空の軌跡 // Trails in the Sky ⚔ Story Club・Week 14

Week 14 7th October 2024
Last Week Week 13
Next week Week 15
Home Thread 空の軌跡

We’re going to stop right after we’ve spoken to メイブル市長, having filled another page of the notebook and with a blank page ready for new notes.

Side Quests

Nothing new this week.

Screenshot

Vocabulary

Vocab Sheet , thank you to everyone who has been helping with this.

We also have an arts sheet if you’re struggling with the in-game version.

Please read the guidelines on the first page before adding any words.

Discussion Guidelines

Everybody should feel free to post and ask questions–it’s what makes book clubs fun! But please do not post until you are familiar with Spoiler Courtesy!

Spoiler Courtesy

Please follow these rules to avoid inadvertent ネタバレ. If you’re unsure whether something should have a spoiler tag, err on the side of using one.

  1. Any potential spoiler for the current week’s reading need only be covered by a spoiler tag. Predictions and conjecture made by somebody who has not read ahead still falls into this category.
  2. Any potential spoilers for external sources need to be covered by a spoiler tag and include a label (outside of the spoiler tag) of what might be spoiled. These include but are not limited to: other book club picks, other books, games, movies, anime, etc. I recommend also tagging the severity of the spoiler (for example, I may still look at minor spoilers for something that I don’t intend to read soon).
  3. Any information from later in the book than the current week’s reading (including trigger warnings that haven’t yet manifested) needs to be hidden by spoiler tags and labeled as coming from later sections.
Instructions for Spoiler Tags

Click the cog above the text box and use either the “Hide Details” or “Blur Spoiler” options. The text which says “This text will be hidden” should be replaced with what you are wishing to write. In the case of “Hide Details”, the section in the brackets that is labelled “Summary” can be replaced with whatever you like also (i.e, [details=”Chapter 1, Pg. 1”]).

Hide Details results in the dropdown box like below:

Example

This is an example of the “Hide Details” option.

The “Blur Spoiler” option will simply blur the text it surrounds.

This is an example of the “Blur Spoiler” option.

Posting Advice
  • When asking for help, please mention the page number, and check before posting that your question hasn’t already been asked. As the threads get longer, it becomes more convenient to use the Search function, which is located in the upper right corner of the forum. It is the magnifying glass which is near your profile picture! The best way to search is usually to type part of the sentence you are confused about, and select “in this topic”. This will show you all posts within the current thread which has that string of text.

  • Be sure to join the conversation! It’s fun, and it’s what keeps these book clubs lively! There’s no such thing as a stupid question! We are all learning here, and if the question has crossed your mind, there’s a very good chance it has crossed somebody else’s also! Asking and answering questions is a great learning opportunity for everyone involved, so never hesitate to do so!

If necessary, include an explanation of any discrepancies in the Ebook page numbers from physical page numbers. If there is an easy shortcut for some ebook versions to relate back to physical page numbers, it would be worth it to include it as a third bullet here, or if you want to use chapter page numbers instead of volume page numbers, as is the case with some manga. For example:
Example

For the Kindle version of this manga, the page numbers and the location number are always 3 apart. If you subtract 3 from the location, this will give you the accurate page number!

OR

Please use the chapter page numbers, instead of the volume page numbers. These are located in between the panels!

Discussion Questions

  1. What sentence/passage gave you the most difficulty? Feel free to request some help, or if you figured it out on your own break it down for the rest of us!

  2. What was your favorite new vocab word from this week’s reading?

  3. Was there any passage that you found particularly intriguing? Did it resonate with you (either positively or negatively)? Was it surprising? Offer any insight or new perspective? Was it just beautifully written?

  4. With the new information, how have your theories updated?

  5. Did you enjoy your visit to the ハーケン門 prison?

  6. How are you feeling about Olivier joining the party, properly this time?

Participation

Will you be playing along with us this week?

  • I’m playing along
  • I have finished this part
  • I’m still playing the game but I haven’t reached this part yet
  • I’m playing this game after the club has finished
  • I’m no longer playing the game
0 voters

If you’ve already played this game but are still going to join the discussion, please select “I have finished this part.”

Don’t forget to set this thread to Watching in order to stay abreast of discussion!

3 Likes

Love a bigger plot week.

Spoilers

Didn’t expect to find the ship already! They really need to keep the air pirates from flying away somehow. Happy to say I got the question right about why the ship was left there. Estelle having random moments of brilliance in between long periods of being Estelle.

