Baron Rückner

Baron Rückner was the main antagonist of the first part of the series.He was a baron and the finance auditor of the Helmut Kingdom. He is also the biological father of Rhodrich and the mastermind behind the attempted assassination of Wendelin von Benno Baumeister when he was still a baron.

Appearance
Rückner is a chubby middle-aged man with dirty blonde hair, dark yellow eyes, and a big nose. He always shown with a sinister and greedy look on his face and is very well-dressed.

Personality
Rückner is shown to be very selfish, greedy, and power-hungry. He's very manipulative and will stop at nothing to become richer.

Background
It is revealed that he had an affair with Rhodrich's mother who was the daughter of a merchant before Rhodrich's birth. Unfortunately, due to social differences, he wouldn't take her as his wife or mistress leading to Rhodrich being ostracized from nobility.

Plot
Five days after Wendelin and his group were venturing into the ancient underground ruins, Baron Rückner spreads a rumor stating that Wendelin and his group died. Hoping that he was dead, the Baron sends a messenger to the Baumeister family telling them of Wendelin's supposed death and recommending that the head of the Baumeister family let the eldest son become the new head of Wendelin's house. Unfortunately, his plan failed due to Wendelin surviving, but the Baron was not frustrated as it was part of his plan all along. When he thought that his plan was working, a rumor was spread about him conspiring to have Wendelin killed in the ruins. After the rumor was spread, the king summoned him to the palace, but he was never charged.

The Baron somehow knew the the eldest son of the Baumeister, Kurt harbors jealously and a grudge against Wendelin, so he took advantage of that by secretly giving Kurt a flute known as the Flute of the Dragon Tamer that would help with killing Wendelin. However, the flute was actually the cursed Flute of Malice. When the user plays it, it amplifies the negative energy in the area, in order to turn its player into a zombie, but it also kills them in the process. Unfortunately, this plan backfires as Kurt is swamped by the malice and becomes a zombie. Afterwards, the zombies that the flute created ransacked Baron Rückner's home killing him and his entire family.

Wendelin von Benno Baumeister
It is heavily implied that Ruckner harbored a deep resentment and is very envious about the amount of land he was assigned to develop. He initiated his attempted assassination and had spread rumors that he died in the ruins. All so that the land could be his and that he could develop it himself, if he accomplishes this, his power and authority would be (if not) better than his elder brother. But it bit him back in the end when he died by Kurt's hate.

Finance Minister Rückner
His brother. They were on extremely bad terms. Their relationship got so bad that it can't be repaired at all. It is heavily implied that he is super envious of him and wished that he was born first so that he could have had all the power and authority he possessed.

Kurt von Benno Baumeister
He treated Kurt as a pawn for his plan. He manipulated it so that Kurt will be framed for the attempted assassination of his younger brother. If they had succeeded, He would kill Kurt and take the land for himself. Kurt's grudge was such that he came to the capital and killed Rückner, his family and entourage.

Trivia
He finally recognized Rhodrich as his son as a way to get into the development of the Savage Lands.