Blundell Adruncus

Blundell Adruncus is the long-serving master of Meltor's Blue Tower, an 8th-circle magician whose water control, physical strength, and ultimate time magic make him one of the kingdom's two great strategic pillars. He raises Sylvia Adruncus as both granddaughter and disciple, supports Kurt III's rule, and ultimately spends his life protecting Meltor's younger magicians and Theodore Miller's final counterattack against Invidia.

Biography

Academy, Magic Contest, and National Service

Blundell first approaches Theodore and Vince Haidel during the Magic Contest as a deceptively genial old man in blue robes. His rank is anything but ordinary: he is the Supreme of the Blue Tower, already an 8th-circle magician and one of Meltor's national backbones. He has secretly trained Sylvia for ten years and openly takes pride in her overwhelming tournament performance, yet his interest shifts toward Theodore after one look reveals a young combatant more seasoned than his age suggests. (Chapters 29–35)

His guardianship of Sylvia is driven by concern that raw talent has isolated her. Watching her enjoy a serious match with Theodore, Blundell recognizes that no tower elder can replace a peer and hopes the contest will reopen the part of her that stopped trusting other children. Afterward, he blocks nobles from accessing Theodore's and Vince's information, creates a legitimate dispatch to the Miller Barony, and offers a larger grant so Theodore will accept Sylvia as a companion. The mission serves two purposes at once: it shields both pupils from political recruitment and gives Sylvia practical friendship and social experience. (Chapters 35 and 40–41)

That calculated kindness also reflects Blundell's public authority. He gives the Miller investigation the Blue Tower's institutional support, later consults with Kurt on rewards after Theodore and Sylvia defeat the elder lich, and joins the emergency response following the high-elf convoy disaster. When ordered to escort Ellenoa home, he first communicates her request to remain until Theodore's injured hand is healed, then accepts the escort despite having just returned from another long assignment. Blundell's early choices therefore join guardianship, state service, and careful cultivation of young talent rather than treating them as separate obligations. (Chapters 41, 54, and 79)

Elvenheim, Kargas, and the Pirate Archipelago

When Andras proposes a politically loaded duel, Blundell immediately identifies the delegation's likely intention to prolong negotiations while gathering information. Kurt retains him beside Theodore, asks him and Veronica to judge the matchup, and accepts the challenge only after both masters independently conclude that Theodore will not lose. Blundell then serves as referee and notary, imposes an oath of restraint and honor on Theodore and Rebecca, and reserves the authority to halt further attacks. His judgment turns personal confidence in a promising magician into a controlled national gamble that Meltor wins. (Chapter 87)

Blundell does not accompany the later Elvenheim party because his defensive duties are already engaged elsewhere. When the court searches for another senior magician, Kurt explains that Blundell is stopping floods in the eastern rice fields and cannot return to the capital. The assignment shows why a master of water and life-oriented Blue Tower magic is not merely a battlefield weapon: removing him would expose civilians and agriculture to an active disaster. Even Ellenoa's effortless command of the Great Forest is later judged beyond what an 8th-circle magician such as Blundell could reproduce, defining a real environmental limit to his otherwise exceptional control. (Chapters 96 and 102)

While Theodore travels through Kargas and the Pirate Archipelago, Blundell's continuing position at home rests on decades of political and military labor. He led the magic towers that supported the twenty-year-old Kurt's accession and remained beside the king as Kurt outgrew his initial dependence on the Magic Society. Meltor commonly names Blundell its greatest magician, even while distinguishing Veronica as its most powerful combatant. His authority does not imply omniscience: as a 7th-circle magician he had investigated Austen's inexplicable drought and returned without an answer, a failure that marks the boundary between master-level scholarship and the ancient dragon responsible for the catastrophe. (Chapters 110, 120, and 122)

Eastern Legacies, Quattro, and the Soldun Civil War

Blundell is among the kingdom's central authorities who receive Theodore after his year abroad. He listens to Theodore's confidential report, participates in the decision to reward him, and shares Kurt's anticipation that Veronica will abandon border patrol early once she hears a new master has returned. When Kurt announces Elvenheim's alliance, Blundell responds with delight because Theodore's victory and the elves' support finally give Meltor a plausible route to ending its centuries-long defensive war. The moment shifts his attention from preserving a stalemate toward preparing the generation that may win it. (Chapters 175–179)

