Albert Elfrieden

Albert Elfrieden (アルベルト・エルフリーデン, Aruberuto Erufurīden) is a character of Genjitsu Shugi Yuusha no Oukoku Saikenki series.

Appearance
Albert appears to be middle-aged man around the age of forty to fifty years with an average build. Before abdicating his throne to Souma, He wore a thick red cape and wore a gleaming gold crown atop his head. He seemed to lack the aura for a nation’s ruler, but was loved by the people under his rule.

Personality
Albert is kind and caring but indecisive and weak as a leader. He loves his family and deeply cares about the nation but his poor leadership and indecisiveness resulted in the Elfrieden Kingdom eroding.

Biography
There is little information about Albert from his youth. Prior to becoming king, Albert was a noble of a house in a mountainous region of the country. Due in part to its geographical location, his house was not a prosperous one, but also not seen by others as obtrusive.

When he was younger, Albert formed a friendship with Georg Carmine, which would go on later to create strong ties between the military and the royal family once Albert became king. Albert took up the hobby of gardening, an unusual choice for a noble, which would ultimately lead to his first interaction with his future wife, Princess Elisha. While he was visiting the castle garden, Elisha came across Albert writing notes of things he had learned from the royal gardener. In their initial interaction, Albert told Elisha that he did not have much in terms of martial or political aspects, but because of the large amount of land he had was his reasoning for his hobby. Albert was self conscious of his interests, however Elisha would encourage him to continue his pursuits.

When Elisha's father, the previous king, died, Elisha was caught up in the succession crisis. She would end up dodging numerous situations due to her magical ability, but was becoming quite distressed about surviving her situation overall. During another walk in the garden, she came upon Albert begging Georg to intervene in the succession crisis in order to save Elisha. While Georg wanted to aid Albert, he had to refuse due to the military remaining neutral. Elisha would approach Albert after this and thank him for his attempts. After not receiving any immediate warnings from her ability, Elisha asked Albert to take her to his domain, to which he agreed. The two would eventually marry and due to Albert's lack of political ambitions, Elisha was not targeted by the various factions vying for the throne, believing she had given up aspirations for it, which was true.

Shortly after finding out that he was to be a father, Albert and Elisha were visited by Excel Walter, who informed them that Elisha was the sole remaining heir to the throne. Despite Elisha's protests, mentioning that she had no desire for the throne, the crown was due to come to her. As a compromise, Elisha asked that the crown be passed instead to Albert, since their marriage would serve as validation to the claim. She harshly rationalized that Albert's meek demeanor for leadership would allow all sides that had been until recently feuding over the throne to calm down. Albert would reluctantly accept the crown, taking the surname Elfrieden.

Events proceeded with Albert as king of Elfrieden in a stable, but weak kingdom. When the Gran Chaos Empire demanded either funds for the nations fighting on the front lines against the Demon Lord's Domain or the summoning of a hero, Albert made the decision to attempt the hero summoning, which resulted in Kazuya Souma arriving in Elfrieden.

Albert would make Kazuya the Prime Minister of the kingdom, but would frequently reject his proposals due to fear of and pressure from corrupt nobles. During this time, Albert's daughter Liscia would fall in love with Kazuya and support him in his decisions. Due to the corrupt noble's pressure, Albert would dismiss Kazuya from the prime minister position and send both Liscia and Kazuya to the domain of his friend Georg Carmine. Unfortunately due to his actions, Elfrieden erupted into civil war and was invaded. The city of Randel, where Liscia, Kazuya, and Georg were was destroyed and the three supposedly perished. As the country collapsed around them, Elisha and Albert decided that they would utilize her magic ability to send their memories to their past selves and make different decisions. Shortly after they did, Albert and Elisha were rescued by Liscia and Kazuya, who had not died in Randel, and Naden, The five would flee to Duchess Excel's territory to attempt to rally the country back together. It is unknown what occurred afterwards in this timeline.

Receiving the memories from the previous timeline shortly after Kazuya's summoning, Albert changed his decision and abdicated the throne to Kazuya, adding his engagement to Liscia to secure the legitimacy of the claim and give Kazuya her support early in his reign. This decision created the current timeline of events. Albert would only tell his friend Georg of the previous timeline events at this time, setting in motion the chain of events the lead to Georg's rebellion against Kazuya. Albert and Elisha would stay around in the capital for some time, eventually revealing the previous timeline's events in summary to Kazuya (they did not know what occurred after they previous Elisha sent the memories).

Albert and Elisha would return to his previous domain in the mountains and have retired there. Liscia would join them there when she found herself pregnant with the twins until shortly after their birth. Albert currently spends most of his time within his own domain, but travels to the capital on occasion to visit his grandchildren.

Powers & Abilities
Albert is specifically noted as having no particularly special abilities or gifts.

Former King
Albert is the former king of Elfrieden and thus has some knowledge of high level government secrets.

Previous Memories
Albert has the memories of an alternate timeline where he decided not to abdicate the throne to Kazuya.