Elsa Granhiert

* Anime
* Light Novel

**Elsa Granhiert** (エルザ・グランヒルテ) was an assassin working together with Meili Portroute as the "child" of an individual known as Mother until her death at the hands of Garfiel Tinsel. She was the main antagonist of Arc 1 and one of the primary antagonists of Arc 4.

She perished after her body was utterly decimated by Garfiel. However, her corpse would revive itself thanks to her "Blessing" and attempt to kill Natsuki Subaru. Ultimately, she was engulfed in an explosion that reduced her to ash.

## Appearance

Elsa Granhiert was unusually tall for a woman, as she stood around the same height as Natsuki Subaru at the time of his summoning. Her purple eyes angled down towards their edges and presented Elsa with a certain level of calmness and gentleness. Below her left eye Elsa had a beauty spot. Her long wavy hair was the same shade of black as Subaru's (a trait that was very rare in her world) and was braided into a long tail on the left side of her head that reached down to her hips. A single purple flower decorated the left side of Elsa's head. Elsa was a woman of incredible beauty who apparently oozed eroticism with every move she made. Her white skin was unusually pale to the point that it could almost be described as sickening, and Elsa's slim body was well-endowed with large breasts and sultry curves. Her bewitching beauty coupled with her well-endowed body was enough to catch the eye of most people she met.

Elsa's clothing, as if to match the woman herself, was extremely provocative. Her outfit consisted of a pair of black elbow-length gloves with purple trimmings at the top, a pair of black high-heel shoes, and a black dress with purple decorations that was both strapless and backless and featured brown tights. The dress, that clung to Elsa's body fairly tightly, also had thigh-high slits on either side and an exposed front that flaunted her bellybutton and cleavage.

## Personality

Elsa was a battle maniac, not even hesitating to injure herself if she could fight strong opponents, which was helped by her abnormal healing rate. This was also shown through her persistence. Due to her blessing, she claimed to be a vampire, though she didn't drink blood, nor did she receive any ill effects when under the sun. Her favorite things were seeing colorful bowels and touching warm looking internal organs. Within combat, she enjoyed cleaving through the abdominal region with the intent of tearing the target's bowels out.

Perhaps Elsa's defining trait was the arousal she garnered from gutting people and toying with their steaming entrails. Upon facing worthy opponents, Elsa would express excitement at the prospect of gutting them, pondering on random variables such as what color her opponents' entrails would be. After disembowelling Natsuki Subaru, she barraged him with a flurry of questions related to the pain he was feeling as he lay dying on the floor of the loothouse, conveying that she received sadistic arousal from the pain others felt due to her actions. Her warped sense of arousal didn't end with her opponents, as Elsa also felt masochistic ecstasy whenever she was wounded by others, such as when Subaru kicked her in the loothouse. She didn't feel any remorse towards those she gutted, even if they were children or the elderly.

Elsa also enjoyed knitting cotton dolls, especially after a good kill, and mentioned to have over 10 years of experience. Although it wasn't mentioned, she presumably destroyed them later.

## History

Abandoned as a child, Elsa grew up on the streets of the Holy Kingdom of Gusteko, the northernmost of the world's four great nations that was known for its freezing weather and spiritualism. She stole from and hurt people in order to survive, although her way of life didn't allow for any happiness or sense of fulfilment. One day, while stealing from a store in a blizzard, the owner of the shop caught Elsa and tried to have his way with her. Without hesitation, Elsa grasped a shard of glass from a bottle of Granhiert and slit her assailant's belly open. The warmth of the man's entrails made Elsa forget the coldness that enveloped her life, and for the first time she felt truly alive. As a result, she developed a gruesome fetish for gutting people and fighting with her life on the line against opponents doing the same. She earned recognition as the "Bowel Hunter," who was feared across the world for her gruesome fetish. After being experimented on by Holosseo Featherrun, a member of the Gustekan Church, she gained regenerative capabilities that allowed her to fight recklessly.

