Finally~ Sefir is finished. I apologize for the delay. His chapters are actually relatively short compared to the other 5-star princes I've translated, however that didn't make him easy. Sefir was difficult for me to get through because of how he speaks.
I , like many other people who study Japanese, despise keigo. Keigo refers to Japanese polite speech and it incorporates multiple ways for a person to talk. When talking to someone of a higher station than you about yourself, you use humble form. But when talking to someone of a higher station about themselves, you use honorific form. Both of these forms have their own conjugations and special rules, and of course Sefir speaks in keigo THE ENTIRE TIME. And when he's not referring to himself or the other person, he uses standard polite form with 'pretty language'. This made it a bit of a pain to translate as I was admittedly never very adept at using humble and honorific Japanese. However, this let me have a little more fun with Sefir's translation. As he speaks so formally, I got to really think and play with the wording of his lines to make him come across as refined. I hope I did his character justice.
It also makes it easier to emphasize when Sefir changes his tone in the final chapter of each route. Throughout the entire story he refers to the main character as 'Lady OO', using the very formal 様 (sama) suffix with her name. However, he drops that in the last chapters and simply uses her name with no suffix, suggesting a strong intimacy between the two. You may remember this has happened with other character, but they always used the more standard suffixes that I drop in my translations like さん (san). So Sefir's change in tone was much easier to get across in English thanks to him using keigo all the time.
Also, because of Sefir's constant use of formal speech and my trouble with it, I'm not as confident that I properly translated everything. Things got complicated when Sefir started giving a bunch of expositional background information that had to do with politics while still speaking formally. Still, I tried my best to at least make things make sense.
You'll also notice that I translated Sefir's country, 天の国 , as 'Sky Country'. This breaks from my usual pattern of 'Land of ...', but I had to do it because 'Land of Sky' doesn't really work. And when we're introduced to the opposing faction, 'Earth Country', in this story, 'Land of Earth' doesn't really work. I didn't think 'Country of the Sky' or 'Country of the Earth' sounded right either, so I've left them as 'Sky Country' and 'Earth Country'. You'll see more of the Earth Country when I get around to translating Dion.
I will also warn you that Sefir's story (both routes) is a little more...intense than any of the other princes I've translated. Usually we can guess what happens 'after the screen goes black' between our princess and the prince, but with Sefir there is no need to guess. The first part is written out for you. So, just prepare yourself for that.
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