Martino

Martino is a light-haired man of the mercenary trade, encountered by an adolescent Guts in the years before the boy joined the band that would later clash with the Band of the Falcon.

Jovial, cunning, and quick-witted, Martino was untroubled by Guts' hostility or by the boy's suggestion that his interest ran to the sexual. He scolded guards for beating the youth yet never hesitated to put him in danger when it suited him, coaxing Guts into a break for freedom that got him badly wounded and recaptured so that he himself could slip away. He plainly valued his own skin above the boy's, but he was happy to find Guts alive and made a point of always settling a debt.

Martino first showed Guts a mix of admiration for his slyness and concern for his wounds, explaining that captured mercenaries like them were put to labor raising a castle. When Guts collapsed, Martino berated the guards, talked the wary boy into leaning on his shoulder, and later slipped him a lockpick, freeing his shackles and urging him to run. Guts' injuries kept him from getting far; arrows in the back brought him down and back into custody, while Martino escaped his own manacles with ease and saluted the boy as he made his own clean getaway. The encounter dovetails with Guts' bitter memory of being used as bait by Gambino, who told him to trust no one but his own wits. Later, after Guts won a rigged execution match and tried to flee with a viscount's son as hostage, Martino stormed the courtyard with his men, sowing the chaos that let Guts break loose, then grinned to see him alive and offered a bonus the swordsman turned down.