Dein Phineas

A reoccurring character throughout the Episodes 01 through 03 who becomes a major antagonist for Flum and her friends.

Appearance
He has two primary appearances. He has civilian type clothing and adventurer clothing.

Personality
Dein was a prideful individual who was easily prone to anger and violence. If someone crosses him, he will not hesitate to show his wrath. In the manga, he had no qualms about harming defenseless girls if they say something that even remotely angered or annoyed him. He was also rough with Ink when he kidnapped her.

When it comes to dealing with his enemies, Dein is not above using cowardly methods to accomplish his goals. In the Light Novel, he would bribe corrupt official to join him in his attempts to murder Flum. While he has Flum occupied, he orders a number of his men attack Milkit even though she has no means of defending herself. In the manga, he taunts Flum while holding Milkit hostage, and he even forces her to drink poison. He then proceeds to sadistically torture Flum while she is weakened. He runs away when things are no longer going in his favor.

By contrast, he was relatively merciful to his subordinates, especially those that have served him well. When several of his subordinates were unable to capture Ink due to Flum’s interference, he was fine with it because he didn’t actually order them to capture Ink, and he understood Flum was too big of an obstacle for them to deal with. Instead, he focused on taking out Flum.

As his rivalry with Flum escalated throughout the first three Episodes, his personality became more wrathful. He was not above harming people Flum cared about just to get to her. In Episode 03, despite having Flum outnumbered, he sent a squad of men to murder Milkit. Additionally, he was fine with using slave children as living bombs partly because he knew Flum would have a hard time letting others die.

After Dein failed to kill Flum, he became desperate, which resulted in him becoming a lackey of the Church of Origin along with selling out his remaining loyal men. He was unable to accept responsibility for his own actions and quickly blames others for what happens. This was best seen with how he consistently blames Flum for his current predicaments rather than them being the results of his own actions.

History
He was once a nobleman, but his family fell. Soon he was the only known survivor of his family.

He became an Adventurer to make ends meet. The lack of a Guild Master in the West Guild enabled him to gain power over the West District not just in the guild be the entire territory. He also gained enough money to the point he could bribe guards in the Capital to do his bidding.

Dein eventually earned A Rank partly due to talking advantage and credit from other Adventurers. It earned him the nickname of ‘The Intrepid Scoundrel’ in the Light Novel or ‘The Valiant Coward’ in the Manga adaptation.

According to Episode 03, Dein had a history of crushing and/or blacklisting anyone who even remotely opposed him. He would have stores refuse to do business with his competition, and he wasn’t against getting corrupt guards to kill anyone he dislikes.

Abilities/Equipment
Legendary Equipment

Sword Skill

Episode 01
When he makes his first appearance, he puts up a friendly facade to Flum and Milkit. In actuality, he gets Y’lla to give Flum a D Ranked assignment rather than the trial F Ranked assignment she should get. He gleeful drinks at the thought Flum and Milkit were going to get killed.

Light Novel Version
Dein does not physically appear in this episode. Flum makes note that she didn’t notice him when she collected her reward for completing the trial assignment he put her on. Despite not appearing himself, several of his henchmen do.

While Flum and Milkit are shopping, they come across two of his men attempting to rob Leitch Mancathy. Their robbery is thwarted by Flum and Sara. While Sara considered letting them go, Flum pointed out it was likely they would rob more people unless they were punished, so they turn Dein’s men in to the authorities.

Dein became angered when he found out that his men were imprisoned. In retaliation, Dein has several of his men follow Flum’s group to the herb village to sabotage her. They also attempt to orca themselves on Milkit but Flum kills them before they can hurt Milkit.

At the end of the Episode, Flum acknowledges she will need to deal with Dein at some point to bring their newly formed rivalry to an end. However, she knew it wouldn’t be that day.

Manga Version
When Flum is obtaining her reward and beats up one of the other guild members, who suggested Flum slept with someone to get the job done, Dein silently has a drink while looking visibly annoyed that Flum and Milkit survived. Despite that, he does not get involved in the confrontation. Flum presumably didn’t notice he was there or she decided it was best not to confront him regarding his attempt to get her and Milkit killed.

Following the arrest of his men, Dein doesn’t send his men to go after Flum and Milkit as he did in the Light Novel. Instead, he is informed by his men when Flum and Milkit return to the Capital in Chapter 10 after she completed the Herb Quest and obtained her reward. The chapter ends with Dein making it clear he would be getting even with Flum.

