Xiera can apparently navigate ok, because the next scene has your character at an encampment of tents/probably that was on the edge of that open field from earlier. This episode is 'shot' differently than previous ones, as it has less 'action' and camera shots that actually show you the characters in the scene or doing things. You will notice that it goes to FPS view, and then characters will pop in on either the left, right, or middle and say their lines without moving. It acts more like a comic book where you press click to advance the text bubbles while the people talk.
Going from place to place is also skipped, and things don't get introduced like they used to. Everything just appears where they want it to in a scene. Why is it like this now? Is it less work intensive or cheaper somehow to rig things up like this? It doesn't affect too much, but it is an odd shift so it gets mentioned.

At an encampment made of tents, Xiera appears again. They have wooden crates, barrels and fences. There’s a guard tower. The biggest tent has a crossed broadsword/pointy-thing logo where they’re crossed atop a rose. Xiera claims that the atmosphere is heavy here so what must they be up to?

A soldier in a knight helmet and blue longer-coat type uniform appears. The helmet obscures the whole face. The uniform has white gauntlets, gold trim, and a white neck scarf. There’s a newman man he’s with that has blonde hair and the same exact uniform. Their chest-crest is a somewhat abstract 2 headed bird. He addresses both of you (So, Fairy Xiera is visible) yelling to state your business. The other guy says you’re a new face, are you a King’s Minion? Xiera gets upset with their yelling tone, saying we’re not enemies. The guy is disgusted with her, ‘a small thing that can talk, so what the hell is it?’

Xiera is shocked that she’s not normal, so what are we going to do?
*Xiera must have heard "castles and magic" and so she assumed Fairies would be part of the whole magical fantasy setting, and that's how she ended up that way. However, you also can recall that Alma said she'd help concentrate on forming Xiera into something helpful...but in the end Omega-the-world's power would ultimately dictate what she'd be....so....who's fault is it that Xiera is a fairy? Probably a combination of Omega & herself. Now, the girl from before returns. She has the fluffly layered very wide twintails hairdo, the blue eyes and the newman ears. She wants to know what’s with all the yelling. The guy is shocked because this is Lady Harriet. He apologizes for the disturbance because he found suspicious individuals looming around here so we were going to detain…

Harriet, upon closer inspection declares ITS YOU! He tells her that you and Xiera could be dangerous so please restrain herself. She then backs you up, saying you’re her guests. He’s shocked but considering the situation…She thanks him, calling him Varuna the Adjutant. She’ll handle it, so he says to just call if she needs assistance. She asks you to follow her, so you do, into her tent. It’s her personal big tent and no one can come in unannounced. Do you remember her? You saved her the other day…she introduces herself formally has Harriet. She knows it may be impolite but she must know…(she thinks and squints along) Do you know who we…the country…the world? Are you familiar with it?

Now an interesting choice appears.
I Don’t Know
Pretend You Do Know

If you feel it’s better to come clean, you can say I Don’t Know (After all, it’ll be SUPER easy for anyone to figure it out if you’re not) She’ll say it’s just as she thought. Strange clothes, not familiar with anyone here, but possesses an awesome power…There’s no doubt about it! You’ore the one from the legends, she’s waited so long for your arrival. Xiera asks her about the legend. She’ll tell her, but is interrupted by a mini earthquake. Xiera says it sounds too rowdy out there. Varuna returns and she lets him in, so he says that the King’s Mages have arrived and have started to summon. Are they trying to summon a Devil Castle? We’ve got to defeat them before they are able to complete it, so Varuna rally the troops and head out.

He wants to retreat instead for her safety. She counters with that if we run away now they’ll hunt us for days all the way back into our domain and then it’s all over. She can’t retreat knowing her troops are out there giving up their lives. He thinks about this, so she says we’ll break through them and take the victory so go rally the troops. She apologizes to you saying she’s got to join the battle as well, if we make it out alive though, she’ll explain everything.

Xiera says what do we do now?

It Goes Without Saying
What Do You Think?

If you say It Goes Without Saying (because you have to help her) She says she knew it, you don’t have to remind her. Let’s go to Harriet.

