Romelka Rimelka

Romelka Rimelka (ロメルカ・リメルカ Romeruka Rimeruka) the "Wood Mage" (樹操術土 ki misao jutsu do) is the former seventh-ranked imperial court sorcerer of the Byandy Empire.

Appearance
Romelka has the upper body of a human young woman with tree branches reminiscent of deer amblers protruding from her head—it is unclear if the antlers are physiological or decorative—and her torso is either joined with a large tree or at the very least appears to 'emerge' from the tree's core. She has short hair and wears large round pince-nez, a flower crown, and a sleeveless, backless halterneck garment with a frontal diamond-shaped cutout composed of four mini-diamond cutouts. Though she appears to be otherwise pale-skinned, her forearms darken into swarthy-hued hands with five long digits that taper to points. Leafy wreaths wreathe her elbows.

Personality
Said to have the voice of a young girl, Romelka moreover speaks with the excitability and curiousness of one; she is a talkative type with a tendency to babble at high speed and great length before someone cuts her off. She retains a chirpy demeanor even when hostile with a Geldwood follower or any other adversary.

Before the Collapse
Romelka serves the Byandy Empire for an unknown length of time as an apprentice or pupil to one of its imperial court sorcerers, and eventually takes her master's place when her master retires. She joins the likes of Arius Sabaramond, Utsurojuza, and Easlies Swordfrail upon her succession, potentially before Easlies takes on Corpse God as a pupil.

Eventually the empire falls, and its fall is short, swift, and inexorable. When the palace finds itself in disarray, Easlies leaves her acquaintances and other acquaintances within arm's reach to Romelka's protection; whether Romelka's protection is successful is unknown.

After the Collapse
Romelka survives the next one hundred years, but Easlies' pupil Corpse God does not; after those one hundred years pass, Easlies and Romelka either simultaneously or independently learn of the Corpse God's demise. The two either continue to or begin to spend time in each other's company, intending to drive away any outsiders who might attempt to approach the ruins of the Byandy capital.

One day, Romelka finds Easlies staring out at the ocean from a hilltop overlooking the capital's ruins. She asks Easlies why she always gazes out at the ocean; when Easlies claims she was remembering the empire's demise a century prior, Romelka teasingly declares Easlies must have been truly been thinking about Corpse God. She babbles on about the unusual master-pair situation before Easlies shushes her and remarks that the longer-lived sorcerers apparently take longer to mature. With that said, Easlies supposes the Corpse God must have remained a boy until his death.

Romelka wonders what is wrong with remaining an eternal child, especially since Corpse God was a 'good boy', but Easlies says that she misunderstands and charifies that the Corpse God has the restraint of a child—which is to say, he lacks restraint, and has no sense of independence and far too much sympathy to boot.

At some point presumably thereafter, Romelka catches wind of a traveling stranger approaching the purlieu of the Byandy capital and decides she will have to scare him away when he comes too close for her liking. Once he does—once she spies him making camp in the wasteland desert surrounding the city—she transforms the desert into grassy terrain and woodland so dense with trees as to be impenetrable by light.

Then, she sends human head-sized seeds whizzing at him with deadly speed. Having taken him to be a mere mercenary by appearance alone, she is surprised to see the stranger—Shagrua Lugrid—use a Geldwood martial art move to make his firewood float; the firewood shoots toward the seeds, splits into fire arrows midair, and neutralizes Romelka's projectiles. The surrounding trees proceed to advance on Shagrua either at Romelka's command or direct manipulation—but Shagrua abruptly fires a massive compound spell in the direction of Romelka's soul; the spell's lava burns away the trees in its path and soon enough the trees immediately protecting her, though it leaves the final cluster of trees alone.

Shagrua follows after it while keeping himself 'shielded' with a sphere of wind and rocks; however, Romelka elects to verbally rather than physically engage with him this time. She exclaims that only high-class sorcerers can typically employ three kinds of spirits simultaneously without uttering a curse—and, given that she recognized him use a Geldwood technique, concludes that he must be a Geldwood spy. She feels that she ought to commit to attacking a Geldwood spy rather than merely try to intimidate him—but since she also feels she likely cannot defeat him, she suggests the two of them return to whence they each came.

Shagrua replies he has nowhere he can return to, visibly agitated, and at his agitation Romelka hastily explains she attacked him only because she wanted to scare him away from reaching the capital, not because she wanted or intended to kill him. He points out that she would have likely died to and certainly not been able to intimidate a high-level plaguer, were he one, and advises her to better observe her targets.

Although Romelka acknowledges that he is nice to give advice, she insists she cannot back down and transmorgifies the bark of all the colossal trees into ice that can withstand the heat of Shagrua's lava. The entire forest is concurrently her and filled with vast amounts of magic; and in the next moment, Easlies intervenes to keep Romelka from leaking any more information than she already has—and to claim Romelka even now will not be able to defeat such a man.

For Romelka's benefit, Easlies identifies Shagrua as the Geldwood Church's treasured asset "Calamity Crusher" and the Corpse God's vanquisher, the latter revelation of which finally earns Shagrua Romelka's bloodlust. Nonetheless, Easlies announces she will strike down Shagrua in Romelka's stead.

Easlies summons a veritable army of corpses and soon does personally strike Shagrua down by piercing through his armor and to his abdomen via a single blow. He loses consciousness soon enough; a few minutes after the fiece fight's finish, Easlies mutters that she cannot believe such a 'boy' would "ease up" while battling her. Romelka asks what she means, and Easlies clarifies that the fight would have proceeded quite differently had Shagrua actually intended to kill her—which he evidently did not.

Shagrua manages to regain consciousness despite being near-death, and with his potential last breaths insists that he hates the 'evil' Geldwood Church and that Corpse God had only been exacting revenge against them like Easlies has done. He adds that the Corpse God had hastily written, "Teacher, I'm sorry" in his diary's final entry.

After Shagrua passes out again, Easlies returns the corpse army to the soil and instructs Romelka to douse Shagrua with panacea tree sap. Romelka hesitates but complies, showering Shagrua with the wound-healing medicine while Easlies observes that Shagrua truly seems to differ from all the Geldwood elites Easlies has killed; positing that he may have had just cause to kill Corpse God, she decides she will allow him to relate his story over tea. It can be presumed that Romelka and Easlies then take Shagrua to Easlies' home within the capital's wreckage.

Abilities
To be added.

Trivia

 * Although Romelka's title is written as "Roaming Woodlands" in Chapter 33 (to be published in Volume 4) and as "Wood Mage" in Volume 3, Episode 3, "Roaming Woodlands" is technically Yen Press' first version of the title; Yen Press translated the chapter release of Chapter 33 (July 2019) months before it released Volume 3 in English (December 2019). As such, the wiki considers "Wood Mage" the latest version of her title.
 * Sayo Shinoyama's loquaciousness demeanor reminds Corpse God of Romelka in Volume 2, Chapter 14, making the chapter her informal illustrated-albeit-nameless debut prior to her appearance in the same volume's bonus story.