Eventually, she was approached by a mysterious individual known only as Mother who took the form of a black dragon, and after morphing into a small girl with gold-coloured hair and scarlet-red eyes, she recognised Elsa as one of her daughters.

As an assassin, Elsa was sent after Meili, who was living with the Demon Beasts as a feral child in a forest. As instructed, she killed all the Demon Beasts and brought the child back. At that time, Meili was in a state where she couldn't speak, so her manner of speech and such was greatly influenced by Elsa. Elsa found a partner in the young teenage girl Meili Portroute, who had the power to control Demon Beasts. Elsa and Meili became as close as sisters overtime.

At one point, the Bowel Hunter was tasked with killing an important figure from the Sacred Vollachia Empire, a meritocratic nation located to the far south of the Holy Kingdom of Gusteko. Although she was able to kill her target, she was confronted by Vollachia's Blue Lightning, who was acting as the person's bodyguard. Barely escaping with her life, the event would be forever engraved in Elsa's memory.

## Abilities

**Curse Doll** (呪い人形): Elsa's seeming immortality was caused from an ability that made her into a so-called "curse doll". It is a curse art which involves the user carving a curse mark that includes the information of the target they want to kill on someone, and upon activation, the person with the curse mark gains immortality, but as a cost, they lose their sense of self and can't do anything else but kill the target and they die when the target is killed. Also, there seems to be a limit to the immortality. However, there's supposedly a way to cast the curse without the person losing their sense of self, which is what happened to Elsa, though repeatedly dying turned her into a curse doll. People who become curse dolls are mistakenly referred to as vampires due to a curse doll once drinking blood in an attempt to die. In the past, she called her ability a Blessing, a term used for abilities that originate from Gusteko.

* Elsa had the ability to rapidly recreate lost or damaged cells. She could instantly recover from major lacerations and was able to regrow severed body parts. She was able to regenerate after having her entire body crystalized and shattered by Beatrice, and even survived an attack from the Sword Saint himself. Those who were unaware of her power thought her to be an unstoppable killing machine incapable of dying or tiring. However, there was a limit to how much damage she could sustain, as eventually her healing factor could become overwhelmed by continuous significant wounds that would cause it to stop functioning. Additionally, the strikes of the Sword Saint were capable of delaying or negating the Bowel Hunter's regeneration.

**Skilled Assassin**: Elsa was an infamous assassin, who was highly talented at manipulating and using blade techniques to overwhelm her opponents. On top of that, she possessed super strength that allowed her to defeat a giant like Rom with ease, incredible agility that allowed her to move faster than sound, and could regenerate wounds thanks to being a "curse doll" making her a force to be reckoned with. She has been a seasoned assassin for a long time, and has fought numerous other skilled opponents. She possesses a keen intuition that helps her out in combat such as knowing her opponents position despite her sense being interfered with. Every technique she witnesses in battle doesn't work on her a second time as she will already have thought up a counter.

**Superhuman Physique**: Elsa boasts a variety of superhuman physical capabilities that allow her to excellently strike down her targets with great skill. Elsa is extremely mobile, being able to attach herself to the ceiling, jump from there to the corridor wall, to the ceiling again, and then to the floor, all however she pleases. She also has frightening eyesight, surpassing all common sense, allowing her to react and dodge some of the quickest attacks with terrifying finesse. Elsa can throw her knives so fast that they leave even the sound of ripping the air trailing behind. She feels neither pain nor fatigue, allowing her to continue fighting without limit. It is stated that Elsa is even able to surpass the speed of sound.

* **Enhanced Sense of Smell**: Elsa was born, for no apparent reason, with an unnaturally acute sense of smell. Her heightened sense allowed her to better distinguish the scents of a person in the air, meaning she could smell people who were keeping out of sight and have a better bearing on her surroundings in general. Much like a dog, the Bowel Hunter could determine a person's emotional state through their scent. For instance, she could tell if someone was afraid or trying to deceive her by smelling them.

