Characters / Falling in Love With the Villainess

Characters for Falling in Love With the Villainess. Beware unmarked spoilers.

Main Characters.

Rion Frey

The protagonists, from the reader's point of view.

• All for Nothing: He spends enormous effort trying to raise the reputations of his beloved master and mistress Vincent and Ariel Windhill, only to have it all taken away at the end of "The Academy Arc" by the Designated Hero Maria and her inner circle through a Frame-Up.
• Awesome by Analysis: His magic and swordsman abilities are entirely self-taught. Only a handful of people can match him. What's more, he can predict how "the world" will move better than Maria, who carries a strategy guide, because he can "read the atmosphere."
• Born Unlucky: Is he ever. Not only was Frey about to die after being beaten to the point of death by "Dan" for daring to resist being raped, beaten, and having his food stolen, having him starve to death, but Ryou (Rion) reincarnates into him and then has the entire world setting seemingly out to make him suffer as much as possible.
• Broken Ace: His skill with the sword and magic is legendary, and he's a keen strategist, expert at long-term plans, but he's very cynical and jaded thanks to a horrific life and childhood.
• Chick Magnet: Handsome, strong, and kind, after a fashion. Small wonder the ladies like him.
• Double Standard Rape: Female on Male: Over the course of the story, various "noble" maids, twice his age, size, and considerably higher on the social strata, come into his bed, have their way with him, and when Ariel finds out, she gets jealous and punishes him for it.
• Dragged into Drag: When he was brought into the Windhill estate, one of the first things Ariel does, after getting him cleaned up, is shove him into a dress and put him into makeup, like dressing up a doll. It works too well.
• Eye Scream: The world's avatar rips out his blue eye and eats it, then replaces it with a different eye...
• A Father to His Men: Serve him faithfully, and he will look out for your interests like a loving father would, though he tends to be somewhat harsh with the discipline.
• Femme Fatale Spy: Gender reversed. Since various women force their way into his bed against his will, and there's nothing he can do to stop it, he does the one thing he can to "benefit," collect intelligence and blackmail to aid his master and mistress, Vincent and Ariel.
• Genre Blind: Ryou was never a fan of isekai stories, nor did he ever play the simulation/rpg game that the world setting mirrors. He's had to learn his way around the hard way.
• Happily Married: To Ariel in the aftermath of "The Academy Arc."
• Heroic BSoD: He almost completely shut down after learning that the targets of his righteous grudge are his mother, father, and elder brother. Then he stopped at the gallows where Vincent was unjustly executed, and declared Ariel is his only living family, disappearing from the capital city.
• Heroic Neutral: All he ever wanted is to be left alone, and to have his loved ones live safe and happy. The world setting bends over backwards to see this doesn't happen, and the Lawful Stupid upper echelons of Grand Flamm certainly don't make it any better with their constant scheming and Real Politik.
• Hidden Backup Prince: He's actually the second child of King and Queen Flamm. Only a handful of people in the kingdom know this. For the vast part of the story, he is not one of them.
• It's Not You, It's My Enemies: Combined with Deal with the Devil, Daddy Had a Good Reason for Abandoning You, and But Now I Must Go. The world itself manifests as an avatar and promises to give him the power to defeat the Demon God, but he has to become her property first, and part of the price of that is leaving Ariel and their unborn child behind. The alternative is both Ariel's and his child's deaths, and the Demon God rampaging the land.
• I Owe You My Life: To Vincent. Had the Sheltered Aristocrat not chanced upon him in the slums, he would have died within minutes of transmigrating into this new world.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Despite being in love with Ariel, and the feeling being mutual, he did everything in his power to advocate the Arranged Marriage with Prince Arnold Flamm, because it's what he believed she wanted, as her duty to the Windhill family dictated. The world had other plans.
• Knight in Sour Armor: He wants to trust and cherish people, and be a good, upstanding individual, but his life's been so horrific, that he's scared to even try reaching out to others. He gives people the opportunity to disappoint him, and very, very few fail to act on it.
• Madonna-Whore Complex: Being constantly subjected to Double Standard Rape: Female on Male, in addition to having suffered male on male rape, had him so jaded on sexuality, that it took a year of being Happily Married, with his wife spending that time apologizing, near constantly, for the fact that she saw it as "cheating," before he realizes that yes, healthy, consensual sex, with a wife, lover, or significant other, with a firm mutual loving commitment, is a good thing.
• Making a Splash: His blue eye allows use of water magic.
• A Match Made in Stockholm: He falls madly in love with Ariel Windhill, despite her initial haughtiness, because she's the first and only woman to treat him with any decency, after he became Vincent's valet.
• Misanthrope Supreme: He's been through so much crap since reincarnating into this "special parallel world" that he's pretty much given up on humanity, save those who work very, very hard to earn his trust and admiration.
• Misery Builds Character: His horrific childhood experiences have made him one of the most talented and morally upright characters in the world setting, and that's saying something.
• My Greatest Failure: Failing to rescue Vincent from execution, for false charges of high-treason.
• My Master, Right or Wrong: As the valet to the Windhill children, he would do his utmost for their well-being, no matter how much he had to bloody his hands.
• Oblivious to Love: Considering his relationships, past and present, he really can't tell when someone seeks to be genuinely affectionate towards him, or around him.
• The Paragon Always Rebels: Considering how much the upper echelons of Grand Flamm loved to kick him around and executed Vincent on false charges, is it really a surprise this eventuality happened?
• Playing with Fire: His scarlet eye allows for use of fire-based magic.
• Reassigned to Antarctica: After the death of Vincent, becoming the Baron of a distant fief was his best option. He not only got to marry his sweetheart, but showed the world that he's a much better "protagonist" than Maria ever will be.
• Resigned to the Call: By the time of the defense of Nyegert, he's stopped trying to resist "The World" and instead seeks to exploit its "scenario" fixation, to turn the system against itself and smash it.
• Restored My Faith in Humanity: While he's still very jaded, being sent off from the capital by his gang genuinely cheering him and his marriage to Ariel has him shedding Tears of Joy.
• So Beautiful, It's a Curse: With the exception of Ariel, whose affection is genuine, the highly effeminate beauty he inherited from his mother has brought him nothing but grief.
• This Is Unforgivable!: He's turned a blind eye to a great deal of crap, but Vincent's death drove him to seek out vengeance against all involved, save Charlotte, and as soon as he's able, it's coming.
• Throw the Dog a Bone: The world does exactly one thing right for him. He gets to marry his sweetheart Ariel, and they're both very much in love with each other, a perfect match. Even then, the world tries to take that away in the late chapters.
• Yank the Dog's Chain: With the sole exception of his marriage to Ariel, every time he manages to gain something, at terrible cost and effort, the world goes "Rion happy? Can't have that" and yanks it away.
• You're Not My Mother: Rion's biological mother tries to connect with him one last time before the climactic battle. He tells her that just because she gave birth to him does not entitle her to call herself his mother because she's the one who threw him away. After trying in vain, repeatedly, to sway him, she pulls a hood over her head and walks away, to never be seen again.

