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Arthur Leywin is the main protagonist of The Beginning After The End. In his previous life, he was a king named Grey before he was reincarnated into a new world, on the continent of Dicathen.
In his former world, he lived as someone who stood on the top of his country in terms of combat and authority, until he was assassinated one day. However after dying as King Grey, he reawoke as Arthur Leywin as if he wasn’t assassinated.
After being reincarnated into the Leywin Family, Grey decided that, unlike his previous life, he would live this life to the fullest. To be loved, and surrounded by the friends and family he was void of in his past life.
While he initially believes that he died due to poisoning, it is later revealed that the cause of his reincarnation was Agrona Vritra, who used a certain reincarnation method to extract Grey’s soul from his body. Nevertheless, Agrona failed to put in its chosen container due to Sylvie’s interference.
Arthur was the one meant to wield fate. For one to wield fate, one has to be able to understand all 3 lesser edicts of Aether; Spatium, Aevum, Vivum. However no one can understand all 3 edicts as a single person can only use 1 edict of Aether. However, Arthur isn't just one person, but is rather 3 'minds' in one person. His 3 minds beings himself, Sylvie and Regis. This allows him to understand all 3 edicts by having his 3 'minds' understand different edicts. Arthur represents Spatium, Sylvie represents Aevum, and Regis represents Vivum. Together they come together to understand Fate. The mouth of Fate stated the Arthur will always be, no matter what timeline or future, the one to wield fate and be the lance that bursts the cyst of the Universe, resetting it to its natural order.
Appearance
As King Grey, Arthur had pale, short blonde hair. He had a large build from extensive training and was seen wearing a pale, yellow robe or tunic with long white pants that end just before his calves, which were paired with brown sandals. During times of war, Grey is seen in a full-body armor suit.[10]
Born as Arthur Leywin, Arthur had short auburn brown hair and large bright azure eyes. He had a small round face and was generally dressed in solid-colored fabrics by his mother.[11] As he grew older, Arthur's hair started to grow longer, with short bangs sweeping across his forehead. At the age of eight, Arthur had grown taller and his hair had grown significantly, extending just past his ears, above his neck.[12] Once he had returned from Elenoir to Xyrus City in Sapin, Arthur had a hair cut, which left him with a short hair with long bangs that sweep across his forehead. He often wore solid-colored shorts that are matched with a button-up shirt. His shoes were typically brown and he opted to wear long socks, although this is only on the cover of the Tapas and kakaopage comics. In the comics themselves, he would often wear a white button-up shirt with a string necktie and grey shorts with brown suspenders. As for footwear, he would wear black dress shoes likely without socks.[13]
As an adventurer, Arthur wears a black turtleneck long sleeve, which are paired with black pants and boots. He wears a loose, pale, argyle shirt beneath a hooded, navy blue jacket with grey markings across the sleeves. His face is covered with a white, full-face mask with a blue half note printed alongside his left eye hole. Arthur wears black, spiked aurochs skinned, fingerless gloves with three green, single-use healing spell gems embedded on the knuckles. Along with his gloves, he also wears a silver ring on his ring finger, which matches with his mother's red jeweled ring. He also carries a dark olive hiker's backpack, with a green sleeping bag rolled up beneath it and his two swords strapped on both sides of his waist.[14]
Arthur Leywin, as a teenager, was of above-average height, taller than many of the adults around him, with auburn hair and azure eyes. He has a well-built body due to his continuous training.
Using Realmheart, his eyes turn from their normal azure color to a lavender color, his hair, which turns from auburn to white, has orange tips and grows beyond his neck. Golden runes are also seen to spread throughout his whole body.
After several battles against various enemies, his body was covered in scars; but the ones on his neck and left hand stood most prominently, which came from his fight against Jagrette.
At the start of Volume 8, however, Arthur has changed physically. He now looks to be in his early 20s and described his traces as sharper, while his skin is now a cream-white tone with no scars and calluses at all and his once auburn hair is wheat-colored. His eyes are now golden tinged with some blue, and although his body is still toned, he is a bit thinner now. According to Kathyln Glayder, he can also be considered more handsome than before.[15] He also has runes running down his back that roughly describe his aetheric spells as a rare subtype of pure mana and a black rune running down the inside of his right forearm, which is his Extra-Dimensional Storage Rune. His Godrunes are camouflaged among those pseudo runes, which become only visible when Arthur imbues Aether into them.
Personality
King Grey's reincarnation into the new world as Arthur allowed his personality and memories to be carried over, influencing how his new personality developed. This led to him having an astoundingly mature personality all throughout his early life and adolescence, often thinking of the big picture and accurately understanding the events and the impact of such events that are occurring around him. Although his logical maturity was very high due to him having lived more than 35 years already, because of how he lived his previous life with an emotional "shell" around his mind, which prevented him from connecting to anyone closely, his emotional maturity does leave a lot to be desired, as he is seen to struggle constantly when dealing with the emotions his newfound loved ones give him. This can lead to him sometimes reacting excessively and explosively when they are threatened or at risk.
