Here we are again! A couple things to point out:
1) We are rocking with the exact same dual framing device as we were with SGI; however, because the "guided tour" element takes a backseat, it's less in your face and the apprentice part takes much more import, which is the inverse of how it was in SGI.
2) The profiles are all in plain form Japanese not because they were being written by the apprentice, but because they are assuming a much more personal, intimate relationship between the girls and You. There's no need for polite social distance when you're dealing with memory magic.
3) Just to be 100% clear: the You of this Side is not operating under the same You rules of WGI. In other words, You Mk. II don't have a harem here. Of the eight new characters, only four (Lucienne, Parche, Eva, and Aramelia) know You already, and due to the roles You play in their lives, it's literally impossible for them to all be the same person. This is less of a harem and more you picking a route in an eroge, just like it was in SGI.
Let's go!
Welcome, once again, to Castle Salvarision, the headquarters of the Knights of the Dark Ice Flower. You must be pretty shocked, huh? All like1, “why am I here?” Hehe, the memories of those girls that you just saw were from this “magic crystal of remembrance”. It’s not just a coincidence that you came here— it was “you” who touched all those girl’s hearts, y’know.
So how did it feel?
What did you think?
Those qualities you have… I’ve heard just about every dark knight in the city is interested ♪
Hehe~ Well, everyone’s waiting for you over there… Looks like your night here in Lescatie is gonna be a very long one ♥
~Wilmarina, Lady of Salvarision~
To the esteemed wandering scholar of monsters— rather, dear teacher2,
It has been quite a long time since we last met. I’ve heard many rumors of your whereabouts during my own travels— may I ask how your journeys have treated you?
Knowing you as I do, of course, I assume that you’re still writing as always. Even now, as I continue to learn from you, and follow your footsteps as a traveller, when I close my eyes, it seems as if those cherished, bygone days when I studied directly under you had only just occurred.
How many days have passed, I wonder, since I have traced your path to the mamono realm nation of Lescatie? To my amazement, and perhaps yours, I find myself here for the time being, in the very same nation that a most unfortunate circumstance3 drove you to temporarily seek shelter in, in the care of the dark knights in Castle Salvarision!
Dear teacher, how did you spend your time during your sojourn in Lescatie?
I, of course, have taken up my pen once more. I would have once found this a terribly dangerous decision, but when seeing the same sights the dark knights see, spending the same time, I can’t help but feel that the impression I once had regarding Lescatie as a “terrifying dark mamono realm” was rather incorrect; indeed, while it shames me to say so, it was prejudice. What follows, then, shall be a personal account of my own experiences here— mine and mine alone.
As a humble monster scholar, and as your disciple, I will not deny that I cannot rid my work of my own personal feelings and biases— nevertheless, I can hope for nothing more but that one day, this record of my experiences will become even one of the catalysts for the dismantling of that ill-content we call prejudice between monsters and humans!
~A Letter from the Apprentice of a Certain Scholar of Monsters~
Translation Notes:
1: Wilmarina talks very casually. She makes liberal use of contractions like てる instead of ている and conversational, informal markers like って and だって. It's very much like the carefree, young woman/teen character that we get the impression of, so I made sure to carry it through with just a touch of the teenspeak.
2: The apprentice pivots from the very formal and rather distant 拝啓 to the still honorific but much warmer 親愛なる, both acceptable ways to begin a letter, but you'd never use the latter if you were writing a letter to someone you didn't know very well and have a close relationship with. Also, he uses honorific language throughout the whole thing. Don't get it twisted, he
adores the WS.
3: Referring, of course, to the WS getting branded as a criminal by the Order and getting kicked out.
