Romelka Rimelka

Romelka Rimelka (ロメルカ・リメルカ Romeruka Rimeruka) the "Roaming Woodlands" (おさんぽ樹海 osanpo jyukai) is a Wood Mage (樹操術土) who served as seventh-ranked imperial court sorcerer of Byandy Empire until its collapse.

Appearance
Romelka's upper body is that of a humanoid woman. Tree branches reminiscent of deer antlers protrude from Romelka's head; it is unclear if the antlers are physiological or decorative. Whenever Romelka is depicted, her torso is fused with a large tree. 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 smaller 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. Leaves 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 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. It is possible, but not confirmed, that her master could have been Gardener Panan—a vampire Wood Mage known to have instructed her. She joins the likes of Arius Sabaramond, Utsurojuza, and Easlies Swordfrail upon her succession as the seventh of their rank, and like her peers, develops a fondness for Easlies' new pupil—the future Corpse God.

Years later, the sorcerers rally around Corpse God when an enemy necromancer forcibly manipulates him into assassinating Emperor Framrodia Byandiraz, an event that portends the Empire's sudden yet inexorable downfall. The fall spans a single year and witnesses rebellion amongst the Empire's annexed principalities; when a sinkhole opens in the capital to swallow all units of the imperial army except for one, Easlies asks Romelka to protect their acquaintances while she attends to Corpse God.

After the Collapse
As a Wood Mage, Romelka survives the next one hundred years by fusing with trees. Corpse God does not; although Romelka and Easlies both learn of his demise, only Easlies knows who caused it. Both elect to reside in the capital's ruins with the purpose of driving away outsiders, whom Romelka can detect miles before they are in sight of the walls.

One day, Romelka finds Easlies on a a hilltop overlooking the capital and asks her why she always gazes at the ocean. Easlies claims she has been lost in thought over the empire's demise, but Romelka guesses that she was really thinking about Corpse God. Easlies quips at Romelka's expense that the longer-lived sorcerers apparently take longer to mature; on that note, she adds, the Corpse God must have remained a boy until his death. Romelka sees nothing wrong with a 'good boy' like Corpse God remaining an eternal child, so Easlies clarifies that the Corpse God has the restraint of a child, i.e. none. Moreover, he possesses far too much sympathy and no sense of independence.

When the day comes that Romelka notices a mercenary traveling toward the capital, she refrains from any attempts to frighten him until he makes camp in the wasteland desert forming the city's purlieu. She transforms the desert into dense woodlands and uses their cover of darkness to launch seeds the size of human heads at Shagrua Lugrid, who proves no mercenary: he uses a Geldwood martial art move to neutralize the seeds with his firewood, and, when Romelka makes the surrounding woods close in on him, casts a spell that burns a path of lava through the trees in the direction of her soul.

Shagrua has demonstrated the magical prowess of a high-class sorcerer and the martial techniques of someone who could feasibly be a Geldwood spy. The far more offensive latter warrants an actual attack rather than mere intimidation, but Romelka—believing she would not win—instead suggests the two of them return whence they came. This is impossible, for Shagrua is out of options and unburned bridges. Romelka, herself out of options but not of the woods, decides she cannot back down after all and turns nearby tree bark into lavaproof ice.

Easlies finally intervenes because she knows that Romelka will not win—and that, without her intervention, Romelka will divulge more sensitive information in the process of her defeat. She informs Romelka that Shagrua is the "Calamity Crusher," Geldwood Church's treasured asset responsible for vanquishing the Corpse God. Although this fills Romelka with bloodlust for the first time, Easlies announces she will strike down Shagrua in Romelka's stead.

An army of corpses rises at Easlies' command, but it is Easlies who pierces Shagrua's armor through to his abdomen in a single blow that renders Shagrua insensate. She says Romelka that the fight would have gone differently had Shagrua intended to kill her. Shagrua stirs for long enough to condemn the church, endorse Corpse God's revenge against it, and tell Easlies that Corpse God apologized to her in his final diary entry. He loses consciousness once more.

On Easlies' instruction, Romelka treats Shagrua's wounds with panacea tree sap. Shagrua is so unlike all the other Geldwood elites whom Easlies has killed that she decides to hear his side of the story when he recovers. Romelka and Easlies move Shagrua to a room in one of the ruins inside the capital's walls.

Abilities
To be added.

Trivia

 * Sayo Shinoyama's loquaciousness demeanor reminds Corpse God of Romelka in Chapter 14], making the chapter her informal debut prior to her debut proper in the same volume's bonus story.
 * Romelka's Wood Mage instructor—Gardener Panan—is a 326-year-old vampire who is married to fellow vampire Myrcadia Lulula, who is the (or one of the) feudal lord(s) of the Principality of Djadjamnyl.