Romancing Saga 2: New Town, Old... Veil?

One cute thing I never noticed before? As with a lot of Squaresoft games, even stationary sprites walk in place, to keep things looking lively. The Royal Guards remain perfectly still. More to the point, we're kitted out now; Coppelia the Robot Maid has a spear because she's equally crappy in all weapons right now -15 each when the party record's something like 45 -and the spear is the strongest thing we've got. Though she does have some unarmed skills as well, including one I've never seen called Neko Damashii (Cat Soul). No clue there. But anyway, we're off to Chikapa!

Which, sadly, is still bemonstered.
Turns out Coppelia is an Umaro-type; you can't control her. So I'll have to be extra sure she's never the last one alive. Meanwhile, Lance seems to have inherited the slipperiness of his East Guard predecessor Shusaku- he's tough to hit.

Turns out there's treasure in the town of the Bird People: a suit of armor called "Elven Skin" (eeeew) and a nice bow I guess I won't be using. Oh well.

There's also a path that comes out behind a waterfall.

And leads to a brand-new town! Seems a little late to be annexing places, but let's give it a gander.

It's got creepy music, but there are people and dashing doesn't summon the Fog o' War, so I guess it's safe...ish? The people here all have blue hair and like talking about Wagnas. One of them gives me a litany of the bosses I've killed: Dantarg, Bokuohn, Wagnas, Rocboquet, Kujinshi, Noel who I'm pretty sure was mentioned before even if I didn't kill them, and someone called "Subie" that I'm not sure has ever come up before. Otherwise, it's one of those towns where everything connects up underground.

Hey, it's the fortuneteller? No idea what she says.

There's a secret staircase right here that leads to the back of the town.

That elephant statue is moving, and most agitatedly! I smell trouble, and it must too. No excuse not to with a nose like that.