Benno

Benno (ベンノ Benno) is a character that appears in the Ascendance of a Bookworm series. He is a merchant who takes young Myne and Lutz under his wing to help them become merchants themselves, also to profit from Myne's inventions as much as he can. Myne considers him the Gutenberg of plant paper.

His younger sister Corinna is Otto's wife. He has an unnamed younger sister (older than Corrina) who married and lives in another city.

Appearance
His height is average, he has milk-tea colored hair and dark-red eyes.

History
Benno took over the operation of the Gilberta Company, abandoning his dream to protect his family and the store, shortly after his father was killed by bandits. With his mother bedridden with grief and Benno who had recently reached adulthood at the time; the state of the company went into turmoil, leading to the majority of lehange (darua) declining their contract renewal. Among those that remained, Mark assisted Benno in rebuilding the store, becoming his trusted right-hand man. He highly dislikes Gustav due to his attempts to: marry his mother shortly after she became a widow, marry his daughters to Benno shortly after Liz's death, and marry his sons to either of Benno's two younger sisters, leading one of them to flee to another city. Benno interpreted the guildmaster's actions as insensitive and attempts to take over the company.

Personality
Benno seems cold and menacing at first glance. However, he shows concern for things he cares about, such as Myne's health, giving her three small gold coins for information on rinsham, which is enough to buy a magic tool used to restrain the Devouring.

Story
As the company is passed down to women in the family, he intends for Corinna and Otto to take over eventually.

He takes Lutz on as a leherl (dapla) while acting as a guardian/cosigner for Myne. After attending a pound cake tasting event hosted by Freida, Benno felt the need to compete and decides to open an Italian restaurant with the help of Myne. . Myne feels he is stretching himself thin by going into various business outside of his expertise despite being the main cause of his headaches. His workload is further increasing when Aub Ehrenfest announces his plan to spread plant paper production as a government-backed business.

With the increase of printed goods from the Rozemyne workshop, Benno founds the Plantin Company to exclusively sell those goods and leaves the Gilberta company to Otto and Corinna.

Trivia

 * His Japanese voice actor, Takehito Koyasu, voices Dio Brando from Jojo's Bizarre Adventure.
 * Benno's dream was to become a world-influential merchant.