Karchess Crim

"You must be strong to regain what you love."

- Kachess Crim

Karchess Crim, later becoming Karchess Marlon, was the Count of the Kingdom of Marlon, and the lover of Queen Yufina. After his beloved had gone missing, Karchess was asked to help investigate the disappearance cases plaguing the Beelzenian Empire. Discovering that Duke Sateriasis Venomania had been the perpetrator, Karchess assassinated the Duke and eloped with Yufina whilst dodging both Beelzenia and Marlon.

Early Life
Born in EC 110, Karchess eventually became a count of the growing Marlon country. At some point, he became friends with Baron Toy Conchita. Later, Karchess met and entered an affair with Yufina Marlon, eventually telling Toy; sometime afterward, she left to travel to Beelzenia as part of her husband's homecoming. Before leaving, she gave Karchess the Golden Key and, under the presumption that it was a type of advanced technology, he would become aware of its power and capabilities.

Venomania Event
"A report from Marlon's noble family has arrived. Shall I read it to you? It is best you read it yourself. The minister will want to hear it later." "Heheh... It doesn't look that interesting to me''."

- Toy and Princess Maylis regarding Crim's breakthrough

Around the summer of EC 136, the count was asked by Princess Maylis of the Beelzenian Empire to investigate the disappearances of women across Asmodean, Yufina being among the missing. The Count agreed to assist the Empire and spent nearly a month investigating the incident.

While reading through the list of disappearance cases in a local pub, he noticed Lilien Turner's name on the list and began focusing on it. After a thorough investigation, Karchess learned of the rumors surrounding Turner's disappearance and the mass murder of the Ferdinand family in their estate around the same time.

Traveling to Mystica, Karchess arrived at Earl Ferdinand's Mansion but was blocked at the front gates by the estate's guards before the earl granted him permission to enter. Seated in the mansion's dining room, the Earl expressed pleasure in meeting the Count and apologized for the his cold welcome at the gates. Ignoring it, Karchess noted that the earl's entire family had been massacred and Ferdinand asked if he had already heard the stories about the supposed culprit.

Karchess replied that he had once but doubted it and the earl explained how his family and the chamberlains were found dead around the same time a woman disappeared. Continuing to extract the earl's knowledge of the local rumors, he became interested when the Ferdinand mentioned that only one person had a contradicting testimony of the recent events, asking who it was. The earl stated that a peasant farmer and friend of Lilien, Rajih, had absurdly claimed Duke Sateriasis Venomania killed his uncle's family and stole Lilien despite the fact no one saw the duke at all at the time.

Interested, Karchess pursued the lead and found Rajih drunk and ranting about the futility of trying to beat the duke. Scoffing at his reason for giving up, the count told the farmer that anyone drinking endlessly over losing their lover was a miserable existence. With Rajih's reply that Lilien was his childhood friend, not his lover, Karchess brushed aside the comment.

Ignoring the peasant's question of who he was, Karchess instead answered that he wanted to hear Rajih's story about Sateriasis and Lilien. Told a second time to introduce himself, Karchess revealed his name but was taken aback by Rajih instead getting up and walking away. The count asked why he wasn't satisfied and Rajih responded that he was but didn't want to talk about it.

Karchess immediately grabbed the farmer by the shoulder, holding him in place with his one hand. The count explained that, despite their different social statuses, he could be his "savior". Intimidated, Rajih asked if he was a foreigner and Crim explained he was simply a normal man from Marlon. Rajih replied that he was just a farmer and that they had nothing in common.

Responding that his way of thinking was despicable, Karchess explained he had three things to tell him: the first being his name and the second being the need of strength to regain lost love. Pulling out the Golden Key, he declared the third was that there existed a weapon capable of defeating a demon. After hearing Rajih's full testimony, Karchess sent a report to Maylis of his progress in the past month.

At some point, Karchess met the mage Elluka Clockworker at the Lasaland Inn, who explained that the Golden Key he carried was a vessel of sin; making an agreement to hand it over after the duke was defeated, Karchess joined forces with the sorceress.

Afterwards, he became infuriated by her insistence that they wait to approach the duke, fearing for Yufina's safety, and they entered a heated argument. Following the meeting, Karchess mentally apologized to Toy and deviated from their original plan.

With the Golden Key transforming into a knife, Crim disguised himself as Elluka and approached the alleged demon in his mansion. After allowing Venomania to believe he'd exerted his powers over him, Karchess followed the duke into his basement. Once Venomania embraced him and asked him to dance, Karchess stabbed him in the chest with the Golden Knife.

He then called the duke a fool and shed his disguise as Sateriasis collapsed to the ground, expressing his incredulity that the duke actually fell for his disguise. After triumphantly exclaiming that he had killed "Duke Venomania," Karchess left him to search for Yufina. Freeing the captured women, including his beloved, Karchess and Yufina fled Asmodean and eloped; due to their activities, the two became fugitives of both the Beelzenian Empire and Marlon.

Later Life
Around EC 139, Karchess returned to his homeland and launched a coup to establish a legitimate Marlon country. With Yufina considered the one legitimate heir to the Marlon Royal Family, he received the backing of many Marlon nobles and was able to able successfully install the new government, overthrowing Martius. Karchess then ascended to the throne as its king and part of the royal family. At some point, Karchess sired children with his wife.

