(no subject)
Estelle was born in 1186 in a smallish town called Rolent in the kingdom of Liberl. Her life was overall pretty normal. She had a pretty normal childhood, about her only complaint really was that her father wasn't around as much as she'd like since he was in the army.
That all changed when she was six when Erebonia invaded Liberl. Her father had to leave and be a hero to Liberl as many of the towns became occupied by the Imperial Army, leaving Estelle alone with her mother to keep her safe in a nation at war.
That went all right for a time, until the army approached Rolent. The citizens all gathered in a safe place while the army tried to fight off the invaders. The young Estelle climbed on top of the clock tower in Rolent to try and see what her dad was doing.
And then the Imperial Army bombed the clocktower in an attempt to shake the citizens by attacking the symbol of their city. It ended up completely destroyed. Estelle's mother tried to shield Estelle from the collapse of the building and she died before the two of them were dug out. Estelle lived and recovered, but had to deal with the loss of her mother.
And her father, Cassius, was absolutely distraught by the loss of his wife. He left the army and instead joined the bracer guild so he could be around more to protect his daughter. Life went on as normal for the two of them, as much as it could, for five years.
Then one night when Estelle was 11, she was waiting for her dad to come home from a job that took him away for a time. He was late and this upset her and she was bored. Then finally he came home and had a boy with him. A very injured boy, at that. Cassius said that the boy was going to be a part of their family and her brother. Estelle, however, wasn't quite so accepting right off, especially as the boy seemed to be objecting to this. Estelle's reaction to his objections and yelling was to kick him, a lot (and this while he was injured at that). The boy who was taken in by Cassius is Joshua.
During those five years, Estelle did her utmost to try and get Joshua to come out of his shell and actually react to things. To her, that was trying to include him in her boyish habits of collecting bugs and fishing. She definitely came to realize quick that her new brother was quite shy and reserved and it was very hard to even get a reaction out of him, much less a smile.
Eventually, this changed a bit while Estelle was out hunting for a legendary bug. Joshua had decided to try and run away while Estelle was busy and Cassius wasn't around at the time. However, as he was about to get away he heard Estelle scream and went to save her. He was successful in doing so, but ruined his chance to run away in the process. But really, he was beginning to accept Estelle and being a part of the Bright family. At that time, Estelle promised she'd not ask about what Joshua had done before he came to live with them until he was ready to tell her.
The remaining years before the canon starts mostly passed in peace with Estelle and Joshua becoming as close as if they were actually related to each other and not just adopted siblings. And then once Estelle was old enough they both began training to eventually take the test to become junior bracers.
And then the story begins with Estelle and Joshua and their last day of training to become bracers and taking their test. Their mentor, Scherazard goes over a few final things and sends them off for their test, which is basically just a simulated job. They have to go down into the sewers to retrieve an item. It's a fairly simple job which the two of them have no trouble completing, the only tricky thing to it is that the item is two small boxes and Estelle's curiosity nearly defeats her, but Joshua talks her out of opening the boxes. A good thing, too, because they would have failed. But they do become junior bracers at this point.
As they are about to head home to tell their father the good news, the guild receptionist, Aina, comes running towards them and tells them of two boys going missing from town. She wants them to go find Cassius, but instead Estelle and Joshua talk her into letting them go. That ends up being their first real job and they have to head to a monster infested tower the boys were supposedly going to.
They make it safely to the tower and find the boys, just in time too. The fight off some monsters and save the boys. Estelle, unfortunately lets her anger at one of the boys nearly get the better of her and almost ends up being attacked by monsters and Joshua can't help her in time. However, their father happened to arrive in town soon after they left and followed. Typical Cassius stealing the spotlight there.
Estelle, however felt real bad that she made a pretty big mistake there, but not like she let that get her down for long. They returned and reported in and were given a letter to deliver to Cassius since he decided to foist reporting off on Estelle and Joshua and head directly home.
The letter turned out to be some business that would send Cassius away for a time. So the next morning Estelle and Joshua saw him off at the landing port and then they had to take over some of his work. The jobs were pretty easy: dealing with monsters on the Perzel Farm, delivering an item from the mines to the mayor, and escorting two reporters to the Esmelas Tower.
They finish those three jobs with ease, along with completing some minor stuff posted on the bulletin board. Then as they are about to head home after the third job someone comes running to say there was a robbery at the mayor's house. Estelle, Joshua, and Schera took off to investigate it and it seems the piece of septium that Estelle and Joshua delivered in their earlier job was stolen from the mayor's safe.
They were able to track down the thieves and get back the septium. Joshua and Estelle receive a recommendation to become senior bracers and find out they need to get those from the guild branches in all other cities.
While discussing that, the guild gets a call and Estelle and Joshua find out that an airliner was hijacked and Cassius was on the passenger list of the airliner.
Estelle was upset about it at first, but like in her normal manner, she got over that real quick and announced that she wanted to head to Bose to investigate the matter herself, may as well since they needed a recommendation from Bose also so it kills two birds with one stone basically.
So the next morning they headed out to Bose on foot. It was about a half a day's journey and overall pretty uneventful outside of having to pass through a checkpoint and get a pass and meeting some people on the road.
They headed to the guild once they arrived in Bose and found out that even the guild didn't know much more than they did since the army wasn't exactly sharing information with the guild at all. But the receptionist, Lugran, told them they had just gotten a request from the mayor of Bose to go visit Haken Gate and see if they could get some more details from General Morgan. Estelle and Joshua gladly accepted that job and transferred their membership to the Bose guild.
They headed to Haken Gate (and hid their identities as bracers since the general was known to despise the guild) and at first couldn't meet with the general since he wasn't there, but should return sometime that day. So they were told to wait in the bar and inn nearby. While there, they met a very strange Erebonian by the name of Olivier Lenheim who seemed to take a great liking to Joshua, much to Estelle's displeasure.
Thankfully that very strange conversation was cut short by one of the soliders arriving to say General Morgan would meet with them. Olivier attempted to follow, but was shooed away. They met with the general and found out some information, but due to Estelle's slip up, he found out they were bracers and kicked them out. Things would have escalated further if it hadn't been for Olivier arriving and playing a song he wrote about Joshua that just made everyone involved dumbfounded. But it worked since that ended the argument peacefully and General Morgan retreated.
They then escorted Olivier to Bose and left him to tour the city while they met with the mayor. They reported to her what they found out and she was quite relieved to have that much information, even if it didn't bring them closer to finding the hostages. At least she knew it wasn't a crash and had enough information to handle matters in Bose with her worried citizens. However, Estelle and Joshua were left without an idea of what to do next. However, before they had spoken to the mayor they saw the reporters they had escorted in Rolent and decided to see if the two of them had any more information since they had been in Bose for longer.
The reporters didn't know much more, but it did yield one clue that could be useful, a child in the nearby Ravennue Village had seen a strange shadow on the night of the hijacking. The group decided this was worth checking out and headed to the village to speak with the boy.
With the story that the boy gave, they decided to head out to the abandoned mine. After realizing that it may be a valid clue, the obtained a key to get into the mine from the elder. And once they were inside they hit the jackpot, there was the missing airliner and the sky bandits.
A fight ensued with the bandits and then they ran away, again. Still, the airliner was there and the group investigated it. Unfortunately it was empty and they were back at square one again with no clue. They realized they would have to give this information to the army and see what could be done from there. However as they were about to leave to go find the army, the army instead found them.
Except it was General Morgan who with his hate for bracers decided they must be in on it with the sky bandits and arrested the group. They were taken to Haken Gate and thrown into a jail cell.
Amusingly enough, they happened to be in a cell next to a familiar face, one Olivier Lenheim found himself in jail also, however in his case it was for chugging an expensive bottle of wine without paying for it. Estelle and the others fell asleep as he told the story. The next morning they were awoken by the guards and released thanks to Mayor Maybelle.
They returned to Bose and Maybelle caught them up on the recent happenings in the city. It appeared there had been a string of burglaries the previous night while the party was in jail and it was suspected the sky bandits played a role in that. The party set out to investigate things there and Olivier went with them with Maybelle's approval, in exchange for the wine.
However, they were blocked from being able to investigate by the army and eventually some of the soldiers become outright rude to them. This was about to escalate to something nasty when a strange officer approached and apologized on the behalf of the army. This man introduced himself as Colonel Alan Richard, of the Intelligence Division. He dismissed the rest of the soldiers so the bracers could investigate.
Estelle and the others hit the jackpot in one home and got a very useful piece of information the army did not from a woman named Cecile. Her husband came home from fishing while she was being questioned and he told of some strange people arriving to Valleria Lakeshore two nights ago and mentioned his fishing buddy out that way would know more.
