Lloyd Pollan

Lloyd Pollan is Andras's Seventh Sword, a cunning sword master whose Pathfinder Aura Ability identifies the route toward an immediate objective. His talent for surviving adverse situations fails against Paragranum, who captures and converts him into experimental material; the later automaton Gladio retains Lloyd-derived components and abilities but not Lloyd's ego or personal continuity.

Biography

Elvenheim, Kargas, and the Pirate Archipelago

Lloyd arrives in Meltor as one of two masters escorting Andras's delegation. During Rebecca's duel with Theodore Miller, he recognizes Theodore's concealed potential and leaks killing intent strongly enough to delay the young magician's attack. He then leaves the delegation's dinner to confront Theodore privately. Lloyd admits that he wants to kill Theodore because the young man can plausibly equal the Seven Swords in the future, and he is willing to risk war to remove that threat; only Pan Helliones's warning and the current diplomatic setting keep him from acting. (Chapters 86–89)

Lloyd's unauthorized pursuit forces Andras to apologize and further weakens its position in the armistice negotiations. He leaves after effectively promising that Theodore may be killed later, but has no direct role in Theodore's subsequent Kargas or Pirate Archipelago campaigns. The later comparison to Lloyd's killing intent is a memory used to measure another threat, not a new appearance. (Chapters 91 and 103)

Eastern Legacies, Quattro, and the Soldun Civil War

Lloyd later serves Prince Fermut while retaining enough outside ties that the prince calls him a “bat-like” opportunist and physically forces him to investigate ruins in the Meuse Desert. Pathfinder locates an entrance through defenses that resist master-level force. When Meltor's party follows into Paracelsus's laboratory, Lloyd abandons his subordinates to escape Mercurius, then uses Pathfinder to pass linked spells, distinguish Mujak's real sword from materialized illusions, and exploit the other master's inexperience. He retreats when attrition turns unfavorable, but his accurate analysis remains short-ranged: the ability shows how to win an immediate exchange, not how to escape the ruin as a whole. Paragranum exploits that blind spot, letting Pathfinder lead Lloyd along a locally successful road that ends inside her controlled space, and takes him as experimental material. (Chapters 183, 191, and 193–199)

Paragranum combines Lloyd's soul and central nervous system with an ancient automaton body. The result resembles him and can use Pathfinder in a limited form, but appraisal gives it only restricted autonomy; Theodore names it Gladio, and the narration explicitly states that Lloyd's ego has scattered while a mechanical will obeys its new owner. Gladio's posture preserves traces of Lloyd's imperial loyalty, not restored consciousness. It later serves Theodore and is disabled by Zest Speitem, whose spatial sword overwhelms Pathfinder in two seconds. These acts do not extend Lloyd's biography as a living agent: the machine can read paths, fight, and receive commands, while Lloyd can no longer choose, object, or form goals, and Andras counts him among the dead. (Chapters 213, 216, 221, 225–226, and 237)

East Continent and the Northern War

After Zest damages Gladio, Paragranum repairs and redesigns the machine with eastern materials. One proposal could produce three times Lloyd's former combat power but would consume more than ten times the resources and last only thirty minutes, so Theodore rejects it as impractical. The selected upgrade instead makes Gladio durable enough to block multiple spatial cuts during the northern war. Lloyd contributes no decision to this process; his former power is merely the engineering baseline. (Chapters 267–268)

Chapter 275 compares Randolph's learned ability to read battlefield patterns with Lloyd's supernatural Pathfinder but does not restore Lloyd or show Gladio acting. The distinction is important: Randolph's judgment comes from experience and remains his own agency, whereas Pathfinder survives as a function engraved into a machine after Lloyd's death. (Chapter 275)

Prometheus and the Eastern Apocalypse

Five years later Gladio guards Theodore's research center. Repeated modifications have brought the automaton into master-level range while preserving Lloyd's Aura Ability and granting absolute loyalty. It receives reports and obeys Theodore through the owner contract, but the chapter gives no evidence that Lloyd's scattered ego has returned. Lloyd therefore remains deceased; only a Lloyd-derived combat system persists into this era. (Chapter 338)

