Zen

Summary
Zen (ゼン) Rio's father, he passed away shortly after Rio's birth. He was an adventurer and a former royal guard of Karasuki Kingdom.

Personality
Yuba described Zen as kind, serious, hardworking and taciturn, something that sometimes caused misunderstanding around him that always got resolved quickly due to his honesty, something that made the people surrounding him to look up at him.

History
Five or six years before Rio's birth, the Karasuki kingdom had already been at war with the Rokuren kingdom for a long time, something that was making the life in Zen's village and the other villages through the kingdom really hard, Zen then decided to leave his village in order to reduce the number of mouths to feed in his house.

After leaving his village Zen joined the kingdom's army, once there thanks to the talent for the spirit arts and military arts that Gouki said that he had, Zen distinguished himself quickly, it didn't take long for him to be known as a hero of war in the whole kingdom and the king decided to give Zen the samurai title.

The tradition says that those named as samurai must have a duel after the ceremony with one of their senior, the chosen in Zen's case was Gouki, that at that time was already famous as the strongest inside the Karasuki kingdom, in the end Zen lost against Gouki by a thin margin, but Gouki impressed with Zen's skills began to strongly recommend him as a royal guard, then he would begin to work as Ayame's bodyguards with Gouki and Kayoko.

Ayame would feel attracted to Zen quickly because for her he was the embodiment of everything she always wished for, the world outside the castle, she would teach to Zen with Gouki and Kayoko the manners and etiquette necessary for a royal guard, later by Ayame's insistence and without paying mind to Zen's reluctance they would visit in secret Zen's village several times.

Months later the Rokuren kingdom would propose a ceasefire to the Karasuki kingdom and would send its prince as an ambassador, the night that everyone was celebrating the stopping of the war, that prince would order Ayame's kidnapping, Zen would detain the kidnapper but this would suicide just after, the prince from the Rokuren kingdom would make his vassal's death as a personal attack against him and would add Zen's execution and a marriage with Ayame as conditions for the ceasefire.

The king would pretend to agree to it but at the same time would order Zen to run away from the country with Ayame, while the king earned then time would make preparations for winning the war and would succeed, but at the cost of Zen and Ayame losing their place in the Yagumo region with a bounty in their heads for desertion and kidnapping of a royalty.

After arriving to the Strahl region Zen and Ayame would begin to work as adventurers while living traveling from place to place, after Ayame got pregnant of Rio they settled in Bertram's capital where they bought a cheap house in a district relatively good outside the castle walls, while they were adapting to the city Lucius would approach them pretending to be a good friend and when Rio was still a newborn he would kill Zen while making it look as he messing in the job, Zen earned enough money for Ayame to not need to work for paying for hers and Rio's living after his death, but five years later Lucius would finally reveal his true colors and after raping and killing Ayame on front of Rio he would steal everything from them and abandon Rio in the slums.

Relationship

 * Karasuki Ayame : Zen's protegee and later wife.
 * Rio : Zen is Rio's father
 * Yuba : Yuba is Zen's mother
 * Saga Gouki : Gouki was once Zen's friend and coworker before Zen fled the country.
 * Saga Kayoko : Saga Kayoko was once Zen's best friend and coworker before Zen's departure from the Karasuki Kingdom.
 * Dola : His former rival.
 * Ume : His former suitor.
 * Lucius Orgueille : Lucius was one of Zen's adventurer friends but Lucius was only pretending to be a friend before murdering Zen out of pure entertainment.

Abilities

 * Spirit Arts.
 * Self-Taught Swordcraft.
 * Military Arts.