Sara Valestein

"I'm no army officer, so I'm not about to go telling you that my orders are absolute and such. That's much to military for my liking. But I am your instructor. And it's my duty to look out for your best interests. Which, I feel, is exactly what I'm doing here."

- Sara to Machias and Jusis, regarding pairing them up in the same field study group two months in a row Sara Valestein is one of the main protagonists and playable characters of the video game tetralogy The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel, serving as a guest-star party member in the first game and a proper party member in the sequels. She is an instructor at Thors Military Academy and the homeroom teacher of the original Class VII. Before then, she was a member of the Bracer Guild, during which time she became known as the "Purple Lightning."

She is voiced by Megumi Toyoguchi in the Japanese version and Carrie Keranen in the English version, the latter of whom also voices Satsuki Kiryūin and Mami Tomoe.

Appearance
Sara appears as a tall, strong beautiful woman with her long fuschia red hair tied up and yellow eyes. In her regular days as a Bracer and after becoming homeroom teacher, she wears a yellow cocktail dress and brown high thigh boots underneath and belted by a dark green overcoat.

Personality
Sara's general personality is best described as lazy, childish, manipulative and irresponsible. The other instructors at the academy do not hold her in high regard, and she has a reputation as a slacker. She often takes advantage of Rean in particular, signing him up for Student Council errands behind his back and frequently sending him on tasks she should really do herself. Rean even suspects that she is the reason the Student Council, particularly Towa, are as busy as they are. She frequently drinks beer in her spare time, with no concern for what time of day it is, and will often tease her students by reminding them they are too young to drink, though she does try to get Rean to drink on a few occasions. All of this makes it very difficult for her students to take her seriously, even the more patient ones like Elliot and Emma, to the point that whenever she says something wise, they end up laughing at how little it suits her, much to her annoyance.

However, for all her slacking, mooching and general immaturity, it's very clear that Sara has her students' best interests at heart; although she frequently pairs up two people in the same field study group while knowing full well they don't get along, she does so with the hope that they'll learn to look past each other's differences and accept one another, especially since differences are one of the very reasons they're in Class VII in the first place, combined with the fact that a good bond is crucial for the ARCUS to reach its full potential. She also sends Machias to the noble-dominant Bareahard with the hopes that he'll learn to get over his anti-noble bias. Being a teacher, Sara is also a very strict person and expects her students to stand by whatever decision she makes, no matter how much they disagree with it. She also shows definite concern for her students' well-being; after Rean's sister, Elise, gets hurt by a guardian in the old schoolhouse, Sara suspects that the schoolhouse is too dangerous for training anymore and that they should leave it alone, though she changes her mind at her students' insistence. Despite all of this, a few of her actions really are just done out of genuine laziness e.g. her field study groupings are basically the same every time, with one or two members swapped around, something the class eventually catches on to and calls her out for.

As a former Bracer, Sara strongly believes in being guided by one's conscience rather than by orders, and so encourages her students to get involved in situations that have nothing to do with their field studies. Due to the fact that Giliath Osbourne has more or less driven the Bracer Guild underground in Erebonia, as he disliked their neutrality and disregard for authority, anyone involving the chancellor is a sore spot for Sara; her relationship with Claire Rieveldt is rocky at best, to the point that she can barely stand the sight of her. However, she doesn't seem to let this get in the way of her duties, as she treats Millium the same way as any of her other students. She also has something of a rivalry with the highly professional Neithardt, who never hesitates to note how unconventional she is; when Sara learns that Neithardt gathered the boys up for extra swimming lessons, as he didn't like the idea of women surpassing men, Sara gathers up the girls for the same thing, apparently because Neithardt boasted about it to her face. Rean suspects that the two of them are in "a constant moral struggle to outdo each other," and even wonders if it's safe for the two of them to be in the same room. Despite this, the two are shown to capable of working together when the situation calls for it, as shown during the assault on Garrelia Fortress.