Theodore

Theodore (テオドール, Teodōru) is a mednoble from Kirnberger and Judithe's younger brother.

Theodore has violet eyes.

His mannerisms are very much like those of his sister, in particular the way the pouts when denied to do guard knight duty due to circumstances. When this is pointed out to them, they both vehemently reject this fact in exactly the same manner.

Theodore's family stems from Kirnberger. His father is one of the knights protecting the gate to the neighboring country.

His father appears to be regarded quite highly by Giebe Kirnberger. When the Giebe's son Alexis was chosen to be a guard knight for a member of the archducal family, he picked Theodore's father to give the boy extra lessons and training to be up to the task.

After their return from the Royal Academy following Rozemyne's second term, Brunhilde introduces her lady to her younger sister Bertilde, who is planned to become Rozemyne's retainer upon entering the Royal Academy. Not fully understanding the implications of her actions, Judithe also introduces her younger brother to Lady Rozemyne. Both Cornelius and Angelica approve of the boy, with Angelica remarking that she had seen him train before and that he is surprisingly strong for his age.

Hearing this Rozemyne agrees to consider him as a retainer once he starts attending the Royal Academy, which puts Theodore in an awkward situation. He wishes to follow his father's footsteps and serve Giebe Kirnberger. Thankfully Rozemyne neither takes offense at his rejection nor uses her higher status to force him to serve her anyway despite many other high-ranking nobles likely having done so in her position. Instead she commends his commitment and encourages him to follow his dream. As a potential compromise, she suggests that he serve her only part-time. With her having sufficient adult guard knights, she only requires more knights at the Royal Academy and thus wishes to have Theodore serve her only there, without any obligations past his graduation. For her this would address the lack of guards at the Royal Academy, and Theodore would not only get more chances to practice being a guard knight, but also receive the better training usually reserved for guards of the archduke's family. Theodore is interested, but chooses to take some time for considerations before agreeing or rejecting this offer.

A little later, Giebe Kirnberger negotiates with Aub Ehrenfest, and this arrangement is put into place in exchange for Kirnberger being the next province visited by the Gutenbergs.

As was decided the year prior, upon his entry into the Royal Academy, Theodore entered Lady Rozemyne's service as a temporary guard knight until the time when he graduates from the Royal Academy, at which point he will be allowed to retire to serve Giebe Kirnberger. He is very surprised to learn how well regarded his sister actually is among her fellow retainers and that her seeming slow pace of learning was due to how thorough she is and how this paid off with grades considerably better than one would expect from someone of her station. He appears fine with calling Leonore without an honorific as is common among Rozemyne's retainers, but calling his sister by her name, rather than just 'sister' seems to come hard to him. A sentiment shared by Judithe as well. The next day, the classes start. After returning from the day's exams, Theodore proudly proclaims that all Ehrenfest first-years managed to pass their tests on the first try. A moment later, Lady Rozemyne receives an ordonnanz from Professor Solange, informing her that a new archnoble librarian has been appointed to the Royal Academy and asks her visit the library at her earliest convenience so that mastership of Schwartz and Weiss can be handed over. Theodore is excited for his first visit to the library for a moment before learning that on account of not having been registered yet he isn't able to accompany his lady and her other retainers. As the only one of Rozemyne's current guard knights unable to accompany her, he feels left out and pouts. Judithe scolds him that it is unbecoming of a guard knight to an archduke candidate to pout like that, prompting her fellow retainers to bust out laughing and pointing out that she used to pout in exactly the same way when she was in similar circumstances. Theodore and Judithe shout that they are not the same in complete synchronicity, leading the others to laugh even harder.

A few days later, Lady Rozemyne takes all the second-year and above students to the gathering spot, primarily so the three students, who have to give their name to the archducal family but didn't have the materials for the feystone for it, have a chance to get the ingredients. Since first-years generally aren't able to form their highbeasts yet on account of only just having had their first lesson on it and been given the feystone recently, they are excluded from going too. Theodore, however, is already able to form and ride his highbeast and thus he asks Rozemyne to be allowed to go along. Judithe tries to shoot him down on the argument that he would slow them down on account of just having gotten his highbeast, but Rozemyne allows it.

Theodore was able to form and ride his highbeast already after the first practical lesson at the academy.