| 1 | [[WMG:[[center: [- ''Literature/AscendanceOfABookworm'' '''[[Characters/AscendanceOfABookworm Main Character Index]]'''\ |
| 2 | [[Characters/AscendanceOfABookwormMyne Myne]] | [[Characters/AscendanceOfABookwormFerdinand Ferdinand]] \ |
| 3 | '''Commoners and Temple Members''' | [[Characters/AscendanceOfABookwormNobles Nobles]] ([[Characters/AscendanceOfABookwormEhrenfestNobles Ehrenfest]] ([[Characters/AscendanceOfABookwormEhrenfestArchducalFamily Archducal Family]]))-]]]]] |
| 4 | ---- |
| 5 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 6 | !Commoners |
| 7 | |
| 8 | !!Myne's Family |
| 9 | |
| 10 | [[folder:Gunther]] |
| 11 | !!Gunther |
| 12 | !!!'''Debut:''' Part 1 (Volume 1) |
| 13 | !!!'''Voiced by''': Creator/TsuyoshiKoyama (Japanese and Drama CD 8+), Creator/KaijiTang (English), Tadanori Date (Drama CD 2), Creator/CarloVazquez (Latin American Spanish) |
| 14 | [[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/gunther_anime.png]] |
| 15 | |
| 16 | Myne's father, a man in his late twenties to early thirties who is captain among the guards of the city's southern gate and notorious for being very loving to his family. As he treasures his family greatly, he won't hesitate to put himself at risk to defend them if they are threatened. |
| 17 | \ |
| 18 | Although Gunther was the son of woodworkers, after listening to minstrel tales of knights he dreamed of becoming one himself. However, as only nobles can become knights, he instead became a soldier at the gate, where he would meet Effa and fall in love with her. |
| 19 | ---- |
| 20 | * BadassNormal: His position as captain is no joke. When the High Bishop is trying to forcefully take Myne away, he takes on three men at the same time to protect his family. |
| 21 | * BookDumb: Gunther can barely write his own name, but he is a skilled soldier and has some skill in crafting things with wood. However, due to his limited knowledge, he doesn't actually realize Myne's insane academic talents and initially doesn't believe that Myne is making ''gold'' with her products. |
| 22 | * BoyfriendBlockingDad: He does ''not'' like seeing his precious daughters having eyes for other guys. Not even platonically, such as Myne's closeness with Otto. When some women state how Myne and Lutz walking hand-in-hand into the temple looks like a "little wedding", [[ParentalMarriageVeto he doesn't take it well]]. |
| 23 | * TheConfidant: He sort-of acts like one towards the younger Otto. They sometimes go drinking together, where they talk about the problems in their lives. |
| 24 | * {{Determinator}}: |
| 25 | ** His [[PursueTheDreamJob dream job]] was to become a knight to protect the city. Since he was of too low status, he did the next best thing and worked hard to become a soldier, even though his parents were woodworkers, and from what little is shown, Gunther seems to be a talented woodworker as well. |
| 26 | ** Gunther kept asking Effa's father for her hand, and when Effa's father told him to let Effa decide, Gunther kept proposing to her, until she eventually came to love him and accepted. |
| 27 | * DotingParent: He ''truuuuly'' loves his daughters. He especially spoils Myne, which may be because he doesn't expect her to live for long, and he wants to make her live a happy life for as long as possible. |
| 28 | * GoodParents: The fact that Gunther and Effa take good care of Myne, despite her (from their view) being too weak, constantly bedridden and mostly useless initially, is enough proof of how much they love their children. Also unlike Lutz's parents, he doesn't keep pestering Myne about what job she should pursue. He is just happy she found something she is good at and wholeheartedly supports her. |
| 29 | * HappilyMarried: Just as much as he adores his daughters, he is ''deeply'' in love with his wife. They also seem to have a healthy sex life, as in Part 2 Effa gets pregnant and gives birth to their son Kamil. |
| 30 | * HeroicBSOD: At the end of Part 2, Gunther initially stays at home, still upset that [[spoiler:he couldn't protect Myne and had to give her up, while his neighbors are led to believe that she is dead]]. Effa motivates him with an InspirationalInsult to get back to shape and face the future. |
| 31 | * {{Hypocrite}}: He considers ''Otto'' to be an excessively doting husband and father. |
| 32 | * LikeParentLikeChild: Effa notes that while Myne might have [[StrongFamilyResemblance inherited her looks]], personality-wise she is much more like Gunther. They are pretty stubborn and [[{{Determinator}} charge ahead to fulfill their dreams]], choosing way different paths than their parents. |
| 33 | * MeaningfulName: Gunther is Old High German and is derived from the words for "battle" and "army", which is a very fitting name for a soldier. |
| 34 | * PapaWolf: Gunther became a soldier specifically so he would have the power and ability to protect his family, and he ''will'', even if he has to fight the temple to do it. In Part 2 Volume 4, he kills one of two goons sent to kidnap Myne and Tuli. |
| 35 | * RankUp: Part 3 reveals that [[spoiler:after Gunther's incompetent gate commander ignored the archduke's orders to not let any foreign noble into town without his explicit permission (which he couldn't give because he wasn't in town), he was demoted and Gunther promoted to gate commander]]. |
| 36 | * UglyGuyHotWife: Downplayed. Gunther doesn't look that bad, but in Otto's opinion, Effa's beautiful looks are wasted on him. |
| 37 | [[/folder]] |
| 38 | |
| 39 | [[folder:Effa]] |
| 40 | !!Effa |
| 41 | !!!'''Debut:''' Part 1 (Volume 1) |
| 42 | !!!'''Voiced by''': Creator/FumikoOrikasa (Japanese and Drama CD 8+), Kirsten Day (English), Natsu Yorita (Drama CD 2), Creator/GabrielaGuzman (Latin American Spanish) |
| 43 | [[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/effa_anime_bookworm.png]] |
| 44 | |
| 45 | Myne's mother, a beautiful woman in her mid to late twenties who works as a dyer and is a skilled seamstress. Effa is also the daughter of a former commander of the gates in Ehrenfest, as she used to help out there she also has the basic manners needed to interact with the lower levels of Nobles. Through her father, Effa met her future husband Gunther, who was an apprentice soldier under her father's command. Gunther pursued Effa with enthusiasm, eventually convincing Effa and her father to allow them to marry. |
| 46 | ---- |
| 47 | * ChekhovsSkill: She is a dyer. Once Myne decides to print in color, Effa provides a crucial clue how to prevent the colors from mixing on paper. |
| 48 | * DudeMagnet: In her youth she had plenty of suitors, as she was not only physically beautiful but also an excellent seamstress and cook, the latter which made her a top notch wife material for commoner men. |
| 49 | * {{Fangirl}}: Just like Tuuli, she is a big fan of Corinna. However, she isn't nearly as SuperGullible as Tuuli to see that Corinna may have ulterior motives. |
| 50 | * GoodParents: Most lowborn commoners with no knowledge about magic or business sense probably would have already kicked Myne out for being useless or for being a weird freak. Not so her parents, who are largely ignorant of her talents and may find her weird, but love and support her nonetheless, and protect her at all cost. |
| 51 | * HappilyMarried: Effa complains sometimes about her husband to her {{gossipy|hens}} neighbors, but she loves him very much. They also seem to have a healthy sex life, as in Part 2 Effa gets pregnant and gives birth to their son Kamil. |
| 52 | * InformedAttractiveness: It's frequently pointed out by others how beautiful Effa looks. |
| 53 | * InnocentlyInsensitive: After Myne spends a day preparing wood to make into wood tablets, she stores it at home with the firewood. Pleased that her daughter apparently gathered firewood, she promptly uses it. When a distraught Myne tells her she wanted to write the story Effa told her on them, she just smiles and says she'll her that story whenever she wants, so she doesn't need to write it down. Myne promptly collapses from the Devouring after this shock. |
| 54 | * MeaningfulName: Eva is a Hebrew/Latin name (the origin of [[Literature/BookOfGenesis Eve]]) and means "life" or "the one giving life". |
| 55 | * NeatFreak: At the end of Part 2, [[spoiler:after Myne leaves her family and is adopted by Sylvester]], she tries to clean the house more often for Myne's and Kamil's sake. |
| 56 | * StrongFamilyResemblance: Other characters often mention that Myne has inherited her mother's good looks and as Tuuli grows up she starts to look just like a younger Effa. |
| 57 | * UglyGuyHotWife: Downplayed. Gunther doesn't look that bad, but in Otto's opinion, Effa's beautiful looks are wasted on him. |
| 58 | [[/folder]] |
| 59 | |
| 60 | [[folder:Tuuli]] |
| 61 | !!Tuuli |
| 62 | !!!'''Debut:''' Part 1 (Volume 1) |
| 63 | !!!'''Voiced by''': Creator/MegumiNakajima (Japanese and Drama CD 6+), Creator/LisaReimold (English), Creator/MaiNakahara (Drama CD 2), Verania Ortiz (Latin American Spanish) |
| 64 | [[quoteright:200:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tuuli_anime.png]] |
| 65 | |
| 66 | Myne's older sister by one year, quite understanding of her frail and peculiar nature. She becomes an apprentice seamstress after her baptism. |
| 67 | ---- |
| 68 | * BigSisterInstinct: |
| 69 | ** Due to Myne's weak body, Tuuli is very protective of her and reacts very angrily when someone is rough with her or talks badly about her. When she talks about Myne with others, she also usually brags about Myne's talents and leaves the worse details out, as she thinks this would reduce chances for Myne to find a husband to marry. |
| 70 | ** Tuuli also tends to look out for the younger children of her neighborhood when they go out to the forest, which is a source of relief and gratitude for said children's families, as they often praise Effa for having such a responsible daughter. |
| 71 | * BookDumb: Justified. Something like a school doesn't exist for commoners, and Tuuli didn't need to know sums or how to read in her life. After seeing Myne and Corinna's literacy, she decides to learn how to read and write, too, and visits the orphanage more often, where, after Myne's reforms, the gray priests started educating the orphans, while Tuuli teaches them how to sew and cook. |
| 72 | %%* CantCatchUp: |
| 73 | * CelibateHeroine: Despite being the subject of the boys' admiration in her neighborhood as she gets older, more skilled and more beautiful, Tuuli really has no interest in romance and works hard to get closer to Rozemyne and being the best seamstress she can be. [[spoiler:However, the end of Part 3 reveals that the GossipyHens around her neighborhood start to think that [[EntertaininglyWrong she is in a relationship with Lutz]], as he is the only boy who still spends a lot of time with her (for Rozemyne-related business and lessons at the temple). This suits Tuuli, as the rumor fends off any boys who try to court her.]] |
| 74 | * ChildhoodFriends: With Ralph and Lutz. However, her friendship with Ralph starts to fade away as she becomes more and more involved with higher-ranked commoners and nobles to stay close to her sister. Lutz on the other hand, who pursues a similar path, stays close to her. |
| 75 | * ChildhoodFriendRomance: Ralph is a longtime friend of hers who likes her a lot and Tuuli does seem to appreciate his compliments and attention, but her feelings for him appear to not be as strong as his for hers. [[spoiler:In the end though, Tuuli gets engaged with Lutz, with whom she has grown so much closer as they both desired to be as near as possible to Rozemyne, and as the story unfolded they would often lean on each other whenever they needed to.]] |
| 76 | * CoolBigSis: |
| 77 | ** Myne adores Tuuli, often calling her an angel. Tuuli also tries her best to act like this to Myne, and though she gets a bit jealous and upset when Myne beats her in some things like making baskets, picking clothes and casually talking to adults, she still does her best to help and look out for Myne, also being geniunely proud of her little sister's achievments. |
| 78 | ** She also teaches the orphans how to cook, sew, and forage in the forest, and they also in turn start to admire her. |
| 79 | * DudeMagnet: As Tuuli grows older, she becomes more and more beautiful, and since she shows her skills in sewing and cooking, she garners the attention of all young boys in her neighborhood. |
| 80 | * {{Fangirl}}: Like her mother, Tuuli really adores the head of the Gilberta Company, Corinna, and her talent in seamstressing. In Part 3, [[AscendedFangirl she joins the Gilberta Company]] as an apprentice under Corinna's tutelage. |
| 81 | * HopelessSuitor: In Part 4 Volume 3, [[spoiler:Tuuli [[PrecociousCrush falls in love with Benno]], although she only realizes this much later. However, seeing him treat Karin much differently than her (and Benno and Karin still don't end up together) makes her realize that her love for him would forever be unrequited]]. |
| 82 | * InconsistentColoring: Tuuli's exact hair color not only changes depending if you look at her character design in the novels, the manga adapatations and anime, but even in the later novels illustrations You Shiina changes her [[EarlyInstallmentCharacterDesignDifference aquagreen shade]] for a more emerald green. |
| 83 | * ItsAllMyFault: Tuuli is suffering from a guilt complex after [[spoiler:she ignored Myne's warnings and came to pick her up fom the temple in Part 2 Volume 4. Tuuli was shortly after kidnapped by Count Bindewald's soldiers and the escalating conflict ended with Myne accepting her adoption into nobility and abandoning her real family. This is one of the reasons why she wants Kamil to be kept LockedOutOfTheLoop about Myne and not talk about her at home anymore starting in Part 4, since he's old enough to comprehend and remember what his family is talking about, but not old enough to keep a secret]]. |
| 84 | * NeatFreak: Not initially. In Part 2, while working as a lehange in a workshop, Myne advises Tuuli to take better care of her hygiene and gives her tips on how to stay clean, which allows Tuuli to start serving customers. |
| 85 | * NoSocialSkills: Tuuli's family are very low-ranking commoners so she doesn't know how to properly interact with people of a much higher status. Myne advises her on how to be more polite, which allows Tuuli to treat customers for the first time at the workshop where she learns her trade. Once she joins the Gilberta Company in Part 3, she is also taught how to treat nobles correctly, [[spoiler:so that she may meet Rozemyne more often]]. [[spoiler:During the two years in which Rozemyne was asleep to recover from her injuries, Lutz and Tuuli are taught noble etiquette by the temple members. When Rozemyne awakes, the gray robes note that their behavior is presentable to mednobles.]] |
| 86 | * NotSoAboveItAll: Despite being the more mature sister, she childishly demands to know how much Myne sold the rights to their hairpin. |
| 87 | * PennyAmongDiamonds: Tuuli, as a young girl with a very low commoner background, feels completely out of place and scared when she tries to go to the rich northern part of the lower city. She conquers her fears at the end of Part 2, partially motivated by [[spoiler:a blessing of Myne, where she prayed for courage for her loved ones]]. |
| 88 | * PluckyGirl: Develops into one, thanks to Myne. She takes [[spoiler:Myne's adoption as a noble, and not being able to view each other as sisters anymore, surprisingly well, as she would still be able to see Rozemyne again, if she kept working hard as a seamstress.]] Tuuli combats her anxiety of being a PennyAmongDiamonds, and due to her relation to Myne, is transferred to the Gilberta Company as an apprentice after her first contract as a lehange at another workshop runs out. |
| 89 | * PuppyLove: Lutz's older brother Ralph seems to like her a lot and she does seems to appreciate his attention. However, as she gets more and more busy with work, she starts to distance herself from the people around her neighborhood, with Lutz being the notable exception. |
| 90 | * StrongFamilyResemblance: As Tuuli grows up Myne notes that she starts to look more and more like a younger version of their mother. |
| 91 | * SuperGullible: Tuuli is an innocent child who doesn't know how harsh the world can be. [[spoiler:She easily falls for Corinna's subtle schemes, and accidentally getting kidnapped because the kidnappers mistake her for Myne terrifies her. She didn't realize the danger Myne was truly in until it was too late.]] |
| 92 | * YoungerThanTheyLook: According to the novel, she tends to be mistaken for being a year or two older than she actually is. This, combined with Myne being small for her age, results in people overestimating the age gap between the sisters. |
| 93 | * WhenSheSmiles: Lampshaded in Part 1 at Tuuli's baptism, and in Part 2 when Tuuli meets Corinna. Myne notes that Tuuli looks absolutely gorgeous when she smiles and advises her to do it more often. |
| 94 | [[/folder]] |
| 95 | |
| 96 | [[folder:Kamil]] |
| 97 | !!Kamil |
| 98 | !!!'''Debut:''' Part 2 (Volume 3) |
| 99 | !!!'''Voiced by''': Mari Hino (Anime and Drama CD 8) |
| 100 | [[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/portrait_kamil_baby_2.png]] |
| 101 | [[caption-width-right:250:[[labelnote:Click to see Kamil after the timeskip]] https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bookworm_p4v9_kamil_portrait_upscale.png [[/labelnote]]]] |
| 102 | |
| 103 | Tuuli and Myne's little brother, who is born in Part 2. By the time Part 4 begins, he's old enough to go to the forest and be a character in his own right. |
| 104 | ---- |
| 105 | * BigBrotherWorship: He looks up to Tuuli and Lutz (which is also why he {{ship|perOnDeck}}s them together). His goal is to work in the Plantin Company, like Lutz. Amusingly, he also likes Lady Rozemyne a lot, as she regularly sends him toys and books. |
| 106 | * {{Bookworm}}: Thanks to Rozemyne gifting him books regularly, he learns to read at a very early age and comes to love books as well. |
| 107 | * ChildhoodFriends: Once he starts going to the commoner forest regularly, he befriends the temple orphans, specifically the similarly aged Dirk and Konrad. He is also on friendly terms with Corinna's and Otto's daughter, Renate. |
| 108 | * LockedOutOfTheLoop: Kamil is the only one in his family who is deliberately not aware about what happened to his sister, Myne. His family stops talking about Myne at the start of Part 4, when he grows old enough to follow their conversation and question who Myne is. Lutz later tells him to never talk about Myne, especially not to the temple orphans they meet in the commoner forest. |
| 109 | * StrongFamilyResemblance: He has a similar hair and eye color to Myne, but his face resembles Gunther's more. |
| 110 | [[/folder]] |
| 111 | |
| 112 | !!Lutz's Family |
| 113 | [[folder:Lutz]] |
| 114 | !!Lutz |
| 115 | !!!'''Debut:''' Part 1 (Volume 1) |
| 116 | !!!'''Voiced by''': Creator/MutsumiTamura (Japanese), Creator/JeannieTirado (English), Creator/ShunHorie (Drama CD 1+), Ángel Rodríguez (Latin American Spanish) |
| 117 | [[quoteright:200:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lutz_anime.png]] |
| 118 | |
| 119 | The youngest child of neighbors to Myne's family, the same age as Myne down to birth season. Tasked with keeping an eye on her when her family members can't, he ends up assisting Myne in her endeavors and becomes a close friend to her. He has dreams of becoming a merchant that get non-existing support within his carpenter family, resulting in Myne's seeming inventiveness and slowly growing network brightening his own prospects as well.\ |
| 120 | |
| 121 | When various developments make it impractical for Benno, Myne's main reseller, to properly hire her, Lutz alone is hired as one of the means of formalizing the business partnership. Once he lands the apprentice spot, the fact that he actually does have some talent for the merchant trade doesn't go unnoticed. |
| 122 | ---- |
| 123 | * BigEater: How did Myne win Lutz over immediately? ThroughHisStomach, by giving him food and sharing her recipes with him and his family. Since his family consists of four sons and his father is only an ordinary carpenter, his family doesn't earn much and they are all constantly hungry, so Lutz can't exactly eat his fill. Not to mention [[BigBrotherBully his brothers]] keep taking away his food. |
| 124 | * BlackSheep: Lutz is the only son in the family that has no intention to [[FollowInMyFootsteps become a carpenter like his father]]. Instead, he is discouraged and mocked by his own family for a long time for his dream until he has proven that he is more capable of becoming a merchant. |
| 125 | %%* CantCatchUp: |
| 126 | * TheCaretaker: Part of his job is to make sure Myne stops working when he sees that she is too exhausted. |
| 127 | * ChildhoodFriends: Notably with Myne and Tuuli. After getting more and more involved with high-ranking commoners, temple members and nobles, he has not much contact with his neighborhood friends anymore. |
| 128 | * ChildhoodFriendRomance: Because of their extremely close bond many assume that the nature of Lutz and Myne's friendship is romantic, Mark and Benno can't help being reminded of the latter relationship with his fiance Liz. Myne ''was'' Lutz's FirstLove, but Myne never saw Lutz in the same way and due to the different paths they take in life, nothing ever comes out of their potential romance. In the end [[spoiler:he gets engaged with Tuuli, as he has grown alongside her and they have become so much closer as the story unfolds.]] |
| 129 | * CloudcuckoolandersMinder: Lutz's official position basically amounts to "Make sure Myne doesn't do something stupid and dangerous or pass out by getting too excited." It's a very difficult position, but he has frequent help from those like Benno, Mark or Ferdinand. |
| 130 | * TheConfidant: Myne can share her deepest worries with Lutz. [[spoiler:This remains the same when she becomes Rozemyne, as Rozemyne can act like she used to before becoming a noble, since Lutz didn't have to sign a magic contract to treat Rozemyne differently when they are alone.]] |
| 131 | * EmancipatedChild: Defied. After running away from home, Myne tries to help Lutz by using the temple's authority to legally separate Lutz from his parents so Benno can adopt him. However, during the "court case" Ferdinand is holding, it turns out that this is all just [[PoorCommunicationKills a big misunderstanding]], so they make up and Lutz stays with his family until he is old enough to move to the Gilberta Company as a leherl. |
| 132 | * HairOfGoldHeartOfGold: Of the three boys the Urano version of Myne meets at the start of the story - Ralph, Fey, and Lutz - Lutz is the one among them with the golden hair, and he is the one who genuinely treats Myne nicely and with whom she bonds. |
| 133 | * HeroicSelfDeprecation: Seeing Myne being able to write, do math and talk eloquently with adults [[HeroicBSOD depresses him greatly]], because he feels useless compared to her. He cheers up when Benno and Myne tell him that he is basically TheCaretaker, and Myne insists that she lacks the physical strength to do anything without Lutz, and makes sure to involve him in anything she sells to Benno. She also teaches him letters and math, so that he is prepared when his apprenticeship begins. |
| 134 | * HeterosexualLifePartners: Lutz ends up being this with Gil. As the Plantin Company and the Gutenbergs expand Rozemyne's paper and printing industry, Lutz and Gil spend a lot of time together and both understand each other on a level others can't, as they both are very close to Rozemyne. [[spoiler:Around 10 years after Part 5, Lutz and Gil (who was bought) open a bookstore together.]] |
| 135 | %%* LiteralMinded: Benno told him to bring Myne over and drag her by the collar if he had to. He then proceeds to literally drag her away by the collar. |
| 136 | * LivingEmotionalCrutch: Lutz is the sole reason the Urano version of Myne did not give up on life early on. In Part 1 Volume 1, after Effa uses the materials for Myne's wood slate book as firewood and it becomes clear the mindset that made her do this is going to keep Myne from making books that way, Myne gets so depressed that she's ready to let her Devouring kill her. Remembering [[IGaveMyWord she promised]] to introduce Lutz to Otto and that Lutz may not be able to meet someone with connections to the merchant trade otherwise [[WorthLivingFor gives her the will to live]] a little longer. Since this is the meeting to which Otto brings Benno, that meeting lifts a big obstacle to Myne's book-making, as well. Lutz also acts as familial support, especially after [[spoiler:Rozemyne is forbidden from interacting as family with her parents and sister. Lutz is not bound to any contract that forbids him from interacting with Rozemyne as he did with Myne, so she regularly gets the emotional support from Lutz, who treats her the way he did before she became a noble, and lets her hug him]]. |
| 137 | * NoSocialSkills: Lutz has a very low commoner background. Unlike Myne, who was taught manners in her past life, Lutz never learned anything like that, so he is advised to learn from Mark to speak properly and change his behavior to handle customers and nobles. [[spoiler:During the two years in which Rozemyne was asleep to recover from her injuries, he and Tuuli are taught noble etiquette by the temple members.]] |
| 138 | * OutOfFocus: In the early volumes, he's Myne's only real supporter or friend, and is therefore such a major character that in some books he's almost a {{Deuteragonist}}. [[spoiler:Later on, as Myne ascends into the world of nobles, he is mostly left behind and becomes such a minor character that he no longer gets a picture in the cast list.]] |
| 139 | * PennyAmongDiamonds: Lutz's family is very poor and doesn't know anything about proper speech or how to be polite. Once he becomes an apprentice of the Gilberta Company, he is thrown into a world full of rich commoners and nobles. |
| 140 | * PlatonicLifePartners: Soon becomes one of the most important people to Myne outside of her family. Lutz is one of the few people to whom Rozemyne can be herself without acting like a noble. Though there are [[ShipTease some hints]] that the "Platonic" part may be only due to their ages. |
| 141 | * PursueTheDreamJob: Lutz's dream is to become a merchant. At first he wants to become a traveling merchant, but later learns that it's a bad idea. He nonetheless doesn't give up, despite the protests of his parents and brothers that it's the WrongLineOfWork, as they are a family of craftsmen. |
| 142 | * TheResenter: It is revealed this is one of the main reasons Lutz wants to become a merchant. Since being the youngest of the family means everything he owns consists of hand-me-downs and his older brothers regularly take his food, he wants to make enough money for things he owns to actually be his. |
| 143 | * TheRuntAtTheEnd: He has three older brothers and is the only one who doesn't want to follow the family trade. |
| 144 | * SecretKeeper: For most of the early story, Lutz is the only person to realize that this cannot possibly be the real Myne. |
| 145 | * SmarterThanYouLook: He was the first one SpottingTheThread, which helps him figure out that the Urano version of Myne can't be the Myne he got to know initially. Benno also notices that he learns quickly for someone his age, despite the disadvantage of his family not having any relation to merchants and trading. |
| 146 | * WiseBeyondTheirYears: It is not as noticeable as with Myne, who sticks out like a sore thumb, but Benno acknowledges that Lutz is abnormally intelligent, too, which is why he wants both Myne and Lutz to become his apprentices. Lutz learns quickly, despite coming from a family of low-ranked carpenters. It helps that he is tutored by people like Myne or Mark. |
| 147 | [[/folder]] |
| 148 | |
| 149 | [[folder:Deid & Karla]] |
| 150 | !!Deid & Karla |
| 151 | !!!'''Debut:''' Part 1 (Volume 1) (Karla), Part 2 (Volume 1) (Deid) |
| 152 | !!!'''Deid is voiced by''': So Takeuchi (Japanese), Bill Rogers (English)\ |
| 153 | '''Karla is voiced by''': Uko Tachibana (Japanese), Rebecca Davis (English), |
| 154 | [[quoteright:236:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/portrait_deid_and_karla.png]] |
| 155 | [[caption-width-right:236:Karla and Deid]] |
| 156 | |
| 157 | Lutz's parents. Karla is a good friend of Effa's who works as a fabric weaver, meanwhile Deid is a quiet man who is a carpenter working in construction. |
