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The Light Novel series is the source material for the adaptation of the Anime and Manga series. The information and terminology on the article will be based on the source material rather than the adaptions. |
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I only start fights that I know I can win. | ”
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— Ferdinand to Myne in Part 2 Volume 2 Chapter 24: The Healing Ritual
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Ferdinand (フェルディナンド, Ferudinando) is the former High Priest of the Ehrenfest temple who served as Myne’s teacher. He later becomes Rozemyne’s guardian and mentor.
As the son of the Sixth Aub Ehrenfest, Ferdinand is the half-brother of Sylvester and was an archduke candidate of Ehrenfest.
Once the Lanzenave invasion was defeated, he supports Rozemyne's path to becoming Aub Alexandria. To abide by the royal decree and keep their family connection, they were engaged. As a part of Alexandria's Archducal Family, he assumes the role of High Priest of Alexandria's temple.
Appearance
Ferdinand has light gold eyes and pale blue hair that falls to his shoulders. He is tall and has a slender build. Generally, his face reveals little emotion.[8] In noblewomen's society, Ferdinand is considered very attractive.[9]
When Myne first encounters him, she thinks he looks around the same age as Benno, although he is actually about ten years younger. His worn appearance is primarily due to overwork, and he tends to look closer to his real age when he has more time to relax.[1]
Personality
As Ferdinand often says himself, he does not have a naturally “likeable” personality. He treats most people coldly, unless he has reason to believe they are valuable to him, and only bothers with politeness when it benefits him.[10] As an opponent, Ferdinand is calculating and ruthless. He exploits every weakness without restraint to secure the best possible result for himself.[11] Due to the abuse he suffered at the hands of Veronica, he is especially distrustful, cold, and impatient with women.[12]
However, Ferdinand is deeply loyal and will go to great lengths to protect and support the few people he cares about. Despite his often solitary life, he values personal relationships highly, and he admits to Myne that he envies the unconditional love and support she receives from her family.[13] Due to his difficult upbringing, Ferdinand rarely expresses his emotions outwardly. When he does show kindness or concern, he tends to do it in a roundabout and hard-to-understand manner.[14] He also is good at hiding discomfort and pain: the more upset he is, the brighter he smiles.
An exceptionally competent and hardworking person, Ferdinand values those same qualities in others. However, he has no patience for those who cannot meet his standards. Myne reflects that he often tries to do everything himself rather than rely on others. Ferdinand also loves research and often forgets to eat or sleep when he’s studying a fascinating topic.[15]
Ferdinand is described as a cold-blooded pragmatist, who cares about almost nothing but efficiency. Ironically, his extreme pragmatism can lead to unnecessary delays and difficulties: When he is reluctant to "waste time" teaching noble etiquette to Ehrenfest commoners, Rozemyne points out that punishing commoners for breach of etiquette is much more wasteful and time-consuming.[16]
History
Ferdinand's true origins are known to extremely few people. He was born under the name "Quinta" in the Adalgisa Villa in the Sovereignty as the son of Seradina,[17] a princess of the country of Lanzenave. Seradina served as the "Flower of House Loweleier,"[3] where her role was to produce children with a high level of mana. Of her sons, the one with most mana would be chosen to return to Lanzenave as its next king, while all others would be executed and their feystones harvested and sent back to Lanzenave as resources.[18]
Since Quinta did not have the most mana among his brothers, he was slated for execution. However, he was able to escape the villa and find safety in Ehrenfest under the care of the previous archduke, to whom he gave his name. The circumstances surrounding this event are unclear even to nobles (like Raublut) who were closely involved at the time, but Aub Ehrenfest attributed it to "the guidance of the Goddess of Time." Ferdinand's mother Seradina was executed and turned into a feystone in his place.[3]
When Ferdinand first came to Ehrenfest, he was accompanied by a woman from the Sovereignty. She lived with him as a caregiver and maternal figure in the villa provided by the archduke before his baptism (the archduke's first wife Veronica having forbidden him from living in the castle).[19] The Aub's paternal half-sister and soon-to-be second wife Irmhilde was planned to become Ferdinand's baptismal mother, but she died before either her marriage or his baptism could take place.[4]
Because Veronica refused to adopt Ferdinand or have him baptized as her child, he was introduced to noble society only as the son of Aub Ehrenfest and a mistress. As an illegitimate child, he could not legally become the next Aub unless every other member of the archducal family died.[20] Ferdinand began living in the archduke's castle after his baptism. When he later returned to the villa where he was raised, the woman who formerly cared for him was gone. Rozemyne posits that Veronica was to blame for the woman's sudden disappearance.[19]
Growing up, Ferdinand was routinely harassed and ostracized by his stepmother, who viewed him as a threat and rival to her own son and preferred heir, Sylvester. She tormented him continually, assigning him untrustworthy retainers and having his meals poisoned or tampered with.[21] By contrast, Sylvester was eager to have a good relationship with his new half-brother.[22]
At age ten, Ferdinand enrolled in the Royal Academy, where he excelled in his studies. After Justus told him it was possible to enroll in multiple courses, he decided to simultaneously take the scholar course, the knight course, and the archduke candidate course. Unlike most students, he viewed the Royal Academy as a respite from his difficult life in Ehrenfest and stayed there year-round, only returning home when summoned.
