Petra Leyte (ペトラ・レイテ) is a former inhabitant of Arlam Village who currently lives and works at Roswaal Manor as a maid. She is a supporting character first introduced in Arc 2 and later joins the main cast in Arc 4. She plays a major role in Arc 9, and a supporting role in Arc 7 and Arc 8.
Originally just a young village girl, she became a maid in order to stay close to Subaru, who had helped her shed her self-centered demeanor. Learning magic, politics, and maid duties, she helps the Emilia Camp in many aspects, whether that be assisting in making connections with other nobles and demi-humans or using her smarts to assist in battles.
During her life as a village child, Petra wore common clothes that consisted of a pair of brown shoes, green leggings with horizontal stripes that were shorn just above the ankles, a white long-sleeved shirt, an open short-sleeved cream-colored cardigan with red outlining, and a red ribbon fastened to her collar. She has medium length reddish brown hair that, as time progressed, has grown to reach her shoulder in Arc 9, she has cyan eyes, and she has continued to grow taller since her introduction.
In Arc 4, Petra switched to a maid uniform for her job, keeping her ribbon tied in her hair. From Arc 7 and on, she wore a long-sleeved yellow and white shirt, a green skirt with white frills, a green cloak held together by a red ribbon, a red ribbon in her hair, white leggings, and brown boots. By Arc 9, she has also fashioned part of her hair into a braid.
Personality
Petra is a pure-hearted, innocent young girl who often tries her best to help and nurture others, regardless of whether doing so was detrimental to her. Her sweet personality is enough to mellow the hearts of those who interacted with her, particularly Subaru and Frederica, whose moods brightened just from talking with her. Unlike many people in Lugunica, Petra harbors no xenophobic tendencies towards demi-humans, instead judging people off of their deeds and personalities. Alongside the other children in Arlam Village, Petra held no prejudice against Emilia.
For someone so young, Petra is incredibly brave, choosing to prioritize the lives and wellbeing of others above her own in situations of crisis. When the disguised Wolgarm fled into the Wolgarm-infested woods, Petra, who was unaware of the creature's true identity, steeled her nerves and traversed into the forest to rescue the animal from danger. When Elsa Granhiert took her hostage and brought her before Subaru and her fellow maids, Petra, although terrified at the prospect of dying, told her friends to flee and save themselves rather than rescue her. Similarly, she is even willing to put her life on the line if it means helping others, as shown when she placed an oath bound curse mark on herself as a promise to let Musica meet Emilia while negotiating to let them pass into Vollachia to save Subaru. She was even willing to read a Book of the Dead, despite knowing the risks involved, in order to understand her opponent's possible goals, as well as use a Witch Factor in spite of the risks.
Originally, Petra was a rather self-centered young girl. Having known that she was cute, she used it like a weapon to get what she wanted, whether that be from her parents, her friends, or other villagers. She also seemed rather harsh of other people because of this. However, after she was saved during the Wolgarm Incident by Subaru and seeing what became of him because of her actions, she felt tremendous guilt over this, leading her to confront and apologize to her parents for her arrogance, and she mellowed out. She also begins to admire kind people and strived to be kind herself, no longer wanting to take the kindness of others for granted.
Following the incident in the Sanctuary, Petra has become somewhat bolder, and she speaks her mind more often, especially when it comes to the safety of her friends and, in particular, Subaru, who often worries her with his constant recklessness of turning head-first into danger. That said, she has shown to be quite harsh with those that she cannot stand. Because of the actions that Roswaal took that nearly led to the death of not only everyone in the Emilia Camp but also the villagers of both the Sanctuary and Arlam Village, she has shown to be very critical and unforgiving toward him, often using blunt and cruel statements when talking with him or even wringing out dirty rags in his drinks. Of course, she doesn’t go too far with her resentment, and she is even willing to work with him at times if it means victory, but alongside Otto Suwen, she refuses to trust him, and she makes sure that she stays an anchor in the camp in the case that Roswaal does something suspicious again.
