Heinkel Astrea

Once a gentle and kind man, after his wife fell into a coma, he turned into an alcoholic, causing him to neglect his son and abuse his power as Deputy Commander. Sometime prior to Arc 5, he joined the Priscilla Camp in hopes that, if their camp won the Royal Selection, he could gain access to the Dragon's Blood and save his wife.

Appearance

Heinkel is a muscular man with short red hair, blue eyes and a stubble beard. He wears a black tabard with brown shoulder plates and chest armor, along with a dark cape, brown pants, gloves and black boots.

Personality

Heinkel is a slovenly, arrogant and brash man who outwardly has no care for what others think about him and is not ashamed to throw around his position to intimidate others for petty reasons. He is also willing to stoop low and resort to kidnapping if it will give him an advantage. Heinkel uses his son as a tool to safeguard his rank in the Royal Guard and has no problems making him act as a shield in times of danger at even the expense of others. However, underneath Heinkel's malicious exterior and his alcohol addiction lies a deeply depressed man. His eyes, dull and bereft of spirit, grew decadent over a period of many years. He loathes both his weakness and his own personality.

With his wife’s predicament, Heinkel is willing to do whatever he can to restore her to normal, making him somewhat of an opportunist. This includes wiping out a bandit camp for a supposed magical healing device, jumping on the chance to join the Priscilla Camp to gain access to the Dragon’s blood stored in the castle, and even begging to join the Emilia Camp shortly after Priscilla’s demise. Likewise, he is even willing to make himself an enemy of the world in order to accomplish this goal. That said, he is also willing to join said camps because of his son and father, as his presence puts both of them in an uncomfortable position.

Despite his rough attitude, he has shown to be uncomfortable with taking other people's lives or seeing them taken in front of them, even if it is deemed necessary. When Al stated that there was no need to kill anyone during his scheme, Heinkel showed visible relief. Likewise, it has been noted by several people that despite his bitterness, he does consider the consequences of his actions, and according to Volcanica, whose mind had been overwritten by Al, Heinkel is actually a decent person, as evidenced in the he always considers fear, and would never be like the many demented people that he had met. Despite this, he himself does not believe so, and he believes that his actions following Priscilla's demise prove as such. He also becomes extremely hostile and defensive when someone pokes into the issues surrounding Heinkel and his family's predicament, and this hostility can become so great that Al was unable to prevent him from killing Felt several times for it.

In the past, Heinkel was not always a bitter, resentful man. He still deeply cares about his wife Louanna and became an alcoholic after she was inflicted with a condition that little is known about and the murder of her doctor. When his mother, Theresia van Astrea, was slain by the White Whale, he was the only person to stand by his son, while everyone else blamed the latter for the Sword Saint's death.

History

Heinkel was born to his father, Wilhelm van Astrea, and to his mother, Theresia van Astrea. In his younger days, he was a much more earnest and kind man who seemed to have aspirations of becoming the next Sword Saint like his mother and worked quite hard. He fell in love with a woman named Louanna at first sight and sometime later the two had an arranged marriage. They had a son, Reinhard Astrea. However, things would soon begin to go awry for the Astreas, first with Louanna suddenly falling into deep sleep two years after Reinhard's birth and left in an inanimate state without any cure for such condition. He began to take up drinking alcohol during this time but still showed care for his other family members.

On the night of the Royal Abduction Incident, in which the daughter of Ford Lugunica was kidnapped, Heinkel committed an unspecified grave sin, having perpetrated an unknown betrayal and a terrible mistake that rendered said betrayal pointless. In the time afterwards, when the White Whale came to the Kingdom of Lugunica, Heinkel was requested to lead a group of men to eliminate it in a subjugation that would come to be known as the Great Conquest, but he refused since he was too afraid. Theresia took Heinkel's place at his request, but she ended up dying.

When Wilhelm returned from the search for the kidnapped royal princess, he was as upset with Heinkel for his irresponsibility as he was with Reinhard for taking the Divine Protection of the Sword Saint from Theresia during the battle. However, Heinkel also chided Wilhelm for publicly blaming Reinhard for Theresia's death, and he refused to allow Wilhelm to see Reinhard, as Heinkel believed that he had no right to apologize to him. With Heinkel swearing to prove that Reinhard's acquiring the Divine Protection of the Sword Saint was not the cause of his mother's death, a rift was born in the Astrea Family. Heinkel continued working for the Royal Guard, and Wilhelm left them and concentrated all of his efforts on slaying the White Whale to avenge Theresia. Heinkel inherited the estate and domain of House Astrea after this. Shortly after this, Heinkel lost a duel to a five-year-old Reinhard, resulting in unsavory rumors about the two's relationship which suggest that Reinhard was being treated like a slave. Over the years, he became a bitter alcoholic with such a deep hatred for himself that he started taking it out on the world around him. He began to admonish Garitch Fabless, Louanna's doctor, over the years, due to him not being able to cure Louanna. Soon after Garitch's murder by a resentful disciple of his, Heinkel fell into grief as a result of the doctor's death, realizing that nobody could treat his wife.