So with that clue, the party headed out to the lakeshore to question the fishing buddy, Lloyd. Lloyd was very helpful and they found out the sky bandits were due to come back that very night. So the party got a room for the night and took the rest of the day off. Estelle took the time to do some fishing, Joshua read, and Schera and Olivier got roaring drunk.
While Estelle was off fishing, Joshua had wandered off and left his book behind. She looked around and found him at the pier they found Lloyd at. Joshua seemed troubled, but he wasn't really talking much about what was going on and making excuses. Estelle didn't question him further and they eventually went inside to get dinner.
After dinner, Olivier ended up passing out on their bed and the others went to go try and find Josette and Kyle to spy on them. They got lucky and found the duo and hid a distance away so they could hear the meeting. And a interesting meeting it was because some strange men in black arrived. They found out that the bandits were likely nearby and decided to try and find where their ship was hiding before Kyle and Josette returned to it. Though oddly, Joshua seemed rather distracted by the whole conversation from the moment the man in black arrived. They didn't really have time to discuss it and left.
They found the ship nearby at the Amberl Tower, and while trying to figure out how to proceed Olivier arrived somehow in good shape, though hung over. He suggested they sneak aboard the airship and catch a ride to the hideout. It was a good idea and ended up working great.
At the hideout they found the hostages and freed them and fought the leaders, Kyle, Josette, and a man named Don. After the fight was won, Don started acting differently. He didn't seem to remember any of the past few weeks or having even hijacked an airliner. Kyle took the chance to set off a smoke canister and run.
The party followed and were stopped by all the rest of the bandits. They knocked all of them unconscious and when they arrived back to where the ship landed, they found the army had arrived and was arresting the leaders.
They report back to the guild and gain their recommendation from the Bose branch at last for their good work in catching the bandits and recovering the hostages. Then one of the workers from the airliner comes bearing a package Cassius had meant to send to Rolent addressed to Estelle and Joshua.
The package contained a letter from Cassius letting them know he would be delayed and giving his blessing to work towards being senior bracers or staying in Rolent, whatever Estelle and Joshua feel is right. The two of them decide to continue their journey and head to Ruan next. They feel it is the best to continue trying to qualify to be senior bracers and by traveling to the other cities, they may hear news of their father. Then they open the second package which wasn't for them, but for Cassius, but he obviously hadn't had a chance to open it and sent it on instead. That package contained a cryptic letter from someone who only signed as K asking to have the item inside analyzed by a Professor R. None of them know who these people are, and the item is even more unusual because it's a black orbment with no slots for quartz. Estelle and Joshua decide to hold on to it and hope they can find some clue about this Professor R and K and maybe the item would lead them to their father.
The next day after seeing Olivier and Schera off at the landing port they head off on the road to Ruan. That trip is mostly uneventful until they arrive at the checkpoint. It was getting late since the trip took some time, so they asked if they could stay the night at the checkpoint. The soldiers agreed and treated them really well, sharing their meal and making sure they had anything they needed. Later in the night another bracer arrived, one they had met on the way to Ravennue Village named Agate.
Agate is quite the jerk to Estelle and Joshua, and Estelle reacts very strongly to his insults. Joshua tries to ease the tension, but there isn't much he can do. Agate has a point, they are newbies and they wouldn't have done so well in Bose without Schera's help. But that gets nowhere and they all eventually try to get some sleep.
However, they are interrupted by the checkpoint being attacked by monsters. The three bracers head out to see what is going on and end up helping out the soldiers on the Ruan side of the checkpoint. Having dealt with the monsters, they go back to sleep and the soldiers promise to do some patrols to be sure the area is secure.
The morning comes without any further interruptions. Estelle sleeps pretty late and Agate has already left. The two of them go and get their gate pass and head off towards Ruan, stopping first in Manoria Village for lunch, which is definitely very fun for both of them. While there, they meet a girl looking for a young boy and after lunch they end up running into the boy who steals Estelle's bracer emblem.
Estelle, of course, is furious. They question the villagers and find out the boy is from a nearby orphanage. They head over to the orphanage and find the boy. After a very embarrassing scene that gets Estelle called a pervert and child abuser, she finally gets her emblem back, but only after Matron Theresa comes out with it. They enjoy some apple pie and then the girl they met earlier offers to guide them to Ruan to make up for her error in thinking Estelle wanted to harm the boy.
So they head off to Ruan, of course first heading to the guild to get the transfer done, but the receptionist isn't there, so they explore the city. While exploring they have a nasty run in with the local gang, the Ravens, and end up meeting the mayor and his steward who break up the whole mess. After that they head back to the guild, get the transfer paperwork done and by then it's pretty late so they head over to the hotel to get a room. They luck out and a suite just became available and they take it.
While exploring the awesome room they got they end up having a rather uninvited visitor who turns out to be Duke Dunan, the Queen's nephew. And he's quite the rude asshole and Estelle and Joshua have to give up the room or risk a confrontation. The hotel apologizes for the mixup and offers to find them some place to stay since it was their error that caused that to happen. They get lucky and Nial, the reporter they met in Rolent, overhears and offers his room. Of course, he's wanting to get an interview from them, but they go ahead and accept it. Nial was a big help in Bose, after all, and did help them out of that jam with the room.
During the night, however, the orphanage is set on fire and burnt to the ground and the orphans have to flee to Manoria Village. When Estelle and Joshua wake up, they end up being sent out to investigate the fire and to find out if it was arson or due to natural causes. They investigate the place and find it was indeed arson. As they come to that conclusion and are about to head to Manoria to question the matron, Kloe arrives.
They head to the village and question the matron who really can't give them any clues outside of mentioning about a silver haired man who saved their lives, though they all doubt he is the arsonist (though Joshua reacts rather oddly to the description of this man), while doing so Mayor Dalmore arrives and his Steward says some things he shouldn't and accuses the Ravens of the arson without any evidence. This causes the little boy from earlier, Clem, to take off towards Ruan to deal with the thugs.
Kloe and the others head back to Ruan and the warehouse they know is the Ravens' hideout. They fight the gang and win and the thugs still won't let Clem go. Eventually Agate and Matron Theresa arrive and things calm down. Agate remains to give the thugs a beat down, since it turns out he used to be their leader. Explains a lot about his personality. But Estelle and Joshua see the Matron and Clem to the city entrance and the two head back to Manoria, leaving Kloe, Estelle and Joshua to report on things. While they are reporting in, Agate comes back and takes over the case, quite forcefully at that, basically booting them off it.
Thankfully, Kloe steps in and gives Estelle and Joshua some work to do in the meantime. She had meant to come to the guild to see if she could hire the two of them to play the remaining parts in the academy's festival coming up in a week. Jean agrees that is a good job for them to do and they agree to do it. After finishing things up in Ruan, they head off to the Royal Academy. There they meet the members of the student council and the dean and start work on the play.
A week later the festival day arrives. While exploring around, Estelle and Joshua run into Professor Alba, who they had met in Rolent and they end up showing him to the history displays that he was showing an interest in. After that little errand they meet up with the Matron and the children from the orphanage. Joshua takes the kids outside with him to show them the costumes from the play so they won't hear the discussion. The matron basically tells them she has decided to take an offer from the mayor to live in his villa in Grancel until she can rebuild. Kloe, is upset about this, and they know the children will be as well.
Then they go to find the children and find them in the costume room, but no Joshua. One of the children mentions that he ran off after the silver haired man who saved them. Estelle and Kloe take off to go find Joshua, leaving the children with the matron. They find him in the old schoolhouse, but no silver haired man. It seems Joshua lost him. Estelle is mad at him for running off like that but while they are talking about it an announcement is heard asking them to report to the auditorium for the play.
The play happens, and Estelle and Joshua do wonderfully in their roles, Estelle as a knight, and Joshua as Princess Cecilia. The audience loves the play and so do the children. Afterwards they gather backstage and the matron and children come to congratulate them. Then Kloe, Jill, and the dean come back with a large donation of money to use to rebuild the orphanage. The matron at first refuses it, but the convince her to accept it. The dean hires a bracer to escort them back to Manoria, since carrying such a sum of money is quite a danger to them all.
Estelle and Joshua stay to help clean up after the festival and it is quite late when they are off to bid farewell to Jill and Hans. Kloe offers to go with them as far as the Gull Seaside Way since she wants to go to Manoria to make sure the matron arrived all right. Unfortunately before Estelle and Joshua can head back to Ruan they are met by one of the Manorians. They find out the matron was attacked and the money stolen. Estelle and the others head off to Manoria to see if she and the orphans are all right.
