Shirley Nelson

Shirley Nelson (シャーリー・ネルソン) was a member of the anti-church organization, the Liberators. She worked as a receptionist at a hotel in the Entris Federation's capital city Esperado.

Appearance
Shirley was a beautiful woman in her early 20s with long gray hair and gray eyes.

Personality
Shirley was able to present herself in a very professional and accommodating demeanor.

As a member of the Liberators, she despised the Holy Church, as well as the gods that rule over Tortus. She toke great joy at any opportunity to fight back against the church, in contrast to her usual professional persona.

Biography
Shirley had been a member of the Liberators for much of her life. One day, she and her mother were among a group of Liberators were captured by members of the Holy Church and taken to one of their most heavily guarded cathedrals to be tortured. After enduring a horrifying experience, Shirley was rescued by a then eleven year old Miledi Reisen, but she was too late to rescue her mother who had died from the torture. Despite this traumatic event, Shirley continued to work for the Liberators, and would eventually work undercover as a receptionist at the luxurious "Hotel Lusheina" in Esperado, the capital city of the Entris Federation.

Three years later, Miledi arrived at Esperado with several new comrades she recruited in order to get some of them to work in secret with the Liberators that were already stationed there. Upon entering the hotel, they were greeted by Shirley, and was guided by her to the hotel's hidden underground passage that lead to the Liberator's Esperado branch HQ. When they reached the hotel's wine cellar, Shirley and Miledi demonstrated to the newcomers the elaborate mechanism that opened a hidden entryway among one of the walls, but it only lead to the city's sewers, much to their surprise. Just then Shirley's father Rigan appeared from underneath the floor and explained that the hidden entryway to the sewers was a decoy to fool anyone who may be suspicious. He then lead everyone to the actual location of their secret base.

When the Holy Templar Knights Commander Laus Barn had fled the church and attempted to join the Liberators, Shirley and the other members of the Esperado branch were planning to rendezvous with him. They also received aid from the rabbitman spy Sui of the Haltina Republic, who was tasked with getting intel on the church's movements. Although she proved to be useful in her mission, she constantly aggravated Shirley due to her slovenly attitude that resulted in her messing up the hotel room that she was using her her quarters. Upon discovering that Laus was going to arrive in Esperado, as well as learning of this that the church had sent to apprehend him, Shirley and the others formulated a plan to rescue him, which ultimately succeeded.

Soon after Laus was rescued from the church, Shirley and the rest of the Liberators were making preparations for their final battle against the church's final battle against the church and its god Ehit, codenamed "'Operation Revolution Tolls''". As she was finishing her task, Shirley approached her father on the roof of their hotel. The two of them discussed the current state of affairs, including the church's heightened security and the status of all the Liberators were preparing for battle. Shirley expressed her frustration at not being able to participle in the final battle due to her being a non-combatant, but Rigan assured her that they will still be needed to support their comrades one the fighting came to an end. He then went on to express his guilt at having dragged her daughter into his fight against to world, but Shirley quickly cut him off and told him blatantly that she was a Liberator and proud of it, and then chastised him for his sentimentality..

Sometime later, the Holy Church raided serval locations that were affiliated with the Liberators, including their base in Esperado. They captured almost everyone in the bade, with Shirley being the only one who managed to escape thanks to the Dark Gate teleportation artifact, but was gravely injured. She ended up at the Liberators's HQ, the undersea ship Lac Elain. When Miledi learned of this after, she immediately wanted to rescue her captured allies, but Shirley told her not to via their communication artifact Skynet, and conveyed a message left by her father about her and her friends needing to spend as much time as the could to prepare themselves for battle. Reluctantly, Miledi ad the others agreed to hold off on rescuing everyone until the day that they were to be executed, in one month.

On the day that the captured Liberators and associates were to be exerting in the Elbard Theocracy, Miledi and all of her comrades commenced Operation Revolution Tolls and waged an all-out battle against the church. during the battle, Shirley was manning one of the gun torrents on Lac Elane, which had been retrofitted to serve as an airship. After the Liberators successfully reduced the prisoners and teleported them and teleported them to their ship, Shirley had a brief but emotional reunion with her father.

In the end, the Liberators eliminated most of the church's forces, but had to retreat soon after when Ehit summoned an army of apostles to attack them in retaliation. Although most of them managed to teleport to safety, those on board Lac Elain were still vulnerable. The apostles managed to destroy the ship, but the crew managed to escape the destruction by boarding the their backup ship, the Melusine. Even so, the apostles resumed attacking them, but were repelled when an army of transformed dragonmen arrived to aid the Liberators. Over the next few months, Shirley and the rest of her comrades had taken refuge in the Dragon Kingdom.

