Ricardo Welkin

Ricardo Welkin (リカード・ウェルキン) is one of Anastasia Hoshin's followers and the captain of the mercenary group: Fang of Iron.

Appearance
Ricardo is a large wolfin with two large tusks hanging from the sides of his mouth. He has green eyes, a muscular build and is covered with short brown body fur with an oblong, dark-brown mane which he adorns as a mohican with two small red braids coming from the sides of his mane. He has tan-color fur on his chest, biceps, mouth, and palms, and he has a dark-brown beard.

Ricardo wears long, black toeless pants, black arm guards, and white wrappings under his dark-colored clothes on his arms and waist along with an orange belt. He also wears a shoulder guard that has a logo representing the Hoshin Trading Company. In the web novel, Ricardo's fur was originally reddish brown and he had black eyes. However, his fur was changed to regular brown, and his eyes to green in the light novel so that he camouflaged better with the environment. In the anime, his eyes are turquoise and the wrapping on his shoulder guard is made from leather instead of being a chain like in the light novel. He was also given paws on the soles of his feet in the anime unlike in the light novel.

In Anastasia's flashback in the manga, Ricardo legs were covered with a white wrapping on his ankles and he wore waraji on his feet, rather like Al's design. This garb is not worn by Ricardo in Arc 3

During the battle in Priestella, Roy Alphard sliced off Ricardo's right arm.

Personality
Ricardo is usually laid back and outgoing, and he talks in a loud voice which sounds like a heavy wind blowing by. As the captain of the Fang of Iron, he usually calms his teammates down right before battling, such as making jokes to make others laugh. Like Anastasia, Ricardo speaks with a Kansai dialect.

Not only that Ricardo is the strongest member of the Fang of Iron, but he's also the greatest tactician. He carefully thinks before he plans out for an attack. However, he tends to be rash as he has a habit of heading straight into battle; he'd usually listens to Hetaro's orders during battle.

History
Before Ricardo worked with Anastasia, he was formerly a slave. He was passing by down an alleyway, where he spotted four slave traders trying to capture a young girl with purple hair. Ricardo successfully prevented them from stealing off with the girl and killed all four of them. During that time, he decided that he would take her from the streets and get her a job. He secured her a job and the two of them had a last conversation before parting for a while. She pledged that she would remove his collar one day, which had been left as a reminder of what he had been. Ricardo would remember her pledge from that moment on.

Around a month later, Ricardo returned to the bar as he liked to check up on Anastasia every so often to make sure she was getting on well, but to his dismay, he did not find Anastasia there. He learned that she had joined a company called the Chuden Company in the east side of Banan. Ricardo knew that he had to check on Anastasia at once, worried that the company could be a pretext for one that dealt with slaves.

Ricardo immediately headed to the Chuden Company, where he met Chuden at the reception, as well as Anastasia. Ricardo demanded to know what he wanted with Anastasia, suspecting foul play, but Chuden assuaged his fears and told Ricardo he had hired the girl because he had been astonished at how talented she was. Ricardo eventually accepted Anastasia working for Chuden, and he offered his services as a mercenary to him. Chuden accepted and hired Ricardo to work at the company as his personal bodyguard. He was given a new collar that marked his status as the "hound" of the company, though the collar had its control gem removed.

Sometime later, Chuden put him in charge of hunting down thieves and bandits in the outskirts of Banan.

During his hunt, he encountered with the multi-armed demi-human named Didorii. Didorii threw insults at Ricardo because his race was on the verge of extinction. Ricardo denied that he was a wolfin and insisted he was a kobold, but Didorii didn't buy it, proclaiming that wolfins taught themselves to tell lies in order to survive. Later, Ricardo, along with his mercenary group, ambushed the slave trading company and challenged Didorii in a one-on-one combat. He won the battle against Didorii and killed him.

In the events of Arc 3, he had met a boy who had started the subjugation of the Hakugei named Subaru Natsuki. When Subaru noticed Ricardo was wearing the Hoshin logo, he had figured that he knew Anastasia and introduced himself in both name and race (as a kobold). During the fight against the White Whale, he saved both Subaru and Rem by taking the hit, sustaining major injuries in the process. In exchange, he gives Subaru a message that the whale is "lighter", affirming that the whale was weaker than before. This gives Subaru a fighting chance. After the fight against the Hakugei, Ricardo explained to Subaru that he and the rest of the Fang of Iron are ready to fight against Petelguese and the Witch Cult.

During the subjugation against Petelguese's fingers, he'd met with a tied up captive named Otto. While Otto bawled his eyes out, Ricardo handed him a tissue and tried to tell him jokes to cheer him up, but at the same time, he told Otto to man up. This gave Otto hope and the motivation to live. Later after, he and other members of the Fang of Iron reunited with Subaru about the locations where he killed all the fingers they were hiding. Even though Subaru was worried if some of them got out, Ricardo cheered him up and told him not to be worried as he doubts any of the fingers escaped. He gave Subaru the Conversation Mirror that one of the fingers had and retrieved Otto, who was thought to be a captive Witch Cult member.

Abilities
Demi-Human Senses Ricardo has superhuman capabilities that surpasses human features such as: excellent eyesight, incredible hearing, and a keen sense of smell. This was demonstrated during the events of Arc 3.

Resonance Wave: In his battle against Didorii, Ricardo unleashes a burst of violent destructive mana from his mouth. However, unlike the Pearlbaton triplets, he can do it all on his own.

Physical Fighter: Ricardo mainly fights hand to hand using both instinct and intuition that has been honed over many years.

Equipment: Ricardo wields a large great hatchet.

Liger (ライガー Raigā): Ricardo and the members of the Fang of Iron ride on large grey wolves called Ligers. Although they are similar to Earth Dragons, Ligers lack strength, but they are more agile and have higher speed and endurance. They have a high chance of winning if they were to fight in melee combat.

Slave Collars (奴隷の首輪): Ricardo used to wear a collar around his neck, however, the collar's effects were non-functional as his slave-contract had come to an end. Though the effects were removed, the collar itself was not as a reminder of what he was until Anastasia one day removed it from him.

Trivia

 * Ricardo likes to make jokes and imitates like a dog as it is a part of his hobby.
 * Similar to Anastasia, Ricardo likes to drink alcohol-based drinks, most presumably Sake.
 * The reason why Ricardo refers to Anastasia as "Ana-bo" is likely because when he had met her, he had taken her for a boy.