Veronica

Veronica (ヴェローニカ, Veroonika) was formerly the first wife of the Sixth Aub Ehrenfest. She is the mother of Georgine, Constanze and Sylvester.

Veronica's political faction was the most powerful and influential in Ehrenfest. It was in a power struggle with both the older Leisegang faction and Elvira's Florencia faction. She was powerful enough to manipulate things behind the scenes, which caused a lot of friction within Ehrenfest nobles. She was very protective of her little brother, the former High Bishop Bezewanst, and used her power to protect him from any issues caused by his corruption and criminal activities.

When her first child Georgine was born, Veronica raised her to one day become the Archduchess. As far as we know, this did not change when Constanze was born either. But once Sylvester was born, the siblings were forced into a fierce competition for leadership, which ultimately Sylvester won.

Traditionally, the siblings that lose the run for succession are supposed to support and help their victorious sibling upon them taking over the post of archduke, but Georgine was so resentful and abusive to her younger brother, that Veronica and her husband feared for Sylvester's safety, and thus married her off to their southern neighbor Ahrensbach, even though it meant she would only be the third wife - a rather low position for an archduke candidate.

When Ferdinand was brought into the family, Veronica immediately showed a great antipathy toward him, which over the years grew to outright abuse and paranoia. Despite how helpful and supportive he was to his half-brother Sylvester, Veronica still became convinced that he was plotting the downfall of everyone she held dear and plotting to take over the duchy for himself. While her husband was still in relatively good health, he prevented things from going too far, resulting in Veronica only antagonizing and bullying Ferdinand, but as Adelbert's health declined, Veronica's abuse grew ever worse, eventually escalating to outright assassination attempts, as Adelbert was lying on his deathbed. To escape her mistreatment, Ferdinand renounced his position in noble society and joined the Temple. While this stopped Veronica from directly interfering with him, it did little to disabuse her of her misconceptions, and she remained very hostile to him.

However, Ferdinand was not the only target for Veronica's cruelty. Anyone related or affiliated with any of her own half-siblings found themselves constant targets of ridicule and harassment, whenever she could get away with it. She displayed a particular hostility toward Elvira and her brother, almost bringing their entire home province of Haldenzel to ruin, by using her brother's position as High Bishop to deny them Small Chalices for the Spring Prayer and by imposing harsh taxes on them, leading Elvira to gather all the people wronged by Veronica to form a counter-faction for their self protection.

She was also rather hostile to Sylvester's wife Florencia, practically forcing her to join Elvira's faction for protection and support, instead of trying to get her to join Veronica's own faction. When Sylvester and Florencia had their first child, Veronica personally took charge of the child's rearing, practically stealing the boy away from his mother, claiming that Florencia was not skilled or dedicated enough to properly prepare Wilfried for his future position of archduke. His grandmother's coddling of the boy, as well as Sylvester designating him as his successor without the need to compete for the position, caused Wilfried to become lazy and arrogant, running away from most of his lessons.

After he married Florencia, Veronica was very insistent that Sylvester take a second wife, but he stoutly refused. This was the first open sign of defiance that he ever showed to his mother, even leading to some nobles thinking that Veronica's influence might wane, though that did not happen.

Likely due to the girl's close resemblance to her mother Florencia, Veronica was very harsh to Charlotte, though thankfully she didn't go so far as to outright bully her granddaughter, like she did with so many other people, including her own half-siblings, their descendants, and Florencia herself.

When Bezewanst had problems getting a foreign noble into the city in his plan to get rid of Myne due to heightened security measures, Veronica helps her brother by forging a permit with the archduke's personal seal.

This crime is considered outright treason to the archduke and duchy and could have easily led to a serious diplomatic incident with the Count's home duchy of Ahrensbach, leaving Sylvester no choice but to severely punish his own mother. While she was spared the butcher's block due to her close relation with Sylvester, she was sentenced to imprisonment for life. She is now held in a secret tower in a luxurious room and treated well, but is forced to wear schtappe-sealing bracelets at all times.

When Georgine visits her former home duchy and is granted permission to see her mother, under the condition to not say a single word, Veronica pleads to her to rescue her. It seems like she is unable to recognize the severity of her own crimes and is fully convinced that her imprisonment is solely due to Ferdinand's scheming. However, Georgine holds true to her promise and does not utter even a single word before turning away and leaving.

During the following Harvest Festival, Ehrenfest nobles conspiring to replace Sylvester with Georgine manipulate Wilfried into entering the Ivory tower and talking to his grandmother. Instead of realizing what a grave crime her grandson is committing just by talking to her and warning him away, Veronica tells him all her conspiracy theories about how Ferdinand and Myne are out to destroy the duchy and how everything bad that happened is all their fault, leading to dire consequences for the boy.


 * According to the Fanbook 2, Veronica is the "one married woman" in Ehrenfest that Ferdinand mentioned had enough mana to match his. It's unknown whether this still holds true after Ferdinand learned the Rozemyne Mana Compression Method.
 * Whenever Wilfried voiced his disinterest in fashion to his grandmother, it triggered a lengthy rant from Veronica, or "blabber on for what felt like an eternity" as Wilfried put it.