains and underground tunnels that allowed miners to mine Septium.

And to the right where we currently stood was the Entertainment District. The star of that place was definitely Arc-en-Ciel. It displayed flashy and dramatic scenes from stories of old. It wasn't exactly an opera house, it mostly focused on theatrical performances. But it was widely popular enough where it attracted nobles and commoners alike, and even royalty at times.

It was a shame they weren't doing a show today, but I would have loved to see Rixia in her moon dancer costume.

Hell, is she even working here at this time?

A thought to be saved for later. Instead my eyes shifted toward the northwest.

"I was considering heading up toward Mainz and regroup with Master. We can hunt some monsters. I also want to see how Tio fares.", I declared my intent.

"Monster hunting eh? That works for me, but the kiddo's quite young, is she not? Isn't it too soon for someone of your age to consider hunting monsters?", Lechter asked, observing the short blue-haired girl before her. She was no bigger than four or so feet tall. I myself was approaching six feet tall, and Lechter was around my height. She was quite small compared to us. But that was within reason, considering Tio would be turning ten this year.

"Mmm. Tio can manage some monster hunting. She has this orbal staff.", Tio said, nodding her head. Letting the Trailsverse magic work, Tio brought out a custom-designed Orbal Staff, likely created by the Epstein Foundation. Considering it was still S1200, this staff was likely a prototype. And in the games, you would come across this a lot where characters just take out their weapons out of thin air. It may be weird at first, but it's something you get used to seeing as time goes on.

"Orbal Staff?", Lechter mused. I'm pretty sure this is his first time seeing one.

"It can be used for a more effective way of casting arts, and it can be linked to one's combat orbment directly. It can bypass the traditional inputs of a combat orbment. You don't need to tap and hold Quartz lines to activate Arts. It's more of a feeling, if anything.", Tio explained.

"So that's how that works huh?", I mused. I do recall in the old Trails OVA, you would see users of their combat orbments tap and drag their fingers across the combat orbment. I do believe this was shown in the Cold Steel Anime too. This isn't the games where you only had to select an Art from a skills list. This was the real world, and that is how that worked here. It was pretty fluid too. It just required some finger tapping and dragging to trigger Arts.

But with the Orbal Staff, Tio explained the staff could bypass that entire system, and cast Arts based off of feelings alone. If I had to relate that to anything, it's very similar to casting magic spells.

"Looks like Tio is willing too. We can go test out our combat techniques against some monsters. There's just one thing before that. It's time to form a party.", I replied with a playful grin.

"A party? This is a party, no?", Lechter doubted.

"Just wait and see.", I replied, keeping that playful grin on my lips. I wasn't referring to just being a group of three. I was referring to the Party Function my Gamer System allowed.

It's been ages since I last used it, and now, it was a good time to give it a whirl. Both Lechter and Tio will be in for a surprise.