Let's make some progress in Cold Steel IV Act 1 Chapter 3!
As we progress, Juna talks some about her dad, who helped build a new railway line and does a lot of work for Mishelam Wonderland. Everyone is willing to take a detour to visit him since Juna says he probably won't be home for a while due to travel restrictions, but she doesn't seem totally keen on it, for whatever the reason. Well, there's another route that leads toward it that we can't take right now, so perhaps we'll get to go later.
When we finally arrive at St. Ursula, Alisa mentions that the hospital gets funding from Remiferia, and they treated Sharon here at one point. Around the hospital, a few people mention Linde but also say that no one knows where she is now. There's also talk of a VIP patient getting ready to undergo surgery, but we're not told who it is. Oh hey, we're actually able to enter the research building in this game!
...Or we're about to when Rufus and Vandyck show up at the hospital. It sounds like Emperor Eugent has awoken from his coma, but he's not out of the woods yet. Ah, so this must be the VIP patient they mentioned earlier. Suddenly, Valerie and Grace (for some reason) call out to us to follow them so we won't get spotted by Rufus. Valerie hints as to the identity of who Rufus and Vandyck are here to see, and everyone seems to catch on, which is rare for a Trails party...! Next, Cecile shows up, who's now the chief nurse (or was she already in Zero? I forget). She's come to tell us that the emperor wants to meet with us once Rufus and Vandyck are gone, which I certainly wasn't expecting, especially since Ash is with us!
Eugent is surprisingly pleasant, all things considered. The presiding doctor, whose name Seiland rings a bell to Kurt but he can't quite place it, gives us ten minutes of privacy with him. He seems genuinely remorseful for all that's happened, and he holds no ill will toward Ash since he was under the influence of the same curse he was under. Then the emperor gets down to business, saying that while everything up to this point has gone according to plan for Osborne and the Gnomes, the Black Records end where the Great Twilight begins. In other words, they have no guarantee of what will happen next, so even things they could not foresee could occur. He gives us a document containing everything he told Rean in CS3 in hopes that we could find the third path that Olivert sought. So he wasn't really on Osborne's side at all, it seems. He just felt hopeless in the face of the Black Records.
When we leave the room, Dr. Seiland tells us that there's shrapnel near the Emperor's heart and he needs an operation within the next couple weeks. Even then, the chances of success are still only about 30% or so. Then we're interrupted by Commander Vandyck, who wishes to speak to Class VII directly. New Class VII is understandably worried, but Alisa and Machias have no reservations, naturally. Vandyck tells us that he has no idea where Rean is because he's been limited to events "on the surface" as per orders from Osborne himself. Musse asks him if he's really prepared to lead Erebonia to war with all he knows, and he replies that this is what it means to be a soldier. A soldier puts everything on the line for his country, and he knows Craig and Vander feel the same way.
Juna says that while that may be a soldier's duty, she's determined to show him that Class VII is different. They're determined to find Rean and find their own way. They won't leave this to anyone else. Vandyck says that Class VII has exceeded all the expectations he had for it when Olivert presented the idea to him three years before. He implores us to save Rean and find their new path.
With that, we're off to the wetlands in hopes of finally locating the singularity. I wander around the hospital a bit, wondering if anyone will say anything about Shizuku. Sure enough, they mention that her eyesight was completely healed. Anyway, it's kind of ironic that I'm going to the wetlands toward Mishelam in CSIV right now because I'm pretty sure that's my next destination in Trails From Zero, too! The atmosphere and the music here is kinda haunting, I like it.
As we progress through the wetlands, the Imperial Defense Force is patrolling throughout the area. That means that Rufus came through this area ahead of us, and there's a dark looking Panzer Soldat as well. Could it be a Divine Knight for Rufus...? It doesn't have the same style as the other Divine Knights, so maybe not. Alisa says that RF was in the process of developing a new model, so perhaps that's it. Anyway, we're at a standstill until we get a call from Stark, asking us to come back to St. Ursula to meet him. He's lending us an orbal boat so that we can circle around Mishelam and enter the wetlands from the other side. We get the point of no return warning from Alisa, so I imagine we're finally closing in on the end of Act 1, whew.
As we leave, we get a cut to a woman who is obviously Sharon, no longer dressed as a maid, but as something considerably skimpier. She says she plans to leave Yin to the Direwolf (was that Walter's code name or is that someone else? I know Walter is from Calvard, so it would make sense) and deal with us herself. Eventually we arrive at the Mishelam Resort, but I imagine we won't have too much time to play in the amusement park, sadly. We decide our first move is to meet Juna's dad because he can probably give us the best route to get through the wetlands undetected.
Unfortunately, her dad isn't at the hotel at the moment. He's out on an inspection due to the sudden influx of visitors to the park. As such, we have to hunt him down ourselves. In our wanderings, we run into the middle of Alan proposing to Bridget. Altina's reaction to Juna's reaction is fantastic ("Did you hear? They're gonna get married!" "Indeed. I, too, was present when you witnessed the proposal."). Even Alan appears to have been swept up by the Great Twilight, unfortunately. Bridget spots us and after a bit of conversing, she tells us that she saw Juna's dad in the theme park area. I was hoping the ferris wheel would have some unique dialogue depending on which pair you chose, but alas, what a disappointment. We run into Beryl in the Castle of Mirrors, and she basically tells us that after we trigger three cutscenes, we'll find Juna's dad, but I could've told you that! Then we meet Anton at the Horror Coaster (really should've called it the Roller Ghoster imhotbqh), and he says he thought he saw the purple-haired girl he's been searching for go inside, but it wasn't her in the end, of course. Turns out Juna's dad bailed him out of some potential trouble as well. The Horror Coaster turns out to be a real mini-game, so that's neat. You don't get a prize for beating the target score though, which is lame.
We somehow end up right next to Juna's dad during the Mishy show without even realizing it. The others seem surprised that he's Juna's dad despite the fact that she's been showing a picture of him to everyone. I guess pink hair is a dominant gene in Zemurian biology. Matthew tells us that the governor general said the wetlands were off limits at the moment, even to Mishelam personnel. He hands us the wetlands keycard to open a door that leads into it from the beach area.
Suddenly I'm feeling deja vu as I run into the Hayworths looking for their lost son, but I'll have to tackle this later.