That preparation centers on Sylvia. Kurt formally names her Blundell's eventual successor and places her in Quattro, while Blundell's water mastery remains the benchmark against which Theodore evaluates Ultima. When the team is chosen for the Meuse Desert ruins, the court recognizes that moisture-poor terrain weakens Blundell's firepower and that Veronica is the better expeditionary master. He nevertheless questions whether the small party is sufficient because Sylvia will be exposed to danger, and he joins Orta in approving Veronica as Theodore's Sorcery instructor. His anxiety does not become a veto; he lets his granddaughter serve in the role for which he trained her. (Chapters 180, 183, and 190)

During the Soldun intervention, Blundell turns environmental knowledge into operational planning. He warns the royal council that seasonal south winds would make the northern sea route three times slower and more costly, prompting Theodore to reveal that Aquilo's blessing can overcome the obstacle. At Port Ribenda, Blundell personally calls the rolls of the Magic Corps, White Tower mobile unit, Red Tower war mages, and Quattro, then orders nearly a thousand personnel aboard. He remains the senior authority dispatching the expedition rather than joining it, preserving the defensive practice of keeping either himself or Veronica near Kurt while Sylvia goes to war. (Chapters 156 and 212–216)

East Continent and the Northern War

Theodore's disappearance after Zest's ambush places Blundell under pressures that are both national and familial. He joins the emergency council, accepts Aquilo's assurance that Theodore still lives, and supports preparations for war if Andras is responsible. Three months later, he approaches the exhausted Sylvia with unusual timidity. Knowing that her relentless training is driven by Theodore's absence, he warns that talent and effort alone cannot force the 7th-circle breakthrough and asks her to care for herself. When she explains that she refuses to remain someone Theodore must always protect, Blundell recognizes a deliberate choice rather than a tantrum and stops trying to turn her from it. (Chapters 241 and 265)

Blundell eventually enters the northern campaign to replace Veronica at the front. He brings a sober report that Meltor's economy and supply chain can sustain the army, then questions Andras' inexplicable defensive posture before news arrives that its emperor and three Swords have crossed the border. Blundell leads the magicians back through Bergen toward the Nadun Mountains, draws moisture from the devastated terrain, and forms a thin shield that excludes heat without obstructing breath or movement. The instant precision impresses Theodore even after his own water affinity has advanced, showing why Blundell's value lies in control as much as raw output. (Chapters 277 and 286–288)

Against Invidia, Blundell learns that the enemy has inherited an Aura Ability whose owner once lost to him. His Flow Sorcery interferes with that power and forces Time Stop into existence at the cost of his remaining life. When Invidia's heart sword targets the younger magicians, Blundell transfers the spiritual and physical damage from Sylvia, William, and others into his century-trained body rather than preserve himself for attack. He stops time again, orders Orta to evacuate every non-master, and gives the resisting Sylvia a final answer: she has already helped him, because he has lived all those years because of her. (Chapters 289–290)

By the time Theodore prepares a divine summoning, Blundell's organs are failing and the life stored in Kurt's national-treasure ring has been exhausted. He had expected only a few more years, yet spends even those through repeated Time Stops without regretting the exchange. He studies Theodore's summoning circle, recognizes its extraordinary construction, and waits for the decisive instant. When Invidia breaks the other masters in seconds and reaches Theodore, Blundell freezes him for the final few moments needed to complete Nuada's manifestation. He dies as the spell breaks, praised by the god-king for his dedication and showing no regret on his face. (Chapters 291–293)

Jerem's Return and the Great Forest

Blundell is physically absent when Jerem's return threatens the Great Forest, but Theodore's preparations establish how difficult his magical legacy is to inherit. Reading Ultima, Theodore learns that perfect use of the cryogenic system requires at least eight circles and remembers that Blundell's final magic appeared connected to it. Earlier analysis had identified Blundell as the only magician in Meltor capable of using Ultima at all. Even after Theodore reaches the 8th circle, his mediocre understanding of the book prevents that qualification from becoming immediate mastery. (Chapters 183 and 320)

Time Stop is the part of Blundell's legacy Theodore most desires. He remembers that it halted even Invidia for a moment and judges it valuable enough to justify a large expenditure of Gluttony's achievement points if he could obtain it. The attraction is paired with a severe warning: techniques governing time belong at the peak of the 9th circle, and Blundell bridged that difference by feeding his own life into the spell. His accomplishment therefore remains exceptional precisely because it was neither a safe, repeatable 8th-circle technique nor a power freely transferable to another water magician. (Chapter 320)

Theodore does not turn that admiration into a claim that Blundell's art has become his own. The book's information window gives him only partial understanding, the expected predation benefit is poor, and he deliberately puts aside the subject rather than reducing Blundell's death to a useful acquisition. He proceeds to consume other books whose magic he can actually integrate for the coming defense. In this phase, Blundell's resulting position is that of an unreachable standard: his technique informs Theodore's preparation, but the man and the sacrifice that powered it cannot simply be replaced. (Chapter 320)

