David Zahler

David Zahler (デビッド・ザーラー) is a character from the "Arifureta Shokugyō de Sekai Saikyō" series.

He is the captain of the Holy Church's templar knights, and is one of Aiko's bodyguards while she travels the Heiligh Kingdom.

Appearance
David is a handsome man with wavy blond hair.

Personality
David was once a loyal follower of Tortus' god Ehit, and was devoted to his teachings, especially the preaching of beastmen to being treated as an inferior race to humans. His views began to change, however, after traveling with Aiko, and became more open-minded. After being locked up in the kingdom, he discarded his loyalty for Ehit and pledge newly loyalty for Aiko as the "Goddess of Victory".

David would let his emotions get the better of him in various situations and was easily provoked when Yue insulted him by calling him a small man.

Biography
David was one of the templar knights that accompanied Aiko Hatayama while she traveled around many of the Heiligh Kingdom's villages in order to improve their food production due to her Job as Farmer. At first, he and the other knights made repeated attempts to impress Aiko in order to make her more loyal to the kingdom and the Holy Church. Over time, however, they were won over by her kindness and had become absolutely devoted to her.

After they arrived at the lakeside town of Ur, one of Aiko's students the also accompanied her, Yukitoshi Shimizu, disappeared without a trace. After several days unsuccessfully locating him, Aiko grew increasingly worried, but the rest of her students and the templar knights attempted to cheer her up. While Aiko and the others were eating dinner one night at Ur's Water Sprite Inn, the innkeeper told them that they would no longer be able to serve them their signature dishes due to an increase in monster activity in the mountains where the people normally gathered the spices for their food, but assured them that they situation would be taken care soon by claiming that adventurers would explore the mountains at the personal request of Adventurer's Guild Fuhren Branch Chief Ilwa Chang. This caused David and other knights to become shocked at this news due to how popular Ilwa was. It was soon discovered that the adventurer was Hajime Nagumo, who everyone believed to have been killed in the Great Orcus Labyrinth. Aiko immediately to Hajime after hearing him name during a conversation he was having with his companions Yue and Shea. David and the other knights were shocked at Aiko's sudden change in behaviour, but soon realized that Hajime wsa one of Aiko students that was summoned along with her to Tortus. After convincing Hajime to join her and the others for dinner, she attempted to get him to explain what he experienced after he was believed to be dead due his drastic change change in appearance, but he refused to go into details of his ordeals and instead focused on eating his dinner. His disrespectful attitude angered David and demanded that Hajime show more respect, to which Hajime ignored him. Aiko calmed David down by telling her that Hajime must have his reasons for not wanting to talk about what he endured while he was separated from everyone. David then turned his attention towards Shea and expressed his outrage at her sitting at the table with them due to believing the church's belief that beastmen where inferior to humans. He even went so far as to threaten to cut off her ears in order to make her appear more human, but was stopped by Yue after insulting him and giving him a disrespectful glare. This further angered David and was prepared to attack Yue, but was suddenly knocked unconscious by Hajime after he shot him in the forehead with a rubber bullet from one of his handguns. Hajime and the others left them after he finished his dinner while David was being attended to by the other knights.

David and the other knights remained at Ur the next morning while Aiko and her student escorts followed Hajime on his journey to the mountains by sneaking away while they were asleep. After discovering that a huge monster army was about to attack the town, Hajime and the others drove back to Ur on his vehicle Brise, and crossed paths with David and the other knight while they were riding their horses to the mountains in order to find Aiko. They were about ti attack Hajime's vehicle, but stopped after Aiko popped out of the window in order to show that they were in no danger. Having no time to explain the situation to the knights, Hajime drove right passed them, narrowly avoiding running them over, and continued on to Ur (also because Hajime hated the knights and wanted to scare them with his driving).