Dino riders are on the field and their knight leader on a fancy helm dinosaur commands various wizard hat wearing guys to summon a devil castle. Instead though, they make symbols in the air that summon skeleton warriors with swords and shields. They’re real big though, larger than normal humans by a good bit. Maybe 1.5 average characters tall, so just a proportionate but large skeleton. Skeleton archers rain arrows down upon our dino riding troops who charge in. The battle is fierce but a red wall appears to block everyone. The main guy says he’ll summon the castle because they are too slow. He completes whatever it is he's doing, and is able to summon a "Devil Castle". Slowly, out of no where rises a whole castle! It's 'actual size' for a moderately sized castle irl, in gray stone and with high walls around it, a stone courtyard, lots of steps up to the courtyard and various turrets with conical tops. But it has a special cylender shaped turret at the center. This thing sprouts "arms" that are tubes created of other smaller 'turrets', it has a cone-topped 'head' with 'windows' that look like 'evil eyes' sort of. There are even hands! It can move and flail, twist and slide on its base. It is just a 'torso' but cobbled out of castle-parts and arcitecture. It's actually pretty wierd to see.

Minotaurgus appear around the castle's walls, as do more skeletons. The knights flee, leaving only fancy dino man left, but he is chopped by a minotaurgus as he tells them to stand ground and fight. A minotaurgus is basically a....actual minotaur. It's a giant bull-based creature that stands on 2 legs, has human arms & an ugly/monster bull head. Their torso part is super huge and the legs are kind of too small for it. They always have an axe. They also have a darker weakpoint on the torso, despite wearing plate armor. They're large, probably about 1.75 average characters tall.

Varuna reports that the castle actually summoned. Harriet says we can’t pass the devil barriers so it has to be her from here on out. They bow and seem to retreat somewhat. Harriet battles the skeletons alone but they fall when she hits them unlike before. She won’t retreat even though Varuna says she helped already. She's determined to help more, by summoning something herself, which is the Buster Tower. She has a magic sword which she raises and commands forth a:

Buster of Mystery!
The sword manifests a Buster Tower while Varuna says no one can control it. It’s the only way to get past the barrier, she insists. She prays to it, asking it to stop the eternal darkness. But it vanishes in a heat/mirage sort of way so she wonders if it’s a sighn shes not worthy. The buster tower resembles a mining base tower to a degree. It is white 'stone' probably, tall and thin, and will gather blueish 'mana' at its tip. More skeletons come out, but you can defeat them all with a blue sword that you always have now. Xiera runs up an says just in time. Harriet asks why you’re here.

I Can’t Leave You By Yourself
You Looked Afraid

If you say I Can’t Leave You By Yourself, (She did not look afraid at any point) Xiera agrees, saying no way can we quit now, We ARKS/no…Guardians can’t let this slide. Harriet does a big bow, but Xiera says it’s too early for thanks, we can’t beat everything that spawns infinitely. Harriet’s foreces are scatterd we need to break through the barrier to get at the main castle. But we need so much effort to destroy it, can we even handle it? You prep your sword and say

I’ve Got This!
We’ll Manage It!

If you say I’ve Got This! The sword glows and the tower manifests for real/not just a wavy mirage type thing. She’s shocked. She says there might be a way to break the barrier, so let me trust in your power Guardians…

A cut scene begins: A map shows the castle saying it became a 1 sided battle any time a DC is summoned. The map represents troops with "T" shapes in blue for good, red for bad, and icon for castle. The scene explains that the castle creates a Devil Barrier with immense defence. You can’t attack or retreat, only defeat. The demons are summoned that overwhelm everyone, because they are infinite.  But a guardian saved a princess from certain doom and became a savior of shining light that carved into the history of the world. An ARKS star appears on the map instead of one of the blue troop indicators.

It’s now the goal to halt the enemy assault defeat the barrier, and the castle at its heart. Her forces will defeat the demons but they are being pushed back. The castle is the source, so unless it falls it’ll never end. Xiera asks how to deal with the barrier walls? It’ll take long no matter what we do.

A holy weapon is a buster tower, and it will take down the barriers. But she wasn’t strong enough, and it stabilized. You can use it to summon the Buster Pile.  Xiera disrupts her saying enemies have appeared. We’ll lose if the tower is destroyed.

