Clayman

* **Introduction**
* Chronology
* Abilities and Gear
* Relationships
* Gallery

> ► All right. First, thanks to all of you for answering my invitation and coming here. It is now time to begin our festival! I hereby declare this Walpurgis Council convened!
>
> Clayman announcing the beginning of the Walpurgis Banquet to fellow Demon Lords, Volume 6: The Octagram Soars Brightly

## Clayman

* Regular Form
* Battle Form

* Light Novel
* Manga
* Anime

* Light Novel
* Manga
* Anime

## Biographical

### Title(s)

Crazy Pierrot
Marionette Master

## Biological

### Status

Deceased
Alive (In Clayman Revenge)

## Social

### Relative(s)

Kagali (Parent)
Laplace
Tear
Footman

### Occupation(s)

Demon Lord
Ruler

### Rank

**Special S** (Awakened)
**S** (Pre-Awakened)

### Affiliation(s)

Moderate Harlequin Alliance
Puppet Nation Jistav
Ten Great Demon Lords

## Portrayal

### English Voice

John Burgmeier

**Clayman** ｢クレイマン, *kureiman*｣, known as the **Marionette Master** ｢人形備偏師｢マリオネットマスター｣｣, was a Demon Lord, in the era of the Ten Great Demon Lords. He was ultimately slain by Rimuru Tempest after plotting the destruction of the Jura Tempest Federation and Rimuru themself.

## Appearance

Clayman had the appearance of a wealthy noble. He had a slim, oblong head topped with pale lavender hair; a face with a sharp chin and defined jawlines, and a pair of pointed ears on either side and thin eyebrows. He sported a slender figure, and his eyes with red irises exuded intelligence even as they suggested he was rather high-strung.

Clayman wore expensive and elegant clothes sharing an overall white motif – a long white tailcoat, grey vest, white shirt, slim white trousers and white shoes, alongside black bow-tie. In his inner pocket of his tailcoat, he kept a gold-plated pocket watch with an engraving on its lid, the chain of which could be seen.

In his combat form, his skin was darker, his entire figure changed - four more prosthetic arms and a tail emerged. In place of his elegant tuxedo was a wrought-iron breastplate, codpiece, and spiked pauldrons and armor for his legs. When he donned his mask and acted as the "Crazed Clown," he seemed more like a mad beast instead.

After his Pseudo-Awakening following him being severely wounded by Shion, his appearance drastically changes. In this form, his dismembered arms are replaced by arms made of energy in purple color, with the upper additional pair of arms being large and long while the lower pair of arms being longer in length. His eyes also glow with a flaming aura.

## Personality

Clayman was a cunning and manipulative Demon Lord, who preferred to operate from the shadows rather than engage in direct conflict himself. His expertise lay in intelligence gathering, utilizing his abilities to perfect his schemes and gain more power.

In his interactions with subordinates and those he considered beneath him, Clayman displayed a disdainful and abusive attitude. He discarded individuals who were no longer useful to him and coerced others into submission using his Unique Skill. His force of will was so strong that he could make almost anyone follow his orders.

Furthermore, Clayman was known for his stubbornness and pride. He refused to acknowledge his mistakes, even when confronted with evidence of his involvement in various plots. Most Demon Lords were already aware of his conspiracy to become a True Demon Lord, yet he remained tight-lipped about his opinions of his fellow Demon Lords. This cowardly side of Clayman was evident when he believed he had full control over Milim, and only then did he start insulting her and expressing his personal disdain, showing his cowardice.

When things appeared to go according to his plan, Clayman's arrogance and overconfidence became evident. He made tactical errors in his attempts to manipulate Rimuru and Tempest, such as assuming he had successfully mind-controlled Milim, despite her reputation for being uncontrollable. He also believed that Frey was solely loyal to him and underestimated Rimuru and Shion, thinking he could overpower them due to his supposed control over Milim. This arrogance was a prevailing trait noted by both Kagali and Laplace, despite their warnings for him to adjust it.

However, it's worth considering that Clayman's brainwashing by Tatsuya Kondou may have contributed to his overconfidence and poor decision-making. This behavior was unlike his cautious and cunning nature.

Despite his manipulative and power-hungry tendencies, Clayman, like his creator, displayed gentleness and consideration towards those he considered his friends and comrades, such as the Moderate Harlequin Alliance. He also demonstrated absolute loyalty to his superiors and followed their orders. This loyalty was evident in his final moments, where he refused to reveal any information about his superiors or comrades during his confrontation with Rimuru, even when faced with the threat of complete eradication of his soul. Raphael calculated that it would be extremely challenging to make Clayman talk.

Clayman was known to be a highly cautious Demon Lord, always having backup plans for various situations and reinforcing those plans with additional backups. This preparedness was apparent on multiple occasions, particularly during Walpurgis, where he initially fought Shion using a sword and swiftly transitioned to using Marionette Dance when the sword was destroyed. He resorted to his trump card, the Demon Marionette curse, only after his initial tactics failed and ultimately transformed into the Crazy Pierrot form to take matters into his own hands.

