Ferdinand

Ferdinand (フェルディナンド, Ferudinando) is the High Priest of the Ehrenfest temple who serves as Myne’s teacher. He later becomes Rozemyne’s guardian and mentor.

As the son of the Sixth Aub Ehrenfest and a mistress, Ferdinand is the half-brother of Sylvester and an archduke candidate of Ehrenfest.

Ferdinand has light gold eyes and pale blue hair that falls to his shoulders. He is tall and has a slender build. Generally, his face reveals little emotion. In noblewomen’s society, Ferdinand is considered very attractive.

When Myne first encounters him, she thinks he looks around the same age as Benno, although he is actually about ten years younger. His worn appearance is primarily due to overwork, and he tends to look closer to his real age when he has more time to relax.

As Ferdinand often says himself, he does not have a naturally “likeable” personality. He treats most people coldly unless he has reason to believe they are valuable to him, and only bothers with politeness when it benefits him. As an opponent, Ferdinand is calculating and ruthless: He exploits every weakness without restraint to secure the best possible result for himself.

However, Ferdinand is deeply loyal and will go to great lengths to protect and support the few people he cares about. Despite his often solitary life, he values personal relationships highly, and he admits to Myne that he envies the unconditional love and support she receives from her family.

Due to his difficult upbringing, Ferdinand rarely expresses his emotions outwardly and maintains a calm, pragmatic attitude. When he does show kindness or concern, he tends to do it in a roundabout and hard-to-understand manner. He also is good at hiding discomfort and pain. In fact, the more upset he is, the brighter he smiles.

An exceptionally competent and hardworking person, Ferdinand values those same qualities in others. However, he has no patience for those who cannot meet his standards. Myne reflects that he often tries to do everything himself rather than rely on others. Ferdinand also loves research and often forgets to eat or sleep when he’s studying a fascinating topic.

Ferdinand is the son of the Sixth Aub Ehrenfest and a mistress, making him an archduke candidate of Ehrenfest. He was raised in noble society and trained to support his half-brother Sylvester, who was favored to be the next Aub Ehrenfest.

Because Ferdinand’s mother was not a legal wife of the Aub, and Veronica refused to adopt him, he could not legally become the archduke unless every other member of the archducal family died. Nevertheless, Veronica viewed him as a threat to her son’s future position and routinely harassed and ostracized him.

At age ten, Ferdinand enrolled in the Royal Academy, where he excelled in his studies. After Justus told him it was possible to enroll in multiple courses, he decided to simultaneously take the scholar course, the knight course, and the archduke candidate. Unlike most students, he viewed the Royal Academy as a respite from his difficult life in Ehrenfest and stayed there year-round, only returning home when summoned.

During his school years, Ferdinand studied as a disciple of Professor Hirschur, an avid researcher of magical tools. He also became widely known among the other students for his skill in treasure-stealing ditter and harspiel, and routinely received the top grades in his class. After graduating from the Royal Academy, Ferdinand briefly served with the Ehrenfest Knight's Order, where he left a strong impression on the apprentice knight Damuel.

The death of the previous archduke increased Veronica’s power in Ehrenfest. When Ferdinand began to feel he was in danger of losing his life to her harassment, he followed Sylvester’s advice and joined the temple, giving up his status as a noble. Initially, Ferdinand was bored with life in the temple and had little to occupy his time besides reading and research.

However, the civil war in the Sovereignty and subsequent political purges caused a serious mana shortage. Young blue priests and shrine maidens were called back into noble society, while those with enough mana were sent to the Sovereignty temple. Due to his mana and family status, Ferdinand was the only one left who was qualified to become the High Priest.


 * Eckhart, an archnoble guard knight who serves Ferdinand with unfaltering devotion.
 * Justus, an archnoble who serves as both an attendant and scholar. He specializes in collecting information.
 * Lasfam, an attendant at Ferdinand’s personal estate.


 * Arno, a gray priest who formerly served as Ferdinand’s head attendant at the temple.
 * Fran, a gray priest attendant reassigned to Rozemyne’s service.
 * Zahm, a gray priest attendant reassigned to Rozemyne’s service.

 See Ferdinand/Story 

 See Ferdinand/Relationships 


 * Mana Affinities: Ferdinand has all seven elemental affinities.
 * Mana Capacity: Ferdinand has an exceptionally large amount of mana. His mana capacity is believed to be the highest in Ehrenfest.
 * Highbeast: His highbeast takes the shape of a white winged lion.


 * Education: Ferdinand is highly intelligent and learns quickly. At the Royal Academy, he excelled in his classes while taking the knight’s, scholar’s, and archduke candidate’s courses simultaneously. He is also an excellent teacher -- although his teaching method is exceptionally strict and ruthless, those who are able to survive his curriculum are guaranteed to be outstanding, like Fran and Rozemyne.
 * Research: Ferdinand is a skilled researcher with in-depth knowledge of mana, magic circles, magic tools and potions, feybeasts and feyplants, ancient dialects, and many other subjects. He has also personally invented a number of new magical tools and potions.
 * Music: While all nobles can sing, dance, and play the harspiel, Ferdinand’s musical skills are widely considered to be the best in Ehrenfest and even earned him praise in other duchies.
 * Combat: As a knight, Ferdinand can wield a wide range of weapons with ease, including a bow, sword, scythe, and even a thrown cast net. Very few people in Ehrenfest are able to match him in combat. He is also recognized for his skill as a tactician, both in real battles and in ditter.
 * Medicine: Ferdinand has extensive knowledge of medicine, which qualifies him to serve as Rozemyne’s physician.
 * Politics: Ferdinand is a brilliant strategist. He is able figure out the big picture based on very few hints, and concoct elaborate plans to act a few steps ahead of his opponents. He is also very good in manipulating people to act in his desired ways.


 * Ferdinand serves as the narrator for the anime.
 * He wears a green feystone in his ring, indicating that he was born in the spring.
 * He returns debts at least twice the amount he received.
 * He is the only Ehrenfest knight who wears a blue cape.
 * His favorite cookies are the ones made with tea leaves.
 * He is the 2nd most popular light novel male character from 2020.
 * During his time as a student at the Royal Academy he was often invited to tea parties by a princess to play the harspiel. If he weren’t an archduke candidate, he might have become her personal musician.
 * His mother's name was Seradina.
 * Ferdinand looked older than he was at Myne's first meeting with him due to being chronically overworked and drained of much of his mana.