During his school years, Ferdinand studied as a disciple of Professor Hirschur, an avid researcher of magic tools. He also became widely known among the other students for his skill in treasure-stealing ditter and harspiel, and routinely received the top grades in his class.[10] Fellow students like Henrik and Eckhart were immensely impressed by his achievements, and Heisshitze of Dunkelfelger came to view him as a rival.
At some point in his time at the Royal Academy, Ferdinand fulfilled most of the trials to become a Zent candidate and then used mana to brute-force his way into the Garden of Beginnings and reach Erwaermen. Although the god disapproved of his unconventional methods, Ferdinand was qualified to obtain the Book of Mestionora and began absorbing the knowledge it contained. However, he broke off the transfer process when his Book of Mestionora was only about a third complete.[18]
Ferdinand also accepted Justus, Eckhart and Lasfam as his retainers after joining the Royal Academy. However, his deep-seated distrust of others meant that he was unwilling to rely on them until they gave him their names in a show of unwavering loyalty. Eckhart's wife Heidemarie also served as his retainer, but was killed by poisoning shortly after her marriage. After graduating from the Royal Academy, Ferdinand briefly served with the Ehrenfest Knight's Order, where he left a lasting impression on the apprentice knight Damuel.
As the archduke's health worsened, so did Veronica's paranoia; she began persecuting Ferdinand more and more harshly. When he began to feel he was in danger of losing his life, he followed Sylvester’s advice and joined the temple, giving up his status as a noble. In a particularly cruel gesture, Veronica forced him to leave behind the ocher Ehrenfest cape he had been given by his father; from that point onward, he began wearing the blue Dunkelfelger cape he had won from Heisshitze in a ditter match at the Royal Academy.[23]
When the Sixth Aub Ehrenfest lay on his deathbed, he returned Ferdinand's name to him. Before his father's death, Ferdinand promised that he would do everything in his power to make his half-brother Sylvester the archduke and aid him henceforth.[20] When his father's funeral was held, Ferdinand was only able to attend as a blue priest, rather than as a relative of the deceased.[24]
When Ferdinand first came to the temple, he only took on just two attendants. Wary that the High Bishop Bezewanst would attempt to poison him, he hired a chef only to make food for his attendants and returned to his estate in the Noble's Quarter to eat his own meals. His fear turned out to be justified when he caught a grey shrine maiden tampering with the food his chamber, not realizing that Ferdinand did not eat there.
After interrogating the shrine maiden, Ferdinand diluted the poison into a nonlethal dose and had it added to Bezewanst's own food in an overt threat, warning him of the consequences should he make a second attempt. This conflict resulted in a new rule forbidding attendants from entering the kitchens of blue priests or shrine maidens other than their master, and there were no further poisoning incidents in the temple.[25]
Initially after joining the temple, Ferdinand was frequently bored and had little to occupy his time besides reading and research. Upon hearing this, his brother Sylvester sent a rather significant part of his own work to Ferdinand, in part so he would not have to work so much himself and in part to help his younger brother stave off the boredom.