I’m excited to have a 4th party member, and I think the guy is amusing, fits the tone of this group well. Plus he helps me get more words to mine, haha.

Cassius just continues to be a legendary guy, a true get out of jail free card. I love that, while the context is different, someone here predicted when we first explored that area that we might go to jail. Good calll.

Curious where we go from here, nice big hook to lead into next week with the thefts. Maybe before too long we’re going to be heading to a new town? We’ve been operating here for a while now. I am coming to like how the game plays around a new location and set of characters like this; it’s an interesting structure to not be moving on as often as most JRPGs would.

4 Likes
Main story

The mayor’s moment of sadness when talking about Agate has me thinking he’s probably from the village, maybe even a relative of the mayor’s. There also wasn’t a bouquet up by the memorial the first time we come around for the hidden monster side quest, so I suspect Agate left it there. Maybe he lost family, but at the very least I’m sure he’s got some connection to the village during that point in the war. It’s hard to determine age group in the game’s style so for all I know he could even be an atoner who took part in the occupation. Either way, grouchy redheaded man has hidden depths?

Finding the ship was absolutely a surprise, and it answers my question from the other week of whether the pirates were actually involved. I’m still confused about the situation with Cassius, though— as the characters brought up before, why wouldn’t he be able to deal with a group of small-time pirates? If Estelle can beat these guys, surely he could. If someone in the army is helping them, did they also give them some way to subdue him? Was he just not on the ship at the time of the theft? There are still so many unknowns.

I’m feeling pretty good about Olivier joining, but never imagined that “borrowing” an expensive bottle of wine would be the way it happened! The scene in the prison was fun, even if he had me glued to a dictionary for the whole thing. I’ve seen hardly any furigana for non-fantasy words in this game but he had multiple instances of it in that story. He’s just so fancy.

3 Likes
Response

Ooh really cool catch. I’m operating on a lower level, I was just happy that having explored and read the gravestone previously, when they vaguely alluded to him being in “that place” or something, I thought of the memorial and made a beeline to it.

Cassius not being on the ship is an interesting angle I hadn’t thought about, too! I still think he was on some sort of secret mission given what we know, so perhaps what that could mean instead is that his whole given location was a lie. Was the problem the pirates had his unexpected absence? Probably not, but it gives me another interesting thread to poke at… My mind wants to focus so much on that problem they had, so if it turns out to be a red herring it’s going to be kind of funny.

I’m always collecting fancier words than is probably advisable in my Anki, so I genuinely love him for that.

3 Likes

Is that information you’d like? I don’t think any of the characters’ ages is a spoiler, but looking for them on the wiki is very dangerous as other spoilers are just existing there. So I can grab that information if people want it.

1 Like
Cassius and the pirates

Yeah, that was my thought, that some misdirection might’ve been necessary and/or he jumped ship early somehow. I don’t think you’ve got a red herring with the pirates having a problem though. After all, if they’d planned to rob the ship, take everyone hostage, and then successfully pulled it off— that wouldn’t be a「面倒な事」as the brother says in the forest. I’m with you that it means something!

I wouldn’t say no. Like when I first saw Cassius’s portrait I saw a picture of a young guy with a mustache, but he’s over 40!? That threw me :joy:

3 Likes

Everyone should be in the order we’ve met them, I figured that was the least spoilery order. A few characters don’t have an exact age. Our current party members are bolded.

Ages
Character Age
エステル 16
カシウス 45
ヨシュア 16
アイナ 20s
シェラザード 23
クラウス old
ジョゼット 16
ナイアル 29
ドロシー 20
アルバ 36
キール 23
ルグラン old
メイベル 21
リラ ~20
オリビエ 25
モルガン 63
アガット 24

Also, the opening scene of the game was 5 years ago, meaning Estelle and Joshua were 11 and Cassius was 40. (Also implies Cassius was 29 when Estelle was born, which I don’t think is unusually old for a parent.)

Let me know if I missed anyone.

3 Likes
Ages

Ahhh アルバ is 36! I also thought Maybell was an unusually sensible mid-teens kid like Joshua, given her intro and how her employees talk about her. Thanks for this :smiley:

2 Likes

I was on board with Estelle’s plan actually…

2 Likes

Olivier is extra annoying to read in Japanese because he forces me to lookup every other word :triumph:

Absolutely savage lmao:

3 Likes

Week 15 is ready to go.