[ChicletPrime]

Chapter 1:

• Okay starting off on Philos, naturally. "The old tale... for hundreds of years an empty throne. Now the crownless queen regains her scepter. A new spring.. shall bring the dying Philos a chance to regain light and glory."
  
• i don't think anywhere has outright said yet why immortality is such a burden for Philos - i mean, whatever Ever is doing to bring it about is pretty monstrous, and the anecdote where something in the planet is eating people to keep itself alive (or at least that was my takeaway on it) is pretty horrific in its implications, but the way this is starting, its like... everything is doomed to slowly decay and sink? because nobody can die? or something? 
  
• hiiii Xavier! you look as beautiful as always.  okay, so girlfriend is the "crownless queen" on her throne and sunshine boy is her Grandis Knight. hang on, i thought he was the prince or at least royalty? no wait, think...  in this timeline, he's my vassal. /shuffles mental notes 
  
• oh, its my coronation but he's.. leaving me? eh? 
  
• woah woah woah
  
• "Are you not afraid the Backtrackers suspect you betrayed them for a private audience?"
  
• i feel a brain collision happening. what?
  
• "The spaceship is ready." 
  
• He addresses me with cool indifference.
  
• /squints
  
• Xavier, are you lying (by omission?) again? although i have no idea yet what you might be trying to conceal, there is no goddamned way that "indifference" is your dominant emotion. 
  
• so this IS the timeline where Xavier goes back in time, the Backtrackers exist so this means Traceback I has to have already happened and this is setting up for Traceback II.  
  
• if she's asking if the Backtrackers think he might have betrayed them in order to talk to her/the queen, then... the Backtrackers and the queen are at odds with each other? whatever Traceback II is meant to do, it's a rebellious act? 
  

Yeah, this is not going to be a brief recap of this myth, I already have five different and competing questions.

• Xavier hasn't addressed me by name in years.  nani? 
  
• what is GOING ON. 
  
• "I will tell the citizens the Grandis Knight perished in battle. I shall give him the highest honor." so they're not expecting him back, this is a one way trip. do they have to pick a new Grandis Knight then? how can he leave the queen to do this (whatever this is) if he's tasked to protect her specifically? 
  
• tiny detail: he has a star shaped charm and tassel on his sword. d'awwww.
  
• oh. the charm is significant? "You still have that."
  
• i'd asked him about it long ago when we were students together at "Astria Knyght Academy".  boy, do i want to take a red edit pencil that the terrible misspelling.
  
• flashback to their Academy days!
  
• specific mention of "wavyleaf sea lavenders" -- did those things appear in some of Rafayel's stories too? it just seems super familiar. They sprout around a statue of "The Holy Sword of the Goddess".
  
• okay, this is a wild mix of medievalism and scifi - the "starhunters" have returned from their "space expedition" and she runs down "astroscience avenue" to the monument. yet, also swords and knights and crowns and thrones?
  
• Vice Captain Jeremiah! woooo!
  
• aww, we are friends! and Xavier is hiding and of course i know where that is so off I charge in a different direction while Jeremiah shouts at me.
  
• i am.. i am not liking this dynamic one bit but its very intriguing as a reader. Xavier returns from this space expedition, talks to Jeremiah, yet when I excitedly track him down in his hiding place he's dismissive (and annoyed?) that i sought him out as he made no effort to contact me when he got back, yet here i am.
  
• this past Xavier "re-attaches" the charm to his sword hilt while I take a seat near him.  something he couldn't take with him on the ship? 
  
• apparently a month ago, Wanderer attacks become more frequent on Philos and students had to check in with the Academy.  so... Wanderers are still a thing, but its not a desperate situation? nobody is panicking even if there is an uptick in frequency.
  
• Xavier left at that time for this expedition that he's just come back from. 
  
• "The Academy and your family were relentless when they lost contact with you." Oh ho, he just LEFT. you rebellious youth, you. and we covered for him! well, go us. Xavier, why are you treating me so nonchanlantly when i am this good a friend to you? 
  
• yeah, I'm getting angrier and he's just laughing. yeah, he's playing off this whole thing as unimportant in some manner. 
  
• also fashion note: he's got some sort of translucent pink-chromatic overlay running down the front/lapels of his long coat and its So Beautiful. 
  

there doesn't seem to be specific chapter notations on this video. it fades out right here so I'm going to guess this is the next chapter break.