First Mission

Five years before the Royal Selection, while Reiner Wahrheit's drug operation was running rampant, Heinkel was placed under house arrest on suspicion of aiding and abetting in the former knight's organization. In an attempt to clear Heinkel's name, Reinhard decided to crossdress and take up the identity of a young girl named Adelheid to infiltrate and bring down Reiner's organization. After Reiner and his collaborator, Count Easley Oruon, were incarcerated, the Commander of the Royal Guard, Marcos Gildark, came to notify Heinkel that the Council of Wise Men had decided to promote him to Deputy Commander, much to his bewilderment and vexation. That night, he went down to a bar in the Commoner District and encountered Reinhard there. Suspecting that Reinhard had pulled strings to get him promoted, Heinkel asked him if he had done so, which his son denied. Being reminded from Reinhard that accepting the position could help Louanna, he accepted his new role and told his son to join the knights when he turned fifteen. He then proceeded to return to Marcos to accept his appointment, unaware that Reinhard had conspired with the Six Tongues to prompt his promotion. Reinhard eventually joined the Royal Guard and would earn a reputation as the Knight Among Knights as he was told to, while Heinkel, dishonored, further languished and rotted in his own self-hatred, continued to grow more bitter, at some point ceasing calling his son by his name and instead calling him a brat or by his title of Sword Saint.

Priscilla's Cheers for Me, Drunk Father Part

A couple of months after the incident at the Sanctuary, hearing of rumors of a meteor that could cure any ailment of the one who drinks out of it, Heinkel set out for a bandit den, and he slew all of the bandits there. However, this was in vain, as the cup turned out to be a sham. While here, he met Priscilla Barielle who offered to form an alliance of sorts with him so that in exchange for helping her take the throne, he would obtain the Dragon's Blood so that he could cure his sleep-bound wife, acting in opposition to Reinhard and Felt's efforts in the Royal Selection.^[1]

Abilities

Swordsmanship: Despite being overshadowed by his more famous relatives, and his insecurity in his own abilities, Heinkel is still rather skilled with a sword. He was able to defend himself against Theresia's attacks, albeit for a short period of time, and easily dispatch assassins that outnumbered him,^[2] with Al even commenting his swordplay could be described as beautiful. To further exemplify his sword abilities, it should be noted that Heinkel easily slaughtered an entire camp of bandits.

Enhanced Strength: Heinkel has great physical might. He is able to lift trees without much effort, and when combined with Yae's steel wires, he was able to turn them into impromptu cannonballs.

Incredible Durability: Despite his cowardly personality, Heinkel is incredibly resistant to damage. Despite taking beatings from people as powerful as Priscilla, Madelyn Eschart, Moguro Hagane, Groovy Gumlet, the Cloud Dragon Mezoreia, the Divine Dragon Volcanica, and even withstanding a fired shot from the Star Staff, he seemed to take relatively minor damage overall and either stand back up shortly after as though he had not been damaged to begin with or sustaining a blow powerful enough to render him unconscious yet not enough to endanger his life. Heinkel is aware of the origin of his durability, crediting it to a punishment for a grave sin he committed,^[3] this being an unspecified betrayal he perpetrated on the night of the Royal Abduction Incident, and a mistake that rendered it meaningless, resulting in his body's current state.^[4]

Equipment: Heinkel is the current wielder of the Holy Sword Astrea (聖剣アストレア, Seiken Asutorea), a sword given to him by his father Wilhelm van Astrea who wielded it in his youth, receiving it as a wedding gift from his father-in-law.^[5]

Trivia

• According to the author, Heinkel's birthday is May 17.
• Heinkel was named by Veltol Astrea, his grandfather.^[6]
• According to the author, if he were to write a story where Subaru wasn't the main character, he'd give the protagonist role to Heinkel.^[7]
• Every year, Heinkel visits his mother's grave the day after the anniversary of her death, believing himself unqualified to visit on the day of.

References

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