Now, you basically have to do a simplified EQ yourself. Collect shining mana crystals to summon the pile from the Tower. The Pile is a large vehicle-like pointy object that will throw itself at the wall at mega-speed once it charges up all the way. The mana fuels the tower into being able to produce a pile. Touching a mana crystal automatically sends it into the tower.

There are enemies who turn red during defense phase, and when they do that they teleport to the tower.  Goblins come out right away, so kill all. All enemies main focus is always the tower instead of you/anything else so you basically always have to chase them to a tower and just beat on them there. When you defeat all of the goblins, Xiera will summon a pile now. Buster Piles can be destroyed by enemies because they are very slow at first. Each one will break 1 really fortified area on a wall. It needs all 4 areas to break. Various skeletons will attack the pile, so defeat all. It flies true and hits the fortified area breaking the wall open. Now, it explains an attack phase will let you go after the Devil Castle Core. But, while you do this, it builds up a laser beam to shoot the Buster Tower, so you have to kill the castle quickly.

Run up the very many stairs and get to the tower that is the 'torso character' of the castle. It can slide back and forth on stone rails, shoot finger lasers, smash the giant hands/fists down to try to crush characters, and target with a beam. There is a darker core (that’s huge, 2 characters high) stuffed in an archway at it’s base. Attacking this will kill it. If you can kill it, Xiera says it’s time to return, we got victory now, but who knows for next time.

Harriet returns to her tent, which now has a rose in a dome on her table. She says thanks on behalf of everyone.

It Was The Proper Thing To Do
What Were Those Things?

If you want more info and say What Were Those Things? Xiera was worried about it too, and the tower. What was the castle that summoned enemies? A fortress? Harriet says it’s both, it spawns infinite demons and thinks for itself. It’s brought forth by a summoning spell, a vile entity that is forced upon the world. Xiera wonders at a spell. Harriet says it’s magic that pulls vile beasts from another world into this one. The world flows with magic, like Mana that is in the atmosphere that causes our technology to induce supernatural events. Xiera says that sounds like Photons and Techniques. That’s probably why we can analyze the tower and the castle so quickly, they share a common trait.

Harriet says there’s a limit on mana 1 person can handle, and because of that the Buster Tower is difficult to manifest and giant things like the castle are team summoning efforts.

Several decades ago, the Ephimera Appeared. She picks up the rose by getting it out from the dome and shows it you you. The rose is a sort of lavender color with reddish leaves and pinkish rim petals. It has little sparkles on it, and was literally levitating in the dome but she can hold it normally. She says Ephemera spread all over-- it had blossomed without ever dropping a seed. It was a very useful catalyst for Magic.
One nation specializes in magic that augments strength, another for medicine and another for the Arcane Art of Proliferation. And…then our nation created summoning magic. (So, her nation figured out summoning with Ephemera, the bad guy nation got hold of the ability and 'proliferation' here means taking over other areas) The castle is at the top of all summons, it roots itself in the world by consuming all of the Ephimera and growing around it. No matter what magics are used, it’s near impossible to break through the walls. Once summoned though, it’s impossible to get another castle into the world because of the lack of M and E that caused by summoning the first one.
Xiera concludes that the winning side is whoever summons the castle first. Harriet says that’s right War changed thanks to the ability of the DC’s. Thus, the Buster Towers were created to defeat it. A siege weapon that uses mana from the atmosphere to destroy the wall. It requires vast amounts of Mana to use, but without Ephimera it’s impossible to control it. Xiera says you did it though. Using Mana for magic but compensation is needed, there’s no way to use that much power without a price. The countless feuds, the coup in her own nation, the infernal flower with the fiendish nectar drives the world insane, our goal is to get rid of it return the world to normal.

Xiera says it’s a grandiose goal but…would you let your char hold the flower? She closes her eyes and hands it over. You take a look and Xiera says to focus on it like you do with photons. You do, and it glows then vanishes. They both say they expected it. Harriet says it’s part of the tale of legend from before, and it goes like this. She closes her eyes to begin a cut scene.

