Serpico

Blue-eyed and fair, Serpico keeps a neat, unassuming presence that lets him fade into the background until he chooses otherwise. Blond hair and a slender build lend him an almost boyish look, and the guidebook places him at twenty years of age, roughly 175 centimeters tall and 63 kilograms. Once outfitted by Flora and Schierke, he is often seen in a wind cloak paired with his rapier and the feather-like sylph blade.

Courteous, soft-spoken, and sincere on the surface, Serpico devotes himself utterly to Farnese, whom he regards as the angel who lifted him out of a wretched childhood on the streets. Her safety outranks everything, even memories of the abuse she once heaped on him. Long ago he learned that violence only breeds more violence, so he shuns conflict wherever he can. As a boy he was repeatedly pushed into duels by Farnese, who wanted the nobles she disliked humiliated, yet he consistently ended those bouts in a draw while praising his opponents, sparing lives and avoiding future grudges.

Beneath the meek act lies a mind of cold focus and ruthless calculation. He raises and drops his mask of naivety in an instant, leaving human foes unable to read him, and he shrugs off dire moments with a dry remark. His long dread of fire is no affectation: it traces to being made to set his own mother's pyre alight to prove he was not the child of a heretic, and the sight of blood unsettles him as well. Traveling with Guts gradually chips at his detachment, for he is glad to see the swordsman's steadying effect on Farnese even as he fears Guts may one day cut her down under the Berserker Armor's sway.

Serpico ranks among the finest swordsmen in the human world, a fencer so gifted that Farnese claimed he could beat any court noble with one hand bound behind him. Rather than rely on raw power, he fights with cunning, playing docile to lower a foe's guard before striking from carefully chosen ground. Against Guts he never engaged without first stacking the terrain in his favor: he survived a direct blow the first time, trapped the swordsman where the Dragon Slayer could not be drawn the second, and lured him among tight stone pillars the third. He is also a prized cook whose meals the party looks forward to.

His sylph gear, crafted from an eagle's feather and a sprig of mistletoe and gifted by Schierke and Flora, transforms his reach. The sylph sword slices cutting air currents through trolls and daka, striking several enemies at once, while the wind cloak grants him leaps, gliding descents, and enough control of the air to deflect blades and arrows. Together the pair once formed a pressure barrier strong enough to scatter one of Ganishka's lightning strikes. He keeps his plain rapier too, valuing it precisely because no magic-dampening circumstance can weaken a purely physical blade.