Roberto Nicholas

**Japanese** | Junichi Suwabe

**Roberto Nicholas** is a character in *Vatican Miracle Examiner*.

As a young Catholic priest, he is an expert in ancient documents and cryptanalysis. He has been working for the Vatican for four years as a miracle investigator, with Hiraga.

Because he is familiar with housework, he often takes care of Hiraga.

## Appearance

Roberto has medium-length dark brown hair and dark blue eyes. He is much taller than Hiraga and is described, in the novels, as having to bend down to check himself in the mirror. He usually wears his official Roman Catholic cassock,and wear white gloves but he can be seen wearing more casual clothing in official art. According to the novels, he often uses hair gel and is very serious when it comes to his hair's appearance.

## Personality and Interests

Roberto might seem intimidating and somber due to his appearance and stature, but he is a very caring person, especially towards Hiraga. His calm and polite demeanor hides a troubled past: he believes he is a burden to Hiraga and often hides his feelings from him, even when it's dangerous for his health and well-being.

He often cooks for him, since he is fond of cooking and Hiraga has little to no life skills. He also enjoys housework, and he'll clean up Hiraga's house whenever he visits.

Roberto is fond of art, opera music, good food and, especially, books. He has a bookcase filled with his favorite books, often in ancient or dead languages, in his house and will immediately check the library of any building he's in. His love for books is born out of his immense love for knowledge, in episode 2 he even jokes that he could sell his soul to the devil for wisdom.

He specializes in ancient languages and decryption; according to the Japanese wiki, he can speak: Italian, classical Latin, ancient Greek, old Aramaic, Hebrew, Farsi, Arabic, old French and Haitian Creole.

He seems to be prone to nightmares, especially when stressed out.

## Background

*This section contains spoilers.*

Roberto was the son of Bruno Puccini, an alcoholic painter, and Naomi Puccini. His father was abusive and violent, both towards him and his mother. They tried to escape, but Bruno found them and, in a fit of rage, he killed Naomi; he was arrested before he could hurt Roberto as well, but he soon escaped.

Being basically an orphan, Roberto was placed into St. Bernardo Boarding school. He was a bright student, but due to the constant abuse he experienced, Roberto had lost his memories and developed what seems to be selective mutism - he was unable to speak to anybody, and thus was seen as a "child with issues" by the other students and teachers. He spent most of his days alone, hiding from everybody, in a small area behind the library. There, he met Josef Lycolas Bartridge, an upperclassman three years older than Roberto, nicknamed "Saint Josef" for his kindness. Josef had suddenly sat down next to him with a book, *The Three Musketeers*, and started reading aloud, but as soon as Roberto had become invested in the story, Josef stopped and left. This continued for months, with Josef going through multiple books; when he suddenly stopped showing up after having read *Treasure Island* to him, Roberto tried to look for the book in the library, where Josef worked at the reception desk. Roberto started wordlessly borrowing more and more books from the library, all recommended by Josef, until one day he finally managed to thank him aloud. Thus, Roberto started to open up more to other students as well, but especially to Josef.

Roberto however soon found out that Josef would no longer attend St. Bernardo: he was being hospitalized. He never told Roberto the name of the hospital, so he had no way to contact him, but he did start playing a "game " with him: he had left various golden bookmarks in books he knew Roberto would read, with short descriptions of what he thought of them and sweet messages. Thus, even in death, Josef kept "talking" with him. That's how Roberto's voracious love for books began: he took over Josef's position at the library, and read every book he could put his hands on.

After graduating, Roberto decided to become a priest: he had little faith as a child, but the love and kindness Josef had showed him convinced him to do it, especially because Josef had dreamed of entering the priesthood as well.

Years later, he met Hiraga Josef Kou, who had gotten lost while looking for the Vatican. After mistaking him for his childhood friend, both because of his appearance and because of his name, he offered to help him reach the Vatican, and the two started working together.

## References

1. ↑ Kiseki Chosakan
2. ↑ http://wikiwiki.jp/vmexaminer/