The matron, bracer and children are fine, though upset about the loss of the donated money. Agate arrives as he heard what was going on and mentions that the Ravens are missing from Ruan. They join forces to investigate things and then Kloe's gyrfalcon, Sieg, arrives and shows them where the attackers went off to, which was the nearby lighthouse.
They end up fighting off all the Ravens and on top meet up with the guys in black they saw at the lakeshore. And also Mayor Dalmore's steward, Gilbert. They end up fighting the guys in black and win, the guys shoot Gilbert in the leg and run away. Estelle and the others do get the money back, but the thieves are gone. Agate runs off after the men in black and leaves Estelle, Joshua and Kloe to deal with the Ravens and Gilbert.
It takes the rest of the night to deal with the matter and it's morning when they arrive at the guild again to report in to Jean. Of course they know Mayor Dalmore now is the one behind the whole mess, unfortunately there isn't much that can be done because bracers stay out of politics and cannot arrest an official unless he is caught in the act of committing a crime. Instead they are sent to question Dalmore and buy some time while Jean calls in the army who can handle the matter.
They arrive to find Dalmore trying to sell a vacation home to Duke Dunan, while Estelle and the others confront him, Duke Dunan remains, the matter escalates and Estelle and the others end up attacked by Dalmore's pet monsters. Yeah, he's a weirdo who thinks monsters make great pets.
They kill the monsters and then Dalmore pulls out an artifact and stops time. He's going to kill everyone in the room and run, and he's about to kill Joshua when a strange black light appears out of Estelle's pocket and they can move again. It seems the black orbment reacted to the artifact. Dalmore then takes off on his yacht and the party tries to follow. Dalmore nearly gets away when a military airship arrives, it is the Royal Guard airship and he is placed under arrest. Strangely enough, after the mayor is taken away, another military vessel arrives with Colonel Richard and a woman named Captain Amalthea. Rather strange, but as long as Dalmore is taken care of, they didn't care.
They head back to the guild and Jean gives Estelle and Joshua a recommendation for their great handling of that case. He then also recommends that they head to Zeiss next, since that black orbment was definitely quite curious and since Zeiss is where all orbments are made, it would make sense to find out more about it there.
So, after the events following Mayor Dalmore's arrest, Joshua and Estelle waited a time for things to calm down, but eventually it was time to head on to the next major city in their journey to become full-fledged bracers, and that was Zeiss. It was an especially logical location for them since Zeiss is the center of Liberl's industry and technology and the events surrounding the mayor had left Estelle and Joshua very curious about that black orbment their father had been sent. One could hardly blame them, it had saved their lives, after all.
So they went ahead and said their goodbyes to Kloe, who went ahead and saw them off as far as the Kaldia Tunnel that led to Zeiss. The group of them promised to see each other again in Grancel, Liberl's capital. And with that, Joshua and Estelle took off into the Kaldia Tunnel to make their way towards Zeiss.
The trip itself was mostly uneventful. Definitely far more so than their trip to Ruan had been. The only event of note was meeting an odd little girl as they got closer to Zeiss who seemed to be in a major hurry to fix a broken light. They couldn't blame her, broken lights did attract monsters, after all. But the idea of a girl of twelve being off to someplace likely infested with monsters worried both Joshua and Estelle, so they took off after the girl.
A good thing too, because when they arrived they found her being attacked by the monsters. Thankfully, both of them arrived in time to prevent the little girl from being made into monster food. They found out the girl's name was Tita and she was an apprentice at Zeiss' Central Factory, which is the biggest orbment factory in Zeiss, and quite possibly the whole continent. Definitely a good meeting, because Tita sure knows a lot about orbments, definitely far more than Estelle and Joshua combined, though not hard to know more than Estelle's lack of knowledge. In the hopes to keep the sweet girl safe from monsters, they escort her back the way they came and into Zeiss. In exchange, Tita showed them the way into the city so they didn't get lost in the immense factory the tunnel ends at.
Leaving Tita at the factory, the two of them head off the Zeiss' guild branch to go and do the assignment change deal they have to do in every city. There they meet the receptionist for Zeiss, a very unusual woman named Kilika who seems to be so good at predicting what they will need that Estelle thinks she has a super power to read minds. Kilika knows about the strange black orbment and hands the two of them a letter to meet up with the Central Factory's Chief, who also happens to be the closest thing to a mayor the city has.
They head off to the factory to meet the Chief, Mr. Murdock. Chief Murdock is happy to see Estelle and Joshua since like many the two of them have met, he knows their father and Cassius has done a great deal for him. So he looks over the black orbment and finds that it truly is a unique item. It is made of modern materials, but has no seams and no way to even open it up besides cutting it open. It also lacks any sort of markings or caliber to identify it. He's baffled by this and they all decide to have another person look at this strange orbment since he has more tools and according to the note Cassius got, the mysterious K who sent the note advised this man to look it over and analyze it anyhow. At the very least, Chief Murdock was able to answer the question of who Professor R was, that would be Professor Russell, one of the foremost scientific minds in Liberl. He calls for the professor's granddaughter to show them to the professor's house, and that turns out to be Tita. Seems that earlier meeting is even more lucky than they had originally thought.
Tita leads them to her house to meet her grandfather and they learn very quickly that Professor Russell isn't just a genius, he's a crazy genius. Joshua and Estelle find themselves roped into being assistants for his experiment on a new device to jam biosensor orbments. After that finishes up Professor Russell realizes his blunder and helps them out with investigating the black orbment.
The first thing they find out is that the metal the orbment is made from is not only an unknown metal, but it is impervious to normal cutting tools. The professor really wants to get the thing open since that will be the best way to tell what it can do. However, instead he decides to do a measurement scan on it. This seems like a harmless enough way to figure out what it can do, right?
Wrong. The scan activates the device and the power goes out in the entire city until the scanner is turned off. Thankfully this wasn't very long, so the people didn't panic too much, though there was definitely some curiosity about what was going on (though many suspected it was the professor up to no good...again). The professor calls this event the total orbal shutdown phenomenon.
The next day the professor decides to try a different route of figuring out what the black orbment will do. Unfortunately, it's ability to shut down orbal power is slowly growing to be a pain in their butts. Anything they try to use to cut it open is shut down. So he sends Estelle and Joshua off to get an old fashioned device called a combustion engine that should be laying around in the factory somewhere and some gasoline to power it.
With that mission accomplished, they attempt to use the professor's saw again to cut the black orbment open. The combustion engine is atrociously loud compared to the orbal engine, but it seems that does the trick, after a lot of sparks fly off the saw, there is a tiny scratch. Seriously, whatever that thing is made from is quite durable indeed. The professor knows he is going to have to go at it for most of the day (and go through quite a few saw blades) to get through this. Then he gets a call from a nearby village about their pump being broken. Since the professor is going to be working on cutting open the black orbment, Tita volunteers to go fix the pump and Estelle and Joshua say they will accompany her to ensure she is all right on the long trip.
They go off to Elmo village and Tita goes to fix the pump, leaving Estelle and Joshua to kill some time. They head back to the inn and the innkeeper asks about if they saw a woman from Grancel while they were coming in. Seems the woman wanted to leave the village to see the scenery. Joshua and Estelle go off after her before she becomes monster food.
It turns out the woman was Dorothy. Figures that only someone as ditzy as her would take off on such a careless venture. But Estelle and Joshua arrived just in time because she's about to be attacked by those creatures that attacked the checkpoint on their way into Ruan. Estelle and Joshua take care of them and escort Dorothy back to Elmo Village. They arrive at a great time because Tita just finished fixing the pump and the hot water is working great again.
Since it's late, and the innkeeper got a call from the professor that they should stay the night in the village, the group decides to enjoy a nice bath. Tita and Estelle take off to the women's baths, and Joshua to the men's. Tita and Estelle have some nice girl talk, mostly about if Joshua and Estelle are married or not and Estelle basically says that she'll be a big sister to Tita. The whole conversation leaves Estelle feeling really embarrassed, so to avoid the topics Tita is bringing up about Joshua, she heads off to the central bath, missing the fact that it is unisex.
She goes out there wearing only a towel and finds Joshua, alone. One would think with how much Estelle obviously is in love with him that she'd like this, but instead she ends up screaming so loudly that even the innkeeper comes running.
Poor Estelle is mortified at this point and takes her frustrations out on Joshua. This really soured the mood overall, so they go have dinner with Dorothy and then head to bed.
The next day they head back to Zeiss, on their way they meet a giant bracer from the Calvard Republic named Zane, who was headed to the hot spring. Once they return to Zeiss, they find that the Central Factory appears to be on fire with all the smoke coming out of it. The people are evacuating, but it appears that Professor Russell is still inside. Estelle and Joshua head inside to go find him and to deal with the smoke that turns out to just be smoke canisters.