During Chapter 11, Dein was possibly responsible for the two corrupt guards who harassed Flum when she was shopping before they were cut down by Ottilie Fohkelpi. In Chapter 12, Dein and his men ambush Sara and Milkit resulting in Sara being injured with Milkit being held captive when he confronts Flum. Milkit calls him out on his actions, and he kicks her unconscious. While Flum and Ottilie manage to cut down his men, Dein escapes with the unconscious Milkit in tow.

Episode 03
During the time skip between Episode 02 and 03, Dein and his men attempt to sabotage Flum’s career as an Adventure with mixed results. While they occasionally prevented her from being able to complete certain quests to prevent her from claiming the reward, Flum was able to do enough to advanced from F Rank to D Rank.

Dein makes his first appearance when his men inform him that Flum prevented her from abducting Ink Wreathcraft. While Dein doesn’t punish his men for this turn of events, he does decide he needs to take greater measures to deal with Flum.

Ultimately, his plans to kill Flum and a Milkit fall through. Many of his men were killed, and his organization collapses. Several of his men attempt to betray and turn him in, but he overpowers them.

Dein is forced to become a member of the church. He encounters Eterna and Milkit shopping. He tries to reveal information that would cause Eterna and Milkit to become targets of the eyes.

Enemies
Flum Apricot

Flum and Dein first met each other when he overheard Flum’s confrontation with Y'lla Jerishin, who was repentant to even consider giving Flum an F Ranked Quest for her trial assignment to become an Adventurer. Dein intervenes and portrays himself as a friendly, respectful person, who is willing to give Flum a chance to prove herself. He gets Y’lla to give Flum an assignment, and they shake hands before they depart. In actuality, he got Flum assigned to a Rank D assignment which was three times harder than a Rank F assignment. He gleefully drank at the idea that Flum and Milkit would be killed. Much to his chargin, they survived.

During their final confrontation, Flum outright tells Dein that his remaining subordinates were dead and turned into puppets for the Church. While Dein briefly feels guilty for this, he ends up blaming Flum for putting him in this situation.

Milkit

While they didn’t interact much in the Light Novel, Dein saw Milkit as a means to hurt Flum. During Episode 02, Dein ordered his men to attack Milkit after they sabotaged Flum’s quest. In Episode 03, while Dein is attempting to kill Flum, he floats about how he sent another group of men to burn down Flum’s house with Milkit in it. Additionally, if Milkit survived, they were free to do what they wanted to her. Later on, he attempts to tell Milkit information that would cause Milkit to be targeted by the Origin eyes and effectively mark her for death. Milkit on the other hand doesn’t like him or his men primarily because they are enemies to Flum.

This is changed somewhat in the manga. In Chapter 12 which adapts the tail end of Episode 02, Dein personally kidnaps Milkit and uses her as a hostage against Flum. When Milkit said something he didn’t like, he promptly kicked her unconscious.

Eterna Rinebow

Dein at first wasn’t aware that Eterna was a roommate of Flum, but she proved to be a thorn in Dein’s side. When he attempted to have his men kill Milkit, Eterna protected and wiped out his forces. The damage he took between his loses against Flum, Ottilie, and Eterna were contributing factors to his organization falling apart which made him desperate.

When they eventually meet, it is while Eterna is helping Milkit with shopping. He reveals information to both Eterna and Milkit that would make them targets for the Origin eyes. Much to his chargin, Eterna used her water magic to prevent Milkit from hearing the information, so she would be the only target. Ultimately, Dein’s attempt to kill Eterna failed.

After Flum turned Dein inside out, Eterna was more than willing to use Dein’s heart to save Ink’s life.

Ink Wreathcraft

Dein treated Ink quite horribly when he kidnapped her.

Adaptation Differences

 * In the Light Novel Version for Episode 01, it is indicated that Flum did not notice Dein in the guild. In the manga version, Dein makes a silent cameo looking annoyed that Flum and Milkit not only survived, but Flum successfully completed her assignment.
 * He does not physically appear in Episode 02, but he does in the manga version.

Trivia

 * Kiki stated in the author notes of Volume 03 that he does not like Dein.
 * The equipment Dein uses to escape is similar to the gear used in Attack on Titan.