Gieselfried

Gieselfried (ギーゼルフリート, Giizerufuriito) is the archduke of Ahrensbach, husband of Georgine, and father of Detlinde.

Gieselfried's first wife was from Drewanchel.

His second wife was the little sister of Aub Werkestock.

During the civil war, Gieselfried positioned his duchy on the side that would eventually win the conflict, putting him in direct confrontation with the former home of his second wife. Even so, Ahrensbach was not spared from the purges that the victorious royal family and Klassenberg insisted on. Despite being married to an active ally and not directly implicated in any disloyal acts, Gieselfried's second wife was still executed, solely due to being the little sister of Aub Werkestock, a supporter of the first and later the fourth prince. Gieselfried was able to successfully negotiate with the king to spare her two sons under the condition that they would be demoted to archnobles and thus eliminated from the race for succession.

A short time after the purge, his only other son Wolfram died. With Detlinde being the only archduke candidate left, Gieselfried approached the duchies into which his daughters had married to try to adopt his own grandchildren to gain more archduke candidates, but due to the mana shortage affecting the entire country, only Drewanchel agreed to allow the adoption of Letizia, the granddaughter of him and his first wife.

Around the time Rozemyne was adopted into Ehrenfest's archducal family, Gieselfried's first wife died, and his former third wife Georgine was promoted to first wife.

He has several daughters of whom only the youngest, Detlinde remains unmarried.

Right now, Gieselfried and Georgine are looking for a suitable husband for Detlinde. Since the Aub successor has already been decided and they want to avoid strife within their duchy, they are looking for someone who lacks the ambition or standing to push Detlinde to try to take the title of Aub successor away from Letizia. With his tarnished reputation and family ties to Ahrensbach, Wilfried appears to be a perfect candidate, but unfortunately he has recently been announced to be betrothed to Lady Rozemyne with the king's approval, dashing their hopes of arranging a marriage between the cousins. They start pondering the possibility of getting Ferdinand, who is talented but is infamous for staying in the temple, to marry Detlinde.

At the Archduke Conference following Rozemyne's second year at the Royal Academy, Gieselfried approaches Aub Ehrenfest about marrying Ferdinand to Detlinde, but after listing a row of counter-arguments Ehrenfest refuses. To address claims and worries by Ahrensbach, Dunkelfelger, and Drewanchel about Ferdinand being mistreated in his home and forced to serve in the temple against his will, Ferdinand is summoned to the Archduke Conference and refutes these false claims and misguided worries, seemingly settling the issue of this marriage.

Despite being quite thoroughly refused by both the Ehrenfest archducal couple and Ferdinand himself, Gieselfried petitions the King for help in forcing the engagement through, causing Ferdinand to be summoned again some days later. Without further consultation with Aub Ehrenfest, the King announces that Ferdinand and Detlinde will be married right after the girl comes of age, without the usual one-year preparation period.

According to rumors, this desperate action was due to Gieselfried not having long to live and being expected to die even before this forced marriage is supposed to take place.

In the summer before Detlinde's final year at the Royal Academy, Gieselfried's health took another turn for the worse. Fearing he would not live to see the marriage, he urgently requested that Ferdinand come to live in Ahrensbach prior to winter socializing, rather than in spring as initially planned, so he would still be around to introduce Ferdinand to Ahrensbach's noble society and help him settle in. Ferdinand accepted the offer, however, Gieselfried passed away before even this early arrival.


 * Strahl - An archknight, who served Gieselfried loyally and competently as his guard knight and the commander of Ahrensbach's Knight's Order until Gieselfried's death.