Prometheus and the Eastern Apocalypse

Five years after the northern war, Blundell's absence has reshaped Meltor's leadership. Theodore still remembers his advice that an 8th-circle magician cannot easily be constrained by ordinary etiquette, while the vacant Blue Tower seat contributes to the creation of Theodore's Chief Tower Master position. Sylvia spends three years pursuing magic at the expense of her health, reaches the 7th circle, and finally takes Blundell's office while carrying the remains of his large staff. His institutional succession is therefore achieved, but only after his death drives both his granddaughter and the wider tower system into a difficult transition. (Chapters 336–337)

The encounter with Sloth's Cage of Chronos supplies a later measure of Blundell's final achievement. Theodore remembers that the former Blue Tower Master could stop only a narrow space for a few seconds and died after exhausting his life, whereas the grimoire freezes a vast domain so completely that even light cannot escape. The contrast does not diminish Blundell: it establishes that a mortal 8th-circle magician briefly touched the same class of time phenomenon that makes dragons fear a Seven Sins grimoire. It also confirms that his deadly limitation was intrinsic to the gap he crossed, not merely an injury inflicted by Invidia. (Chapter 345)

His combat teaching and techniques continue through others during the Prometheus expedition and Eastern catastrophe. Aquilo uses Dehydration against an ancient transcendent, and the scene explicitly identifies the lethal removal of bodily water as the method Blundell's trial image used on Theodore. At Hyungkang Castle, Veronica judges Sylvia a reliable talent trained by Blundell; Sylvia then channels Absolute Zero through the staff made from his remains, freezing wind, water, fire, and the tiger king when Veronica creates an opening. Blundell cannot participate, but his specialized magic, instruction, and tower symbol all remain active components of the next generation's battles. (Chapters 349 and 365–366)

Marriage, Armageddon, and the New World

During the descent of Wrath, Blundell's final choice becomes Theodore's moral precedent. Theodore discovers that Sylvia is carrying his child and rejects Gluttony's proposal to flee with only his loved ones. Though he feels guilty about what his death would do to Sylvia, he remembers that Blundell also treated his own life as trivial when people precious to him needed protection. That memory helps Theodore choose the near-impossible Akashic Harmonize, sacrificing his body and coherent soul in an attempt to save a world his child can inherit. (Chapter 392)

Blundell's story then passes beyond ordinary posthumous influence. Within the Akashic Records, investigators find that he transcended at the instant of death and has only recently recovered an individual ego. When Simon Magus asks for help restoring Theodore's shattered soul, Blundell volunteers even though his personality is still unstable and participation might erase it again. His stated reason is intimate rather than abstract: the “rotten boy” is giving him a great-grandchild. The choice repeats his final battlefield priority—family and a younger magician's future outweigh his own continued security. (Chapter 394)

Blundell joins the investigators whose coordinated deviation successfully restores Theodore and enables the defeat of Wrath. Six months later, the consequence reaches the material world when Sylvia safely gives birth. Theodore chooses the name Adellia in deliberate remembrance of the energetic old man with the white beard and great staff who contributed to his survival; Sylvia recognizes the meaning immediately and accepts it with a smile. Blundell's final status is thus neither a bodily resurrection nor simple oblivion: his ego remains within Akashic, while his name, office, staff, magic, and family line continue in the world he helped preserve. (Chapters 394 and 398)

Appearance and personality

Blundell is an elderly man with white hair and a white beard, but his physique sharply contradicts any expectation of frailty. Thick muscles show beneath his blue robe, his forearms are compared to logs, and his grip is strong enough to hurt the battle-trained Vince without magic. He carries an oversized wooden staff across his back and can be mistaken for a warrior carrying a greatsword. He is already more than 130 years old during the Magic Contest, yet still projects the physical force behind the nicknames “Terror of the Blue Tower” and “Muscle Master.” (Chapters 29, 32, and 35)

His public manner is loud, tactile, and comic. Blundell laughs expansively, pounds tables and backs, boasts about Sylvia, and answers political inconvenience with jokes about beating people up. That apparent foolishness is partly a social mask. He can change from warmth to a penetrating assessment without warning, notices Vince's new circle at a glance, anticipates recruitment attempts before an awards ceremony, and protects information without advertising that protection. Veronica's contrasting impression is that Blundell always has something behind his smile, which fits his habit of using humor to make calculated interventions easier to accept. (Chapters 29–30, 40, and 54)

