Aruyutayan V

Aruyutayan was an elderly man with shaggy, shoulder-length grey hair and a long grey beard, set off by a large nose and thin black brows. He wore an oversized golden crown with a maroon cap and a turquoise-studded purple band, a purple shirt, and a magenta cap trimmed with a fluffy white collar, plus jewelry at his neck. In the anime a pink neckerchief replaced that neckwear.

The king was greedy and self-absorbed, eager to make reckless calls whenever they promised him personal profit. Ignorant of life at sea, he insisted on filling the expedition with his own inexperienced soldiers rather than Noland's seasoned crew, and he seemed unmoved by losing nearly all of those men, fixated only on claiming Shandora's gold. When the city eluded him, he immediately assumed Noland had deceived him, despite the explorer's fame and heroism. Unable to stomach being made a fool, he abused his royal authority not only to order Noland's death but to engineer a posthumous campaign of lies, planting a false witness to convince his people that their beloved hero had been a clown and a liar.

When Noland came home declaring that the golden city of Shandora truly existed, Aruyutayan and his aide exchanged greedy looks. Five years on, with Mary Geoise's blessing, he named Noland admiral of an exploration ship but forced him to sail with two thousand royal soldiers across three vessels instead of his own crew. The voyage was disastrous: a Sea King attacked, the king cried for Noland to save him at every turn, and by the time they reached Jaya on November 16, 1127, two ships and all but fifty soldiers were lost. Finding much of the island simply gone, Aruyutayan struck Noland over the head and raged at him for the missing gold.

Back in the Lvneel Kingdom, the king condemned Noland to death. To hide his own humiliation he barred the explorer's real crew from testifying and used a fake crewman, with a priest looking on, to brand Noland a liar. As Noland's true comrades rushed the gallows in his defense, the king had them pinned down and watched, contemptuous, while the execution went ahead. Afterward his government published the book Liar Noland, recasting Aruyutayan as the brave leader who fought off the Sea King and spreading that false legend across the North Blue, leaving few who knew the truth.