| 158 | \ |
| 159 | They both believe that it is best for their children to follow the family tradition and work as an artisan or in a carpentry-related business, which is why they are deadset against Lutz becoming a merchant at first. |
| 160 | ---- |
| 161 | %%* TheBigGuy: |
| 162 | * ChubbyMamaSkinnyPapa: Karla is suprisingly chubby for a poor commoner, which makes Deid look skinny compared to her. |
| 163 | * EveryoneIsRelated: The novel reveals that Deid's family has always worked in wood-related occupations and that Gunther's parents were woodmakers. As it turns out, Deid's mother and Gunther's father are cousins, making the two of them second cousins. |
| 164 | * FantasyForbiddingFather: Deid and Karla have a very biased opinion of merchants, thinking that it's a very risky profession not worth pursuing, which is why they are absolutely against Lutz becoming one. Karla decides to try to accept her youngest son's decision after he convinces her that it is what he truly wishes to do with his life and Deid later concedes when Lutz is able to get an apprenticeship at the Gilberta Company, and tells him to do what he wants, [[PoorCommunicationKills which Lutz interprets as indifference]]. |
| 165 | * GoodParents: In their own way, they are. Deid calls Benno out because his motivation for adopting Lutz is that it's good for business. Deid doesn't think Benno is doing it for Lutz's sake, which in his opinion makes Benno a terrible father. What Deid and Karla were doing was for Lutz's sake, it's Deid's {{poor communication|kills}} and understanding of Lutz' talents that leads to conflict. As soon as the misunderstandings are cleared up, Lutz' relationship with his family becomes harmonious again. |
| 166 | * IgnorantOfTheirOwnIgnorance: Deid and Karla do not know any merchants and only have the knowledge a carpenter has, which is why they are largely unaware of how incredible Lutz's achievements and progress as an apprentice merchant already are, and think that the job as a carpenter is better for him. They only truly realize their own ignorance when High Priest Ferdinand summons them to the temple to talk, and after their visit to the Merchant's Guild. |
| 167 | * JerkassHasAPoint: Deid is deadset against Lutz going outside the city during his apprenticeship as a merchant, but when his reasons are laid out it turns out that not only is he thinking of Lutz the whole time, he's also ''right'' about most things. He just comes off as a narrow-minded person because he can't say what he means very well and expects people to understand him. |
| 168 | ** He is against Lutz leaving town for work, because outside of the city are bandits and beasts. It's too dangerous for a 7-year-old boy. |
| 169 | ** He finds it suspicious that Benno claims to want Lutz as his successor, when Lutz merely has a lehange-internship contract. When Benno brings up the option to change the contract to a leherl-apprenticeship, Deid refuses because it's too early, as Lutz has merely been employed as a lehange for not even a season, when leherls are signed after years. This is countered by Benno who informs Deid of Lutz' quick growth and how he has been working with Benno for over a year already, long before his baptism, which is a fact that Deid was not aware of. This goes back to not having understood what Lutz meant when he told his family that he made and sold paper, which led to Deid suggesting that he become a paper-making craftsman. |
| 170 | ** Deid doesn't want Lutz to be adopted by Benno because Benno doesn't have children and is profit-oriented. Deid doesn't think that would make Benno a good father for Lutz. |
| 171 | * MyBelovedSmother: Karla just wants what she thinks is best for her son, and thinks Lutz wanting to become a merchant is just a rebellious phase, headed by Myne. She is more supportive once she learns Myne is unrelated to Lutz's dream. |
| 172 | * NoListeningSkills: Their reluctance to see Lutz become a merchant results in them not paying much attention to his training and later work life. Ironically, their tendency to not listen leads to Lutz just not wanting to talk about his work anymore, which, combined with Lutz's brothers' superficial and biased opinions, later becomes part of the reason Deid mistakes Lutz for being less committed to his job than he actually is. |
| 173 | * NoSocialSkills: Deid has problems getting his thoughts across and expects people to immediately understand what his intentions are. Ferdinand gets around this by [[SelectiveObliviousness playing the clueless noble who needs an explanation]]. |
| 174 | * TheQuietOne: Deid is a man of few words. ''When'' he says something, he is very loud and rough, which, combined with his big stature, adds to his intimidating presence. This is a major reason why he and Lutz don't talk much. |
| 175 | %%* ThePatriarch: |
| 176 | * ParentalNeglect: Unintentionally. Karla thought that she was giving Lutz plenty of food and clothes, and was completely unaware that his older brothers regularly take everything away. After Lutz brings this to her attention, she keeps a better eye and smacked one of her sons who tried to take Lutz's food. |
| 177 | * PoorCommunicationKills: |
| 178 | ** Karla and Deid are biased against merchants. Due to not knowing the profession well, they don't understand what Lutz has already accomplished, and Karla thinks Lutz only wants to become a merchant to help Myne. She is shocked when she learns that his dream was originally completely unrelated to Myne, and that he is completely serious about becoming a merchant. |
| 179 | ** It turns out that Deid has come to accept Lutz's career choice, simply wants him to commit to it better than he thought he was, and is worried about how dangerous it would be for him to leave town for work. It takes ''the setting's equivalent of being taken to court'' to get him to spell it out in a way his own wife can pick up on. A court session that wouldn't have happened if he had properly expressed his thoughts a few days earlier. In the epilogue of Part 2 Volume 1, Deid and Karla see a glimpse of Lutz' skills at work, which opens their eyes about how they ignored him up until then and [[SoProudOfYou fills them with pride]]. |
| 180 | * SecretKeeper: They are aware that Myne is an apprentice blue shrine maiden, though Deid leaves it at that after Benno warns him not to ask any further questions. [[spoiler:When Ralph comes of age in Part 5, he starts complaining in a side story that the High Bishop he saw doesn't look like Myne at all, as he heard. Karla wasn't present, but considering she knew Myne was an apprentice blue shrine maiden and how often Lutz still frequented the temple, she believes it to be true, although she has no idea how Myne became the archduke's adopted daughter.]] |
| 181 | * StrongFamilyResemblance: Deid's eldest son, Zasha, is said to look like a younger version of his father. |
| 182 | [[/folder]] |
| 183 | |
| 184 | [[folder:Ralph]] |
| 185 | !!Ralph |
| 186 | !!!'''Debut:''' Part 1 (Volume 1) |
| 187 | !!!'''Voiced by''': Creator/HitomiNabatame (Japanese), Creator/DanielleMcRae (English) |
| 188 | [[quoteright:255:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/portrait_ralph_2.png]] |
| 189 | |
| 190 | The youngest of Lutz's older brothers, who, just as his father and older brothers do, works in a carpentry workshop, as an apprentice. He's just a season older than Tuuli, and hence intersects with Myne's life a little more than his two older brothers. |
| 191 | ---- |
| 192 | * BigBrotherBully: Just like his older brothers do, he too tends to take food and things away from Lutz, he also mocks him for taking special care about hygiene. |
| 193 | * BigBrotherInstinct: Myne understands that [[AngerBornOfWorry Ralph is just worried about Lutz]], but Ralph thinks Lutz got selfish and lazy, and has it easy after getting the job he wanted, as he does not go to the forest as often as before his apprenticeship anymore. This is largely based on a misunderstanding, as [[PoorCommunicationKills they don't talk about Lutz' work at home at all]]. Myne has to explain to Ralph that Lutz is nonstop-working, even on his days off (and getting paid for it), which shocks Ralph, as he had no idea. Ralph, alongside Tuuli, also looks out for the younger kids when they go into the forest. |
| 194 | * CrazyJealousGuy: The end of Part 3 reveals that [[spoiler:Ralph increasingly gets more jealous of Lutz, as Lutz spends a lot of time with Tuuli, and Tuuli gets more and more admirers around the neighborhood. He admits that it upsets him how Lutz knows Tuuli better than he does]]. |
| 195 | * DoggedNiceGuy: Ralph has been interested in Tuuli since they were young children and always tries to do things for her and together with her. Though in Lutz's opinion Ralph plays up his NiceGuy attitude only when he is with Tuuli, as he is not really as kind as he makes himself to look like in front of her, since he is not really that much of a good older brother towards Lutz nor does he have such a good opinion of Myne.[[spoiler: In much later side stories it's revealed that even as a young adult he still pines after Tuuli... even though he also has a lover.]] |
| 196 | * HopelessSuitor: According to Lutz, Ralph's wish to get together with Tuuli is a very unlikely one, as Tuuli's goal is to become close to Rozemyne, which would mean to move up in the commoner's social ladder. |
| 197 | * {{Hypocrite}}: Ralph praises Tuuli when he notices her shampooed hair, but teases Lutz for doing the same for work. |
| 198 | * PoorCommunicationKills: Like his parents and older brothers, he doesn't really listen to Lutz when he talks about his dream or work as a merchant, and mostly just mocks him or looks down on him, eventually making Lutz stop talking about it. In Part 2, when Lutz gets fed up with his family and runs away from home, Ralph asks Myne where Lutz could be... Which makes both Tuuli and Myne baffled as they learn that Ralph doesn't even know Lutz's employer and the store's location. |
| 199 | * PuppyLove: Ralph is around the same age as Tuuli and shows an obvious interest in her in their first scene together, including admiring her shampooed hair. While Tuuli does seem to appreciate the attention it seems his feelings for her are much deeper than hers for him. |
| 200 | * TheResenter: There is a bit of [[GreenEyedMonster jealousy]] involved, when Ralph and Sieg see the nice clothes Lutz wears as a Gilberta Company apprentice, and how he seemingly got lucky and complacent after getting the job he wished for, not realizing that it's the result of Lutz working hard and that he is still constantly at work. [[spoiler:As the years go by, he starts to resent Lutz for being so much closer to Tuuli than him, as Ralph can plainly see how he has become estranged from the girl he loves. A side story also reveals that Ralph feels truly bitter about Tuuli and Lutz's engagement, as even after all those years and the fact he also has a ''girlfriend'', he still loves Tuuli.]] |
| 201 | [[/folder]] |
| 202 | |
| 203 | [[folder:Zasha & Sieg]] |
| 204 | !!Zasha & Sieg |
| 205 | !!!'''Debut:''' Part 1 (Volume 1) |
| 206 | !!!'''Zasha is voiced by''': Mari Hino (Japanese), Brian Timothy Anderson (English)\ |
| 207 | '''Sieg is voiced by''': Yukine Yaehata (Japanese), Rebecca Davis (English) |
| 208 | Lutz's much older brothers. The oldest, Zasha, is an already fully qualified carpenter who works in construction, like their father, and the second, Sieg, is apprenticed to a carpentry workshop. |
| 209 | ---- |
| 210 | * BigBrotherInstinct: As they do not understand Lutz's desires and worries they have a very skewed perception of what is happening with their youngest brother, believing him to have grown lazy and entitled, nonetheless they end up being very worried when he ends up leaving home. |
| 211 | * BigBrotherBully: They think it's okay to take things away from Lutz (like his food) when they want to as his older brothers, and mock him for taking special care about hygiene. |
| 212 | * TheBigGuy: The fact that Zasha reaches adulthood, which is 15, a few seasons after Lutz and Myne turn 7 means that he's in his teens for most of the story. Myne remarks he's as strong as an adult when he effortlessly lifts her up on the day of her baptism. |
| 213 | * TheDividual: Zasha is sometimes part of scenes treating Lutz's brothers as a pack, but has yet to appear on his own. |
| 214 | * PoorCommunicationKills: Like their parents, they don't really listen to Lutz when he talks about his dream or work as a merchant, and mostly just mock him, which is why Lutz eventually stops talking to them about it. |
| 215 | * TheResenter: There is a bit of [[GreenEyedMonster jealousy]] involved, when Ralph and Sieg see the nice clothes Lutz wears as a Gilberta Company apprentice, and how he seemingly got lucky and complacent after getting the job he wished for, not realizing that it's the result of Lutz working hard and that he is still constantly at work. |
| 216 | * ThoseTwoGuys: As they are the oldest of Lutz's brothers they tend to only interact with Myne sporadically and when they are together. |
| 217 | * StrongFamilyResemblance: Zasha is said to look just like a younger Deid, except that he has purple hair and brown eyes. |
| 218 | * YouthfulFreckles: Sieg has some freckles on his face. |
| 219 | [[/folder]] |
| 220 | |
| 221 | !!Gilberta Company / Plantin Company |
| 222 | [[folder:Benno]] |
| 223 | !!Benno |
| 224 | !!!'''Debut:''' Part 1 (Volume 1) |
| 225 | !!!'''Voiced by''': Creator/TakehitoKoyasu (Japanese and Drama CD 8), Creator/XanderMobus (English), Creator/ShunsukeTakeuchi (Drama CD 1+), Alan Bravo (Latin American Spanish) |
| 226 | [[quoteright:242:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/benno_anime.png]] |
| 227 | |
| 228 | A merchant who, after meeting Myne and Lutz via his brother-in-law, sponsors their plant-based paper-making enterprise and earmarks them as future apprentices. He remains Myne's financial guardian and main reseller when she becomes an apprentice shrine maiden. By that point, he's Lutz's employer, as well.\ |
| 229 | |
| 230 | Starting in Part 3, Benno, Mark and Lutz split off from the Gilberta Company and establish the Plantin Company to focus on printing and selling Rozemyne's books. |
| 231 | ---- |
| 232 | * BigBrotherInstinct: After his father unexpectedly died, Benno, who just came of age, became the family's patriarch and took care of his mother and [[PromotionToParent two sisters]]. He cares a great deal about Corinna to the point that he made Otto move into their house above the Gilberta Company store, to keep his sister close to him. |
| 233 | * ChildhoodFriendRomance: With his fiancée Liz, whom he met as she was a good friend of his younger sister Milda. |
| 234 | * CloudcuckoolandersMinder: Myne has a poor grasp of the market value of things she took for granted in her previous life and doesn't quite realize that negotiations work differently in Japan and her new world. As a result, Benno dedicates a lot of time to simply making sure other people don't drag Myne into bad deals and that she's not disrupting the market by asking too little for items that are actually luxury goods in a medieval setting. He also helps Ferdinand get a handle on Myne's idiosyncrasies. |
| 235 | * TheConfidant: He is one of the few people who Rozemyne does not have to treat differently in private. She often invites Lutz, Benno and Mark to her closed off room, where she can act like her actual self and share her worries with them. |
| 236 | * ConfirmedBachelor: He held off getting married to take care of Corinna, but [[TheLostLenore the woman he loved died]] before Corinna married Otto. He has no intention to marry, as [[TheMourningAfter he still mourns her]], and Myne suggests that he would be too busy to take care of a wife and child. |
| 237 | * {{Determinator}}: After his father unexpectedly died, Benno, who just came of age, [[YouAreInCommandNow had to pick up the pieces]] and save the company. While most lehanges left him, he still managed to rebuild the company with the help of Mark against everyone's expectations. |
| 238 | * EnemyMine: At the end of Part 2, [[spoiler:Benno is left with a mountain of work that he and Mark cannot possibly handle alone anymore. Despite their past altercation, Benno thinks it's wiser to fully let Gustav in on what is going on and uses the Italian restaurant as bait for Gustav to fully cooperate with him regarding the archduke's business. This takes a huge burden off Benno's shoulders, and Rozemyne notes that together no merchant in Ehrenfest can possibly oppose them anymore]]. |
| 239 | * FirstLove: He was [[spoiler:Tuuli's. She eventually gave up on this, though, as he never viewed her as a love interest]]. |
| 240 | * HeterosexualLifepartners: Is this with Mark. Mark was an apprentice at the Gilberta Company when Benno was born, and has helped Benno as his NumberTwo ever since Benno was forced to take over the store and save it from ruin after his father's untimely death. |
| 241 | %%* HotBlooded: |
| 242 | * HyperAwareness: Being a trained merchant, Benno notices quickly when something is off and picks up on any details. He's the second person after Lutz to figure out that something is up with Myne. While he didn't know the original Myne, it only takes so long before he notices the current one knows some things will work despite never having tried them herself. His soft spot for Myne aside, he decides to not pry too much because of the money she brings in. |
| 243 | * JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Benno acts very abrasive, loud and admonishes even children very harshly, and like all merchants can be very {{manipulative|bastard}}. However, he actually has a soft heart for people he likes, especially Myne and Lutz. |
| 244 | * LikeAnOldMarriedCouple: Benno frequently had heated arguments with his fiancée Liz, but this was a sign of how close they really were, according to Mark. Mark also sees this happen with Benno and Myne, and concludes that they must deeply trust each other. |
| 245 | * ManipulativeBastard: He is a merchant, so that's a given. Having dealt with merchants and nobles, Benno has learned how to manipulate people with careful schemes and words. |
| 246 | ** In his first appearance in Part 1 Volume 1, he initially tries to get information out of Myne and Lutz about Myne's hairstick and shampoo (before he is about to reject their application for an apprenticeship), but to his frustration realizes that he underestimated them and they can't be tricked so easily. |
| 247 | ** After Lutz and Myne present their prototype paper in Volume 2, he is aware that since they haven't been baptized yet, he needs to convince Gustav to register them as temporary Merchant's Guild members, since they are not blood-related and are not from merchant families. After Myne presents Benno the hairpin she made for Tuuli, he immediately applies Lutz and Myne for membership, using the hairpin that Freida was desperately looking for as a bargaining chip without revealing his plans to sell their plant-based paper. |
| 248 | ** In Part 1 Volume 3, Benno gets into a fight with the Parchment Guild over the plant paper that is in conflict with the Parchment Guild's vested interests. Due to signing a magic contract with Myne and Lutz (which automatically involves Archduke Ehrenfest), the Merchant's Guild had to register the contract and accept Benno's application for a Plant Paper Guild, but Gustav acted obstructively and didn't cooperate, which led to the whole dilemma with the Parchment Guild. Benno solves the conflict (with a bit of help from Myne) by making a compromise with the Parchment Guild, which basically puts the whole blame for the delay and conflict on Gustav for not finishing the registration. |
| 249 | ** In Part 2 Volume 1, Benno is the one who negotiates how much of Myne's workshop's profits have to be given to the temple. He manages to convince ''Ferdinand'' to accept "only" 10%. |
| 250 | * MistakenForPedophile: Due to Myne's inventions massively benefitting Benno and the Gilberta Company, Otto jokingly has started to call her Benno's "Goddess of Water" (i.e. godsent benefactor who helps blossom business like one of the Goddesses of Spring). However, for most people this is a SexualEuphemism for "paramour/lover". Benno is not amused about this at all and finds it disgusting. It doesn't help that people see Benno treating Myne favorably and notice the [[ReplacementGoldfish similarities between Myne and his deceased fiancée Liz]]. Corinna jokingly suggests to Mark that Benno should go ahead and marry Myne, to which Mark [[DeadpanSnarker remarks]] that this isn't possible due to Myne's poor health. |
| 251 | * MySisterIsOffLimits: Zigzagged. Benno was initially against Otto marrying Corinna, thinking he was after the store. Benno changes his mind when Otto shows his commitment by buying citizenship and getting a job as a gate guard, and Corinna approves. |
| 252 | * ReasonableAuthorityFigure: While as a merchant he is mainly driven by {{Greed}}, he is willing to listen when one can negotiate with him, regardless of whether it's a child or not. He immediately notices how abnormal Lutz and especially Myne are, and does not underestimate Freida, just because they are children. |
| 253 | * PapaWolf: He is clearly very protective of Lutz and especially Myne. As is later revealed, his fiancée Liz died to the Devouring (which he only learned after her death), which is why he possibly sees Myne as MyGreatestSecondChance. |
| 254 | * ParentalSubstitute: |
| 255 | ** According to Mark he views Myne as family, though he won't admit it (the feeling is mutual though). While Benno is not happy that people mistake Myne for his daughter, it's easy to see why people make that mistake. Benno mentors her as a merchant, acts as her financial guardian, and orders someone to look after her at all times, since Myne cannot take care of herself and often acts recklessly. |
| 256 | ** He clearly comes to see Lutz as much more than Myne's CloudcuckoolandersMinder later in the story, given the fact he seriously considers [[spoiler:adopting him]] at some point. |
| 257 | ** One of the conditions for accepting Otto as Corinna's husband was the promise that he would get to raise Corinna's heir. He does end up being a father-figure for Renate. |
| 258 | * PromotionToParent: Needing to take care of Corinna is the reason he gives for not having gotten married before his fiancée's untimely death. One incident reveals that while Otto is technically his brother-in-law, their actual difference in status is that of a father-in-law and a son-in-law. |
| 259 | * ProperlyParanoid: |
| 260 | ** He quickly picks up on how valuable and dangerous Myne's knowledge is. Since she has a commoner background and the Devouring, he sets up measures to protect her and guarantee his continued connection with Myne by quickly expanding his business. He creates the Plant Paper and Printing Guild, and makes Myne and Lutz sign several magic contracts, while ensuring that people in town learn of Myne as little as possible. As he expected, Myne eventually got involved with nobles. [[spoiler:His measures allow the Gilberta Company to stay in contact with Rozemyne after she is adopted by Archduke Ehrenfest, who sees Benno's value and is assigning him the task to spread the printing business throughout the duchy in his name.]] |
| 261 | ** In Part 1 Volume 2, Gustav offers information about the Devouring and an old magic tool that would help with Myne's condition, provided she can pay for it. He tells Benno that it would cost one small gold and two large silvers. Benno buys information from Myne about the rinse shampoo and gives her more than the price he was told, expecting Gustav to have lied about the price to force a move from Myne to the Othmar Company. Benno's suspicions were revealed to be true, as the magic tool cost 2 small golds and 8 large silvers. |
| 262 | ** In general, Benno is careful about what kind of info he is willing to share with Myne, like he does in Part 1 Volume 3, considering she CannotKeepASecret and is a bit too careless. Myne has to concede that he is absolutely right. However, this backfires when he didn't tell her enough about the Devouring and how the temple, which has access to books, would be very interested in taking her. |
| 263 | ** In Part 2 Volume 3, Benno forces a deal with the Ink Guild with another magic contract [[spoiler:without revealing Myne to them. He does this because he heard shady rumors about the guildmaster. Sure enough, after signing, Lutz is approached by hired goons who want to find Myne. The guildmaster, Wolf, was working for a noble to get Myne]]. |
| 264 | * SecretKeeper: Benno is the person Myne sells most information to like how to make paper. He also keeps almost any information about her a secret, for safety's sake, and as it turns out rightly so, [[spoiler:as anyone who is aware of Rozemyne's commoner background is in danger of getting killed by Archduke Ehrenfest to keep it secret. Benno proving how effective he is earns him Sylvester's trust]]. Benno's secretive nature also earns him Elvira's respect, who judges Benno and the Plantin Company to be very trustworthy business partners. |
| 265 | * SelfMadeMan: Benno practically rebuilt the Gilberta Company with Mark from the ground up after his father unexpectedly died. By the time he meets Myne and Lutz, the company has contacts with laynobles again. He takes the risk and invests heavily in Myne and Lutz after seeing their innovations, which eventually connects him to archnobles, making him part of the Gutenberg group and one of the most influential merchants of Ehrenfest. |
| 266 | * SiblingYinYang: While both Corinna and Benno are merchants, Benno seems to be more blunt and confrontational, but deep inside is a JerkWithAHeartOfGold, who wishes to protect Myne and Lutz and teaches them valuable lessons. Corinna on the other hand is outwardly much nicer and polite, but her chapter reveals she has a mean and judgmental streak and sometimes uses the politeness as a tool. Because she doesn't know Myne the way Benno does, Corinna only seeks to get as much as possible out of Myne, just like Freida. In short, Benno is not as much of a jerk and Corinna is not as much of a saint as they appear to be. |
| 267 | * TheSmartGuy: Benno (and by extension Mark) is the one who makes the plans and deduces the correct strategies on how to proceed. He is the one who helps Myne both secure a way to save herself by joining the temple, and at the same time keep business going. [[spoiler:And while Rozemyne is tasked by Sylvester to spread printing in the duchy, it's Benno who has to do the majority of the work and find the right workshops to work with. In Part 3 Volume 2, he and Mark are also the ones who help with Rozemyne's plan to bring down the mayor of Hasse without obliterating the entire town and its people.]] |
| 268 | * SternTeacher: He regularly admonishes Myne [[YouFool as a fool]] whenever she does something stupid without realizing it. As harsh as Benno is with Myne, Freida's persistence in getting ideas out of her and trying to make her join her family store show that the lectures he's giving her are very much needed. |
| 269 | * TricksterMentor: He occasionally gives Lutz or Myne tasks to see how they react to it, and there is often a trick or lesson behind it. For instance, he made Myne read out a contract that was similar but not exactly the same one she and Lutz signed with him, to test her memory and teach her that one should always make copies of contracts. |
| 270 | * {{Tsundere}}: He actually does worry about Myne, but doesn't like to admit it. When he's acting like a jerk or reprimands Myne, it's because Myne is acting carelessly. For instance, in Part 1 Volume 2, after having learned from Gustav that Myne's life can be extended with a very expensive magic tool, he finds a business opportunity to pay her enough money to afford one. [[CantKillYouStillNeedYou His excuse for keeping her alive is that she is way too profitable]] to leave her to her fate. The fact that he goes to great lengths to keep Myne's identity hidden shows that he is very concerned about Myne being abused by a merchant or noble, who is not as nice and accomodating as he is. |
