Anneliese Animusphere

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**Anneliese K. Animusphere** 「アネリーゼ・K.（**クニグンデ**）・アニムスフィア *Anerīze K.（**Kunigunde**） Animusufia*」 was a noblewoman and a member of the royal House Animusphere of the Spade Kingdom. She was the previous queen as well as the Division Commander of the Aster Twilight, the name given to the First Division of the illustrious Mage Defense Force. She is currently being held captive and incapacitated by Lucius Zogratis as part of his plot to overthrow the Spade Kingdom.

## Background

Anneliese K. Animusphere was born the eldest and only child of House Animusphere, the ruling royal family of the Spade Kingdom. Her wet nurse is a beautiful woman known as Dahlia Eldridge and through Dahlia, is milk-siblings with Aemilia Whitetea Breckinridge and Richard Valentine. Despite not being related and being of different noble bloodlines, Anneliese’s relationship with her milk-sibling is stronger than if they were connected by blood. Due to their similar age, they were introduced together at Anneliese’s débutante ball when she was five years old and she was also introduced to her personal tutor, Victoria Waltstein (her milk-siblings each received such a personal tutor as well); through the education of her tutor, Anneliese learned at an extremely rapid pace and as proof, she had already learned how to control Mana Skin at the age of eight and even managed to learn the basics of Mana Zone although she just couldn’t quite get it to work.

By virtue of her royal blood, Anneliese was allowed to join the Mage Defense Force far earlier than normal and she quickly impressed upon the professional soldiers that she was the true protector of the Spade Kingdom; she greatly thanked them for their service but she also raised the question, “*Wherefore must it be thee that protects Us? ‘Tis Our job to protect thee citizens! Where does it leave Us to depend on thee citizens?*” As a result of her great sense of *noblesse oblige*, Anneliese gained a particularly fanatical following in the Mage Defense Force, all of whom bend to Anneliese’s whims. By the time she turned eleven and not even two years after entering into service, Anneliese had already risen to the rank of Division Commander, leading the First Division which was henceforth given the name of Aster Twilight. Additionally, this is also when Anneliese would receive her grimoire, once again proving that her bloodline is supreme as she had risen to the very top of the Mage Defense Force with nothing but her natural magic talent, unenhanced by a grimoire.

A year prior to her rising to the top of the Mage Defense Force, she received news that a new dungeon had spontaneously appeared in Spade Kingdom territory and that it was threatening the lives of a medium-sized city. Anneliese immediately departed, running faster than the wind to arrive at the city already half-destroyed. She quickly helped as many of the residents as she could but she found that she alone couldn’t save everyone. She then came across a young girl who drained Anneliese’s mana whenever she stepped closer to her and she figured that this was a punishment from the divine for her crime of being unable to save her citizens. She took the girl with her and brought her back to the palace; that girl would become Anneliese’s closest friend (although in the eyes of that girl, Anneliese was no one but her benefactor, her princess, and her master) in everything she would then do.

On her thirteenth birthday, the entirety of the Spade Kingdom rejoiced at the princess finally coming of age and her party was nothing but a flood of requests for her hand in marriage by nobles and royals alike; many may have had the best of intentions but of course, as the sole princess of House Animusphere, having Anneliese’s hand will also place whoever receives it just a heartbeat away from the royal crown. While the festivities reached a peak into the night, it was interrupted by a panicked scout who announced to all who attended the ball that the Joker Kingdom had launched an invasion. Quickly, Anneliese donned her military uniform over her royal robes and commanded everyone in attendance to prepare for war; this was done despite the great disagreement of her parents and all the other royals; once again, Anneliese posed the question, “*Where does it leave Us to depend on the citizens that We are charged and obligated to protect?*” Anneliese herself led the charge to the northwestern shores of Spade to deal with one of the prongs of the three-front invasion from Joker.

Upon arriving on the scene, Anneliese found that several villages had already been razed with its populace brutally slaughtered. Many of those who witnessed the scene after that once again renewed their fanatical faith in Princess Anneliese. With tears of blood flowing down her face, Anneliese’s Star Magic pushed the way forward and forced the invasion back, however, in terms of sheer numbers, she was greatly outnumbered; for every mage she killed, ten more would take their place. Eventually, even Anneliese began to exhaust her magic despite having greatly repelled the invasion. Just when she was about to collapse, the girl she had saved three years ago steeled herself and caressing the sword Anneliese held in her hand as if it was her own child, drove the blade clean through her body. She told the princess that this was the only way that she could ever repay her and the girl at once transformed into an indistinguishable copy of the sword which Anneliese held in her hand. Grateful for the assistance, Anneliese found the strength to stand up one last time and finally crushed the invasion; the stress of the battle also allowed Anneliese to fully awaken and understand how to properly use Mana Zone.