And it seems that the strange guys dressed in black they ran into in Varenne Lighthouse are up to no good again. They find the professor being dragged away by these men and the men get away into the elevator and run into Agate. Joshua and Estelle pursue, but the elevator is far faster than the stairs.
It seems that the black clad men changed clothes while in the elevator, because everyone outside saw Royal Guardsmen escorting the Professor away and thought nothing strange of it. Dorothy even grabbed a few pictures to add to the story she wanted to write about the burglary, which unfortunately has turned into a kidnapping.
The army is called in to assist with this and Captain Amalthea comes personally to investigate and take witness reports. She takes Dorothy's picture from her and departs. Joshua and Estelle decide to also investigate this further and their lead leads them to Carnelia Tower. Agate comes with them because he's after the black clad men too, and especially wants to get them after his encounter with their commander after Varenne Lighthouse. They leave Tita in Zeiss, not aware that she will actually end up following them.
They find the black clad men and the professor at the top of the tower. The black clad men of course attempt to use their hostage to ensure their escape, but Agate comes up with a plan to deal with them. He's almost successful except Tita arrives at this point and messes up their plan. Agate ends up being shot and Tita is upset that not only the men got away with her grandpa, but Agate got hurt protecting her. Agate claims to be fine and advises they head back to Zeiss to report in to Kilika.
On their way back they run into Zane again and this is a good thing because right as they do, Agate passes out from his injury. Zane identifies that Agate was poisoned by a nerve toxin and helps Estelle, Joshua and Tita get him back to Zeiss and take him to the clinic. There isn't much the clinic can do because they don't have an antidote for this unknown poison and advise Estelle and Joshua head to the church and see if they know of a medicine that can help.
They do find out about a medicine that will help, but it requires a rare ingredient so off they go on a short quest to find this ingredient. Zane joins them for this, which is a good thing because the monsters in the cave where this ingredient is found are very dangerous. The medicine is prepared and given to Agate and he starts recovering. Tita looks after him as he recovers.
Estelle and Joshua report back in to the guild on Agate's condition and find out that Dorothy had run off to Leiston Fortress to take more pictures. This seems silly at first, but when they see her photograph they finally get a much needed lead on the kidnapping case. They can see the airship the black clad men used flying above the fort. This seems strange, because why would criminals fly so close to the army?
So Joshua and Estelle head off to Leiston Fortress to gather some more intel. They don't get much from the army itself, who is as usual, very uncooperative. But as the commander of the fortress goes back inside, they notice something strange. The gates won't close, and this seems to be a recent problem. Joshua guesses that it is the black orbment and the professor is inside. It's not a good realization, because that means the army is the one who kidnapped him when the army should be helping them. Also, as bracers, there is only so much they can do against the army. It is only by a tiny loophole in the rules that they can even act.
Chief Murdock offers assistance in the form of the maintenance airship that is permitted to fly to Leiston Fortress. It seems the army has actually ordered it to come there, so the timing is good. With the assistance of Tita and the device the professor had been making when Estelle and Joshua arrived, they get in. They find out it was Colonel Richard who was behind this all and he is up to some nefarious scheme in Grancel too (and the black clad men are part of the Intelligence Division). Once the colonel leaves, they break the professor out of the room. The alarms sound and they are pursued and nearly caught (in fact, the Sky Bandits did see them when they accidentally made their way into the jail), when Major Cid helps them escape. They get away, Agate takes Tita and the professor into hiding, and the professor bids Estelle and Joshua go to Grancel and tell the Queen of this black orbment and what happened.
So with that job in hand, Joshua and Estelle head off to the next city on their journey, and the last one, Grancel. It is arranged for them to take an airliner, but due to the mess at Leiston Fortress they end up having to take the highways instead. The military is definitely out searching for the now missing Professor Russell, and using that disappearance as a great way to make the Royal Guardsmen look like terrorists.
Joshua and Estelle head to the Sanktheim Gate checkpoint and fill out the usual requisite paperwork to travel into another city. Unfortunately they get stopped there once identified as bracers because it seems the army is spreading tales that the terrorist Royal Guardsmen are disguising themselves as bracers. They only make it through because Professor Alba speaks up on their behalf and in exchange for his assistance Estelle and Joshua escort him to the city.
They arrive to Grancel without much problem, just a few rude soldiers stopping them at one point. They go their separate ways from Alba and head to the guild to change assignments as always when arriving to a new place.
They find out that being able to get an audience with the Queen isn't going to be an easy task at all. All Estelle and Joshua can do at this point is to gather intel pretty much. They head off to the castle for information and then head off to the Martial Arts Competition that is being held.
And they find out a very useful tidbit at the competition. It seems that Duke Dunan is being impulsive and giving an invitation to the castle for a dinner party to the winners. It is suggested to Estelle and Joshua to try and team up with Zane who was stuck having to fight alone and this is supported by Elnan, the guild receptionist. So they head off to find Zane, rescue a nun in the process and end up teaming up with Zane. It goes well except they also meet up with Olivier who ends up forcing his way onto the team.
So the next couple of days are pretty much the tournament. Joshua and Estelle do great in it with Zane and Olivier and they first beat the Ravens again, then the other bracer team and then the Special Ops team. The Special Ops team was an especially tricky foe because their commander had joined the team and was quite a fearsome opponent. And strangely, Joshua seemed to react very strangely to the commander of Special Ops, to the point that he asked Elnan to find out personal information on him, but there was little to be found.
But anyway, having secured their invitation, they go to the castle dinner. Here they meet up with the head maid, Hilda who helps them gain an audience with the Queen. There is one snag to it, though, they have to dress up as maids. And because of Estelle's twisted sense of humor, Joshua ends up as a maid too.
But before that they attend the dinner and find out just how far along Colonel Richard's plan truly is. There they hear an announcement that the Queen will be abdicating her throne to Duke Dunan, the others in attendance are stunned, but there is little anyone can do at this point, Colonel Richard played his cards well for now.
But Joshua and Estelle start towards being able to foil this plan. They meet with the Queen and find out what Colonel Richard said was all lies. The Queen wanted the princess to take the throne, but the princess was taken hostage to force her to instead fall into Colonel Richard's hands too. The Queen asks Estelle and Joshua to rescue Princess Klaudia.
So they head off to the Erbe Royal Villa along with the other bracers and the Royal Guardsmen and successfully rescue Klaudia who turns out to actually be Kloe! Estelle is definitely shocked at this. Once they gain control of the Villa and the Special Ops ship, Kloe asks them to rescue the Queen.
That was definitely no small task and was going to involve a lot of cooperation. Kloe did have a good plan though. She knew a way into the sewers that would allow a small group to break in and open the gates. Once the gate was open, the Intelligence Division soldiers would be distracted dealing with invaders and allow a small rescue group in. Estelle, Kloe and Schera end up in the rescue group. Joshua, Zane and Olivier are in the group that goes down to the sewers.
After a lot of battles, Estelle's group successfully liberates the Queen from her guards, the primary of which is the Commander of Special Ops, Lieutenant Lorence. Estelle, Kloe and Schera actually get to see the Lieutenant without his mask and find out he has silver hair and quite possibly could be the man described who saved the orphans. They fight him and liberate the Queen and he runs away by jumping off the balcony which has Schera and Estelle thinking he's insane and wondering how he even did that. Joshua and the others meet up with the Queen and because of Lorence's parting words about heading down below, they finally realize what the Colonel was after. He wanted to activate an artifact called the Shining Ring.
So they head below, and meet up again with Agate, Tita and Professor Russell. The whole group trudges their way through the sealed area and its dangerous mechanized monsters. They also have to fight Captain Amalthea again on the way down, but they make it and find Colonel Richard.
After listening to his long villainous tirade about why he's doing what he's doing, they fight him. They do win, but the Shining Ring activates anyhow and they are too late. They then have to fight off the Ring Guardian, Reverie.
One long and VERY tedious battle later they win, Cassius returns just in time to help them with the last part of it and things are good again. Colonel Richard and many other Intelligence Division members are arrested. The Queen's Birthday Celebration happens as normal and life seems good again.
Joshua and Estelle are given full-fledged bracer status and they find out Cassius is returning to the army. But that doesn't stop them from enjoying the festival. Joshua and Estelle spend their day taking in all the sights and eventually stop to talk and rest. Estelle blunders in what she says and ends up really embarrassed and runs away to buy ice cream for them both while she calms down.
During this time, Joshua is approached by Professor Alba and finally has his memories returned to him, though Estelle isn't aware of this fact, just that he's acting strangely. They talk a bit more and then head back to the castle for a banquet. After the banquet Estelle approaches Schera to ask about Joshua's behavior and she tries to give Estelle some sisterly advise which sends Estelle running away to go find Joshua.
