Gahard D. Hoelscher

Gahard D. Hoelscher (ガハルド・D・ヘルシャー) is a character from the "Arifureta: From Commonplace to World's Strongest" series.

He is the current ruler of the Hoelscher Empire.

Appearance
Gahard is a man in his late 50s, but he looks 10 years younger and possess a vitality and energy of a man 20 years below him. He has a lustrous silver-gray hair that is cropped short, blue eyes that possess a sharp gaze, and bulging muscles throughout his body.

Personality
Gahard is fickle and acts deceptive by circumstance (as in the simulated match against Kouki). He is extremely sharp and perceptive, as he is aware of the manipulative nature of the pope and the Holy Church. He is a womanizer, as he wishes to make Shizuku his lover, despite already having a wife and several mistresses.

Garm is a firm believer in his country's doctrine of "strength reigns supreme", as he is willing to accept the Haulia Tribe's demands to free all of the empire's slaves due to having been bested by them during the events of his son's failed engagement party, due to this belief, Gahard despite being genuinely shocked when he learnt of Ehit's true nature from Liliana was able to easily accept it by adhering to his country doctrine that power is everything and outright stating that it is Ehit's own fault that he got exposed as an Evil God, claiming there is no point in continuing to worship a false idol. He is deeply impressed by Hajime's Artifacts, such as his airship "Fernir" and the weapons they used in the Legendary Great War, as such, he's described as a child with brand new toys.

Biography
After the heroes from Earth were summoned by Ehit to help humanity fight against the Demons, Gahard decided to meet them in order to test their skill. He travelled to the Heiligh Kingdom while disguising himself as a bodyguard that was part of his escort and challenged the hero Kouki Amanogawa to a duel. Gahard was impressed with his skills, but heavily criticized him for his lack of resolve in his attacks. This angered King Eliheid S. B. Heiligh and berated him for disrespecting Ehit's chosen hero. Gahard's true identity would soon be revealed by the Holy Church's pope Ishtar Langbard after quickly deducing who he really was. Gahard apologized insincerely for his deception then proceeded to meet with Eliheid over various political matters. As he finished his business with Eliheld, Gahard expressed his doubts about Kouki to his entourage with regards to his immature ideals, to which they all shared the same sentiments. The morning before leaving the kingdom, Gahard met Kouki's friend and classmate Shizuku Yaegashi and asked her to be his mistress, to which she kindly refused.

When the Demons began launching multiple invasions against most of the other nations, including the Hoelscher Empire, one of Demons named Divoff was tasked with assassinating Gahard. Although the empire suffered greatly from the attack, Divoff and his forces failed to carry out their mission and were all killed. In the aftermath, Gahard ordered his forces to invade the Sea of Trees and capture as many Beasmten as possible in order to use them as slave labor for rebuilding the empire. Days after the invasion, Gahard was visited by Princess Liliana S. B. Heiligh of the Heiligh Kingdom in order to inform him about the revelations she learned of Ehit as an evil god after her nation was under attack by the Demons too, and also to request his aid into rebuilding it. Gahard was surprised and sadden to learn about those that died during the invasion, including Eliheld and Knight Commander Meld Loggins, as was also shocked about learning Ehit's true nature. Even so, he decided to not let this news bother him and proclaimed that all that mattered to him was strength. When Gahard then learned about the existence of Hajime Nagumo and his accomplishments from Liliana, he could hardly contain his enthusiasm and eagerly wished to meet him, but would prove to be difficult due to Hajime traveling in his flying Artifact "Fernir". As per Liliana's request, Gahard agreed to provide her with military support for her kingdom and proposed that she proceed to get married with his son Prince Baius as a sign of unity between the two nations, to which she agreed to.

