Handel

Biodata

Feature	Value
Name	Handel Linton (亨德尔) 150
Alias(es)	Brooke — an identity assigned by Mulan while protecting Moor 52 131 133
Species/Race	Human; later becomes a fully fledged Supernatural Being 90 232
Gender	Male 42
Origin	Digo; born into a minor noble family 42
Affiliation	Black Castle; Dierjia’s Forward Legion; Special Security Department 60 187 275
Occupation/Role	Mulan Jonester’s personal courier and attendant; Black Castle student; Magic Detective; imperial security inspector 42 44 231 232 275
Status	Alive at his latest documented appearance, participating in the operation against Owen 338
First Appearance	Chapter 42, “Eyes” 42

Power Progression

Stage / Realm / Level	Chapter	Notes
Physical Awakening stage	90	Already possesses awakened bodily abilities. Mulan advises him to combine firearms with close combat to use them effectively; the original breakthrough is not shown.
Threshold Magic Detective	231 232	Near graduation and already at the threshold of advancement. Mulan gives him an Awakening Potion during an open class, triggering a trial beneath the crushing “weight of fate.”
Fully fledged Supernatural Being — Magic Detective path	232	Overcomes his insecurity and stands against the destiny star. The Book of Dawn marks the star, which burns as Handel completes his breakthrough; his deep-blue magic power erupts in a tornado. No numerical tier is stated.

Background / History

Handel comes from a minor noble family in Digo. Through personal effort and connections, he obtains a position at the Black Castle, viewing it as one of the few opportunities available to escape an unremarkable life. Despite knowing that curiosity about the Otherworld is dangerous, he refuses to settle for mediocrity 42.

Initially assigned as Mulan Jonester’s personal courier, Handel becomes his attendant after Mulan assesses him. He serves entirely under Mulan, receiving both an imperial base salary and additional wages from his employer. His familiarity with Digo makes him useful on Mulan’s first assignments outside the Castle 42 44.

At the York District Police Station, Handel handles paperwork, errands, and investigations. After a short period of guidance, he takes on almost half of Mulan’s workload and routinely pays carriage fares himself. Although he considers asking Mulan to stop paying him because of Mulan’s financial difficulties, Mulan never misses his wages 43 46 49 50.

Appearance

Handel initially appears as a nervous but eager young man, half a head shorter than Mulan. By his service in the Special Security Department, he is described as tall and well-built 42 275.

• Hair: Dark blond 42.
• Eyes: Pale blue 42.
• Early clothing: A uniform resembling a boys’ school uniform, paired with a round-crowned, Dierjia military-style cap 42.
• Later uniform: The distinctive uniform of the Special Security Department, worn when its inspectors need to make their official presence known 275.

Personality

Handel is ambitious, competitive, and eager to prove himself. His initial fear of the Black Castle’s inhabitants and rumors does not outweigh his desire to enter the mystical world. When offered the chance to become a student, he combines that ambition with an explicit pledge of continued obedience to Mulan 42 43 58.

His confidence conceals a persistent sense of inferiority. During his advancement trial, he remembers being overshadowed throughout his life and questions whether his achievements merely reflect Mulan’s connections, tutoring, and favoritism. He overcomes those doubts by drawing strength from his classmates’ concern, his professor’s faith, and his own courage 232.

Handel is loyal, practical, and increasingly compassionate. Protecting Moor initially exposes the limits of his aristocratic outlook: he admires Moor’s integrity but struggles to understand sacrificing oneself for ordinary people. A nightmare of exploited workers and neglected soldiers deepens his understanding. Later, he quietly helps fund an injured worker’s medicine while remaining uneasy about his official side’s opposition to the Workers’ Party 132 133 324.

Abilities & Skills

Exceptional Senses

Handel’s extraordinary sense of smell is evident well before his full supernatural breakthrough 83 143.

