Azul Ashengrotto

Technical Information

Japanese: アズール・アーシェングロット
Romaji: Azūru Ashengurotto

Other Names:

• Octopunk / “Creepy Squid” / “Cephalo-punk” — Leona Kingscholar

• Roi de Fort / “Roi de l’Effort” — Rook Hunt

Biographical Information

Gender: Male
Age: 17
Birthday: February 24
Zodiac Sign: Pisces
Height: 176 cm (5’9”)
Eye Color: Sky Blue
Hair Color: Silver-Blue
Homeland: Coral Sea

Family

• Unnamed Mother

• Unnamed Father

• Unnamed Stepfather

• Unnamed Grandmother

Professional Status

School: Night Raven College
Dormitory: Octavinelle
School Year: Second Year
Class: 2-C
Student Number: 3
Occupation: Student
Dorm Leader: Octavinelle Dormitory
Workplace: Mostro Lounge Manager
Club: Board Game Club
Best Subject: Alchemy

Personal Information

Dominant Hand: Right
Favorite Food: Deep-fried chicken
Least Favorite Food: Nutritionally balanced food
Dislikes: Relying on luck
Hobby: Collecting coins
Talent: Mental arithmetic

Overview

Azul Ashengrotto is a second-year student at Night Raven College and the dorm leader of Octavinelle. He also manages the Mostro Lounge, a café and business establishment located within the Octavinelle dormitory.

Azul presents himself as a courteous, sophisticated, and helpful young man who is seemingly capable of granting almost any wish. However, his assistance almost always comes with a carefully calculated price. Through contracts and clever wording, Azul is able to turn another person’s desires into profitable opportunities for himself.

Highly intelligent, ambitious, and business-minded, Azul possesses an exceptional talent for negotiation. He carefully chooses his words to create contracts filled with technicalities and loopholes, allowing him to fulfill the literal wording of an agreement while ensuring that the outcome remains overwhelmingly advantageous to himself.

Despite his confident exterior, however, Azul’s ambition is deeply connected to the insecurities he developed during childhood.

Appearance

Azul has wavy, silver-blue hair that is parted toward the right side of his face. One particularly long lock falls along the left side of his face.

His eyes are a darker shade of sky blue than his hair. He commonly wears eyeliner with his formal and dormitory attire, using thin purple eyeliner with his dorm uniform and thicker black eyeliner with his ceremonial robes.

Azul usually wears rectangular, silver-framed glasses, although he removes them when wearing goggles, such as with his labwear or Beans Day outfits.

A small beauty mark rests beneath the left side of his lower lip.

His Octavinelle dormitory uniform consists of a black fedora decorated with a gray bow and purple seashell. He wears a white dress shirt beneath a gray coat and an unbuttoned black double-breasted suit. A cool-toned gray scarf bearing the Octavinelle emblem is wrapped around his neck.

He completes the outfit with white gloves, black slacks, purple socks, and black dress shoes. He also carries a black cane with a silver handle shaped like an octopus.

Unique Magic — “It’s a Deal”

Unique Magic: “It’s a Deal”
Japanese: イッツ・ア・ディール
Meaning: “Golden Contract”

Azul’s Unique Magic allows him to present another person with a magical golden contract.

Once the target agrees to the terms and signs the contract, Azul can confiscate one of their abilities. The ability may be magical or physical, ranging from a Unique Magic to an individual’s exceptional singing voice or swimming ability.

The conditions and consequences of each agreement are determined by the terms written within the contract.

For example, Azul may provide a student with something they desire in exchange for a condition such as placing within the top fifty students in their year on an examination. If the student fails to fulfill their obligation, they must suffer whatever consequence was established in the contract.

Azul can also utilize abilities that he has confiscated. This was demonstrated when he used Floyd’s Unique Magic against Jamil.

Direct Ability Extraction

Azul is capable of using his Unique Magic without a contract and directly extracting a person’s abilities.

However, doing so causes him to accumulate enormous amounts of blot at an extremely rapid rate. The process can also cause considerable pain to the victim.

Because of this, Azul developed the golden-contract system as a way of limiting his Unique Magic and reducing the strain it places on him. The contracts essentially act as a restriction that allows him to use his power without immediately overexerting himself or risking an Overblot.

Contract Weakness

The contracts created by Azul are also a potential weakness.

Physically destroying one of his contracts nullifies the agreement and causes the ability Azul confiscated through it to be returned to its original owner.

This makes the contracts a double-edged sword. They protect Azul from the dangerous consequences of using his Unique Magic directly, but anyone who understands how his magic functions can potentially exploit this weakness.