Because of everything he had done for her, saving her, forgiving her, and showing her the error of her original attitude, Petra has come to harbor a deep crush on Subaru. Because of this, Petra changed her wish of wanting to be a seamstress at the Royal Capital to being a good wife, and in an effort to place herself in a position from which she could provide her help to Subaru, when Roswaal Manor was putting up a notice for new servants, Petra went out of her way to ask the other villagers to turn down the offer so that she could become one herself. It is for the goal of assisting Subaru and remaining by his side that she is now learning maid duties, politics, and magic, and though she has times in which she feels like she is powerless compared to the other members of the camp, she is willing to trust those people to help and keep an eye on Subaru in her place.
Petra is often shown to be anxious over Subaru and his reckless actions as well, pouting when he actively decided leave for the Pleiades Watchtower, which even the Sword Saint was unable to reach and was in one of the most dangerous locations in the world, and even felt frustrated with his decision to accept Spica in spite of her past. However, she looks up to him for being willing to take such risks, and she has taken after him somewhat in taking similar risks. However, after reading Subaru's Book of the Dead, despite becoming incredibly upset after learning his secret, her boldness, confidence, and willingness to stay by his side and help him was greatly amplified, to the point that she was willing to give up something precious of hers to Clind in order to use his Authority to gather everyone to help save him, as well as to take on his Witch Factor and proclaim herself a Witch, despite the negative connotations of Witches around the world, in order to both help and be like Subaru, who she recognized as essentially being a Warlock by bearing his own Authority. Also, because she read his book, she started to understand Subaru significantly better, and she could feel herself being influenced by him, began thinking in a similar manner to him, speaking with his loan words, and when she is around Emilia and Rem, the influence is even stronger thanks to Subaru's immense passion for desperation for them, leading her to speak to them in a somewhat similar fashion to Subaru.
Petra considers herself to be quite mentally strong as well, as despite knowing that his eyes were on Emilia and Rem, who practically shone so bright that they were all he could see, she did not give up her love for him and intended to make herself stand out just as much to get his attention. On top of being intelligent and headstrong, the love she feels for Subaru also allows her to maintain her sense of self and resist the temptations brought about by a Witch Factor, which Petra described as being highly attractive.
Petra is a young girl who formerly lived in Arlam Village, a small rural village located in the lands of the noble Margrave Roswaal L. Mathers. She had aspired to move to the Royal Capital and become a tailor when she grew up. However, her life changed forever when the teenage boy Natsuki Subaru, who was working at Roswaal Manor, began to visit the village.
When he visited the village, Subaru was playing with Petra and her friends. Shortly after meeting Subaru, the children of Arlam including Petra were kidnapped by a group of witchbeasts commanded by Meili Portroute. In order to save them, Subaru ventured into the forests surrounding the village. Thanks to the efforts of Subaru and his allies, the children were saved and the witchbeasts have been largely wiped out by Roswaal L. Mathers.
After the witchbeast incident, she went to meet Subaru, who had saved her life during the incident. However, after seeing him heavily injured, she ran away to apologize to her parents. After Subaru woke up and visited the village, despite having run away from him out of fear of him hating her, when he found her, she apologized to him. After he forgave her and displayed his kindness, she developed a crush that would only grow in time. After about a month or two, Petra decided to give up her dream of becoming a tailor, instead choosing to look for work in Margrave Roswaal's mansion, where she could be closer to Subaru. Despite her young age, Petra managed to get a job as a maid in the mansion and soon found a mentor in Frederica Baumann, a fellow maid who treated Petra like her little sister.
Occurring simultaneously with the Battle for Priestella, Petra took part in the meeting with the western nobles alongside Roswaal, Annerose Miload, Frederica, and Clind. After a short confrontation with the renowned chef, Dias Fatsbalm, she witnessed as Roswaal attempted to convince the other nobles into backing Emilia of their own accord. Shortly after the meeting began, Roswaal had Petra speak on his behalf regarding Emilia, as if he were to do so, it may sound insincere or manipulative. She did as she was asked and gave her opinion and facts on Emilia, and she successfully managed to convince the other nobles to back her. Later, after learning some dishes from Dias, they returned to Roswaal Manor.