However, the serious mana shortage caused by the civil war in the Sovereignty and subsequent political purges had a significant impact on temple life. Young blue priests and shrine maidens were called back into noble society, while those with enough mana were sent to the Sovereignty temple. Due to his mana and family status, Ferdinand was the only one left who was qualified to become the High Priest.[26]
Shouldering his temple responsibilities and Sylvester's requests from the castle, Ferdinand soon became exhausted, working late into the night and using rejuvenation potions to compensate for his lack of sleep. However, his aversion to admitting weakness or asking for help prevented him from mentioning these difficulties to his brother.
Story
See Story Tab
Relationships
Retainers
Current
Attendants
- Lasfam - An attendant at Ferdinand’s personal estate. When Ferdinand moved to Ahrensbach, Lasfam remained behind to care for the estate, which had been turned over to Rozemyne.[27] It is currently unclear whether he is still counted as Ferdinand's attendant or officially serves Rozemyne.
- Justus - An archnoble who officially serves as Ferdinand's attendant, but who also doubles as a competent scholar. He specializes in collecting information.
- Sergius - An Ahrensbach noble assigned to be his attendant upon his arrival in Ahrensbach.[28]
Knights
- Eckhart - An archnoble who serves as a guard knight. He also helps with paperwork at the temple.
- Strahl - An Ahrensbach archnoble who served the previous Aub Ahrensbach until his death and was later dismissed by Detlinde, freeing him up to become Ferdinand's guard knight.[29]
Scholars
- Raimund - A mednoble apprentice scholar who was Ferdinand's disciple for a year, before becoming his full retainer upon Ferdinand's move to Ahrensbach.[30]
Former
- Arno - A gray priest ,who formerly served as Ferdinand’s head attendant at the temple, until his execution.
- Gido - An attendant, though it is currently unclear whether he is a noble or a grey priest.[31] Since he was not mentioned among the only three retainers he kept on when moving to Ahrensbach,[27] he must have left Ferdinand's service.
- Fran - A grey priest attendant reassigned to Rozemyne’s service.
- Heidemarie - A scholar who served Ferdinand until she married Eckhart.[32]
- Lothar - A gray priest serving Ferdinand at the temple, until his departure. He was occasionally sent to Hartmut to assist him in his new duties.[33]
- Ymir - A gray priest serving Ferdinand until his departure. He is the youngest out of Ferdinand's temple attendants. [34]
- Zahm - A grey priest attendant reassigned to Rozemyne’s service.
Skills and Abilities
Magical
- Enhancement Magic: Although his proficiency isn't specifically mentioned, Ferdinand is skilled enough in body enhancement magic that he doesn't need assisting magic tools to perform it.[35]
- Highbeast: Ferdinand's highbeast takes the shape of a white winged lion.
- Mana Affinities: Ferdinand has all seven elemental affinities, making his mana appear pearl-white.
- Mana Capacity: Ferdinand has an exceptionally large amount of mana. His mana capacity is believed to be the highest in Ehrenfest. Ferdinand is roughly equal in strength to a seasonal feybeast lord like the Lord of Winter.[36]
- Research: Ferdinand is a highly skilled researcher with in-depth knowledge of mana, magic circles, magic tools, and potions, as well as feybeasts, feyplants, ancient dialects, and many other subjects. He has also personally invented many new magic tools and potions.
Non-Magical
- Combat: As a knight, Ferdinand can wield a wide range of weapons with ease, including a bow, sword, scythe, and even a thrown cast net. Very few people in Ehrenfest are able to match him in combat. He is also recognized for his skill as a tactician, both in real battles and in ditter.
- Education: Ferdinand is an excellent teacher capable of training knights, scholars, temple attendants, and archduke candidates. Although his teaching style is exceptionally strict and demanding, those who are able to survive his training are guaranteed to be outstanding, like Fran and Rozemyne.
- Intellect: Ferdinand has genius level intellect and is a prodigy in almost all aspects. When he was enrolled in the Royal Academy, he took the knight’s, scholar’s, and archduke candidate’s courses simultaneously and earned the title of best-in-class in all curricula every year. He has exceptional memory and analytical ability that allows him to remember tiny details and draw connections from seemingly unrelated facts.
- Medicine: Ferdinand has extensive knowledge of medicine, which qualifies him to serve as Rozemyne’s physician.
- Music: While all nobles can sing, dance, and play the harspiel, Ferdinand’s musical skills are widely considered to be among the best in Ehrenfest and even earned him praise in other duchies.