However, upon transforming into Crazy Pierrot, Clayman's calm demeanor was reversed, seemingly becoming more aggressive. It's important to note that this transformation allowed him to restrain his enemies, granting him the freedom to attack and neutralize them more effectively.

Clayman took great pride in his position as one of the Ten Great Demon Lords and cherished his title. This pride was evident when he transformed into his Crazy Pierrot form in response to Shion calling him an unworthy Demon Lord. He believed that, as a Demon Lord, he should dispose of his enemies with elegance and style.

In Clayman Revenge, after experiencing a second time loop, his personality changed. He became more cautious and alert, treating his underlings better, such as returning Mjurran's heart. He also dedicated himself to training and becoming stronger in order to avoid his demise at the hands of Rimuru Tempest in the future and prevent the events leading to Rimuru becoming a Demon Lord or, at the very least, avoid making Rimuru his enemy. This implies that he fears Rimuru after having been defeated by him twice before.

During his loop, Clayman also slowly begins to appreciate the earnestly of his underlings and begins to trust his allies, willing to hear out their opinions, even if he attempts to uphold his pride before them. Ultimately this causes Clayman to become much kinder and appreciative of his new bonds to where in spite of the problems they may cause, he becomes enraged when believing Chronoa had killed his companions. Clayman is also cautious of dying another time due to being uncertain if he can repeat another loop or faces a true demise and losing all he acquired.

## Background

Clayman was created by Kazalim as a Deathman many years ago to be part of the Moderate Harlequin Alliance, known as The Crazy Pierrot. Kazalim himself personally designed Clayman to be a tactical commander and a schemer, similar to himself and created him for the expressed purpose of turning him into a Demon Lord.

300 years ago, he became one of the Ten Great Demon Lords with Kazalim's help, in order to increase his own influence in the Demon Lord Council. The moment he became a Demon Lord, he began hunting down Majin and monsters to steal their hearts (literally). Making them swear loyalty to him, he inscribed a curse onto their hearts, making them his eternal servants. That's how Five Fingers was born, containing cursed pet Ninehead, Immortal King Adalmann, top lieutenant Yamza, witch Mjurran, spy and intelligence collector harpy Pirone.

Eventually his master was killed and replaced by Leon Cromwell on the Demon Lord Council. With Kazalim gone, Clayman had to take over his domain, the Puppet Nation Jistav and all of his remaining forces. Clayman hadn't received any words from him for a long time, but still considered himself to be the subordinate of Kazalim. He still continued working on his goals, while still waiting for his master's return.

Clayman wished to get rid of Leon in retaliation for Kazalim's demise. In order to achieve this, he hired many mercenaries, however, they all failed to carry out the task, instead getting slain by Leon's entourage each time.

Clayman, alongside Carrion and Frey, were considered the new generation of Demon Lords, so they would work together in order to expand and increase their influence and power base. Their goal was to bring the gap of power between them and the older generation Demon Lords. Being one of the active Demon Lords, his name was greatly known among humanity and other nations, though much more infamously due to his manipulative tendencies. Clayman was close enough to taking over the entire world, and it was all through his trading relationships, which, generally most Demon Lords won't do. He was the wealthiest among all the Demon Lords, and his wealth did not only come from trading but from the artifacts that were buried beneath the ruins of Amrita which ultimately made him a powerful foe politically and economically. Damrada states that Demon Lord Clayman was a valuable trading asset for the Eastern Empire.

At some point, he met a mysterious patron who offered Kazalim's resurrection in exchange of the Moderate Harlequin Alliance's help in taking over the world. Clayman agreed to this request.

## Trivia

* The "Clay" from Clayman comes from the word "Klei", which means string or wire. Thus his name can be inferred to mean "Stringman".
* To keep his mind sharp on a daily basis, Clayman regularly played chess.
* In the special catalog created to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the franchise, TenSura X, Clayman takes second place in the In-Universe Rankings in the category of the best at painting, between Rain and Hakurou, who are placed in the first and third places respectively.
* Clayman was the only one among his fellow Jesters who couldn't meet his master Demon Lord Kazalim personally after she assumed the form of Kagali, Yuuki's secretary.
* Due to being brought up in later volumes as a benchmark to describe the strength/energy amount of new characters, the author jokingly mentioned that Clayman effectively became a "combat strength measurement unit".
* Clayman's Japanese VA in anime, Takehito Koyasu, is well known for playing twisted and manipulative evil masterminds, such as Dio Brando in *JoJo's Bizarre Adventure* and Sugou Nobuyuki in *Sword Art Online*. Needless to say, this is very fitting for Clayman's character.

## References

1. ↑ *That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime* Light Novel — Volume 16, Afterword
2. ↑ *That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime* Light Novel — Volume 5, Chapter 3
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 *That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime* Light Novel — Volume 3, Chapter 4
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 *That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime* Light Novel — Volume 6, Chapter 5
5. ↑ *That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime* Light Novel — Volume 3, Prologue