Toward Sylvia, Blundell combines parental indulgence with restraint. He raises her from childhood, thinks of her as a daughter as well as a granddaughter, worries about the loneliness produced by her genius, and wants her to grow socially rather than only accumulate circles. He is protective enough to question dangerous deployments, but he does not confine her to the tower after she makes an informed choice. His last conversation with her does not demand gratitude or obedience; it tells her that her existence gave value to his own life. (Chapters 35, 40–41, 190, 216, 265, and 290)

Blundell's deepest principle is that strength creates a duty to protect. He works floods and borders when those assignments keep him from more prestigious action, remains near the king as a deterrent, absorbs lethal damage aimed at younger magicians, and rejects Invidia's argument that the weak should be abandoned. His joviality survives fear and approaching death, but it is not denial: he knows his organs are failing and understands exactly what every Time Stop costs. The absence of regret at the end makes his sacrifice the culmination of a repeatedly demonstrated ethic rather than an impulsive final gesture. (Chapters 79, 96, 156, 176, and 289–293)

Magic, abilities, and martial skills

Blundell is an 8th-circle great magician whose foundation is the Blue Tower's water-centered discipline, refined through a personal Sorcery that controls “flow.” The corpus distinguishes him as Meltor's greatest magician while describing Veronica as the stronger source of pure destruction. His strength lies in breadth, precision, protection, and interference: he can manipulate moisture on a battlefield, suppress lethal powers, and use water's changing states as a route toward effects that normally belong above his circle. (Chapters 40, 110, 166, 190, and 288–292)

Eight circles and Flow Sorcery

Blundell reached the 8th circle thirty years before Theodore first entered his tower room. At that level, he can cool a 6th-circle magician's uncontrolled pressure with a gesture and form sophisticated magic without perceptible chanting or preparation. His long mastery also gives him exceptional perception: he recognizes Vince's breakthrough immediately, and Theodore repeatedly treats Blundell as a standard he cannot challenge even after approaching the 7th circle. The story supplies no formal training history for Blundell's circles, but establishes more than a century of accumulated bodily, mental, and battlefield discipline. (Chapters 35, 40, 54, 60, and 164–166)

His Sorcery governs flow, extending beyond ordinary manipulation of liquid water. Theodore identifies Blundell's water control as a unique attribute that cannot be copied merely by reading a spellbook. Against Invidia, the Sorcery interferes with a stolen Aura Ability and lets Blundell halt the transmission of movement, heat, and light. Its flexibility also supports protective work: he can draw water from a devastated mountain region and create a film that isolates a group from extreme heat while preserving unobstructed breathing and motion. The principal limitation is environmental; low moisture in the Meuse Desert weakens his available firepower. (Chapters 166, 190, and 288–289)

Water control, Ultima, and Dehydration

Blue Tower water magic is versatile rather than supreme in a single ordinary category, and Blundell pushes that versatility to its mortal limit. He can freeze or cool an area instantly and is identified as the only Meltor magician qualified to use Ultima, cryogenic magic capable in legend of freezing a dragon. The requirement is both an 8th circle and extremely high water affinity. The corpus does not directly show him casting the complete Ultima spell, and Theodore only says that Blundell's time magic “seemed” related to it, so the exact connection between Blundell's Flow Sorcery, cryogenic arrest, and Ultima remains unresolved. (Chapters 32, 40, 183, and 320)

Dehydration is identified as Blundell's best direct attack. In Abe no Seimei's spiritual trial, an image built from Theodore's knowledge points the staff and removes the moisture from Theodore's vocal cords, blood, marrow, and bones before his heightened senses detect any mana movement. Later narration independently recognizes Dehydration as Blundell's method when Aquilo applies the same principle to an ancient magician: water is extracted from a living body until the flesh splits and death follows. The evidence demonstrates extreme speed and lethality, but does not establish its exact range or whether Blundell can bypass every form of magical resistance. (Chapters 164–165 and 349)

Time Stop

Time Stop is Blundell's ultimate technique and the most dangerous extension of Flow. It renders the affected space black and white by stopping processes such as air movement, heat conduction, and reflected light. Against Invidia it can interrupt an attack, create a window for Orta's Mass Teleport, and momentarily assist allies at the exact point of danger. The effect is local and lasts only seconds against a sixth-stage grimoire, whose higher “standing” allows it to break free; it is not the vast, persistent temporal domain later demonstrated by Sloth. (Chapters 289–293 and 345)