Vincent Windhill

The noble who finds Rion in the slums and firmly insists on making the boy his valet.

• Designated Villain: In universe. No matter what he does, the world setting shoehorns him into a stepping block that Maria has to overcome.
• Dramatic Irony: He pleads guilty to false charges trying to spare his sister, not realizing she's doing the same.
• I Owe You My Life: If not for Rion, he would have been captured, held hostage, and then killed after the ransom was paid.
• Nice Guy: Amazingly enough. He actually doesn't care about rank or title, and when he gets to the academy, treats the commoners with decency and respect, instead of abusing his title to get his way. This gets him a lot of popular support.
• Spoiled Brat: Subverted. He may initially look like this, but it's actually that he's not arrogant or haughty, just misunderstood.
• Too Good for This Sinful Earth: He gets executed on false charges precisely because he was a kind, selfless man who wished the best for his kingdom and loved ones. Small wonder Rion's bitterness is pointedly never going to go away.
• Undying Loyalty: Combined with My Country, Right or Wrong. As he was on the execution block, he refused to let Rion rescue him, because he was entirely loyal to the crown, even after admitting the crown was wrong to try and kill him.
• The Unfavorite: Despite having doting parents, the rest of the Windhill house and all the subhouses have done their best, for over a decade, to push him out of being the Windhill heir, through any and all means, fair and foul, up to and including having his tutors teach him wrongly so that he fails.

Ariel Windhill

• Armor-Piercing Question: Combined with Armor-Piercing Response. When asked by King Flamm and several others why she never mentioned her suspicions regarding Edwin Windhill, she retorts "I had no proof. Were you also going to convict him on spurious charges?" The group is properly chagrined when they remember that the charges against Ariel and Vincent were indeed spurious, and they're not going to be forgiven.
• Arranged Marriage: To prince Arnold, until he annulled it, cruelly, at the end of "The Academy Arc."
• Battle Couple: With Rion. When they do take the battlefield together, their synergy is perfection itself.
• Because You Were Nice to Me: Because Rion treats her with genuine kindness and respect for who she is, not for her family title, she falls madly in love with him.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: She's quick to punish Rion for "sleeping around" despite the fact that he had no choice in the matter.
• Designated Villain: In universe. The world setting forces her to be antagonistic to Maria, regardless of Ariel's wishes in the matter.
• Dramatic Irony: She pleads guilty to charges of which she's clearly innocent, hoping to spare her brother, not knowing that he already did the same for her.
• Good Is Not Soft: She may be a Nice Girl, but threaten her people or those she cares for and she will pull no punches.
• Made a Slave: She was sentenced to slavery at the end of "The Academy Arc" as a result of being convicted of false charges of high-treason.
• Nice Girl: What she really is, and Rion greatly appreciates it.
• Someone to Remember Him By: She bears Rion's daughter shortly after the end of the Demon War, and his apparent death.
• Tough Leader Façade: She's not as cold, aloof, or haughty as she first appears. She just takes her duties as the Marquess of the Windhill family seriously. When she doesn't have to bear those duties, she becomes far more open and caring.
• This Is Unforgivable!: Ariel is in no way grateful that she and her daughter Fleur are "protected" by Charlotte and Prince Arnold. She sees herself as the crown's hostage and when asked, calmly but angrily replies that Fleur would not need any such "protecting" if Arnold hadn't grievously wronged her in the first place. The only reason she tolerates Arnold's continued existence is that she believes Maria is far worse, and she's right.
• Unknown Rival: To Maria. Ariel has no grudge against Maria, but the world setting shoehorns her into a romantic rivalry with Maria over prince Arnold.
• What Beautiful Eyes!: She's the first and only character that genuinely admires Rion's heterochromia. In fact, she fell in love with him when she saw them.

Fleur Frey: Spoiler Character

The daughter of Ariel and Rion.

