Carlo

Biodata

Background / History

Carlo came from another world, a fact he disclosed after identifying Li Jiehao as a transmigrator inhabiting Jacob Hamil’s body. Despite their shared circumstances, he warned Li Jiehao that being fellow outsiders was no reason to trust one another. He also knew that speaking otherworldly languages could attract an entity that hunted transmigrators 90.

Although he looks young, Carlo claims to have lived long enough to struggle with remembering everyone he has known. He preserved Edward Lessing’s letters in chronological order so he could revisit their conversations. He attributes his longevity to a secret method that others cannot copy, rather than confirming Isaac’s suggestion that he extends his lifespan through dice checks 100.

Before hiring Isaac, Carlo had lost several employees: one still owed him money, another broke a leg on his first field assignment, and another quit because he could not tolerate Carlo’s personality. His search for a capable replacement also served a practical purpose—his ability requires other participants when his own checks fail 12 13.

Appearance

• Hair: Rare grayish-white hair, described under a streetlight during his confrontation with Fenn 8.
• Apparent age: A young man in his early twenties, despite his claims of considerable longevity 8 100.
• Clothing: Wears a trench coat or dark gray overcoat, frequently keeping his hands in his pockets 4 8 58.
• Disguises: Uses a burlap sack with eyeholes at the black market. He acknowledges that it deters casual recognition rather than determined identification 78.

Personality

Carlo is irreverent, provocative, and deliberately difficult to deal with. He rejects “Mr. Schuster” as sounding like a troublesome client, then objects to Isaac calling him “Carlo” before settling on “boss.” His humor includes presenting the bald Director Patrick as a “sunrise” and joking about feeding people to Fenri 16 36 41.

He values quick judgment more than ceremony. Carlo praises Isaac for gathering clues, recognizing deception, and resolving a supernatural encounter through deduction rather than attacking blindly. He is impatient with prolonged formalities and prefers employees who can assess uncertainty and still make decisions 12 13.

His apparent laziness coexists with careful planning. At the black market, he deliberately infuriates a buyer and seller so their emotions will provide precise targets for a tracking check. He also understands politics well, distinguishing a lack of interest in participating from a lack of understanding 40 81 82.

Carlo routinely jokes about abandoning or exploiting his employees, but he also equips and teaches them. He commissions Isaac’s Holy Silver sword cane, prepares a mobility aid for Spirit Vision training, and negotiates a Wonder as payment because a personal favor cannot be divided according to their commission agreement 41 46 51.

Abilities & Skills

All Checks

Carlo’s signature ability assigns a check value to a specified event and uses a dice roll to determine whether it occurs. A successful check can produce outcomes that would be impossible under ordinary circumstances 13.

Documented applications include:

• Materialization: Attempts to make an employment contract appear on a table; his initial roll of 21 fails against a check value of 15 12.
• Summoning: Directs Isaac through checks to obtain a carriage-pulling creature and later a Foul Spirit capable of controlling corpse-feeding maggots 17 18 67 68.
• Everyday utility: Heats water for tea instead of using the stove 40.
• Teleportation: Moves a carriage toward Mary the Shepherd’s approximate location. Omitting a height limit places it high above the clouds 59.
• Tracking: Follows emotional connections from people he has angered, manifesting them as threads leading back to their sources 81 82.
• Combat support: Gives Isaac checks that steady his aim during a carriage chase and later allow him to act while an incoming bullet moves through slowed time 24 84.
• True-name intervention: Successfully names a nameless demon “Nehir Elesha,” restoring an elderly human form and helping stabilize Elesha’s identity 139.

Check Domain

Check Domain extends Carlo’s ability across an area, allowing checks without physically placing the dice in another participant’s hands 62.

• Used during the confrontation with Mary the Shepherd 60 62.
• Carlo has a nosebleed afterward; Isaac suspects a cost beyond ordinary exhaustion, but Carlo does not explain it 62.
• Its exact range and resource requirements are not disclosed 62.

Character Cards

Carlo supplies forms that automatically generate personal information and numerical attributes when signed 14 93.

• Isaac’s card records Constitution, Strength, Agility, Charisma, Spirit, and Sanity 14.
• Attributes provide bonuses to relevant checks and can change through injury, mental strain, study, or training 14.
• He instructs Li Jiehao to use his real name on a separate form after signing an employment contract as Jacob Hamil; the resulting card identifies Li Jiehao as an eighteen-year-old student and false believer 93.
• Carlo evaluates the cards to assess employees’ strengths, vulnerabilities, and suitability for supernatural work 14 94.

