Rudeus Greyrat

Reborn-with-memories protagonist. Studies and teaches magic from early childhood; the narrative follows him across multiple continents.

Rudeus takes after his father Paul: soft-looking brown hair and a pleasant, unthreatening face. Although a mage by trade, his build is sturdy, almost stocky for a caster — the result of daily training since childhood. Over the years he grows his hair out and matures into a dependable, well-built man in a grey robe, a large staff in hand.

His right eye differs from the left after his encounter with the Demon Emperor: it is an implanted Demon Eye of Foresight whose hue does not match his natural colour, though the difference is unnoticeable at a distance. Ageing at a normal human pace, by thirty-four he notices his first nasolabial lines, and by old age he is a grey, wrinkled man — unlike the barely-ageing Sylphiette and Roxy.

At heart Rudeus is a reincarnated shut-in: thirty-four years of his past life left him cautious, distrustful and prone to overthinking every situation. But given a second chance he swears an oath — “I will truly live in this world, with all my heart, with no more regrets” — and that vow becomes the spine of his whole life. Hence his obsessive diligence: he trains his mana to exhaustion every single day, terrified of repeating the empty, wasted first life.

His virtues are inseparable from his flaws. He is clever, observant, sincere with those he trusts, and capable of immense devotion to family and friends. Yet he remains an incorrigible pervert and womanizer (“Greyrat blood”), hoards Roxy's stolen underwear, peeps — and is ashamed of it. Psychologically he is fragile: betrayal or mockery can break him, escalating to literal impotence after Eris leaves him. His great weakness is flinching before his own potential and bargaining himself down; his great strength is, time and again, still taking the step outside, toward the people who need him.

In his past life Rudeus was a 34-year-old Japanese shut-in with no home or job — the fourth of five children in a well-off family. Bullied at school and humiliated by photos, he locked himself in his room with a computer and online games for over a decade. After his parents died, his siblings threw him out of the house; beaten, in the cold rain, he realized his life was irrevocably over. At that moment he saw three high-schoolers in the path of a runaway truck and, forcing his body to move for the first time in years, threw himself in to save them. He managed to haul one clear — and was crushed against a concrete wall by the truck.

He woke as an infant in a world of sword and magic, retaining all his memories. His parents were the former adventurer and swordsman Paul Greyrat and the former priestess-adventurer Zenith Greyrat, settled in the remote Buena Village of the Fittoa Region. The maid Lilia also lived in the house, later bearing Paul a daughter, Aisha. Here, still crawling, Rudeus resolved to live this life differently — and, watching his mother heal his bump with magic, understood he had landed in a world where he truly had a chance.

As a child Rudeus proves a magic prodigy: secretly working from the household “Introductory Textbook on Magic,” he almost immediately masters silent casting and discovers that his mana pool grows through training, disproving the textbook's “truth.” At three he is given a tutor — the young Roxy Migurdia of the Migurd race — and within two years reaches Saint-class water magic, surpassing his teacher. More importantly, by taking him outside the village for his exam, Roxy heals the fear of going outdoors left over from his death under the truck. In these same years he grows close to the bullied half-elf Sylphiette and teaches her magic. Later, rescuing a Boreas girl from kidnappers, he becomes home tutor to the violent Eris Boreas Greyrat and a swordsmanship pupil under Sword King Ghislaine Dedoldia and his father.

At ten, on the very day he promised to show Ghislaine high magic, the Teleport Incident erupts: runaway mana erases the entire Fittoa Region, and Rudeus and Eris are teleported to the far side of the world — the Demon Continent. In a dream the Man-God speaks to him for the first time, advising him to trust the nearest man. That man is the outcast Ruijerd Superdia of the persecuted Superd race; the three form the adventurer party “Dead End” and begin a long journey home across the continents. Along the way Rudeus feeds the starving Demon Emperor Kishirika, who in gratitude implants a Demon Eye of Foresight in his right eye. He frees Lilia from captivity and meets his half-sister Aisha, reunites with his father Paul — and at the journey's end, battered and nearly killed by Dragon God Orsted, spends one night with Eris, only to find the next morning that she has gone, leaving a farewell letter.