• Adorably Precocious Child: She loves to strut around like a grown-up, but like the three-year-old she is when introduced, can't keep it up long.
• Babies Make Everything Better: She sure does.
• Cheerful Child: Very happy and upbeat, despite not knowing her father.
• Strong Family Resemblance: She looks exactly like Vincent did when he was that age. Mrs Windhill picked up on it immediately.
• Tomboy: She's very "boyish." She likes to play with swords and armor, not dolls and dresses.
• Wise Beyond Her Years: At three years old she can immediately tell Maria is Obviously Evil. Most of the full grown adults required years to figure this out.
  (Pokes Marina in the knee with a toy sword)"Wetwibution fo' ivl piple!"

Antagonists

Maria Theodore

• Attention Whore: She has an irrational obsession with being in the spotlight, no matter the cost.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: She is exceptionally skilled at making herself look like the helpless victim, and well-meaning, but naive, "hero," at least when she cares about appearances, but as she reveals in chapter 55, she's a scheming witch that will happily go to any lengths, no matter how vile, to achieve her ends.
• The Caligula: Is she ever. She's a menace to friend and foe.
• Can't Take Criticism: If she even suspects someone questions her non-existent ruling capacity, the consequences are not pretty.
• Card-Carrying Villain: After the Demon War, she stopped caring about pretenses all together and stopped bothering to hide how vile she truly is.
• Charm Person: Her inherent "protagonist" ability causes her to almost automatically charm and bewitch any male she flirts with. Even with Rion's cynical and jaded personality, he would have fallen for it, if not for having multiple personalities to switch between at the time.
• Designated Hero: In universe. The world setting chose her as "the protagonist" and does everything in its power to make her the "hero" to fight the upcoming devil king invasion.
• Dramatic Irony: She was summoned to this "special parallel world" to fight and defeat the Demon God. Not only does she utterly fail in that assigned task (because she didn't care about the world in the first place, only wanting to be rewarded with the "Queen" title for trying), but she ultimately winds up being its unwitting scion. The Demon God wanted to replace the world's attributes of Fire, Water, Wind, and Earth with Steel, Poison, Money, and Darkness. Through rampant deforestation, strip-mining, and over-industrialization in the quest for money and power, this is exactly what she's doing.
• Dystopia Justifies the Means: Everything she does is purely so she can become the queen of the Grand Flamm kingdom. She cares not one whit for anyone or anything that might be in the way, or what comes after.
• Evil Is Petty: Upon hearing that she's the second saint in the capital of the Alexandros Empire, she asks the local mayor who the "first" saint is, a title granted to the woman in question without her knowledge or consent, due to carrying out actual charitable work, rather than faking it like Maria does, to use her royal authority to command the poor woman back to her mansion, so that her armed bodyguards can gang-rape her, before selling her into sexual slavery at a brothel. Fortunately, the brothel's owner had other ideas.
• From Bad to Worse: She founds the Alexandros Empire with a three class system, where the third class are slaves in all but name. By the time chapter 104 rolls around, she has so gone through her labor pool by using the third class as cannon fodder, that she has to turn to creating a fourth and fifth class of citizens to keep everything stable.
• General Failure: Despite being well aware that she has no talent for warfare and is wholly ignorant of strategy or tactics, she insists on being in charge of the armed forces whenever possible. This combined with her glory hounding led to her ignoring countless "unimportant" towns and villages, and defending the "important" cities with troop numbers that were way too small, so she could maximize her combat achievements and glory. Instead of gaining the praise and recognition she wanted, this led to repeated massive defeats and failures to deal with, let alone contain, the demon menace, causing King Flamm to intervene, personally, and not only relieve her of command, but hand the reigns over to Fredrick and Rion. She responds to that by trying to sabotage Rion and Frederick in every way imaginable.
• Glory Hound: She will do anything and everything she can to grab as much glory for herself as possible, damn the consequences.
• God Save Us from the Queen!: Once she manages to convince Lancelot to fully rebel and found the Alexandros Empire, she, as the Queen, and one in charge, is an atrocious ruler, and creates a three-tier society, which isn't even merit-based as an excuse. First-class: Those who are most useful, wealth and lands similar to nobility. Second-class: The commoners. "Unimportant, but necessary." Third-class: The poorest, with the most menial jobs, slaves in all but name, because the word "slave" offends Maria's sensibilities.
• Harem Seeker: She spends the first part of the story seeking to build as large a reverse harem as possible.
• Hate Sink: She is very easy to hate, both in and out of universe, due to her attention whoring, glory hounding, skirt flipping, fiance stealing, and treating everyone but herself as "NPC" who only exist to support her rise to Queen.
• Heroic Wannabe: She honestly believes that as long as she can call herself a "hero," in her own mind, every evil and vile thing she does will be forgiven.
• Inferiority Superiority Complex: She is absolutely driven to prove she's "superior" to everyone and will focus all her rage and might into crushing anyone or anything she feels inferior to.
• It's All About Me: She's only interested in her own advancement, period. Everyone else is only an "NPC" that's to be used, exploited, and then thrown away when no longer useful.
• Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique: Discussed. It's what she's threatened with to finally stop her glory hounding, and share all her intel concerning the Devil threat.
• Karmic Death: Spent her life using and abusing people as NPC, meets her end at the hands of Lancelot, whom she used as an NPC the most.
• Let's You and Him Fight: During the class "outing" military exercise, evidence is found that her group blasted a monster nest with magic, provoking those monsters to attack Rion's group on what was supposed to be the safest path through the forest, where the escort knights were all killed and the class itself escaped only by the skin of its teeth. Since Crown Prince Arnold was in Maria's group, the matter was not fully investigated.