- Politics: Ferdinand can quickly grasp the political landscape and act to turn it to his advantage, staying several steps ahead of his opponents. He's also good at manipulating others to do what he wants.
- Wealth: By receiving various allowances for performing temple, knight, and archduke duties, as well as selling his inventions to powerful duchies and people, Ferdinand became extremely wealthy, even by archduke candidate standards. He considers a few large golds "pocket change".
Trivia
- Ferdinand serves as the narrator for the anime.
- He returns debts at least twice the amount he received.[37]
- Ferdinand's rejuvenation potions taste so bad that it became a running gag in series.
- Rozemyne calls the original variant "ultra-nasty potions".
- Sylvester thought it was child cruelty to make children drink it.
- Charlotte wondered if it was a cruel prank when she took it for the first time, even though it was already the version with improved taste.
- Feeding a ruelle feystone spiked with a few drops of the potion to a feybeast is enough to make it rampage in agony.
- When Ferdinand himself was fed the potion while being unconscious, he thought he was being poisoned.
- Ferdinand's favorite food is consommé soup, and his favorite cookies are the ones made with tea leaves.
- He is the second most popular light novel male character from 2020.
- Ferdinand has the habit of pinching Rozemyne's cheek when he is exasperated by her antics. It appears that he secretly enjoys doing so, and he finds her cheek "soft and pleasant to touch".[34]
- During his time as a student at the Royal Academy, he was often invited to tea parties by a princess to play the harspiel. If he weren’t an archduke candidate, he might have become her personal musician.[38]
- Ferdinand hardly praises anyone. The best praise he ever gives is "very good“ (大変結構, taihenkekkou).
- He developed his own mana compression method that has similar effectiveness to the second stage of Rozemyne's method, such that he hardly saw any improvement when performing that stage of compression.[39]
- Ferdinand is selfless to the point of often disregarding his own well-being when it comes to Ehrenfest, but is often viewed as a ruthless lord of evil. In contrast, Rozemyne is mostly acting out of her own selfish desires, but is heralded as a saint.
- Ferdinand set a very high mana limit for his hidden room in the temple to block out Bezewanst and Sylvester. It is also to prevent his enemies from entering using his feystone if he happens to be killed.
- Ferdinand and Bezewanst's roles were reversed in one of the early story drafts. In that version of story, the High Priest views Myne as a dangerous threat to be eliminated due to her large mana capacity, while the High Bishop is a kind old man who protects her.[40]
- Ferdinand is used to being called monstrous and cruel. At the Royal Academy, he was regularly called monstrous and referred to as "the Lord of Evil in Ditter," (ディッター魔王) on account of his devious schemes and strategies at ditter.[36]
- Since the concept of hell and demons don't exist in Yurgenschmidt culture, the term "Lord of Evil" is comparing him to seasonal feybeast lords like the Lord of Winter.
- Professor Gundolf referred to Ferdinand as "the lonely genius created by overwhelming misfortune" on at least one occasion.[41]
- In his graduation year at the Royal Academy, Ferdinand danced the part of Ewigeliebe in the graduation ceremony's Dedication Whirl.[42]
- During his graduation ceremony, Ferdinand escorted a former Ehrenfest archduke candidate, an elderly woman from Rihyarda's generation. She had married a Werkestock archnoble and was executed shortly thereafter.[42]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Ascendance of a Bookworm. Fanbook 2. Q&A with Miya Kazuki
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Ascendance of a Bookworm Light Novel. Part 5 Volume 12. Chapter 18: The Inauguration Ceremony
