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Rowan Segmunt (ロウアン・セグムント) was a mercenary-for-hire from the Sacred Vollachia Empire and the father of First ranking Divine General Cecilus Segmunt. Initially debuting as a minor character during one of Subaru's failed loops in Arc 7, he later reappeared with both a supportive and antagonistic role in Arc 8.
A Stargazer tasked by the Observers to find a way to reach the Heavenly Sword, Rowan was responsible for numerous deaths, including those of his own children, until his son Cecilus Segmunt was born. Though abandoned by the Observers, he kept his goal of reaching for the Heavenly Sword, continuously refining his skill and turning himself into a mercenary and criminal in the process.
During the Great Disaster, Rowan committed suicide to become an undead in an effort to combat Iris and reach the Heavenly Sword in death. In the end, however, his soul was incinerated by Eugard Vollachia's Yang Sword, being completely reduced to cinders after a final duel with his son that ended in his failure.
Appearance[]
Rowan had blue eyes, navy-blue hair with white streaks, and was a rather rugged looking middle-aged man, with a bit of facial hair covering his face. He was a self-proclaimed rōnin and dressed like one, wearing a rather large kasa-style hat, a lilac kimono, a black cloak which was decorated with vertical stripes of gold colour on the outside and a darker lilac on the inside, as well as hot pink sandals. He had a katana at his waist, which had a black scabbard and a light-purple rayskin. Due to him being an alcoholic, he also stunk of booze.
As a zombie, Rowan possessed pale skin bereft of color, various cracks that run across his body, pitch-black sclera, and radiant golden irises. He also discarded his hat.
Personality[]
Rowan was shown to have been quite a drunkard, usually spending his time and money in different pubs, drinking copious amounts of alcohol. He could hold his alcohol surprisingly well, as he was able to easily cut down Gaoran Peitiet despite being drunk. As expected from a mercenary, Rowan sought money, and he is prepared to do nearly anything for an appropriate compensation. However, Rowan was willing to offer praise to his opponents in battle. He was also noted to be rather rough but straight to the point.
Rowan's dearest wish was to attain the Heavenly Sword, something he was obsessed with doing before, during, and after his time as a Stargazer. He lived a life full of bloodshed and slaughter with the hopes of attaining his long-cherished desire. Whether they were a stranger, a family member, or even himself, Rowan would unhesitatingly extinguish the life of anyone standing in his way if it had allowed him to proceed further on the path to the Heavenly Sword.
History[]
In the distant past, Rowan fervently desired to improve his skills with the sword to attain the Heavenly Sword. With his sword, he systematically slayed those who sought to improve their skills like him, formidable witchbeasts, the people in villages destroyed by witchbeasts, scourges who terrorized others, and saintly people that provided charity, producing few results. He then studied and learned techniques from sword schools, eventually going on to murder their heads and attempt to combine all their techniques together, but he abandoned this path too when it threatened the balance of his own skills. Striding on a trail of blood and failing to achieve the deep-rooted conviction he obsessed over, right when Rowan began to contemplate suicide, he was chosen to become a Stargazer and was bestowed with the commandment to reach the Heavenly Sword.
Rowan believed he may have been able to achieve his commandment by producing a being qualified to attain the Heavenly Sword, but he gave up on the path of fostering and growing hidden talent. He continued to butcher person after person in hopes of achieving his goal. However, once Rowan came to the conclusion that he could not reach it, he determined that his progeny should be the one to do so. Over the next several years, after much trial and error of raising eight children and murdering them when they were not talented enough,[1][2] Cecilus, a transcendental being with the potential to grasp the Heavenly Sword, was born. Rowan determined that his commandment was fulfilled with Cecilus's birth and was then freed from his role as a Stargazer. Because he had spent his prime years to create Cecilus, he felt the conviction to end his own life again when he lost sight of his goal once more. However, Cecilus clutched his father's finger, making his thoughts disappear. At that moment, Rowan realized that if a baby so small could climb the stairs of the Heavenly Sword, an old swordsman could also tip-toe across the stairs. Forgetting his sorrows, he began to chase the Heavenly Sword once again.
