Emilia

Emilia (エミリア) is the main heroine of the Re:Zero kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu series. She is a Half Elf and a candidate to become the 42nd King of the Dragon Kingdom of Lugnica in the Royal Selection. Officially debuting at the very start of the series, Emilia is arguably the most important character in the series as most events somehow revolve around her. After Arc 4, Subaru officially became her knight.

Appearance
Emilia is a beautiful Half-Elf with long silver hair and purple-blue eyes. She wears a white and purple outfit along with a white flower in her hair. Although she appears to be in her late teens, Emilia's chronological age remains unknown, though mentally she has been stated to be in her early to mid teens. Throughout the series, she has styled her hair in a variety of ways, as per her contract with Puck, the Great Spirit of Fire was the one who arranged her hairstyle.

When Emilia still lived in Elior Forest as a child, she had a different set of clothes, with the same colour pattern. She had a light green ribbon instead of her necklace, a different flower in her hair, and could be seen wearing a light-purple headband.

Personality
Emilia is good-natured and likes to take care of others, though she herself refuses to admit it, instead thinking of it as her own selfishness. As a result, this often has Emilia avoid opening up to others and sharing her burdens to a very stubborn degree. She is indifferent to her own appearance, leaving Puck to take care of her clothes and hair. Because her appearance is similar to the Witch of Envy, she has received harsh discrimination from others.

She has a tendency to use a lot of antiquated words that you would only hear out of an old person. Even Fortuna, who once lived with her in Elior Forest, wondered where she learned them from. On rare occasions, Emilia will let out her childish side when faced with something very unfamiliar to her because up until a few years ago she was unacquainted with the social norms of the outside world beyond the woods she used to live in alongside other elves. Despite this, she adapts quickly and still works hard to become a king.

History
About a century ago, Emilia lived with her aunt Fortuna on her father's side in Elior Forest. Back then, for reasons not known to her, she was considered a rather special child who spent most of her days isolated from the other elven villagers in a place called the "Princess Room" with only Fortuna, and her doll for company. Eventually, her frustrations reached a boiling point and in an act of defiance, she breaks her promise to not leave her room in order to gain her freedom. Free to do what she wanted and not hold obligations that were never explained to her, Emilia would sneak out on many occasions while hiding the fact, doing everything from exploring to behaving mischievously as these were the times she would not have played the obedient "good girl," which helped in relieving her of loneliness. It was in this room she discovered she had an affinity for spirits, and summoned countless minor ones to play with her, not realizing how rare this ability was, calling them "fairies."

One day, she snuck into the centre of the village and witnessed strange men giving supplies such as food and clothes to the elves. Emilia then witnessed a tall, green-haired man bow to Fortuna, with her calling him "Geuse". Emilia started to view him as a rival for Fortuna's affections, as Fortuna made a "special face" at him and smiled, faces which she only made to Emilia, as well as having everyone in the village meet them, leaving her in the princess room. She overheard the Geuse asking about her safety, and then asking her about a seal loosening, and securing. After sneaking back into the princess room and being visited by Fortuna, she set out to find this "seal", and trekked through the forest, led by the spirits who showed her the way. She encountered two metal doors that stood by themselves, deducing that this was the "seal" everyone was talking about. Satisfied, she decided to head back to her room. By chance, she ran into Geuse, who was walking in the forest. When Geuse saw her, he wept tears of joy, leading to Emilia forgiving him. As Geuse led her back to the village, Fortuna confronted her. After Emilia apologized, she then revealed her "fairies", to Fortuna and Geuse's shock. When the two argued about how she could use her ability, Emilia commented how they were like her parents, embarrassing Fortuna. When Fortuna asked her to return to the princess room, Emilia made her promise to let her see Geuse again. Emilia eventually came to view Geuse as a father, much like how she viewed Fortuna as a mother.

Emilia's life was changed forever when Regulus Corneas, the Sin Archbishop of Greed, arrived at Elior Forest. Geuse demanded to know why he come, stating that he had broken their agreement, and that they could have discussed this back at the Witch Cult's church. As Fortuna held Emilia, Pandora revealed herself, stating she had come to open the mysterious seal of Elior Forest. When Fortuna saw Pandora, she flew into rage, stating that she would avenge her brother and using Al Huma to summon a giant mass of ice, dropping down to crush the pair. The ice shattered into pieces, as Regulus brushed his coat, not a scratch on him or Pandora. Petelgeuse then ordered Fortuna to escape with Emilia, saying that their lives were more important than vengeance. As Fortuna ran with Emilia, she witnessed Petelgeuse remove a strange box from his robes, containing a certain power. Emilia then screamed, as Petelgeuse brought the box to his chest and absorbed the contents, gaining the Authority of Sloth.

