Aurelia

Aurelia is the betrothed of Lamprecht and a niece of Aub Ahrensbach.

Spoiler from Part 4 Volume 5 Aurelia has naturally sharp eyes and narrow eyes, which gives many people the impression of her being evil and scheming. She is quite tall for a woman, making her a good fit to stand beside a muscular knight like Lamprecht in Rozemyne's opinion.

Spoiler from Part 4 Volume 5 Despite her appearance, Lamprecht described her as "not a bad girl". In her so far only interaction with Rozemyne, right before the wedding ceremony, Aurelia appeared shy and nervous, but also bold enough to play along with Rozemyne's excuse of just "thinking out loud" to enable them to have a short conversation, despite such interactions between the bride and the high bishop right before the ceremony usually being forbidden.

Aurelia never takes off her veil in the presence of anyone other than her husband, not even in front of her new mother-in-law, likely due to fear of being treated poory on account of her appearance, like she was in her former home.

Because of this fear she also forgoes the sheer veil used by Lady Georgine and instead opted for a magical veil that completely hides most of her face. For an archnoble Aurelia allows a surprising amount of emotion to show on the few areas of her face that are not covered by the veil, sometimes making her appear nerveous and twitchy when thrust into unpleasant or unfamiliar situations.

Spoiler from Part 4 Volume 5 Aurelia is the daugther of Aub Ahrensbach's little brother and his third wife. Her mother was born in Frenbeltag. Due to standing on different sides during the civil war, the treatment of her mother and by extension her mother's children worsened considerably and in Aurelia's case this was further exacerbated by her appearance, leading to her being treated very poorly by the majority of her family. Her younger sister managed to avoid the worst of this treatment due to being smart and friendly, to the point even being described as "loved by all".

Aurelia and Lamprecht fell in love with each other during their shared time at the Royal Academy, but due to the strained political relationship between Ahrensbach and Ehrenfest at the time, Aub Ehrenfest refused their requests for a marriage.

Spoiler from Part 4 Volume 5 Despite the political situation remaining mostly unchanged, Aub Ehrenfest eventually relents and agrees to allow the marriage between Aurelia and her beloved Lamprecht, as well as another pair. A major part of the argument that eventually managed to sway Aub Ehrenfest, was that the two brides would both marry into Ehrenfest, a great sacrifice for Ahrensbach during this time of mana shortage.

But with the political situation staying as charged as ever, the two archdukes decided to forgoe the usual ways of inter-duchy marriages and instead hold a ceremony for the two pairs at the border-gate between the two duchies, with both archdukal families being present, officially on account of it being his own niece that is getting married.

While the respective guard knights of both duchies were clearly on edge during the entire affair, the ceremony nevertheless was finished without any incident on site. There was a minor attempt to ambush the arriving grey priests on the road toward the gate by members of the former Veronica faction, but due to everyone from Ehrenfest arriving via highbeast (even the non-nobles were taken through the air in Rozemyne's highbeast) the people at the ceremony didn't even learn of this failed ambush until after the end of proceedings.

So far Aurelia did not have any contact with members of the former Veronica faction and gave her new husband important insights into the source and the specifics of Ahrensbach's current crisis, which seems to indicate that in the struggles between factions she is more on the side of the Florencia faction. Despite these signs, Elvira still keeps Aurelia somewhat at arm's length due to the high stakes.

When Rozemyne and Elvira discuss the dying-technique competition, Elvira agrees to Rozemyne's suggestion to invite Aurelia.

Come next winter socializing, Aurelia wears a new face-veil made in the style of Ehrenfest utilizing the newly re-discovered dyeing techniques of the duchy. This openly displays her association with the Florencia faction and greatly softens the hard stares she has to endure from many of the local nobles. Privately she is also quite happy to be able to wear something she considers to be cute, for which she had few opportunities in the past. She is very thankful to Rozemyne for suggesting this change in style.

Despite being mostly confined to a side building of Karstedt's estate and only allowed visitors carefully vetted by her new family, she still feels more freedom than in Ahrensbach, making Rozemyne wonder just how badly she was treated in her former home.