After the war was lost and Sylvie sacrificed her physical body to save him from dying, because of his overuse of the third phase of his beast will, he became cold and detached again, just like in his past life, almost losing his sanity and empathy in the process. Moreover, his hatred for the Alacryans increased tremendously after Sylvie’s death but was smothered by Regis, who prevented him from falling into despair and insanity. Caera was another reason that helped him to retain his empathy, as his encounter with her, an Alacryan noble who took pity on him when he was at his weakest, had a big impact on him. Moreover, as she later also befriended him and spent a year together with him in Alacrya, his hatred towards the Alacryans slowly faded. In fact, he let go of his hatred toward the Alacryans and instead pinned the blame for everything that happened on Agrona Vritra and Kezess Indrath because of the atrocities both parties committed.
After returning to Dicathen, he returns to his normal self, and the armor of coldness and detachment in his Grey persona crumbles. Thanks to Sylvie's sacrifice, he ultimately becomes more clear-headed so that he does not lose anyone he loves anymore, and after spending a year in Alacrya, his goal shifts from protecting only his friends and loved ones to protecting and saving the world so that no one will suffer from the Asura-Vritra conflict anymore.
When Arthur activates his king gambit rune, He becomes coldly logical removing all of the emotions that makes his solutions effective.
Background
In his previous life, Arthur lived by the name Grey. He lived on a dystopian, futuristic Earth, as an orphan in an orphanage alongside his childhood friends Nico Sever and Cecilia. Due to the somewhat impoverished nature of the orphanage he lived in, Grey and Nico resorted to criminal activities (predominantly burglary of the rich) to assist their orphanage’s situation.He lived like this until one day he met a young Cecilia who had an attack and her ki got out of control, Gray saved her and from that day a friendship began that involved Nico, Gray and Cecilia, everything was at peace until One day Cecilia was almost kidnapped by a guy who referred to her as the "legacy", although Gray was once again able to save her and Nico when he returned to the orphanage and found the Headmaster dead.
Following the death of his motherly figure, who was the Headmaster of the orphanage, Grey's mind was consumed by revenge and in a bid to gain more power enrolled in cadet school, despite it’s risks, to become strong enough to take revenge.Grey enlisted in a military academy for this and Nico and Cecilia followed him even though he tried to stop them, there the group's relationship started well but increasingly became more separated since Grey no longer met with them as much (he also gave up his personal feelings for Cecilia for the benefit of his friend Nico, who had the same feelings) because of the training, there he met a woman named Vera who became his teacher and a second mother figure for him.
Increasingly more distant with Cecilia and Nico, Gray continued with his training to be king, the climax came when Cecilla was kidnapped by the organization that was looking for her and Nico and Grey went out to look for her. Although Nico wanted to continue searching, Grey considered that if it was really the government that kidnapped her, there was nothing that could be done, which caused a big fight between them and they separated.
Months passed and a contest began to elect the new king, although Grey continued trying to contacting Nico and trying to make peace could not be achieved. At the competition he saw Cecilia and, relieved, he thought that Nico was just rambling. As the competition progresses, Cecilia and Grey advance and reach the final.
Before the final, Nico escapes and explains where he was during the months he was missing. He explains that he was held captive and that they were using Cecilia. He also explains that Vera belongs to that organization and what their objective was. in addition he explained that Vera alone chose him only because he was a naive orphan and that he only used him for his plans and he presents him with some evidence. Added to that, he explains that he has a plan to rescue Cecilia.
A dismayed Grey cannot believe any of this, believing that Nico is rambling and that his evidence was not very convincing before heading to the combat stadium for his final fight against Cecilia. Unfortunately for Grey, it turned out that everything Nico said was true and as a consequence everything ended in the death of Cecilia, who, seeking freedom and not being treated as a weapon, let Grey's sword kill her. Grey also saw Vera with the man she treated. of kidnapping Cecilia when they were children
All of this caused his friendship with Nico to break and caused an existential void in him. After that, he started a war that destroyed an entire country (although it is not known what role he played), presumably Vera's and the one behind the legacy.
Throughout his later life as King Grey, he eschewed any and all long-term attachments; seeing them as weaknesses that others could exploit and in doing so hardened his heart and closed off his emotions.He lived like this until the moment of his death and when he thought everything was over he had been reincarnated as Arthur Leywin, at which point he decided to live a completely different life than the one he had lived in his previous world.
Quotes
- (To Elijah) “A king never betrays the people who trust him. And... I promised someone very important to become a better person and to cherish the people around me.”[16]
- (To Elijah) “I’m a quadra-elemental augmenter with two deviances: ice and lightning. I’m also a beast tamer.”[17]
- (To Windsom) "Meh, I prefer the mutual benefit over questionable acts of altruism anyhow."