The invasion cost Anneliese a lot of lives as out of the five thousand men she had brought with her, there were only just over a thousand survivors, all of whom were wounded to some capacity; no one escaped injury and that included Anneliese herself. Exhaustion soon caught up to Anneliese as she collapsed right into her father’s arms who had simultaneously crushed one prong of the invasion force with his own army before racing to the side of his daughter, hoping to assist her; alas, Anneliese had already taken care of things despite nearly killing herself doing so. Upon returning home, Anneliese was awarded for her gallant efforts but Anneliese rebuffed them all and instead, redirected her decoration ceremony to her friend. Lauding her as the “Royal Sword”, Anneliese expressed her intention to grant the girl the highest title she could give, the rank of duke (duchess), and that girl from then on was known as the “Royal Sword” and the first head of House Ellmenreich. Since then, Anneliese had slowly built up her personal relations, speaking to her citizens, and only further expanding the fanatical following behind her.

A few months following the unsuccessful invasion of the Spade Kingdom, Anneliese was granted permission to train in the Heart Kingdom, an opportunity she immediately jumped at. Bringing Lilianne with her, she visited the Heart Kingdom and under the tutelage of the Heart Queen, Luciela Sourcream, she studied the methods of mana manipulation unique to the Heart Kingdom. Anneliese being granted the ability to learn is a gesture of kindness between the Heart Kingdom and the Spade Kingdom which have had a rather rocky relationship for several generations, however, Anneliese’s visit managed to allay most discontent between the two kingdoms. After four months of training, Anneliese triumphantly returned home, having acquired the skills of Mana Method; she also took after Luciela and began constantly training her Mana Zone, intending to place the entire Spade Kingdom within the influence of her Mana Zone in order to provide greater protection for her citizens.

## Personality

The simplest way to describe Anneliese K. Animusphere is by calling her a rose. One can christen her as the most beautiful young girl in the world and it still would not be enough to describe her ethereal beauty, however, behind her magnificent façade lies a sleeping lioness, one that will gnaw at all peoples mercilessly. Raised in a household that truly exemplifies both the concept of noblesse oblige and ‘might makes right’, Anneliese has an equally strong yet merciful personality. She is excessively prideful and, as a result, is often at the center of attention in high-profile gatherings; she also has made numerous enemies as other people sometimes cannot stand the extreme contemptuousness she exudes. For Anneliese, it is her duty as the highest authority to impose upon the masses that she is the supreme being who all should defer to yet at the same time, Anneliese will lower herself to talk with those below her as if they were her closest friends (this only applies to her citizens of the Spade Kingdom, however). This contrast is one of the many points in which the citizens of the Spade Kingdom swear absolute fealty to their princess, describing her as a ‘*benevolent tyrant*’ as counterintuitive as that may sound; in fact, many of the peasants have expressed their great desire to protect the kingdom to the point that even if they are tortured and killed, they would never betray either Anneliese or House Animusphere.

For Anneliese, power is everything and as such, she is incredibly arrogant about her strength. She sees herself as the absolute pinnacle that a mage of her kingdom can achieve and she has both the strength and the pedigree to back up her claim for no noble lineage of the Spade Kingdom have ever properly bested Anneliese, let alone House Animusphere as a whole. If Anneliese wants something, she will do everything in her power to get her hands on it as seen when she randomly brings in entertainers to the castle town and have them perform for her, solely for her amusement. However, Anneliese’s cruelty is not absent: when someone she chose to entertain her fails to meet her standards, they will be heartlessly discarded and perhaps even killed, either by Anneliese’s orders (someone else kills them) or by Anneliese herself. For those of like minds, this is purely a just punishment by Anneliese and this is also a great source of resentment for those who have not sworn true fealty to House Animusphere (for the normal citizens who love Anneliese and her family, they consider this as a completely normal event since to them, pleasing the princess and her family is tantamount to praying to a god).

Anneliese’s speech pattern is archaic, in the sense that she uses personal pronouns that are rather ancient and confusing to understand. For example, she refers to herself using “We” and “Our”, personal pronouns that are usually used to mention a group (for your information, this is due to the fact that the Japanese personal pronoun she uses, warawa [妾/わらわ], has a literal translation of “child” and many official Japanese-English translation companies elect to use “We”/”Our” in cases where characters use warawa). Her speech pattern is also very archaic, perhaps due to her royal upbringing and her inability to use the so-called “casual” tone of the lower classes is a great point of charm, especially to the peasantry who finds it to be extremely cute (especially when Anneliese tries and fails to adopt a more casual tone which always ends with her angrily lashing out her fists as she tries to hide her red face; this part of her is what stoked the Spade Kingdom’s citizens to develop an insane allegiance for House Animusphere through her).

In terms of romantic matters, Princess Anneliese is completely ill-educated. The most she is aware of the emotion is the familial love given to her by her parents. Most of what she knows of love is from stories that she read in the great library as well as tales brought by the bards, especially the lead entertainer of her castle, Yukine, who is a blind foreigner from a very distant land. As such, Anneliese has the thought that love is an ‘*unnecessary emotion*’ and should she be offered up as a card in a political marriage, she would do so without hesitation albeit she will have to crush her inner dreams from which she fantasizes about meeting a beautiful prince just like in the stories she had read.

## Trivia

* Generally speaking, Anneliese's appearance is that of Miriam Hildegard von Gropius.