That all changed when she was six when Erebonia invaded Liberl. Her father had to leave and be a hero to Liberl as many of the towns became occupied by the Imperial Army, leaving Estelle alone with her mother to keep her safe in a nation at war.
That went all right for a time, until the army approached Rolent. The citizens all gathered in a safe place while the army tried to fight off the invaders. The young Estelle climbed on top of the clock tower in Rolent to try and see what her dad was doing.
And then the Imperial Army bombed the clocktower in an attempt to shake the citizens by attacking the symbol of their city. It ended up completely destroyed. Estelle's mother tried to shield Estelle from the collapse of the building and she died before the two of them were dug out. Estelle lived and recovered, but had to deal with the loss of her mother.
And her father, Cassius, was absolutely distraught by the loss of his wife. He left the army and instead joined the bracer guild so he could be around more to protect his daughter. Life went on as normal for the two of them, as much as it could, for five years.
Then one night when Estelle was 11, she was waiting for her dad to come home from a job that took him away for a time. He was late and this upset her and she was bored. Then finally he came home and had a boy with him. A very injured boy, at that. Cassius said that the boy was going to be a part of their family and her brother. Estelle, however, wasn't quite so accepting right off, especially as the boy seemed to be objecting to this. Estelle's reaction to his objections and yelling was to kick him, a lot (and this while he was injured at that). The boy who was taken in by Cassius is Joshua.
During those five years, Estelle did her utmost to try and get Joshua to come out of his shell and actually react to things. To her, that was trying to include him in her boyish habits of collecting bugs and fishing. She definitely came to realize quick that her new brother was quite shy and reserved and it was very hard to even get a reaction out of him, much less a smile.
Eventually, this changed a bit while Estelle was out hunting for a legendary bug. Joshua had decided to try and run away while Estelle was busy and Cassius wasn't around at the time. However, as he was about to get away he heard Estelle scream and went to save her. He was successful in doing so, but ruined his chance to run away in the process. But really, he was beginning to accept Estelle and being a part of the Bright family. At that time, Estelle promised she'd not ask about what Joshua had done before he came to live with them until he was ready to tell her.
The remaining years before the canon starts mostly passed in peace with Estelle and Joshua becoming as close as if they were actually related to each other and not just adopted siblings. And then once Estelle was old enough they both began training to eventually take the test to become junior bracers.
And then the story begins with Estelle and Joshua and their last day of training to become bracers and taking their test. Their mentor, Scherazard goes over a few final things and sends them off for their test, which is basically just a simulated job. They have to go down into the sewers to retrieve an item. It's a fairly simple job which the two of them have no trouble completing, the only tricky thing to it is that the item is two small boxes and Estelle's curiosity nearly defeats her, but Joshua talks her out of opening the boxes. A good thing, too, because they would have failed. But they do become junior bracers at this point.
As they are about to head home to tell their father the good news, the guild receptionist, Aina, comes running towards them and tells them of two boys going missing from town. She wants them to go find Cassius, but instead Estelle and Joshua talk her into letting them go. That ends up being their first real job and they have to head to a monster infested tower the boys were supposedly going to.
They make it safely to the tower and find the boys, just in time too. The fight off some monsters and save the boys. Estelle, unfortunately lets her anger at one of the boys nearly get the better of her and almost ends up being attacked by monsters and Joshua can't help her in time. However, their father happened to arrive in town soon after they left and followed. Typical Cassius stealing the spotlight there.
Estelle, however felt real bad that she made a pretty big mistake there, but not like she let that get her down for long. They returned and reported in and were given a letter to deliver to Cassius since he decided to foist reporting off on Estelle and Joshua and head directly home.
The letter turned out to be some business that would send Cassius away for a time. So the next morning Estelle and Joshua saw him off at the landing port and then they had to take over some of his work. The jobs were pretty easy: dealing with monsters on the Perzel Farm, delivering an item from the mines to the mayor, and escorting two reporters to the Esmelas Tower.
They finish those three jobs with ease, along with completing some minor stuff posted on the bulletin board. Then as they are about to head home after the third job someone comes running to say there was a robbery at the mayor's house. Estelle, Joshua, and Schera took off to investigate it and it seems the piece of septium that Estelle and Joshua delivered in their earlier job was stolen from the mayor's safe.
They were able to track down the thieves and get back the septium. Joshua and Estelle receive a recommendation to become senior bracers and find out they need to get those from the guild branches in all other cities.
While discussing that, the guild gets a call and Estelle and Joshua find out that an airliner was hijacked and Cassius was on the passenger list of the airliner.
Estelle was upset about it at first, but like in her normal manner, she got over that real quick and announced that she wanted to head to Bose to investigate the matter herself, may as well since they needed a recommendation from Bose also so it kills two birds with one stone basically.
So the next morning they headed out to Bose on foot. It was about a half a day's journey and overall pretty uneventful outside of having to pass through a checkpoint and get a pass and meeting some people on the road.
They headed to the guild once they arrived in Bose and found out that even the guild didn't know much more than they did since the army wasn't exactly sharing information with the guild at all. But the receptionist, Lugran, told them they had just gotten a request from the mayor of Bose to go visit Haken Gate and see if they could get some more details from General Morgan. Estelle and Joshua gladly accepted that job and transferred their membership to the Bose guild.
They headed to Haken Gate (and hid their identities as bracers since the general was known to despise the guild) and at first couldn't meet with the general since he wasn't there, but should return sometime that day. So they were told to wait in the bar and inn nearby. While there, they met a very strange Erebonian by the name of Olivier Lenheim who seemed to take a great liking to Joshua, much to Estelle's displeasure.
Thankfully that very strange conversation was cut short by one of the soliders arriving to say General Morgan would meet with them. Olivier attempted to follow, but was shooed away. They met with the general and found out some information, but due to Estelle's slip up, he found out they were bracers and kicked them out. Things would have escalated further if it hadn't been for Olivier arriving and playing a song he wrote about Joshua that just made everyone involved dumbfounded. But it worked since that ended the argument peacefully and General Morgan retreated.
They then escorted Olivier to Bose and left him to tour the city while they met with the mayor. They reported to her what they found out and she was quite relieved to have that much information, even if it didn't bring them closer to finding the hostages. At least she knew it wasn't a crash and had enough information to handle matters in Bose with her worried citizens. However, Estelle and Joshua were left without an idea of what to do next. However, before they had spoken to the mayor they saw the reporters they had escorted in Rolent and decided to see if the two of them had any more information since they had been in Bose for longer.
The reporters didn't know much more, but it did yield one clue that could be useful, a child in the nearby Ravennue Village had seen a strange shadow on the night of the hijacking. The group decided this was worth checking out and headed to the village to speak with the boy.
With the story that the boy gave, they decided to head out to the abandoned mine. After realizing that it may be a valid clue, the obtained a key to get into the mine from the elder. And once they were inside they hit the jackpot, there was the missing airliner and the sky bandits.
A fight ensued with the bandits and then they ran away, again. Still, the airliner was there and the group investigated it. Unfortunately it was empty and they were back at square one again with no clue. They realized they would have to give this information to the army and see what could be done from there. However as they were about to leave to go find the army, the army instead found them.
Except it was General Morgan who with his hate for bracers decided they must be in on it with the sky bandits and arrested the group. They were taken to Haken Gate and thrown into a jail cell.
Amusingly enough, they happened to be in a cell next to a familiar face, one Olivier Lenheim found himself in jail also, however in his case it was for chugging an expensive bottle of wine without paying for it. Estelle and the others fell asleep as he told the story. The next morning they were awoken by the guards and released thanks to Mayor Maybelle.
They returned to Bose and Maybelle caught them up on the recent happenings in the city. It appeared there had been a string of burglaries the previous night while the party was in jail and it was suspected the sky bandits played a role in that. The party set out to investigate things there and Olivier went with them with Maybelle's approval, in exchange for the wine.
However, they were blocked from being able to investigate by the army and eventually some of the soldiers become outright rude to them. This was about to escalate to something nasty when a strange officer approached and apologized on the behalf of the army. This man introduced himself as Colonel Alan Richard, of the Intelligence Division. He dismissed the rest of the soldiers so the bracers could investigate.
Estelle and the others hit the jackpot in one home and got a very useful piece of information the army did not from a woman named Cecile. Her husband came home from fishing while she was being questioned and he told of some strange people arriving to Valleria Lakeshore two nights ago and mentioned his fishing buddy out that way would know more.