• Loan Shark: The way she built up her powerbase is to loan money to people in desperate straits, some of which she engineered herself, and then collect by enslaving them.
• Malicious Slander: Her first and foremost method of dealing with her enemies and rivals is assassinating their character and then kicking them while they're down. She has the gall to be shocked that the entire academy absolutely loathes her when she pulled this stunt on Ariel and Vincent, getting them branded as traitors to the kingdom.
• Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: Rion discovers that the reason she's flipping her skirt at just about every guy she comes across, and giving his Windhill family charges hell in the process, is that she needs all the help she can get to deal with an oncoming Devil King invasion. However, she's not building up allies for the sake of the kingdom, but only for her own well-being, so she can get her own "perfect ending."
• Plot Armor: The world setting has made it literally impossible for her to die until every one of her "scenes" is fully played out.
• The Prima Donna: Until the end of the Demon War, she was so convinced that the devils could not be beaten without her "indispensable" input, and that her Charm Person powers would let her coast to getting the best "capture targets" that she went out of her way to alienate everyone she deemed "unimportant" and completely ignored social etiquette in all her acts, barely bothering to act "heroic" when she realized she wasn't getting away with it anymore. After the Demon God was beaten by Rion, with Rion going missing and presumed dead in the aftermath, she sported all sorts of Stripperific gowns and gaudy jewelry, all smiles in public, but in private, she'd terrorize everyone who didn't bow and scrape into serving her every whim, even selling women into sexual slavery at brothels.
• Psychological Projection: Since she's a shameless harlot who will flip her skirt and spread her legs to any and every guy if she thinks she can exploit them in her favor, she presumes that all women do the same, and doesn't hesitate to berate them with it when she thinks they're trying to upstage her, officially sentencing them to gang rape, and sexual slavery to a brothel after they're too traumatized to resist.
• Reign of Terror: How she runs her empire.
• Revolving Door Revolution: Though she deludes herself otherwise, this is precisely what she's doing. Her efforts to remove the current aristocracy through The Coup are only being replaced with another, with her at the top, of course. And her version is even worse.
• Selective Obliviousness: She fully ignores any and all evidence that the people of this "special parallel world" are actually people, and not NPC with preprogrammed dialog and responses. She is honestly gobsmacked every time this turns around to bite her, not understanding what she's done wrong.
• Shadow Archetype: Of Rion. The only success she ever has in the story is a sad, twisted mimicry of Rion's, and she knows it. But don't you dare point it out.
• Shame If Something Happened: She strong-arms one of her female academy "friends" into remaining in her employ, doing her dirty work, both by massive debt on her father and showing her what happens by "dropping off" another of her subordinates off, right in the hands of a very shady individual, presumably a slaver, when her father pawned her off as collateral for an even bigger loan.
• Shout-Out: Her official ruling policy is "everyone's equal, but some people are more equal than others."
• Slavery Is a Special Kind of Evil: You do not want to find yourself in debt to her. Your life will be almost certainly over.
• Stealing the Credit: She rides out into the thick of battle only after her enemy's too battered and broken to fight back, so she can ride back to her palace, claiming all the credit for herself as a "hero who fights for her people."
• Straw Hypocrite: She's fond of sacrificing her pawns to save her own skin, and ordering them to do the same with their underlings, but when Rion volunteered to stay behind, fighting powerful "demon beasts" so Vincent could lead the rest of the class to safety, especially the injured who couldn't defend themselves, she not only openly berates Vincent, she unleashes vicious rumors that Vincent is a coward who would sacrifice his valet purely to save himself. She then has the gall to be shocked that this sort of thing earns her the ire of the commoners whose lives were saved by Vincent and Rion's efforts.
  • After the Demon War, she rises to power by using slave labor as the predominant engine of her economy, but engineers a popular revolt in the Fatilis house by promising the commoners "freedom and equality."
• They Just Dont Get It: No matter how often the world's reactions to her actions deviate from her "perfect walkthrough," she just can't bring herself to believe that the world she's transmigrated to is anything but an exact copy of her favorite game.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Combined with Unwitting Pawn. Her glory hounding, attention whoring, and fervent insistence that she's the only "real" person, with the rest of the population being NPC is actively aiding the coming of the Devil King, by ignoring the "unimportant" people the devils are using for Human Sacrifice.
• We Can Rule Together: Offers Rion the chance to Take Over the World if he'll elope with her. Unfortunately for her, Rion was expecting this and had Lancelot listen just outside her cell. The consequences were so horrific they get a Gory Discretion Shot, and we only know that Maria met her end screaming.
• We Have Reserves: She doesn't just use slave labor to drive her economy, she pushes them into being literal cannon fodder, firing on her own troops while they're in melee with the enemy. What's worse is that she also forces them to fight by having a "special forces" unit, in full arms and armor shoot them dead if they don't rush to their deaths in battle fast enough.
  • As if that wasn't bad enough, despite being well aware that she doesn't have enough "luckless dregs" to fill her empire's need for slave labor, she puts said wretches in her army as suicide bombers!
• Wrong Genre Savvy: She has fully deluded herself into believing she's inside her favorite otome/rpg game, and that everything she does will go exactly like the game she believes she's in. She fully ignores anything and everything pointing out that the people around her actually have thoughts and feelings, as opposed to NPC that can only act and speak in a certain way in response to her actions.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Her go to approach to dealing with those who are no longer useful to her agency is to kill them.