As Fortuna ran, deep into the forest, she stated that she would go back to save Geuse. Emilia begged Fortuna not to leave her, but Fortuna said she would be safe. Arch suddenly arrived, and informed her that Petelgeuse's men and the elves were repelling the attack from the extremist members of the Witch Cult. Fortuna then apologized to him for bringing Emilia and herself to the village and burdening them, a notion Arch denied, saying they had helped them. Fortuna then declared she would defend the forest and protect the seal, entrusting Emilia to Arch, promising to her that they would always be together, and then heading back toward Geuse. As Arch ran through the forest, they encountered a black robed man, and prepared to attack him, before he stated that he was one of Petelgeuse's fingers. The member then revealed the Kurohebi, the Black Serpent, had arrived to the village. When Arch expressed disbelief, stating it was neigh uncontrollable, to which member stated that Pandora had the power to guide it to a location. The forest then erupted around them, with Arch cursing himself, realizing they had stumbled onto its hunting grounds. The member was suddenly wrapped around the Kurohebi's tongue. As Arch attempted to save him, the member told Arch to run, saying that it was too late for him, as the Kurohebi's poison consumed him. Arch then managed to let Emilia escape before being consumed himself, telling her to run like everyone else. As Emilia ran while weeping, her spirits revealed herself, glowing brightly when she asked them to help her save Fortuna and Geuse, and leading her to a location.

The spirits then led her back to the seal in Elior Forest, to Emilia's confusion. Pandora then appeared in front of Emilia. Pandora then revealed she had been controlling the spirits the entire time, helping her locate the seal. Pandora then asked her to open the seal, to which Emilia responded she couldn't. Pandora stated she would rip the forest from the ground-up if she didn't, and also stated Fortuna and Geuse are okay, and would stay that way if Emilia listened to her. Emilia then discovered she indeed possessed the key to the door, but then remembered Fortuna had made her promise not to open. Before Pandora could react, a severely injured Fortuna arrived and assaulted Pandora, saying she would not let her harm Emilia. Pandora merely smiled, as a crazed Petelgeuse appeared behind Fortuna, and ripped a hole through her stomach, using Unseen hand. Petelgeuse, realizing what he had done, was subsequently driven mad from grief and self-disgust. As Emilia sat beside a dying Fortuna, she told her one last time that she loved her very much, before passing away. Emilia, enraged, unleashed her full magic and attacked Pandora continuously, killing her over and over again as she used her Authority of Vainglory to rewrite her death, telling her to die. Emilia then lost control, and froze Elior Forest entirely, ending the Kurohebi's rampage, and the extremist Witch Cult's assault.

Over seven years before the start of the selection, the ice around Emilia melt and Emilia met Puck and began to live with her in the now snow-covered Elior Forest. Exposed to the outside world for some time now, Emilia came to face the hostile reality of what it meant to be a half-elf in the world, especially one with her appearance. From that time on, she suffered many hardships, not just from neighbourhood human towns that feared her, hated her, betrayed her, and attempted to sell her into slavery, but even from higher beings such as the Great Spirit of Fire who sought to exterminate her for the crime of her existence and dangerous power that slept within her. Because of these issues, Emilia minimized any contact with outsiders, sticking to a frugal life by only leaving the forest to trade the magic stones she could find with people willing to deal with her in humans' towns for food and clothing. Humans who called her the "Witch of Frost" mostly tried to avoid her when she came around, but other than these excursions, Emilia would otherwise stay with the frozen elves as a guardian as they were connected to her past. After the harrowing incident with Melakuera, Emilia formed a contract with Puck to preserve his life after his Od had been damaged. Puck then began to act as her surrogate father and mentor. Puck used the contract itself to seal parts of her memories that had been tampered with by Pandora.

A year before Subaru arrived, she and Puck encountered Roswaal, the first human who didn't react negatively to her appearance. He then invited her to the Royal Selection after being chosen by the Dragon by giving her a way to save the citizens of Elior Forest, by using the dragon blood. Though now after experiencing the harsh state that she and other demi-humans have gone through, she also hopes to become a ruler that can mend relations between them and humans that the Witch of Envy destroyed with her reign of terror long ago.

Abilities
Spirit Affinity: Emilia has a rare innate gift to form contracts with spirits.