Gahard would get the opportunity to meet Hajime soon after when he visited the capital with Kouki's party and approached the imperial palace while introducing themselves, much to Liliana's shock. Gahard invited them all to meet him and decided to determine what type of person Hajime was after hearing about him from Liliana. At first, Hajime acted politely as possible when greeting him, but Gahard told to to act normally since he was already aware of his arrogance from Liliana's description of him, as well as the fact that most of his companions where shocked as to how polite he was behaving. Gahard then briefly turned his attention to Shizuku and once again asked her to be his mistress, to which she rejected. Gahard, however, was undeterred by her rejection and even found it an even more attractive quality of her's. Hajime found this exchange to be amusing, much to Shizuku's annoyance. Noticing the casual atmosphere around the two of them, Gahard asked Hajime what his relation to Shizuku was, to which he claimed she reminded him of his mother. Gahard managed to get a good idea of the type of person Hajime was so far, but decided to follow up and asked him about his powers and the fact that he would not be offering his support to either the empire of the kingdom, to which he answered truthfully. After hearing his answer, Gahard and his forces where prepared to confront Hajime for his defiance, but Hajime was unfazed by their response while making it clear that he was aware of Gahard's hidden soldiers that laid is wait to ambush him. Gahard instantly admitted his defeat after knowing that Hajime saw through all of his hidden soldiers. He lost his imposing aura he had a moment ago and expressed his delight at having met someone as powerful as him. Gahard was also impressed with how powerful Hajime's female companions were and asked him if he would offer him one of them, to which he offered Tio Klarus, much to her shock, but Gahard rejected his offer after seeing how much of a pervert she was when she writhed in ecstasy from Hajime's poor treatment of her. Gahard then turned his attention to the Rabbitman Shea Haulia due to her her rare light blue hair and also that he had recently imprisoned members of her family before Hajime secretly helped them escape. He attempted to get Hajime to accidentally confess in his involvement ns helping them escape, but was unsuccessful. After having a good enough idea of what type of person Hajime was, Gahard then finished his meeting by inviting him and his companions to Liliana and Baius' engagement party later or.

The evening of the party, after Gahard made a toast, they were suddenly attacked by the Haulia Tribe. They darkened the room and killed many of the guests while they were all confused. They attempted to kill Gahard too, but he managed to deflect their attacks, despite the darkness. Gahard then ordered his forces to protect him and the the rest of the guests before returning the lights back with fire magic. Immediately after, however, they were all hit with flashbangs that both blinded and deafened them. The Haulia Tribe then proceeded to attack more of the guests, including Gahard, but he managed to defend himself against his attackers each time, despite temporarily losing his sight and hearing. The Haulia Tribe was so astonished by Gahard's fighting prowess, that they let their presence be noticed after momentarily succumbing to fear. This allowed Gahard to knock out those that were acting as snipers, then followed up by amplifying the sounds with the spell "Breeze Breath" in order to compensate for his lost senses. He managed to continue fend them off but the Haulia were able to hold him at bay with their coordinated attacks. Gahard revealed that he knew his assailants were the Haulia Tribe, but that did not stop their attack. After a prolonged fight with The Haulia Tribe's leader Cam, Gahard began to grow tired. The Haulia used this opportunity to strike him with a poisoned arrow. Cam then struck Gahard with his shortsword, but did not create any fatal wounds. Gahard attempted to use a concealed Artifact in his pocket but two Haulia members leaped past him and sliced through it before it could activate. At the same time, another barrage of arrows sliced through his arms and legs. Gahard succumbed to the pain and fell unconscious, thus signalling his defeat to everyone that was witnessing the battle.

After his defeat, Gahard was stripped of all of his weapons and then fed medicine to restore his senses so that the Haulia Tribe could properly negotiate with him. Despite being at a disadvantage, Gahard still displayed a defiant attitude. Cam, in response, ordered the other tribe members to kill more of the guests. Gahard finally became more compliant after several people were killed, including one of his close associates named Vesta. Cam then presented Gahard with Artifact called the "Necklace of Vows" that would force him to uphold any pledges that he made, or he and his entire family would die if he ever failed to honor them. He then made his demands of having the empire release all Beasmten slaves, to never invade the Sea of Trees again, to end the practice of taking Beasmten as slaves forever, as well as to treat them as equals, and finally to turn the previous demands into imperial laws. Gahard instantly rejected Cam's demands and claimed that the empire would be prepared to go to war, even with the deaths of him and his family, to which Cam acknowledged. Gahard then offered the Haulia to serve him, despite their recent victory, but Cam instantly refused due to the empire's past treatment of Beasmten. Once Gahard made clear his position to Cam's terms, the Haulia responded by killing Prince Baius. Even after his son's death, Gahard remained adamant about refusing Cam's terms. Seeing as how not even the death of Gahard's son wasn't enough, Cam decided to change tactics and ignited a bomb that blew up the slave overseers’ barracks, killing many soldiers in the process. Cam then followed up by igniting another bomb and claimed that it destroyed a military hospital (it was actually the drawbridge to the imperial palace). Cam then claimed that the Haulia Tribe set up many bombs throughout the empire, including civilian targets, and threatened to blow them all up until Gahard would accept his terms (though Cam was bluffing about killing civilians). Believing Cam's claims, Gahard decided to accept the Haulia's terms and wore the Necklace of Vows before pledging to their terms, as well as his entire family being bestowed with more cursed necklaces as well. Cam then demanded Gahard to make an official declaration the next day about ending the enslavement of all Beasmtan, and to accompany the Haulia to the Beasmtan nation Verbergen in order to restate his vows to its leaders, to which the emperor reluctantly agreed. Gahard knew that Hajime was involved with the Haulia's attacked and accused him of conspiring with them, but Hajime acted completely indifferent and claimed that it was the Haulia did most of the work. Before they left, Cam warned Gahard that the Haulia would always be watching him and that they could kill him at any time. When the Haulia Tribe left. Gahard demanded Hajime help him and the rest of the guests. Hajime complied, but promised to kill any of the healed soldiers that would try to kill him, to which Gahard then ordered his forces to not engage him. After Hajime had his companion Kaori instantly heal the remaining guests and soldiers with her magic, Gahard acknowledged how powerful they were after seeing a miraculous feet performed so easily. Even so, the surviving soldiers were prepared to confront Hajime, but Gahard argued that He was much stronger than them and they should respect they empire's belief in admiring strength. Gahard honored his pledge and made royal proclamation the next morning and announced that they empire would end the enslavement of all Beasmten, while claiming that he was doing so as a result of receiving Ehit's divine oracle. All of the Beasmten were set free soon after and would be taken back to Verbergen on Fernir that had a large gondola attached to it for them to ride in.

