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 known as the Iron Fang. Introduced in Arc 3, he played a key role in the subjugation of both the White Whale and Sloth. He would reappear in a supporting role in Arc 5, where he would lose his arm in a battle with Roy Alphard.
Appearance
Ricardo is a large wolf human with a full set of sharp teeth. 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 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 for Priestella, Roy Alphard sliced off Ricardo's right arm at the elbow. As a result, he now has a prosthetic hook fitted to his stump.
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 Iron Fang, 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 Iron Fang, 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 usually listens to Hetaro's orders during battle.
History
Ricardo grew up with his fellow wolf human tribesmen, and before setting out on his own, he made an oath never to reveal himself as a wolf human, as doing so could put the entire race at risk due to the stigma that has lasted for 300 years. If he were to break this oath, Halibel would be the one sent to kill him. As such, Ricardo referred to himself as a dogperson rather than a wolf human.
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 wolf human and insisted he was a dogperson, but Didorii didn't buy it, proclaiming that wolf humans 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.
Later on, for breaking his oath to his people, Halibel was sent to slay Ricardo. However, thanks to Anastasia’s interference, the conflict was settled, and Halibel and Ricardo went their separate ways, remaining friends.
Priestella Reconstruction Journal
Following the Battle for Priestella, Ricardo partook in a mission to retrieve the Witch’s remains from the catacombs of Priestella alongside Garfiel Tinzel, Ezzo Cadner, and Liliana Masquerade, which was a success.
Kararagi Reaper Incident
Around the time of the end of the Great Disaster, Ricardo found himself in Banan. Unfortunately, he was caught up in a windstorm brought about by the Great Spirit of Wind, Zarestia, who had come searching for her stolen Light Sphere, and the two confronted each other.
Abilities
Demi-Human Senses: Due to his demi-human blood, Ricardo has hightened senses, such as excellent eyesight, incredible hearing, and a keen sense of smell.
Melee Fighter: Ricardo mainly fights hand to hand using both instinct and intuition that has been honed over many years, and he has also shown experience in wielding his large sword in combat.
Roaring Wave (咆哮波): Ricardo can unleash a burst of violent destructive mana from his mouth. As the creator of the technique, he can unleash the attack on his own without assistance, unlike the Pearlbaton triplets. However, compared to Mimi, who can reduce the burden by sharing it with one of her brothers, a Roaring Wave used by a single person is a huge burden to the body. He can unleash a powerful force from the attack as many times as he wants to, but if he uses it too often, he can sustain significant backlash, such as vomiting blood and creating large cuts from the edges of his mouth.
The Iron Fang riding on their Ligers onto the White Whale.
Liger (ライガー Raigā): Ricardo and the members of the Iron Fang 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.
Iron Fang (鉄の牙, Tetsu no Kiba): Ricardo is the leader of the mercenary group Iron Fang. The group is filled with highly skilled combatants, and their duties vary depending on their assignments. The group is most commonly associated with Anastasia Hoshin and the Hoshin Company.
Equipment: Ricardo wields a large, hatchet-like greatsword.
- Prosthetic Iron Hook: Following his battle with Roy Alphard in Arc 5, Ricardo permanently lost his right arm, as it was tossed into a nearby water canal and was unable to be located and reattached. Due to this devastating injury, Ricardo has lost a significant degree of his former strength. However, even with this debilitating injury, he is still able to fight and even implements it as a means of inflicting damage to others.
Trivia
- Ricardo likes to make jokes and imitates a dog as it is a part of his hobby.
- Similarly 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.
- Ricardo's birthday is on January 12.
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