Desmond Family

The Desmonds trace their nobility back to Ostania's earliest eras, but the family's modern power is Donovan's work. Rising through the National Unity Party, he held its chairmanship and the office of prime minister at once while Ostania's Second East-West War of Unification raged, a period that made Melinda the country's First Lady and earned the household its standing as Ostania's First Family. Money matched the politics: the sprawling Desmond Group encompasses 112 firms plus 13 ghost companies existing purely on paper, and it absorbed Glooman Pharmaceuticals a month ahead of Eden Academy's midterms.

For reasons never made public, Donovan stepped down as prime minister while the war wound toward its close, and the National Unity Party fell out of government. He then retreated from public view almost entirely. Melinda describes a husband transformed: after collapsing from an illness he grew paranoid, short-tempered, and withdrawn, and at times seemed able to predict her behavior, which deepened the unease inside the home.

Operation Strix, the mission at the heart of the series, exists to reach this family, with Donovan himself the target. Publicly the Desmonds project privacy and distance, and little is known about how the members actually relate to one another, which is exactly what makes them so difficult to approach. Behind closed doors the household has hardened into estrangement: Melinda now lives apart from her husband and sons, having stepped back from politics to pour her energy into her social circle, while the boys orbit a father whose approval is scarce.

A griffin clutching an antique key serves as the family crest, rendered in slightly different forms in the manga and the anime. Damian explains that the mythical beast stands for the honor, grace, and majesty of his lineage, while whatever the key represents has never been revealed.

Donovan Desmond heads the family and still chairs the National Unity Party, rarely emerging from seclusion. His wife Melinda Desmond chairs an exclusive Berlint social club, the Lady Patriots Society. Demetrius, the elder son, has earned Imperial Scholar rank at Eden Academy and receives most of what limited attention his father gives, while Damian, the younger, studies there as a first-year and chases the same honor in the hope of finally being noticed. The household also includes Damian's lively dog Max, looked after mainly by Jeeves, the family servant, at their estate.