Former Ability — Blot Tentacles

In the manga, Azul has demonstrated the ability to manifest multiple octopus-like tentacles composed of blot.

These tentacles can seize a victim and forcibly extract their power. Once the tentacles reach the victim’s mouth, they can pull the targeted ability from them and transfer it to Azul.

Business and Mostro Lounge

Following the events of Episode 3, Azul changed the way he conducted business.

Rather than relying solely on magical contracts, he implemented a point-card system at the Mostro Lounge. Customers could purchase food and drinks to accumulate points, which could eventually be exchanged for a consultation with Azul.

During these consultations, Azul would offer his assistance and wish-granting services, effectively allowing him to continue his business practices without relying entirely on formal magical contracts.

This system reflects Azul’s deep fascination with business, money, and profitable exchanges.

Family

Azul comes from the far northern region of the Coral Sea.

His mother owns and operates a famous restaurant in their homeland. She originally established the restaurant as a small business before turning it into a successful establishment.

Azul has historically been embarrassed by his family’s restaurant and once went so far as to discourage Floyd and Jade from visiting it.

His stepfather is a lawyer whom his mother met while filing for divorce from her first husband. He taught Azul extensively about law, contracts, and the importance of carefully chosen wording.

Azul’s family is composed entirely of mages. His grandmother is particularly powerful and is known for using her magic to help people in their community.

His mother and grandmother taught him basic magic during childhood.

Azul is an only child, although he has expressed interest in having a younger sibling—particularly one who would be cute and potentially useful in helping with his business.

Despite Azul’s ambitious nature, his family is relatively relaxed about his activities. According to Azul, they are generally satisfied with whatever he chooses to do as long as he completes his homework.

Childhood

Azul began demonstrating magical ability when he was eight years old. Even at that age, he could use simple magic to pull objects toward himself.

As a child, Azul was chubby, introverted, and considerably less academically accomplished than he is now. His appearance and octopus-mer traits made him an easy target for bullying.

Unlike many other merfolk, Azul struggled with swimming because of his octopus physiology. His classmates mocked him for his sluggishness, his appearance, and his tendency to spray ink whenever he cried.

However, Azul eventually learned how to turn his physical traits into advantages.

His eight tentacles allowed him to work with multiple writing instruments simultaneously, making it possible for him to write grimoires and draw magical circles with incredible efficiency.

Azul attended the same elementary school as Floyd and Jade. Although the three knew one another for years, Floyd and Jade did not become close to him until middle school, when they discovered Azul studying and writing magical spells.

Azul became extremely ashamed of his childhood and went to considerable lengths to distance himself from that period of his life. He even attempted to locate photographs of himself from childhood and edit himself out of them.

He also entered a secret agreement with Jade and Floyd prohibiting them from discussing his childhood.

Discovery of Coin Collecting

Azul developed his fascination with collecting coins as a child.

One day, he discovered a coin near a sunken ship. He later learned that it was a rare commemorative coin from a distant kingdom.

Only one hundred of the coins had been minted, causing its value to increase dramatically among collectors—from approximately 100 madol to as much as 500,000 madol.

Azul became fascinated by the enormous difference between an object’s original value and the price someone might be willing to pay for it.

This experience sparked his lifelong interest in collecting coins.

By the present day, Azul has accumulated approximately 200 coins in his collection.

Development of His Unique Magic

After entering middle school, Azul began seriously dedicating himself to magical studies.

His hard work eventually paid off, allowing him to develop his Unique Magic, “It’s a Deal.”

He began using it to enter contracts with his classmates. Azul would grant their wishes in exchange for whatever ability, talent, or possession they valued most.

His contracts gradually became increasingly sophisticated, allowing him to build a reputation as someone capable of making seemingly impossible wishes come true.

Middle School

Azul attended middle school alongside Jade and Floyd.

During this period, the three eventually became friends and later formed a band together. Azul played the piano, Jade played the contrabass, and Floyd played the drums.

Even before entering Night Raven College, Azul had a strong interest in the surface world. He and Jade had already become familiar with many aspects of human society through the surface boarding camp they attended in preparation for their eventual lives at NRC.

Night Raven College

First Year

After enrolling at Night Raven College, Azul, Jade, and Floyd were all sorted into Octavinelle by the Dark Mirror.

During the school’s club fair, Azul encountered the Board Game Club booth run by Idia and Ortho Shroud. After being introduced to one of the club’s business-oriented games, Azul decided to join the club in order to further develop his business skills.

His experiences in the club also exposed him to the unpredictable nature of luck-based games.