Appearance and personality

Lloyd is described as a black-haired knight with a thin jaw and a cunning, relaxed appearance. He smiles frivolously, speaks cheekily even to Fermut, and often presents retreat or self-interest as casual humor. Under genuine threat—especially when Paragranum exposes knowledge of Pathfinder—his confidence collapses into visible fear, revealing how strongly his composure depends on believing that an escape route still exists. (Chapters 89, 183, 191, and 193–198)

He is observant, calculating, and unsentimental about abandoning others. Lloyd identifies Theodore as a future strategic threat, provokes Mujak into a bad exchange, and reviews fights afterward to understand why he won. He is neither blindly loyal nor wholly rebellious: he serves the emperor, maneuvers between factions, mocks Fermut, and obeys when coercion makes refusal fatal. His defining limitation is psychological as well as supernatural—he trusts the next successful path even when it leads toward consequences outside the ability's horizon. (Chapters 86–91, 183–196)

Magic, abilities, and martial skills

Lloyd is a sword master whose aura is dark turquoise. He possesses the reinforced body, speed, perception, and weapon coating associated with that rank, but his reputation rests on mission success rather than supreme destructive force. He can pierce defenses, evade coordinated spells by precise movement, and wound another master while under pressure. He lacks specialized magical defense, recognizes when attrition favors his opponent, and retreats rather than treating master rank as invulnerability. (Chapters 191 and 193–196)

His Aura Ability, Pathfinder, displays the “road” that reaches a chosen near-term goal. It finds safe steps through traps and attack patterns, distinguishes a real threat from illusions, exposes openings, and can predict an opponent one or two beats ahead. This lets Lloyd defeat several masters and complete missions that brute force cannot solve. The ability does not reveal all future consequences. It may lead to a correct door, strike, or escape from one exchange while failing to show that the route ends in a larger trap; Paragranum defeats him by exploiting precisely that short horizon. (Chapters 191 and 195–199)

Gladio inherits a limited, mechanically executed Pathfinder through Lloyd's preserved soul and nervous system. In its first form the automaton can block Zest's opening path but cannot generate a counterattack before the next spatial cut. Repairs and modifications later improve its range and combat performance. Those improvements belong to Gladio's construction and Theodore's command system, not to Lloyd learning after death. (Chapters 216, 237, 267–280, and 338)

Power progression

Relationships

• Theodore Miller: Lloyd identifies Theodore as a future enemy worth killing and threatens him during the Andras delegation. They never receive the promised personal duel. After Lloyd's conversion, Theodore accepts ownership of the automaton made from him and names it Gladio, explicitly recognizing that Lloyd's person no longer exists. (Chapters 86–91 and 216)
• Prince Fermut: Lloyd works for Fermut but is not trusted. He jokes at the prince's expense and moves between imperial factions, while Fermut values him as a tool and uses overwhelming force to compel the Meuse Desert mission. That order ultimately places Lloyd in Paragranum's laboratory and leads to his destruction. (Chapters 183 and 191–199)
• Paragranum: Paragranum is the first opponent to recognize Pathfinder by name and understand its structural weakness. She traps Lloyd, claims him as material, and incorporates his neural and soul components into an automaton. Their relationship is captor and experimental subject; Lloyd gives no consent and survives neither as an ego nor an autonomous will. (Chapters 196–199 and 213–216)
• Mujak: Mujak is Lloyd's principal direct opponent inside the ruins. Lloyd reads through his illusions, wounds him by provoking an inexperienced attack, and withdraws before the supporting magicians can turn the fight into attrition. The tactical victory delays Meltor's party but also carries Lloyd deeper into Paragranum's trap. (Chapters 195–196)
• Zest Speitem: Zest fights Gladio rather than the living Lloyd. He overwhelms the Lloyd-derived Pathfinder and disables the first automaton body, while a later redesign can block several of his attacks. The encounters measure Lloyd's preserved combat pattern against Zest without making the two machines—or the machine and man—the same identity. (Chapters 237 and 267–280)

Items

Lloyd has no permanent named inventory item required by the supplied link manifest. He carries a sword through which he channels aura and Pathfinder-guided attacks, but the weapon receives no unique identity or independent supernatural property. (Chapters 86–89 and 191–196)

The summoning bracelet associated with Gladio belongs first to Paragranum and then to Theodore, not to Lloyd. Likewise, Gladio's automaton body is constructed from ancient machinery plus Lloyd-derived biological and soul materials; it is a successor weapon made from him, not an item he owns or willingly uses. (Chapters 216, 237, and 267–268)