So with that clue, the party headed out to the lakeshore to question the fishing buddy, Lloyd. Lloyd was very helpful and they found out the sky bandits were due to come back that very night. So the party got a room for the night and took the rest of the day off. Estelle took the time to do some fishing, Joshua read, and Schera and Olivier got roaring drunk.
While Estelle was off fishing, Joshua had wandered off and left his book behind. She looked around and found him at the pier they found Lloyd at. Joshua seemed troubled, but he wasn't really talking much about what was going on and making excuses. Estelle didn't question him further and they eventually went inside to get dinner.
After dinner, Olivier ended up passing out on their bed and the others went to go try and find Josette and Kyle to spy on them. They got lucky and found the duo and hid a distance away so they could hear the meeting. And a interesting meeting it was because some strange men in black arrived. They found out that the bandits were likely nearby and decided to try and find where their ship was hiding before Kyle and Josette returned to it. Though oddly, Joshua seemed rather distracted by the whole conversation from the moment the man in black arrived. They didn't really have time to discuss it and left.
They found the ship nearby at the Amberl Tower, and while trying to figure out how to proceed Olivier arrived somehow in good shape, though hung over. He suggested they sneak aboard the airship and catch a ride to the hideout. It was a good idea and ended up working great.
At the hideout they found the hostages and freed them and fought the leaders, Kyle, Josette, and a man named Don. After the fight was won, Don started acting differently. He didn't seem to remember any of the past few weeks or having even hijacked an airliner. Kyle took the chance to set off a smoke canister and run.
The party followed and were stopped by all the rest of the bandits. They knocked all of them unconscious and when they arrived back to where the ship landed, they found the army had arrived and was arresting the leaders.
They report back to the guild and gain their recommendation from the Bose branch at last for their good work in catching the bandits and recovering the hostages. Then one of the workers from the airliner comes bearing a package Cassius had meant to send to Rolent addressed to Estelle and Joshua.
The package contained a letter from Cassius letting them know he would be delayed and giving his blessing to work towards being senior bracers or staying in Rolent, whatever Estelle and Joshua feel is right. The two of them decide to continue their journey and head to Ruan next. They feel it is the best to continue trying to qualify to be senior bracers and by traveling to the other cities, they may hear news of their father. Then they open the second package which wasn't for them, but for Cassius, but he obviously hadn't had a chance to open it and sent it on instead. That package contained a cryptic letter from someone who only signed as K asking to have the item inside analyzed by a Professor R. None of them know who these people are, and the item is even more unusual because it's a black orbment with no slots for quartz. Estelle and Joshua decide to hold on to it and hope they can find some clue about this Professor R and K and maybe the item would lead them to their father.
The next day after seeing Olivier and Schera off at the landing port they head off on the road to Ruan. That trip is mostly uneventful until they arrive at the checkpoint. It was getting late since the trip took some time, so they asked if they could stay the night at the checkpoint. The soldiers agreed and treated them really well, sharing their meal and making sure they had anything they needed. Later in the night another bracer arrived, one they had met on the way to Ravennue Village named Agate.
Agate is quite the jerk to Estelle and Joshua, and Estelle reacts very strongly to his insults. Joshua tries to ease the tension, but there isn't much he can do. Agate has a point, they are newbies and they wouldn't have done so well in Bose without Schera's help. But that gets nowhere and they all eventually try to get some sleep.
However, they are interrupted by the checkpoint being attacked by monsters. The three bracers head out to see what is going on and end up helping out the soldiers on the Ruan side of the checkpoint. Having dealt with the monsters, they go back to sleep and the soldiers promise to do some patrols to be sure the area is secure.
The morning comes without any further interruptions. Estelle sleeps pretty late and Agate has already left. The two of them go and get their gate pass and head off towards Ruan, stopping first in Manoria Village for lunch, which is definitely very fun for both of them. While there, they meet a girl looking for a young boy and after lunch they end up running into the boy who steals Estelle's bracer emblem.
Estelle, of course, is furious. They question the villagers and find out the boy is from a nearby orphanage. They head over to the orphanage and find the boy. After a very embarrassing scene that gets Estelle called a pervert and child abuser, she finally gets her emblem back, but only after Matron Theresa comes out with it. They enjoy some apple pie and then the girl they met earlier offers to guide them to Ruan to make up for her error in thinking Estelle wanted to harm the boy.
So they head off to Ruan, of course first heading to the guild to get the transfer done, but the receptionist isn't there, so they explore the city. While exploring they have a nasty run in with the local gang, the Ravens, and end up meeting the mayor and his steward who break up the whole mess. After that they head back to the guild, get the transfer paperwork done and by then it's pretty late so they head over to the hotel to get a room. They luck out and a suite just became available and they take it.
While exploring the awesome room they got they end up having a rather uninvited visitor who turns out to be Duke Dunan, the Queen's nephew. And he's quite the rude asshole and Estelle and Joshua have to give up the room or risk a confrontation. The hotel apologizes for the mixup and offers to find them some place to stay since it was their error that caused that to happen. They get lucky and Nial, the reporter they met in Rolent, overhears and offers his room. Of course, he's wanting to get an interview from them, but they go ahead and accept it. Nial was a big help in Bose, after all, and did help them out of that jam with the room.
During the night, however, the orphanage is set on fire and burnt to the ground and the orphans have to flee to Manoria Village. When Estelle and Joshua wake up, they end up being sent out to investigate the fire and to find out if it was arson or due to natural causes. They investigate the place and find it was indeed arson. As they come to that conclusion and are about to head to Manoria to question the matron, Kloe arrives.
They head to the village and question the matron who really can't give them any clues outside of mentioning about a silver haired man who saved their lives, though they all doubt he is the arsonist (though Joshua reacts rather oddly to the description of this man), while doing so Mayor Dalmore arrives and his Steward says some things he shouldn't and accuses the Ravens of the arson without any evidence. This causes the little boy from earlier, Clem, to take off towards Ruan to deal with the thugs.
Kloe and the others head back to Ruan and the warehouse they know is the Ravens' hideout. They fight the gang and win and the thugs still won't let Clem go. Eventually Agate and Matron Theresa arrive and things calm down. Agate remains to give the thugs a beat down, since it turns out he used to be their leader. Explains a lot about his personality. But Estelle and Joshua see the Matron and Clem to the city entrance and the two head back to Manoria, leaving Kloe, Estelle and Joshua to report on things. While they are reporting in, Agate comes back and takes over the case, quite forcefully at that, basically booting them off it.
Thankfully, Kloe steps in and gives Estelle and Joshua some work to do in the meantime. She had meant to come to the guild to see if she could hire the two of them to play the remaining parts in the academy's festival coming up in a week. Jean agrees that is a good job for them to do and they agree to do it. After finishing things up in Ruan, they head off to the Royal Academy. There they meet the members of the student council and the dean and start work on the play.
A week later the festival day arrives. While exploring around, Estelle and Joshua run into Professor Alba, who they had met in Rolent and they end up showing him to the history displays that he was showing an interest in. After that little errand they meet up with the Matron and the children from the orphanage. Joshua takes the kids outside with him to show them the costumes from the play so they won't hear the discussion. The matron basically tells them she has decided to take an offer from the mayor to live in his villa in Grancel until she can rebuild. Kloe, is upset about this, and they know the children will be as well.
Then they go to find the children and find them in the costume room, but no Joshua. One of the children mentions that he ran off after the silver haired man who saved them. Estelle and Kloe take off to go find Joshua, leaving the children with the matron. They find him in the old schoolhouse, but no silver haired man. It seems Joshua lost him. Estelle is mad at him for running off like that but while they are talking about it an announcement is heard asking them to report to the auditorium for the play.
The play happens, and Estelle and Joshua do wonderfully in their roles, Estelle as a knight, and Joshua as Princess Cecilia. The audience loves the play and so do the children. Afterwards they gather backstage and the matron and children come to congratulate them. Then Kloe, Jill, and the dean come back with a large donation of money to use to rebuild the orphanage. The matron at first refuses it, but the convince her to accept it. The dean hires a bracer to escort them back to Manoria, since carrying such a sum of money is quite a danger to them all.
Estelle and Joshua stay to help clean up after the festival and it is quite late when they are off to bid farewell to Jill and Hans. Kloe offers to go with them as far as the Gull Seaside Way since she wants to go to Manoria to make sure the matron arrived all right. Unfortunately before Estelle and Joshua can head back to Ruan they are met by one of the Manorians. They find out the matron was attacked and the money stolen. Estelle and the others head off to Manoria to see if she and the orphans are all right.
The matron, bracer and children are fine, though upset about the loss of the donated money. Agate arrives as he heard what was going on and mentions that the Ravens are missing from Ruan. They join forces to investigate things and then Kloe's gyrfalcon, Sieg, arrives and shows them where the attackers went off to, which was the nearby lighthouse.