When Idia introduced him to Magical Life, Azul became frustrated by his poor luck with dice. Rather than simply accepting his bad luck, he spent an entire week practicing his dice-rolling technique in an attempt to consistently obtain the numbers he wanted.

Azul also continued using his Unique Magic to make contracts with other students.

During exam season, Floyd and Jade would identify students struggling academically and direct them toward Azul. Azul would then offer assistance in exchange for contracts, often requiring students to place within the top fifty of their cohort.

Because of the sheer number of contracts he established, Azul’s activities significantly influenced exam rankings. Students who failed to fulfill their contracts could find themselves bound to work at the Mostro Lounge.

Eventually, Crowley agreed to allow Azul to establish the Mostro Lounge on campus. In exchange, the school would receive ten percent of the lounge’s profits.

Second Year

Azul became the dorm leader of Octavinelle during his second year, with Jade serving as his vice dorm leader.

Before the freshmen orientation ceremony, Azul entered into a contract with Vil Schoenheit.

Azul agreed to create a better toner for Vil in exchange for ten Shaftland flowers that Vil had grown.

To fulfill his end of the agreement, Azul created the toner using slime produced by Floyd in his eel form.

Main Story

Prologue

During the Night Raven College orientation ceremony, the unexpected appearance of Grim caused considerable chaos.

Azul volunteered to capture Grim and enlisted Riddle Rosehearts to assist him.

The two eventually cornered Grim, allowing Riddle to use his Unique Magic to stop Grim’s rampage.

Following the orientation ceremony, Azul, Jade, and Floyd returned to the Mostro Lounge, where Azul welcomed the new freshmen with a speech.

Trivia

• Azul is based on Ursula, the cecaelia sea witch from The Little Mermaid (1989).

• His first name, “Azul,” is the Spanish and Portuguese word for “blue.”

• “Ashen” in his surname evokes a pale gray color, while “grotto” refers to a cave. The name may reference Ariel’s secret grotto and/or Ursula’s lair.

• Azul collects coins and became interested in the hobby after discovering a rare commemorative coin as a child.

• Azul can use all eight of his tentacles in addition to his hands to write.

• Floyd describes Azul’s octopus merform as particularly squishy.

• According to Floyd, Azul is larger than both Floyd and Jade when in his merform.

• Ruggie once commented that Azul’s flying technique was so desperate that he could not bear to watch.

• Azul has an exceptionally keen sense of taste, likely influenced by growing up in his family’s restaurant.

• Azul’s octopus form was a major source of insecurity during his childhood.

• His extensive magical studies allowed him to turn abilities he once considered weaknesses into useful skills.

• Despite his obsession with money and contracts, Azul’s family remains relatively supportive of his ambitions.

• Azul possesses considerable knowledge of business, law, mathematics, magic, and negotiation.

• His greatest personal weakness is arguably his insecurity regarding his past and his fear of returning to the person he once was.

Signature Quote

“The song ends, the sun sets. Extend mercy upon these poor souls. Now, the contract is binding! It’s a Deal!”

Jade Leech

Technical Information

Japanese: ジェイド・リーチ
Romaji: Jeido Richi
Other Names:

• Monsieur Mastermind / Monsieur Prémédité — Rook

• Azul Henchman #1 — Leona

• Jeicamu — Yuna

Biographical Information

Gender: Male
Birthday: November 5
Zodiac Sign: Scorpio
Height: 190 cm
Eye Color: Gold (left), olive (right)
Hair Color: Turquoise with black tips
Homeland: Coral Sea

Family

• Floyd Leech — twin brother

• Georgina Leech — mother

• Unnamed father

• Unnamed grandmother

Professional Status

Dorm: Octavinelle
School Year: Second Year
Class: 2-E
Student Number: 13
Occupation: Student, Vice Dorm Leader
Club: Mountain Lovers’ Club
Best Subject: Potionology

Fun Facts

Dominant Hand: Right
Favorite Food: Octopus Carpaccio
Least Favorite Food: Conger Eel
Dislikes: Predictable and expected things
Hobby: Making terrariums
Talent: Serving tea

Overview

Jade Leech is a second-year student at Night Raven College, the vice dorm leader of Octavinelle, and Azul Ashengrotto’s trusted assistant. He is also the twin brother of Floyd Leech.

Although Jade generally presents himself as polite, refined, and composed, there is a calculating side to his personality that makes him difficult to read. He enjoys observing others and is particularly fond of situations that allow him to exercise his intelligence and manipulate circumstances to his advantage.

