Gustave Huguenot

Summary
Current head of Hugenot family, in his forties, total number of wifes unknown, total number of childen unknown, at least Stead, Stead's little brother and Latifa, his objective is to be the noble with more influence in the Bertram kingdom, he was the one who pressured the royal academy to falsify what happened to Flora as Rio trying to kill her in order to protect his influence in the kingdom, he sent Latifa to kill Rio,by Latifa's words her assassination targets were near the two digits already.

Later he would have to run away from Bertam's capital falsely acused of being a rebel, I'm personally happy of knowing this guy learnt how it feels being framed and having to run away for your life, he made Flora the leader in name only of the nobles that want to recover Bertram from the Arbor family in order to recover their former positons in the kingdom, while he became the leader on fact, his current objective is to have Hiroaki and Flora as a puppet king and queen with him making all the decisions the same way Helmut wanted to do with Cristina's and Flora's father.

He may not want the throne for himself but he still wants every tiny bit of authority and power he can grasp to make the country go in the direction that benefits him the most, when Cristina said in volume 11 that this guy's was the reasonable level of ambition I really wanted to go there and ask her "Reasonable? You sure?", when he met Cristina in volume 13 his first thought was to lament that she isn't as easy of use as Flora, but he still was decided to use her as much as he can and to lead Cristina's decisions with the help of other nobles in the direction he wishes as much as he can, he was completely decided to use Celia to gain Rio's group for their side one way or another until Cristina warned him that if he recruits them forcefully Rio would become their enemy.

The next day after seeing that Rio has a very good relationship with Lizelotte and that doing something to Rio may end wtih Lizelotte retiring her support to Restoration (support that at least for Hugenot is as important or even more as Galarc kingdom's support), displease Galarc's King, endangering their agreement of support and because of how fearsome is Rio himself, that isn't only strong but is very well connected too and can gather a group of demon sword users aroung him, then he begins to wonder if Cristina's warning was she looking at the future, but he still is completely decided in his head to make Rio connected to Restoration one way or another.

Personality
Gustave Huguenot is a typical noble, on the surface he looked like humble, affable, and benevelent but under the surface he represents the very problem Beltrum has to suffer. He craved for power and has no problem accusing an innocent orphan for a grave crime, send a ten years assassin after this orphan only to maintain his power in the kingdom. He sees mainly others and even his son like a mere tool (quite a disapointing tool through) or princess Flora who he finds more manipulable than her sister. He prefers to rule in the shadows as contrary to Helmut, he won't cross the borderline with a coup.

He is quite manipulative and scheming like with Hiroaki, answering his every wish while excluding him from combat experience (only using him as a symbol and does not want him to become independant).

LN Route
Gustave is first seen after Rio's torture by Charles's hand, he is in the audience room handling Flora's kidnapping aftermaths. He took great pleasure to put the blame on Helmut for failing to protect the princess with marquis Rodan's help. The king took out Helmut's right to nominate people in the royal guard, placing Alfred as the deputy commander, and also demoting Charles from royal guard commander. Gustave did not oppose Rio to be integrated to the royal school to monitor him.

After the disaster of the outdoor drill, his son Stewart explained him what happened there. Gustave listenned quietly but he tells his son all his disapointenement about him. He coldly said he will settle this matter but there will be no next time for Stewart : if he would fail his family again, Gustave will not hesitate to throw his son to the lions. He went to the royal school to see Garcia Fontaine, he stated the Huguenot family is needed to maintain the balance of power in the Beltrum kingdom when the Arbor family was slowly reagaining influence. Without baiting an eye he did not hesitate to put charges on Rio for attempting murder knowing very well who the true culprit is. He exposed the matter to the king who agreed to put the blame on the orphan. He is quite afraid that someday Rio would return and claim his innocence so he send a young beastgirl to track him down.

After Rio's escape there are three groups in Beltrum who confront each other in the royal court, first is the royalists loyal to the royal family, second is the Arbor 's faction who wants to be more energetic in foreign politics (make war to the Proxia empire for example), and lastly the Huguenot's faction who wants to maintain the statu-quo in the kingdom. Unfortunately the Arbor have a secret agreement with the Proxia empire, in exchange for power in his kingdom Helmut promised to freeze the diplomatic relationship with the Galarc kingdom. Nidoll create problems in the frontier and Beltrum lost several key cities, Helmut took advantage of this to denounce the weakness of the king and Huguenot's politics. Before beeing considered a treator and under the king's order, Gustave took Flora with a summoning stone and took refuge in Rodan. Soon after, king Philipp had to name Helmut head of the new governement.

