| “ | I can't claim to know much about your personal circumstance, but regardless of one's background or social standing, one should always be able to live with pride in him or herself. Thus, if you truly did make light of yourself and your own abilities, that is an act of shame for which you owe yourself recompense. | „ |
| ~ Laura to Rean |
Laura S. Arseid is one of the main protagonists and playable characters of the video game tetralogy The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel. She is the daughter and only child of Victor S. Arseid, Viscount of Legram and warrior known as the Radiant Blademaster. A diligent student of the sword who seeks to perfect her craft, she ends up joining Thors as a way to improve her skills. As heir to the Arseid family, she is a practitioner of the Arseid school of swordsmanship and in combat uses a great sword much like her father.
She is voiced by Mariya Ise in the Japanese version and Marisha Ray in the English version.
Appearance[]
Laura is tall for her age and gender, standing at roughly the same height as Rean, making her the tallest female member of her class by a good margin. She has long blue hair that she always keeps tied back in a ponytail. She wears the standard Thors Military Academy uniform in the first game.
In Trails of Cold Steel II, she wears a formal jacket, lengthy black socks, knee-high laced boots, shorts, various shirt layers with a button black vest.
Personality[]
Laura is known at the Academy for her pride, dignity and composure. She is not easily provoked, and tends to take everything in her stride, making it noteworthy when she is bothered by something. She is single-mindedly determined to do everything in her power to become stronger, viewing every new challenge and encounter as an opportunity for her to learn and become a better swordswoman; she joined Class VII simply because she liked the idea of a greater challenge, and says she envies the people who live around the Heimdallr underground passage, saying it would make a great training area, which Machias quickly notes as something only she would say. She values friends such as Rean, a fellow student of the sword, for the opportunity to grow as swordsmen together, and respects anyone who shows great strength, including Sara once she reveals her skills as the "Purple Lightning." She is also highly charismatic, and is popular just about everywhere she goes, be it Thors or Legram, which she occasionally finds embarrassing.
Despite being a noble, Laura is far from ladylike; she is generally only concerned with her swordplay and when she and Rean go shopping for accessories, she ends up being drawn to a muscular man figure called Dogi, though Rean convinces her to buy a Mishy plush instead. Her speech is also noted to be extremely formal and old-fashioned even by noble standards. However, while she can sometimes come off as intimidating, this is not her intention, and she shows a willingness to teach and become friends with those weaker than her, such as Monica. whom she teaches to become a better swimmer. Laura also completely lacks the arrogance typically found in nobles, Jusis included; she is very kind and polite, never thinking any less of her commoner classmates and generally treating everyone she meets with equal deference. Fie describes her as someone who would never dream of looking down on anyone, and Machias notes her for being one of two nobles that have enabled him to look past his biases, the other being Rean. Additionally, while she does appreciate the frequent praise her friends give her for her strength, she will not hesitate to praise their strengths in return. In general, Laura believes that regardless of one's upbringing or social status, one should be able to live with pride in both themselves and the path they have chosen. As such, she dislikes it whenever someone makes light of their own abilities, like Rean does initially, though even then she gives him advice to help him move past his insecurities. She seems to get this trait from her father, Victor and her butler, Klaus, both of whom note that Rean is constantly holding back during combat.
In addition to being extremely strong, Laura is also very intelligent, ranking 17th out of the entire academy during the midterm exams. She also enjoys swimming, describing it as a habit of hers, as she would frequently swim in the lake back in her home Legram. She doesn't even mind swimming during the winter, saying that while the water may be cold, it also makes for excellent training. She has been taught by her father to think outside the box, as there are other ways to improve her strength than practising with her sword all the time, advice Laura puts to good use, which is why she chose to join the Swimming Club instead of a more combat-oriented club. Due to her hometown being beside a lake, Laura states that she always feels at ease whenever she's near water.
As kind and humble as she normally is, Laura is also a very straightforward person and can be quite rigid in her beliefs. This eventually brings her into conflict with Fie when she learns that the latter used to be a Jaeger, whom she had always viewed as being corrupt and immoral, combined with the fact that Fie consistently holds back as she considers giving it her all to be "too much effort." Deep down, however, she knows how biased she is being and tries not to let it interfere with her field studies, though her refusal to accept Fie results in them breaking their link during a monster-slaying request. After learning Elliot's story about how he was forced into a career in the army, however, Laura decides to ask Fie to tell her about her past so she can truly know her. Once Fie opens up about her past, including Zephyr's conflict with a rival corps, Laura finally realises just how limited her world view has truly been, and curses herself for having been so narrow-minded.
Trivia[]
- Laura is ultimately the only full-blooded noble in the original Class VII, since Rean is adopted and Jusis is half-Commoner on his late mother's side.
Gallery[]
Laura's Crafts[]
