Ancilla Lionheart/Relationships

## Family

### Gilead Lionheart

Ancilla seems to be quite submissive and respectful towards her husband. Despite the circumstances of their marriage, Ancilla has been shown to genuinely love her husband and cares for him greatly. Ancilla herself personally made sure to look after him and comfort him after the deaths of Tanis and Eward. Ancilla herself is also the one responsible for helping him maintain his physical health and actively worries for him when she thinks that he is pushing himself too hard.

### Cyan Lionheart

Ancilla holds high expectations in her son - wanting him to become the next patriarch of the Lionheart Family. She constantly pushed and pressured him to excel in everything (combat, education and politics) especially in matters regarding their elder half-brother Eward in order to discredit him as the next potential Patriarch of the Lionheart family in favor of her own son Cyan. This is seen where she would harshly scold and even physically punish Cyan if he does anything scandalous or make others regard him as a weakling, which in turn could damage her and her children’s standing in the Lionheart clan and can be used by Tanis to discredit her. As shown where she violently slapped and screamed at Cyan for having lost to Eugene so easily in front of the entire household of the Lionheart Estate and lamanted of how Tanis could use the incident against her to show Cyan’s incompetence as the potential heir of the clan.

However, despite her abuse towards her son, Ancilla has shown to do this mainly due to her desire to see him succeed as the next Patriarch of the Lionheart Family. This is shown where Ancilla repeatedly showed her support for her son and assists him in anyway she can in any situation. This is shown where she provides him with sound counsel and advice on how to navigate through politics, both in their family and in the Empire. To help her and her children’s claim, she encouraged him and Ciel to get closer to Eugene in order to make him a powerful ally as the future Patriarch of the Lionhearts and Ancilla herself tried to befriend him in order to help her son further.

After seeing the consequences of Tanis' parenting style in the case of Eward, Ancilla softened and regretted her behavior towards her son. Not wanting Cyan to suffer through the same agony and pain as Eward did to try and please his mother, Ancilla changed her parenting and treatment towards Cyan, wanting him to pursue his own path in life made by his own choice and not just because Tanis expects/ordered him to walk that path. This could be seen where she encouraged Cyan to make his own decision regarding whether or not he wanted to become the next Patriarch and assured him that she would support him whether he wanted to do so or pick another path in life.

### Ciel Lionheart

Ancilla always held high expectations for Ciel, however, compared to those she held towards her son, Ciel had a much easier time. She seems to be aware of Ciel's mischievous character but doesn't pay it much mind.

Despite taking immense pride in her daughter’s martial accomplishments and talents, Ancilla has admitted that at times she wished that she could have a more typical mother-daughter (noble/aristocrat) relationship with her daughter Ciel. Ancilla having admitted to have wished to have spend more time eating delicious candies and sweets with her daughter, buy her cute and gorgeous dresses and gowns, gossip with her regarding the drama and scandals of other nobles and show off her daughters beauty in parties thrown by other nobles. This resulted in her becoming very affectionate towards Mer, seeing it as a way for her to have the mother-daughter relationship she always wanted with Ciel.

### Tanis Lionheart

Ancilla holds a fierce rivalry with Tanis and is constantly fighting with her over the authority within the main estate.

### Eward Lionheart

Although Ancilla’s exact feelings towards her step-son was never fully explored, Ancilla was shown to either have disdain/contempt or complete indifference towards him during his childhood. Due to Ancilla’s relationship with Tanis, Ancilla constantly worked to discredit Eward as the next patriarch and heir of the Lionheart family in favor of her own children, particularly her son, Cyan, to be chosen instead over him. Due to this, Ancilla harbored hostile feelings and intentions towards both Eward and his mother for years.

Although she herself may not have intentionally known it, Ancilla greatly contributed to Eward’s gradual mental decline due to her rivalry with Tanis, who was shown to constantly push and pressure him largely due to her rivalry with Ancilla. Due to the relationship between her and his mother, Ancilla would relish in Eward’s lack of talent in the martial fields and took full advantage of any weakness and failures he had to tarnish his mother’s reputation in the family and remove him from the line of succession as the next patriarch in favor of her own son.

It was only after Eward’s breakdown and the revelation of his attempt to become a black mage to free himself from his oppressive family life did Ancilla realize just how badly she hurt him. After learning of what had happened, Ancilla was noted to shown deep remorse for her previous actions and attitude towards Eward and Tanis, having recognized the large part she played in what happened to him. As shown after Eward and Tanis’s deaths, Ancilla, like Gilead, blamed herself for what had happened.

### Mer Merdein

Ancilla was shown to have a loving, mother like relationship with Mer after Eugene brought her back with him to the Lionheart Family estate. Ancilla was immediately taken by her and began coddling her the second she was in the estate. This is shown where Ancilla would give her candies and sweets, buy and dress her up in expensive and cute dresses and give her various other gifts. This is due to Ancilla’s desire to have a closer mother-daughter relationship with Ciel when she was young, but due to Ciel’s obligations as a Lionheart and training, Ancilla was never really able to spend time bonding with her in the way she wanted, as such, due to Mer’s childlike form and mentality, Ancilla sees her as a chance to make up for the lost time she had with Ciel.