They end up fighting off all the Ravens and on top meet up with the guys in black they saw at the lakeshore. And also Mayor Dalmore's steward, Gilbert. They end up fighting the guys in black and win, the guys shoot Gilbert in the leg and run away. Estelle and the others do get the money back, but the thieves are gone. Agate runs off after the men in black and leaves Estelle, Joshua and Kloe to deal with the Ravens and Gilbert.
It takes the rest of the night to deal with the matter and it's morning when they arrive at the guild again to report in to Jean. Of course they know Mayor Dalmore now is the one behind the whole mess, unfortunately there isn't much that can be done because bracers stay out of politics and cannot arrest an official unless he is caught in the act of committing a crime. Instead they are sent to question Dalmore and buy some time while Jean calls in the army who can handle the matter.
They arrive to find Dalmore trying to sell a vacation home to Duke Dunan, while Estelle and the others confront him, Duke Dunan remains, the matter escalates and Estelle and the others end up attacked by Dalmore's pet monsters. Yeah, he's a weirdo who thinks monsters make great pets.
They kill the monsters and then Dalmore pulls out an artifact and stops time. He's going to kill everyone in the room and run, and he's about to kill Joshua when a strange black light appears out of Estelle's pocket and they can move again. It seems the black orbment reacted to the artifact. Dalmore then takes off on his yacht and the party tries to follow. Dalmore nearly gets away when a military airship arrives, it is the Royal Guard airship and he is placed under arrest. Strangely enough, after the mayor is taken away, another military vessel arrives with Colonel Richard and a woman named Captain Amalthea. Rather strange, but as long as Dalmore is taken care of, they didn't care.
They head back to the guild and Jean gives Estelle and Joshua a recommendation for their great handling of that case. He then also recommends that they head to Zeiss next, since that black orbment was definitely quite curious and since Zeiss is where all orbments are made, it would make sense to find out more about it there.
So, after the events following Mayor Dalmore's arrest, Joshua and Estelle waited a time for things to calm down, but eventually it was time to head on to the next major city in their journey to become full-fledged bracers, and that was Zeiss. It was an especially logical location for them since Zeiss is the center of Liberl's industry and technology and the events surrounding the mayor had left Estelle and Joshua very curious about that black orbment their father had been sent. One could hardly blame them, it had saved their lives, after all.
So they went ahead and said their goodbyes to Kloe, who went ahead and saw them off as far as the Kaldia Tunnel that led to Zeiss. The group of them promised to see each other again in Grancel, Liberl's capital. And with that, Joshua and Estelle took off into the Kaldia Tunnel to make their way towards Zeiss.
The trip itself was mostly uneventful. Definitely far more so than their trip to Ruan had been. The only event of note was meeting an odd little girl as they got closer to Zeiss who seemed to be in a major hurry to fix a broken light. They couldn't blame her, broken lights did attract monsters, after all. But the idea of a girl of twelve being off to someplace likely infested with monsters worried both Joshua and Estelle, so they took off after the girl.
A good thing too, because when they arrived they found her being attacked by the monsters. Thankfully, both of them arrived in time to prevent the little girl from being made into monster food. They found out the girl's name was Tita and she was an apprentice at Zeiss' Central Factory, which is the biggest orbment factory in Zeiss, and quite possibly the whole continent. Definitely a good meeting, because Tita sure knows a lot about orbments, definitely far more than Estelle and Joshua combined, though not hard to know more than Estelle's lack of knowledge. In the hopes to keep the sweet girl safe from monsters, they escort her back the way they came and into Zeiss. In exchange, Tita showed them the way into the city so they didn't get lost in the immense factory the tunnel ends at.
Leaving Tita at the factory, the two of them head off the Zeiss' guild branch to go and do the assignment change deal they have to do in every city. There they meet the receptionist for Zeiss, a very unusual woman named Kilika who seems to be so good at predicting what they will need that Estelle thinks she has a super power to read minds. Kilika knows about the strange black orbment and hands the two of them a letter to meet up with the Central Factory's Chief, who also happens to be the closest thing to a mayor the city has.
They head off to the factory to meet the Chief, Mr. Murdock. Chief Murdock is happy to see Estelle and Joshua since like many the two of them have met, he knows their father and Cassius has done a great deal for him. So he looks over the black orbment and finds that it truly is a unique item. It is made of modern materials, but has no seams and no way to even open it up besides cutting it open. It also lacks any sort of markings or caliber to identify it. He's baffled by this and they all decide to have another person look at this strange orbment since he has more tools and according to the note Cassius got, the mysterious K who sent the note advised this man to look it over and analyze it anyhow. At the very least, Chief Murdock was able to answer the question of who Professor R was, that would be Professor Russell, one of the foremost scientific minds in Liberl. He calls for the professor's granddaughter to show them to the professor's house, and that turns out to be Tita. Seems that earlier meeting is even more lucky than they had originally thought.
Tita leads them to her house to meet her grandfather and they learn very quickly that Professor Russell isn't just a genius, he's a crazy genius. Joshua and Estelle find themselves roped into being assistants for his experiment on a new device to jam biosensor orbments. After that finishes up Professor Russell realizes his blunder and helps them out with investigating the black orbment.
The first thing they find out is that the metal the orbment is made from is not only an unknown metal, but it is impervious to normal cutting tools. The professor really wants to get the thing open since that will be the best way to tell what it can do. However, instead he decides to do a measurement scan on it. This seems like a harmless enough way to figure out what it can do, right?
Wrong. The scan activates the device and the power goes out in the entire city until the scanner is turned off. Thankfully this wasn't very long, so the people didn't panic too much, though there was definitely some curiosity about what was going on (though many suspected it was the professor up to no good...again). The professor calls this event the total orbal shutdown phenomenon.
The next day the professor decides to try a different route of figuring out what the black orbment will do. Unfortunately, it's ability to shut down orbal power is slowly growing to be a pain in their butts. Anything they try to use to cut it open is shut down. So he sends Estelle and Joshua off to get an old fashioned device called a combustion engine that should be laying around in the factory somewhere and some gasoline to power it.
With that mission accomplished, they attempt to use the professor's saw again to cut the black orbment open. The combustion engine is atrociously loud compared to the orbal engine, but it seems that does the trick, after a lot of sparks fly off the saw, there is a tiny scratch. Seriously, whatever that thing is made from is quite durable indeed. The professor knows he is going to have to go at it for most of the day (and go through quite a few saw blades) to get through this. Then he gets a call from a nearby village about their pump being broken. Since the professor is going to be working on cutting open the black orbment, Tita volunteers to go fix the pump and Estelle and Joshua say they will accompany her to ensure she is all right on the long trip.
They go off to Elmo village and Tita goes to fix the pump, leaving Estelle and Joshua to kill some time. They head back to the inn and the innkeeper asks about if they saw a woman from Grancel while they were coming in. Seems the woman wanted to leave the village to see the scenery. Joshua and Estelle go off after her before she becomes monster food.
It turns out the woman was Dorothy. Figures that only someone as ditzy as her would take off on such a careless venture. But Estelle and Joshua arrived just in time because she's about to be attacked by those creatures that attacked the checkpoint on their way into Ruan. Estelle and Joshua take care of them and escort Dorothy back to Elmo Village. They arrive at a great time because Tita just finished fixing the pump and the hot water is working great again.
Since it's late, and the innkeeper got a call from the professor that they should stay the night in the village, the group decides to enjoy a nice bath. Tita and Estelle take off to the women's baths, and Joshua to the men's. Tita and Estelle have some nice girl talk, mostly about if Joshua and Estelle are married or not and Estelle basically says that she'll be a big sister to Tita. The whole conversation leaves Estelle feeling really embarrassed, so to avoid the topics Tita is bringing up about Joshua, she heads off to the central bath, missing the fact that it is unisex.
She goes out there wearing only a towel and finds Joshua, alone. One would think with how much Estelle obviously is in love with him that she'd like this, but instead she ends up screaming so loudly that even the innkeeper comes running.
Poor Estelle is mortified at this point and takes her frustrations out on Joshua. This really soured the mood overall, so they go have dinner with Dorothy and then head to bed.
The next day they head back to Zeiss, on their way they meet a giant bracer from the Calvard Republic named Zane, who was headed to the hot spring. Once they return to Zeiss, they find that the Central Factory appears to be on fire with all the smoke coming out of it. The people are evacuating, but it appears that Professor Russell is still inside. Estelle and Joshua head inside to go find him and to deal with the smoke that turns out to just be smoke canisters.