• Detects blood while searching a train for an Undead attacker 83.
• Distinguishes a useful current amid the foul sensations of the Otherworld and leads fellow students toward it 140.
• Uses smell to help his group search for a “door” during an Otherworld examination 143.
• Notices that something is wrong with coffee served to Mulan and immediately pursues the attendant 321.
• Tracks Owen using the scent of his pen and recognizes the unnatural stench of a city’s mutated inhabitants 337.

Magic Detective Perception

The Magic Detective is a fate-path profession built around extraordinary perception. It combines scents, colors, behavioral logic, and other information to discern a person’s movements and patterns, particularly in combat 231.

• Handel already displays exceptional eyesight while at the profession’s threshold, making out distant classmates and professors during his destiny trial 232.
• Later tracking work combines sensory clues with active magic rather than relying on smell alone 275 322 337.
• His perception does not make him immune to hostile powers: Owen’s gray-white domain slows him alongside Barton 338.

Magical Tracking

Handel can activate a tracking ability using a supplied clue 322.

• Produces faint, multicolored smoke from a scrap handed to him by Mulan 322.
• Murmurs “Show me the way…” as several smoke trails spread into the distance 322.
• His eyes glow red, allowing him to continue seeing some of the trails after they disappear from ordinary view 322.

Fate Influence

Handel demonstrates a small, precise application of fate when helping impoverished workers 324.

• Releases a silver coin that rolls in a broad loop and stops at a Workers’ Party representative’s feet 324.
• Describes the result as “the power of fate,” allowing him to offer help without openly approaching the group 324.

Combat

Handel develops from a firearm-dependent assistant into a fighter capable of confronting supernatural enemies 90 193.

• Possesses strength beyond that of ordinary people, demonstrated when a much larger tavern patron tries to knock him from his seat 131.
• Uses a dagger during the seizure of the Shallow River bridge outpost 187.
• Shatters a building’s front door with a punch during operations in Kingsbia 191.
• Kills two Werewolves during the assault on Lorint 193.
• His early reliance on a gun is a limitation Mulan specifically urges him to correct through close-combat training 90.

Investigation and Field Support

• Handles case-closing paperwork from beginning to end and assists the York District Police Station with cases 46 49.
• Independently follows suspects before regrouping with Mulan 51.
• Checks surroundings before discussing sensitive information and falls silent when servants return 89 92.
• Controls and reassures frightened horses while driving a carriage through a Werewolf-held mine 94.
• Helps Mulan teach Shire basic supernatural knowledge and prepare an accessible reading list 102.

Equipment / Weapons / Items

• Pistol and anti-Undead ammunition — Carries a gun inside his coat. His early special bullets have silver-plated tips soaked in Holy Water; he has few available and initially has not loaded them when the train threat appears 83.
• Dagger — Used during the Forward Legion’s bridge seizure 187.
• Proof of Magic Power — A personalized document from Mulan identifying his talent and providing guidance for training and growth 150.
• Awakening Potion — Given by Mulan and consumed during the open-class advancement trial 231.
• Owen’s pen — Used as a scent clue during the mission into Bach 337.
• Supplies left with Moor — Twenty Gold Di melted into gold pellets, local currency worth roughly two Gold Di, two books on supernatural dangers, a revolver, ordinary ammunition, and three rare 12.7 mm alchemical Custom Silver Bullets 133.

Relationships

• Mulan Jonester — Employer, professor, mentor, and trusted commander. Handel receives private tutoring and important assignments from him. Mulan’s faith helps sustain Handel through his advancement, though Handel remains outside some of Mulan’s secrets 44 61 81 232 337.
• Moor — Initially a protection assignment, later a respected friend. Their journey challenges Handel’s assumptions about class and idealism; Handel equips Moor for independent life before reluctantly leaving him 131 132 133.
• Marlin — Fellow member of the Dierjia contingent. She notices his discomfort over the Workers’ Party and teasingly asks whether he used fate to arrange their pairing 324.
• Upton — Friend and fellow student who follows Handel during an Otherworld examination and later coordinates with him in Kingsbia 140 143 191.
• Gena, Ewan, Malinda, and Louise — Fellow students who form a friendly group around Handel as they adjust to life at the Black Castle 62.
• Benjamin and Barton — Fellow imperial security inspectors and operational companions 275 321.
• Shire — Companion during the mine infiltration and recipient of basic supernatural lessons jointly taught by Handel and Mulan 94 95 102.
• Farolynch — Traveling companion in the Shire investigation. Handel initially becomes wary when Farolynch shields himself from sunlight, and later helps teach lessons that Farolynch attends 92 102.