Spirit User (精霊使い Seirei Tsukai): Emilia is currently contracted with several Quasi Spirits and was formerly contracted with the Great Spirit of Fire, Puck. During the incident at the Sanctuary, Puck severed his contract with her, causing her existing pendant to shatter, and she temporarily carried him around in a crystal stone that wasn't pure enough for her to use him properly. She later replaces her pendant with a new high purity crystal stone following the events at Priestella. However, she states that she still doesn't have enough mana to form a new contract. Puck himself wasn't a Spirit before he was made into an Artificial Spirit by Echidna and has some sort of contract with her that seals his former memories unless a certain condition is met. Some of Emilia's contract conditions are:
 * He will be active only from 9 am to 5 pm
 * Do not ask about his relationship with Beatrice
 * Do not look into a mirror or go near a large body of water
 * Do not hide the fact that you are a half-elf
 * He will choose your hairstyle every morning
 * Groom his fur regularly
 * Do some exercises when you wake up and before going to bed.
 * Do not be picky about food
 * Talk with lesser spirits every morning and evening

Spirit Arts (精霊術): Emilia is capable of using her Spirit Arts with Puck and her other spirits. Emilia and Puck can smoothly alternate between roles of offense and defense leading to devastating results. These include changing the atmosphere in the sky to rain down multitudes of ice spears, forming ice clones that are capable of attacking and using magic, instantly conjuring giant freezing blade discs, mist barriers that hide her presence, and ice shields. On top of that, Emilia is contracted to several Quasi Spirits; she can use them for various applications such as healing.

Magic User: Emilia wielded a magical crystal of this type until it broke after Puck forcefully severed the contract in order to remove the lid off of Emilia's memories, allowing her to challenge the Trials from the Tomb of the Witch of Greed. After the end of Arc 4, she received another Pyroxene Crystal from Subaru, which he got from Frederica Baumann. Currently, she keeps Puck within it and is now able to control the Ryuzu Meyer Copies though she is looking for a better quality crystal which would allow her to reforge the contract with the Great Spirit of Fire.
 * Enchanted Clothing: Emilia has an enchanted robe and hooded mantle that conceals her identity.

Trivia

 * Emilia is Tappei Nagatsuki's favorite Re:Zero character. At one point, he even stated that she's one of the main reasons why he started writing the story in the first place. He also said he doesn't like ranking his characters but Emilia comes first and all other Re:Zero characters are ranked second.
 * According to the author, Emilia's birthday is September 23.
 * Emilia is the hardest character for Tappei to write because she's an idealized character and he can't have her speak and act poorly.
 * She's terrible at singing due to being tone-deaf.
 * Fortuna's sanpakugan is Emilia's favorite physical feature of her. Subaru also shares these types of eyes.
 * In this short story, Emilia learned the phrase "it's better to hear thank you than sorry" from Geuse, which she still kept to heart even after she had forgotten about him.
 * Due to the hardships she went through because of it, after awakening, Emilia began to hate her own appearance and to an extent, she would subconsciously avoid mirrors. Puck, noticing her deep mental trauma, would remove anything reflective from her vicinity and stipulated it as part of their contract.
 * Emilia created a map of Elior Forest which she spent over seven years making.
 * Aside from the pyroxenes she traded, Emilia also pawned off trinkets and other things she found which she didn't need to human villages. An incident like this is actually what started the conflict present in Bond of Ice.
 * Emilia is stated to be the most beautiful female character in the series, according to the author.
 * Emilia is stated to be roughly as strong as the original Roswaal A Mathers.
 * Ever since Fortuna's death 100 years ago, Emilia has been wearing her hairpin in order to always stay together with her late foster mother.
 * She is one of the only two people in the world that can see the key that can unlock the Seal in the Elior Forest. The second person was not yet revealed.
 * Author has stated that Emilia has the highest mana capacity in the world. Even higher than Roswaal L Mathers.
 * Author also said that the name "Emilia" was his friend's idea.
 * The reason Emilia has long hair is because Puck likes it. She also thought of cutting her hair short in the interlude of arc 4 after Puck's disappearance but was stopped by others.
 * Emilia's favorite color is purple.
 * Because of complications in her past Subaru estimates her exact age to be 114 (115 at arc 5+), but physically 18 (19 at arc 5+) and emotionally around 14 (15 at arc 5+)
 * According to Melakuera, Emilia was "born from the same cursed blood as the Witch" as well as calling her "the descendant of the Witch".
 * Author has compared Emilia to a hero in a game called "dragon quest".
 * She has read stories about fairies and she views them in a very positive light, despite the fact that the term "fairy" is used to refer to evil spirits, in the new world.
 * The series' illustrator Shinichirou Otsuka, considered Emilia to be the most difficult character to design. The reason he struggled with the design of Emilia the most was because of the pressure placed on him, considering that she was the main heroine of the series. It took him several days to produce a design for Emilia.
 * In the NicoNico net autograph session (October, 2017), the author was asked which route he prefers between Emilia, Rem or harem and the author replied "Emilia".

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