Hartmut

Hartmut (ハルトムート Harutomuuto) is an archnoble apprentice scholar, who serves as Rozemyne’s retainer.

His mother is Ottilie, and his father is Leberecht. Next winter, he will enter his final year at the Royal Academy.

Hartmut has amber (sometimes called “orange”) eyes and noticeable red hair. He smiles frequently and has a bright, peaceful expression. Rozemyne remarks that his way of speaking makes him sound exactly like Justus. He is about 175 cm (5’9”) tall.

Hartmut gives the impression of a friendly young man who loves talking to people and is quite good at gathering information. Internally, he is more cynical and calculating than he appears.

He is devoted to Rozemyne and praises her effusively to anyone who will listen, to the point where her other retainers are often exasperated by his rambling speeches.

Prior to becoming Rozemyne's retainer, his uncle described him as "exceedingly uncaring" and "infinitely stubborn." When he hears Rozemyne describing Hartmut as open-minded, he is surprised to the point of shock. Seeing the once uncaring boy being so devoted has become both a heartwarming sight, but also a point of worry for his family.

Despite his eccentric attitude, Hartmut is exceedingly competent and has high standards for both himself and others. He judges other people primarily based on how useful they are (or aren’t) to Rozemyne, and is willing to do whatever he can to most effectively support her.

He has shown a surprising willingness to treat commoners and grey priests respectfully and even allow them to teach him. This attitude is very much out of the ordinary among nobles in general, and archnobles in particular.

Hartmut was born the youngest of Ottilie and Leberecht’s three sons. His family is part of the Leisegang political faction. Due to his mother being a friend of Elvira, he and Cornelius spent a lot of time together as children.

Prior to his current occupation, he worked under his uncle, who is also an archnoble scholar.

When Hartmut entered the Royal Academy, he quickly became aware of his duchy's unfavourable position in the country. The victorious faction of the civil war distrusted and looked down on Ehrenfest for staying neutral, rather than helping whom they view as the legitimate zent, and the losing faction resented them for rising in the ranks solely due to circumstance with no merit of their own, resulting in Ehrenfest having virtually no influence at all. In light of this big picture, he became painfully aware how insignificant and stupid the faction squabbling within their backwater duchy truly was, killing off any motivation he might once have had and reducing all his efforts to merely doing what was expected of someone of his status. Likewise, he lacked even the slightest urge to serve any of the short-sighted and ignorant Ehrenfest nobles, so caught up in their own little power-struggles they failed to notice how insignificant their entire duchy was right now.

Upon learning of Rozemyne's existence he quickly deduced that she couldn't be Lady Elvira's daughter and thus must be the daughter of Lord Karstedt's second or third wife, meaning she was of mednoble stock. His mother being asked to serve a girl from such low status dismayed Hartmut, who perceived it as an insult to his family's status. However, after seeing Rozemyne give a blessing to the crowd at her noble baptism, Hartmut was deeply moved. He became convinced that she was a true saint and someone worthy of being the next Aub Ehrenfest.

When Hartmut heard that Wilfried committed the crime of entering the Ivory Tower, he told his mother that Rozemyne should have used the opportunity to cement her position as the next archduchess. Ottilie replied that Rozemyne thought “only of raising others up, not dragging them down” and advised him to support her in positive ways instead. Hartmut accordingly devoted himself to spreading the legends of her sainthood to as many people as possible.

During the time Rozemyne spent unconscious in the jureve, Hartmut sharply criticized Cornelius and her guard knights for letting her be harmed. He also gathered information at the Royal Academy in accordance with Rozemyne’s instructions, focusing on interduchy relations. Ferdinand was especially satisfied with his work.

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 * Mana Affinities: While Hartmut’s total number of elemental affinities is unclear, he informs Rozemyne that he has affinity for Light, but no affinity for Darkness.
 * Mana Affinities: Hartmut has a natural affinity for Light, Fire and Wind and likely Earth from his birth season, though this is so far unconfirmed. He also gained an affinity for Life via divine protection of subordinate gods.
 * Divine Protections: Hartmut has the divine protections of the Goddess of Light, Leidenschaft and Schutzaria, as well as the subordinate gods Gebordnung, Anwachs, Ordoschnelli, Dauerleben and Schlaftraum.
 * Magecraft: As an apprentice scholar, Hartmut has studied magic circles, magic tools, and potions. He earned very good grades in his class on magic circles.


 * Intelligence Work: Hartmut is gifted at gathering information, to the extent that even Ferdinand offers him a position as his retainer . He is also skilled at spreading rumors and misinformation to improve Ehrenfest's (and Rozemyne's) political standing.
 * Education: A good (albeit strict) teacher, Hartmut frequently delegates tasks to the younger apprentice scholars, corrects their errors, and coaches them on how to respond to queries from other duchies.
 * Commoner Communication: Unlike many other nobles, Hartmut is well capable of communicating with commoners, even those that have not been taught how to talk to nobles.


 * Hartmut is a distant blood relative of Rozemyne and several of her other retainers, including Leonore, Brunhilde, Cornelius, and Traugott, all of whom are descendants of important Liesegang faction members. In fact, Previous Count Leisegang is their great-grandfather.
 * Hartmut first appeared on page in Part 3 Volume 3, when he introduced himself to Rozemyne as son of Leberecht in the children's room. Since there are so many children greeting Rozemyne at the same time, she hardly remembers.
 * Hartmut is said to be the amalgamation of Justus' peculiarity and Eckhart's fanatic loyalty.