Extra Fool's Missives Complete Text

These Fool's Missives do not appear in game and are only published alongside the enemy data files in Confidential File. The numbering starts anew, as they're a separate collection of missives.

They are also clearly written by Astos, but I'm not confident in my ability to reproduce his writing style, so please bear with my translations.

It's also possible that the monsters' names are localized differently than the direct translations I'm taking from the book. I'll do my best to match the English localization, but if I miss anything, please leave a comment and let me know.

Fool's Missive Extra I
Goblin, Goblin Guard, Bogeyman

Discards of Lufenian experimentation, some sort of creature that holds knowledge"

Their appearance so hideous they wear masks to conceal it, they attack humans. Is it because they have been inflicted with darkness and have lost their sense of self, or do they indiscriminately attack of their own accord...?

I suppose that the goblins themselves do not know their objective. They simply seem happy to do harm to humans.

Fool's Missive Extra II
Bomb, Grenade, Neutron Bomb

The world after the Fiend of Fire was born and the power of fire was snatched away... In concert with Marilith's form, these monsters of Mt. Gulg were born. They are made as though of the condensation of the power of fire that was stolen from the world, and seem unable to control their own power. By accumulating damage and increasing their power of fire, they lose all control and are prone to explode. I wonder if the might of this explosion is not symbolic of her anger.

When Neon sees ones of these bombs she may not think anything in particular... but I always think of that indignant anger over always wanting to save the world and being unable to do a thing.

Fool's Missive Extra III
Wolf, Alpha Wolf, Silver Lobo, Silver Lobo Star(?)

Which beings were the first to be harmed by the darkness spewing forth? -- It was not in fact the humans, but the beasts of nature living in their packs.

These wolves were originally found all over the world, however, their forms at some point changed. That they continue to follow their pack leaders is perhaps a remnant of their being wild beasts before being bathed in darkness.

Fool's Missive Extra IV
Skeleton, Dark Skeleton, Victim

When Ash became the Fiend of Earth, there was a certain change.

The earth containing the dead came to rot, and the corpses were defiled by darkness, finding new life as undead monsters -- though it is a bit dubious to use the expression "finding new life" when referring to the deceased.

When looking into the individuals who deteriorated into Skeletons from their corpses, and it seems they consist of those with feelings similar to Ash: mothers who in the past lost their children and died from grief, soldiers who died unable to protect their comrades, and so on.

Fool's Missive Extra V
Leech Bat, Bloody Bat, Ancient Bat

I transformed the Lufenians left behind in Cornelia into bats, for fun.

They have taken on this form through magic similar to that of my curse and, like myself, continue to transcend the cycles, but...... then, what if I were to pass my curse on to all the Elves in this world? The Elves were originally a new species created by the Lufenians; thrusting them into the thick of it may also be fun. I shall try this in the next cycle.

Translator's note: Astos uses the word "world" here instead of "cycle," but it's clear he's referring to the "worlds" of the resets so I opted for a clearer word. That considered, it sounds like the curse he's referring to is that he doesn't reset like everyone else, confirming that the Lufenian bats don't, either. Anyway, this sounds like a setup for him cursing the elves in FFI.

Fool's Missive Extra VI
Black Widow, Lesser Black Widow

Building their webs in narrow spaces, they wait patiently for prey to be snared. The prey caught in their webs are not only immobilized and killed, but are dissolved from the inside out by the Black Widows' venom -- then eaten.

It appears to be the females' role to build webs and secure prey. It is rare to spot males. This is because the role of the males is only to fertilize the females' eggs, and then to be eaten... Therefore these spiders are called Black Widows.

The Black Widows also understand. That in order to live, even partners and family must be sacrificed for us to be sustained.

Fool's Missive Extra VII
Pirates

It's exhausting, trying to calm the rambunctious pirates raising a fuss about the raging seas.

They pointlessly fuss, trembling with fear over the seas they had thought, until then, to be under their control. They've forgotten that it was by the power I lent to them that they were able to sail on windless seas. 

I've grown tired of taking it seriously and speaking with them...

After all, they are only human; outcast ruffians. It may be a bit entertaining to stain them with my darkness as well...

Fool's Missive Extra VIII
Sahagin, Sea Devil, Sahagin Prince

Living creatures require air to live. This can be said even of the Lufenians.

Their insatiable inquiries sucked them into the airless depths. They first laid their eyes upon the fish dwelling in the waters, and attempted to blend this kind of life with humans. The experiment itself was successful, however, the burden on the subjects was so great that they were unable to preserve their sense of humanity, and the human experimentation for aquatic living was suspended.

Later, due to the development of a tool called "oxyale," underwater activity became possible, and the subjects were buried in the darkness.

Translator's note: Oxyale ("air water" in Japanese) does not appear in Stranger of Paradise, but is an obtainable item in FFI that allows the user to breathe underwater. Nice throwback.