| 271 | * UndyingLoyalty: He works extremely loyal to Rozemyne. Benno is prepared to go to wherever Rozemyne plans to go and he is extremely secretive about any details about her and tries to protect her however he can. [[spoiler:Despite possibly having feelings for Karin (at least according to Tuuli), a merchant daughter from Klassenberg, he keeps her at a distance to not accidentally leak any information about Rozemyne.]] |
| 272 | * {{Workaholic}}: After the death of his fiancée, he has lost interest in any romance and prefers to expand his business and TakeOverTheWorld (economically). However, he slowly begins to [[HeroicRROD feel the fatigue]] as Myne's products are so revolutionary that Guildmaster Gustav feels like Benno is overreaching, especially as he goes into territories that have nothing to do with the original clothing store. At the end of Part 2, [[spoiler:Benno is ordered by Sylvester and Ferdinand to keep information about Myne (now Rozemyne) under control, get the printing industry going and spread it throughout the duchy, fix Rozemyne's robes, and finish the Italian restaurant, so that the next time they meet [[BigEater Sylvester]] can have a meal. Realizing that he really can't handle all of this alone anymore, he cooperates with Gustav and Freida and lets them invest in the restaurant to take a burden off his shoulders.]] |
| 273 | [[/folder]] |
| 274 | |
| 275 | [[folder:Mark]] |
| 276 | !!Mark |
| 277 | !!!'''Debut:''' Part 1 (Volume 2) |
| 278 | !!!'''Voiced by''': Creator/TomoakiMaeno (Japanese), Brian Timothy Anderson (English), Tatsuhiro Kikuchi (Drama CD 2), Óscar Flores (Latin American Spanish) |
| 279 | [[quoteright:244:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mark_anime_bookworm.png]] |
| 280 | |
| 281 | Benno's assistant, who deals with Myne and Lutz when Benno is taken by other aspects of his job. He also teaches the apprentices of the store. |
| 282 | ---- |
| 283 | * BewareTheNiceOnes: He is a perfect gentleman, but he is capable of resorting to insidious means to protect his master and their company. As Myne describes it, Mark can be "kind but unforgiving". |
| 284 | ** A bonus chapter in Part 1 Volume 3 tells the story of how Mark came to work together with Benno. During his apprenticeship at the company, his older brother mocked Benno's father and refused to help the Gilberta Company after Benno's father died, which earned him Mark's ire. Mark not only stayed with Benno and worked hard to bring the store back to shape, he also orchestrated his own family's store's fall behind the scenes. |
| 285 | ** In Part 2 Volume 1, [[spoiler:after Lutz ran away from home and moved into the Gilberta Company store's dorms, Karla showed up and raised a major fuss over Benno "kidnapping" him. In response, Mark "flipped out" and did ''something'' that still makes Karla fear him.]] |
| 286 | ** In Part 3 Volume 1, he and Benno were treated so rudely by the mayor of Hasse and his noble scholar-associates, that [[spoiler:Mark deliberately didn't tell the mayor about Ferdinand and Rozemyne, i.e. the High Priest and High Bishop, who would personally come to take some of the orphans he sheltered, nor did Mark say anything about their relation to the archduke. The sudden visit catches the mayor completely off guard, causing him to openly protest against Rozemyne, enraging Ferdinand, who sentences the mayor to death and subsequently orders Rozemyne and the Gilberta Company to ruin him.]] |
| 287 | * TheConfidant: Mark is one of the few people who Rozemyne does not have to treat differently in private. She often invites Lutz, Benno and Mark to her closed off room, where she can act like her actual self and share her worries with them. |
| 288 | * EyesAlwaysShut: Is almost always seen with his eyes closed. |
| 289 | * GentlemanSnarker: Mark is prone to use {{Stealth Insult}}s while keeping his polite attitude up. |
| 290 | * HeterosexualLifepartners: Is this with Benno, to the point that he chose serving him over having any sort of family life. |
| 291 | * HonoraryUncle: Kind of, since Benno is one of Myne's mentors and acts as her guardian. Myne respects and cares about Mark a lot, [[spoiler:which is why her final blessing at the end of Part 2 reached him]]. |
| 292 | * TheJeeves: Does everything he can to assist Benno, as well as Myne. |
| 293 | * ManipulativeBastard: Mark is exceptional in using his information network and relationship to the merchants to his advantage. In Part 3 Volume 2 he [[spoiler:intentionally manipulates things in a way that Hasse's mayor would inevitably be executed for opposing the archduke's family. When given the order by Rozemyne to isolate the mayor and make the rest of the town oppose him, Mark delights in the many ways to orchestrate his fall from grace]]. |
| 294 | * MentorArchetype: While Lutz is groomed to become a merchant [[spoiler:and trained to eventually inherit the Gilberta Company branches that are not part of the clothing and beauty products department]], he is advised by Benno and Myne to imitate Mark, who is well-trained in managing the store and treating customers. |
| 295 | * NumberTwo: While Benno is not the actual owner of the Gilberta Company (Corinna is), he practically is responsible for operating the store. As his right-hand man, Mark is Benno's most trusted attendant, and manages the store whenever Benno is absent. |
| 296 | * OldMaid: Mark is around 37 years old, which he describes as "long past the marriage age". |
| 297 | * SecretKeeper: As Benno's partner and closest attendant, he knows everything about Benno's relation to Myne, and [[spoiler:that she is now the archnoble Rozemyne]]. |
| 298 | * UndyingLoyalty: He was extremely loyal to Benno's father, who treated him favorably when he was in a precarious situation, and this loyalty extends to Benno. When Mark's older brother refused to help the Gilberta Company after the store's head unexpectedly died, he was so angry that he cut ties with his family and stayed with Benno, who took over, to restore the store to its former glory and beyond. |
| 299 | * {{Workaholic}}: Similar to Benno, he is too focused on work to ever think about romance. By the time Myne meets him, he is almost 37, which is past the appropriate age for marriage. |
| 300 | [[/folder]] |
| 301 | |
| 302 | [[folder:Corinna]] |
| 303 | !!Corinna |
| 304 | !!!'''Debut:''' Part 1 (Volume 1) |
| 305 | !!!'''Voiced by''': Rika Kinugawa (Japanese), Creator/ErikaHarlacher (English), Creator/KonomiKohara (Drama CD 2), Alma Juárez (Latin American Spanish) |
| 306 | [[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bookworm_p1v2_corinna.PNG]] |
| 307 | |
| 308 | Benno's youngest sister, Otto's wife, the actual owner of the Gilberta Company, and a seamstress renowned across town. Myne calls on her when her situation reaches a point where she's expected to own at least one outfit that is both expensive and custom-made. Corinna later becomes Rozemyne's exclusive tailor. |
| 309 | ---- |
| 310 | * TheAce: Among seamstresses, she became a renowned and extremely good trader at a very young age. She is able to notice business opportunities almost as well as Benno. Benno intends for her to take over the clothing and accessories shop (the original Gilberta Company business) once she gets married and gets a first child, at which point he will form his own separate paper-making and printing company. Effa and Tuuli look up to her as an example of how high a commoner can rise thanks to their hard work. |
| 311 | * AcceptableFeminineGoalsAndTraits: Renowned seamstress, a good cook and hard worker. Good looking and gracious, with a great sense for style. For merchants, additional traits include being sensible with money and investments all while being a good manager. She has all of those qualities and more. |
| 312 | * BitchInSheepsClothing: Somewhat. She is a nice person, but she is also a merchant first and foremost, a fact of which is Benno justly proud, having raised her since she was a small child. A side chapter from her point of view and a few subtle hints show that Corinna is not the NiceGirl she pretends to be. Corinna appears to treat poor low-ranked commoners like Effa, Myne and Tuuli fairly and without bias, but she admits to herself that she wouldn't have trusted and hired Myne like her brother did, because of her poor status. Nonetheless, she steals valuable tailor techniques from Myne while distracting her (without warning or lecturing Myne that she just did, unlike Freida or Benno), and would have stolen the hairpin technique worth gold from Tuuli as well, if Myne hadn't intervened. When caught by Myne, she leaves the negotiation to Benno, claiming to not know much about matters of money, which is shortly after proven to be a {{blatant lie|s}}, as she afterwards asks Myne for how much she sold the rights by using hand signals. Even accepting Tuuli as a future apprentice has likely less to do with Tuuli's talent or the goodness of Corinna's heart, and more to do with keeping good relations [[spoiler:with Rozemyne, as Rozemyne is now a rich archnoble, who outside of business must not meet her commoner family anymore]]. |
| 313 | * DevotedToYou: Corinna inspired complete devotion to her from Otto [[LoveAtFirstSight the moment he saw her]]. He was willing to give up all his possessions and profession just to be with her. |
| 314 | * EvenTheGirlsWantHer: Myne spends about a paragraph gushing about her beauty when they first meet. |
| 315 | * HappilyMarried: She appears to be happy with Otto, who [[SickeninglySweethearts loves to tell others how beautiful and nice his wife is]]. In Part 2, she gives birth to their daughter, Renate. |
| 316 | * HeadTurningBeauty: Otto fell for her at first sight and dropped everything just to marry her. Myne suspects her pretty face and very sexy figure was probably a major reason why. |
| 317 | * ImpossibleHourglassFigure: Myne and Tuuli both describe her figure as having CurvesInAllTheRightPlaces when they meet her for the first time. Especially her narrow waist and ample bosoms. |
| 318 | -->'''Myne:''' I was seeing Corinna for the first time and she was shockingly cute, perhaps the most adorable woman I had ever seen. [...] And yet... her boobs were huge. Her parts really stuck out, giving her a perfect hourglass figure complete with a tight waist. ''...Mr. Otto, you’re so SHALLOW!'' |
| 319 | * InformedAttractiveness: Otto is the first one to brag about how cute his wife is. When Myne meets her for the first time, she confirms this for herself. |
| 320 | -->'''Myne:''' Her pale cream-colored hair, resembling a full moon beaming with sunlight, was fluffy yet held together in such a way that accentuated the slender nape of her neck. Her eyes were silvery gray, which gave her entire body a sort of pale splendor. Corinna defined the phrase ephemeral beauty. |
| 321 | * LikeParentLikeSpouse: In a way. Benno [[PromotionToParent raised Corinna]] after their parents passed away, and the way she describes Otto is very similar to Benno. |
| 322 | * ManipulativeBitch: She seems to be a nice woman (and she is), but Myne notices that she has a smooth tongue with which she gets free information without her victim noticing it (which is very different from Freida's and Benno's very direct approach). Tuuli also falls for this when she almost agrees to tell Corinna the secret of how to make their special hairpins, but Myne immediately puts a halt to this and negotiates a fair price for her workshop. [[note]]She sold the rights to Benno for 1 large gold and 8 small golds, which is equivalent to what Gunther as a gate captain earns in ''16 years''.[[/note]] |
| 323 | * MentorArchetype: Corinna is what many textile workers, including Effa and Tuuli, aspire to become one day, as she is graceful, friendly, and above all a master seamstress. |
| 324 | * {{Ojou}}: Corinna is a commoner, but she has her own attendants and lives in the richer part of Ehrenfest. |
| 325 | * SecretKeeper: At the end of Part 2, she is implicitly told by Benno that Myne [[spoiler:has become the archnoble Rozemyne]]. |
| 326 | * SiblingYinYang: While both Corinna and Benno are merchants, Benno seems to be more blunt and confrontational, but deep inside is a JerkWithAHeartOfGold, who wishes to protect Myne and Lutz and teaches them valuable lessons. Corinna on the other hand is outwardly much nicer and polite, but her chapter reveals she has a mean and judgmental streak and sometimes uses the politeness as a tool. Because she doesn't know Myne the way Benno does, Corinna only seeks to get as much as possible out of Myne, just like Freida. In short, Benno is [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold not as much of a jerk]] and Corinna is [[BitchInSheepsClothing not as much of a saint]] as they appear to be. |
| 327 | * UptownGirl: Corinna is part of a higher class of commoners and lives in a large building in the richer northern part of the lower city. Otto on the other hand is a former traveling merchant who spent all his money to get a citizenship and now works as a city guard. He married into the family and lives with her in the northern lower city ([[BigBrotherInstinct because Benno insisted]]). |
| 328 | * YoungestChildWins: She ended up being the actual heiress of the Gilberta Company instead of her older sister Milda, who fled to another city to escape being forced to marry Gustav's son. |
| 329 | [[/folder]] |
| 330 | |
| 331 | [[folder:Otto]] |
| 332 | !!Otto |
| 333 | !!!'''Debut:''' Part 1 (Volume 1) |
| 334 | !!!'''Voiced by''': Creator/SatoshiHino (Japanese), Creator/JoeZieja (English), Youhei Hamada (Drama CD 2) |
| 335 | [[quoteright:224:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/otto_anime_bookworm.png]] |
| 336 | |
| 337 | A guard who works with Myne's father. He is married to Corinna and thus Benno's brother-in-law. As a former traveling merchant, he's the most literate of the south gate guards, making him the main paperwork handler. He becomes Myne's writing teacher and first mentor until Benno meets her and takes interest in her. |
| 338 | \ |
| 339 | After Benno establishes the Plantin Company in Part 3, Otto takes over Benno's position as the main representative of the Gilberta Company. |
| 340 | ---- |
| 341 | * ChekhovsSkill: As a former merchant on top of being his brother-in-law, he's one of the first people who gets drafted into helping Benno with the extra work he gets from being Myne's main reseller. He eventually replaces Benno as the main Gilberta company representative when he creates another company to sell the book-related products. |
| 342 | * TheConfidant: Acts like one to Myne and Gunther. He sometimes goes drinking with Gunther, where Gunther lays out his worries and Otto advises him on how to handle them. |
| 343 | * {{Determinator}}: [[LoveAtFirstSight The moment he laid eyes on Corinna]], he fell in love with her. Otto's sheer persistence and commitment to marry Corinna is what wins her and Benno over. |
| 344 | * EnthusiasticNewbieTeacher: Otto is supposed to teach young apprentice soldiers how to handle paperwork, so that they may assist him later, but doesn't actually know how. This is because Otto's got the wrong impression on how quickly children learn, as his first student was Myne, who is already used to studying and is mentally an adult. Myne tells Otto to mix up subjects and keep the lessons short (like in elementary school), as a child's attention span is short and if they get frustrated, they will become resistant to learning. |
| 345 | * TheGadfly: Otto is prone to teasing the people around him, like when in Part 1 Volume 3 he starts calling Myne Benno's "Goddess of Water" or when he spills information about conversations that weren't meant to be heard from others. |
| 346 | * GoodWithNumbers: He is not exactly that good, but as a former merchant, he is better, as in, ''one of the only ones'' at the gate, capable to handle the paperwork. |
| 347 | * HappilyMarried: Myne's father states he is entirely focused on his wife. |
| 348 | * HonestAdvisor: Otto [[BrutalHonesty doesn't mince words]] when he advises someone. He tells Lutz to scrap his dreams of becoming a traveling merchant, because he gives up his valuable citizenship otherwise, and he advises Myne to be honest with her family about [[YourDaysAreNumbered her condition]], as being dishonest would be worse. |
| 349 | * IntrepidMerchant: Downplayed, as a traveling merchant isn't nearly as romantic as it sounds in the stories, and the goal of a traveling merchant is actually to get a citizenship and settle down. This is why, in an act to [[CruelToBeKind help Lutz]], Otto [[BrutallyHonest flat-out tells him]] to give up on becoming a traveling merchant because it's dumb. |
| 350 | * OutOfFocus: Otto mostly plays an important role in Part 1. Afterwards, despite being more involved in the Gilberta Company's business, he largely fades into the background. |
| 351 | * PunnyName: Not by itself, but of course in Japanese, Myne will naturally refer to him as "Otto-san", which sounds a lot like the Japanese "Otou-san", which means "Father". This likely does not help Gunther's jealousy issues. |
| 352 | * PursueTheDreamJob: Inverted. Otto wanted to stay a merchant after settling down in a city, but had to spend all his money to get his citizenship in Ehrenfest, since he was determined to marry Corinna. He didn't have the money to buy a store afterwards, and he wanted to show his commitment to the city and learn more about the people. Corinna warned him that marrying her would earn him Guildmaster Gustav's ire, which would bar Otto from ever becoming a merchant again, but Otto didn't care. This didn't come true though, and at the end of Part 1 Benno begins to train Otto to handle the Gilberta Company when he will inevitably leave it to Corinna to open his own store, specializing in the products Myne comes up with. |
| 353 | * RagsToRiches: Otto is a former traveling merchant, who spent all his money to buy a very expensive Ehrenfest citizenship and married into the family that owns the Gilberta Company. |
| 354 | * TheResenter: A minor case, but he does feel a bit bitter when Rozemyne tells Otto in Part 3 Volume 4 that she is so rich and powerful, she could create a new workshop for Tuuli with a snap of her fingers if Tuuli doesn't wish to sign as a leherl for the Gilberta Company. Otto had to give up all his savings just to buy his Ehrenfest citizenship and worked for years as a soldier with very low wages before he could succeed Benno. |
| 355 | * SecretKeeper: As one of the few people who were close to Myne, and due to his connection to the Gilberta Company, he is privy to the fact that [[spoiler:Myne is alive and now the adopted daughter of Ehrenfest's archduke. As the Gilberta Company's new representative, he maintains contact with Rozemyne as her exclusive tailor and supplier of beauty care products and dresses]]. |
| 356 | * SickeninglySweethearts: Benno or Gunther are usually the victims, having to listen to him bragging about how great Corinna is or seeing Otto and her flirt with each other. |
| 357 | * SingleTargetSexuality: Corinna is the only woman to whom he has felt attracted on sight despite the large number of people he has met during his travels. This one of the reasons he was willing to sacrifice his existing plans to settle in another city to marry her. |
| 358 | * ShipperOnDeck: In a bonus manga that comes with the second Short Story Collection he seems to like the idea of [[spoiler:Lutz and Tuuli as a couple.]] |
| 359 | * SmallRoleBigImpact: Otto supplies Myne with her first stone slate and pen and, as he teaches her letters and words, discovers her talent in writing and numbers (which he notes Gunther probably never would have realized). Otto later introduces Myne and Lutz to Benno, which connects them to the Gilberta Company and sets their careers as merchants in motion. |
| 360 | * UptownGirl: Corinna is part of a higher class of commoners and lives in a large building in the richer northern part of the lower city. Otto on the other hand is a former traveling merchant who spent all his money to get a citizenship and now works as a city guard. He married into the family and lives with her in the northern lower city ([[BigBrotherInstinct because Benno insisted]]). |
| 361 | [[/folder]] |
| 362 | |
| 363 | [[folder:Hugo & Ella]] |
| 364 | !!Hugo & Ella |
| 365 | !!!'''Debut:''' Part 2 (Volume 1) |
| 366 | !!!'''Hugo is voiced by''': So Takeuchi (Japanese), Chris Lewis (English)\ |
| 367 | '''Ella is voiced by''': Nagisa Maruyama (Japanese), |
| 368 | [[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/portrait_chefs.png]] |
| 369 | [[caption-width-right:250:Ella and Hugo]] |
| 370 | |
| 371 | Hugo is a 20-year-old young man, who is initially the only chef willing to train at the temple to eventually work at Benno and Myne's new Italian restaurant. Ella is a 14-year-old apprentice chef who is hired to assist Hugo. |
| 372 | \ |
| 373 | At the end of Part 2, Ella becomes Rozemyne's personal chef. After training a successor, Hugo joins Ella and becomes Rozemyne's other personal chef in Part 3 Volume 4. |
| 374 | ---- |
| 375 | * TheApprentice: Ella is not a fully trained chef, but this is actually an advantage she has over Hugo, as she is more willing to accept Myne's unorthodox methods and recipes. |
| 376 | * BirdsOfAFeather: Ella gets along well with Monika and Nicola, who have similar motivations to work for Myne, as like Ella they do not wish to become prostitutes or {{Sex Slave}}s. |
| 377 | * ButtMonkey: Hugo is a bit of one, as he can't find a marriage partner, and thus is always one of the unlucky guys who throw taue fruits at the newly wedded pairs at the Star Festival. This seemingly changes at the start of Part 3, when he finally gets together with someone, but during his months-long stay at the Noble's Quarter (which turns it into kind of a LongDistanceRelationship), his girlfriend cheats on him, leaving him heartbroken. |
| 378 | * ClingyJealousGirl: There are faint hints of Ella getting jealous when she hears Hugo bragging about his girlfriend at the start of Part 3. She also isn't happy when Hugo openly shows interest in Rosina. |
| 379 | * {{Determinator}}: Despite initial protests from her colleagues and uncle, Ella immediately JumpedAtTheCall when she hears of Benno's offer to train at the dreaded temple, as she would have been forced to work as a waitress (and as a part-time prostitute) at her uncle's place when she came of age. Her goal is ToBeAMaster chef like Leise and her determination convinces Benno to hire her. |
| 380 | * FriendlyRivalry: |
| 381 | ** RivalryAsCourtship variant. Ella views Hugo as a rival and wants to stand as his equal, though she only later realizes that she does so because she is romantically interested in him. |
| 382 | ** Hugo is in a fierce rivalry with Leise. She has taught him about "normal" noble cuisine, while he has taught her how to make Rozemyne's dishes. Leise beats him in sweets, but since Hugo is more used to Rozemyne's recipes, he is still better. They regularly try to create new dishes and compete against each other. |
| 383 | * NiceGuy: Hugo is generally described as an amicable man, and Ella immediately gets a positive impression of him, as he acknowledges her as a chef and does not look down on her for being a woman. However, in his opinion, being nice is probably the reason he doesn't find a partner, as he thinks AllGirlsWantBadBoys. Unlike other commoners, Hugo and Ella also do not look down on the orphans. |
| 384 | * OlderThanTheyLook: Myne guesses that Ella is maybe around 10 when they first meet, when she is actually almost an adult. Even Hugo largely didn't notice her as a woman until he later sees that she has started bundling her hair. |
| 385 | * SingleWomanSeeksGoodMan: Ella immediately thinks that Hugo is a nice, cool and confident guy, which is why she is surprised that he seemingly can't find a girlfriend. |
| 386 | * SupremeChef: Both are trained at the temple and learn Myne's new recipes, which are on par or superior to noble cuisine. |
| 387 | * TeacherStudentRomance: Ella views Hugo as her teacher, coworker and {{rival|ryAsCourtship}}, aiming to surpass him one day. [[spoiler:It takes a while until Hugo sees that SheIsAllGrownUp. They realize their feelings for each other at the end of Part 3 and eventually marry.]] |
| 388 | [[/folder]] |
| 389 | |
| 390 | [[folder:Leon]] |
| 391 | !!Leon |
| 392 | !!!'''Debut:''' Part 1 (Volume 3) |
| 393 | [[quoteright:255:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/portrait_leon.png]] |
| 394 | |
| 395 | A 14-year-old leherl at the Gilberta Company. As the third son of linen merchants, he was sent to the Gilberta Company to strengthen ties between his and Benno's families and their workshops. He gets brought into Myne's circle when one of her attendants needs to train him to become a waiter at the Italian restaurant. |
| 396 | \ |
| 397 | In practice, he gets dragged into many of the other activities in which the Gilberta Company is assisting Myne, including a few he considers beneath him. While he acknowledges both Lutz and Myne's professional accomplishments to an extent, he doesn't particularly like them as people and the feeling is mutual. |
| 398 | \ |
| 399 | Following Benno's establishment of the Plantin Company, Leon remains with the Gilberta Company, now under the leadership of Otto and Corinna. |
| 400 | ---- |
| 401 | * ChekhovsGunman: He debuts in a side story depicting Lutz's life as an apprentice merchant at the end of Part 1. He doesn't show up again until mid-way through Part 2, where he starts training as a waiter. |
| 402 | * ConsummateProfessional: Leon is undeniably a competent apprentice, as he was promoted to leherl at the age of 10 after his first lehange contract ran out. However, he expects similar professional behavior from those around him, which is why he scolds Lutz and Myne whenever Myne gets clingy and goes for a hug. This is why Myne doesn't really like Leon. |
| 403 | * {{Hypocrite}}: Showing jealousy and complaining about {{Nepotism}} is highly hypocritical of Leon, when he was likely taken in as an apprentice because he is the nephew of Liz, Benno's deceased fiancée. |
| 404 | * IgnorantOfTheirOwnIgnorance: Contrasting innovative merchants like Benno, Freida or Gustav, Leon has no sense for anything new. Due to his conservative thinking, he doesn't really see the point in making plant paper or working in the Myne Workshop, and he is baffled when he sees Lutz taking care of the Myne Workshop's financial ledgers. He doesn't realize that this is training for setting up future workshops in the whole duchy and beyond, and that they are inventing new products with the help of Myne, which ''is'' very much merchant work. |
| 405 | * ItsAllAboutMe: Leon's side chapter shows that the only thing he really cares about is whether something benefits him and his family or not. Since he thinks Myne is useless to him, he doesn't want to associate with her much and finds her annoying. |
| 406 | * {{Jerkass}}: Leon is the stick-in-the-mud kind of guy. He's very conservative and thinks one should stick to their own roots, which is why he is looking down on Lutz, who acts like a paper craftsman and whose family consists of poor carpenters, and Myne, who is an apprentice blue shrine maiden despite being a low-class commoner. |
| 407 | * JerkassHasAPoint: |
| 408 | ** He is not happy that he has to do work that doesn't really have much to do with the job he signed up for. While he sees advantages of training as a waiter for nobles in the future, taking orphans to the forest and making paper is not what he thinks he should be doing. |
| 409 | ** He is right that Lutz got such a high position in the Gilberta Company because he has strong connections to Myne. He acknowledges though that Lutz is working hard and learns quickly despite his background. |
| 410 | ** He finds it annoying that everyone lavishes Myne in praise, when she has a lot of flaws too. However, he keeps these thoughts to himself to not stick out and make things awkward. |
| 411 | * NotSoAboveItAll: Some of the things he holds against Myne and Lutz have to do with their age gap that is somewhere north of five years, yet his reaction to Rozemyne's pandabus is closer to that of the children who preceded him than that of the adults. He's also annoyed when [[spoiler:Myne's last blessing]] avoids him, despite not knowing what it even is. |
| 412 | * OlderThanTheyLook: He's a little short for his age, and because of that Myne thinks he frequently comes across as a younger child trying to act older than he is. |
| 413 | * TheResenter: Leon is jealous of how Lutz is treated, thinking that Lutz shouldn't be given a leherl contract so early, when his family has nothing to do with merchants, his skills are still lacking, he doesn't act like a typical merchant, and he likely got his position because [[{{Nepotism}} he is Myne's friend]]. |
