I absolutely love the new game! The beginning is a fun way to introduce us back to characters we met back in Adastra. However, I feel as if some parts of the VN could be tweeked a bit. Even though I do have a few nitpicks about Amicus's new sprite (Which I don't dislike at all except for some of the sprites of him are a little choppy in how they're drawn and could be changed a little. Even though they fit better with how Amicus is supposed to look), I feel like the way Amicus's and MC's relationship is written in (after that first wakeup scene) is a little choppy. Sure, Amicus has changed a tiny bit from his emperorship, but this shouldn't change his character too much to where he's too off. Even at the ending of Adastra (Which canonically comes after this VN) his and MC's relationship is something that is familiar with but with obvious change. In this vn it's a little bit choppy and the way the conversations are layed out between Amicus and MC is a little bit stiff. Of course, play on the change role that Amicus has to go through and use it as a character development point! But don't overdue it. The way you have this vn layed out so far (Even in the first build) is great! You wrote the introduction to Cassius, Alexios, and Neferu spot on! They have tiny changes on how they interact with MC to where you can tell development has happened and you didn't overdue it to where the conversations are dull.
That's all I really had to say about the writing of it. While you kept an amazing interaction with the characters, it was just that few nitpicks about Amicus that really stuck out to me. As well as his sprite is going to be a little hard to get used to at first!
Thanks for writing amazing VNs, excited for The sequel to echo as well!