Lancelot Aqusmea

• Bad Boss: How does he reward the smiths, researchers, and blacksmiths that build firearms for his army? Executes them and terrifies those at the top into compliance.
• Entitled to Have You: He has deluded himself into thinking that Maria will ultimately marry and be faithful to him, despite the fact that she's a very lewd and lascivious woman who will flip her skirt at any guy she thinks she can exploit.
• Fallen Hero: With his lackluster performance in the Demon War and then rebelling on his house to then rebel against Grand Flamm kingdom...
• False Friend: He never liked Prince Arnold. He just sucked up for political favor. Once he and Maria are Reassigned to Antarctica, he happily plots and schemes with her to try and take Arnold down.
• Heel Realization: Once he hears from Maria's own mouth how she never loved him, was using him as a tool, and will happily sell him out for her own ends at the first convenience, he realizes he's been an idiot and now has no options but to choose the manner of his death. He proceeds to give Maria a nice Mutual Kill via murder-suicide.
• A Hero To His Home Town: The Aquestro family sings his praises for killing Vincent, but the population at large hates his guts, and he knows it. His only hope for long-term survival is riding Prince Arnold's coat-tails.
• Henpecked Husband: His wife Maria outright orders him to do things, and woe if he doesn't come through.
• Hero Killer: It is his water blade that killed Vincent, and Rion will never, ever forgive him.
• Idiot Hero: He is hopelessly stupid and A Hero to His Hometown.
• Knight Templar: He is quick to make rash judgments, and if he thinks you've done something he considers immoral, he won't stop until he's forced to, either by violence or by someone of higher rank than himself.
• Making a Splash: He has affinity for water magic, as befits his bloodline.
• Make It Look Like an Accident: He sends assassins at Ariel and Rion on their way out of the capital to his new fiefdom. He's mortified when said assassins fail to return or give him notice of any kind.
• Manipulative Bastard: He's fond of using Arnold's self-instigated rivalry against Rion to lead the crown prince by the nose. Arnold eventually catches on and stops playing along, to Lancelot's horror.
• Marriage of Convenience: To Maria, which then upgrades to Unholy Matrimony.
• Reassigned to Antarctica: Like Rion, he's shuffled off to a distant province of Grand Flamm to try and redeem himself, unlike Rion, he comes back with an army because he and Maria actually don't care about the citizens or collateral damage.

Charlotte Fatilias

• All Love Is Unrequited: Twice! First she falls for Prince Arnold who gets swept along by Maria's Charm Person powers, and then when that falls apart, she develops feelings for Rion who is already married to Ariel by that point and is clearly not interested in any other suitors.
• Forgiven, but Not Forgotten: Both Ariel and Rion have sworn off on getting revenge against her for her part in Vincent's execution, since she has shown genuine regret, but they will never forget that it was her harassment campaign against Maria that's responsible for it.
• Gone Horribly Wrong: She conspired to have the engagement between Crown Prince Arnold and Ariel Windhill annulled both because she wanted a crack at him and because Ariel hated the arrangement. The marriage got annulled alright, when Ariel and Vincent were falsely convicted of high-treason, resulting in Vincent getting executed and Ariel being sold off into slavery.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: She orchestrated a harassment campaign against Maria because she couldn't stand the latter's character and personality. Said campaign got Ariel and Vincent falsely accused of treason, with horrific consequences.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Immediately after Vincent is executed, Maria states, aloud, "that's one problem solved." This drives Charlotte into a rage and she calls Maria out on it. Maria is shocked and confused at the outburst, unable to comprehend why she's wrong.

Crown Prince Arnold Flamm

• Arranged Marriage: To Ariel Windhill, until the aftermath of "The Acedemy Arc."
• The Atoner: Despite knowing his acts that resulted in Vincent's death are inexcusable and unforgivable, he still tries to make amends with Rion, as impossible a task as he knows that is.
• Be All My Sins Remembered: He matures a bit and tries to get back on the path of being a good ruler, starting with the defense of Nyegert from the Demon armies, but he's well aware that in his "impetuous youth," he's done far too much that's truly unforgivable to ever be looked upon favorably by history.
• The Caligula: Well in the making. Quick to anger, prone to Disproportionate Retribution, and directly responsible the murder of Vincent Windhill, by execution, whom he knows is innocent, because he could not stand Ariel, his betrothed, having feelings for another man, after he himself spurned her and did his best to drive her away. He tries backing off from this starting in the defense of Nyegert, but he's done too many unforgivable things by that point, and he knows it.
• Crazy Jealous Guy: Emphasis on crazy. He has openly drawn blades on Rion no less than three times out of petty jealousy towards Ariel, that he spent over a decade trying to drive out of his life.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Rion, dare to make Ariel smile in genuine happiness? Lese Majeste! YOU HAVE TO DIE!
• Domestic Abuse: What he would have become had the Arranged Marriage to Ariel played out, or worse, had he managed to buy Ariel from the slave auctions, as he fully intended to make Ariel miserable, for the "crime" of showing her genuine, heart-felt smile to others, but not himself, despite the fact that she won't smile at him due to him making her miserable already.
• Entitled to Have You: To Ariel. Despite doing his best to make Ariel miserable enough to desire leaving him behind, forever, he goes batshit crazy with rage and jealousy the moment he thinks she might have feelings for someone else.
• Failure-to-Save Murder: After a particularly hard fight with two devil generals in the crypts where the demon army was supposed to be, he realized that, logically, Rion's going to be the Demon God's primary target. He takes his full army and rides to Rion's fief as fast as humanly possible, only to arrive Late to the Tragedy. The public never forgives him.
• Harsher in Hindsight: In universe. The unjust execution of Vincent was bad enough, but when he finds out Rion is his long-lost little brother...