"If the world is in deespair, a guardian will appear and deliver us to the path of light, it’s a focus for the brave and will help guide comrades. They guide the people to the correct path. Don’t be afraid, they will guide us to salvation and vanquish the darkness while spreading the light." This all reads out over a ‘stone’ carved mural of people, ending with a glowing stone in a star that is on the end of a rod held by a generic looking man. (The stone is simplified art)
She says a Guardian is here, so I beg you --end us your strength. Xiara says an amazing story all of a sudden. Are you ok with it Harriet? She understands folklore but it’s clear we’re not from this world…so wouldn’t it be unwise to have faith in such people? Of course she’d be on alert if it was a fairytail so you’ve saved her twice and with that alone earns her faith. Despite not knowing the rights and wrongs, you aid us without hesitation, so she’ll trust you, even without the back up of the legend story.

Xiera concludes that the rose, it reacted with Ephemera, and disappeared. It was the embodiment of the Darker element, as ARKS we can’t ignore this, besides, we’re obligated to help now that you’ve told us so much. Xiera says we’ve got enough intel, let’s go back to the ship and report the findings. You nod at her and the chapter ends.

A decent chapter. Someone actually explaining things and not raising 100 questions.
What we know:
The rose represents darker energy which they're going to call Ephemera. Or, when you get enough of it in one place, it makes a rose instead of a blue diamond shape that manna makes.
Ephemera is like juiced-up manna:
Ephemera appeared 'decades ago', but every nation got a hold of it and used it for something different. While a person can only have 'so much manna control', Ephemera doesn't seem to adhere to the rule, so everybody's been going ham with it ever since and causing strife.
Her nation had a coup in it so that's why she's out here/why she was in trouble at the start
The "decades ago" makes sense because time probably runs all wonky here as said by Harriet so they could have said literally whenever and it would be believable.
There's a REASON for 'infinite demons' coming out of symbols all day, the castle is doing it, and it's probably thinking them up too, like 'what is scary and attacks people'...well skeletons and crew. They disapear when defeated and turn back into Ephemera dust which also makes sense. (Castle always using up E-dust to make more demons and sustain itself) PD is the reason Ephemera is here & why it works the way it does.

This sense-making, it's great. It's so refreshing after all the BS in Episode Earth.
The questions are completely natural and completely normal for a beginning like:
Who did the coup and why?
Why is 1 nation on the rampage?
Nitpickingly why is it a rose? And how did Harriet get one?
What's the deal with Harriet & her sword, she is clearly special and so is it, but how and why?

241 9/27 at 1000
If you even approach the bridge it triggers this story scene. Alma says it was more disorderly than expected (meaning the previous chapter's events). Xiera agrees, calling summoning and magic illogical nonsense. She feels Omega doesn’t reflect the history of our world, their clothing and tech is like nothing on record. Xiao chimes in saying there’s an overwhelming abundance of info that’s confusing but it shakes out to 2 matters. First is that you can come and go. Next, we can send people there. Alma thinks that if everyone’s cooperating, we’ll be able to send more people there…in limited quantities though.

Grandiose Terms Thrown About Like Trash Syndrome: Confusion Causer
The whole ennnntire yooooooniverse is dreaming up Planet Omega......and we are shoooocked that it's some wacky dungeons and dragons game gone wrong because it doesn't resemble "Our ARKS planet or how the photoners acted". WOW. As if they were the only people in the universe??? Ever??? And they somehow don't know that other people existed on other planets doing who knows what? And the photoners probably were also cavemen at some point in history and progressed through 'mideval times' like what's happening on Omega? And Xion would have known about this too? Look at even Harkotan, out there existing with oger people in mideval Japan like setting while a magic princess casts spells & they do swords and magic.
The Actual Problem:
Whoever is writing this has no comprehension of the size of 'a real universe', and no idea what 'a billion years' looks like at all. Multiple civilizations could have risen and fallen in the blink of an eye of cosmic time. There are more suns than there are grains of sand on all the beaches in all the world. And each one having planets around it......you're gonna get some wierd stuff shook out. That's the problem with writing omniceint beings and universe-spanning things...you actually have to be super smart to have it work well or it just flops over full of holes and silly stuff like this does. It's not a 'black hole', turning humans into 'centaur suits of armor' by waving a magic sword is not 'evolution', and Xion is not 'omniscient' at all.

Are there people similar to Your Char wavelength? (Meaning elsewhere on the ships) Maybe in the third generation. Xiao says even then, we’d still be limited on who could go in, it’ll take some work. Xiao will leave the decision making about Omega up to Alma. Xiao suggests helping Harriet would be great to get to know Omega and as a Guardian it’s a good idea. Xiera proclaims that it’s our new goal to help her and her kingdom against Devil Castles. She has finished the analysis of buster towers, it went perfect, and we should be able to emulate them on-site for a perfect copy.

