I keep looking in the Echoes tags and everyone has some wildly varying responses to just how long Celica has been in Ram Village with Alm, saying that she shouldn’t have bonded so closely with Alm if she had “just moved” like Gray says in the Prologue of the game
While Echoes does NOT straight up say how long Celica and Alm had known one another, little snippets of dialogue in the game hint that the two actually had known each other at least a year. So basically Gray is a liar. But as you will see later, this is understandable.
More info under the cut!
We know that before the Prologue events and Celica moving into Ram village, she had to escape the Zofian capital due to Slayde (under Desaix) attempted to murder her by setting the villa on fire. Based on the memory prism “Amid the Flames”, Mycen rescues her and presumably takes care of her in Ram Village with Alm. I had a hard time pinning down when this specific incident happened until I came upon this NPC convo you get in Ch 1 in Zofia Castle.
Woman: They say all of King Lima’s children are dead now, so they do. Oh, but I’ve heard tale that one of ’em still lives… Her name was Anthiese. PRINCESS Anthiese! Juicy bit’a gossip that, eh? Story goes, the villa she lived in was set to blaze some ten or so years back. Folks thought she burned to cinders, but you know how tongues like to wag. Could be some brave soul up and saved her. Wonder where she ended up if so?
So if this rumor is accurate in terms of time period, the Villa incident that Celica escaped from happened roughly 3 years prior to the Prologue events (since after the prologue the two are separated for 7 years), meaning the maximum amount of time Celica stayed in Ram was 3 years. Then the debate comes down to WHEN Mycen brought Celica to the village. And given that he had Alm to take care of as well, I doubt he was caring for them in separate places. And I believe that is why Celica is seen as Alm's childhood friend - she had stayed in his life for at least a year.
But wait, what about Gray lines saying Celica moved in recently? I chalk that up to these kids perhaps not being aware of her existence until later on. Based on the prologue lines with Celica and Alm (and later on in the game via commentary through side characters), it is clear Celica is a person who tends to keep to herself in terms of emotions/problems unless she feels close to someone. So I can see that young Celica, who is recovering from surviving a murder attempt, is initially unwilling to step outside of to talk to the other kids in the village. Most children who experience such traumatic events don't easily recover and I can buy that she was a shut-in for a brief period of time. Of course, we all know Celica is at least on a first-name basis with the kids by the time the Prologue events occur, so what happened in between? That's where Alm probably entered the picture
I think actions Alm did to get Celica to open up as a is severely understated ingame. The fact that he took the effort to get this traumatized girl (who apparently insulted Alm the first time they met each other), is not an easy feat. It also helps that Alm's isolated upbringing made him curious about her as well. And clearly Celica did appreciate this boy's efforts to be friendly, since it is apparent she likes to be around Alm quite often to the point the other villager kids are jealous and feels like they are replaced. And because of Celica's true identity as Zofian royalty, I can also buy that Mycen purposefully hid away Celica's identity from the other villagers (and Alm obv.) until he deemed it safe for her to roam about in her new identity as some new girl that “just moved in” as Gray stated.
Given this impact both characters had on each other, I cannot find myself to say Alm and Celica don't have any basis of friendship. I will admit their romance in the game is tropey as all hell but it is not bad because "they didn't stay long enough to make an impact."