After Hajime returned to Ur, he was prepared to leave since did not care about the fate of the people of the world, but soon decided to fight the monster army after Aiko convinced him to. David continued to guard Aiko while she and the others witnessed Hajime preparing to fight the monsters. During the battle, David was utterly shocked after witnessing how Hajime and his companions were easily overwhelming a large army of monsters. After the battle was over, Hajime brought the person responsible for the attack to Aiko at her request, which turned out to be her missing student Yukitoshi Shimizu. As Aiko attempted to talk with him, David warned her that it was too dangerous, but she proceeded, regardless. Yukitoshi managed to grab Aiko and threatened to kill her if Hajime did not surrender his weapons to him. Aiko was soon saved however, after Shea pushed her away from Yukitoshi after he was suddenly hit with a magic spell from a demon. Though Aiko was spared from the attack, she was hit with poison from the needle that Yukitoshi held by her neck while holding her hostage. She was soon saved, however, by Hajime after her healed her by having her drink ambrosia while passing it through from his mouth to hers. Hajime then proceed to kill Yukitoshi after he was mortally wounded from the demon's attack, much to Aiko's shock. After Hajime and his companions left, Aiko was full of despair due to the trauma of seeing one of her students kill another one. David and the others tried to cheer her up, but to no avail. Aiko, however, eventually discovered Hajime's true motives for killing Yukitoshi when he was already near death.

When Aiko and the others returned to the kingdom's capital, she disappeared soon after. The students attempted to locate her by asking her templar knight bodyguards for her whereabouts, but they had disappeared as well. It was eventually discovered that Aiko was kidnapped by an apostle of God and was being held prisoner in the Holy Church's dungeon. After she was freed by Hajime and aided in the destruction of the Holy Church's main temple, it was revealed that David and the other knights were imprisoned in the kingdom after they made repeated attempts through the pope to see her. After learning that Aiko was partially responsible for destroying the church and killing the pope and many of his subjects, David and the knights needed some time to sort out their feelings, but they eventually decided to not hate Aiko and continued to be loyal to her due everything she taught them during their journey together. They would eventually come to worship her as the Goddess of Fertility.

When Ehit was preparing to wipe out all life on Tortus, David was among those that took part in the fight against the mad god. The night before the final battle, David and his squad approached Hajime and tearfully begged him to have sex with Aiko in order to appease her. Hajime was disturbed by their actions and requested someone to take them away, to which David's younger sister Firim responded by kneeing David in the back of the head and knocking him out.

Relationships

 * Aiko Hatayama - David is devoted to Aiko. He initially tries to impress her in an attempt to strengthen her loyalty to the Holy Church, but he becomes attracted to her after getting to know her. He, along with the rest of the Templar Knights, become devoted followers of the new religion that is based off of Aiko and her new title of "Fertility Goddess".
 * Firim Zahler - David's younger sister. At first, the two of them have a strained relationship due to Firim having doubts about the Holy Church, but they manage to work things out after the battle against Ehit.
 * Ehit - Initially, David was absolutely devoted to humanity's god. After having learned the true nature of Ehit through Aiko as being evil and manipulative, David loses all faith in Ehit.
 * Hajime Nagumo - David is hostile towards Hajime due to his attitude. He tried to convinced him to speak properly to his "superiors" only for him to get shot by Hajime after attempting to attack Yue and Shea, and was then told to mind his own manners. David later loses any animosity towards Hajime after learning the truth about Ehit and approves of his relationship with Aiki.

Weapons & Equipment

 * Sword - His primary weapon.

Quotes

 * (To Aiko Hatayama): "Don’t worry. I’ll protect Aiko. I promise you, I won’t let even a hair on her head be harmed. After all, she’s my ang— Er, my everything."
 * (To Hajime Nagumo): "Hmph, you dare lecture me on manners? Let me throw those words right back at you. How dare you bring a filthy brute like that to a table meant for humans? Have you no shame? How about I lop off those disgusting ears of hers for you? Then she’d at least look more like a human."