Emperor Zel

**Kingsford Zeltman** (キングスフォード・ゼルトマン), usually known as **Emperor Zel** (ゼル帝), is a baby chicken that Aqua hatched from what she believed to be a dragon's egg.

## Appearance

When hatched, Kazuma took note of the fact that Emperor Zel looked, for all intents and purposes, as a normal little chick. Later on, his head-crest can be seen growing strangely large over time for a chick.

## Personality

The first person that Emperor Zel saw after hatching was Vanir. Consequently, he acknowledged Vanir as his parent, and continually followed the Devil until Vanir created an empty shell of himself to serve as Zel's preferred companion.

Emperor Zel will generally allow anyone to handle him without protest, with one notable exception: he sometimes painfully pecks Aqua's fingers, despite the fact that she is his owner. However, they do spend a great deal of time together, and he can often be found sitting peacefully on Aqua's knee.

## History

The chicken egg that Emperor Zel hatched from was sold to Aqua as a "dragon egg" for all of her reward money earned after Sylvia's defeat in what was clearly a scam, though despite Kazuma's enlightenment she insisted on hatching the "Dragon" by carefully applying the right heat from various angles, either by herself or with the help of Megumin when she needed to go out. And in instances where the whole party had to go someplace such as fighting the Kowloon Hydra, the egg was placed in the care of Wiz and Vanir. Later on Aqua began singing to the egg in addition to pouring magical power into it, while Kazuma during this period frequently made to go for the egg whenever he wanted to force the useless goddess into behaving.

Emperor Zel eventually hatched during a battle between Aqua and Vanir at the party's mansion that saw Darkness and Wiz caught in the crossfire, and recognised Vanir as his parent much to Aqua's distress. Following Vanir leaving an empty shell identical to his usual body, Emperor Zel was given a wide berth by a cagey Chomusuke wary of the magical power he was emitting. In the days after, he was tenderly taken care of by Aqua, despite him regularly pecking at her, and later she with the help of Darkness and Megumin had a chicken house built for him.

During the party's journeys against Wolbach and to Elroad, the chick was put into the care of Wiz's Shop. At some point in time, Emperor Zel became one of the main distractions for making Kazuma lose at a chess-like game against Darkness just as Ignis had taught her. Like Chomusuke he was also seen as food by Komekko during her visit, and became one of the features for Sylphina to play with at the mansion, while Chomusuke started being friendly with him.

Emperor Zel eventually turned into a fully-grown chicken after Aqua fed him a potion that converted his impressive magical power into levels, before he was again put into the care of Vanir when the party set out to look for the runaway Aqua. Later as the mansion got attacked by the Devil King's Army, the chicken scared the attacking monsters with his extraordinarily high level, rendering them easy pickings for the approaching Dust.

## Abilities

Because Aqua, Megumin, Vanir, and Wiz all took part in powering up Emperor Zel's egg with their magic, the chick was already emitting powerful magical powers even when newly hatched, though at that point Megumin believed that he wouldn't amount to anything powerful in particular. He did grow into a well-developed meat chicken thanks to drinking the potion which expended his magical power to level him up.

## Trivia

* Wiz had a strange look of concern on her face when she accepted the egg to power it with her mana, implying that Wiz may sense or know that Emperor Zel may indeed be something more than just a chick... Or she just thought powering a chicken egg with mana was strange.
* Kazuma had initially been planning to cook Emperor Zel into fried chicken once he was fully grown.
* Dust has confirmed that it is not a dragon and is a normal chicken.
* It is unknown whether or not Aqua knows Zel is just a normal chicken.

## References

1. ↑ KonoSuba Light Novel Volume 16, Interlude 1
2. ↑ KonoSuba Light Novel Volume 7, Chapter 1
3. ↑ KonoSuba Light Novel Volume 7, Chapter 2
4. ↑ KonoSuba Light Novel Volume 7, Chapter 3
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 KonoSuba Light Novel Volume 8, Chapter 1
6. ↑ KonoSuba Light Novel Volume 9, Chapter 1
7. ↑ KonoSuba Light Novel Volume 9, Chapter 2
8. ↑ KonoSuba Light Novel Volume 10, Chapter 1
9. ↑ KonoSuba Light Novel Volume 9, Bonus Short Story coming with the E-book
10. ↑ KonoSuba Light Novel Volume 11, Chapter 3
11. ↑ KonoSuba Light Novel Volume 12, Chapter 2
12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 KonoSuba Light Novel Volume 13, Chapter 2
13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 KonoSuba Light Novel Volume 15, Chapter 4
14. ↑ KonoSuba Light Novel Volume 16, Chapter 3
15. ↑ Limelight Light Novel Volume 7, Chapter 3