And it seems that the strange guys dressed in black they ran into in Varenne Lighthouse are up to no good again. They find the professor being dragged away by these men and the men get away into the elevator and run into Agate. Joshua and Estelle pursue, but the elevator is far faster than the stairs.
It seems that the black clad men changed clothes while in the elevator, because everyone outside saw Royal Guardsmen escorting the Professor away and thought nothing strange of it. Dorothy even grabbed a few pictures to add to the story she wanted to write about the burglary, which unfortunately has turned into a kidnapping.
The army is called in to assist with this and Captain Amalthea comes personally to investigate and take witness reports. She takes Dorothy's picture from her and departs. Joshua and Estelle decide to also investigate this further and their lead leads them to Carnelia Tower. Agate comes with them because he's after the black clad men too, and especially wants to get them after his encounter with their commander after Varenne Lighthouse. They leave Tita in Zeiss, not aware that she will actually end up following them.
They find the black clad men and the professor at the top of the tower. The black clad men of course attempt to use their hostage to ensure their escape, but Agate comes up with a plan to deal with them. He's almost successful except Tita arrives at this point and messes up their plan. Agate ends up being shot and Tita is upset that not only the men got away with her grandpa, but Agate got hurt protecting her. Agate claims to be fine and advises they head back to Zeiss to report in to Kilika.
On their way back they run into Zane again and this is a good thing because right as they do, Agate passes out from his injury. Zane identifies that Agate was poisoned by a nerve toxin and helps Estelle, Joshua and Tita get him back to Zeiss and take him to the clinic. There isn't much the clinic can do because they don't have an antidote for this unknown poison and advise Estelle and Joshua head to the church and see if they know of a medicine that can help.
They do find out about a medicine that will help, but it requires a rare ingredient so off they go on a short quest to find this ingredient. Zane joins them for this, which is a good thing because the monsters in the cave where this ingredient is found are very dangerous. The medicine is prepared and given to Agate and he starts recovering. Tita looks after him as he recovers.
Estelle and Joshua report back in to the guild on Agate's condition and find out that Dorothy had run off to Leiston Fortress to take more pictures. This seems silly at first, but when they see her photograph they finally get a much needed lead on the kidnapping case. They can see the airship the black clad men used flying above the fort. This seems strange, because why would criminals fly so close to the army?
So Joshua and Estelle head off to Leiston Fortress to gather some more intel. They don't get much from the army itself, who is as usual, very uncooperative. But as the commander of the fortress goes back inside, they notice something strange. The gates won't close, and this seems to be a recent problem. Joshua guesses that it is the black orbment and the professor is inside. It's not a good realization, because that means the army is the one who kidnapped him when the army should be helping them. Also, as bracers, there is only so much they can do against the army. It is only by a tiny loophole in the rules that they can even act.
Chief Murdock offers assistance in the form of the maintenance airship that is permitted to fly to Leiston Fortress. It seems the army has actually ordered it to come there, so the timing is good. With the assistance of Tita and the device the professor had been making when Estelle and Joshua arrived, they get in. They find out it was Colonel Richard who was behind this all and he is up to some nefarious scheme in Grancel too (and the black clad men are part of the Intelligence Division). Once the colonel leaves, they break the professor out of the room. The alarms sound and they are pursued and nearly caught (in fact, the Sky Bandits did see them when they accidentally made their way into the jail), when Major Cid helps them escape. They get away, Agate takes Tita and the professor into hiding, and the professor bids Estelle and Joshua go to Grancel and tell the Queen of this black orbment and what happened.
So with that job in hand, Joshua and Estelle head off to the next city on their journey, and the last one, Grancel. It is arranged for them to take an airliner, but due to the mess at Leiston Fortress they end up having to take the highways instead. The military is definitely out searching for the now missing Professor Russell, and using that disappearance as a great way to make the Royal Guardsmen look like terrorists.
Joshua and Estelle head to the Sanktheim Gate checkpoint and fill out the usual requisite paperwork to travel into another city. Unfortunately they get stopped there once identified as bracers because it seems the army is spreading tales that the terrorist Royal Guardsmen are disguising themselves as bracers. They only make it through because Professor Alba speaks up on their behalf and in exchange for his assistance Estelle and Joshua escort him to the city.
They arrive to Grancel without much problem, just a few rude soldiers stopping them at one point. They go their separate ways from Alba and head to the guild to change assignments as always when arriving to a new place.
They find out that being able to get an audience with the Queen isn't going to be an easy task at all. All Estelle and Joshua can do at this point is to gather intel pretty much. They head off to the castle for information and then head off to the Martial Arts Competition that is being held.
And they find out a very useful tidbit at the competition. It seems that Duke Dunan is being impulsive and giving an invitation to the castle for a dinner party to the winners. It is suggested to Estelle and Joshua to try and team up with Zane who was stuck having to fight alone and this is supported by Elnan, the guild receptionist. So they head off to find Zane, rescue a nun in the process and end up teaming up with Zane. It goes well except they also meet up with Olivier who ends up forcing his way onto the team.
So the next couple of days are pretty much the tournament. Joshua and Estelle do great in it with Zane and Olivier and they first beat the Ravens again, then the other bracer team and then the Special Ops team. The Special Ops team was an especially tricky foe because their commander had joined the team and was quite a fearsome opponent. And strangely, Joshua seemed to react very strangely to the commander of Special Ops, to the point that he asked Elnan to find out personal information on him, but there was little to be found.
But anyway, having secured their invitation, they go to the castle dinner. Here they meet up with the head maid, Hilda who helps them gain an audience with the Queen. There is one snag to it, though, they have to dress up as maids. And because of Estelle's twisted sense of humor, Joshua ends up as a maid too.
But before that they attend the dinner and find out just how far along Colonel Richard's plan truly is. There they hear an announcement that the Queen will be abdicating her throne to Duke Dunan, the others in attendance are stunned, but there is little anyone can do at this point, Colonel Richard played his cards well for now.
But Joshua and Estelle start towards being able to foil this plan. They meet with the Queen and find out what Colonel Richard said was all lies. The Queen wanted the princess to take the throne, but the princess was taken hostage to force her to instead fall into Colonel Richard's hands too. The Queen asks Estelle and Joshua to rescue Princess Klaudia.
So they head off to the Erbe Royal Villa along with the other bracers and the Royal Guardsmen and successfully rescue Klaudia who turns out to actually be Kloe! Estelle is definitely shocked at this. Once they gain control of the Villa and the Special Ops ship, Kloe asks them to rescue the Queen.
That was definitely no small task and was going to involve a lot of cooperation. Kloe did have a good plan though. She knew a way into the sewers that would allow a small group to break in and open the gates. Once the gate was open, the Intelligence Division soldiers would be distracted dealing with invaders and allow a small rescue group in. Estelle, Kloe and Schera end up in the rescue group. Joshua, Zane and Olivier are in the group that goes down to the sewers.
After a lot of battles, Estelle's group successfully liberates the Queen from her guards, the primary of which is the Commander of Special Ops, Lieutenant Lorence. Estelle, Kloe and Schera actually get to see the Lieutenant without his mask and find out he has silver hair and quite possibly could be the man described who saved the orphans. They fight him and liberate the Queen and he runs away by jumping off the balcony which has Schera and Estelle thinking he's insane and wondering how he even did that. Joshua and the others meet up with the Queen and because of Lorence's parting words about heading down below, they finally realize what the Colonel was after. He wanted to activate an artifact called the Shining Ring.
So they head below, and meet up again with Agate, Tita and Professor Russell. The whole group trudges their way through the sealed area and its dangerous mechanized monsters. They also have to fight Captain Amalthea again on the way down, but they make it and find Colonel Richard.
After listening to his long villainous tirade about why he's doing what he's doing, they fight him. They do win, but the Shining Ring activates anyhow and they are too late. They then have to fight off the Ring Guardian, Reverie.
One long and VERY tedious battle later they win, Cassius returns just in time to help them with the last part of it and things are good again. Colonel Richard and many other Intelligence Division members are arrested. The Queen's Birthday Celebration happens as normal and life seems good again.
Joshua and Estelle are given full-fledged bracer status and they find out Cassius is returning to the army. But that doesn't stop them from enjoying the festival. Joshua and Estelle spend their day taking in all the sights and eventually stop to talk and rest. Estelle blunders in what she says and ends up really embarrassed and runs away to buy ice cream for them both while she calms down.
During this time, Joshua is approached by Professor Alba and finally has his memories returned to him, though Estelle isn't aware of this fact, just that he's acting strangely. They talk a bit more and then head back to the castle for a banquet. After the banquet Estelle approaches Schera to ask about Joshua's behavior and she tries to give Estelle some sisterly advise which sends Estelle running away to go find Joshua.