- (To Lucas) “I thought of you as nothing more than a mere wasp I deemed unnecessary to kill. But even the holiest of saints would swat it down, without hesitation, if said wasp so much as dared to sting him.”[18]
- (To Lucas) “Downforce."
- (To Wren Kain IV) "Is this good enough, or would you like to study my family jewels as well?"
- (To Vanesy Glory) "There's an old saying that a wise man appears weak when he is strong and strong when he is weak."
- (To Agrona)"You are insane."
- (To Tess) “A promise to stay alive...so that we can have a beautiful relationship and a family that our entire country can come celebrate.”[19]
- (To Trodius Flamesworth) "Killing you here would be showing mercy. Instead, I'll let you stew in the consequences of your actions here by taking what you value most."
- (To Regis) “For being eaten and expelled from the giant beast's rectum, your master bestows upon you a five percent raise.”[20]
- (To The First Djinn Remnant) “You’re right. Ever since being thrown into this godforsaken dungeon, it felt like all I’ve had to do is face trials.” The edge of my mouth curled into a smirk as anger leaked through my voice. “At least, unlike the other monstrosities this place whipped up, you have the sentience to at least tell me some answers.”[21]
- (To The First Djinn Remnant) “Prove your worth, my ass.”[21]
- (To himself) “This was only the beginning of my journey now . With aether, I could rewrite reality itself, it was only a matter of learning how . Then these gods would see what I was really capable of.”[22]
- (To Petras) "We shed so much blood, sweat, and your tears together that I'm almost going to miss you."
- (To Elijah) "Like what? That I didn’t kill Cecilia? That I never meant to abandon the two of you? Would you even listen if I told you the truth? And what would it change, Nico? Certainly not the fact that you’ve killed thousands of innocents, that you took Tessia out of pure selfishness—" (interrupted)
- (To Cadell) "This is for Sylvia."
- (To Sylvia portrait) "You opened my eyes to a life I had yet to live. Saved me twice from a death come far too soon. Trusted me with a vision of the future you wouldn’t live to see. And most important of all, welcomed me into your family in name and act." [23]
Notes & Trivia
- Arthur's name was chosen after his great-grandfather, from the days when the Leywin house was far more powerful.[24]
- Arthur is ranked 2nd in the comic's character popularity poll, receiving over 3500 votes.[25]
- Arthurs lifespan is much longer than a humans.
- Sylvie doesn't give Arthur HER body. She gives up her body so that his can be rebuilt. Because her body contains so much more mana than his, the rebuilt body ends up being more powerful. Almost draconic. And I'm pretty sure I describe it as "draconic" not that he has the body of a dragon. Just that it is like an asura's body. Stronger, etc. So it is something unique to him, not specifically asuran or the body of a dragon but of that nature if we HAD to compare.
Gallery
References
- ↑ The Beginning After The End Webcomic: Season 2 – Episode 57
The Beginning After the End Novel: Volume 2 – Chapter 27 - ↑ The Beginning After the End Novel: Volume 8 – Chapter 300
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 The Beginning After the End Novel: Volume 7 – Chapter 252
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 The Beginning After the End Novel: Volume 8 – Chapter 268
- ↑ The Beginning After the End Novel: Volume 8 – Chapter 272
- ↑ The Beginning After the End Novel: Volume 1 – Chapter 8
- ↑ The Beginning After the End Novel: Volume 1 – Chapter 4
- ↑ The Beginning After the End Novel: Volume 2 – Chapter 27
- ↑ The Beginning After the End Novel: Volume 2 – Chapter 30
- ↑ The Beginning After The End Webcomic: Season 1 – Episode 11
- ↑ The Beginning After The End Webcomic: Season 1 – Episode 1
- ↑ The Beginning After The End Webcomic: Season 1 – Episode 26
- ↑ The Beginning After The End Webcomic: Season 2 – Episode 33
- ↑ The Beginning After The End Webcomic: Season 2 – Episode 48
- ↑ The Beginning After The End Novel- Chapter 450
- ↑ The Beginning After The End Webcomic: Season 3 – Episode 83
The Beginning After the End Novel: Volume 2 – Chapter 32 - ↑ The Beginning After the End Novel: Volume 2 – Chapter 33
- ↑ The Beginning After the End Novel: Volume 4 – Chapter 95
- ↑ The Beginning After the End Novel: Volume 7 – Chapter 212
- ↑ The Beginning After the End Novel: Volume 8 – Chapter 260
- ↑ 21.0 21.1 The Beginning After The End Novel: Volume 8- Chapter 273
- ↑ The Beginning After The End Novel: Volume 8- Chapter 325
- ↑ The Beginning After the End, Novel - Chapter 456 "Remembrance"
- ↑ The Beginning After the End Novel: Volume 1 - Chapter 2
- ↑ The Beginning After The End Webcomic: Season 3 – Episode 106