Arte

"Praise and worship our great Conchita."

- Arte

Arte was the twin sister of Pollo and a loyal servant of Banica Conchita. Meeting Banica as a child, the wicked maid served her for over a decade. To prevent the Duke's death, Arte and her brother kept the Glass of Conchita in their possession, giving Banica the opportunity to forge a contract with the Demon of Gluttony. She was one of Gretel's reincarnations.

Early Life
Born in EC 298 in the Grabia region of the Beelzenian Empire, Arte and Pollo's parents died when they were at an early age. In EC 306, Ron Grapple hired them into the service of the Conchita Family, serving as aides to the young Banica Conchita. Drawn to their new master, Arte and Pollo met the depressed Banica as she holed herself up in the mansion's basement. By the end of the season, they became close friends, with both twins becoming obsessive over her. After the ten-year old was engaged to Carlos Marlon, the two accompanied her as she visited her fiancé. At some point, they came into possession of the vessel of Gluttony and became aware of the demon inhabiting it, storing the wine glass in a hole at the back of their room's fireplace.

Serving the Evil Food Eater
"That's something thing we'll need someday." "That's something we'll need to save Lord Banica from ruin."

- Arte and Pollo

Around July of EC 323 the two were planned to accompany their master on a journey. Soon after returning with her brother to their room, she spotted Ron cleaning their room and about to toss away the wine glass he found in the fireplace. Stopping him before he could leave, Arte told him he couldn't throw it away and the two claimed that they'd need to glass someday to save Lord Banica from ruin.

When Ron asked if they were the ones who brought the wine glass, they shook their heads and responded that Banica had obtained it by her own will. As Ron insisted it was a cursed object that should be removed, they claimed that neither he or they were the ones to decide this as they inched closer. They then remarked that Banica would decide if she wanted to contract or die, and that they would simply obey. Telling him not to get in the way, one grabbed the servant's arm and they soon after killed him.

After Banica made her contract with the Demon of Gluttony, Arte continued serving her master's needs and accompanied her to the banquet Duke Oruhari held in November, carrying the insects and spiders Banica desired to eat at the party. During the celebration, Arte and Pollo took out the "dessert" as Banica ordered. The following November, Arte was given the responsibility of managing the noble's territories in Conchita's place, along with Pollo. Around the same time, Banica also gave her control of the reanimated staff.

As Banica went through a number of cooks in EC 325, the twins gladly murdered each of them after Banica became annoyed with their disgust of her appetite. Once the fourteenth chef, Ildebrando, also annoyed her, Arte and her brother obeyed her wishes and brutally killed him, crucifying his corpse for their amusement. While preparing Banica's next meal, the twins sung their praises to Banica when they noticed a thief skulking about the mansion. Deciding to make a game out of catching her, the two split up to set up an ambush.

Once Pollo jumped out and grabbed the thief before she could make it to the stairs, Arte came out holding a murara pig and got into an argument with Pollo over who would hold the animal; the thief girl then threw a smoke bomb to evade them and the two began searching for their intruder. The twins continued to look, calling for her, until she successfully fled the mansion.

When Joseph was hired a chef in EC 325, she recognized him as being similar to the man who had "abandoned" her and disliked him as a result, and often harassed him with her brother. After the cook spent the night with Banica, Arte and Pollo made breakfast with him the next morning. When imperial messengers began arriving with invitations for Banica, the twins killed them for their master. Later that year, as the Beelzenian army surrounded the estate, Arte led Banica's undead horde against the soldiers, riding atop the revived Ron Grapple.

While shouting for more war, Arte drove them to tear apart the Beelzenian troops, laughing maniacally. She then had the undead soldiers rampage across the territory. Afterward, Joseph fled the estate and the twins were tasked with his recapture. Once they tracked him to the neighboring town, they caught the cook and dragged him back to Banica. After his failed murder-suicide attempt on Banica, they followed Banica's orders to cook Joseph, serving him as another one of her meals. Around August of that year, the maid was eaten by the curious and hungry Conchita.

Legacy
The following month, Elluka Clockworker found that the mansion was empty and its owner and staff missing. Finding everything in perfect order, the Empire concluded Arte and the rest of the staff fled with Banica to a neighboring country. While reviewing her films at Evil's Theater, Ma claimed Elluka faced great difficulty in acquiring the Glass of Conchita due to Banica's servants, speculating that Arte's loyalty to Conchita was due to her resemblance to Meta Salmhofer.

Arte's succeeding reincarnation, Ney Marlon, became a spy for her mother Queen Prim Marlon, later given the Glass of Conchita to command a reanimated army. After Ney's death, her soul merged with the glass and reawakened Gretel's memories as Arte, continuing her service to Banica as the Demon of Gluttony's servant. Her residual will later awakened from the glass as the female servant.

