Zola

Zola (ゾラ) was the second official wife of Balcus but eventually divorced by Balcus during war event between Holfort Kingdom & The Principality.

Appearance
She has long noble tangled styled hair. She is often shown with earings and vests with her own jewelry across her body to show her supremacy as a noblewoman.

Personality
Zola is an extreme case of out-of-control behaviors of Holfort noblewomen from viscount/baron families. As one would expect from a fanatic believer in Female Supremacy, Zola is an oppressive, vicious misandrist who sees men as livestock for her to use and discard as she pleases. Even her biological son is not an exception to her abusive treatment.

In addition to her misandristic view, Zola also displayed several worst traits of Holfort noble lady: cruel, arrogant, unfaithful, and greedy.


 * She had no qualms about forcing Leon into her and her colleagues' sinister marriage scheme, which would result in his death. She and her colleague would then collect the pension that is given to the widows of those whose husbands had perished in battle.
 * Zola demanded all the treasures and Lost Items that Leon had accumulated during his journey as an Adventurer. However, due to Adventurer Laws of the Holfort Kingdom, any wealth and items that Leon had gained, aside from a sizeable fee to the Adventurer's Guild, were legally Leon's to keep, and he had no obligation to give Zola any of it.
 * Any money that Leon did give to his family was used to improve on the baron's land and thereby prevented Zola from taking any of it.
 * Zola is incredibly overbearing and abusive to anyone she deems beneath her station.
 * Like many low-class noblewomen, Zola had no shame about owning exclusive servants and openly cheating on her husband.
 * Zola is an avaricious person. Before the kingdom's reform, she took full advantage of the preferential policy toward women to extort a large sum of money from the Bartfort family. So she could continue her lavish lifestyle in the capital. At one point, the Bartforts struggled to find food and needed to sell everything they could to gather enough money.
 * Demanding a huge donation to both the Temple and herself after coming to retrieve the Saint's Necklace.

It would also be heavily implied that her two children's horrible personalities are due to her terrible parenting. Zola never showed them genuine love and care as her children, with her only treating her daughter slightly better due to her gender.

Selfishness is, perhaps, her worst trait. Zola is ready to sacrifice anyone for her benefit, including her biological children. After the coup attempt failed, she turned Rutart into a monster, hoping to use him as a distraction for her escape. Though in the end, her action backfired horrifically.

Volume 1
Zola appears with her children the day Leon regains his memories of his past life.

10 years later, Zola arranged to marry Leon off through her connection with the Forest of the Ladies. However, his supposed partner was 50 years old daughter of a baron household who had gone through seven marriages. Moreover, she already had children who were much older than Leon. In reality, this arranged marriage was a part of the fraudulent scheme of Zola and her associations. They planned to marry Leon off and then send him to die in some dangerous tasks. Hence, they could collect compensation from the palace.

Leon and Balcus convinced her to postpone the marriage in exchange for them paying her the money she would have made from it. Determined to avoid becoming her victim, Leon thus resolved to go adventure and gather enough money.

She is present when Leon arrives back with Luxion and immediately demands that the boy hand over everything he acquired while adventuring to her. Leon refuses, as adventures have total ownership of all items acquired while adventuring under the law.

Zola arrived at the Bartfort Household, along with Merce and Rutart, on the same day as Leon returned home. She complained to Balcus about all the trouble Leon had caused in the Royal Capital. Leon finally came home, along with Angelica. Unaware of who she was, Zola acted rudely toward her out of habit. After realizing that Angelica was Duke Redgrave's daughter, Zola took the opposite attitude and started treating her courteously.

When Angelica asked Zola why the eldest son, Rutart, did not perform his household duties and why is she constantly away from the residence. Zola tried to dodge the question and asked Angelica the purpose of her visit. Angelica replied that she had come for sightseeing and would stay at Leon's home until her household contacted her. After the meeting, Zola was flustered and returned to the Royal Capital the next day with her children.

Volume 3
After the disastrous defeat of the Royal Fleet, Zola was among the nobles attempting to flee the Royal Capital. She brought Merce, Rutart, and several associates to the harbor and tried forcing her way onto the Bartfort's ship. During the heated argument, Balcus attempted to recruit Rutart into the war. However, the "eldest" son hid behind his mother, who refused Balcus's demand. Still, when Balcus continued pressuring her, Zola snapped and shouted at Balcus that he wasn't Rutart biological father and thus had no authority over him. Realizing her mistake of accidentally revealing her son's true parentage, she quickly tried to backtrack her statement. Unfortunately, Balcus had no interest in hearing it and told his knights to drive Zola's group off.