With this, you get Buster Quest at Counter enabled.
Each account gets Buster Points that increase for win, and decrease for loss or abandonment. They determine the ‘grade’ of quest you’ll get put into with others which is also its difficulty. There are main match (normal grade based) main match advanced (difficult and grade based) and free match (low grade only, no points to win but lose points for loss—clearing a free means you get 2 main match boosters of which you can collect 4 total to spend at a time.

So basically this part of the story unlocked another game mode, with the side effect of causing Hans to get new COs.

Let’s Reminisce 241 at 10/3
On the bridge, Matoi & Xiera appear, while Xiera says she’s made an excuse for her this time…but Matoi still needs to submit to regular medical checks, understand? Matoi is put off a bit but will agree, so Xiera scolds you too, don’t abuse your position as Guardian to not do it. Alma jams herself into the scene saying your role is different than GI and RI.
Why did you get the position? Xiera gets excited to tell her, saying it was a series of amazing battles against darkers for a long period of time. She wasn’t around then, so didn’t get to see it for herself. Alma asks for something with a record of achievements. She wants to know what happened to ARKS after she died, she feels she could get a good idea of it if there was a record.

Matoi says probably not…but Xiera says yes we do, the experience was valuble so she created a database. She hasn’t got around to sorting it yet with your character so who knows how accurate it is. Alma wants to look back on your history with Matoi. She’s happy to see and sort through it.

This introduces you to Alma’s Reflections.
This looks like another version of the old “Story Mode Viewer” thing you could access in the MyRoom area that would play back story portions. It tells you that her reflections have been added in cases for ep 1, 2 and 3. If you already cleared it, but a reflection was added, the crown/clear mark will be switched to half full.

*Meaning, something new from Alma has now been spliced in to these areas.

Xiao Grows Up
On the bridge, you are chatting (unheard) with Alma on her ball, Matoi, Xiera, Xiao. Matoi says she’s forgotten to ask but, you grew? He was worried nobody noticed. He thought that if he showed he was properly growing, he could understand everyone’s state of mind, so he decided to grow according to his age. Xiera chips in that when he created us 2 years ago (meaning all Xieras—remember, there’s one of her for every ship) he was already in this form so she has no idea what he looked like in child form. Alma suspects it looked cheeky. He says if it did, then that was probably due to the link he had. Alma wonders about some link (Which, good, that’s a very unclear phrase) Matoi catches onto it, saying he was linked to Sara…

And now you can interrupt with
It Might Have Been The Link
Xiao Is Just Cheeky

To find out more about the link you can say It Might Have Been The Link Matoi will yell about sugarcoating it a little! (It appears for some reason that she takes this as you being rude some how to Xiao, but how? ) Xiao admits his personality was created based on Sara’s, and even now he’s still influenced by it. Aside from that he’s awfully frank, it’s because of Sara too. Alma though, suspects Xiao likes it. He says no comment, think what you want. But, the best thing about growing up is being able to pat Sara on the head. She doesn’t like it……but he thinks its fun.

This is new info.
Why would Xion base Xiao on Sara? Also, Sara wouldn’t get along with….herself, I guess because they were always bickering. Does Sara know he was based on her? How can someone look cheeky? IS he cheeky? Kind of don’t think so? He’s one of the least obnoxious people out there.

The Combat Division’s Hope 241 at 9/29
In the forest as you walk across a clearing, a comet thing comes down from the sky in orange. It streaks toward your character suddenly and swirls past it very quickly. Returning in almost an instant, it attacks, and you barely block it with a sword. It’s a woman with somewhat mid-tone blue short hair who claims to have ‘attacked commanders’ blind spot’ this time. She’s then shocked that you aren’t Huey.

She gets super upset, tosses aside her big orange sword (like…floop) and starts apologizing left and right and flops on the ground to apologize more that she trusted her gut and it’s led her astray.