  Arnold: "Have I killed my brother's friend?"

• Irrational Hatred: After doing his best to drive Ariel out of his life, he has the gall to be shocked she'd show a genuine smile to Rion, who treats her kindly and openly treasures her happiness.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Even though it still stings to see Ariel smile at Rion, he does come to realize that he's earned that smile, and deserves it for making Ariel happy. This revelation, unfortunately, is far too little, far too late, to save his honor and reputation.
• Karma Houdini Warranty: Even if he was being manipulated by Maria's Charm Person powers and the world's emotion twisting abilities, his actions in the first arc of the story were horrific, and he got away with it due to his status as the crown prince. Rion's retaliation by having his slum crime-network connections use minstrels to spread his side of the story with dramas using fictional characters has caused Arnold's reputation to hit rock bottom, and then tears to shreds on its own, because the public absolutely refuses to give the "evil prince" a second chance, or the benefit of the doubt.
• Reformed, but Rejected: In the aftermath of Vincent's death, when his reputation plummets to the ground, he realizes he's been a total boor and actively strives to not only be a good king, but to make certain Rion and Ariel get the happiness, respect, and recognition they deserve. Rion and Ariel want none of it because Prince Arnold's actions have wounded them too deeply, painfully, and irrevocably. They have told Prince Arnold, in ways both subtle and gross, that if he wants to keep on breathing, he'd better leave them the hell alone.
• Unwitting Pawn: Maria has him completely wrapped around her finger, using her "protagonist" Charm Person ability, and he's completely clueless about it, even when it gets pointed out to him. He does eventually see through it once Maria's "talents" start to fail her.

Erwin Windhill

The illegitimate sire of Vincent's father, or so it's widely claimed.

• Bastard Bastard: He's an illegitimate child, and there's no villainy he'd overlook to elevate himself to be heir of the Windhill family.
• Despotism Justifies the Means: All he cares about is being the heir to the Windhill family and believes any and every action he takes in line with that goal is warranted.
• Entitled Bastard: He fully believes the propaganda that he's far more fitting as the heir than Vincent, despite having no evidence that he's actually better than Vincent in any way.
• Feeling Oppressed by Their Existence: He wants Vincent, Ariel, and Rion dead, by all means, for the perceived crime of "stealing" the Windhill heritage from him, despite the fact that he was never to be the heir in the first place, were it not for Vincent's and Ariel's disgrace through a Frame-Up.
• Ignorant of His Own Ignorance: Living a sheltered life, where he had no basis for comparison regarding his magical abilities, and having his academy entrance exam rigged without his knowledge made him think he was far stronger, smarter, and more talented than he really is. When he gets to the battlefield, as the leading officer, for the first time, he is easily taken down by the "inferior" sibling Ariel.
• Inferiority Superiority Complex: The reason he wants to trample Rion down is that Rion makes him insecure about his position as heir to the Windhill estate, and his own talents, or lack thereof.
• Karmic Death: He did many terrible things in his quest to become the Windhill heir, even framing Vincent for Lese Majeste. Causing Vincent to die an Undignified Death. He winds up part of Maria's invasion, and when he blows through his troops like water, losing, and badly, to King Edward Flamm's retaliation, he flees to Lancelot and is rejected, then as he's fleeing to another country, Rion catches up to him and executes him, leaving only ashes behind.
• Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe: While he is nominally the illegitimate son of Marquess Windhill, his actual parentage is in doubt, especially since Viscount Austin almost constantly checks in on his mother...
• The Resenter: Although his childhood was indeed blessed, with Vincent and Ariel doing everything possible to try and befriend them, he resents the fact that their parents are together, while he and his mother are in a sub-house of the family estate.
• Spoiled Brat: He lived his childhood completely sheltered and praised extensively for the fact that he exists, never actually tested honestly and made aware of his faults or shortcomings. It filled him with unimaginable hubris that ultimately results in his downfall.
• Unwitting Pawn: For the Austin family that's trying to usurp the Windhill family for their own ends, and then for Maria.
• Was It Really Worth It?: As he's fleeing the retaliation of King Edward Flamm, since Lancelot refused to aid him, unless he gave up his crown, which would have been just as bad, he learns from his own mother that it's far more likely he's Viscount Austin's son than that of Lord Windhill, and he had no inheritance rights in the first place, thus all his evil acts to take the Windhill estate were just a sham. Then the carriage he was riding came under fire...

Kingdom of Grand Flamm.