Following the successful Pleiades Watchtower Expedition, the expedition team returned to Roswaal Manor, carrying the news of Subaru and Rem’s disappearance. Following the revelation, Anastasia Hoshin and Julius Juukulius decided to enter Vollachia through Kararagi, and Roswaal decided to have Clind use his Authority to take everyone else where they needed to be. Leaving Meili in the Royal Capital with Annerose, the rest of the camp arrived in Picoutatte. After settling an issue between Otto and Diadora Regundra and making a deal with the Suwen Company, the group decided to pass through the Everlasting Darkness with the assistance of the molepeople.
As they passed through the area, however, they were forced to speak with the representative of the molepeople, Musica, who expressed concerns on behalf of his people about the emergence of a second Demi-Human War because of Emilia’s partaking in the Royal Selection. Since Emilia was disguised as a bodyguard while wearing her recognition obstruction robe and Petra was acting like a noble lady being escorted into another country on the camp’s behalf, Musica and Petra entered discussions, where she deduced his true intentions to sacrifice their race in order to bring down Emilia. Musica agreed to back off from the molepeople's preexisting plan to meet and discuss things with Emilia when their business in the Empire was concluded, willingly bearing an oath bound curse mark in the process to show her intentions were genuine. Afterward, they were brought into Vollachia.
Abilities
Authority of Melancholy (憂鬱の権能, Yū'utsu no Ken'nō): Petra is a user of the Authority of Melancholy and its corresponding Witch Factor. Clind, the other user of Melancholy and the person who assumed the responsibility of managing it, bestowed to Petra a black box containing the Witch Factor from which she has employed the Authority. Although she is incompatible with Melancholy, Petra has yet not succumbed to the Factor's mental corruption, and is limited in making use of its full power unless it is in exchange for a price.
Compression (圧縮, Asshuku): Using this Authority, Petra possesses the power to compress space and time. She primarily wields Compression as a form of teleportation by compressing the distance that would be required to travel from one point to another, or to compress intangible things such as the time of thought and discussion processes or the sensations of agony within people in order to support her allies. As any individual besides Hector is incompatible with Melancholy due to its nature,[1] Petra is required to bypass Od Lagna to wield Compression. In order to do this, she must take from people something with the possibility to influence the world as compensation to use the Authority, whether that is the existence of a spell that could open up many futures or something else with a similar influence.[2] Though the totality of the compensation that the Witch Factor's custodian, Clind, has exchanged to wield Melancholy is unknown, he has been provided compensation by Roswaal L. Mathers, who gave up "four magics" to allow him to use his power,[3] while Petra has forfeit something as of yet unknown. When she used the Authority, every person living in the Royal Capital provided various forms of compensation, such as never being able to imbibe, play with children, step on another person's shadow, and so on. Once the compensation has been provided, an incompatible user of the Witch Factor can unrestrainedly exercise Compression until it is used up.
Instant Teleportation: With this utilization of Compression, Petra can seemingly instantaneously transport herself and other people alongside her if necessary in the blink of an eye from a place she started at to another place of her choosing by compressing the time and distance that would be required to travel from one point to another. In Clind's case, it can be employed so long as it is within the Kingdom of Lugunica,[4] while in contrast, Petra was not forced to abide by the same limitation, being able to transport people to the Agzadd Canyon in Kararagi. However, using this form of Compression becomes significantly more difficult on wary and resistant opponents, and it is considered a herculean task to perform it on foes such as a Sin Archbishop or the Divine Dragon. To use this manner of Compression effectively, either the target must give their consent, or the opponent must be caught off guard.[5]
Process Compression: Petra can compress the time that processes last for, such as through compressing the thought processes of people, allowing them to determine the best possible course of action, or by compressing the time it takes to hold a discussion, giving her allies the chance to instantaneously share their thoughts among themselves.[6] From the perspective of someone whose thoughts have been compressed, it appears as if they instantly reach a judgement and they are left in the dark as to why they attained said judgement.[7]
Sensation Compression: Petra has the capacity to compress sensations that people experience by means of compressing the time it takes to experience them. Currently, she has only used this to compress the time it took to experience the drawn-out feeling of the sensation of pain within herself and her allies incited by Roy Alphard's Eclipsing Binary ability having casted memories of agony onto them.
Magic (魔法, Mahō): Petra has a yang affinity and can thus use yang magic, which she has used for offensive purposes in the form of Jiwald and support purposes to boost one’s physical resilience. Emilia tried to tutor her in magic, but due to her teaching methods relying on instinct, she now receives lectures from Ram.