A couple of months following the Imperial Selection Ceremony and the failed uprising at the Gladiator Island Ginunhive, Rowan acted as Emperor Vincent Vollachia's bodyguard. At the time, High Count Gaoran Peixit orchestrated an attack on the Crystal Palace, using the absence of the First-Class Generals and Lupugana's weakened defences to his advantage–however, to no avail. With his forces being swiftly defeated by a retaliating force led by then-Third-Class General Zikr Osman, the High Count was then killed by Rowan, who deflected his halberd strike aimed at the emperor's chest, and diagonally slashed Gaoran, ending his life then and there.
At some point during Vincent's reign, Rowan attempted to convince Cecilus to murder Vincent in order for the Imperial Army to perpetually chase after him and hone his sword skills in a state of turbulent chaos on the border of life and death. Cecilus, however, refused this offer because it was something that only a villain would do, told Vincent of Rowan's plans, and endeavored to slay his own father on the emperor's behalf. Gravely injured from his son's attack, Rowan promised that when Cecilus reached the Heavenly Sword, he would come to kill the Blue Lightning. This proposal caused Cecilus to turn a blind eye to Rowan's survival, dropping him in a river to allow his escape. Following this incident, Rowan continued to hone his skills with the hope that, one day, he could cut down his son.
Abilities[]
Sword Skills: Rowan was very skilled with his katana, having been mentioned by the barista to be by far the strongest individual from the pub Subaru and Flop found him. Subaru also noted that Rowan's sword technique was similar to that of a martial art style known as "iai", a real life Japanese-specific martial art that involves quickly drawing one's blade to attack and then immediately resheathing it right after. After becoming an undead and fighting with Yorna Mishigure, his skill with the blade improved dramatically, leaving even his son impressed. It should be noted that his skill could be considered the peak of what an ordinary person can achieve without being what Rowan considers “transcendental”.
- Cloud Cutting (雲切, Kumokiri): Rowan could use a technique called Cloud Cutting, a powerful slash of the sword so lightning-fast that it leaves no sound behind and creates a force that can rise to the sky, literally allowing it to cleave clouds in two.[3] For people who lack uncommon courage, the sheer strength of the technique is enough to make them feel as if their own flesh has been cleaved.[4] Rowan created the technique himself, having spent his lifetime to devise it.[5] Although considered something of a parlor trick by other practitioners of the blade, it is still capable of slashing at aerial opponents.
Excellent Teaching Abilities: While Rowan's skill with the blade was top-class, he was also an extremely good tutor who was capable of producing beings with extreme skills with the blade.[6]
Equipment: Rowan wielded a katana called the Onibami (オニバミ, Onibami).
Trivia[]
- Rowan has his own named chapter in the web novel of Arc 8. In the light novel, it was adapted as an interlude.
References[]
- ↑ “If you had human emotions like that left in you, Dad, then you wouldn’t have killed five or six of your own children until one with talent, me, was born.” Re:Zero Light Novel Volume 36, Chapter 3, Section 6.
- ↑ Rowan had lost that gamble many times, and was only blessed with Cecilus after killing eight of his own children with his own hands. Re:Zero Light Novel Volume 36, Interlude 1, Section 2.
- ↑ In a flash of lightning that left even the sound behind, the force from that blade rose to the sky, and the thick clouds above the pair of them were cleaved in two right down the middle. Re:Zero Tanpenshuu Volume 7, Sword Identity, Section 4.
- ↑ A light flick of the wrist that emitted a flash of the sword, it was the technique called Cloud Cutting that Ceclius had shown in sport. But few could laugh at it as a street performance. In particular, those with uncommon courage such as Arakiya’s master, and Vincent. For those without it, it would be enough to give them a sensation like that off their own flesh being cleaved in two. Re:Zero Tanpenshuu Volume 7, Sword Identity, Section 8.
- ↑ That, was the divine miracle of empty sky that Rowan Segmunt had spent his lifetime devising―― for those who were transcendent monsters, it was comprehended as naught more than being dubbed a flashy performance. Re:Zero Light Novel Volume 36, Chapter 6, Section 3.
- ↑ "His attitude was not very pleasant, but he was too valuable to be executed merely on the grounds of disrespect. Although his own skill was first-class, his observations and teachings could create beings far above that level." The Land of the Wolves / Death unto the Weak, Mercy be None Zero Vincent, Section 3.
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