Noelle Zerberg
Aliases: Noelle
Description
Noelle Zerberg is a young woman of the Republic of Alzer, the sacred-tree civilisation whose internal politics drive the third major arc of the series. She is a candidate priestess in line for the Republic's Saintess title, with a connection to the Sacred Tree that makes her uniquely valuable — and uniquely targeted.
Her story begins as a Republic political prisoner of sorts, caught between scheming branches of her own ruling families and the encroaching influence of the antagonist AI Ideal. Leon Fou Bartfort and Luxion intervene because, as ever, the politest option is to set every plotter on fire.
She becomes one of the post-Alzer additions to Leon's wider family — formally a guest, in practice another wife by the standards the series treats kindly. Her gentleness contrasts with Angelica's command and Marie's chaos and gives the Bartfort household something resembling a steady centre.