In response to the Liberators's attack, Ehit had the apostles use their hypnosis magic to have the people of Tortus hunt down and kill all of their members. This influence even reached the Dragon Kingdom, which lead to a coup against its ruler. During the revolt, the building were the Liberators were residing in had been severely damaged, but a barrier had been erected by Reinheit Ashe that prevented it rom being completely destroyed.. Shirley, who was injured from the attack, was searching for her father, and soon discovered him during under a mound of rubble. As he laid dying, Shirley tried desperately to free him, but he told to abandon the Liberators in favour of living her life (as well as the same for Miledi), and succumbed to his injuries. Distraught, Shirley stared at her father's lifeless body, while ignoring the battle that was still going on. It was then that another explosion shook the building and a pillar started falling toward Shirley. She looked absently up at it, and did not attempt to get out of the way. Right before she was crushed, however, Baharl Devault tackled her to safety, and snapped her back to reality. Shirley wished to stay by her father's side, in spite of the danger, but Baharl convinced her to keep on living. Before they fled, Baharl briefly paid his respects to Rigan. Upon witnessing this, Shirley bit her lip and silently said her own farewells. The pair then stepped out of the rubble and saw breath attacks flying back and forth from all sides. ome of the neighbors had come to their aid, and were fighting back against the coup. Thanks to that, Baharl and Shirley were able to make their way into the barrier without getting incinerated.

After reaching the remaining Liberators, Shirley noticed that one of her companions, Laus's son Sharm was missing from the group, and learned that her had left to search for is family in the ensuing chaos. She then berated Reinheit for failing to stop him from going alone, even though he was using all of he strength to maintain the barrier. As some of the survivors were working a repairing a barrier artifact that had been left for them, Shirley urged Reinheit to go rescue Sharm. At first, he was reluctant, but ultimately decided to go when Shirley asked him to let her and the others fight for him. No sooner did he leave that Karg D. Verand, the one repairing the barrier, died from injuries he too sustained from the attack, much to Shirley's shock. Even so, his efforts enabled to barrier to hold up long enough Shirley and the others to be rescued by dragonmen that did not take part in the coup. They all managed to escaped into the Haltina Republic, deep within the Pale Forest. Shirley later told Karg's adopted son Oscar Orcus about his death, after he had arrived at the republic. Over the next few days, most of the Liberators were killed, thus effectively ending their cause.

Years after the Liberators were defeated, Shirley became the leader of the Entris branch of the Adventurer's Guild, and was constantly on the lookout for adventurers strong enough to challenge the Great Labyrinths that were created by Miledi and her old comrades as a way to find someone to resume the fight against Ehit.

Relationships

 * Rigan Nelson - Shirley loved her father very much. Despite having spent most of her life with the Liberators as a result of her parents' actions, Shirley never resented Rigan for it.
 * Miledi Reisen - Shirley had known Miledi for years and got along with her well. She was able to keep Miledi under control when she started to act out.
 * Sui - At first Shirley had been excited when she’d heard that the greatest spy from the Haltina Republic would be coming to reinforce the Liberators in Esperado. However, she would become annoyed with Sui's slovenly attitude while she was staying at their base. Sui was the only known person that had caused Shirley to lose her temper.

Quotes

 * (To Miledi Reisen): "Good afternoon, beautiful prodigy mage Miledi-sama. Your reservation seems to be in order. Welcome to Hotel Lusheina."
 * (To Miledi Reisen): "Leader... you’ve managed to somehow get even more annoying in the time since we last met."
 * (To her father): "Sheesh! Look, I know it’s a big day and all, but don’t get all sentimental on me! I came up to check on you because I was worried. I can’t believe you were thinking of all this pointless crap. Man, what a waste of time!"
 * (To Reinheit Ashe): "If a hero protects someone, it’s only natural that those people will want to protect the hero in turn, right?"

Trivia

 * The name "Shirley" is of Old English (Anglo-Saxon) origin, composed of two elements: "skinan" (Proto-Germanic: "*skīnaną", Old English: "scīnan"), meaning "bright, shine" plus "lēah", meaning "woodland, a clearing ‘especially one used for farming’, a meadow". The name means "luminous clearing, bright meadow".