Bonifatius

**Bonifatius** (ボニファティウス, *Bonifatiusu*) is Rozemyne’s noble grandfather and the father of Karstedt.

As a former commander of the Knight's Order and an archduke candidate of Ehrenfest, Bonifatius is a highly skilled knight. He is currently training Angelica as his disciple.

# Appearance

Bonifatius has light blue eyes and blond, almost chestnut-colored hair. He closely resembles his son, Karstedt. He is a "big guy," with a more muscular build than most men his age. Rozemyne thinks he has a sharp gleam in his eye.

# Personality

Unlike most nobles, Bonifatius greatly dislikes putting up a false face and will generally show his emotions completely openly, though he is fully capable of hiding them should the situation require it. He is very devoted to his family, particularly the only girl among his grandchildren, Rozemyne, though he tries to keep his distance from her for fear of accidentally injuring or killing her.

While he prefers to trust his instincts and tends to leave the thinking to other people, he is still an intelligent and well educated man.

# History

Bonifatius was born as one of the sons of the fifth Aub Ehrenfest. Since he was older and healthier than his brother, and had all the necessary qualities, talents and skills to fulfill the role, he was supposed to become the next Aub. But he had absolutely no interest in leading the duchy, and thus advocated to have his younger brother become the successor. Their father was reluctant, but eventually gave in, but only in exchange for Bonifatius training the future Aubs of the duchy, naturally starting with his younger brother.

In contrast to what many people might believe, Bonifatius seems to have behaved like a rather normal archduke candidate in his days at the Royal Academy. Even during ditter, he didn't charge blindly ahead, but instead took charge and commanded his troops, only rarely having the chance to bring his personal combat prowess to bear. He was good friends with students from Dunkelfelger and the now defunct Werkestock. He did manage to accidentally destroy a shrine during a ditter match, but reported the damage immediately after.

Like most archduke candidates, he never went to the library personally, instead opting to send scholars on the few occasions he required books or documents.

Considering how Rihyarda appears to have some considerable insight into Bonifatius' behaviour at the Royal Academy, it is very likely that they attended the Royal Academy at the same time.

When his brother fell seriously ill before having any children capable of taking up the scepter, Bonifatius was trained to become the next Aub, if needed. However, his brother recovered and was able to rule until his children had become able to succeed him.

When Veronica dropped Georgine, after Sylvester's birth, Bonifatius was sympathetic with his niece and wished he could console her, but due to his first wife being one of the people ostracized by Veronica and the overall political situation, he was forced to keep his distance.

Following the advice of his family, Bonifatius kept himself at a distance from Rozemyne, as he is quite expressive and she is quite fragile. Everyone - including himself - feared he may harm her accidently. He is the former commander of the Knight's Order of Ehrenfest.

# Abilities & Skills

## Magical

* **Enhancement Magic:** Bonifatius is a master of enhancement magic. He's so proficient and used to the skill that he often activates the enhancement on instinctively, without consciously being aware. This combined with his outgoing, emotional personality means he often goes overboard on opponents. He is not only able to enhance his strength and speed, but can also enhance his senses to superhuman levels.
* **Mana Capacity:** As an archduke candidate, Bonifatius has enough mana capacity to liberally perform enhancement magic, despite its mana cost being high enough to make it unpopular even among archnobles.
* **Mana Elements:** His natural affinities are not known, but he became omni-elemental, through gaining the divine protection of gods, after redoing the ritual in Ehrenfest's temple, after Rozemyne's third year at the Royal Academy.
* **Divine Protections:** It isn't known how many divine protections Bonifatius obtained at the Royal Academy. After redoing the ritual at the Ehrenfest temple, he managed to gain the divine protection of seventeen gods and subordinate gods in total. He only stated that he mostly gained the favour of fighting related gods, and that he became omni-elemental, but did not go into any details.

## Non-Magical

* **Combat:** Despite being in his sixties, Bonifatius is still one of the strongest knights in Ehrenfest. Very few could match him in direct combat.
* **Instinct:** Although Bonifatius is not a thinker nor planner, he has very sharp instinct that allows him to find out important clues, and his guesses are right most of the time.
* **Training:** Bonifatius is very good in training knights. His training regimen is notoriously brutal, but those who could survive his training like Angelica and Cornelius turn out to be excellent.
* **Strength:** Bonifatius is extremely strong physically even without using enhancement magic. He could easily lift and toss Cornelius, who's almost fully grown as an adult.

# Trivia

* Due to "Bonifatius" being long and difficult to pronounce, studio staffs shorten his name and refer to him as "Boni" (ボニ) during the recording session of Drama CD.
* Bonifatius cultivated a manablade during Rozemyne's coma after hearing about Stenluke from Angelica, just so that he could have Rozemyne imbue mana into it. It is for naught however, since Ferdinand forbade her from pouring mana into manablades before she learns about the fundamentals in the Royal Academy.
* While Bonifatius does not consider Rozemyne to be Elvira's child, he firmly believes that Karstedt is her father.

# References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Ascendance of a Bookworm. Fanbook 2. Character Design Sheets
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Ascendance of a Bookworm. Part 5 Volume 5. Chapter 2: Divine Protections All Around
3. ↑ Ascendance of a Bookworm. Part 5 Volume 4. Prologue
4. ↑ Ascendance of a Bookworm. Part 5 Volume 8. As You Wish
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Ascendance of a Bookworm. Fanbook 2. Q&A with Miya Kazuki
6. ↑ Ascendance of a Bookworm. Part 5 Volume 6. Chapter 4: At Karstedt’s Estate
7. ↑ Ascendance of a Bookworm. Part 3 Volume 4. Chapter 7: Let’s Print More Stuff
8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Ascendance of a Bookworm. Part 5 Volume 5. Prologue
9. ↑ Ascendance of a Bookworm. Part 4 Volume 8. Chapter 11: Sitting Out the Archduke Conference
10. ↑ Ascendance of a Bookworm. Fanbook 2