Balcus eventually divorced Zola as she was stripped of her noble status for desertion, and the Holfort Kingdom abolished its preferential treatment for women. Even worse, Zola lost all her fortunes after one Principality's ship crashed upon her house, leaving her and her children penniless.

Volume 9
Zola appeared again one year after the war with the principality. She and her family were with the Forest of Ladies; They had no choice but to rely on the organization since they had lost all their status and wealth. However, other members treated Zola's family contemptibly because of their past connection with Leon. She practically worked as a servant and had to wear the plain clothes of commoners instead of the noble dresses.

Zola presented in a meeting between the organization executives and Gabino, an agent from the Rachelle Holy Kingdom. They discussed a plan to overthrow the Holfort royal family. When Gabino mentioned Leon's name, the executives quickly took out their frustration on Zola, using her as a stress reliever. After the meeting, the executives harshly reminded Zola not to fail her mission. Zola grudgingly bowed down and endured the humiliation. She then swore vengeance against the Bartfort family in her mind.

During the coup attempt, Zola tasked Rutart to kidnap one of Leon's fiancée. But when she returned to the hideout, she learned that Rutart could only kidnap Jenna and Finley. Rutart's failure infuriated Zola as she assumed Leon wouldn't care for his two sisters. Unbeknownst to them, their organization's plot had failed; the kingdom successfully arrested the executives before they could escape from the capital.

In their frustration, Merce and Rutart began beating Jenna and Finley. Zola mockingly watched the Bartfort sisters and only reminded her children not to kill them. She then sat on a chair and considered presenting Balcus with his daughter's corpse as revenge.

Before she could do anything further, Leon arrived with Luxion and Oscar at the hideout. Zola and Merce watched in terror while the furious Leon beat Rutart to a pulp with the gun. When Leon finally turned to them, Zola pretended to be tough and threatened Leon as she did not doubt the success of their plan. Leon only responded with a snicker. Offended by his attitude, Zola started shouting at him in a shrill voice. Zola and Merce, however, fell into despair when Leon informed them that their plot had already failed.

The vengeful Finley charged at the pair the next moment and mercilessly beat them. After Finley stopped her rampage, Zola and Merce were lying on the ground, battered and badly injured. When her worrying son came close to her, Zola stabbed him with a piece of demonic armor. She intended to use him as a distraction so that she could escape. In contrast to her expectation, Rutart did not go after Leon. He instead clung to them, desperate for help. Zola and her daughter were ultimately devoured by Rutart, who transformed into a monster.

Family
Although she was against him fighting in the war to the point she accidentally revealed his real heritage, Zola saw him nothing more than a disposable tool to acquire more power and wealth, as to how she viewed all men.
 * Rutart

Later on, Zola still took Rutart in her custody and had him to disguise as a garden tenant for the school to take any girl who wants to have the old rule to be returned. During the war, it is further revealed on how badly Zola treat Rutart without proper love, not like what she does towards Merce. Ironically, Zola is killed by Rutart as a monster without self awareness when she turns him into a monster.

It is yet to be known on how far Zola cares for Merce, but Zola praises her for being able to seduce King Roland and poisoned him in secret. But with Merce shows on how she disgusted on the family bond between Jenna and Finley, it is strongly suggested that Zola is not kind towards Merce too, although Rutart is treated worse than her.
 * Merce

Ex Family
Because she sees Luce’s sons as stupid and worthless, she has no problem with Leon dying in battle or being sold to a fifty-year old woman, all in order to acquire more money.

Zola has no real love for Balcus. She sees him and his children by Luce as nothing more but means to acquire more wealth for her lavish lifestyle.
 * Balcus Fou Bartfort

Just as Zola has no real love for Balcus, she doesn't have love towards Leon. However, she bears a strong hatred towards Leon more than towards Balcus as Leon is responsible to turn the life of Bartfort's family, and able to make Balcus to be brave enough for divorcing Zola since Leon has made his family to be able to live even without Zola's share of wealth. She is especially antagonistic towards Leon due to him refusing to give her any of his wealth as she believes she is entitled to it. Her hatred of him reached its peak after Balcus divorced her and she loses her wealth and title after the second invasion of the principality. She was planning to have the entire Bartfort family executed if the coup against the Royal Family had succeeded.
 * Leon Fou Bartfort

Zola is unaware that she is antagonized badly by Finley.
 * Finley Fou Bartfort

Trivia

 * She likes to have a private lesson with her servants.