Appearance

Jade has turquoise hair with black tips, accompanied by a longer, dark gray strand that frames the left side of his face. His eyes display heterochromia iridum: his left eye is golden-yellow, while his right eye is olive green.

He wears a blue earring on his left ear made from sturgeon scales, which are considered lucky charms in the Coral Sea. His twin brother, Floyd, wears a matching earring on his right ear.

Jade’s Octavinelle uniform consists of a black fedora decorated with a gray bow and a purple seashell. Beneath it, he wears a purple dress shirt with a white bow, a black double-breasted suit, and a cool-toned gray scarf bearing the Octavinelle logo. He also wears white gloves, purple socks, and black-and-white dress shoes.

Compared to Floyd, Jade’s clothing is noticeably more immaculate and orderly. His bow is always neatly tied, his shirt is buttoned completely to the top, and his overall appearance reflects his polished and gentlemanly demeanor.

Skills and Magic

Unique Magic — “Shock the Heart”

“No need to fear. I only wish to help you. Shock the Heart.”

Jade’s Unique Magic, “Shock the Heart” (かじりとる歯, Kajiritoru Ha; lit. “Gnawing Teeth”), allows him to force a person to speak only the truth after they look directly into his left eye and he asks them a question.

However, Jade can only use this ability on the same person once. It is also not guaranteed to work against particularly powerful magicians or individuals who are extremely cautious and difficult to catch off guard.

The magic is most effective against people who have lowered their guard or become frightened. If his target deliberately avoids looking into his eye, Jade is willing to physically force them to meet his gaze by grabbing their face.

Trivia

• Jade is the founder of the Mountain Lovers’ Club.

• He enjoys collecting mushrooms and creating terrariums.

• The name “Jade” refers both to the precious gemstone and to its characteristic green color.

• Despite being the founder of the Mountain Lovers’ Club, Jade is not particularly fond of exercising.

• Jade struggled to stand when he first obtained human legs.

Family

Jade and Floyd live with their parents and grandmother whenever they are not attending Night Raven College. The twins were raised together in the Coral Sea and were taught self-defense by their parents from a young age.

Childhood

Jade and Floyd attended the same elementary school as Azul Ashengrotto, although the twins did not take much interest in him at first. Their curiosity about Azul began in middle school after they discovered him secretly writing grimoires while hiding inside an octopus pot.

Around the same time, the twins began hearing rumors about students gaining things they desperately wanted, only to later lose their treasured possessions. Jade suspected Azul was responsible and confronted him about it, reasoning that none of their other classmates possessed magical ability comparable to his. Azul confirmed Jade’s suspicions, revealing that he had indeed been responsible for the mysterious exchanges.

Before entering middle school, Jade and Floyd were challenged to a fight by a sturgeon. The twins made a wager with the sturgeon, agreeing that if they won, they would receive some of its scales. After defeating it, they kept their prize and eventually turned the scales into matching earrings, with Jade wearing his on his left ear and Floyd wearing his on his right.

At Night Raven College

First Year

After enrolling at Night Raven College, Jade, Floyd, and Azul were all sorted into Octavinelle by the Dark Mirror. The three eventually became closely associated with one another, with Jade and Floyd serving as Azul’s trusted partners and assistants.

Second Year

During his second year, Jade became the vice dorm leader of Octavinelle, serving under Azul as dorm leader. He also founded the Mountain Lovers’ Club, of which he is currently the sole member.

As part of his club activities, Jade frequently travels into the mountains, where he photographs the surrounding scenery and observes the local wildlife. He is particularly fascinated by mushrooms and often collects specimens to cultivate in the school’s botanical garden.

Neither Floyd nor Azul shares Jade’s enthusiasm for mushrooms. Jade’s fascination eventually resulted in an excess of cultivated mushrooms, especially after Azul stopped selling mushroom-based dishes after only two weeks because he had grown tired of eating them. Jade subsequently began donating his mushrooms to the school cafeteria, where they were incorporated into dishes such as mushroom risotto.

Silver, who regularly eats the cafeteria’s mushroom risotto, once remarked to Lilia that whenever Jade’s mushrooms were used, the quality of the dish seemed to improve considerably. Jade was delighted by the compliment.

Jade eventually enrolled in Night Raven College’s Master Chef course so that he could experiment with his mushrooms and share more of his mushroom-based dishes with others. During one of the course’s cooking sessions, the Ghost Chef was occupied with helping Lilia, leaving Jade temporarily without supervision. Taking advantage of the opportunity, Jade added a mushroom sauce to his tofu hamburger steak.