Gahard accompanied Hajime and the the Beasmten to Verbergen on Fernir in order to reinstate his pledges to the leaders of the Beasmtan nation. After touring the airship, Gahard was very impressed with it and offered to pay Hajime to build one for him. Hajime, however, rejected his offer. Gahard then offered Hajime one of his daughters Tracy since he was under the impression that Hajime was a womanizer due to always being surrounded by his female companions, but Hajime once again rejected Gahard's proposition. After seeing Liliana, who was also accompanying Gahard to to Verbergen, instantly criticize him for offering to provide Hajime another woman for his harem, the emperor offered to authorize a marriage between her and Hajime due to her obvious attraction to him, as well as hoping get get Hajime to make him an airship in exchange, though Hajime once again rejected his offer by claiming he had no interest in getting involved with royalty. After Hajime hugged his companions Shea and Yue while claiming that he already had everything he wanted in his arms, an annoyed Gahard left him after realizing that his attempts to barter for an airship were futile.

As they approached Verbergen, Gahard was forced to wear a mask that blinded him in order for him to not know Verbergen's location, as well as to hide his identity from its citizens and prevent a frenzy. During the meeting between Gahard and the leaders of Verbergen, after Gahard stated his pledges, both sides remained hostile with each other due to the long and terrible history between the empire and Beasmten. Gahard was not afraid of showing his animosity towards them and claimed that it was only the Haulia Tribe he respected since they were the ones that defeated him. After deciding that the meeting was going nowhere for both parties, Hajime opened a gate to the imperial palace and forcefully sent him back, but not before Gahard got in one last complaint to Hajime.

Whe Ehit was preparing to wipe out all life on Tortus, Gahard was among the leaders of the human nations that were uniting to fight back against the mad god's forces. At Hajime's request, Shizuku approached Gahard in order to request his aid. Gahard made repeated attempts have Shizuku stay by his side before the battle, but she rejected his advances and went so far as two declare her love for Hajime to Gahard. When Hajime was visiting the world leaders during their war meeting, Garhard expressed his annoyance at Hajime after seeing Shizuku wrap herself around his arm. Hajime threatened Gahard with castration if he continued to annoy Shizuku, which had immediately shut the emperor up. Gahard and the other delegates then expressed words of encouragement to Hajime, as he was the one who would be fighting Ehit personally.

During the battle against Ehit's forces, Gahard decided to lead all of the ground forces due to not wanting to miss out on such a legendary fight.

When the battle against Ehit ended in victory for Tortus' forces, Gahard soon learned that his daughter Tracy had participated in the battle, against his orders. As punishment for her defiance, Gahard refused to properly heal Tracy from using Hajime's Artifact "Last Zell", which temporarily granted her the Skill "Limit Break", but left her in a severely weakened state. In addition, the scythe Artifact Egxess she used during the battle was draining Tracy's mana to the point that she was dying from the severe fatigue. Gahard would attempt to heal Tracy after three days, but she refused due to wanting to overcome her ailment without any help. After a month of enduing such physical hardships, Tracy managed to fully recover. During that time, Gahard's family had their cursed necklaces removed.