**Equipment**

* **Bowel Hunter's Blades**:
	+ Elsa's Kukri Knives.
	+ Elsa throwing needles to kill Petra
	+ Elsa wielding the white and black blades in one of Volume 15 illustrations.1/4 Elsa's primary weapons of choice were a set of short ornate black Kukri blades. She always carried multiple spares to be used if her primaries were destroyed, and depending on her mood she would wield either a single blade or a pair of blades. These weapons were a design that originated from Elsa's homeland of Gusteko, and overtime they became synonymous with the Bowel Hunter. Additionally, she wielded ornate short blades and throwing needles which she used in combat that she could use to skewer people from afar, and Elsa had two secret weapons which were specialized blades she only ever used against special opponents whom she aimed to kill rather than just seeing their guts.
	+ **White Blade**: A thick kukri with a surprisingly large amount of mass specialized for crushing bone. The bladed portion can extend a string of blades not dissimilar from a snake sword for mid range attacks.
	+ **Black Blade**: Looks similar to her standard knives but has distinctive serrated edged that gives it an appearance of animal teeth. It's supposedly created for goring opponents rather than ripping them.

* **Enchanted Cloaks**:      Upon being hired by Margrave Roswaal L. Mathers Elsa was given a feathered cloak that was enchanted with a Yang magic enhancement. The enchantment in question ensured that any offensive magical attack that struck the cloak would dissipate and leave its wearer unharmed. However, it is only effective for singular usage, as after negating an attack the cloak would dissipate. Another drawback was that it only worked against spells intended to harm her physically, thus indirect magic like Shamak bypassed it. The cloaks were imbued with a yang magic buff based on the theory established by Roswaal K Mathers. Elsa was given the cloak to compensate for her natural weakness to magic, and after having used it to negate an attack from Puck, she was given a second one.

## Trivia

* In her web novel character introduction, Elsa was stated to have a Divine Protection, though this was likely an oversight as the author confirmed she doesn't have one.
* According to the author, Elsa's birthday is April 29, a play on death and meat. April is the 4th month and four (四), has the same pronunciation as death (死), while two (二) and nine (九) are pronounced "ni" and "ku", the same as meat (肉).
* Elsa was actually really weak against magic attacks. So weak, she didn't want to risk running into Subaru's Shamack, when he used it.
* Tappei hinted at the possibility that Roswaal gave Elsa her magic cape, in order for her to corner Emilia more easily.
* According to the author, Elsa arranged the characters she wanted to kill, as follows: Emilia > Subaru > Petra > Ram > Rem > Frederica > Otto >> Garfiel >>> Roswaal
* She got her surname Granhiert from a bottle of brandy she used to kill the man who tried to violate her.
* In the IF chapter commonly referred to as Mimagau IF, Elsa makes an appearance as a male assassin dressed in black named Eins (エインズ).

## References

1. ↑ *"blade particular to the northern countries"* Re:Zero Light Novel Volume 1: Chapter 5. Section 5.
2. ↑ *""Ain't that right, vampire?" "...You knew.""* Re:Zero Light Novel Volume 15: Chapter 5. Section 1.
3. ↑ *"I don't suck blood, and my meals are ordinary. When I'm in the sunlight all that happens is that the guards get riled*" Arc 4 Chapter 123A. Section 2.
4. ↑ *"Meili found it was cotton stuffed into soft cloth, a plush doll, hand-made by Elsa"* Elsa and Meili, Assassin Sisters' Dark Diary KILL 2 Chapter 2.
5. ↑ *"Gusteko, where I was born"* Re:Zero Light Novel Volume 15 Chapter 5. Section 1.
6. ↑ Q&A
7. ↑ *"It is called a "curse doll". It's almost a lost curse".* Q&A
8. ↑ *"I'm not sure if you'll be satisfied with my answer, but Elsa is very weak against magic."* Q&A
9. ↑ *"It's possible that Roswaal gave it to her. In order to corner Emilia"* Q&A