| 414 | * SecretKeeper: |
| 415 | ** As a Gilberta Company employee, he's among those who witness Myne's change between her poor commoner clothes and the better clothes in which she goes to the temple on a regular basis. [[spoiler:He also winds up being one of the people who continue interacting with her after she has become Rozemyne.]] |
| 416 | ** The plot of his PerspectiveFlip chapter consists of him being the only person accompanying Sylvester on his hunting trip to the commoner forest who knows his real identity. |
| 417 | * SelectiveObliviousness: His side chapter in Part 2 Volume 4 reveals that he deliberately downplays how innovative and intelligent Myne and Lutz are. He sees their hard work and how much they have already accomplished, but looks down on them, claiming that Lutz is a failure who is learning the merchant trade superficially, and Myne is just an annoying fake rich girl who brings endless new work and trouble with her weird ideas. Said ideas include inventions like plant paper and hairpins, which he acknowledges, but this still doesn't change his opinion of Myne that she would be of no use to him. Not even the fact that Sylvester takes an interest in Myne changes his opinion. |
| 418 | * StrongFamilyResemblance: His character design was crafted with the idea of evoking the feeling of being his aunt Liz's younger brother. |
| 419 | [[/folder]] |
| 420 | |
| 421 | !!Othmar Company |
| 422 | [[folder:Guildmaster Gustav]] |
| 423 | !!Guildmaster Gustav |
| 424 | !!!'''Debut:''' Part 1 (Volume 2) |
| 425 | !!!'''Voiced by''': Creator/HiroshiNaka (Japanese), Creator/BrookChalmers (English), Tadanori Date (Drama CD 2) |
| 426 | [[quoteright:272:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/gustav_anime_bookworm.png]] |
| 427 | |
| 428 | The owner of the Othmar Company and guildmaster of the Merchant's Guild. He is also Freida's grandfather. He and Benno have a tense relationship. |
| 429 | ---- |
| 430 | * ChekhovsGunman: In Part 1, he seemingly only appears to be another customer Myne can sell her products to, but he later gives crucial information about Myne's condition to Benno, and even provides the magic tool that gives Myne more time to live. It's made out like he and his family would be the key to Myne's continued survival, but that turns out to be a red herring, as she is discovered and taken in by the temple. |
| 431 | * ChekhovsSkill: In Part 1, the reader learns what Gustav's family's centuries-old main business is: operating cheap eateries and food shops in the lower city and providing high quality food ingredients for nobles from the town market. At the end of Part 2, [[spoiler:Benno allows Gustav and Freida to invest in the Italian restaurant. Since their family is much more specialized in the business, the Italian restaurant can be finished in time before Aub Ehrenfest loses his patience]]. |
| 432 | * DotingGrandparent: Freida thinks him educating her and buying lots of magic tools is just an investment for him, to secure more connections with nobles. The fact that he hires Myne to make Freida's hairpins just to see her happy face is proof enough for Myne that he really loves his granddaughter. He also focused on securing a contract with a noble with a good personality who would treat Freida well, instead of a noble from whom he could profit more. After he learns at the end of Part 1 that Myne is to join the temple soon, he minimizes contact between her and Freida, out of concern for Freida getting involved in something nasty. |
| 433 | * EnemyMine: At the end of Part 2, [[spoiler:due to Benno's increased workload with his businesses, including the printing business and the Italian restaurant, coupled with impossibly short deadlines set by Aub Ehrenfest, Benno got over his head. Benno offers Gustav to become a partner of the restaurant, despite his previous misgivings about the man (and the restaurant being an attempt to one up Gustav in the first place). It solves literally all of the problems Benno had with the restaurant and the Merchant's Guild in a single stroke]]. |
| 434 | * InnocentlyInsensitive: His marriage proposals to family members of the Gilberta Company always came at the wrong time. His family and his attendant point out that if Gustav had given them time to grieve, they might have taken him up on the offer. |
| 435 | * JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Whenever he, Benno and Myne interact, the latter two dislike how obstructive and manipulative he is acting. However, he sells Myne the magic tool out of genuine care, and only wants her to join his store, so he could find a noble to help her with her Devouring. When Ferdinand inquires information about Myne before she is to join the temple - though Gustav deems it pointless - he writes a very positive review about Myne in the hope that she will be treated better when they see her value. |
| 436 | * ManipulativeBastard: He lies to Benno about the magic tool he is willing to sell to Myne. His plan was to bind Myne to his family by making her work off her debt. While doing so, he intended to find a noble that would take care of Myne's Devouring, thus securing her innovative skills for the entire city, while saving her life, which would also make Freida happy. Unfortunately for him, Benno [[ProperlyParanoid fully expected a trick]], which is why he gave Myne more money than what Gustav mentioned. [[OnceDoneNeverForgotten This puts Myne on higher alert]] around the Othmar Company, which is why she doesn't visit Freida as often as Freida would have liked to. |
| 437 | * NoSocialSkills: While he is excellent as a merchant, he has no clue how to interact with people socially. He is consistently at odds with Benno and the Gilberta Company, because all his attempts to help them or Myne lack tact and are thus interpreted as hostile. Even his own family says it's no wonder Benno doesn't like him, and Freida is not fully aware of his affection for her until Myne points it out. |
| 438 | * NotEvilJustMisunderstood: Considering the cause of the misunderstandings between him and Benno, the side chapter written from his point of view makes the actions Benno complains about in the story proper look ''very'' different. The first two marriage proposals to Benno's family were genuine bad timing and forethought that caused the subsequent ones to be viewed as outright harassment. Many of the times he got in the way of Benno's ventures, meanwhile, were him trying to keep Benno from biting more than he can chew, which he risks doing each time he puts one of Myne's products on the market all while trying to monopolize them. And while he sold Myne the magic tool out of genuine care for her, he didn't exactly enhance Benno's view of him by making the transaction into a ploy to have Myne join his family store so it would be easier to get her into a contract with a noble. [[spoiler:Gustav is proven right about Benno overreaching, when at the end of Part 2 Benno has too much to do with no time left. This is when he decides to cooperate with Gustav and Freida, who are able to take a big load of work off of his shoulders.]] |
| 439 | * ObstructiveBureaucrat: As the Merchant's Guild's guildmaster, Benno needs Gustav's permission to register Myne and Lutz, and to create new guilds. He seemingly gets in Benno's way out of malice, though what Gustav is doing is actually justified. |
| 440 | ** In Part 1 Volume 2, he initially doesn't allow Lutz and Myne to become temporary guild members, as it's unheard of for stores to register non-blood-related children, whose parents are carpenters, soldiers and textile workers respectively. Lutz and Myne's background does seem suspect, though he throws all of this overboard when he sees that they are selling the hairpin he has desperately been looking for for Freida. |
| 441 | ** In Part 1 Volume 3, he holds off on registering Benno's plans to create a Plant Paper Guild, and instead proposes to merge with the Parchment Guild to become the Paper Guild. He does this because Benno's expertise is clothing and not paper, and also because he fears Benno intends to monopolize a product from which everyone should benefit from. He is duped by Benno when Benno manages to reach a compromise without him, leaving Gustav with the trouble of having to explain to the archduke why the registration took so long when the corresponding magic contract had been signed a long time ago. |
| 442 | ** At the end of Part 2, Benno actively tries to avoid Gustav acting obstructive, [[spoiler:as he is pressured by Aub Ehrenfest to get the printing business going, for which he has no time and needs more contacts and workshops to prepare. By involving Gustav in all of this, Benno eliminates the bureaucratic problems and also secures the help to open more paper and printing workshops and finish the Italian restaurant in time.]] |
| 443 | ** Subverted in Part 3 Volume 3. As the head of the Merchant's Guild, he should have a say about cooperations between multiple workshops from different professions, but when Ingo informs him about his plans to work with Zack and Johann on Rozemyne's new printing press, [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere Gustav is tired and fed up with Rozemyne]] after just completing the "cursed Hasse job" that he involuntarily had to do. |
| 444 | * OutOfFocus: Despite his and Freida's importance in Part 1 Volume 3, Gustav doesn't make any further appearance in Part 2, up until the end, where [[spoiler:he and Freida accidentally find out about Myne's adoption, and Benno needs his cooperation to keep information about Myne quiet, as well as help with the printing business and the Italian restaurant]]. |
| 445 | * SecretKeeper: He becomes aware of Rozemyne by complete accident. [[spoiler:During the climax of Part 2 Volume 4, Gustav and Freida visit Freida's benefactor, who's Damuel's older brother. Damuel is urgently put in the room initially prepared for Freida to recover from the injuries he sustained, and the mix-up results in her hearing just enough from Damuel to figure out that he got his injuries from guarding Myne. The next day, Freida returns to the Merchant's Guild and looks for the magic contracts Myne signed with Lutz and Benno, and sees that Myne's name was changed to "Rozemyne", which is a sign that Myne was taken in by nobles.]] After those events, Freida and Gustav ask Benno for a meeting about Rozemyne, and Benno realizes that they already know too much. He then decides to get them fully involved. |
| 446 | * SecretSecretKeeper: At the end of Part 1, the temple inquires Gustav about information regarding Myne, who would soon join the temple as an apprentice shrine maiden. Freida and her grandfather are thus the only people that know about Myne's relation to the temple without being told by Myne. |
| 447 | * SharedFamilyQuirks: He and the rest of his family members are prone to act very direct and forceful, which scares the fragile Myne. |
| 448 | * UnwantedAssistance: Benno hates the merchant guildmaster after several insulting marriage offers through multiple generations, but he was actually just trying to help in his own way. Offering to personally marry Benno's mother was to protect the store since Benno and his mother wouldn't be able to handle it themselves, but he made his offer immediately after the death of her husband and before she was through mourning and unaware of what a difficult job was ahead of her. After Benno's fiancée died he again offered a marriage, this time through his daughter, once again just wanting to help. This time it failed because Benno's planned marriage was a long-standing romantic relationship, not a political arrangement, so offering another partnership in this manner was, again, equally insulting. Benno and Corinna have a sister who left town to escape a proposal to marry his youngest son, and he later tried to push that very same son on Corinna. Corinna's marriage to Otto had an "anyone but the guildmaster's son" element to it. |
| 449 | |
| 450 | [[/folder]] |
| 451 | |
| 452 | [[folder:Freida]] |
| 453 | !!Freida |
| 454 | !!!'''Debut:''' Part 1 (Volume 2) |
| 455 | !!!'''Voiced by''': Creator/AyaUchida (Japanese), Creator/KayliMills (English), Amanda Hinojosa (Latin American Spanish) |
| 456 | [[quoteright:200:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/frieda_anime.png]] |
| 457 | |
| 458 | Granddaughter to Guildmaster Gustav and a sufferer of the Devouring, only able to expect seeing adult age thanks to a very expensive arrangement with a noble. She takes interest in Myne's hair ornaments after seeing one on Tuuli during the latter's baptism. While genuinely concerned about Myne, she remains a merchant in training first and foremost. |
| 459 | ---- |
| 460 | * BirdsOfAFeather: Freida is very quickly into Myne, as Myne is not only roughly the same age, she is similarly intelligent, a merchant with innovative ideas, and suffers from the Devouring like Freida. |
| 461 | * ClingyJealousGirl: Platonic example. Freida isn't happy to share Myne with Lutz. |
| 462 | * DelicateAndSickly: Downplayed; like Myne, she suffers from the Devouring, which has stunted her growth. However, she is much healthier than Myne though and does not end up with a fever every other day. |
| 463 | * HatesBaths: Downplayed. She doesn't usually mind bathing, she just dislikes the big tub in her family's house, which is built after a noble's tub Gustav once saw, because she gets dizzy after a while. Myne figures out that Freida is simply overheating, as the tub is not cooling down, since it's constantly filled with fresh hot water. She suggests to Freida to just leave the tub earlier. |
| 464 | * InterclassFriendship: Freida and Myne are from two entirely different classes of commoners. Nonetheless, Freida sees Myne's value and since they [[BirdsOfAFeather have so much in common]] quickly views Myne as a friend, her first and only friend. Myne doesn't exactly view Freida the same way though and finds Freida a bit scary, [[spoiler:seeing as Myne's final blessing for her loved ones at the end of Part 2 didn't reach Freida]]. |
| 465 | * JerkWithAHeartOfGold: She is complicit in Gustav's plan to make Myne feel indebted, so that she has to switch to the Othmar Company to pay off her debts. However, this isn't just done to profit off of Myne's ideas, Freida and her family have the tools and connections to nobles to negotiate a favorable deal with a noble for Myne. Freida wants Myne to live because she doesn't want to lose her only friend. |
| 466 | * LikeParentLikeChild: Freida is described to be very similar to her grandfather personality-wise. Both have a keen sense for business and profit, and both are just as greedy. However, since she is still very young, she is much better at learning how to treat the people around her better, and she becomes more cheerful and kinder after meeting Myne. |
| 467 | * LonelyRichKid: Freida and her family are rich, but due to her sickness, Freida wasn't allowed to leave the house often and she doesn't spend time with children her age, as she is fated to leave the lower city and live in the Noble's Quarter once she comes of age. Myne is her first friend, who she deeply cares about. |
| 468 | * ManipulativeBitch: Freida, who at her age already is a trained merchant, can guide a conversation in a way to get what she wants. |
| 469 | ** Part 1: |
| 470 | *** In Volume 2, Freida makes Myne promise to visit and make sweets with her, and manages to do so in Volume 3 without [[CloudcuckoolandersMinder any adult or Lutz]] interfering, so that she can take her time to not just spend some girl-time with Myne alone, but also to get more information out of her. As expected, Myne gave away an extremely valuable recipe for pound cake for free on top of properly and fully paying for the magic tool Freida used on Myne, even though that was meant to trick Benno and Myne to get her to switch companies. Freida does pay a lot for the exclusivity of pound cake later, though. |
| 471 | *** In Volume 3, Freida tricks Myne into visiting her again. On the next day when she comes to pick up Myne, she uses Myne's love for Tuuli to her advantage by guilt-tripping Myne into letting Tuuli ride the carriage with them, which ensures that Lutz can't come with Myne to keep an eye on her. |
| 472 | *** She eventually learns that it's no good trying to deceive someone you care about like she tried with Myne, even if she had good intentions. However, in a bonus chapter from Volume 3, Freida tells Leise the other lesson she learned is that it's sometimes even better to manipulate someone by being nice to them, as Myne then often gives away information for free as a bonus. |
| 473 | ** In Part 3, after the Italian restaurant's first and very successful full course meal, Freida helps Rozemyne negotiating a good price for the recipes she is willing to sell to the nobles. |
| 474 | * TheMistress: She's slated to fill that role towards her benefactor once she reaches adulthood. |
| 475 | * MoneyFetish: Like Myne with books, Freida really loves her money. |
| 476 | * MsViceGirl: She's not a bad person, and she is a good friend, but she is greedy. Myne obliges by making very profitable deals with her. |
| 477 | * NoSocialSkills: |
| 478 | ** She can talk business and be polite just fine, but when it comes to personal relationships, she still has much to learn. For instance, she thinks her grandfather is grooming her and takes care of her so much because Freida is a big investment for him to establish deeper connections with the Noble's Quarter. She reacts very surprised when Myne tells her that he really just wants Freida to be happy and has problems expressing his love for her. |
| 479 | ** Freida tends to be too direct. This especially becomes problematic after Part 2, due to the social differences between her and Rozemyne. Even Rozemyne is taken aback with Freida's directness in Part 3 Volume 4, for which she is scolded by Damian. She doesn't learn her lesson and makes the same mistake in Part 4 Volume 3 in the presence of Rozemyne's noble retainers, which visibly angers them. |
| 480 | * NotSoDifferentRemark: Lutz points out how similar Freida and Myne are, as they are both cute on the outside, but very weird on the inside, and both are obsessed with money and books respectively. |
| 481 | * {{Ojou}}: Freida is a commoner from one of the wealthiest and most influential families in the lower city, with several servants and personal attendants. However, she is treated even more differently than the rest of her family, as she will move to the Noble's Quarter when she comes of age. This is therefore also part of her training. |
| 482 | * OlderThanTheyLook: She is half a year older than Myne, but like Myne, due to the Devouring, her body is much smaller than someone her age. |
| 483 | * PatheticallyWeak: Though it's unclear whether it's caused by the Devouring or her lack of experience with manual labor, she lasts just about as long as Myne when she gives mixing cake batter a try. |
| 484 | * TheRival: To Benno, though it's a FriendlyRivalry. She also views Lutz as one, though this has more to do with Myne [[FriendshipFavoritism favoring Lutz over Freida]], as he is Myne's {{childhood|friends}} BestFriend. |
| 485 | * RoseHairedSweetie: ZigZagged. Freida comes off as very friendly and innocent, but beneath that smile and politeness is the cold and calculating heart of a merchant. However, meeting Myne changes her for the better, and she is willing to go to great lengths to keep Myne alive and by her side. |
| 486 | * SecretKeeper: She becomes aware of Rozemyne by complete accident. [[spoiler:During the climax of Part 2 Volume 4, she happens to be visiting her benefactor, who's Damuel's older brother. Damuel is urgently put in the room initially prepared for Freida to recover from the injuries he sustained, and the mix-up results in her hearing just enough from Damuel to figure out that he got his injuries from guarding Myne. The next day, Freida returns to the Merchant's Guild and looks for the magic contracts Myne signed with Lutz and Benno, and sees that Myne's name was changed to "Rozemyne", which is a sign that Myne was taken in by nobles.]] After those events, she and her grandfather ask Benno for a meeting about Rozemyne, and Benno realizes that they already know too much. He then decides to get them fully involved. |
| 487 | * SecretSecretKeeper: At the end of Part 1, the temple inquires Gustav about information regarding Myne, who would soon join the temple as an apprentice shrine maiden. Freida and her grandfather are thus the only people that know about Myne's relation to the temple without being told by Myne. |
| 488 | * TookALevelInKindness: And [[TookALevelInCheerfulness cheerfulness]]. Freida becomes livelier and friendlier after meeting and befriending Myne. Myne's kindness apparently rubbed off on Freida, as Leise and her grandfather note. |
| 489 | * TwoAliasesOneCharacter: She and [[spoiler:Damuel's brother's concubine from a rich family]] turn out to be the same person at the end of Part 2. |
| 490 | * WiseBeyondTheirYears: She is barely older than Myne, but already has reached a maturity and keen sense of business to the point that Benno views her as a serious competitor and rival. |
| 491 | * WithFriendsLikeThese: Declares herself Myne's best friend. That doesn't stop her from trying to get profitable ideas out of her. [[spoiler:The fact that Myne's blessing at the end of Part 2 explicitly avoids Freida and hits Damuel, while Freida is present, is a not-so-subtle way to show that Myne does not view Freida as much of a friend.]] |
| 492 | [[/folder]] |
| 493 | |
| 494 | [[folder:Damian]] |
| 495 | !!Damian |
| 496 | !!!'''Debut:''' Part 1 (Volume 3) |
| 497 | |
| 498 | One of Freida's older brothers. Myne meets him and the rest of Freida's family while staying at their house after being treated for her Devouring. While he initially is not an adult yet, he has a lot of experience working in multiple stores as a lehange. |
| 499 | \ |
| 500 | After Benno establishes the Plantin Company in Part 3, Benno is forced by Freida and Gustav to take Damian in as a lehange. As Damian's family deals with nobles, he is one of Benno's few employees capable of speaking with nobles. |
| 501 | ---- |
| 502 | * AdaptationDyeJob: Freida's brothers make a cameo during the anime version of the preparations for Freida's baptism, but they both have WorldOfTechnicolorHair appropriate hair colors (blue and purple). When Rozemyne describes Damian in Part 3, his hair is more of a brown color. |
| 503 | * BrainyBrunette: Damian has a lot of experience working in many different stores, and Lutz begrudgingly admits that he has a keen sense for new marketable products. |
| 504 | * EarlyBirdCameo: His introduction on Freida's baptism aside, he makes a named appearance in Gustav's side story at the end of Part 1 and doesn't reappear until Part 3. |
| 505 | * IGotBigger: When Myne first meets him, he is short enough that she would have no trouble mistaking him for a ten-year-old. When they meet again two years later in Part 3 Volume 4, he is as tall as Benno. |
| 506 | %%* ManipulativeBastard: |
| 507 | * SecretKeeper: Damian has met Myne before, therefore he is fully aware of [[spoiler:Rozemyne's commoner origins]]. As he is one of Benno's employees sent to Illgner to establish new plant paper workshops and research new paper products, he is also taught the secret of making plant paper. |
| 508 | * SharedFamilyQuirks: From what little Myne saw when she first met him, he is just as assertive and pushy as the rest of his family. He also has a sharp nose for profit. |
| 509 | * ShelteredAristocrat: A sheltered and rich [[PrincelyYoungMan high-ranking commoner]] in this case. Damian feels like a FishOutOfWater when he visits Illgner, as unlike Gil or Lutz he is not used to gathering his own food, drawing water, cooking, or washing his clothes. His attempts to hire a servant all fail because the people in Illgner are all too busy and view money differently, and he can't just buy his food because stores don't exist there. |
| 510 | [[/folder]] |
| 511 | |
| 512 | [[folder:Leise]] |
| 513 | !!Leise |
| 514 | !!!'''Debut:''' Part 1 (Volume 3) |
| 515 | !!!'''Voiced by''': Creator/MayumiYamaguchi (Japanese), Rebecca Davis (English) |
| 516 | [[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/portrait_ilse.png]] |
| 517 | |
| 518 | The chef in Guildmaster Gustav's household. She spends part of the story being the only cook able to make sugar-based recipes Myne has access to. |
| 519 | ---- |
| 520 | * ChubbyChef: She's a competent chef for rich commoners and one of the more heavyset members of the cast. |
| 521 | * IdenticalStranger: Myne is reminded of Karla when first meeting her, and her character design follows suit. |
| 522 | * SupremeChef: The guildmaster got her from a noble, and she can make something edible while following verbal instructions from Myne for the first time. |
| 523 | * TheRival: To Hugo. While they compete regularly with each other over mastery of noble cusine and Myne's recipes, the nature of their rivalry is more of the [[FriendlyRivalry friendly type]], as they also teach to each other techniques and recipes that the other doesn't know or hasn't mastered well yet. |
| 524 | [[/folder]] |
| 525 | |
| 526 | !!Craftsmen |
| 527 | [[folder:Johann]] |
| 528 | !!Johann |
| 529 | !!!'''Debut:''' Part 2 (Volume 1) |
| 530 | !!!'''Voiced by''': Kouji Takahashi (Japanese), Creator/ChrisHackney (English), César Garduza (Latin American Spanish) |
| 531 | [[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bookworm_p2v3_johann.png]] |
| 532 | |
| 533 | A 14-year-old skilled blacksmith who's extremely detail-oriented, but annoys many potential customers due to the amount of questions he asks about their desired project. |
| 534 | ---- |
| 535 | * BlessedWithSuck: Johann is the only blacksmith Rozemyne knows whose work is precise enough to realize many of her inventions like the hand pump or the printing press. As he can't manage to get any other patrons due to his lack of social skills and because he needs precise directions, he is stuck with being Rozemyne's exclusive blacksmith. |
| 536 | * ChallengeSeeker: Johann just loves crafting things that require precision. In Part 3, this becomes a problem because from all the schematics Zack makes, he always chooses the most difficult one. This is called out by Ingo who tells Johann that he should focus on making the best and functional product for the customer, not the most challenging one for himself. |
| 537 | * CripplingOverspecialization: Johann excels at doing precise and minute work. However, he relies on blueprints and schematics that give him every detail necessary to make it work. He lacks in imagination, though later on he can get around that by using Zack's schematics instead. |
| 538 | * DemotedToExtra: Johann has one line in the anime. Despite playing a very important part in realizing Myne's printing press, how he came to meet Myne is completely skipped. |
| 539 | * EmbarrassingNickname: Given what he ends up bringing into the world, Myne can't resist giving him an honorific title that she calls "Gutenberg". Cue everyone around him calling him this. |
| 540 | * HumbleHero: Johann just wants to craft things that excite him. Unfortunately for him, Myne insists on calling him a Gutenberg, as he is her personal hero. Getting called a title that is supposedly given to "great craftsmen who will change history" is extremely embarrassing to him, and he'd rather give the title to someone else if he could help it. |
| 541 | * NoSocialSkills: One of the reasons why he can't get any patrons (besides Myne) is that he can't talk to other people. He always comes off as socially awkward and rude. |
| 542 | ** This can be seen in Part 4 Volume 4, when he and the other Gutenbergs accompany Rozemyne to Haldenzel. Johann is supposed to grade the type letters the Haldenzel craftsmen have made and he immediately rejects their work because they don't look as precise as he instructed, which makes the craftmen angry as they think he is just nitpicking and has too high standards. Rozemyne has to intervene and wants Johann to explain ''why'' it needs to be so precise. The craftsmen begin to understand then and try to improve. |
