Anemos

Anemos is a young elf explorer whose delicate features make him look, to everyone who meets him, like a rare and beautiful elf maiden — though he insists, using the archaic first-person "ware," that he is unmistakably a man. Born a younger son in a rural farming family that hunted more than it tilled, he left home upon coming of age and came to the city of Hydrangea about three months before the story, becoming a Rank VI explorer. He is timid, earnest, and prone to being underestimated: in his party he was relegated to porter and other menial duties, which he performed diligently, only to be abruptly expelled by his party leader with a small severance purse and the excuse that he "had no talent as an explorer."

The real reason for his expulsion was his Relic. Anemos possesses Mad Wind, which produces an ominous "red wind" — wind laced with fine red sand particles that give it mass. His former leader recognized it as the same death-wind wielded by the previous Wind Death King, Hargan, and cast Anemos out in fear rather than explain. Adrift and short of money, Anemos was drawn to a street audition run by Narcissus for a "Wind Death King," believing (like nearly everyone) that it was casting for a theatrical role. His polite manner and genuine wind Relic won over the panel, and he was one of only a handful of successful applicants.

Under Wof's guidance during the second stage of the audition, Anemos learned to weaponize his red wind as an eye-blinding attack paired with the wind blade, and he threw himself into the contest with surprising determination. When Wof handed him the Wind King Death Orb, it sank into his chest, and in a dream-space he met the god Yomido, who told him he was now the genuine Wind Death King — not an undead, but a living pillar of the world's soul-cycle whose only duty is simply to exist and let the wind "carry death." Yomido also noted his uncanny resemblance to Pakira.

Only afterward did Wof realize the whole thing had been taken for a play and that he had accidentally turned Anemos into a real Death King, prompting a groveling apology. Anemos, having already accepted the role after Yomido's explanation, forgave him with a laugh and a flick to the forehead, keeping his newfound title. As Wind Death King he grows visibly more radiant, is later courted by the Haiyaan Trading Company, and comes and goes from Hydrangea, frequently seen in the company of Shiro.