Personal Die and Remote Observation

Carlo’s exclusive twenty-sided die is black crystal with white numbers that appear to emerge from within it 119.

• Only Carlo can use it as a substitute for a check 16 119.
• He has practiced controlling the force and angle of his throws to improve the likelihood of desired results, insisting that this is technique rather than cheating 16.
• An employee touching the die can provide him with a third-person view of their surroundings 119.
• He lends it to Isaac for his undercover assignment 119.

Longevity and Recovery

Carlo’s youthful appearance conceals an undisclosed means of living far beyond his apparent age 100.

• He states that the method cannot be copied by others 100.
• While testing Morzul’s ring, he briefly dies from its life-draining effect and recovers after its removal 104.
• He survives Isaac’s reflexive kick to the head, which he says would have broken an ordinary person’s neck 104.
• His precise age, recovery mechanism, and limits remain undisclosed 100 104.

Physical Strength and Supernatural Defense

Carlo is dangerous even without an openly demonstrated dice check 18.

• Punches a giant talking wolf hard enough to send it away; it subsequently returns as a cooperative black dog 18.
• Claims confidence in banishing the entity that hunts transmigrators, citing a secret trump card rather than explaining his method 97.
• Recognizes that Fenri is closer in essence to the hunter than most beings in the world and expects him to handle its manifested extension 96.

Investigation and Occult Knowledge

Carlo combines conventional deduction with extensive supernatural knowledge 46 72 93.

• Spirit Vision: Detects power within Morzul’s ring and teaches Isaac how to examine curses and spiritual structures 46 47 100.
• Political analysis: Explains the Western Territory’s agricultural monopolies, weakening noble privileges, and the Bureau’s acquisition of authority from churches and police 38 39.
• Case analysis: Identifies Morris’s rapid arrival, suggestive questioning, and relevant expertise as reasons to suspect him in the Corotty attack 72.
• Occult instruction: Explains learned supernatural skills, divine gifts, and rare innate powers, as well as liches, vampires, and spirit entities 68 93 128.

Equipment / Weapons / Items

• Dark-gold dice — The paired dice used for standard All Checks rolls and shared attempts 12 13 17.
• Black crystal twenty-sided die — Carlo’s personal check die and a means of remotely observing an employee in contact with it 16 119.
• Ebony cane / Holy Silver sword cane — Initially purchased to strike Fenn, then modified to conceal a Holy Silver blade. Carlo lends it to Isaac rather than transferring ownership 8 41.
• Dark-green special pass — Secures passage through Palmer’s gate without further questioning of Carlo or Isaac 16.
• Joint Investigation Bureau credentials — Identifies him to police as Schuster of Section Nine 85.
• Edward Lessing’s letters and brass key — Preserves Lessing’s correspondence and later gives Isaac the key to the destroyed house at 122 Red Maple Street 100.

Relationships

• Isaac Lessing — Employee, investigator, and supernatural trainee. Carlo tests his judgment at Amorton Manor, hires him on a seventy-percent commission share with room and board, and relies on him to make additional checks 11 12 13.
• Edward Lessing — Long-standing acquaintance whose correspondence Carlo preserves. He knows about Lessing’s combat training and the duel that enabled him to leave Vista 41 100.
• Vilka — An associate with whom he exchanges insults and threats, despite cooperating on dangerous work. He knows her concealed identity and negotiates both a future favor and a Wonder for assisting against Mary 15 32 50 51.
• Li Jiehao / Jacob Hamil — Fellow transmigrator and later non-staff agent, hired for two pounds a week. Carlo warns him about the hunter and investigates the circumstances of his arrival 90 93 94.
• Fenri — A supernatural black dog Carlo intimidates into pulling their carriage. Carlo permits him to remain with Isaac but forbids him from entering the agency’s second floor 18 19 28.
• Commander Byrne — Social and professional contact. Carlo says cards, gossip, and shared mockery helped them become close 65.
• Morris — Bureau colleague with a grievance against Carlo: a critical failure destroyed the corpse central to Morris’s resurrection plan. Carlo nevertheless respects his expertise in Spirit Body research 57.
• Nehir Elesha — Scholar who had written to Carlo before traveling to Vista. Carlo later restores stability to the demon bearing Elesha’s soul by granting it his true name 139.
• Patch — Cat hostile toward Carlo, who admits to wiping his hands on Patch and disturbing freshly groomed fur 54.

Story Role / Major Arcs

Notable Quotes

“Only by refusing to revere the gods can one master fate... Oh, that sounds so pretentious.” 13

“Not bothering to care and not understanding are two different things.” 40

“Right now, you're a criminal suspect under arrest, not a partner at the negotiating table.” 143