Muriella

Muriella (ミュリエラ, Myuriera) is an apprentice scholar and a child of members of the former Veronica faction.

Muriella is the birth daughter of Giebe Bessel and his third wife. Since the giebe's younger sister was unable to have a child of her own, Muriella was given to her less than a full year after her birth.

Ever since first laying eyes upon one of Lady Elvira's romance novels, Muriella wished she could serve her. However, this proved to be a problem, since her parents loathed the Leisegangs so much, that they won't even allow their daughter to own a book written by a Leisegang noble.

Shortly before the purge, her baptismal mother was finally able to give birth to a child of her own, a boy. With a true born heir present and the winds of politics shifting away from the former Veroncia faction ever more, Muriella's father tried to distance himself from the sinking ship by rejecting Muriella, making her parentage default back to her biological family.

When the students are informed about the impending purge of the nobles of the former Veronica faction, they are given the choice to either return to their families and share in the traditional punishment by association, or escape the punishment by giving their name to a member of the archducal family. Since giving her name to Lady Elvira does not appear to be an option, Muriella decides to serve Lady Rozemyne instead, hoping that serving Elvira's baptismal daughter might grant her earlier access to Elvira's newly released romance stories.

When Aub Ehrenfest visits the Royal Academy to have a discussion with Professor Hirschur, he also takes some time to inform the students about the outcome of the purge. Afterwards, he calls Muriella to a private meeting. There he reveals to her that her baptismal mother - the woman who raised her - was in fact innocent of any crimes since at the time the Veronica faction made their moves, she had completely withdrawn from noble society to care for her baby boy. But unfortunately, she was name-sworn to Georgine, leaving the Aub no choice than to execute her. With both her mothers and her birthfather executed, Muriella is required to give her name to a member of the archducal family. The Aub deeply apologizes to Muriella for how the situation turned out, but thankfully she was already prepared for this outcome and didn't have much love for the majority of her family in the first place, which greatly helps her in accepting her new lot in life.

Apart from Muriella, only four more students have to give their names. Matthias and Laurenz, who are in the same situation, immediately give their names to Lady Rozemyne, since they already had their name-swearing feystones completed. Muriella, however, is unable to do the same since she has not been able to acquire the necessary materials.

To help Muriella and the other students in the same position, Rozemyne organizes a joint trip to the gathering spot. Matthias also shares a way to more efficiently obtain high-quality feystones that he derived from Rozemyne's ditter victory in her first Royal Academy year. Rather than hunting for the strongest feybeasts, they intentionally make lesser beasts evolve by feeding them charged up feystones and quickly slaying them before they can get used to their new bodies and mana qualities.

Soon after she finishes her feystone and gives her name to Lady Rozemyne, officially entering her employ as an apprentice scholar. To her surprise and frustration, no one among Rozemyne's retainers is willing to discuss Royal Academy Love Stories with her in depth, each one either appreciating the books in a very different manner than her, or not caring for them much at all. Seeing her plight, Philine takes her along to the library where she is due to meet the Jossbrenner noble Lueuradi to discuss the crestwork her duchy is doing for Lady Rozemyne. She introduces Lueuradi and Muriella to each other, and after some small initial problems getting a conversation going, the two quickly find each other to be kindred spirits and gush about their favourite aspects of the depicted romances at length, until to their surprise the bells announce sixth bell after what felt like only a short time to them. The two promise to meet each other again on their next free day to talk again.

Lady Rozemyne plans to experiment in the Ehrenfest Temple to see if the ritual to obtain divine protections can also be performed there. To help her fiancé Wilfried, Rozemyne agrees to move up the schedule and start the experiment a few days after the Feast Celebrating Spring and offers all her retainers the chance to participate. For the sake of the research, Muriella is allowed to give her name to Lady Elvira early and thus is scheduled to do the ritual twice, once before and once after the switch.

While doing the ritual the first time, she is surprised to see the symbols of all seven elements produce pillars of light. At the private discussion with Rozemyne, under the privacy of sound-blocking magic tools, she learns that the other name-sworn of Rozemyne experienced the same phenomenon and that apparently the ones sworn to someone inherit their master's elemental affinities in addition to their own.

In Rozemyne's hidden room, she retrieves Muriella's name-swearing feystone and sucks her mana out of it, which makes the cocoon disappear slowly to reveal the original white box, with the stone inside. Once this is completed, Muriella swears herself to Elvira, who gratefully accepts her. To her considerable surprise, Muriella is not in any pain while Elvira dyes the feystone.

After the switch in masters is done, Muriella re-does the ritual for divine protections and reports that she is no longer omni-elemental, now only having her own natural elements and those of Elvira.


 * Mana Affinities: Muriella's natural affinities are currently not known. While being sworn to Rozemyne, she was omni-elemental, but lost the elements she gained this way after her name was returned and gained those of Elvira instead, but her own and Elvira's affinities apparently do not amount to the full set of seven. The only elemental affinity Muriella has for sure is Water, which she would have gained from the divine protection of Blufanah, if she didn't have it naturally or from Elvira already.
 * Divine Protections: Bluanfah.