| 543 | ** In Part 5 Volume 6, [[spoiler:Rozemyne asks which of her Gutenbergs wish to accompany her when she leaves Ehrenfest. Johann notes that he is soon set to marry the granddaughter of his boss once she comes of age, so he doesn't want to, but it's then revealed that said granddaughter actually likes Johann's apprentice much more. Hearing this, Johann groans in frustration]]. |
| 544 | * PropheticNames: Yes, the author gave him a name almost identical to [[UsefulNotes/JohannesGutenberg Gutenberg]]'s for a reason. |
| 545 | * TrueCraftsman: That detail orientation results in him producing high-quality products. Him bombarding customers with questions when they make requests annoys them and makes it appear like he is too incompetent to figure things out, when he actuallly just wants to make a work as close to the customer's imagination as possible and he doesn't want to make compromises. |
| 546 | * UltimateBlacksmith: Johann is the only blacksmith who can make the detailed and precise works that are necessary for Myne's type letters for the printing press. His love for detail is one of the reasons why no one but Myne gives him work, though. |
| 547 | [[/folder]] |
| 548 | |
| 549 | [[folder:Zack]] |
| 550 | !!Zack |
| 551 | !!!'''Debut:''' Part 2 (Volume 3) |
| 552 | [[quoteright:255:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/portrait_zack_2.png]] |
| 553 | |
| 554 | A blacksmith who is the same age as Johann. He is a leherl at the Verde Workshop and views Johann as his rival. Jealous that Johann received a title and business from the archduke's adopted daughter, he seeks Rozemyne's patronage and eventually becomes her second Gutenberg smith. |
| 555 | ---- |
| 556 | * ChildhoodFriendRomance: He marries his longtime childhood friend and girlfriend in Part 5 Volume 6. |
| 557 | * CloudcuckoolandersMinder: He seems to have slipped into the role towards Johann by the time Part 4 starts, having picked up enough understanding of Johann's quirks and way of thinking that he knows exactly what to do when Johann's own personality traits cause various issues. |
| 558 | * {{Foil}}: To Johann. Johann's precise craftwork surpasses Zack's, but he needs to follow a blueprint that tells him what to do to make it a reality. Unlike Johann, Zack can create these blueprints even if he is only given vague descriptions. Zack's social skills are also better than Johann's, which is why he doesn't just rely on Rozemyne's patronage. They complement each other well. |
| 559 | * GadgeteerGenius: One advantage that Zack has over Johann is that he can visualize things with only vague descriptions. Rozemyne teaches her Gutenbergs physical principles like the law of the lever or the creation of vacuum for pumps, but while Johann is [[WorthlessYellowRocks left clueless]] on what to do with this knowledge, Zack instantly finds ways to utilize this, which earns him his Gutenberg title. |
| 560 | * GlorySeeker: Zack is aware that a good reputation is important to receive more jobs. He is therefore initially not willing to share his blueprints with Johann, as Johann ''can'' make even seemingly impossible blueprints a reality, and as Johann would produce it, Zack's standing in the Smithing Guild wouldn't improve. This is why Rozemyne introduces the concept of intellectual property, so that she can directly buy Zack's blueprints and lets him receive royalties whenever someone uses one of his inventions. |
| 561 | * ToBeAMaster: He mistakenly believes that "Gutenberg" is a title reserved for the UltimateBlacksmith, which is why he challenges Johann for the title. He is left baffled when he learns that it's a title for anyone that greatly contributes to Rozemyne's plans to spread printing to the world. |
| 562 | * UnknownRival: Zack views Johann as a smithing rival, as they are leherls at competing workshops and are of similar age. Johann didn't even know who Zack was until he visited the Smithing Guild for his coming-of-age test. |
| 563 | [[/folder]] |
| 564 | |
| 565 | [[folder:Ingo]] |
| 566 | !!Ingo |
| 567 | !!!'''Debut:''' Part 2 (Volume 2) |
| 568 | !!!'''Voiced by''': Katsunori Okai (Japanese) |
| 569 | [[quoteright:255:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/portrait_ingo.png]] |
| 570 | |
| 571 | A carpenter foreman who Myne is referred to, since Benno's exclusive workshop is too busy to handle Myne's requests. Satisfied with his work, she later orders him to build the first printing press, at which point she makes him her exclusive carpenter and one of her Gutenbergs. |
| 572 | ---- |
| 573 | * {{Determinator}}: Ingo is a skilled carpenter, whose goal was always to open his own workshop. He declined all leherl offers and apprenticed at many workshops as a lehange until he finally got his certification to open his own workshop. The monastery job in Hasse actually puts him in a bind, as the guild members assume that he either never had Rozemyne's exclusive business or lost it. Ingo insists to have a talk with Rozemyne about it to save his workshop from being shut down, even if he has to pay Benno a hefty sum to act as a middleman and talking to nobles can easily lead to his death. |
| 574 | * ImprobableAge: Ingo is noted to be 33 when Rozemyne meets him again in Part 3. Most foremen who start their own workshop are usually at least in their forties. Ingo is thus not very respected in the Carpentry Guild and he doesn't get many big jobs until Rozemyne gives him her exclusive business. |
| 575 | * NoSocialSkills: ZigZagged. His people skills with commoners are quite decent, but he has no idea about noble etiquette, which is why he needs Benno and Lutz's help to talk to Rozemyne, as she cannot visit the lower city anymore. |
| 576 | * OnlySaneMan: When discussing how to make a better printing press with Rozemyne, Zack, and Johann, he has to rein in [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} Rozemyne's]] and [[ChallengeSeeker Johann's]] tunnel vision and remind them that the former shouldn't ignore Zack's other proposed blueprints, and tells the latter that the most difficult product to craft is not necessarily the one that would satisfy the customer the most. |
| 577 | * PennyAmongDiamonds: Ingo doesn't understand the importance of status in noble society and their customs are completely foreign to him. He feels very uncomfortable as soon as he enters the temple, as all gray robes there do not yell, speak very politely, abhor violence and are fully literate. He also is very confused when he sees Gil and Lutz being in charge of the Rozemyne Workshop, as they are of higher status in the workshop than grey robes who are older than them. |
| 578 | * TrueCraftsman: When Ingo is invited to the temple to talk with the gray priests about how to improve the printing press, he quickly realizes that someone must already know how to make the printing press better, making him not want to waste time through trial and error to get an inferior product. He also doesn't hesitate to ask for help from blacksmiths to incorporate metal for the press and lectures Rozemyne and Johann when the two decide too quickly how the final printing press should be built. |
| 579 | [[/folder]] |
| 580 | |
| 581 | [[folder:Heidi & Josef]] |
| 582 | !!Heidi & Josef |
| 583 | !!!'''Debut:''' Part 2 (Volume 4) |
| 584 | !!!'''Heidi is voiced by''': Ayano Shibuya (Japanese), \ |
| 585 | '''Josef is voiced by''': Tomohito Takatsuka (Japanese) |
| 586 | [[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/portrait_inkers_9.png]] |
| 587 | [[caption-width-right:250:Josef and Heidi]] |
| 588 | |
| 589 | A pair of married inkmakers in their twenties, in which the wife, Heidi, is attempting to make colored inks. Luckily for her, Myne just happens to have a need for some and be willing to fund her research. |
| 590 | \ |
| 591 | Heidi has a lot in common with Myne, and her husband Josef is her long-time CloudcuckoolandersMinder. |
| 592 | ---- |
| 593 | * BabiesEverAfter: By Part 4 it is mentioned that Heidi is a mother now, which means that the two of them had a least one child. |
| 594 | * BirdsOfAFeather: Heidi and Myne are in their own ways extremely weird. This is why they hit it off immediately and why Myne knows exactly how to curb Heidi's research-obsessed enthusiasm. |
| 595 | * BornInTheWrongCentury: Heidi is definitely a born scientist. Too bad science hasn't taken off in her world yet. |
| 596 | * ChildhoodfriendRomance: They met when they were both apprentices and grew closer as Josef was tasked to look after Heidi. |
| 597 | * {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: Heidi's constant experimentation and attempts to figure out ''why'' things happen as they do tends to drive her coworkers up the wall. |
| 598 | * CloudcuckoolandersMinder: It is Josef's job to take care of his wife and her eccentricities, and it has been his job ever since they were both apprentices. |
| 599 | * {{Foil}}: According to [[invoked]]WordOfGod, the two of them are what Myne and Lutz probably would've ended up like had Myne not had to go to the temple. |
| 600 | * MadScientist: Heidi is just a little too into her research and finding out what causes color change in ink, and is very unhappy to find out that Myne's made the process work without ever finding out the underlying mechanism. Myne's happy to give her a little money for R&D, though. |
| 601 | * NoSocialSkills: Due to Heidi's exuberance she isn't allowed to interact with customers. In Part 4, whenever their workshop needs to send a representative, Josef will go, since his wife is extremely rude in the eyes of a noble. |
| 602 | %%* HugeGuyTinyGirl |
| 603 | * OlderThanTheyLook: Heidi looks to be around 15 to Myne, but she is actually in her twenties. |
| 604 | [[/folder]] |
| 605 | |
| 606 | [[folder:Bierce]] |
| 607 | !!Bierce |
| 608 | !!!'''Debut:''' Part 2 (Volume 2) |
| 609 | !!!'''Voiced by''': Takugo Iwakawa (Japanese), Creator/PaulStPeter (English) |
| 610 | [[quoteright:255:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/portrait_bierce.png]] |
| 611 | |
| 612 | The foreman of an ink workshop and the father of Heidi. When Myne first wants to make ink for printing, she has Benno take her to the ink store but due to the store owner being unable to answer her questions, she then goes direclty to the ink workshop and meets Bierce, who is rightfully alarmed at her well-informed questions on how to make ink. |
| 613 | ---- |
| 614 | * UnexpectedSuccessor: After Wolf is found dead, no other member of the Ink Guild wants to succeed him, as they all suspect that his shady dealings with nobles are what ended up killing him. So it's [[ReluctantRuler Bierce]] who would later land the position as the next guildmaster, for which he ends up seeking Benno's help as he is not used to deal directly with nobles. |
| 615 | [[/folder]] |
| 616 | |
| 617 | [[folder:Wolf]] |
| 618 | !!Wolf |
| 619 | !!!'''Debut:''' Part 2 (Volume 3) |
| 620 | !!!'''Voiced by''': Toshitsugu Takashina (Japanese), Bob Carter (English), José Luis Rivera (Latin American Spanish) |
| 621 | [[quoteright:255:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/portrait_wolf.png]] |
| 622 | |
| 623 | |
| 624 | The current guildmaster of the Ink Guild. It is rumored that he is willing to undertake any sort of criminal activity to strengthen his relationships with the nobility, and once he became guildmaster, he used forceful methods to monopolize business with the nobles. |
| 625 | ---- |
| 626 | * AmbitionIsEvil: He is well-known to be capable to do anything, ''absolutely anything'', if it would bring him a better connection to the nobility and gain their favour. |
| 627 | * BitPartBadguys: He is introduced as a possible threat to Myne and her endeavours, even sending people after her and her close associates, but he ends up [[WeHardlyKnewYe leaving the story]] shortly after. |
| 628 | * WeHardlyKnewYe: Not long after he is first marked as someone Myne should worry about, he wounds up being found dead. It is but stated that he most likely suffered from YouHaveFailedMe by whomever employed him in the first place. |
| 629 | [[/folder]] |
| 630 | |
| 631 | !!Others |
| 632 | |
| 633 | [[folder:Fey]] |
| 634 | !!Fey |
| 635 | !!!'''Debut:''' Part 1 (Volume 1) |
| 636 | !!!'''Voiced by''': Creator/YumiriHanamori (Japanese), Creator/LailaBerzins (English) |
| 637 | [[quoteright:255:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/portrait_fey.png]] |
| 638 | |
| 639 | A boy from Myne's neighborhood who is introduced alongside Ralph and Lutz and the same age as Tuuli down to birth season. He only gets to play a significant role in the story about once before his and Tuuli's shared baptism makes his life intersect with Myne's even less than before. |
| 640 | ---- |
| 641 | * AdaptationalJerkass: In the light novel, he and three of his friends walk on Myne's clay tablets more or less by accident. In the anime, he and only one of his friends destroy all the tablets between them by deciding they look like something fun to jump on, making their destruction much more deliberate. |
| 642 | * KidsAreCruel: In the anime, his reaction to seeing Myne's clay tablets is to drag his friend into jumping on them. |
| 643 | * RelatedInTheAdaptation: The anime makes him Ralph and Lutz's cousin, which helps explain why he was the only kid from the neighborhood heading out to the forest at the same time as a pair of siblings. |
| 644 | * RecurringExtra: He shows up in Part 1 Volume 1 and early episodes of the anime when the events require a boy from Myne's neighborhood who's neither Lutz nor Ralph. After that, he has a small part in [[spoiler:Myne's funeral]] at the end of Part 2. He also briefly indirectly takes up that mantle again in Part 3, when a baptism ceremony can't [[spoiler:be used as a cover for Myne's family to blend in with the families of baptized kids to catch a glimpse of Rozemyne]] because his younger sister is taking part in it and people who know Myne's family are the most likely source of unwanted attention. In Part 4, when the characters who were six years old at the very beginning of the story are old enough to start actively courting, Fey is mentioned to have a girlfriend. |
| 645 | [[/folder]] |
| 646 | |
| 647 | [[folder:Liz]] |
| 648 | !!Liz |
| 649 | !!!'''Voiced by''': Ami Nanase (TV CD Original Soundscape 2) |
| 650 | [[quoteright:255:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/portrait_liz.png]] |
| 651 | |
| 652 | Liz was the daughter of linen merchants, Benno's childhood sweetheart and Leon's paternal aunt. Unbeknownst to her she was born with the Devouring and she would only start showing symptoms in her mid-teens. Since their parents were on good terms she started training as an apprentice seamstress in the Gilberta Company under Benno's mother, there she would meet and become close friends with Milda. |
| 653 | \ |
| 654 | Although she actually desired to be a merchant she had given up after her father appointed her older brother to be his successor. After speaking with her friend and learning that in the Gilberta Company the daughters were the ''actual'' heirs and that Milda was also training as an apprentice merchant, Liz regained her desire to fulfill her dream and started training with both Milda and Benno as fellow merchant apprentices. |
| 655 | \ |
| 656 | As she and Benno interacted more with each other and deepened their friendship they ended up falling in love and getting engaged, but before they could marry Liz would die from the Devouring. Even in the present Benno remembers her screams of agony during the Devouring attacks and how helpless he was and unable to do anything for her. |
| 657 | ---- |
| 658 | * ChildhoodFriends: She was good friends with Benno's younger sister, Milda, and thanks to her she ended up meeting and befriending Benno. |
| 659 | * ChildhoodfriendRomance: She and Benno both felt a [[{{RivalryAsCourtship}} rivalry]] as merchant apprentices but they were also good friends... As they spent more and more time together they fell in love and as they desired to get married to each other they got engaged. |
| 660 | * LikeAnOldMarriedCouple: She would regularly argue and fight head-on on equal terms with Benno, which was a sign of how close they actually were and how much they understood each other. |
| 661 | * TheLostLenore: To Benno. He never took any serious interest in marriage nor romance after her death. |
| 662 | * StrongFamilyResemblance: Her nephew Leon's character appearance was designed to feel like as if he were her younger brother. |
| 663 | |
| 664 | [[/folder]] |
| 665 | |
| 666 | [[folder:Mayor of Hasse (Spoilers)]] |
| 667 | !!Mayor of Hasse |
| 668 | !!!'''Debut:''' Part 3 (Volume 2) |
| 669 | |
| 670 | The mayor of a town close to Ehrenfest's capital. When Rozemyne and Ferdinand visit Hasse to get orphans for the newly built monastery, he is extremely uncooperative, which earns him Ferdinand's ire. In the belief that he can get his orphans back, he unsuccessfully tries to attack the monastery. As this is an act of treason, Ferdinand uses this opportunity to teach Rozemyne more about politics and orders Rozemyne to set up the mayor's fall. |
| 671 | ---- |
| 672 | * AbusiveParents: As the mayor, he is responsible for the orphanage of his town. Rozemyne later hears that he regularly [[WouldHurtAChild physically abuses]] the children. |
| 673 | * BadLiar: His argument for being spared from execution is that he didn't know attacking an ivory building is treason. Every citizen in the capital knows that, so the mayor of a nearby town who deals with nobles surely must know this as well. Besides, ignorance of the law isn't an excuse in the first place, as he later accidentally admits himself. |
| 674 | * FatalFlaw: [[{{Pride}} Overconfidence]]. His belief that the nobles who want the orphans he was about to sell and Bezewanst would protect him from any repercussions is what leads to him not only disobeying Ferdinand's orders, he later organizes an attack on the monastery, which seals his fate. |
| 675 | * {{Foil}}: He resembles Bezewanst in many ways, as he is a man who believes himself to be more powerful than he really is and thinks he can get away with his crimes because of his connections. |
| 676 | * {{Hypocrite}}: Rozemyne exposes him as one when he [[VillainsWantMercy begs for mercy]]. The mayor feigns ignorance by claiming that he wasn't aware ivory buildings belong to the archducal family and that attacking them would be treason, but then says that he would punish the orphans who attack his family, even if they didn't know. |
| 677 | * LiterallyShatteredLives: Ferdinand executes him in Part 3 Volume 3 by [[TakenForGranite turning him to stone]] and then shattering him to dust. |
| 678 | * ManipulativeBastard: His cry for mercy makes others sympathize with him initially, and Rozemyne sees that he has a way with words. |
| 679 | * MuggingTheMonster: Benno, Mark and Gil were sent to Hasse to investigate and cooperate with the local authorities to set up new workshops for the duchy-wide printing business, but were met with strong hostility. The mayor didn't seem to understand that Benno had the backing of the archduke himself. He repeats this mistake when Rozemyne and Ferdinand come to Hasse in Part 3 Volume 2, not knowing that he just tried to defy the half-brother and adopted daughter of the archduke. Ferdinand would have had the "moronic, incompetent, hopeless, blustering fool of a mayor" killed on the spot if he wasn't used as a learning experience for Rozemyne. |
| 680 | * OriginalPositionFallacy: He justifies his abuse of the orphans by the fact that he's providing for them and hence they should be harshly punished if they go against him in any way, including a hypothetical situation in which they would attack a member of his family. The problem is that it is very easy to argue that he, himself, is provided for by the very archduke whose family he technically attacked by attacking the monastery. |
| 681 | * SmugSnake: The mayor had [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveConnections connections]] to former High Bishop Bezewanst, who was the uncle of the ruling archduke, giving him a lot of leeway. He is later informed that Bezewanst is dead, but since he doesn't understand the meaning of the DeadlyEuphemism nobles use, he mistakenly believes Bezewanst was promoted and could still influence the temple. He retains his slimy and arrogant tone after Rozemyne formally purchases the orphans, which he believes she does because Bezewanst ordered her to. |
| 682 | [[/folder]] |
| 683 | |
| 684 | !Temple Members |
| 685 | !!Leadership |
| 686 | [[folder:High Bishop Bezewanst]] |
| 687 | !!Bezewanst |
| 688 | !!!'''Debut:''' Part 1 (Volume 3) |
| 689 | [[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/portrait_bezewanst.png]] |
| 690 | |
| 691 | The highest ranking member and head of the temple. He and Myne got on each other's bad side during the latter's application process. While the two avoid each other, his rank means Myne must avoid rattling his cage via her actions as much as possible. |
| 692 | \ |
| 693 | Unfortunately, as far as he's concerned, she's doing so merely by existing. Myne's mentor Ferdinand has a bad personal relationship with him, too, as the nobleman who fathered Ferdinand was married to Bezewanst's older sister. |
| 694 | ---- |
| 695 | * AristocratsAreEvil: Bezewanst fully abuses his bloodline and high position to get what he wants. He had no qualms trying to execute Myne's parents to get Myne, constantly embezzles money, is extremely lazy and neglects his duties and responsibilities, accepts bribes, and sends gray shrine maidens to nobles for "[[SexualEuphemism flower offerings]]". |
| 696 | * BadBoss: Gray priests and shrine maidens are used as bribes or are sold to nobles for favors and money that he keeps to himself. Shrine maidens that act as {{Sex Slave}}s and eventually get pregnant are quietly "[[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness disposed of]]", as they cannot work anymore and he is not willing to feed them or their children. |
| 697 | * BeautyIsBest: His policy at the temple is to kick out all ugly gray shrine maidens, as he needs {{Sex Slave}}s to bribe nobles. When Myne enters the temple, she notices that all orphans look very cute or attractive. |
| 698 | * BitchInSheepsClothing: At first he appears to be a very kind old man, but when Myne comes to the temple with her parents and he sees they are poor, his attitude does a complete 180. He chides them for wasting his time, just demands they hand Myne over to the temple, and then threatens to execute Myne's parents when they refuse. The only reason it doesn't happen is because Myne knocked him out with her magic, and killing him would endanger her family's lives. |
| 699 | * BullyingADragon: |
| 700 | ** His first attempt to order Myne's parents to just hand her over and threaten to execute her parents if they refuse may be excused as MuggingTheMonster, as he did not expect Myne's mana levels to be so high that in her {{tranquil|fury}} yet UnstoppableRage she would be able to Crush him with her KillingIntent. However, he continuously harasses her however he can during Myne's stay as an apprentice blue shrine maiden, and [[spoiler:makes a pact with Count Bindewald to capture her and force her to sign a submission contract]]. He's doing this fully aware that Myne can not only kill him, she is backed by the High Priest. |
| 701 | ** A side story in Part 4 Volume 9 reveals that he once sent a gray shrine maiden into Ferdinand's kitchen to tamper with his food. The shrine maiden was caught and Ferdinand decided to turn the tables and instead poisoned ''Bezewanst's'' food. When he later came to Ferdinand to complain, Ferdinand threatened to keep poisoning Bezewanst's food, making Bezewanst turn tail and never attempt to do this again. |
| 702 | * DirtyCoward: He enjoys letting others do the work for him, but when he is asked by his allied nobles to produce Myne, he spits out excuses and blames others. He is constantly complaining about Myne, asking for anyone from his sister's faction to deal with her, but he doesn't do anything himself. He has no real power and he knows it. For all his misdeeds, the only reason he has gotten away with it every time is because his elder sister keeps bailing him out. [[spoiler:This doesn't work anymore at the end of Part 2. Sylvester and Ferdinand have enough evidence to convict him and Veronica, which ends with Bezewanst's execution and Veronica's permanent imprisonment.]] |
| 703 | * DirtyOldMan: He's taken many gray shrine maidens to satisfy his own lust or gain favors by lending or selling them to nobles. |
| 704 | * EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: Bezewanst has been protected his whole life by his elder sister, Veronica. [[spoiler:He is left devastated when he hears she would be punished by Sylvester. Her daughter, Georgine, also seems to be fond of him, as in Part 3, as the new High Bishop, Rozemyne gets access to his belongings and finds the hidden letters Bezewanst exchanged with Georgine. Rozemyne mistakes the letters for love letters.]] |
| 705 | * EvilOldFolks: He's one of the elder temple members, who gives off the appearance of a kind grandfather. He is also the first person Myne encounters who is just straight up evil. |
| 706 | * EvilUncle: Bezewanst is Ferdinand's step-uncle and [[spoiler:a thorn in his side, a sentiment that is shared by Sylvester, his actual nephew. Unfortunately, Sylvester can't act, as he has a soft spot for his mother, who loves her younger brother. Bezewanst endangering Myne, who just made a contract with Sylvester and became his adoptive daughter, was the final straw that forced Sylvester to condemn his own mother and uncle]]. |
| 707 | * FakeAristocrat: Since he was never baptized in the Noble's Quarter and especially never graduated from the Royal Academy he shouldn't even be considered a noble. In a [[TheMagocracy society ruled by those who have tremendous mana]] his mana was deemed far "too low" (since his was akin to a mednoble rather than an archnoble rich in archducal blood), so the only reason nobles flock to him or why he even gained such a high position is due to his bloodline, as he is related to two different archduke lines, and his sister is [[spoiler:the current archduke's mother]]. |
| 708 | * FatalFlaw: Pride. He knows full well that the temple is low on both funds and mana, yet despite that and the fact Myne provides the temple with both, he desires nothing more than to get rid of her. |
| 709 | * FatBastard: Bezewanst's overweight figure stands out in the temple, where orphans are sheltered and starving (especially because part of their funds are stolen by him and other blue priests). He also is directly opposed to Ferdinand and Myne, with his goal being Myne's death or submission. |
| 710 | * FatSlob: Bezewanst is known to delegate responsibilities to other people. After the purge of Sovereignty, and many blue priests and shrine maidens leaving the temple to become nobles, most of these responsibilities were given to Ferdinand. Even Rozemyne notes that he couldn't even be bothered to learn the stories and prayers in the bible. He just wrote them down to read off of it. |
| 711 | * {{Foil}}: To Myne. Bezewanst's bloodline is one of the highest in the country, with both of his parents being archduke candidates. As [[AllThereInTheManual a fanbook reveals]], [[spoiler:as was agreed on with Ahrensbach, had he been born with enough mana, he also would have become the next Aub Ehrenfest]]. However, his poor mana instead lands him in the temple where he has to serve as High Bishop. Myne on the other hand is an extremely poor commoner, but eventually joins the temple due to her high mana. At the end of Part 2, [[spoiler:she becomes Bezewanst's successor as High Bishop]]. Additionally, Bezewanst's positive and warm relationship with his niece Georgine, to whom he keeps up a correspondence, mirrors [[spoiler:Rozemyne and Ferdinand's relationship in Part 5, as they regularly write to each other after Ferdinand is forced to go to Ahrensbach, and Ferdinand is officially Rozemyne's adoptive uncle]]. |
| 712 | * ForgettableCharacter: At some point in the novel, Myne admits to not having seen him for so long that she forgot he even existed. In Part 3, [[spoiler:when Ferdinand asks whether someone in the lower city has inquired about Bezewanst as the former High Bishop, Benno shrugs and tells him that no one cares about him, and everyone has already forgotten him]]. |
| 713 | * HateSink: Bezewanst is the archetypical evil noble, except he isn't even a noble. He is an overweight, power-hungry and corrupt coward and Myne's greatest adversary [[spoiler:for the first two Parts of the story. His death makes things infinitely easier for Rozemyne and Ferdinand]]. |