King Edward Flamm

• Digging Yourself Deeper: Everything he does to try and soften Rion's grudge against the injustices he's suffered at the Crown's hands only serves to pile new grudges atop old wounds, and he wonders why Rion has no loyalty to the kingdom.
• Dying Moment of Awesome: Combined with Redemption Equals Death. To secure Prince Arnold's retreat from Maria, he goes into battle himself and uses his ultimate spell, letting a piece of the sun run wild in enemy territory, killing tens of thousands of Maria's troops by himself, but he does not survive it.
• Head-in-the-Sand Management: He has delegated so many of his duties as king that not only is he rarely seen making any decisions, he had absolutely no clue what was going on in the first act of the story. He starts getting wise in the second act but is still slow to learn his lesson.
• I Have No Son!: Even when it becomes absolutely impossible to deny Rion's heritage, he ardently insists Prince Arnold has no younger brother, to Arnold's disgust.
• I've Come Too Far: The reason he ardently refuses to name Rion as the second prince is that things have gone on for far too long treating Rion as an unwanted peasant, even giving him a Baron title and sending him to a crime-ridden distant province to get rid of him. Acknowledging Rion after all that would have caused the kingdom to implode, and that would only make Maria's job easier.
• My God, What Have I Done?: When his royal guard captain gives him a good "The Reason You Suck" Speech after the catastrophe that was Vincent's execution, the king doesn't say it aloud, but clearly has the sentiment in view of the aftermath.
• Tragic Dream: He wants Prince Arnold and Rion to reconcile, as brothers. He completely deludes himself into thinking this is somehow possible, after everything Arnold's done.

Queen Sophia Flamm

• Did Not Think This Through: Granted, she had endured well over eight hours of hard labor with many complications, but having her handmaiden smuggle Rion into the slums the moment she saw his heterochromia and then lied to the king about her child's gender so that any rescue attempts would almost certainly fail was certainly not a good idea.
• Digging Yourself Deeper: All she does to try and get Rion to recognize her as his mother only serves to anger and alienate him further, especially the fact that her handmaiden, the one who smuggled Rion into the slums, died as a prostitute when Rion was a small child, a fate Rion rightly resents more than anything. Once she realizes that nothing she can do will make amends and she's only making things worse, she hides her face with a hood and walks away, never to return.
• Parental Abandonment: She is entirely responsible for the fact that Rion Frey started the story in the slums, as a starving child, raped repeatedly, and on the brink of death.
• Parents as People: Torn between her love for Rion and her duty as Queen...
• Reformed, but Rejected: She tries to reconnect with Rion, after over a decade of mourning and regret, due to the fact that she sent her maid out of the castle with him into the slums, from a paranoid fear of his eyes. He's far too traumatized to accept and quietly walks out of her life, never to return.
• Saying Too Much: She repeatedly lets slip that Rion is her long-lost child. The consequences are hardly pleasant, for anyone.
• Shipper on Deck: She fully supports Rion+Ariel.
• Tough Leader Façade: The reason Rion was in the slums at the start of the story is that she had to throw him out of the royal family due to his eyes, even if she deeply regrets it. She rules by King Flamm's side with a firm will that even the king dare not oppose.

Royal Guard Captain Frederic Marcus

• Did Not Think This Through: He offers Rion a chance of becoming the Royal Guard, to Prince Arnold, who drew blades on him no less than three times, in a fit of pique, and is directly responsible for the death of Vincent, one of the few people Rion cares about. Rion had to spell out the "beloved" Crown Prince was not likely to survive such an appointment.
• Irrational Hatred: Blames the fact that Rion has heterochromia for all the troubles of Grand Flam, even after being aware of Maria's misconduct, Arnold's ineptitude, and Edward's incompetence. Given a chance, he would have killed Rion in the crib... even knowing that Rion's the only reason the demon king was defeated.
• Old Soldier: Middle-aged by Earth standards, but quite elderly by the standards of the setting, and still active on the front lines, if need be.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Being one of the few people with the authority to chew out King Flamm, he does so, mercilessly, in the aftermath of Vincent's execution.
• The Rival: One of the few people in the world who can curbstomp Rion, and the guy Rion hopes to grow strong enough to beat one day.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Or Vitriolic Best Buds depending on who you ask. He and Rion don't hesitate to yell at and chew each other out when the two meet, despite technically being on the same side. King Flamm actually encourages this, since it at least means the two are sincere and honest with each other.
• Turncoat: Shoots Rion in the back in the final climactic battle with Maria, hoping Maria would kill Rion, take over the world, even after knowing how much of a Bad Boss she is.

Sol Aristes

A Royal guard in training that was sent to watch over Rion.

• Dramatic Irony: The one person he wishes to serve, heart, body, and soul, is the "kidnapped princess" of Queen Flamm that went missing just after birth. He is completely unaware that Rion is that "princess."
• My Country, Right or Wrong: Wholly loyal to Grand Flamm kingdom regardless of what the Crown does or doesn't do.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: He and Rion don't get along, at all, and they're forced by circumstances beyond their control to constantly work together. Neither of them like it. If only they knew the truth...

Lambert Scythe

Prince Arnold's personal guard.

• Jerkass Realization: At some point, he dumps the "Rion is insolent for resenting Arnold" mindset and realizes the grudge is justified, especially as Rion is the better king. Yet he still stays unshakably loyal to Arnold.
• My Master, Right or Wrong: He sees Rion's hostility towards Arnold as unforgivable despite being well aware of the history between Rion and Arnold and how Arnold went out of his way to provoke and antagonize Rion while both were at the Royal academy, including the fact that Arnold went after Rion with an unsheathed blade no less than three times, for petty reasons, and is one of the parties responsible for Vincent's unjust death.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Despite his hatred for Rion's "insolent attitude," he still investigates Rion's claims diligently and honestly.

