Gundolf

Gundolf (グンドルフ, Gundorufu) is a professor at the Royal Academy.

Gundolf is a researcher through and through, with a near insatiable hunger for knowledge and discovery.

Much like his colleague Hirschur, his laboratory is a mess with papers piled on any available surface. The only place that he keeps meticulously clean is the brewing area.

Gundolf, like many nobles from Drewanchel, is a scholar and appears to be quite renowned. Even so, according to Anastasius, Hirschur has made some breakthroughs that even Gundolf "could make neither head nor tail of it." .

In his youth, Gundolf was an archduke candidate and took archduke courses at the Royal Academy.

To escape the pressure and constant distractions of the cutthroat politics among the archduke candidates of his home duchy, he arranged for himself to be adopted by an archnoble to lose his archduke candidate status shortly after his graduation, so he could dedicate himself to his research. Later, he became a professor at the Royal Academy.

During Rozemyne's second year at the Royal Academy, Professor Gundolf during one of his lectures speaks very enthusiastically about the potentials of Verification Paper that has only recently been invented and revealed by Ehrenfest and used to facilitate inter-duchy trade. He is very eager to start researching this new invention, which he, as well as many other researchers from Drewanchel, presume to be a magic tool.

One of his current students is Professor Hirschur's protégé Raimund, who is present during this incident and later by happenstance passes this information on to Lady Rozemyne.

In Rozemyne's third year at the Royal Academy, Gundolf and Hirschur are assigned to oversee the third-years' Divine Protection Acquisition. The majority of students who pass the required theology exam, and thus are able to participate on the first day, are from Ehrenfest and Drewanchel.

Upon seeing the lengthy prayer, Rozemyne and Wilfried point out how it is almost the same as prayers in the temple and the one they use to replenish their duchy's Foundation Magic. This surprises the other people present, since as Ortwin points out, in Drewanchel, they do not use a prayer for that, but just pour the mana in like they would with any magic tool. Before this can turn into an argument between Wilfried and Ortwin, Professor Hirschur steps in and tells them to discuss this "research" after class.

Since they already know the majority of the prayer, Rozemyne and Wilfried finish memorizing it first, and consequently also enact their respective rituals before any other student, with Rozemyne going first. When Wilfried comes back, he announces that he managed to gain the protection of twelve gods, which naturally means he must have gained the protection of several subordinate gods in addition to primary deities. This causes quite a stir. As Hannelore of Dunkelfelger points out, it is very rare for any student to gain more than one protection per elemental affinity, and with the exception of those serving Leidenschaft, subordinate gods rarely ever grant their blessing to students. The only one not surprised at her brother's success is Rozemyne herself, who states that based on what she read the likelihood of gaining the attention of a god depends on the person's deeds, and thus it is only natural for the pair to gain the protection of so many gods, without giving away how many she got.

The third person to finish memorizing the prayers is Ortwin, whom Gundolf accompanies into the chapel. To the boy's disappointment, however, he only manages to gain the protection of the primary gods he has aptitude for. Though he is far from alone in this, since all other non-Ehrenfest students, except for one, end up with the same results. Hannelore reports that she gained the protection of Angriff, the God of War, and Dregarnuhr, the Goddess of Time, albeit she is very confused how she could possibly have gained the attention of either. Once Hannelore leaves the hall, only Ehrenfest students remain, since their med- and laynobles chose to not step forward when they memorized their prayer and instead decided to wait until all those of higher ranked duchies and higher status had finished their rituals to avoid their ire, despite having no actual obligation to do so. By unspoken agreement, they enact their rituals in order of social rank, with the exception of the mednoble Roderick, who chooses to go last.

The first four finish theirs without any issue and got the expected outcome of gaining one protection per element they have. Philine, however, comes running back from the chapel, so overjoyed that she entirely drops her noble façade and happily tells Lady Rozemyne that she gains the protection of Mestionora, the Goddess of Wisdom, despite not even having an affinity for wind or the protection of Schutzaria. This greatly intrigues Gundolf, and he unleashes a torrent of questions, under which the laynoble girl wilts. This causes Rozemyne to step in and make the professor ease up on her. Philine tries her best to answer all of Gundolf's questions and lays out how hard she worked on transcribing books for Lady Rozemyne, making translations of ancient writings into modern vernacular and her work as an apprentice scholar, but Gundolf is unable to pinpoint any significant difference between what she did and the students of his own duchy.

Before he can finish his questioning, Roderick returns and reports that he somehow gained the protection of all seven major gods. This outright shocks Gundolf. At no point in recorded history did any student with just two elemental affinities manage to become omni-elemental through this ritual, and thus it was thought entirely impossible up to now. Unfortunately, neither the professor nor Roderick himself seem to have even the slightest clue as to how this happened, so questioning him appears to be a rather fruitless endeavor. At Rozemyne's urging, Gunfolf congratulates the students and gives them leave. Before they move out, Professor Hirschur cautions them to not tell anyone about Roderick's success, since it is such a great outlier it could potentially throw the entire Royal Academy into chaos.

A few days later, Gundolf is contacted by Rozemyne. Due to prioritizing her archduke candidate lessons, Rozemyne was unable to attend the initial scholar's course lessons and thus has to personally schedule appointments for her exams. While Rozemyne brews the required potions in Gundolf's lab, the two talk. Gundolf learns of Ehrenfest's research into divine protection and their cooperation with Dunkelfelger on the issue, but is unable to gain much information from Rozemyne, since the royal family is also involved. Gundolf also tries to headhunt Rozemyne for his own laboratory, but she refuses and sticks with Hirschur. She does however indicate a willingness to cooperate with Drewanchel on the research of magic tool paper, in particular a search for alternative methods of creation that do not come from feybeasts, an idea that fascinates Gundolf. In the course of their discussions, the professor learns that Rozemyne is currently trying to do all the research she comes up with all by herself. He advises her to concentrate on the sensitive parts and topics of particular personal interest, and to delegate the rest to the other scholars of her duchy, so the entire duchy can benefit from her pursuits. The Ehrenfest girl also inquires about access to documents pertaining to the old curriculum, from the times before the schtappe was acquired in the first year.

Despite the wealth of discussions they had on the side, Rozemyne is able to pass all three of her exams with flying colours.


 * Gundolf has an unnamed cameo during Part 4 Volume 1, as one of the professors coming to see Rozemyne's highbeast during the highbeast creation class.