| 714 | * InferioritySuperiorityComplex: He is very proud of his family's high standing and his status as a legitimate child, because blue-robed priests are usually children of concubines like Ferdinand. At the same time he resents those with great mana capacity like Ferdinand and Myne, because of his lack of mana that landed him in the temple. |
| 715 | * KarmaHoudiniWarranty: Keeps needling and conspiring against Myne behind the scenes, [[spoiler:until it comes to a head with bringing a foreign noble during a period where the city was in lockdown. This would count as an act of war and made it so even his very influential sister could not protect him from his long list of crimes.]] |
| 716 | * KilledOffscreen: [[spoiler:His last appearance is during an interrogation by the Knight's Order at the beginning of Part 3. He is shortly after executed.]] |
| 717 | * PointyHairedBoss: The High Bishop is not terribly competent, leaving most of the work to Ferdinand, who, as the High Priest, works just below him. |
| 718 | * MeaningfulName: An alternative way to romanize his name would be "Bösewanz", which in German roughly translates to "[[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Evil Creep]]". "Wanst" means "belly" in German, so his name can also be read as "Evil FatBastard". |
| 719 | * MuggleBornOfMages: Despite his bloodline, Bezewanst wasn't born with the amount of mana expected for his station, which is why he was sent to the temple. He still tries to act as if he was on even ground with the other nobles, but it's clear that they only humor him because he has his family's backing and these sycophants want to gain favor from his relatives. |
| 720 | * NeverMyFault: He tends to blame everyone but himself for any mistakes that were made or crimes that were committed, even if it's obvious that it's a lie. He always gets away with it because of his connection to powerful nobles. |
| 721 | * NiceJobFixingItVillain: The High Bishop makes Ferdinand assign three attendants to Myne, intending for one to be his spy, one to just get in the way, and the third is a spy for Ferdinand himself. However, she wins the first two over quickly and the High Priest is not actually hostile towards Myne, so when she begins treating him with a noble's demeanor he gains a very effective support. |
| 722 | * ObstructiveBureaucrat: Not only is he not helping, he is also constantly getting in the way of Ferdinand's work. [[spoiler:After Rozemyne replaces him as High Bishop in Part 3, Ferdinand notes that Bezewanst's absence alone already makes life much easier for him.]] |
| 723 | * TheResenter: He hates both commoners and nobles, whether they are allied to him or not, which also makes him a {{Hypocrite}}. He deems himself above commoners due to his bloodline, but is [[GreenEyedMonster jealous]] of nobles who have the necessary mana to be acknowledged as such. His FreudianExcuse is that his mother died soon after birth. The Leisegang family head then forced Bezewanst, who was an infant, to join the temple due to his low mana levels. Thus, he was denied a baptism in the Noble's Quarter, and an education at the Royal Academy, something that he deems was his birthright. |
| 724 | * TheScapegoat: While he is responsible for many evil things, [[spoiler:after his arrest and subsequent execution]], both his enemies and former allies are all too happy to [[FramingTheGuiltyParty blame him for any other misdeeds that he didn't actually do]]. |
| 725 | * ScrewTheRulesIHaveConnections: Bezewanst happens to be the brother of [[spoiler:the previous archduke]]'s wife, which has given him tremendous privilege, not to mention enormous leeway to bend and even break certain rules. At the end of Part 2, [[spoiler:he gives up all protests and hope when Sylvester announces that he will ignore familial relations, as his uncle and mother have crossed a line. Bezewanst is to be executed and Veronica will be imprisoned for her complicity]]. |
| 726 | * SmallRoleBigImpact: Downplayed. He only plays an active role in less than one eighth of the story and his direct contact with Myne is rather low, though he does play an instrumental role in [[spoiler:getting her adopted into Sylvester's family]]. Furthermore, his downfall is connected to his sister's downfall, which leads to a domino effect that shakes Ehrenfest's entire political situation. It also leads to Georgine getting into contact with Ehrenfest again [[spoiler:and the letters he left behind, which are later given to her, give her enough information to figure out how to get to Ehrenfest's foundation]], as is revealed in Part 5. |
| 727 | * SmugSnake: Bezewanst thinks himself a noble, when he was never baptized as a noble's son and never studied at the Royal Academy. His way to try and ruin Myne is basically to go complain to any noble he has connections to and tell them that the temple is stained by a filthy commoner, who was given blue robes. He is responsible for stirring Shikza's anger towards Myne, but all of his plans fail because Myne is more resistant than he thought and she is backed up by Ferdinand [[spoiler:as well as Karstedt and Sylvester]]. |
| 728 | * StealingFromTheTill: After [[spoiler:he gets replaced]], Ferdinand mentions that Bezewanst made no difference between the money meant for his living expenses and the money meant for temple expenses, causing him to use the latter for the former. This resulted in ''both'' budgets being in the red. |
| 729 | * UnwittingPawn: [[spoiler:It's implied that he fell hook, line, and sinker in a trap that was laid out by Sylvester, Ferdinand and Karstedt at the end of Part 2 Volume 4. Bezewanst was used to secure Myne's adoption, capture a hostage to use against Aub Ahrensbach, and neutralize Veronica and her faction.]] |
| 730 | * WouldHurtAChild: He has no qualms making Myne submit using violence, and [[spoiler:in the climax of Part 2 he not only uses a baby as a HumanShield, he uses a feystone to drain the baby of its mana, almost killing it, so he can use it against Myne]]. |
| 731 | [[/folder]] |
| 732 | |
| 733 | [[folder:High Priest Ferdinand]] |
| 734 | !!Ferdinand |
| 735 | |
| 736 | The second-highest authority in the temple, who is leading the priests and shrine maidens of the temple. |
| 737 | |
| 738 | ->For more info about him, see [[Characters/AscendanceOfABookwormFerdinand his page]]. |
| 739 | |
| 740 | [[/folder]] |
| 741 | |
| 742 | !!Blue Priests and Shrine Maidens |
| 743 | [[folder:Christine]] |
| 744 | !!Christine |
| 745 | !!!'''Debut:''' Part 2 (Volume 2) |
| 746 | [[quoteright:255:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/portrait_christineeee.png]] |
| 747 | [[caption-width-right:255:Sister Christine]] |
| 748 | A young archnoble who was placed in the temple by her father to protect her from his first wife's harassment. There she became an apprentice shrine maiden who loved and practiced all kinds of arts and favoured gray shrine maidens who showed talents in any art, like Wilma and Rosina. |
| 749 | \ |
| 750 | After coming of age, Christine was married to a person related to Veronica's faction. |
| 751 | ---- |
| 752 | * CoolBigSis: To the gray shrine maidens whom she favored she was a kind and loving master, allowing them to pursue their artistic passions and letting them take the same classes she herself took, thus treating them far better than any other noble would have treated a commoner and much less an orphan. |
| 753 | * {{Ojou}}: Unlike most blue priests and shrine maidens she wasn't sent to the temple because she lacked mana to be acknowledged as a noble nor her family had shortage of money and magical tools. She was only placed there as a temporary solution by her father, who had always the intention to bring her back to noble society as a rightful member of his house. |
| 754 | * SentIntoHiding: As she wasn't the child of her father's first wife but was favoured by him, she was sent to the temple as a measure to protect her life from her WickedStepmother. |
| 755 | [[/folder]] |
| 756 | |
| 757 | [[folder:Margaret]] |
| 758 | !!Margaret |
| 759 | |
| 760 | Margaret was a blue shrine maiden and the previous director of the orphanage. Arno and Fran used to serve her before she passed away. |
| 761 | ---- |
| 762 | * AristocratsAreEvil: She was of noble birth, but also an EvilOrphanageLady. |
| 763 | * BeautyIsBad: Arno thought that she was beautiful... and she was a blue-eyed blonde beauty [[spoiler:who molested the young boys of the orphanage.]] |
| 764 | * EvilOrphanageLady: She was the orphanage director and [[spoiler:sexually abused at least two of the male orphans]]. Myne had a quite low bar to clear to be a better orphanage director than her. |
| 765 | * {{Foil}}: To Bezewanst and other blue priests, as she [[spoiler:abused her position to take advantage of the young gray priests that she fancied, like Fran. Showing that not only the men can sexually abuse the orphans.]] |
| 766 | * LasciviousBeautyMark: Arno fondly remembers her beauty mark as one of the factors that made her attractive [[spoiler:and her sexual abuse of younger boys is a major component of her known personality]]. |
| 767 | * LockedAwayInAMonastery: [[spoiler:As Margaret could use the hidden room in her chambers, she couldn't possibly lack in mana, and it's later pointed out in Part 4 that her chambers were decorated with furniture befitting a mednoble. Whatever Margaret had done, she was sent to the temple with no way to return to noble society.]] |
| 768 | * PedophilePriest: [[spoiler:She dragged her gray-robed attendants into her hidden room and raped them regularly. This is also implied to be the reason why she wasn't allowed to return to noble society.]] |
| 769 | * PosthumousCharacter: She is long dead when Myne joins the temple. [[spoiler:She was DrivenToSuicide, as she was not allowed to return to noble society.]] |
| 770 | [[/folder]] |
| 771 | |
| 772 | [[folder:Egmont]] |
| 773 | !!Egmont |
| 774 | !!!'''Debut:''' Part 2 (Volume 2) |
| 775 | !!!'''Voiced by''': Katsunori Okai (Japanese), Bill Rogers (English) |
| 776 | [[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bookworm_p4v9_egmont_portrait_upscale.png]] |
| 777 | |
| 778 | A blue priest who was raised at the temple and thus not considered a "true" noble. He is one of Bezewanst's supporters. He's the blue priest who ransacked the book room in the temple to harass Myne. The first gray shrine maiden to be sent back to the orphanage for getting pregnant after Myne has become its director is one of his attendants. |
| 779 | ---- |
| 780 | * AristocratsAreEvil: While not a true noble, he still has noble blood and follows the norm of looking down on Myne because of her commoner origins. |
| 781 | * BadBoss: He callously [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness dismisses the gray shrine maiden who served him]] after she gets pregnant with ''his child'', calling her useless, and quickly demands a replacement. |
| 782 | * ObstructiveBureaucrat: He was instructed by Bezewanst to harass Myne, so that she wouldn't participate in the Harvest Festival. |
| 783 | * SmugSnake: He sees himself as superior to Myne and does not miss any opportunity to make her aware that she is a commoner. His smug face quickly turns pale in Part 3 when [[spoiler:he realizes that Rozemyne has become his boss and she has not forgotten that he once messed with her and the book room]]. In Part 4 Volume 9, [[spoiler:he thinks he will soon replace Rozemyne as High Bishop and rubs it in her face. As soon as Ferdinand notices the submission ring on Egmont's finger though, [[AnArmAndALeg his arm gets cut off]]]]. |
| 784 | * UnwittingPawn: In Part 4 Volume 9, [[spoiler:Egmont cooperates with Viscountess Dahldolf in stealing the temple's bible and replacing it with a magical fake. He in turn is supposed to become High Bishop when Rozemyne inevitably has to retire once the loss of the bible comes to light. To seal the deal, he signed a magic contract that confirms the terms and is given a noble's ring as a gift. Egmont has no idea he was TrickedIntoSigning a submission contract and the ring is a remote control to [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness kill him once he is no longer needed]]. The fake bible was also coated in poison, which makes it a murder attempt on Rozemyne, Fran, and Hartmut (the new High Priest), who all would have come into contact with the bible and died if Justus and Eckhart hadn't detected the poison. To prevent Egmont's master from blowing Egmont up, Ferdinand cuts off his arm and his memory is later read. It's implied he was later executed for his involvement in the stolen bible incident]]. |
| 785 | [[/folder]] |
| 786 | |
| 787 | [[folder:Kampfer & Frietack]] |
| 788 | !!Kampfer & Frietack |
| 789 | !!!'''Debut:''' Part 3 (Volume 3) |
| 790 | |
| 791 | Two blue priests Rozemyne recommends to Ferdinand, who he trains to take over part of his duties. They later become reliable blue priests in the temple. |
| 792 | \ |
| 793 | Kampfer and Frietack's families are of rather low status. Frietack's family is also associated with the former Veronica faction. |
| 794 | ---- |
| 795 | * BenevolentBoss: Both are known to be hard and serious workers, who treat their personnel well and are in general respected and well-liked in the temple. As is shown in Part 5 Volume 6, [[spoiler:Conrad in particular looks up to Frietack, which is why he declines Philine's offer to become a noble and instead wants to become a blue priest like Frietack]]. |
| 796 | * {{Determinator}}: They managed to survive Ferdinand's training despite all the sweat and tears they had to shed. |
| 797 | * ImpoverishedPatrician: Neither of their families are particularly wealthy. Increasing their living standard is one of the reasons why they are willing to endure Ferdinand's TrainingFromHell to get more work in the temple. |
| 798 | * PunnyName: Their names カンフェル (Kanferu) and フリターク (Furitāku) are an anagram for 二人増える監督 (futari fueru kantoku), which means "two more supervisors". |
| 799 | * TokenGoodTeammate: Frietack's family belongs to the former Veronica faction, but unlike many of the blue robes and nobles associated with Veronica, he is not a bad person at all. [[spoiler:Due to Sylvester's purge in Part 5, he is temporarily detained, but at Rozemyne's request returns to the temple.]] |
| 800 | [[/folder]] |
| 801 | |
| 802 | !!Gray Priests and Shrine Maidens |
| 803 | !!!Attendants |
| 804 | [[folder:Fran]] |
| 805 | !!Fran |
| 806 | !!!'''Debut:''' Part 2 (Volume 1) |
| 807 | !!!'''Voiced by''': Tadanori Date (Drama CD 1+), Creator/ShouKarino (Anime and Drama CD 4+), Creator/ChrisHackney (English) |
| 808 | [[quoteright:260:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/fran_anime_bookworm.png]] |
| 809 | |
| 810 | A 17-year-old gray priest, who served as an attendant to a blue shrine maiden and then High Priest Ferdinand. When Myne came to join the temple, Fran was reassigned to become Myne's head attendant. He acts as the bridge between Myne and Ferdinand, and is also the one in the temple who educates Myne and takes special care of her health. |
| 811 | ---- |
| 812 | * BewareTheNiceOnes: Fran is generally a friendly and polite man, but if you dare to insult his beloved masters or intend to harm them, he will resort to violence, even if he was taught his whole life that violence is wrong. In Part 3 Volume 2, the new orphans of Hasse that join the newly created monastery react very angrily when they learn that they cannot stay with their siblings, as men and women are separated in the temple. One kid protests so loudly and rudely to Rozemyne, [[spoiler:now the High Bishop and the adopted daughter of Ehrenfest's archduke]], that Fran loses all his patience, slaps the kid in the face, and demands an apology. Rozemyne is shocked, as she has never seen him react so angrily before. |
| 813 | * CloudcuckoolandersMinder: In the temple, he is the one who makes sure Myne doesn't get too distracted by books or overexerts herself. He keeps track of her temple duties and her health, and will send Myne to rest if she is too tired. |
| 814 | * ConflictingLoyalty: Fran initially struggles to serve Myne because he is very attached to Ferdinand. Myne goes around that by promising to do her best to help Ferdinand however she can. He later becomes very loyal to Myne, too, and follows her orders, but if her safety and health are in danger, he will defer to Ferdinand's orders and ignore hers. |
| 815 | * DarkAndTroubledPast: While it's only hinted at in the main story, an alternate point of view chapter all but spells out that [[spoiler:the former orphanage director killed herself because she wasn't allowed to rejoin noble society when the power vacuum got blue priests pulled from the temple. The reason she was prevented from doing so was that she had been sleeping with one of her gray priest attendants. Fran was the attendant in question, and [[RapeAsBackstory it wasn't consensual on his side]]. Fran fears rejection from the people he cares about were they to learn what happened to him (especially Myne), though when Ferdinand learns of it at the end of Part 2, he is very sympathetic towards Fran]]. |
| 816 | * {{Foil}}: |
| 817 | ** He may be a foil to Wilma, who has a [[DoesNotLikeMen fear for men]]. [[spoiler:Unlike her, he actually ''was'' raped repeatedly, but like her he seems to be emotionally scarred by this experience.]] |
| 818 | ** Rosina acts as a foil towards Fran, as both already served as attendants for another blue priest or blue shrine maiden respectively. Both are meant to educate Myne on how to act like a noble, but while Fran is very direct and tries to focus on efficiency (much like Ferdinand), Rosina is focused on the artistic side and tries to teach Myne about the femininity of a noblewoman (much like Christine). This is best shown in Part 2, when Myne takes both along to help her decorate the Italian restaurant, and the two constantly clash. |
| 819 | ** To Jenni, one of the High Bishop's attendants. [[spoiler:She is Fran's ShadowArchetype. She becomes mad and evil after repeatedly getting raped almost every day. Unlike Fran, Jenni didn't have a master who saved her from her misery, like Ferdinand or Myne]]. |
| 820 | ** Arno, High Priest Ferdinand's head attendant, was like Fran an apprentice attendant to Sister Margaret, the former orphanage director. Their opinions on her are vastly different. [[spoiler:Arno was in love with Margaret, while Fran most definitely did ''not'' love her, as he was raped almost every night by her. When she killed herself, Fran was relieved, but Arno was devastated, which is why he resents Fran and tries to find as many ways as possible to make Fran's life miserable. While Fran might come off as harsh and strict, he is empathetic, caring, loyal and protective towards Myne and Ferdinand. Arno on the other hand is a self-serving, evil sociopath who delights in the suffering of others. Due to this, Ferdinand values and cares about Fran a lot, while he has Arno executed for almost ruining Myne's life.]] |
| 821 | * HiredHelpAsFamily: If one believes Rozemyne's assumption that all the people who [[spoiler:received the last blessing she gave as Myne]] are people she views as family members, Fran is among those she considers family despite being her attendant. |
| 822 | * HonestAdvisor: Having spent a long time with a noble like Ferdinand, Fran can mostly deduce how Ferdinand or nobles in general would react to Myne's suggestions and actions. He is therefore often consulted by Myne and encouraged to speak his mind if he doesn't agree with something she does. |
| 823 | * ItWasAGift: |
| 824 | ** When Fran came of age, Ferdinand gifted him a pen and ink. While this is a gift Ferdinand gives to all his attendants, for Fran it symbolizes that Ferdinand has acknowledged him as an adult, and he still uses the pen to this day. |
| 825 | ** Myne gifts Fran commoner clothes and later on a diptych. Myne generally just likes to gift things to her attendants because she is always very grateful to them, and he in return warms up to her empathy and kindness. |
| 826 | * TheJeeves: Be it physical labor, teaching, waiting on nobles, paperwork or managerial tasks, he excels at it. |
| 827 | ** He is this to Ferdinand. This is the whole reason Ferdinand chose him as Myne's attendant, as Fran is one of the best attendants Ferdinand has trained. Fran mentors Myne in Ferdinand's stead and regularly reports to Ferdinand. Unfortunately, Fran initially [[PoorCommunicationKills misunderstood]] Ferdinand's intentions, and thought he wasn't good enough. He assumed being reassigned to Myne was some kind of demotion and punishment. Only later does he realize that he was chosen because he is Ferdinand's most trusted attendant. |
| 828 | ** Is this to Myne. As Ferdinand's former attendant, who now serves as her head attendant, he is by far her most experienced and competent servant, which is why he acts as Myne's closest adviser in the temple. Thanks to training under Ferdinand, he is quick, diligent, meticulous and strict. |
| 829 | * MentorArchetype: As the most experienced and qualified attendant, he serves as a mentor to all of Myne's other attendants and even to some Gilberta Company employees. |
| 830 | * SecretKeeper: As Myne's closest attendant, he is privy to most of her work in the lower city, and [[spoiler:he is naturally also aware of Lady Rozemyne's original commoner status and her commoner family]]. |
| 831 | * SoBeautifulItsACurse: He is described to be a very attractive young man. In the past, he is said to have had very feminine features. [[spoiler:Unfortunately for him, that was one of the reasons why he was raped by his former blue shrine maiden mistress.]] |
| 832 | * TheSocialExpert: Fran has spent years serving nobles, which is why his skills to read and treat people are exceptional. However, even he sometimes struggles to read Ferdinand's intentions, as he initially thought he displeased Ferdinand somehow, which led to him being transferred to Myne. |
| 833 | * SternTeacher: He teaches Myne about how to act like a noble in Ferdinand's stead, having worked under him for years. Like his former master, he is very strict, though due to that Myne quickly adapts. He also serves as teacher to the other apprentice attendants, and has to remind them to not slack off. |
| 834 | * TraumaButton: The chambers of the orphanage director upset him, especially the hidden soundproof room. [[spoiler:This is the room where he was dragged in and raped almost every night. Actually, serving a blue shrine maiden in general was a button for him, but receiving Ferdinand's sympathy and support despite what happened, as well as his admiration for Myne helped Fran get over it slowly.]] |
| 835 | * UndyingLoyalty: To High Priest Ferdinand, and later on to Myne, too. |
| 836 | ** Ferdinand took Fran in after Fran's previous blue shrine maiden mistress died, and while the training was tough, [[SternTeacher Ferdinand was always fair]] and treated those who were competent and could be relied on well. |
| 837 | ** Fran comes to admire Myne after he sees her efforts to help the orphanage unlike any other orphanage director before her. He is brave enough to stand between Myne and a noble, risking his own life. Myne in turn deeply cares about Fran, too. [[spoiler:At the end of Part 2, after he was gravely injured by Bindewald and his servants, Myne heals him with her final blessing, which is a sign that Fran is one of the most important people to Myne. A few chapters later, after Ferdinand hears of Fran's traumatic experience with the previous orphanage director, he asks Fran whether he wants to quit his job, and Fran firmly refuses, wishing to guide Rozemyne in her new life as an archnoble and High Bishop.]] |
| 838 | * WhenHeSmiles: In Rozemyne's opinion, Fran looks very attractive when he shows surprise or a smile, which makes him look several years younger. She prefers this kind of beauty over a cold beauty like Ferdinand. |
| 839 | * {{Workaholic}}: Fran is very similar to his former master, in that he always wishes to occupy himself with something. Getting a break doesn't really make him happy, rather he turns restless and nervous. In Part 3 Volume 2, it gets to a point where he wants to keep working despite clear signs of fatigue. Rozemyne commands him to either go to the monastery or lay his head on [[LapPillow her lap]] to sleep. |
| 840 | [[/folder]] |
| 841 | |
| 842 | [[folder:Gil]] |
| 843 | !!Gil |
| 844 | !!!'''Debut:''' Part 2 (Volume 1) |
| 845 | !!!'''Voiced by''': Creator/YukoSanpei (Japanese), Creator/LauraStahl (English) |
| 846 | [[quoteright:150:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/gil_anime_bookworm.png]] |
| 847 | |
| 848 | A 10-year-old chronic troublemaker, assigned as an attendant to Myne at the suggestion of the High Bishop of the temple. Once tamed, he's trained to oversee the workshop Myne sets up in the orphanage. |
| 849 | \ |
| 850 | From then on, he shows an ability to grow into the increasing number of responsibilities that are given to him. He also forms a friendship with Lutz that only grows stronger with the years. |
| 851 | ---- |
| 852 | * AdorablyPrecociousChild: Once he warms up to Myne, he tries his best to imitate Fran and Lutz by becoming someone Myne can depend on. He quickly works on his education and manages Myne's workshop in the orphanage, as well as leads the orphans when Lutz or Fran aren't around. However, he still has issues deep inside, as he craves the love he never got because he grew up without parents in an orphanage, and fears that Myne might discard him for a better attendant if he can't keep up. |
| 853 | * BirdsOfAFeather: His responsibilities eventually make him the equivalent of Lutz among the people who are actually employed by Myne, so he and Lutz eventually grow a quite friendly professional relationship despite their early mutual antagonism. |
| 854 | * BrattyHalfPint: He constantly insults Myne and always whines about having to be her attendant. He was chosen specifically for his bad behavior. |
| 855 | * EstablishingCharacterMoment: The first thing he does when he meets Myne is to call her a pipsqueak and constantly calls her an idiot. |
| 856 | * {{Foil}}: He looks a lot like Lutz and is also Myne's attendant, but their personalities couldn't be more opposite. Incidentally, he views Lutz as a rival for Myne's most dependable person. |
| 857 | * GradeSchoolCEO: In Part 3, Gil, in addition of taking care of the workshop, [[spoiler:helps with setting up new workshops in other orphanages when Lutz is not available. It leaves him busy enough that Rozemyne hires Fritz as an extra gray priest attendant who can take charge of the workshop in the Ehrenfest temple when Gil is away]]. |
| 858 | * HeroicSelfDeprecation: Gil is fully aware that he was a problem child before being selected as one of Myne's attendants. The other orphans point out that they are better than him in several aspects, which makes him worry that Myne might abandon and replace him eventually. Myne and Lutz assure him that this won't happen, but Gil nonetheless becomes even more motivated to prove his worth. |
| 859 | * HeterosexualLifePartners: Lutz ends up being this with Gil. As the Plantin Company and the Gutenbergs expand Rozemyne's paper and printing industry, Lutz and Gil spend a lot of time together and both understand each other on a level others can't, as they both are very close to Rozemyne, which is evident in Gil's prologue in Part 4 Volume 3 which contrasts Lutz's epilogue in the same volume. [[spoiler:Around 10 years after Part 5, Lutz and Gil (who was bought) open a bookstore together.]] |
| 860 | * IGotBigger: The two-year TimeSkip happens to include his growth spurt. |
| 861 | * JerkWithAHeartOfGold: As foulmouthed and bratty as he is at the start, he feels extremely bad that his fellow orphans, especially the pre-baptism children, have to starve. He secretly tries to feed the pre-baptism children first, which leads to him and Myne discovering in what kind of awful state they are and he tearfully asks Myne to save them. |
| 862 | * OlderThanTheyLook: He's three years older than Myne and Lutz, but an alternate point of view character assumes he's closer to their age because he's about the same height as Lutz. The quantity of food that was available to him before he became Myne's attendant makes malnutrition the implied culprit. |