When the dish was presented to Rook as the judge, the assortment of mushrooms used in the sauce caused Rook’s tongue to become numb. Despite the unexpected reaction, both Rook and Lilia praised Jade’s enthusiasm and creativity, much to the Ghost Chef’s dismay.

Floyd Leech

Technical Information

Japanese: フロイド・リーチ
Romaji: Furoido Rīchi

Other Names:

• Monsieur Malfeasant / Monsieur Spontané — Rook

• Flochamu — Yuna

Biographical Information

Gender: Male
Birthday: November 5
Zodiac Sign: Scorpio
Height: 191 cm
Eye Color: Olive (left), gold (right)
Hair Color: Turquoise with black tips
Homeland: Coral Sea

Family

• Jade Leech — twin brother

• Georgina Leech — mother

• Unnamed father

• Unnamed grandmother

Professional Status

Dorm: Octavinelle
School Year: Second Year
Class: 2-D
Student Number: 17
Occupation: Student
Club: Basketball Club
Best Subject: Music

Fun Facts

Dominant Hand: Left
Favorite Food: Takoyaki
Least Favorite Food: Shiitake mushrooms
Dislikes: Shackles
Hobby: Dancing
Talent: Parkour

Overview

Floyd Leech is a second-year student at Night Raven College and a member of Octavinelle. He is Jade Leech’s twin brother, although the two have remarkably different personalities and ways of speaking.

Floyd is highly unpredictable and prone to sudden changes in mood, making it difficult for others to determine what he is thinking or how he will react to a situation. His behavior can shift dramatically depending on his current mood and interests.

Appearance

Floyd has turquoise hair with black tips and a longer, dark gray strand framing the right side of his face. His eyes display heterochromia iridum, with his left eye being olive green and his right eye golden-yellow.

He wears a blue earring on his right ear made from sturgeon scales, which are considered lucky charms in the Coral Sea. His twin, Jade, wears the matching earring on his left ear.

Floyd’s Octavinelle uniform consists of a black fedora decorated with a light gray bow and a purple seashell. He wears a lilac dress shirt beneath an unbuttoned black double-breasted suit, along with a cool-toned gray scarf bearing the Octavinelle logo and white gloves. He also wears purple socks, black slacks, and black-and-white dress shoes.

Unlike Jade, Floyd wears his uniform much more loosely and casually. His collar and bow are often left undone, and his suit has considerably more visible wrinkles. His pants also have a shorter hem than Jade’s, leaving his purple socks visible above his shoes.

Skills and Magic

Memory

Floyd possesses an exceptional ability to perfectly remember anything he has seen or read. However, this ability is strongly influenced by his interest in the subject. If something fails to hold his attention, he can quickly lose interest and forget it entirely.

Unique Magic — “Bind the Heart”

“It was just gettin’ good, so how ’bout I butt in? Bind the Heart.”

Floyd’s Unique Magic, “Bind the Heart” (かき回す尾, Ka...; lit. “Coiling Tail”), allows him to interfere with an opponent’s magic by blocking and redirecting its trajectory, causing the spell to miss its intended target.

However, Floyd’s mood has a significant effect on the magic’s effectiveness. According to Jade, when Floyd is in a particularly bad mood, his Unique Magic may fail to work altogether.

Trivia

• Floyd enjoys giving people nicknames based on sea creatures.

• Floyd and Jade are based on Flotsam and Jetsam, the sinister moray eel companions of Ursula from The Little Mermaid (1989).

• The name “Floyd” is of Welsh origin and is associated with the meaning “gray” or “gray-haired.”

• According to Vil Schoenheit, Floyd has exceptionally beautiful and well-moisturized skin.

• After coming onto land, Floyd developed a strong interest in fashion, particularly shoes.

Childhood

Floyd and his twin brother, Jade, were taught self-defense by their parents from a young age. Growing up together in the Coral Sea, the twins became accustomed to relying on one another and developing their own unique ways of handling challenges.

Before entering middle school, Floyd and Jade were challenged to a fight by a sturgeon. The twins accepted the challenge and made a wager: if they won, the sturgeon would give them some of its scales. After winning the fight, they kept the scales and eventually turned them into matching earrings. Floyd wears his earring on his right ear, while Jade wears his on his left.

At Night Raven College

Second Year

Floyd is a regular presence at the Mostro Lounge, although his laid-back habits frequently test Azul’s patience. He often sprawls or lies across the lounge tables, much to Azul’s chagrin, rather than behaving like a proper employee.

Despite Azul’s frequent frustration with his behavior, Floyd’s unpredictable nature and physical strength make him a valuable member of Octavinelle when he chooses to cooperate.