Definitely a bit of a lower-key set of missions, but something we probably need after the previous couple plot beats.
Hmmm.
I really can't place Zalbaag here. He very much avoids saying anything about whether or not he knew about or believes Ramza's accusations; his response focuses entirely on centering Ramza's fault in lacking trust in his brothers and making accusations. If Zalbaag knew about Dycedarg's plans and agreed with them, he would still not even be lying, because he literally didn't address the accusation save for shaming Ramza for voicing them. This could easily be Zalbaag being genre savvy enough to avoid confessing in 'privacy' while someone could be listening. But by the same token it's entirely possible the idea of Dycedarg acting this way towards a princess (as opposed to a disposable commoner like Tietra) is unconscionable to him and he won't even consider the thought.
This exchange is interesting too because of how Ramza approaches it - he had to make a decision here about how much he thinks Zalbaag knows already, and build his argument from there. If he assumes innocence and tries to lead up to his claims, but Zalbaag
does know, he cedes plenty of time for him to formulate a believable response to deflect blame while only letting him know how much Ramza knows.
While if he assumes he knows and pushes more aggressively, Zalbaag has less time to make a counterargument - maybe disowning him is a knee-jerk reaction to him not having a subtler way to throw Ramza off the scent? - but if he's completely in the dark it could come across as wild accusations out of nowhere, all while Ramza has a cloud of suspicion already over him from the incident surrounding Delecroix.
I don't think Ramza had any really good options here besides shooting for the best; he maybe could've tried some information gathering beforehand, but that takes
time, and I don't know if that's really within his skillsets enough to do successfully. And even after all that, we're still left speculating with little more to go off of - though at least seeing how willing Zalbaag is to disown him is telling enough about how much love there really is between the two of them.
I do have to respect that Ramza had his troops just. Waiting in the wings behind a wall in case his conversation with Alma went awry somehow. After the trap at Lionel Castle Gate, our boy knows to do his setup. "Oh no, here I am ambushed all on my own without backup! Hadrian, obliterate their spines.
I am loving Ramza's preparedness here - at this point he's probably keeping his best soldiers close at basically all times. Even during his conversation with Zalbaag they were probably in place to burst through the doors/windows if negotiations went south - but also I find this another point in favor of using your blorbos over named characters when possible.
As cool and badass as Agrias is, there's something special about your dudes growing into their reputations as Hadrian: Divine Punishment from Above, or "I'm a healer, but"
pulls out gun.
Lmao, Alma. What a brat. Ramza in shambles, absolute sister triumph.
See this is why we really need Alma along, she's the party's best negotiator! If we ever go back to mercenary work for a bit of extra money, send her to speak to our clients and she'll get our rates tripled.
Every point Alma makes is correct, and it's extremely obvious that going with Ramza is the safest place for her, even if it's not, objectively speaking, safe at all. It's just that all the other options are worse: Her half-brothers can't be trusted, the Church is corrupt and out for Ramza, she would almost definitely be used as a hostage against him. Meanwhile, traveling with Ramza's small group of mobile, stealthy, elite fighters is, if not comfortable, probably still the safest place someone can be in the middle of this devastating war. …granted, she is transparently making these arguments because she wants to stick with her almost-disappeared brother and go on a cool adventure, but she's still correct.
And it's fun because it puts Ramza in an awkward position. Even when he realizes that Alma's safest with him, he still wants to argue against her reasoning for being there, so maybe she'll take her safety more seriously, but Alma can largely shut down that line of reasoning by just pointing out how few other options there are.
I hope she stays a guest for a long while now, because they have a fun dynamic going on and we really need a face for Ramza to talk to in the party so we can have some internal discussions again.