Personality and Traits
Arte was short-tempered and selfish, acting far more cruel than her twin and often wearing a manic smile. This attitude also made her quick to lash out at others when annoyed, as well as argumentative when it came to losing games. As a HER, Arte was compelled to commit malicious deeds and took pleasure in them. The maid had a malicious love for war and violence, attributing her favorite phrase to "more war"; likewise, she loved the ribbon she wore for her hair and would never willingly part with it.

She was very loyal to Banica, willing to serve her and attend to her every whim. Like her brother, Arte expected their master to be treated with the utmost respect, believing any "traitors" to their master's wishes had to be punished. Similarly, Arte didn't hesitate to kill those perceived as a threat to their master's safety. Despite this, Arte was willing to obey Banica's decisions, even if it was to die, although still providing her every means possible to live.

As a reincarnation of Gretel, her fanatic loyalty to her master was due to her resemblance to Gretel's mother, Meta Salmhofer. Similarly, Arte held a disinclination towards Carlos due to his resemblance to Adam Moonlit, reminded of feelings of abandonment. Having remembered her previous life as Gretel, Arte acted as if the girl's memories were her own and that Adam and Eve were her "parents", her actual parents having died while she was very young.

Arte also held a close bond with Pollo and the two were nearly always together, even sharing the same room. When together, Arte usually mirrored Pollo with similar movements and gesticulations. Likewise, their relationship was close enough that they would finish each other's sentences seamlessly and sometimes even spoke in unison with one another. Both also shared a hostility towards the other servants entering their room to clean it. Due to their shared dislike for Joseph, the two enjoyed bothering him and constantly harassed him.

Skills and Abilities
Unlike her brother, Arte emphasized quality over quantity when cooking meals for Conchita, although she sometimes cut corners due to her mercurial personality. She was also more capable than her twin when it came to her tasks overall, and was rather intelligent. Both her twin and she shared an uncommon youth, maintaining a child-like appearance during the entirety of her tenure as Banica's servant, despite being well into her twenties at the time of her death. In spite of her small stature, the maid was capable of restraining and killing men nearly twice her size.

Character Connections
Banica Conchita: Arte’s master. Arte had a close friendship with Banica stemming from childhood; due to this and Banica's resemblance to Meta, Arte was fanatically loyal to her and demanded others respect the duke. The maid would strive to achieve Banica’s aims and follow her decisions no matter what they were. This included both acting on what she perceived Banica would want and obeying her every direct order.

Pollo: Arte’s twin brother. Arte was very close to Pollo and always stayed by his side, eerily in sync with his words and actions. The two shared in equal measure their duties as Conchita’s servants, both of them later overseeing the governing of her territories.

Joseph: A fellow employee of Conchita. Arte saw the chef as reminiscent of Adam Moonlit and disliked him, constantly harassing him with Pollo in their day to day interactions. After "Joseph" attempted to betray Conchita, Arte was eager to follow her instructions to cook him.

Ron Grapple: A fellow servant of Conchita. Arte, like her brother, disliked Ron’s presence in their room and greatly disapproved of the chamberlain’s interference in Banica’s negotiation with the Demon of Gluttony. Seeing him as a threat to her master, Arte aided in Ron’s death without remorse.

Gretel: Arte's first incarnation. Arte received her loyalty to Conchita from Gretel's relationship with Meta Salmhofer, seeing remnants of Meta in Conchita. As well as this, she received Gretel’s memory of Adam Moonlit, seeing remnants of her foster father in Joseph.

Ney Marlon: An incarnation of Arte. Like her previous incarnation, Ney became a maid for some time and was later given the Glass of Conchita to command its reanimated hordes. Ney's obsessive loyalty to her mother Prim is similar to Arte's relationship with Banica.

Female Servant: An entity derived from Arte. The female servant's fanatic service to the Master of the Graveyard and appearance were reminiscent of Arte's in her relationship with Conchita.

Conceptualization and Origin

 * Arte's name is derived from Artemis, one of the twin gods of Greek mythology.
 * In the original story, Gretel is depicted as a gluttonous child, strengthening Arte's link with the Demon of Gluttony and her master, Conchita.

Curiosities

 * Like Chartette Langley and her twin brother, Arte maintains the same youthful appearance despite being much older.
 * In an interview, mothy stated that Arte's average day at the Conchita mansion consisted of bargaining with peddlers, managing assets, shopping for needed every-day supplies, washing her and Banica's clothes, taking a head-count of all the dead soldiers and livestock, and helping Pollo with harassing Joseph.

Gallery
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