The price makes Time Stop a sacrificial ability rather than an ordinary battle rotation. Time magic belongs to the peak of the 9th circle, so Blundell forces it through an 8th-circle body by consuming lifespan. Kurt's ring had supplied him with a reserve equivalent to another heart, but repeated uses turn its jewel dark, leave his organs dying, and spend the few years he expected to retain. His last activation holds Invidia long enough for Nuada to manifest and kills Blundell as the spell ends. The technique reaches its decisive application only because he accepts a cost that no later user can treat as incidental. (Chapters 289–293, 320, and 345)

Staff combat, protection, and command

Blundell learned an Eastern staff-fighting method as a hobby and advanced it to master rank. His oversized wooden staff is therefore both a magical focus and a close-combat weapon; Vince reports that Blundell broke the heads of knights with it on the battlefield, and Sylvia's tournament style reproduces his combination of water magic, movement, and direct blows. The corpus does not name individual staff techniques or show a complete Blundell duel, but his muscular build and demonstrated strength explain why closing distance with him is dangerous rather than a conventional way to pressure a magician. (Chapters 29, 32, 35, and 48)

His protection magic includes an extraordinary transfer that redirects a heart-sword attack from multiple younger magicians into his own body. The source does not name the spell or fully explain its activation, range, or whether it depends on Flow, so only its demonstrated result is certain: William's heart and Sylvia's carotid artery are spared while Blundell absorbs damage severe enough to hasten organ failure. He pairs that power with battlefield command, identifying who cannot contribute against Invidia, ordering evacuations, and using Time Stop to make those orders executable. His leadership is consequently a combat capability in practice, converting brief magical windows into survival for allies. (Chapters 212–213 and 286–293)

Power progression

Relationships

• Sylvia Adruncus: Blundell finds Sylvia's talent, raises her from childhood as his daughter and granddaughter, and secretly trains her for a decade. He tries to relieve the loneliness caused by her genius without preventing her from choosing danger, then gives his life after ensuring her evacuation. Sylvia succeeds him as Blue Tower Master and carries the remains of his staff. (Chapters 30–41, 180–190, 216, 265, 289–290, and 336–366)
• Theodore Miller: Blundell first treats Theodore as a promising peer for Sylvia, protects him from political recruitment, and helps turn his achievements into national opportunities. Theodore later becomes a fellow master whose summoning craft earns Blundell's respect. Blundell dies to complete Theodore's counterattack against Invidia and, after recovering an Akashic ego, risks that identity again to help restore Theodore for the sake of their future family. (Chapters 29–41, 54, 79, 87, 175–190, 289–293, and 392–394)
• Kurt III: Blundell led the magic-tower support behind Kurt's accession and remains a counselor, guardian, and field authority throughout his reign. Kurt trusts his judgment on duels, rewards, disasters, and military routes, while Blundell accepts repeated national assignments without challenging the king's matured authority. Kurt's life-preserving ring extends Blundell's service until he spends its remaining years in the northern war. (Chapters 37, 54, 79, 87, 96, 120, 175–176, 212–213, and 291)
• Veronica: Blundell and Veronica are Meltor's paired strategic pillars and familiar rivals. He is regarded as the greater all-around magician, while her firepower exceeds his, and their joking insults conceal confidence built through shared defense of the kingdom. They alternate between the king's side, border duties, and front-line deployment before fighting Invidia together. (Chapters 54–60, 79, 87, 120, 156, 176, 190–195, and 286–293)
• Orta: Blundell works with Orta in confidential councils, expedition planning, and the northern campaign. Blundell's temporal interference repeatedly creates the openings Orta needs for mass evacuation; after Blundell's death, Orta carries his body away with the wounded guardians rather than leave him on the battlefield. Their contrasting styles—Blundell's overt presence and Orta's covert methods—serve the same protective state duty. (Chapters 79, 175–190, 212–213, and 241–293)
• Vince Haidel: Blundell knows Vince well enough to tease him physically, recognize his breakthrough at a glance, and challenge his judgment of Theodore's talent. Although Vince distrusts Blue Tower subtlety, he answers Blundell honestly when information must be contained, and Blundell uses his authority to protect both teacher and disciple from predatory political attention. (Chapters 29–40)

Items

The supplied chapters do not assign Blundell a permanent named item. His enormous wooden staff is his recurring personal equipment and magical focus, but the corpus gives it no individual name or separately cataloged powers. Kurt's life-preserving ring is a national treasure entrusted to him rather than a signature possession; its stored vitality is exhausted by repeated Time Stops. After Blundell's death, the remains of the staff pass to Sylvia as the symbol and focus of the next Blue Tower Master. (Chapters 29–35, 291, 336, and 366)