Jiwald (ジワルド): Using yang magic, Petra is able to conjure and manipulate visible light into beams of scorching heat that attack whatever stands in its way. Due to her inexperience in magic, her version of Jiwald is underwhelming, producing enough heat to leave small burns on the skin or ignite fire magic stones.
An oath bound curse mark carved onto Petra’s chest
Following a confrontation with Musica and the mole humans in Stand by me Pleiades, Petra upheld her oath and had a curse mark carved onto herself. According to her oath, if she is to ever break her promise and not allow them to meet Emilia, she shall be engulfed in a purifying flame, scorching her body and tainting her soul, never allowing it to return to Od Lagna.[8] Petra's curse mark appears as a light circle with a carving of the crest of House Mathers displayed in the circle's center.
Self-Defense: Frederica gave Petra lessons in physical combat in order for her to learn how to defend herself.
Trivia
According to the author, Petra's birthday was on the 14th of February, which also happens to be Valentine's Day.
She was able to see who Subaru truly was when he was wearing one of Roswaal's anti-recognition cloaks.
On February 14, 2018, responding to a question asking which arc that Petra would “shine the brightest” in, the author concluded it would likely be Arc 8.[9]
As the original plan for Arc 7 changed and it was split into two separate arcs, it can be assumed that this statement about Arc 8 now applies to Arc 9.
Petra once wished to become a tailor. She displayed quite remarkable sewing skills, which she learned from her mother.
Petra's favorite color is red.
Petra played hide and seek in Roswaal Manor before becoming a maid, which allowed her to remember all of the rooms there.
In order to become a maid and get close to Subaru, Petra pleaded with and convinced the other village girls to not apply for the open maid position at Roswaal Manor.[10]
Petra has been ranked among the five weakest characters in Re:Zero.[11]
According to the author on a talk show held on April 6, 2025, Petra was not originally written to be the first person to learn of Return by Death.
References
↑“No. Refutation. I am not compatible with the Witch Factor of Melancholy. Consequently, I necessitate compensation in order to draw out the Authority of Melancholy. Inadequate. By nature, those compatible with a Witch Factor do not require compensation in order to exercise the Authority. It is the right to rewrite the world, as recognized by Od Lagna. Official.”Re:Zero Light Novel Volume 41, Chapter 5, Section 3.
↑“The potential influences that may be brought upon the world, upon Od Lagna, those serve as the price. That is the condition to utilize the Authority of the Witch Factor of Melancholy, in my possession. ――Confession.”Re:Zero Light Novel Volume 41, Chapter 5, Section 2.
↑“Now I understand the circumstances. As well as the reason why you want to borrow Clind’s power, Uncle. …However, he can only use it to reduce the distance between places within the Kingdom of Lugunica.”Re:Zero Tanpenshuu Volume 8, Stand by me Pleiades, Section 2.
↑If the opponent was cautious of Compression, then the difficulty of applying the Authority’s effects would rapidly increase. Not to mention, against such foes as the Divine Dragon and a Sin Archbishop, even just taking them away was a herculean undertaking. Unless it was used on a person who consented to its effects, or a person who was caught off guard, the possible applications of Compression were extremely narrow; such was its weakness.Arc 9, Chapter 41, Section 5.
↑As she responded so, having Compressed all the thought processes of her allies present there, in addition to all the processes of discussion in order to share that information amongst themselves, the Witch of Melancholy closed a single eye and winked.Arc 9, Chapter 45, Section 8.
↑As for why his ardent thoughts had terminated upon such a conclusion, not even Old Man Rom himself was aware. Only, with his thought process to arrive there condensed to the utmost extremity, he exclaimed.Arc 9, Chapter 45, Section 4.
↑“Should I renounce this oath, my soul shall be tainted and my flesh enveloped and burned away by purifying flame. And my soul shall fall into the void, never to return to Od Lagna again.”Re:Zero Light Novel Volume 15, Closing Chapter, Section 5.
↑“…Actually, about the recruitment, Petra pleaded so much with the other village girls that they decided against applying for the job.”Frederica and Petra's Maid-san Days, Section 3.