Relationships

 * Stewart Huguenot
 * Steward is Gustave's firstborn son. However, due to his incompetence and rash behavior, Gustave despises him and has non-verbally made it clear that he would never let him succeed the Huguenot House after the camp training incident. As a part of Restoration, his son's actions against Haruto Amakawa further enraged him and he disinherited him from succession officially, guaranteeing that Stewart's younger brother would be the next Duke Huguenot.
 * Latifa/Suzune Amakawa
 * Latifa is Gustave's bastard daughter born from a werefox slave that was captured. Under immense stress and torture, the child was treated as a tool to assassinate his enemies. He sent her to kill Rio but has lost contact with her after this assignment.
 * Unbeknownst to Duke Huguenot, Latifa returned as Suzune Amakawa, Haruto Amakawa's sister. As he has been trying to strengthen his relationship with the honorary knight, he offer to introduce his sons to her for marriage, ignorant that its his daughter.
 * Rio/Haruto Amakawa
 * Gustave did not personally have any interactions with the orphan Rio, however Stewart's actions in the camp training incident necessitated that he frame the boy for regicide in order to protect himself. To further ensure he never came forward to clear his name, he sent his assassin, Latifa, to eliminate him.
 * Years later, Haruto would save the Duke, Lieselotte, Princess Flora and other nobles of the Beltrum rebels. At this point, Huguenot made it his mission to recruit the powerful nomad into the new Restoration organization. After gaining honorary knighthood in Galarc and saving Princess Christina in Beltrum, Haruto Amakawa was even more of an enticing target. Gustave has repeatedly reached out to Amakawa but to little avail as the Black Knight has kept a formal but distant relationship with him. After the rescue of both Princesses Christina and Flora together, he has pushed for his daughter to be married to Haruto as a way to reward him and tie him to Restoration.
 * Huguenot has still not figured out that Haruto is Rio. Despite this, he recognizes the danger Haruto could present to Restoration in the form of military and diplomatic power. Haruto has several fighters equal or superior to the King's Sword and the ear of the King and Hero of Galarc as well as the financial support critical to Restoration in Lieselotte Cretia.
 * Christina Beltrum
 * Gustave has a respectful and formal relationship with the first princess. While he respects that she is intelligent and independent, he still moves politically to better his prospects without directly clashing with her. He relishes political victories over her just as much as he hates losses, as in the case of Hiroaki's engagement to Flora.
 * Gustave and Christina have been at odds over the recruitment of Haruto Amakawa into Restoration. He doesn't understand her hesitation, since he is unaware of his actual relationship to him.
 * Flora Beltrum
 * Gustave publicly respects the second princess of Beltrum, but in reality sees her as a useful tool for himself. He used her as a political marriage tool to the Hero Hiroaki Sakata, in order to tie him to Restoration. His plan was to install them as king and queen of Beltrum in the future and control the crown from behind the throne.
 * Roanna Fontaine
 * Gustave trusts Roana to serve as a loyal attendant to Hiroaki, knowing she is best at handling his temperament.
 * George Rodan
 * The Marquis of Rodania is a loyal member of Duke Huguenot's faction and has offered his territory as the headquarters of the Restoration movement.
 * Liselotte Cretia
 * Duke Huguenot greatly respects the political and economic power of Duke Cretia's industrious daughter. Her economic power alone was worth Gustave's personal entreaties to curry favor for support of Restoration.
 * Since the introduction of Haruto Amakawa into Galarc's politics, both Gustave and Lieselotte have sought to recruit Haruto into their ranks. While Lieselotte has not succeeded, she has a more favorable position thanks to her approach and his son's poor judgement in assaulting the nomad.
 * François Galarc
 * Duke Huguenot shares a respectful relationship with the King of Galarc. He asked for and received the political support and endorsement of Galarc for the Restoration movement. Duke Huguenot is trying to find a way to recruit or increase favor with Haruto Amakawa before Francois' moves make it look like a conflict.
 * Sakata Hiroaki
 * Duke Huguenot sees the newly summoned hero as a political tool to support Restoration's legitimacy to retake the country from the House of Arbor. As such, he sees no need for Hiroaki to have actual combat experience or to fight on the battlefield.
 * Gustave intends to marry Hiroaki to Flora and install him as a puppet king for himself to rule.
 * Despite the conflict between Hiroaki and Haruto, Duke Huguenot does not seem to want to let either leave his sphere of influence.
 * Daughter
 * Gustave has a 14 year old daughter that is not engaged. He has proposed making her Haruto Amakawa's fiancee as a way to reward him and tie him to Restoration.


 * Second son
 * Gustave has at least one more son born after Stewart. While not much is known about him, based on what is known about Stewart, it is likely that he is smarter and more composed than his older brother as many expected him to succeed his father rather than his older brother. Huguenot made it official after Stewart assaulted Haruto in Amande.

Abilities
Gustave Huguenot is considered a politically cunning man and a savvy noble. However, he has limits. He is not very good in parental rearing or discipline and so has suffered political setbacks as a result of his son's actions. Gustave is not above using royals as pawns despite the ranking divide between them.

Gustave has solid diplomatic relations with the Galarc Kingdom which means he is the face of Restoration's outreach to the kingdom for support.