| 863 | * ParentalAbandonment: According to his first side chapter, he's one of the children who ended up in the orphanage from a lack of guardians, though it has happened early enough in his life that the gray shrine maidens are the only guardians he remembers having. Not being the birth child of any of them resulted in him being neglected compared to other children he grew up with. |
| 864 | * SecretKeeper: [[spoiler:Gil knows Rozemyne's commoner background, as he often went down to the lower city with her, and he also has met her original family.]] |
| 865 | * WellDoneSonGuy: Myne was able to realize he DesperatelyCravesAffection and just wanted to be honestly praised. After she does that his relationship with her does a complete 180. Myne happily praises him and gives him [[AffectionateGestureToTheHead headpats]] after working hard. |
| 866 | [[/folder]] |
| 867 | |
| 868 | [[folder:Delia]] |
| 869 | !!Delia |
| 870 | !!!'''Debut:''' Part 2 (Volume 1) |
| 871 | !!!'''Voiced by''': Chiyo Tomaru (Japanese), Creator/LizzieFreeman (English) |
| 872 | [[quoteright:200:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/delia_honzuki_no_gekokujou.png]] |
| 873 | |
| 874 | An 8-year-old apprentice gray shrine maiden, who previously was a mistress-in-training to the High Bishop, who assigned her as Myne's attendant to act as a spy for him. Because of this, Myne and the other attendants need to watch what they let her hear and see even after she starts getting along with them better.\ |
| 875 | |
| 876 | When a DoorstopBaby enters the orphanage, Myne proclaims Delia his older sister to get her invested in the child's care. The proclamation works a little too well and winds up having a complicated interaction with the implications of the child, named Dirk, having been most likely left at the temple due to having the Devouring. On the more positive side of things, the situation accidentally sets up the early stages of an alternative to relying on shrine maidens who got pregnant from SexSlave duties for the care of infant orphans. |
| 877 | ---- |
| 878 | * AntiVillain: She's annoying, kind of useless and an inadvertent UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom, but it's made very clear that she was never taught how to do anything or shown that she had any value other than being pretty. Take that away from her and she's just a scared, insecure child. The High Bishop just exploited her naivety and trust while raising her to blindly accept and even embrace the idea of being his toy when she got a bit older. |
| 879 | * BetterTheDevilYouKnow: At the beginning, Myne's main reason for not firing her is the risk of her being replaced by someone who is much better at the whole spying thing. |
| 880 | * CannotKeepASecret: Myne thinks she is possibly dumb as she keeps telling her she was sent to be a bother to her and watch her. |
| 881 | * ChildByRape: She's one of the orphans confirmed to have been born to a SexSlave gray shrine maiden. |
| 882 | * CoolBigSis: Myne instills into Delia a sibling love to a dropped off orphan so she will help the other attendants take care of the baby. [[spoiler:It backfires when she goes behind Myne's back to get an adoption for the baby and be his sole caretaker, but it is also what spurs Delia to begin growing as a person and slowly change for the better.]] |
| 883 | * DarkAndTroubledPast: As Bezewanst threw out all ugly or useless gray shrine maidens, Delia grew up without her mother, who was impregnated by a blue priest. After a purge of nobles happened, and many blue priests and shrine maidens were welcomed back to noble society, there were fewer divine gifts for the orphans, which means that many pre-baptism children like Delia had to starve. This all changed when Delia was baptized, as she was immediately taken in by High Bishop Bezewanst. She hates the orphanage because she only has bad memories of it, and, being groomed by his gray shrine maidens, she is led to believe that the only way out of the temple is to become a valuable mistress for the High Bishop and his allies. |
| 884 | * DramaticallyMissingThePoint: She was clearly assigned to Myne as a spy with the intention of having Myne open up to the only girl her own age among her retainers. Unfortunately for her, she only really understood the first part and took roughly four seconds to loudly proclaim what her mission was, greatly disrespecting Myne in the process. It's not until the High Bishop gets annoyed at her failure to gather any information ''and'' Fran pointing out her failure that she realizes she completely lost the opportunity to gain Myne's trust. |
| 885 | * FilleFatale: What she sees herself as. She claims she was to be the concubine of the [[DirtyOldMan High Bishop]] and her first attempt to serve Myne after [[YouHaveFailedMe he cast her out]] is to try demonstrating her feminine charms on Benno. |
| 886 | * GoldDigger: She sees the chance to become a nobleman or priest's concubine as the greatest thing any woman can aspire to be and is being groomed to be the High Bishop's concubine. She also thinks this is how other relationships work, and chastises Myne for hugging Lutz for comfort instead of a rich noble. In her defense, however, her entire worldview has been conditioned such that she considers her options as starve as a dirty orphan or become the pampered mistress of someone important, a position she thinks is respectable and enviable. |
| 887 | * HeelFaceTurn: Notably averted. Delia makes it clear that she still supports Bezewanst, despite Myne's efforts to win her over. |
| 888 | * HeelFaceDoorSlam: At the end of Part 2[[spoiler: after the ordeals with Dirk's "adoption", Bezewanst showing her his true colors and Bindewald trying to kidnap and later attack Myne, Delia ''[[HeelRealization finally realizes]]'' how deeply she screwed up and how blind she was to whom actually cared about her well being. While Myne ends up saving her life and Delia does end up feeling [[UndyingLoyalty eternally grateful]] to her, not all of her former fellow grey-robes retainers do forgive her for actions and therefore she is known to have committed a horrible mistake and only being spared because of Myne's grace.]] |
| 889 | * InItForLife: At the end of Part 2, [[spoiler:ironically, she is sent to stay in the orphanage for life, the place that traumatized her and that she never wanted to see again, for being the High Bishop's attendant. This was a mercy, as Sylvester wanted to execute her, but Myne managed to reduce it to a life sentence. She's also given the job of caring for the orphans that are brought to the temple, with Dirk being her first ward]]. |
| 890 | * LockedOutOfTheLoop: Myne takes extra measures to not reveal what she or her other attendants are doing, because Delia is painfully obviously a spy. It takes the High Bishop throwing her out of his office for her to realize that she can't spy on Myne if she constantly avoids her. |
| 891 | * MinionWithAnFInEvil: Her initial position is as a spy and saboteur in Myne's retinue. Except that she says as much and doesn't bother to do any spying or sabotage, causing the High Priest to give her the boot and forcing her to attach to Myne as hard as she can just to stay alive. |
| 892 | * OvertOperative: She openly admits that the High Bishop ordered her to be a bother to Myne and spy on her. The High Bishop clearly assumed she would understand that she was supposed to be a FalseFriend, but Delia is about seven years old and didn't grasp what was actually being asked of her until Fran spelled it out. |
| 893 | * PromotionToParent: Myne initially proclaimed her as Dirk's sister because she's too young to be his mother, but she winds being his main caretaker. |
| 894 | * TheResenter: Downplayed. Delia is a bit upset that Myne didn't make it to the temple earlier, as unlike the other orphanage children, she had to starve and live in filth. She knows she can't blame Myne for that. |
| 895 | * TeamMom: After going through some CharacterDevelopment she ends up being one of the main caretakers of the younger orphans, as she is one of the very few who knows how to actually take care of an infant thanks to Dirk, which is also especially helpful when Lily's baby is born and new orphans are left in their care. |
| 896 | * {{Tsundere}}: Harsh type. She is usually complaining about everyone, but this is often AngerBornOfWorry and she can genuinely act cute, like after receiving clothes from Myne or when she takes care of her adoptive brother, Dirk. |
| 897 | * UndyingLoyalty: She is loyal to Bezewanst as he is the one who saved her from the hell that was living in the basement of the orphanage as pre-baptismal child, always in constant filth and starvation. As she starts to serve Myne and sees how much she actually worries for the well being of the pre-baptismal orphans she does warm up to her a little, even though her loyalties do not change. By Part 3 [[spoiler: this has obviously changed: since being saved by Rozemyne made Delia truly grateful to her and even though she is no longer one of her attendants, Delia still keeps worrying about her well being and speaks with Gil about it. Lily also teases her about how much she actually enjoys talking about Rozemyne's days as a blue shrine maiden with Harmut, though Delia [[{{Tsundere}} denies it]]]]. |
| 898 | * UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: |
| 899 | ** At the end of Part 2 Volume 3, she is asked by Jenni, one of the High Bishop's attendants, how her former fellow attendants Wilma and Rosina are doing. [[spoiler:When Delia tells Jenni [[BenevolentBoss how well Myne treats them]], Jenni gets extremely [[TheResenter jealous]] because unlike them she is constantly getting raped, which drives her so mad that, DrivenByEnvy, she is fully complicit in the High Bishop's plan to make Myne submit to a noble and become his slave.]] |
| 900 | ** In Part 2 Volume 4, [[spoiler:Delia takes Dirk away without Myne's permission and entrusts him to the High Bishop, thinking he found a family who would happily adopt him. Instead, Dirk is forced into a slave contract, and he is also used as a blackmailing tool and HumanShield against Myne]]. |
| 901 | ** It's heavily implied that she was intentionally picked up by Bezewanst's gray shrine maidens right after her baptism, and groomed to become a flower-offering mistress, so they could be relieved of their duties one day. [[spoiler:RapeLeadsToInsanity for some of them, and they are raped daily, which Delia is not aware of.]] |
| 902 | ** At the end of Part 2, she is told lies by Bezewanst [[spoiler:to get Dirk and Myne into submission contracts with Count Bindewald. She is only made aware of their trickery when Myne reveals their evil motives]]. |
| 903 | * UnwittingPawn: Delia deeply trusts High Bishop Bezewanst, as he only has shown her his fake kind side and because he [[BecauseYouWereNiceToMe took her out]] of the OrphanageOfFear, where she had to starve. Since High Priest Ferdinand and the High Bishop are not on good terms, she distrusts Ferdinand. In Part 2, [[spoiler:she gives Dirk to Bezewanst, in the belief that he could find someone to adopt Dirk, because Ferdinand apparently couldn't, and she didn't trust Myne enough to ask her first. Myne is forced to fire Delia, and Delia subsequently returns to the High Bishop's side. She plays a major part in the conflict that almost led to Myne's enslavement and in the aftermath Bezewanst is arrested for the crimes he has committed. Delia, as his attendant, would have been executed as well, if not for Myne's intervention]]. |
| 904 | * VerbalTic: Says "Geez!" a lot, mostly as a result of Myne's unfamiliarity with noble and temple customs. |
| 905 | * WhenSheSmiles: Myne has a brief mental temper tantrum when she sees Delia smiling at Dirk, wondering why ''she'd'' never seen that grin before. |
| 906 | [[/folder]] |
| 907 | |
| 908 | [[folder:Wilma]] |
| 909 | !!Wilma |
| 910 | !!!'''Debut:''' Part 2 (Volume 1) |
| 911 | !!!'''Voiced by''': Creator/KiyonoYasuno (Japanese), Creator/EricaMendez (English), Erica Edwards (Latin American Spanish) |
| 912 | [[quoteright:255:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/wilma_anime_bookworm.png]] |
| 913 | |
| 914 | A 16-year-old gray shrine maiden who once served the blue shrine maiden Christine. She becomes the prime caretaker of the youngest orphans after Myne becomes the orphanage director. |
| 915 | \ |
| 916 | She is later hired by Myne as an attendant due to her skill in art and formally made the orphanage's overseer. She also teaches the orphans proper speech, manners, and how to read, write and do math. |
| 917 | ---- |
| 918 | * ChildByRape: She has memories of being raised by her mother in the section for pre-baptism orphans as a young child, which indicates she was born to a SexSlave gray shrine maiden. |
| 919 | * TheConfidant: She acts as one to Rosina. Rosina pours out her pent up feelings to Wilma and asks for an opinion from someone, who like her, once served as one of Sister Christine's apprentice gray shrine maidens. |
| 920 | * DarkAndTroubledPast: The novel mentions that Wilma's mistress at the time noticed her absence and got her out of her [[AttemptedRape would-be rapist's]] room before the deed was actually done, but what had happened up to that point was enough to traumatize her. Because of this, she's fearful of unfamiliar men and doesn't want to live outside of the orphanage. |
| 921 | * DoesNotLikeMen: She has a fear for men, after a blue priest duped her into sharing his bed, barely avoiding to get raped because her mistress noticed her absence. This is why she initially [[RefusalOfTheCall declines to become Myne's attendant]], but Myne manages to work around that by making her the orphanage's overseer. Working under Myne seemingly helps her heal, but [[spoiler:as it turns out, she is overprotective of Wilma. Benno eventually is the one who forces Wilma to overcome her trauma]]. |
| 922 | * {{Foil}}: |
| 923 | ** She is one to Fran. [[spoiler:Wilma had a near-rape experience, which is why she develops a phobia to men. Fran was repeatedly raped, and this has affected him a lot. While he has mostly recovered, he still carries a trauma that won't disappear so easily.]] |
| 924 | ** Rosina is more gifted in music, while Wilma is more gifted in artistry. Rosina looks more mature, but is very innocent and actually more childish, while Wilma had a [[AttemptedRape near-rape experience]], is older and ''acts'' more mature despite her child-like looks. She also does not mind physical labor for the sake of others, despite both Wilma and Rosina being spoiled by Christine in the past. |
| 925 | ** Jenni, another one of Christine's former attendants, who now serves High Bishop Bezewanst, is what Wilma [[ShadowArchetype could have become]] if she hadn't been saved by Christine or been taken in by a blue priest/shrine maiden, who was not as good to her as Myne or Christine. [[spoiler:Being constantly raped drives Jenni mad, especially after she learns from Delia how well Myne treats Wilma and Rosina.]] |
| 926 | * FriendToAllChildren: Wilma is an exceptionally calming presence for the younger orphans and girls in the orphanage. She was one of the first to volunteer cleaning up the orphanage, and Myne compares Wilma to an angel or a saintess. In Part 2 Volume 2, when Myne asks Wilma to become her attendant, Wilma partially doesn't want to accept because she DoesNotLikeMen, but also because she doesn't want to abandon the orphans. Myne nonetheless can secure her services willingly by making Wilma the orphanage's overseer. |
| 927 | * HonestAdvisor: Wilma gently but firmly explains to Rosina that she indeed was spoiled by Sister Christine and that she cannot expect a better offer from another blue priest than the one Myne has given her. In Wilma's opinion, Myne is treating Rosina exceptionally well. She repeats to Rosina what Myne already told her and makes Rosina realize that she is projecting Christine onto Myne. Wilma's honest opinion and advice forces Rosina to face the truth and accept that she must abandon her wish to live a life like she did under Sister Christine. |
| 928 | * ObliviouslyBeautiful: Either that or she thinks that [[TarnishingTheirOwnBeauty her measures to uglify herself]] actually work. Myne internally notes that Wilma has beautiful hair, and a child-like face. Anything that could be taken as plain makes her appear chaste, which many men would probably find very attractive. |
| 929 | * OlderThanTheyLook: Wilma is already an adult gray shrine maiden by the time Myne arrives, but she is described to have child-like features. |
| 930 | * OneeSama: Wilma has a certain elegance, yet she does not shy away to dirty herself, as she was one of the first who volunteered to clean the orphanage after Myne took over as the orphanage director. Her mother-like figure earns her admiration from many of the orphans, and she initially refused to become Myne's attendant because she didn't want to leave the orphans alone. Myne thinks she is an angel. |
| 931 | * RoyalFavorite: Thanks to her talents in music but ''especially'' in the visual arts, she was one of Sister Christine's favorite shrine maidens and so she was doted on by her. Though unlike Rosina, she was doing menial labor before being taken in which is why she knows what the real job of a gray shrine maiden entails. |
| 932 | * SecretKeeper: Wilma is fully aware that [[spoiler:Rozemyne was originally a commoner. She seems to have forgotten it for a while, though seeing Tuuli is a reminder for her that Myne's family still exists]]. |
| 933 | * SingleTargetSexuality: The one exception to her fear of men seems to be High Priest Ferdinand. After she sees a sketch of Ferdinand Rosina drew for her, she [[TheMuse immediately wants to see him in person]]. When she hears him play and sing a song, she is so overwhelmed by her feelings that she draws him even more handsomely than he already is, as if she is viewing him with a CrushFilter. |
| 934 | * TeamMom: To the majority of the children in the orphanage. She is, herself, the daughter of a gray shrine maiden who lovingly raised her for the first few years of her life, so she wants the pre-baptism children to have the same experience. |
| 935 | * UndyingLoyalty: Wilma always reminds the children in the orphanage that they can live such a good life because Rozemyne has made it possible for them. She also doesn't mind them worshipping her like a goddess practically. [[spoiler:In Part 5 Volume 6, Rozemyne informs Wilma that she will leave the temple in a year. Wilma is given the option to become either Elvira's or Rozemyne's exclusive artist, and Wilma firmly states that Rozemyne will always be her master, and that she will go with Rozemyne when the time has come.]] |
| 936 | [[/folder]] |
| 937 | |
| 938 | [[folder:Rosina]] |
| 939 | !!Rosina |
| 940 | !!!'''Debut:''' Part 2 (Volume 1) |
| 941 | !!!'''Voiced by''': Creator/MinoriSuzuki (Japanese), Creator/BriannaKnickerbocker (English), Marisol Hamed (Latin American Spanish) |
| 942 | [[quoteright:271:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rosina_anime_bookworm.png]] |
| 943 | |
| 944 | A 14-year-old apprentice gray shrine maiden, skilled in music, who used to serve the same blue shrine maiden mistress as Wilma. Myne is forced to hire her to tutor her in music as a condition to be allowed to take on Wilma as an attendant. |
| 945 | \ |
| 946 | Having been coddled by her previous mistress, she's much less used to menial labor than most gray priests and shrine maidens and values having time to practice her art. |
| 947 | ---- |
| 948 | * TheBard: Rosina was trained in the arts, and is exceptional in poetry, music, and, while not as good as Wilma, artistry. She is hired by Myne mainly because she needs an attendant that teaches her how to play harspiel. |
| 949 | * BigSisterWorship: Sister Christine was a person Rosina admired and respected above everything. The time as Christine's attendant is what she describes as the happiest time in her life, and being abandoned and forced to return to the orphanage left Rosina, now deprived of her beloved instruments and music, scarred emotionally. In Part 3 Volume 3 [[spoiler:she meets Christine again, who tells Rosina that she wanted to buy Rosina once she graduated from the Royal Academy. Rosina refuses, as Rozemyne has already taken her in, but she is nonetheless happy to learn that Christine didn't forget her and didn't want to leave her in the orphanage]]. |
| 950 | * {{Foil}}: |
| 951 | ** Rosina acts as a foil towards Fran, as both already served as attendants for another blue priest or blue shrine maiden respectively. Both are meant to educate Myne on how to act like a noble, but while Fran is very direct and tries to focus on efficiency (much like Ferdinand), Rosina is focused on the artistic side and tries to teach Myne about the femininity of a noblewoman (much like Christine). This is best shown in Part 2, when Myne takes both along to help her decorate the Italian restaurant, and the two constantly clash. |
| 952 | ** Rosina is the still naive and innocent former attendant of Sister Christine's compared to Wilma. Rosina is more gifted in music, while Wilma is more gifted in artistry. Rosina looks very mature, and never was confronted with flower offerings, while Wilma had a [[AttemptedRape near-rape experience]], is older (but looks younger) and ''acts'' more mature, and does not mind physical labor for the sake of others, despite both being spoiled by Christine in the past. |
| 953 | ** Jenni, another one of Christine's former attendants, who now serves High Bishop Bezewanst, is what Rosina [[ShadowArchetype could have become]] if she had been taken in by a blue priest/shrine maiden, who was not as friendly as Myne. [[spoiler:Being constantly raped drives Jenni mad, especially after she learns from Delia how well Myne treats Wilma and Rosina.]] |
| 954 | * GirlsLikeMusicians: Rosina has met Ferdinand before, but she starts crushing on him after playing and arranging songs for the harspiel together. |
| 955 | * IgnorantOfTheirOwnIgnorance: Her upbringing by Sister Christine is largely responsible for her narrow-minded view. Rosina was immediately picked as an apprentice attendant after her baptism, which means that unlike Wilma she never had to do physical labor before she was sent back to the orphanage. She is very confused when she sees that Myne does a lot of paperwork, and handles the orphanage and her own workshop herself, wondering why she doesn't delegate this to her attendants (Christine was too rich and hired many attendants) and instead should focus on the arts. Myne acknowledges that this isn't Rosina's fault, but still firmly tells her that she needs to change if she doesn't want to return to the orphanage. A talk with her fellow attendant, Wilma, opens Rosina's eyes. |
| 956 | * PerpetualSmiler: As she was taught by Sister Christine, Rosina always keeps a smile on her face, even if she is nervous or [[StepfordSmiler unhappy]]. She tries to teach this to Myne, too, who is more openly showing her emotions. |
| 957 | * RankUp: At the end of Part 2, [[spoiler:Myne, now Lady Rozemyne, needs to hire a personal musician who can teach her and accompanies her in the Noble's Quarter. She buys Rosina, thus removing Rosina's status as a gray shrine maiden]]. |
| 958 | * RoyalFavorite: Rosina is gifted in the arts, but especially in music. This made her one of Sister Christine's favorites, and this is the reason why she received special treatment. |
| 959 | * SecretKeeper: [[spoiler:Rosina is one of the attendants who are aware of Rozemyne's commoner background.]] |
| 960 | * TheSocialExpert: Having spent years with Sister Christine, Rosina has learned how to read people, and she has learned proper noble speech and behavior, which she is teaching Myne at Wilma's suggestion. |
| 961 | * SpoiledBrat: As Sister Christine's attendant, Rosina was never forced to do physical labor. She received treatment similar to blue shrine maidens. All she had to do was devote herself to the arts, leading her to believe that she is above the other orphans. This becomes a problem after Myne takes her in, when Rosina initially refuses work, as physical labor would ruin her fingers, and she expects Fran, Gil and Delia to be at her beck and call despite Fran being her superior. After Myne learns of Rosina's upbringing, she is willing to compromise and gives Rosina administrative and financial paperwork, but Rosina again refuses, which forces Myne to give her a SadisticChoice: Accept her offer and change her attitude or go back to the orphanage. After a talk with Wilma, Rosina realizes that she tried to [[ReplacementGoldfish replace Christine with Myne]] in her head to live the life she had with Christine, acknowledges that they aren't the same, and that Myne is being accomodating and generous. |
| 962 | * SternTeacher: While not as harsh or direct as Ferdinand and Fran, Rosina is nonetheless tough on Myne, both as her musical tutor and as her other attendant that teaches her about nobility and femininity. |
| 963 | * UndyingLoyalty: After putting an effort to work for Myne, she begins to see Myne's good sides, like how good Myne is with paperwork, and how she cares about the children in the orphanage and has worked hard to make sure they stay clean and won't starve, which is a far cry from what Sister Christine did for them (i.e. ignoring them). She begins to view Myne as her savior and her loyalty is best shown in Part 3, when [[spoiler:Rosina refuses Christine's offer to buy her. By that point Rosina was already hired by Rozemyne as her personal musician]]. |
| 964 | * YoungerThanTheyLook: In contrast to Wilma, the way Rosina carries herself makes her look very mature. |
| 965 | [[/folder]] |
| 966 | |
| 967 | [[folder:Monika & Nicola]] |
| 968 | !!Monika & Nicola |
| 969 | !!!'''Debut:''' Part 2 (Volume 2) |
| 970 | !!!'''Nicola is Voiced by''': Mari Hino (Drama CD 8) |
| 971 | [[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bookworm_p3v3_monika_and_nicola.png]] |
| 972 | [[caption-width-right:350:Monika (left) & Nicola (right)]] |
| 973 | |
| 974 | Two gray shrine maidens, who are recommended by Wilma to assist Myne's chefs during her first winter at the temple. Monika is twelve, while Nicola is initially thirteen years old. |
| 975 | \ |
| 976 | At the end of Part 2, Rozemyne makes them her attendants to replace Delia and Rosina. Monika largely takes over Rosina's paperwork duties, while Nicola takes over Delia's duties and mostly continues to assist in the kitchen. |
| 977 | ---- |
| 978 | * BigEater: A large motivation for Nicola's interest in cooking is that she loves eating good food. |
| 979 | -->'''Nicola:''' Lady Rozemyne invented the recipes for these sweets, so if you would like to eat sweets you've never tasted before, I suggest you do the same and come up with the recipes yourself. Do you have any ideas? I love making things. I love eating them more, though! |
| 980 | * BigSisterWorship: Monika admires Wilma, which is why she imitates Wilma a lot. Nicola especially looks up to Ella, as she loves to cook. |
| 981 | * BirdsOfAFeather: Both get along well with Ella, who escaped to the temple to work for Myne, so that she wouldn't be forced to prostitute herself. They sympathize with her, as they do not wish to participate in "[[SexualEuphemism flower offerings]]" for blue priests, which is why they want Myne to notice them and eventually make them her attendants. |
| 982 | * CheerfulChild: Nicola is a friendly and energetic child who is always smiling, which is why Rozemyne calls her "Smiley Nicola". Her positive and kind attitude helps Angelica relax, once she regularly goes to the temple. |
| 983 | * RedOniBlueOni: As is indicated by their hair color, orange-haired Nicola is the red oni to green-haired Monika's blue oni. Monika takes after Wilma and displays a very serious and calm and collected demeanor, while Nicola is very energetic and excited. |
| 984 | * InconsistentColoring: The two of them make a cameo right before Myne's first meeting with Rosina in Season 2 of the anime, but Nicola's hair is light pink rather than orange. When they get their proper debut in Season 3, Nicola does appears with the orange from the light novel color illustrations but Monica's hair is now a jade green more similar to Effa's hair color than her dark teal-green coloring from the novels. |
| 985 | * SupremeChef: Both study under Hugo and Ella and learn how to cook in case Rozemyne's chefs are not available. Especially Nicola takes great interest in studying cooking and is always ready to learn new recipes. |