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 Ascendance of a Bookworm Light Novel. Part 5 Volume 9. Epilogue
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Ascendance of a Bookworm Light Novel. Part 5 Volume 8. As You Wish
- ↑ Ascendance of a Bookworm Light Novel. Part 5 Volume 9. Florencia — At the Ivory Tower
- ↑ Ascendance of a Bookworm Light Novel. Part 5 Volume 8. Chapter 2: Their Information and Name Stones
- ↑ Ascendance of a Bookworm Light Novel. Part 5 Volume 12. Chapter 16: The Engagement Ceremony
- ↑ Ascendance of a Bookworm Light Novel. Part 1 Volume 3. Chapter 20: Rejection and Persuasion
- ↑ Ascendance of a Bookworm Light Novel. Part 3 Volume 1. Chapter 2: Preparing for the Baptism Ceremony
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 Ascendance of a Bookworm Light Novel. Part 4 Volume 2. Chapter 1: Meeting for the Tea Party
- ↑ Ascendance of a Bookworm Light Novel. Part 4 Volume 2. Chapter 9: Treasure-Stealing Ditter
- ↑ Ascendance of a Bookworm Light Novel. Part 3 Volume 1. Prologue
- ↑ Ascendance of a Bookworm Light Novel. Part 1 Volume 3. Chapter 24: Confrontation
- ↑ Ascendance of a Bookworm Light Novel. Part 4 Volume 3. Chapter 18: The Book Fair and the Follow-Up Meeting
- ↑ Ascendance of a Bookworm Light Novel. Part 4 Volume 3. Chapter 1: The Dedication Ritual and Returning to the Castle
- ↑ Ascendance of a Bookworm Light Novel. Part 3 Volume 3. Chapter 17: The Spring Ingredient and Discussing Spring Prayer
- ↑ Ascendance of a Bookworm. Fanbook 2. "Noble Family Tree" Illustration
- ↑ 18.0 18.1 Ascendance of a Bookworm Light Novel. Part 5 Volume 7. Chapter 7: The Book of Mestionora
- ↑ 19.0 19.1 Ascendance of a Bookworm Light Novel. Part 5 Volume 4. Chapter 10: Preparing the Ritual
- ↑ 20.0 20.1 Ascendance of a Bookworm Light Novel. Part 4 Volume 8. Chapter 14: Decisions
- ↑ Ascendance of a Bookworm Light Novel. Part 4 Volume 9. Chapter 3: The Farewell Supper
- ↑ Ascendance of a Bookworm Light Novel. Part 4 Volume 9. Irreplaceable
- ↑ Ascendance of a Bookworm Light Novel. Part 4 Volume 7. Interduchy Tournament (Second Year)
- ↑ Ascendance of a Bookworm Light Novel. Part 3 Volume 4. Chapter 17: Georgine's Visit
- ↑ Ascendance of a Bookworm Light Novel. Part 4 Volume 9. Memories and Farewells
- ↑ Ascendance of a Bookworm Light Novel. Part 2 Volume 1. Prologue
- ↑ 27.0 27.1 Ascendance of a Bookworm Light Novel. Part 4 Volume 7. Ten Years of Change
- ↑ Ascendance of a Bookworm Light Novel. Part 4 Volume 9. The Beginning of a Winter Apart - Starting Life in Ahrensbach
- ↑ Ascendance of a Bookworm Light Novel. Part 5 Volume 6. Prologue
- ↑ Ascendance of a Bookworm Light Novel. Part 5 Volume 2. Prologue
- ↑ Ascendance of a Bookworm Light Novel. Part 4 Volume 8. Chapter 6: Returning to the Temple and the Meeting with the Gutenbergs
- ↑ Ascendance of a Bookworm Light Novel. Part 4 Volume 6. Chapter 13: Professor Hirschur's Disciple
- ↑ Ascendance of a Bookworm Light Novel. Part 4 Volume 9. Chapter 5: A Stolen Book
- ↑ 34.0 34.1 Ascendance of a Bookworm Light Novel. Part 4 Volume 9. Epilogue
- ↑ Ascendance of a Bookworm Light Novel. Part 4 Volume 1. Chapter 1: Just Call Me Urashima Taro
- ↑ 36.0 36.1 Ascendance of a Bookworm Light Novel. Part 4 Volume 5. Chapter 13: The Library Plan and Completed Outfits
- ↑ Ascendance of a Bookworm Light Novel. Part 2 Volume 2. Chapter 1: One Wilma, Please
- ↑ Ascendance of a Bookworm Light Novel. Part 4 Volume 3. Chapter 10: Meeting with the Prince
- ↑ Ascendance of a Bookworm Light Novel. Part 3 Volume 5. Chapter 10: The Jureve and Mana Compression
- ↑ Ascendance of a Bookworm. Fanbook 1. Q&A with Miya Kazuki
- ↑ Ascendance of a Bookworm. Royal Academy Stories - First Year. Chapter 15: Ortwin - The Drewanchel Siblings
- ↑ 42.0 42.1 Ascendance of a Bookworm. Fanbook 3. Q&A with Miya Kazuki