Legacy
Following his death, Karchess was succeeded by his grandchild and his lineage continued for over eight centuries, including Carlos and Kyle Marlon; the latter adopted "Karchess Crim" as a pen name for his paintings, later using it as his alias during the Lucifenian Revolution. The Golden Key wielded by Karchess was kept in the royal family's possession for several centuries, with tales of Karchess' triumph over Duke Venomania passed down to future generations since that time. Because of his marriage to Yufina, blue hair also became a trait for many of the male members of the Marlon royal family, in contrast with the common black or brown hair found among Marlons.

Personality and Traits
"Someone who keeps drinking over the loss of his lover is a miserable existence."

- Count Karchess to Rajih

A patriot to his country, Karchess was greatly loyal to Marlon and, like the rest of his countrymen, held hostile sentiments toward the neighboring country Lioness. Similarly, Karchess was against Beelzenia's influence on Marlon's royal government; still, he remained cooperative with Marlon's ally before being branded a criminal and even made friends among the Empire's aristocracy.

Despite this, he was also in love with Yufina and was willing to enter a secret romance with the Queen despite being married to Martius. After being hunted as fugitives, Karchess married his lover and used her to help stage a coup, believing Marlon's Beelzenian ruler was an illegitimate king.

Karchess was a proud man, valuing strength and determination and believed them to be necessary in order to protect what you love or regain what was lost. He looked down upon others who acted defeated hopeless as a result, considering anyone with such a mentality to be living a "miserable existence". However, the Count considered himself just a "normal" man of his country and was not concerned with the differences in social classes.

To a point, Karchess believed in a degree of meritocracy, believing anyone could be a potential savior to another so long as they were strong. When dedicated to a goal, Karchess spoke plainly and succinct, often disregarding pleasantries such as during his investigations into the disappearances and interrogating witnesses. After Yufina became among the missing women, Karchess gained invested interest in uncovering the truth behind the disappearances and gladly helped in Princess Maylis' investigation.

Due to his dedication to Yufina and personal philosophy, Karchess was a bit arrogant, deviating from his plan with Elluka to pursue his own schemes and flatly abandoning the sorceress. He was also openly deceptive, reneging on his promise to give the Golden Key to Elluka when executing his assassination attempt on Duke Venomania. Likely due to the supernatural powers the key possessed, Karchess was willing to pursue Rajih's testimony of the Duke's involvement and confident in his ability to kill the Duke with such a weapon.

Skills and Abilities
"In some cases, different people can be your saviors... Like me."

- Karchess

As a noble from Marlon, Karchess had many connections among the nobility and was treated with utmost respect while working under Princess Maylis. A skilled investigator, Karchess' capabilities as a detective earned him a recommendation from his friend, Toy, to assist in the disappearance cases; he was also perceptive, recognizing Rajih's unique testimony as a potential lead despite the apparent evidence against it. Coinciding with this, Karchess was an adept planner, constructing his own scheme on top of Elluka's to save Yufina and keep the key his lover gave him.

Physically, the Count was notably strong, being able to hold Rajih in place with just a single arm. While in possession of the Golden Key, he was able to transform the vessel into a knife and injure the demon-possessed Duke. He could also raise his voice to a high-pitched feminine tone, employed against Venomania in his impersonation of Elluka.

Character Connections
Sateriasis Venomania: Karchess's object of pursuit. During his investigation Karchess was suspicious of Duke Venomania, thus following the lead Rajih provided. When he discovered his role in the women's disappearances, particularly Yufina's, he became wrathful towards the duke, taking delight in his eventual death.

Yufina Marlon: Karchess' lover. Karchess loved Yufina deeply, tracking her to Venomania's mansion when she disappeared and eloping with her after the Venomania Event. Her disappearance was another motivation for Karchess' interest in the missing women, and she had provided him aid beforehand in giving him the Golden Key.

Rajih: Karchess' partner. Karchess saw Rajih as a useful lead in discovering and catching the culprit of all the abductions, although he believed the latter to be pathetic for drinking instead of saving Lilien and for emphasizing their difference in station.

Elluka Clockworker: A fellow investigator of Venomania. Karchess joined forces with Elluka for the sake of defeating Duke Venomania, although he did not take their partnership seriously, deviating from it when he thought necessary. Nonetheless, he was inspired by her appearance and name in creating his female disguise to fool the Duke.

Maylis Beelzenia: Karchess' employer. Karchess was a close enough acquaintance of Maylis that he accepted her request to investigate the women's disappearances, after Toy's recommendation.

Toy Conchita: A friend of Karchess. Karchess and Toy had a good relationship, the latter being one of the few privy to his affair with Yufina and recommending him to Maylis to help with the investigation.

Conceptualization and Origin

 * His surname, Crim, seems to be a reference to "ice cream" (アイスクリーム), the character item of his representative Vocaloid.
 * Karchess's name is partially based off his representative Vocaloid, KAITO, sharing the first two letters.

Gallery
Concept Art=