Eris's departure breaks him: for the next two years he wanders with the lewd elf Elinalise Dragonroad, searches for his missing mother Zenith, and suffers from impotence. On the Man-God's advice he enrolls at Ranoa Magic University to investigate the Teleport Incident. There he finds himself again: he meets “Guardian Mage Fitz” — Sylphiette in disguise, bodyguard to Princess Ariel — recognizes his childhood friend, is healed, and marries her. His university years give him a circle of friends — the doll-maker Zanoba, the proud priest Cliff, the otherworlder Nanahoshi — and a quiet family life.

The search for Zenith reunites him with Paul on the Begaritt Continent, in a labyrinth city. In a deadly teleportation labyrinth he miraculously rescues his old teacher Roxy from a monster lair — which years later leads to their marriage — but in that same labyrinth Paul dies shielding his son. Rudeus carries the memory-stripped Zenith out of the dungeon. Marriage to Roxy, the birth of children, Nanahoshi's illness and the search for Kishirika gradually pull him into the orbit of Dragon God Orsted.

The turning point comes when he himself appears to him from a doomed future — a grey old man who lost his whole family in the war against the Man-God and was sent back by Orsted's magic to warn him: the Man-God cannot be trusted. Rudeus builds a huge combat magic armor (the “first model”) and confronts Orsted alone; nearly killed, he allies with the Dragon God and becomes his subordinate in the secret war against the Man-God. Around the same time he marries his third wife — Eris, who has become a Sword King over their years apart. After this come the war for the Asura throne alongside Princess Ariel, the war against the demon Atoferatofe, journeys to the Superd of the Demon Continent, and finally the decisive battle that strips the Man-God of any means to win.

His last ten years pass in peace: Rudeus raises six children, travels the world preparing it for Laplace's return, and works under the name “Silent Seven-Star.” He dies at seventy-four, surrounded by children and grandchildren. In a white room the Man-God meets him one final time — and Rudeus, regretting nothing, admits that without this clear enemy he could not have lived his life so fully, lays a hand on his shoulder with the words “do better from now on,” and fades away, calm and content.

Rudeus is a magic genius with a colossal mana pool (per Kishirika, larger than that of Demon God Laplace). As a child he independently discovers silent casting: he manipulates mana directly, without incantations — normally a peak-tier skill — and so casts instantly and continuously. He commands all four elements — water, fire, earth, wind — combines them, miniaturizes them and shapes spells freely, drawing on physics from his past life.

In water magic he climbs from Saint-class (mastered under Roxy by age five) to King-class and on to Emperor-class. In battle he weaves restraint and attack spells together, making him the worst possible opponent for any swordsman. The Demon Eye of Foresight implanted by Kishirika lets him see a moment into the future — a decisive edge against this world's ultra-fast fighters. Later he masters lightning magic that physically paralyzes muscles, bypassing combat aura.

Trained in swordsmanship by Ghislaine (Sword God Style) and his father Paul (Sword God, Water God, North God), Rudeus reaches an intermediate level with the blade — not his strength, but enough to complement his magic. When a mage's power falls short against Orsted, he builds a huge combat magic armor (the “first model”) about three meters tall: with a built-in Gatling cannon firing stone shots, a mana-absorbing stone, a shield and Paul's blade. Clad in armor steeped in Combat Aura, he reaches speeds of up to two hundred kilometers per hour and gains power enough to wound even the Dragon God.

Rudeus's past-life name is never stated outright in the text: only his future self speaks it, and it is “the name of a person who does not exist in this world.”

Rudeus's adventurer nickname is “Quagmire,” hence the title of his duel with Orsted, “Mud Swamp vs Dragon God.” In the party Dead End he deliberately introduced himself as Ruijerd when doing good deeds and as himself when doing foolish ones, so for a long time no one remembered his own name.

Rudeus is not a reincarnator in the full, world-explained sense: the Man-God states plainly that he did not transport him and does not know how or why he came to this world. Transporting between worlds is “the evil Dragon God's specialty.”

Because he came from another world, this world's curses do not affect Rudeus — which is why he alone felt no fear of either the cursed Orsted or Ruijerd, who bears the curse of Laplace's Spear.