Since it's been a month since release, here's some behind-the-scenes information about The Adventures of El-Melloi II 4. First, we have Sion here in the cover. As you can guess from her expression and hairstyle, this version of Sion is based on her Etherlite-using self from pre-remake Melty Blood.
For a story set in Egypt and centered around the Atlas Institute, what other guest character could have I picked? I wrote her the way I did because Nasu told me in a discussion that this was what her age and disposition would be like for Case Files and /stay Night. I had a great time checking old games to rediscover her.
Along with Sion, many other Atlas alchemists were present in the story. It's very unusual for so many of them to show up at the same time, so I've entered a hectic cycle of writing and discussion to make sure that I was interpreting the Institute's law right and that my ideas for the Six Sources families (Eltnam included) were valid.
Like it happened for the Clock Tower when I wrote Case Files, I had the Atlas Institute as a mostly blank canvas to run my ideas on, as despite their importance to the Type-Moon universe, we rarely ever had multiple members expressing the differences in their mindsets.
The key point here is that the more I wrote, the more impressed I got at how special Sion was. If you own the first edition or manga version of Melty Blood, reread this book after rereading them and you might make some new discoveries. The world surrounding her is about to get a lot richer, and I hope I can contribute to that at least a little.
And today's other topic is Lord Meluastea. I believe most fans weren't expecting a new Lord to show up here. Although he didn't appear in Case Files, he was alluded to a few times (for example, with how he sent Yvette as a spy to the El-Melloi faction).
While this is his first physical appearance, his existence had been known for longer than most. The town he manages, Rocks Road, is where Clock Tower 2015 is set, meaning it debuted even earlier than El-Melloi II's Slur. In a sense, the
Meluastea
Department of Archeology
is the example case used as the default Clock Tower template in Case Files's production.
That's why I've always been questioning when would be the best occasion to introduce him, and when I came to the concept of excavating ruins with Atlas, my immediate thought is that the rival Clock Tower team needed to be Archeology. His scene nerding out about Iskandar in Alexandria was easily the most fun I had writing this volume.
Naturally, there's a lot Lord Meluastea is still hiding. I'm still in the middle of writing the next volume, but I'm working to get it released this winter. Be a little patient. I'll do everything I can make this journey satisfying.