Huey jumps in (From the sky, like he always does because they have it as cannon that he can almost fly a little bit—there’s no explaining him otherwise) claiming is she exhausted already? He calls the girl by name, so it’s “Stratos”. Huey then sees you’re there and you can wave to him hello again. Stratos is confused and now she’s super sorry for doing something offensive to a Guardian. Once she calms down…Huey says he’s sorry to drag you into this.

Strato’s actions reflect on him, so can you forgive us if not for her, then for his sake?
Stratos has a hip length red pointy cape, prickly shoulder guard things that are way too big to be practical (If she lifted her arm over her head they'd hit her in the face), a feather shaped doohickey on her headband (one side only) and red eyes. Her outfit is mainly gray. It’s a shirt/skirt 1-piece thing that is probably too short for actual combat, with red accents. She has round Frisbee looking shapes on her elbows, a pointy thing for chest armor that would poke her in the gut if she curved forward at all, and thigh high boots. They’re armored up to the knees and have huge ankle cuffs that are a bit kooky.

Who’s The Girl?
What Were You Doing?

The choices don’t give you a chance to say “oh it’s fine” even though it ought to. So if you ask What Were You Doing? (because really? And you already know that this is Stratos so you don't need him telling you again.) Huey will introduce her Combat Division New Tactics Development Group Stratos. She’s a 3^rd gen like you, and has completed training on each class so she’s our hope. She’s grateful about this. But, by the way NTDG is where we try new classes and new ideas. We need new ideas and we put Stratos in charge of it.

Huey explains a difficulty which was that we were researching a way to fight multiple enemies at once with a single force, we couldn’t get permission…so while he & Claris Claes provide support, we established our fighting styles already so we’re not flexible enough. (He means they teamed up to train someone new who hasn't been in the 'groove' of fighting a certain way for years) Stratos again says she’s really grateful, but this time in a gloomy way. So, could you be an advisor for her? She yells its oddly generous (to offer something like that) and flails.

Huey says your char is the ARKS with the most freedom, so mingling with it will provide a source of encouragement. Of course, the best person to master it would be your char. Would you please cooperate?

Leave It To Me
Don’t Expect Too Much

If you want to be encouraging, you can say Leave It To Me & she says thanks in advance, but if you don’t mind, could you tell her all your stories and your history and and and….she flails and gets ever closer, excitedly hoping you will go on. The scene ends. This is another "oh I created and got approved a new class come be in it! Just like Bouncer, Braver and Summoner before it)

New Class Approval
On the bridge 241 at 10/1
Xiao appears saying you’re just in time. A moment ago, a new class got licensed. Because it’s a class that lets a single person fight large numbers of enemies, it could be useful in Omega. If you’re interested, do try it out but applicants need special permissions so…the scene ends.

It’s Called Hero…with Stratos
In the ship’s lobby 241 at 10/2, you can find Stratos as you cross the lower lobby. She jumps down from the upper teir, saying you’re busy but having you as partner, she’s super grateful. She apologizes for only asking about your combat exp. But, thanks to that, the class has been authorized. You can register as Hero in the Class Counter. Now that it’s approved, she can become a hero. You nod at her. But she’s forgotten to tell you, that it was what she was studying. She’s quite dramatic here, getting excited and striking a pose.

What…?
Hero?

If you ask Hero? She says yes. She wonders if it’s a strange name…but wait! It uses swords! She gets out her broadsword and swirls “Don’t you think that’s very cool?”, and also twin machineguns! She exclaims at them and flails them. Then, a unique way to use the tails which she waves around. It’s all covered under one class, isn’t it great! Now with the weapons away she flaps and gets even more excited. As you step back a bit, the scene ends.

Stratos has a good first impression here.
She’s chipper, lively, and not mean. She has a lot of enthusiasm, and is a little silly. She’s not psycho like Huey, but you can see how they’d probably get along ok because their energy levels are probably about on par with each other. It's expected of the class rep to always encourage others to join so this isn't a surprise. She's willing to learn, but also appears to be good at what she does (turning into that comet thing and blastig across an entire clearing) She is different enough from all of the other class reps, and seems to fit into the roster just fine.

Adjutant Varuna
In the Cuent camp Varuna will appear. He thanks you for helping the other day. Fairy Xiera shows up too.

It Was Only Natural
Is Something Wrong?