Fool's Missive Extra IX
Coeurl, Ravenous Coeurl, Sapphire Coeurl

The offspring of the beast killed its own mother -- there was such an animal among those who grew strong through Lufenian experimentation.

While all of the animals were suffering and perishing due to rejection of their dual tentacle-shaped magical devices and reinforced armor, only the mother and cub survived. The spectacle that followed was a sight to behold. The mother -- perhaps still recognizing that she was its mother -- put up no resistance to the raging, crazed cub and was ripped to pieces.

From the viewpoint of the Lufenians, perhaps it was a necessary experiment for a better world. Maybe the methodology that leads to a wonderful world is born of hideous experiments. It appears that they will now release these animals into the world as an experiment to see their effects on the ecosystem, humans included.

It seems the world under Lufenian control is not as beautiful as you say, Jack.

Fool's Missive Extra X
Harpy, Siren

I've heard that the harpies were originally identified in another dimension. As a result of the Lufenians recreating the lifeforms from that world, they were born in Cornelia.

Certainly, it was not long before this creature was befallen to the influence of darkness as a twin-winged monster. I wonder if the masks they wear are to conceal their suffering as lifeforms that did not wish for these lives, lives made to be toyed with.

Fool's Missive Extra XI
Shadow, Wraith

However virtuous a person, it is normal to experience negative emotions, such as jealousy of another's happiness or wishing for their misfortune...

Therefore, sometimes people's thoughts are filled with darkness and change their shape. Shadows are those which have taken shape from those feelings. 

It is difficult to keep hold of the Shadows, which appear from darkness and venture back to it. Originating thus, they dislike being seen and attack from the shadows. But these creatures sneaking through the shadows seem to dislike you, Jack, even more...

Fool's Missive Extra XII
Griffon, Griffon Queen, Hippogriff, Cursed Griffon

It has been said that once, when the Lufenians were expanding their military capabilities, they prepared the griffon as an organism to be used in combat. However, from the rapid scientific advancement of the Lufenians came the development of military weapons, and the Griffon, a biological weapon with combat results difficult to predict, fell out of use.

When the Lufenians disappeared from the world, the Griffons were left behind, and over many long years darkness befell them. Their armored appearance, a relic of when they were used as biological weapon, covers a hideous form teeming with darkness.

A day may come where the darkness inside of me becomes uncontrollable, and I, too, am distorted into something repulsive.

Translator's note: The creators have already made it clear in other parts of this book that this is exactly what happens to Astos, causing him to turn into the form seen in FFI.

Fool's Missive Extra XIII
Fire Elemental, Water Elemental, Wind Elemental, Earth Elemental

An anecdote from passing the dark crystal to Neon.

She has asked me where the monsters come from. Telling her that she would probably forget the answer even if she heard it, I explained the order of things as I have observed them.

I explained that human emotions as well as organisms are connected to darkness and become monsters, that there are lifeforms that have become monsters as a result of Lufenian experiments, and that they are also born of unnatural distortions occurring in nature.

I covered the last point specifically, adding the Lufenians' involvement, though I wonder how much Neon can remember this time around...

Fool's Missive Extra XIV
Crawler, Roundworm

Crawelers were, by all rights, giant caterpillars that simply lived underground and moved to the surface when they matured. Due to the amount of time spent underground their eyes did not fully develop, and they experienced their surroundings through antennae-like parts.

However, due to the influence of the fiends, they were forced to move from their underground habitat to the surface. Unable to see, with eyes weak to sunlight, the crawlers became the perfect meal for other creatures. Chased from its home and constantly on the move, a crawler came across a house where three sisters lived.

In order to survive, the crawler ate the middle and youngest sisters. The crawler extended its antennae towards the eldest sister who, having watched her sisters being eaten before her eyes, lost herself in a fit of rage and tore the crawler to pieces.

Darkness, with the anger of the girl who had lost her family, bound to the crawler, and from the darkness emerged the monster that exists today.

Fool's Missive Extra XV
Flan, Flan Prince, Flan Princess

It happened during a cycle in which the water crystal had lost its shine, and the waters had become stagnant. Places like the dark side of a town, where the eye can no longer see - places like these tend to attract wanderers.

Those who have turned outlaw under the rules of man; those who have collapsed without cures for their ills... Those who gather have their own reasons, but all are embraced by the darkness just the same. With their envious gazes trained on those who walk in places of light, they ever spew words of contempt, jealousy, and despair.

It is a place like that. Darkness is tied to the entire place, and these forms are transformed into soft-bodied monsters.

Fool's Missive Extra XVI
Ogre, Mad Ogre, Hill Gigas, Mad Gigas

When Lufenia was at war with Cornelia, they fought utilizing a variety of weapons.

However, though thre were various weapons, those who operated those weapons on the frontlines of the battlefield - in other words, the Lufenians - were also required to be on the battlefield.

