Aw, thank you so much for your kind words! I'm so glad you enjoyed it. Btw, you *can* have a little taste of Mandra in the extra story, depending on your choices *evil grin* but yeah, they're not an LI in Book 1. .-.
The song Mandra and Mathias play is one of my favorites too! It's called "From the Vine," by Calico - The Samurai Gypsies. They have this song and a few others available for free (Under Creative Commons) on FB's creator studio. And if you want to read, hear, and see more about the band, here's their new site: https://www.samuraigypsies.com/
I'm glad you left this comment, btw. It seems they changed their site, so the link I have on my credits page in-game is outdated. hehe