The Prime Minister Saed

• Crack Pairing: In universe. Rion+Maria. Really?
• Did Not Think This Through: In the aftermath of The Reveal regarding Rion's royal blood, he proposed an Arranged Marriage between Rion and Maria. Prince Arnold, of all people, had to point out how dumb an idea that was, in detail, before the Prime Minister got the message.
• Irrational Hatred: Pushing for Rion to be married to Maria wasn't such a crack-pairing after all. Later chapters show that he blames Rion's eyes for everything wrong in Grand Flam and just wants to see Rion suffer. In fact, if he had his way, he would have killed Rion in the crib.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Despite being well aware of how Maria is entirely untrustworthy, he pushes for Maria to be spared from execution so Grand Flam can gleam her other-world knowledge to help recover from the horrific war she started. Fortunately, he doesn't get his way...
• What Were You Thinking?: In the aftermath of The Reveal that Rion's the long-lost younger sibling of Prince Arnold, he comes forward with the "brilliant" idea to forcefully dissolve the marriage between Ariel and Rion and schedule an Arranged Marriage with one of numerous "suitable candidates," Maria's name at the top of the list. Not only does Prince Arnold, of all people, question his sanity, but rightly points out that such a hair-brained scheme would easily trigger a very, very bloody civil war, sending him out of the royal chamber suitably chagrined.

Kingdom of Merica

Olivia Clockford

The crown princess.

• Bureaucratically Arranged Marriage: And an especially convoluted one. In order to get the troops an aid she needs to fight off the Alexandros Empire from Rion, she has to become the hostage of "The Alliance", a set of countries her nation once attacked and was repelled by, but being the crown princess, that's too high a price for her king, so she's forced to marry her bodyguard, Yuri, to make the agreement "palatable." Proves a Perfectly Arranged Marriage since Yuri has a Bodyguard Crush on Olivia in the first place.
• Defiant Captive: She's not captured quietly.
• Lady of War: Gorgeous and deadly on the battlefield.
• Red Baron: "The War Goddess."
• This Can Not Be: When Rion counters every one of her magics and attacks to defeat her.
• The Worf Effect: Built up as a powerful and challenging enemy, gets captured by Rion.

Yuri

Olivia's bodyguard.

• Bodyguard Crush: Has been in love with Olivia for a long time, but unable to marry her because the gap in their social status was too big, then a certain Bureaucratically Arranged Marriage comes along...
• Ironic Name: His name is Yuri. Let that sink in for a moment.
• My Master, Right or Wrong: Firmly loyal to Oliva, and only her.

Devils Warning Spoilers Abound.

Goran

Head of the Intelligence Division.

• Extra-ore-dinary: He uses "steel" attribute magic.
• Evil Gloating: When he's exposed by Rion, he can't help himself but boast about how the devils will eradicate and usurp humanity.
• Made of Iron: Literally. Even when getting expertly stabbed in the shoulder, it doesn't slow him down, nor make him bleed.
• The Mole: Not only is he present and gathering intel for the Grand Flamm kingdom, he was also spying on the kingdom for the devils.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: When Maria manages to actually harm him, he smashes his way through the castle walls and runs away. Disappearing before anything can be done about it.
• This Can Not Be: Every time "mere humans" manage to find a way to harm him.

Gods

Demon God

• Eldritch Abomination: The best way Rion could describe it is as an anemone covered in coal tar, but the world setting has neither anemones nor coal tar.
• It Can Think: When "Alice" shows up, it pauses its aggression to see what the avatar of the world is going to do.
• The Voiceless: Although it can understand speech, it can not speak itself.
• You Can Not Grasp The True Form: A gian coal-tar covered anemone is the closest approximation the human mind can comprehend.

"Alice"

The avatar of the world.

• Blue-and-Orange Morality: She has great difficulty understanding the human concept of "morality."
• Deal with the Devil: She offers Rion the power to defeat the Demon God, but he has to agree to be her property, mind, body, and soul.
• Deus ex Machina: Shows up at the climactic battle of the Demon War to offer Rion a Deal with the Devil.
• A Form You Are Comfortable With: She takes on a form that Rion can sympathize with. Nobody can look upon the true form of the world spirit and remain sane.
• Fusion Dance: Since she believed Ariel lacked the power to truly protect Rion after he became the king of "Empress Empire", she fused with Ariel to become a new existence Arialice.
• Gothic Lolita: Her official outfit.
• I Am a Humanitarian: She eats one of Rion's eyes (the blue one) and then replaces it with a different eye, so he can use all four elements.
• I Love You Because I Can't Control You: This fragment of the world consciousness is fascinated with Rion, not only because she couldn't manipulate his emotional state to do her will, but because he's the only one to ever actively fight her.
• Pieces of God: "Alice" is just a fragment of the world consciousness. Not all of the rest are friendly to Rion. In fact, some of them are actively trying to eliminate him.
• Talking Is a Free Action: Justified. When she shows up at the climactic battle and starts "negotiating" with Rion, the Demon God stops its rampage, scared of what she might do.
• You Can Not Grasp The True Form: The human mind can not comprehend the world consciousness in full.
• Your Days Are Numbered: Her existence has a very strict time limit and she uses it all up protecting Rion from his enemies in the climactic final battle.
• Your Mind Makes It Real: This character puts forth a very convincing reason for why isekai stories are primarily wish fulfillment. At least in this story, the "parallel world" was created by the hopes and dreams of fans of the game which the world mimics, and the world was forced to twist causality and twist human emotions to manifest the scenarios of the game, even when it very much wanted to honor Rion's wishes.