| 986 | * YoungerThanTheyLook: Monika is looking older than she actually is due to imitating Wilma's behavior and even bundling her hair in a similar way, but the first Fanbook notes that she's 12 when she first appears. |
| 987 | [[/folder]] |
| 988 | |
| 989 | [[folder:Jenni (Spoiler Character)]] |
| 990 | !!Jenni |
| 991 | !!!'''Debut:''' (Explicit) Part 2 (Volume 3), (As the unnamed gray shrine maiden revealed to be her in adaptations) Part 1 (Volume 3) |
| 992 | !!!'''Voiced by''': Yuki Nagano (Japanese) |
| 993 | [[quoteright:242:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/portrait_jenni_2.png]] |
| 994 | |
| 995 | A gray shrine maiden who used to serve Sister Christine alongside Wilma and Rosina and now serves High Bishop Bezewanst. Myne's first impression of Jenni was that of a sharp and competent woman, but her beauty makes her compare her to a SexySecretary, which turns out to be spot-on when it comes to Jenni's ''[[SexSlave current duties]]'' as Bezewanst's attendant. |
| 996 | ---- |
| 997 | * AdaptationalEarlyAppearance: In the manga and anime, she already makes an appearance in Part 1 and Season 1 as the gray shrine maiden that brings Myne to the High Bishop after Myne found the book room, thus confirming her to be the same gray shrine maiden that appears in the novel in Part 1 Volume 3. She is also the unnamed attendant that is present when Myne asks High Priest Ferdinand to help the orphanage in Part 2 Volume 1 of the light novel and Season 2 of the anime. In Part 2 Volume 2 of the manga, a manga-exclusive side story written by the author confirms this. |
| 998 | * BitchInSheepsClothing: She pretends to be a CoolBigSis towards Delia, but from what little is seen of her, shows that she is [[ManipulativeBastard grooming Delia]] to become one of Bezewanst's mistresses, so that she can be relieved of her duties. |
| 999 | * EvilMentor: Towards Delia, whom she teaches and prepares to serve the High Bishop, hinting that Jenni also encourages Delia to want to grow up to be his mistress. For her own benefit, though. |
| 1000 | * {{Foil}}: She is Arno's female counterpart. She hates her former fellow attendants, Wilma and Rosina, just as Arno hates Fran. Both [[BitchInSheepsClothing pretend to be nicer than they really are]] and both end up dying for opposing Myne. |
| 1001 | * RapeLeadsToInsanity: The regular rape has led her to a mindset in which she will do pretty much anything for it to stop, including educating a young girl to replace her. It has also made her so jealous of how well Wilma and Rosina are being treated that merely hearing about it ''after having asked about it herself'' sends her into TranquilFury. |
| 1002 | * TheResenter: She resents how nicely Wilma, Rosina and Delia are treated by Myne, as she has to endure being used as a SexSlave by the High Bishop. She is complicit in Bezewanst's plan to kidnap Myne just to spite her former fellow attendants and send them back to the orphanage. |
| 1003 | * RoyalFavorite: Jenni used to be one of Sister Christine's favoured gray shrine maidens, which means that she was artistically talented. In the manga Rosina has flashback of all them playing music as Christine was singing, Wilma and Rosina were playing the harspiel while Jenni and another gray shrine maiden were playing the flute. |
| 1004 | * ShadowArchetype: She is easily what Wilma, Rosina and Fran could have become had their fates just been a little different. |
| 1005 | * SexSlave: She spells out the fact that she's forced into "offering flowers" herself. |
| 1006 | * SmallRoleBigImpact: She's introduced quite late into Part 2, but her established resentment towards Wilma and Rosina makes her more proactive about getting Myne removed from the temple than the other gray shrine maidens accompanying Bezewanst during the kidnapping. |
| 1007 | [[/folder]] |
| 1008 | |
| 1009 | [[folder:Arno (Spoiler Character)]] |
| 1010 | !! Warning: This character is a WalkingSpoiler and had so many tropes whited out that it just became redundant. As such, all spoilers about him are unmarked. Administrivia/YouHaveBeenWarned. |
| 1011 | !!Arno |
| 1012 | !!!'''Debut:''' Part 2 (Volume 1) |
| 1013 | !!!'''Voiced by''': Yoshiyuki Ito (Japanese) |
| 1014 | [[quoteright:255:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/portrait_arno.png]] |
| 1015 | |
| 1016 | High Priest Ferdinand's head attendant. Like Fran he was an attendant of Sister Margaret, the orphanage director before Myne. Like all of Ferdinand's attendants he is very competent, though he is also known for being inflexible. |
| 1017 | ---- |
| 1018 | * ArentYouGoingToRavishMe: Is extremely jealous of Fran for the attention he got from Sister Margaret, despite the fact that said attention included sexual abuse. |
| 1019 | * BitchInSheepsClothing: It's not very obvious, but while he pretends to be friendly and accomodating, there are a number of hints that he intends to harass and harm Myne and Fran with very petty actions, though he is clever in disguising them in an innocent way. |
| 1020 | * TheBore: How Sylvester perceives him. Sylvester considers just about any attendant who lasts more than a year under Ferdinand to be boring. As Ferdinand's head attendant, Arno is considered to be the most boring of them all. |
| 1021 | * CrazyJealousGuy: He was in love with Sister Margaret, the former orphanage director. However, she preferred Fran over him and raped Fran almost every night, which made Arno jealous of him. When she wasn't allowed to return to the noble society because she slept with a gray priest, she killed herself in despair. While Arno was devastated, Fran was relieved about her death, which is why Arno hates Fran so much that he will find any opportunity to harass Fran and his beloved master, Myne, whenever he can. |
| 1022 | * DroppedABridgeOnHim: A side chapter from Part 2 Volume 4 reveals his true sociopathic nature, and it ends with him wondering how he can let Rozemyne in on Fran's dark past. Two chapters later, Fran learns from Ferdinand that Ferdinand [[KilledOffscreen quietly executed]] Arno. |
| 1023 | * EvilIsPetty: Arno gets a kick out of tormenting and bullying people, especially Fran, with small actions, subtle enough that Ferdinand won't suspect him. For instance, in Part 2 Volume 2, Ferdinand arranges a meeting with Myne, though he gifts Myne several items before the scheduled meeting. Arno delivers the gifts ''just'' before Ferdinand arrives, sending Myne's attendants into a panic. |
| 1024 | * FalseFriend: He pretends to be on friendly terms with Fran, even though he is anything but. After it's decided that Rozemyne will become the new High Bishop, Ferdinand sets up her hidden room in the orphanage director's chambers. This room still clearly traumatizes Fran, and while Arno seemingly on behalf of Fran asks Ferdinand to not ask for details, he fully intends to reveal everything about Fran's rape backstory to Ferdinand and Myne later. |
| 1025 | * {{Foil}}: |
| 1026 | ** Arno is one to Fran. They both served Sister Margaret and High Priest Ferdinand, and both are noted to be efficient and competent head attendants. More specifically, Arno is Fran's EvilCounterpart. Their opinions of and feelings for Margaret are in direct opposition, and while Fran is loyal and compassionate, Arno is self-serving and sociopathic. |
| 1027 | ** Arno is in a certain way a male counterpart to Jenni, the High Bishop's attendant that once served Sister Christine together with Wilma and Rosina. Arno resents Fran just like Jenni resents Rosina and Wilma, which has made them resort to evil. They both end up dying in the same volume. |
| 1028 | * KilledOffscreen: Ferdinand has him quietly executed after his actions put Myne's life in danger; we only find out about this after the fact. |
| 1029 | * ManipulativeBastard: A lot of his schemes aim to make Fran's (and by extension Myne's) life as hard as possible. While every single case could be seen as an unfortunate accident, the sum makes it obvious that Arno is doing everything on purpose. |
| 1030 | ** At the start of Part 2, when Ferdinand is ordered to send an attendant to Myne who is difficult to deal with, Ferdinand's attendants struggle with an answer. Arno on the other hand immediately suggests Gil, who is by far the worst of the orphans, fully aware that this would make Fran's life much harder. |
| 1031 | ** When Ferdinand is looking for an appropriate room in the temple for Myne, he suggests the chambers of the former orphanage director. He knows Fran doesn't want to ever see these chambers again due to his trauma. |
| 1032 | ** During the trombe extermination, he holds Fran back from protecting Myne and strokes Shikza's ego by making Myne apologize on Fran's behalf, which only stirs Shikza's anger at Myne. |
| 1033 | ** Arno is sent to pick up Myne for the Dedication Ritual and lead the way to Ferdinand. However, his walking tempo is so fast that Myne can't keep up, and he only slows down once Fran calls him out. Myne arrives just as High Bishop Bezewanst is about to leave and the two meet. Myne bemoans that if she had arrived just a little bit later, this could have been avoided, and Ferdinand mentions that Myne arrived earlier than he expected. Considering Arno is well aware that Myne meeting Bezewanst will only fan the flames of conflict, he planned this "coincidental" meeting beforehand. |
| 1034 | ** In Part 2 Volume 4, he causes conflict by openly telling Delia, who is widely known to be Bezewanst's spy, that Ferdinand's search for someone who could adopt the infant Dirk was fruitless. This causes Delia to distrust Myne and Ferdinand, and she ends up running to Bezewanst with Dirk. Bezewanst then gives Dirk to Count Bindewald, who subsequently enslaves Dirk, as he suffers from the Devouring. |
| 1035 | ** The most egregious example is at the end of Part 2, when Fran tries to inform Ferdinand that Myne is in danger, as a noble from another duchy has made it into the city. Arno is JustFollowingOrders and tells Fran that Ferdinand isn't present (when in truth he was in his hidden room and Arno could have contacted him), which encourages Bezewanst and Bindewald to make their move and attack Myne in the temple. Myne almost could have died or been enslaved if not for Sylvester's necklace and Ferdinand appearing just in time to stop them. |
| 1036 | * TheResenter: As head attendant of the High Priest, he feels Fran is beneath him, which is why he is very displeased when he hears that Fran is to become the head attendant of the new High Bishop, Lady Rozemyne. It reminds him of how Fran was Sister Margaret's "favorite". |
| 1037 | * {{Sadist}}: Arno delights in the suffering of others. Be it a blue priest or an attendant like Fran, if they have to suffer pain and hardship, he will secretly crack a disturbing smile in response. |
| 1038 | * TheSociopath: Arno turns out to be a lying, scheming, sadistic and petty man. His main target is Fran, though he by extension also harasses Myne, as Fran deeply cares about her. |
| 1039 | * SpannerInTheWorks: While Ferdinand always had the intention to make Myne a noble and had a plan that would make her accept this, he didn't account for a violent confrontation with Count Bindewald, which endangered Myne's life. Ferdinand executes Arno after he figures out that Arno intentionally went against his orders (and would likely keep trying to do so when he can) because of a personal vendetta. |
| 1040 | [[/folder]] |
| 1041 | |
| 1042 | [[folder:Fritz]] |
| 1043 | !!Fritz |
| 1044 | !!!'''Debut:''' Part 2 (Volume 4) |
| 1045 | [[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bookworm_p3v5_fritz.jpg]] |
| 1046 | |
| 1047 | A gray priest whose patient personality can be certified by the fact that he served Shikza back when the latter was a blue priest. Rozemyne takes him on as an attendant so he can learn to oversee the orphanage workshop under Lutz and Gil, all while replacing the latter as the duties of both cause them to be absent more frequently and for longer stretches of time. |
| 1048 | \ |
| 1049 | Fritz is the first person with some authority in the workshop to make true plans for the future time at which Rozemyne will be leaving the temple. Those plans start with maintaining the connections needed to keep the workshop going, including those with the Plantin company. |
| 1050 | ---- |
| 1051 | * ConnectedAllAlong: He's first seen in Leon's side chapter as the gray priest who takes the initiative of making a table for Sylvester. The fact that he used to be Shikza's attendant only comes up when Rozemyne makes him her own. |
| 1052 | * TheHeart: Fritz is a calm and empathetic individual, who ensures a harmonious work environment like when he mediates between Gil and Zahm after the former reacted with anger that Zahm holds Ferdinand in higher regard than Rozemyne despite being Rozemyne's attendant. |
| 1053 | * IChooseToStay: At the end, [[spoiler:unlike the rest of Rozemyne and Ferdinand's temple attendants, he stays in Ehrenfest to run the temple workshop and stay in contact with the Plantin Company]]. |
| 1054 | * MeaningfulName: Fritz is a diminutive of Friedrich, derived from the words for "peace" and "rich". He is TheHeart in the temple and smooths down differences and disputes between the gray robes. |
| 1055 | * TheStoic: Benno notes that he shows no emotion on his face, even while claiming to be worried about the workshop's future. |
| 1056 | [[/folder]] |
| 1057 | |
| 1058 | [[folder:Zahm (Spoilers)]] |
| 1059 | !!!'''Voiced by''': Katsunori Okai (Japanese) |
| 1060 | [[quoteright:255:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/portrait_zahm.png]] |
| 1061 | |
| 1062 | Zahm is one of Ferdinand's attendants who ended up being transferred to Rozemyne to help with the additional work she would take as the High Bishop. Prior to that he served with Fritz under Shikza, but after his master returned to noble society he went back to the orphanage, where he would end up later being taken into Ferdinand's service. |
| 1063 | ---- |
| 1064 | * AdaptationalEarlyAppearance: In the anime, he can be seen as early as Season 2 as a recurring attendant in Arno's general vicinity. Episode 9 of Season 3 confirms it was him all this time. |
| 1065 | [[/folder]] |
| 1066 | |
| 1067 | [[folder:Volk]] |
| 1068 | !!Volk |
| 1069 | !!!'''Debut:''' Part 3 (Volume 4) |
| 1070 | |
| 1071 | A gray priest who accompanied Lutz and Gil to Illgner. There he meets, works with and falls in love with a local woman named Carya who serves Giebe Illgner. As they wish to get married, they both have to work hard so that they can manage to raise the money needed to buy him from the orphanage. |
| 1072 | ---- |
| 1073 | * ChickMagnet: Giebe Illgner notes that his demeanour and elegance makes him quite popular with women, something that worries Carya greatly. |
| 1074 | * {{Foil}}: Volk is the first gray priest to be sold willingly so that he can be in a relationship with a woman named Carya... Which contrasts how it is usually the gray shrine maidens that end up being sold to the nobles to be their concubines against their will. But while Volk is also sold to a noble, it is so that he can marry the commoner woman who serves said noble and with whom Volk fell in love with. |
| 1075 | * HappilyMarried: Much to Rozemyne's delight he ends up being very happy in his marriage with Carya, as he also found joy in being able to create a family of his own. |
| 1076 | * MentorArchetype: He stays in Giebe Illgner's mansion to teach the servants how to make paper and how to properly interact with nobles at all times, with Giebe Illgner not being an exception regarding the latter. |
| 1077 | * RankUp: After being bought by Giebe Illgner he is no longer a gray priest, but a free man who can marry and theoretically work for whom he wants to. |
| 1078 | * UndyingLoyalty: Giebe Illgner believes that Volk is willing to wait as much as it takes to Rozemyne to wake up so that she can give him and Carya her blessings on their marriage. |
| 1079 | [[/folder]] |
| 1080 | |
| 1081 | !!!Orphans |
| 1082 | [[folder:Pre-baptism orphans]] |
| 1083 | !!Pre-baptism orphans |
| 1084 | !!!'''Debut:''' Part 2 (Volume 1) |
| 1085 | |
| 1086 | The half-dozen of children that was having the worse living conditions prior to Myne taking over the orphanage and hence those whose lives she literally saved. After the changes brought by Myne, Wilma becomes their prime caretaker. |
| 1087 | ---- |
| 1088 | * ChildrenAreInnocent: This is much more valid for them than other commoner children their age, as they were locked up and left starving with no caretakers before Myne's takeover of the orphanage. Even before they were left starving, they were all kept in a room that they weren't allowed to leave. For instance, they aren't receptive to stories featuring animals because they've never seen animals in their life. |
| 1089 | * TheDividual: In terms of their role in the story, they are very much a package deal. Even if only one or a subset of them is focused on, they don't particularly stand out in regards to the others. |
| 1090 | * HeartwarmingOrphan: They adore Myne and Wilma for changing their living conditions and caring for them respectively, so they are usually having a sweet interaction with one of the two when they appear. |
| 1091 | * PauperPatches: Their initial clothing situation is so bad that PauperPatches are ''an upgrade'' for them. They are also the only orphans wearing them, as baptized orphans and adults are provided with gray robes. |
| 1092 | * RankUp: Sylvester points out that none of them look younger than Myne looks at age seven, implying that none are younger than four or five years old. By the time Rozemyne enters the Royal Academy, which is four years after their introduction, it's implied that all of them have graduated to apprentice gray priests. |
| 1093 | |
| 1094 | [[/folder]] |
| 1095 | |
| 1096 | [[folder:Kai]] |
| 1097 | !!Kai |
| 1098 | !!!'''Debut:''' Part 2 (Volume 1) |
| 1099 | |
| 1100 | An apprentice gray priest who is one of Gil's friends from his time in the orphanage. |
| 1101 | ---- |
| 1102 | * AscendedExtra: In the light novel, he only explicitly appears in a couple of chapters from Gil's point of view found in Part 2 and Part 4. In the anime, he appears just often enough to be a recognizable face. |
| 1103 | * RecurringExtra: In the anime, he tends to show up when the scene requires an apprentice priest who isn't one of Myne's attendants. For instance, the anime version of scene in which Myne rewards the hardest workers with buttered potatoes includes him alongside Wilma, who was explicitly one of the people rewarded at the time in the light novel. |
| 1104 | [[/folder]] |
| 1105 | |
| 1106 | [[folder:Dirk]] |
| 1107 | !!Dirk |
| 1108 | !!!'''Debut:''' Part 2 (Volume 4) |
| 1109 | [[quoteright:255:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/portrait_dirk_baby.png]] |
| 1110 | [[caption-width-right:255:[[labelnote:Click to see Dirk after the timeskip]] https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/portrait_dirk_2.png [[/labelnote]]]] |
| 1111 | |
| 1112 | A baby boy who was left by his mother at the temple. Myne takes him in and lets her attendants nurse him. To teach Delia the concept of family, Myne asks her to care for the baby as if he were her real brother. Myne names the baby Dirk and, as Myne had hoped, Delia quickly gets attached to him. |
| 1113 | \ |
| 1114 | Shortly after, however, Myne realizes that Dirk has the Devouring, resulting in her taking measures to get Dirk adopted by a noble family behind Delia's back to avoid having the High Bishop discover the situation. Delia finding out anyway and getting the wrong idea about Myne's motivations contributes to creating the circumstances in which Rozemyne is brought into existence. From then on, Rozemyne strives to strike a balance between allowing Dirk and Delia to stay together for as long as possible and keeping Dirk safe from being exploited by nobles. |
| 1115 | ---- |
| 1116 | * AlliterativeFamily: He was named Dirk so his name would start with the same letter as Delia's. |
| 1117 | * AllOfTheOtherReindeer: [[spoiler:Since Dirk is baptized without parents and with Sylvester acting as his guardian, the noble society, now dominated by the Leisegang faction, assumes he is a child of a noble who belonged to either Veronica or Georgine's faction. Rozemyne, Gretia, and Sylvester warn Dirk that he has to endure the mockery and isolation, to hide that he is actually commoner-born, and, like the other Veronican children that Sylvester allows to live, will have to give his name to a member of the archducal family]]. |
| 1118 | * BigBrotherInstinct: Inverted. [[spoiler:It's exactly because he cares for his big sister Delia that he decides to go against her wish and become a noble. He had a happy childhood because Rozemyne has turned the orphanage and temple into a comfortable place to live, but from what he has learned, it was miserable before. Having heard the fears of the other adult gray robes that this might change back to what it once was once she leaves, Dirk is determined to eventually lead the temple to protect the family and home he loves.]] |
| 1119 | * ChildhoodFriends: Notably with Conrad and Kamil, the latter whom he met at the commoner forest. He also will grow up together with Bertram. |
| 1120 | * DoorstopBaby: Dirk's presumed mother left him at the temple as an offering for the gods. |
| 1121 | * {{Foil}}: |
| 1122 | ** To Konrad. Both are abandoned by their parents and grow up in the orphanage, and both have a big sister they care about. Both wish to protect the orphanage, but [[spoiler:while Konrad was abandoned due to his low mana levels and gives up his right to become a noble to instead become a blue priest, Dirk is elevated to the rank of a mednoble due to his high mana levels]]. |
| 1123 | ** To Bertram. [[spoiler:As Sylvester points out, Dirk and Bertram are the same after their baptism. They are orphaned mednobles, whom Sylvester will look after as their guardian. Bertram's parents were Georgine loyalists, while Dirk's parents were commoners, but both will have to endure ostracization as they will be seen as the children of criminals. Bertram also grew up as a noble, which is why unlike Dirk he has what is seen as noble common sense.]] |
| 1124 | * MageBornOfMuggles: Dirk has the Devouring. Myne immediately noticed this when she heard he developed a fever and his cheeks started to bubble when he couldn't get his milk and started to cry. Ferdinand later measures his mana and determines that he is above the average level of a mednoble. He has so much mana that Fran regularly has to come to drain it. |
| 1125 | * NeedleInAStackOfNeedles: By the time he reaches baptism age, [[spoiler:children baptized as nobles without parents]] stand out much less in Ehrenfest than they did when he was a baby because of [[spoiler:a purge on Veronica and Georgine loyalists that spared their pre-baptism children]]. Rozemyne is even counting on everyone assuming that [[spoiler:he's simply the child of a purged noble family they didn't know well]]. |
| 1126 | * PennyAmongDiamonds: [[spoiler:Dirk, who grew up in the orphanage, is thrown into noble society after his baptism as a mednoble. He does not have the funds required for a noble, though Sylvester acts as his guardian and provides him with the necessary tools. Dirk also still lacks the common sense of nobility, which is why Rozemyne asks Bertram to look out for Dirk]]. |
| 1127 | * RagsToRoyalty: At the end of Part 5 Volume 6, [[spoiler:Dirk is baptized as a mednoble with Sylvester acting as his guardian and gives his winter debut]]. |
| 1128 | * ReplacementGoldfish: He acts as one for Kamil for Rozemyne. Rozemyne isn't allowed to see Kamil, so she indirectly observes Kamil's growth through Dirk. |
| 1129 | [[/folder]] |
| 1130 | |
| 1131 | [[folder:Nora, Thore, Rick & Marthe]] |
| 1132 | !!Nora, Thore, Rick & Marthe |
| 1133 | !!!'''Debut:''' Part 3 (Volume 2) |
| 1134 | [[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/portrait_hasse_siblings.png]] |
| 1135 | [[caption-width-right:350:Nora, Thore, Rick and Marthe]] |
| 1136 | |
| 1137 | Two sets of orphaned siblings that lived as the Mayor of Hasse's wards and are the first orphans to move into the Hasse monastery. Nora is the oldest, being 14, her younger brother Thore is 11 years old and their friend Rick is 12 while his younger sister Marthe is the youngest at just 8. The fate from which Rozemyne rescues them shows her the reality that orphans face outside of the city of Ehrenfest. |
| 1138 | ---- |
| 1139 | * BigBrotherInstinct: Both brothers want to protect their respective sisters from being sold, though in Thore's case it would be a ''younger brother instinct''. The four of them strongly care and look out for each other and aim to stay together no matter what. |
| 1140 | * BirdsOfAFeather: They feel this way towards Delia. As they think that she, unlike the other gray priests and shrine maidens, can truly understand them, for she also has a sibling whom she loves. Marthe especially ends up becoming quite close with her. |
| 1141 | * DontSplitUsUp: Their motivation for accepting to move to the Hasse monastery is that the pairs of siblings were otherwise about to be separated because of Nora and Marthe being sold. |
| 1142 | * {{Foil}}: To the gray priests and shrine maidens orphans, unlike them, once they grow up they receive citizenship, land and are allowed to leave the orphange and choose the life they want for themselves, they also do have a concept of family and marriage. |
| 1143 | * MotherlySidePlait: Nora, the oldest of the bunch, has her hair styled in that way and is in the position of having gotten a PromotionToParent in regards to her brother. |
| 1144 | * ParentalAbandonment: Their respective parents passed away at some point in their lives, making it so that they had to be looked after and raised by their town's Mayor instead. |
| 1145 | * SoBeautifulItsACurse: It's because of their beauty that Nora and Marthe would be eventually sold off by Hasse's mayor. |
| 1146 | * StrongFamilyResemblance: Thore and Nora share the same hair and eye colour and look very alike, while Marthe and Rick only share the colour of their eyes and hair but their physical appearance is quite different. |
| 1147 | [[/folder]] |
| 1148 | |
| 1149 | [[folder:Konrad]] |
| 1150 | !!Konrad |
| 1151 | !!!'''Debut:''' Part 4 (Volume 3) |
| 1152 | [[quoteright:255:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/portrait_konrad_2.png]] |
| 1153 | |
| 1154 | Philine's full-blooded brother, who is six years younger than her. During's Philine's stay at the Royal Academy, he is abused by his stepmother Jonsara and is on the verge of dying when Rozemyne and Ferdinand arrive to visit Philine's home. Abandoned by his father, Rozemyne forcibly takes him to the temple as an orphan, where he grows up in the orphanage together with Dirk. |
| 1155 | ---- |
| 1156 | * AbusiveParents: Konrad's WickedStepmother Jonsara physically abuses Konrad and starves him out. She eventually takes away Konrad's magic tool for her own child, and with no way to remove the excess mana, Konrad would have died eventually. His father meanwhile is a UselessBystanderParent, who abandons Konrad for his other son because Konrad's mana is lacking. |
| 1157 | * ChildhoodFriends: He becomes good friends with the roughly same-aged Dirk in the orphanage and later befriends Kamil, too, after meeting in the commoner forest. |
| 1158 | * {{Foil}}: To Dirk. Both are abandoned by their parents and grow up in the orphanage, and both have a big sister they care about. Both wish to protect the orphanage, but [[spoiler:while Konrad was abandoned due to his low mana levels and gives up his right to become a noble to instead become a blue priest, Dirk is elevated to the rank of a mednoble due to his high mana levels]]. |
| 1159 | * HeroWorshipper: In Part 5 Volume 6, [[spoiler:he states his wish to remain in the temple and eventually become a blue priest like Frietack, whom he admires.]] |
| 1160 | * ParentalAbandonment: Konrad's mother passed away, while he eventually flees to the temple after his father effectively leaves him to die in favor of his other son. |
| 1161 | * RichesToRags: Konrad would have been baptized as a laynoble normally, but he is abandoned by his parents and Rozemyne takes him to the temple's orphanage. In Part 5 Volume 6, [[spoiler:Philine offers to baptize him as a noble, but he refuses and instead wants to become a blue priest]]. |
| 1162 | * TraumaButton: A schtappe. His WickedStepmother used hers to hurt him and just seeing one makes him shiver in fear. |
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