Among those Lufenians were some who did not approve of this war in which Cornelia was unilaterally trampled by these weapons. However, these Lufenians soon vanished from the battlefield - it was not that they had returned home, nor had they been executed. They were given drugs that would restructure them into living weapons, became hideous monsters, and were returned to the battlefield. To shed their pride, and continue taking lives.

This summarizes the birth of the ogre.

Fool's Missive Extra XVII
Guardian, Soldier, Heavy Soldier

Since alighting to this world, the Lufenians had allocated to me countless times a Guardian for the purpose of protection.

I do not remember how many resets it's been since I stopped journeying with Jack and the others, but I named the Guardians "Jack" and they became my conversation partners.

Each time the dark emotions within me felt like bursting, I would try taking my anger out on Guardian Jack. However, no matter how many Guardians I destroyed, the emotions within did not change.

In a cycle after that, I told the Lufenians that there was no need to supply me with Guardians.

Fool's Missive Extra XVIII
Bucephalus, Nightmare

Those who see it at night are plagued by nightmares - there exists a fabled nightmare monster that is spoken of in Cornelian fairy tales - a fable made up by parents to get their young children to stay in bed. The parents say, "If you don't go to sleep soon, a monster will come to your window to pay you a visit," to get their children to sleep.

But, this monster exists. Rather, it came into something like existence. Perhaps it manifested from the darkness as a symbol of this fear harbored in children...

In the fable, this nightmare monster is vanquished by the warriors of light, but will it actually be the warriors of light who end it, or will it be the warriors of Chaos?

Fool's Missive Extra XIX
Malboro, Malboro Menace

There is one creature in this world that is deeply interesting. That is the malboro.

It is a creature that lives in the ocean, and it preys on nearby fish by releasing gas from its mouth that weakens them. Its many tentacles have protrusions, and it appears that they can inject poison from these protrusions into their captured prey. Originally, they were docile creatures that do not attack people, and were highly valued among connoisseurs for their visuals (Jed had tried keeping one for such purposes as a pet for a short time).

When the world was struck by darkness and they began to prey on the monsters of the darkness in the ocean, their ecology changed dramatically they moved to land, and began attacking humans. Eventually, even Strangers succumbed to their venom.

Fool's Missive Extra XX
Piscodaemon, Mindflayer

"Envy" is an emotion where a kind of longing is felt for things such as an exemplary power that you do not have, when it is observed in another person. He envied Jack's strength and fell to Kraken, the fiend of water, and it did not take long for the effects of this to spread like ripples in the water.

It should be no doubt that a monster born from an envy for the abilities of others, with a desire to suck out the power from its source to make it its own, came to be under Jed's influence.

His feelings of aspiration to become like Jack have been greatly warped by the darkness, and have turned into monsters that attack people.

Fool's Missive Extra XXI
Ahriman, Aeshma

Lufenia carried out experiements regarding the concept of "magic."

Originally, magic was something that, like the crystals, would both stabilize elemental powers of the world, and allow them to manifest there. However, because it calls for many steps before it can be put into operation, it is no longer of much practical use. Therefore, in order to substantially reduce these steps, Lufenia conducted an experiment in which the power of the elements - in other words, pseudo-crystals - was embedded into a living creature. 

What appeared to be the monster's eye is a pseudo-crystal. As a result, it could be used as a weapon able to cast various magic, but with one large flaw: those charmed by the shine of the pseudo-crystal would fall to darkness and die within a short time.

It is said that this phenomenon is just like the "death sentence" handed down by the grim reaper.

Lufenia immediately abandoned to Cornelia this monster with its shine born of darkness.

Fool's Missive Extra XXII
Cactuar

Unlike the edifices in this world that Lufenia copied from other dimensions, there is a creature that stumbled into this dimension from another. This is a monster called the "cactuar."

I do not know from which dimension it wandered in, but when the cactuar runs, a considerable amount of energy is created which causes a space-time distortion. One could guess that it wandered into this world through such a distortion. That the cactuar disappears when retreating, is because it traverses this distortion.

Thus it continues running away, likely making an appearance in a vast number of dimensions.

Fool's Missive Extra XXIII
Tonberry, Master Tonberry

While cactuar come from another world while transcending space-time, this monster transcends space-time by continuing to exist as itself in the next cycle even while this world is being continuously reset. In other words, it is a unique entity that carries no dark crystal and has no relation to Lufenia, yet retains its memories.

It is uncertain whether this entity originates from this world. The tonberry has been here since I began my observations. It echoes the same resentment I carry; perhaps it was sent from the future to the past - just like the Chaos Shrine.

The tonberry carries memories of having been killed, and its memory of resentment, into the next cycle. Over and over again, for the sake of revenge against its killer...

translated by Jai from Confidential Files - Secret Chapters -