Being Polite, Phone Case

Cater is unusually polite for an NRC student.

He apologizes multiple times during Spectral Soiree for the actions of the ghost that possessed him and doesn’t allow Kalim to buy expensive souvenirs for Lilia during the Firelit Sky event, insisting that they get something cheaper so that he can afford for them to split the cost equally.

He has a voice line of “No need to be all polite with me” But that’s not exactly what he’s actually saying. His original line is 「無理に敬語とか使わなくていいよ。」, which is literally “You don’t have to force yourself to use keigo.”

Keigo is the polite form of verbs and things in Japanese that you use when speaking to someone like a senpai or teacher or boss. The word “itadakimasu” for example is the keigo form of the verb “taberu”, which means “to eat”.

So if you want to tell your senpai you’re going to go eat lunch, you might say “I’m gonna go itadakimasu lunch” (Jade and Azul both use keigo with everyone, it is delightful), but if you’re talking to someone in your grade you might say “I’m gonna go taberu lunch” if you’re Deuce in honor-student mode, or “I’m gonna go kuu lunch” if you’re Ace (“kuu” is a very casual way to say “to eat”. Ace uses it in-game when talking to the player, etc).

So what Cater is saying is that, while he may be the player’s senpai, the player doesn’t have to worry about using the Keigo-form of verbs when they talk to him; if they don’t use verb forms like “itadakimasu” in conversation, he won’t take offense. It’s a very kind gesture.

So he’s not saying that he’s “not a huge fan of” being polite, and he is definitely on the polite end of the spectrum for NRC. English just doesn’t have multiple verb forms that exist for the sole purpose of sounding more or less polite, so that is how we got the translated line.

Cater’s phone case is described as a highly in-demand, name-brand item and “the hottest thing on Magicam right now” that has been “featured in magazines and stuff, about how it’s been selling out left and right!”. It was a gift from Lilia.

While Cater attempted to purchase one for himself he was not able to get one due to its popularity, and he says that “Lilia’s been nudging me about what I’m gonna get him in return ever since”.