If you ask Is Something Wrong? He says don’t think he’s complaining, he’s remiss…he lacks the strength to act as his position should. It’s that lack that disallows him to assist milady in the time of need. He’s Harriet Adjutant, but if he had the strength of a Guardian, she could rely on him more. Xiera asks if he considers Ephimera….? Her reports speak of the intoxicating allure of its power, but the side effects remain unknown. But, you needn’t abstain from its effects?
He replies with "There are those like him that are burdened by lack of combat prowess and might, but would never dream of using it. Because it would mean betraying the ideals by which we stand behind milady. It’s dangerous, driving the world into ruin, and it’s foolish to delude oneself into believing otherwise. Harriet fights for everyone’s sake. To defeat Lutz who forsake his own people in his mad lust for power to achieve his own selfish desires."

So, now finally we get a name to the enemy: Lutz.

Harriet always forges on, everyone is finding their own ways to offer her support. So, from the bottom of his heart, thanks for helping her. But it’s his job to protect her. So excuse me. Xiera says he’s so honest, he must admire Harriet. She says we gathered som info, in that he is driven more by Harriet’s inspiring spirit than to just destroy the effects of E on the lands. Xiera feels charmed by her too, with dignity and poise she must have been raised by a wonderful family, what do you think they were like?

You don’t get to reply, as the scene ends.

Varuna seems a little like he stares at things too much. His expression is a bit 'off', somehow.
Why bring up Harriet's family? Is it a foreshadow that we actually will get to find out about it.
It seems likely that Varuna likes Harriet but won't admit it or ask her out.
This is basically Varuna fretting that you're taking his spot next to Harriet
Varuna confirms he won't be tempted by Ephemera, even though it'd give him an edge to help her

A nice section of stuff that introduced gameplay elements, and a new character and class without raising 100 stupid questions or doing hat-pulls.

Remembering The Fears of War
With Harriet
In the Cuent Militia Camp, the ‘puppet theater’ where its in FPS view and the characters just kind of stand before this fixed view doing their thing which is producing speech bubbles & not moving, much like paper dolls, Harriet is chanting a ‘don’t be afraid’ phrase. She frets further as she says this body, this life, what was once lost…it’s for the people…it’s for everyone. Don’t be afraid Harriet, it’s ok, it’ll be all right. (She is attempting to self soothe through something bad) She shuts her eyes and holds her own arm sort of awkwardly. But you arrive which frightens her out of doing this. She’s embarrassed and sad now.  So now, you can make a choice

I didn’t Hear Anything
Are You Scared

It is nicer to her to claim you didn’t hear anything, but asking if she’s scared (it’s clear she is) might get her to tell you what is frightening her. If you claim I Didn’t Hear Anything, she says you’re too kind, but it’s unclear whether she believes you or not. She then resolves to not forget the fear. Because battles are frightening, she must end this quickly. She hopes to not forget the feeling, so she won’t be quick to go to war unless absolutely necessary. But…she doesn’t want everyone getting unsettled that she’s scared herself…so keep it an absolute secret from everyone please. At this, she smiles. (Your character is never visible in the ‘puppet theater’ fps type things so it’s probably assume-able that you can nod.)

The 4 Nations
With: Hariret
Now, inside Harriet’s tent, you can see fairy Xiera, who asks Harriet about other nations. The continent has 4 nations on it north south east and west. We’re in Cuent, it’s known for nature and magic and it is in the south. She’s the 2^nd child of the late king of Cuent.  This shows you a map with 4 different shaped countries (all of which touch at least 1 other country) and are different colors. They each have a gold crest symbol, that would probably appear on a flag, too. Oddly, they don't take this opportunity to name them, and they really ought to have.

For What Reason Are You Fighting?
You’re Really A Princess?

If you ask For What Reason Are You Fighting? (Because yes, someone already said she’s a princess, so that one is already answered) she says it’s to return the land back to a peaceful state. But, we need a figurehead, so she stands before her people. The userper was Prime Minister Lutz, who bathed in the power and greed of Ephimera. He’s behind the coup that killed the king, and is hunting resistance now. Now he says he’s king, and burdens the people seeking expansion (likely meaning takeover of nearby places) and flaunting his strength. As royalty, we are obligated to overthrow him. She won’t allow the nation to be led into pointless war by a madman.
There’s someone she wants you to meet, to help discuss the future of the nation.

The scene ends.