Story Role / Major Arcs

Entering the Mystical World

After witnessing an Evil Spirit case, Handel remains excited rather than deterred by the danger. Mulan warns him against investigating such matters alone 46.

Following the Black Castle attack, Mulan offers him a choice: remain an assistant without returning to the Castle, or seek admission as a student. Handel reports that eating a book’s title page caused nightmares but no lasting discomfort, then chooses the mystical world. He joins the new class as a late addition and quickly realizes that Mulan will be his professor rather than his classmate 58 60 61.

Train Attack and Shire Investigation

• Helps locate the vampire threat aboard the train through the smell of blood and prepares special ammunition 83.
• Joins Mulan in investigating Shire’s secretive residents and Baron Shire’s suspicious behavior 89 90.
• Deliberately cuts his finger at breakfast to test the baron’s reaction to blood 91.
• Drives the group into the Werewolf mine while Shire maintains their cover, then witnesses the operation’s explosive conclusion 94 95.
• Helps provide Shire with basic instruction about the supernatural world afterward 102.

Protecting Moor

Mulan assigns Handel to escort Moor out of Digo and settle him safely. Unrest delays their journey, and they eventually stop in Doya, an industrial city in Bach. A hostile tavern encounter ends with Moor treating the injured aggressor, winning the room’s respect and giving them a safer place to stay 81 130 131 133.

Handel’s doubts about Moor’s selflessness culminate in a vivid nightmare of miners, wounded soldiers, and factory workers suffering under unequal social conditions. Mulan’s distant “resonance” appears connected to the experience. Before returning to Digo, Handel leaves Moor money, contacts, books, weapons, and Mulan’s encouragement 132 133.

Black Castle Examinations

• Uses experience gained through protecting Moor to remain comparatively calm when students encounter the Otherworld 140.
• Leads friends using his sense of smell, then works with them to find an exit and consider confronting monsters directly 140 143.
• Is among the first students to receive a personalized Proof of Magic Power 150.

Forward Legion Campaign

Handel participates in securing the Shallow River bridge, helping prevent Kingsbia from destroying a crossing needed by Dierjia’s tanks and supplies. He later coordinates a building search with Upton and soldiers, reassuring frightened children that nonthreatening civilians will not be harmed 187 191.

At Lorint, he kills two Werewolves and plants the Forward Legion’s banner on a watchtower. Watching the enemy collapse, he recognizes how far he has progressed since his earlier helplessness aboard the train—and how different the one-sided victory is from the brutal struggle he expected 193.

Public Advancement

Selected first for Mulan’s advancement class, Handel drinks an Awakening Potion beside the Book of Dawn. A vast platinum destiny star forces him toward the ground and brings his deepest insecurities to the surface. He rejects the role of someone who exists merely to make others shine, declares that he will shatter destiny, and completes his transformation before his cheering classmates 231 232.

Imperial Security and Later Missions

• Serves as an official inspector in the newly established Special Security Department, which answers directly to the Royal Family and is jointly administered by the Magic Department 275.
• Detects suspicious coffee and helps track enemies during the Ilkhan mission 321 322.
• Secretly contributes to an injured worker’s medicine while wrestling with possible connections between Moor and the Workers’ Party 324.
• Tracks Owen into a mutated city in Bach and participates in the fortress assault, where Owen’s unfamiliar power temporarily slows him 337 338.

Notable Quotes

“I know, but this is one of the few opportunities within my reach. I don't want to spend my whole life being mediocre!” 42

“Lord Jonester, I want to enter that world, but I will always obey your commands!” 58

“I am the man who will shatter destiny!” 232

“I just accidentally let go. The rest was the power of fate.” 324