Relationships

 * Hajime Nagumo - Gahard is extremely impressed with Hajime's immense power and abiitiy to create powerful Artifacts, and tries everything he can to recruit him. He even goes so far as to offer his own daughter to Hajime. Gahard is very pleased to receive a mini Fernir flying craft Artifact from Hajime after Ehit's defeat, causing Gahard to name Hajime as the Empire's best friend. However, he considers Hajime to be the devil at times, something most people agree on (including Hajime's own wives).
 * Shizuku Yaegashi - Gahard is infatuated with Shizuku and has propositioned her to be his mistress. However, Shizuku has refused each of his advances until she had fallen in love with Hajime, causing Gahard to back off as he knew better than to try to provoke Hajime's anger.
 * Kouki Amanogawa - Gahard is annoyed by Kouki and considers him to be a loud-mouthed and immature brat that is unworthy of his title of "Hero" due to Kouki's idealistic sense "justice" and lack of resolve. Although he still considers Kouki to be strong.
 * Eliheid S. B. Heiligh - The two of them have a positive relationship due to them being the rulers of two allied nations, though Eliheid is not too fond of Gahard's quirks when he challenges Kouki to a duel while in disguise. Gahard considers Eliheid to be a great king and grieves after learning of his death.
 * Lundel S. B. Heiligh - At first, Gahard only views Lundel as a political tool to strengthen the empire's relationship with the kingdom. When the empire throws a party in honor of Hajime and his family, Gahard begins to respect Lundel after the young prince confronts Nea Haulia on behalf of his daughter Ariel.
 * Ulfric Heipyst - Initially the two were enemies due to the Hoelscher Empire's history of enslaving Beastmen, but they would eventually form a bond over the stress they both have endured from Hajime and his antics.

Weapons & Equipment

 * Sword - His primary weapon.
 * Earring - A ring that lets its wearer disguise their appearance.
 * Mini Fernir - An airship that Hajime made for Gahard as thanks for his involvement in the battle against Ehit. It is a scaled down version of Hajime's own airship, although it is not equipped with any weapons. It also has a self-destruct feature that can be used by both the Heilgh Kingdom and the Haulia Tribe if Gahard ever attempts to use it to attack them.

Physical Abilities

 * Peak Physical Abilities - Due to his rigorous training, Gahard has reached the peak of human potential in terms of physical prowess.
 * Master Swordsman - Gahard is consider the strongest warrior in the Hoelscher Empire, which is the reason why he's the current emperor. He is able to keep up with Kouki in a duel, despite his advanced age, as well as Kouki's high stats. He claims to his subjects that he held back in order to test the young hero's skills in battle. During the “The Haulia Rebellion”, he was able to defend himself from the Haulia's Tribe attacks the longest and even managed to fight many of them off by himself before being defeat. This being more impressive by the fact that he taken by surprise and wasn't able able to see clearly because of the blackout.

Magical Abilities

 * Expert Magic User - Gahard has proven himself to a skilled and experienced caster. He can uses simple spells in effective ways to aid him in battle.

Skills

 * Speed Casting - It allows the user to cast magic at a fast rate.
 * Wind Magic Affinity - It allows the user to use wind magic at a capable rate.

Spells

 * Wind Wall - A barrier comprised of wind the flows in all directions. "Blow it all away, Wind Wall!"
 * Fireballl - One of the most basic fire spells. “Burn through everything— Fireball!”
 * Breeze Breath - A support-oriented wind spell that allows the caster to amplify sounds using the power of wind, or to carry specific noises over long distances. "Dancing breeze, carry my will— Breeze Breath!"

Quotes

 * (To Liliana S. B. Heiligh after learning the truth about Ehit): "Oh, I’m plenty shocked. The god I believed in since I was a little brat turned out to be a madman. But well, you know how it is with the empire. All we really believe in is strength. Killing our enemies and taking what we want is all that matters to us. The weak exist to serve the strong. So if it turns out Ehit’s a sham, well, it’s his own damn fault for getting found out. Now that I know the truth, there’s no point in worshiping a false god."
 * (As Hajime Nagumo forcibly sends Gahard back home): "I won’t forget this, Hajime Nagumooooooooo!"
 * (To Hajime Nagumo): "You better not fuck this up, Hajime Nagumo. We’ll take care of the enemies on the ground, so you better slaughter that shitty god for us."

Trivia

 * Hoelscher is an English language surname derivative, primarily used in the United States. Its origins are from the North German "Hölscher", the occupational name for a maker of clogs (wooden shoes), which in turn comes from the Middle Low German "holsche" (prefix holt- meaning "wood"; suffix -scho meaning "shoe"; with the agent noun suffix "-er"). The name is strongly associated with in Germany, although it is also associated with the Netherlands. Bearers of the name almost universally descend from individuals originally from the Paderborn region of Westphalia or the Netherlands.