Schmelman Bach

Schmelman Bach (Shumeruman Bahha) is a character introduced in Plunderer. He is one of the instructors of 13th Special Military Forces School 300 years ago. He also served as the final antagonist of the series in the later chapters, dubs "The World's Enemy" (全世界の敵).

It was later revealed that the one who appears in the present time wasn't him. Schmelman in the present time was in fact, a clone of him created by Firenda.

Appearance
Schmelman is a young man with long blonde hair and red eyes similar to Licht's. His eyes often closed and only open when showing hostility, possibly a habit left over from his younger days as his mother would beat him if he showed her his eyes. During the period seen back in time, Schmelman can be seen wearing a uniform similar to his current one albeit different insignia (United Nations) and the rank of Major. After the Abandonment War, Schmelman can be seen wearing the Special Service uniform and bearing the Field Marshal title. Schmelman is also seen wearing a monocle though it is unknown if he has vision problem or just to hide his eye that had been injured when he was young.

In the anime, Schmelman is shown to have heterochromia and his eyes would only turn red when he shows his killing intent or angered.

Personality
Schmelman is generally portrayed as a calm and collected individual, rarely letting his emotions surface and able to adapt to situations. However, despite the fact Schmelman showed himself to be calm and always smiling, he is also extremely violent once his bloodlust has taken over, as demonstrated when he killed his mother.

During the period seen back in time, Schmelman displayed genuine concern for members of Class A and went out of his way to train them individually. Schmelman is also very fond of children, shown by his affection toward Class A.

Past Event
In Schmelman's childhood, due to his father's divorce, his mother hated him. His mother always got drunk and beat him for having the same eyes as his father. Schmelman, to prevent getting in trouble, tries to keep his eyes close so that his mother won't beat him. Then, eventually she grabs a knife to gouge them out, managing to get one. At that time, Schmelman's gene awoke, which caused him to kill his mother by accident. After that incident, Schmelman was sent to the orphanage.

As Schmelman grew older, he became a soldier and married. His dream was to have a lovely family and reading a storybook to his child. One day, when Schmelman returns home, he discovers that his wife committed suicide. She leaves him a bunch of notes, apologizing for the fact she can't get pregnant and raise a child for him. Although it's revealed that Schmelman's body might have some problems that cause him to be infertile.

Sometime later, Schmelman moved to Japan and become one of the instructors of 13th Special Military Forces School.

During the enrollment ceremony, Schmelman showed up and read a storybook for the newbie soldiers. He soon stops reading the storybook after Alexandrov Grigorovich "killed" Ichinose Saki. After some rioting from the new recruits, Schmelman was "taken hostage" by Sakai Rihito. He asks Rihito if he will kill him with the tree branch or not. Rihito, scared because he has no true weapon to use, then shows his magic to him. Schmelman teaches him how to snap his neck and tells Rihito to kill him. Rihito states he won't kill him because violence isn't good. Schmelman then states he would have no choice but kill everyone in the ceremony. Before he could do so, he's stopped by Firenda and reveals that it's all an act. Schmelman told Firenda and Alexandrov that he still hasn't finished reading the storybook yet, but Alexandrov tells him that they don't have much time to do it so the ceremony can be ended. After everyone went to eat lunch, Schmelman tells Alexandrov that there is "rare" warrior here, Alexandrov thought he was talking about Sakai Tokikaze but he was actually referring to Rihito. He then asks Schmelman what they should do now, to which he replies that he wants to gives the newbies a fun school life.

Later, after Alexandrov investigates Hina's group, Schmelman goes to see him for a "small" request, that they will exchange their classes for teaching. Alexandrov agrees with his request, and he was changed to teach the other class. When Alexandrov arrives for Class A, he introduces himself and reveals he was originally the one who would teach the class, but due to a request the job was changed to Schmelman instead. He then tells Schmelman that he will watch over him and asks him not to cause any messes. As the class started, Schmelman states he originally wanted to read some storybooks to the students, but he must explain the rules of the school first and explains that anyone without a star will be expelled from the school. For unknown reasons, he did not gives Rihito any stars and told him that he would have to steal them from the other students within a day.

At 18:00 PM, along with other instructors standing beside the school gate, to checking which students will expelled from school. Soon, when Douan Taketora almost punches Jail Murdoch, Schmelman went to stop them and asking Taketora about his stars. Which Taketora shown his stars, it's revealed that the stars was fake and was stolen by Rihito. Because of Taketora only owns two stars, Schmelman told him to stay on school. Then, he gives Jail some stars and explains it was originally meant for Rihito, as he was wondering how Rihito will handling the situation given he started with no stars. He also stated that he was going to give Rihito the stars once the time reach 18:00 PM but it was unnecessary now since Rihito already stole Taketora's stars, so he gave them to Jail instead and saying that he deserved to become a soldier.

After a few weeks, as the other classes started their training, Schmelman only keeps reading the storybooks without training the students even once. During the class, Schmelman mentions to the sudents that there's a stalker who always peeping in woman's bath. Because of this, Alexandrov tries his best to capture that stalker without sleeping even once.

Few weeks after the stalker was revealed to be Rihito and the class receives a punishment, Class A was left in the forest by Alexandrov as a punishment. Schmelman asks Alexandrov where his students are, to which he only replies he "threw" them away, which makes Schmelman find them himself. As Saki stated they must kills their enemies in order to become soldier, Schmelman said that they can form a "Non-Killing Army" while still being soldiers. Saki asks him if that's even possible and he answers with yes, as long as Class A really want to do so. With this, Class A decide to form the "Non-Killing Army" under Schmelman's suggestion. While Class A is happy, Jail states that he feels odd about Schmelman's suggestion.

After the Forest Survival trip has ended, Class A's training is finally starts. Schmelman states that he won't train them as hard as Alexandrov did and revealed that the culprit who peeped on women's bath on the first day, is actually not Rihito but Schmelman himself as he wanted to know their talent. Soon, he gives Class A weapons that suit them. Asumi wonders why Schmelman didn't give them guns, but melee weapons instead, he explains that they don't have enough resource to create more guns, and he predicts that the world won't uses guns or gunpowder for the upcoming war. Schmelman makes a personal request, to have them call him teacher instead of either instructor or major, as he always wanted someone to call him a teacher. After the explanation, Schmelman told Class A try to hit him in a training battle. Although nobody except Lyne Mei is able to hit him. The training has begun.

After three weeks, during midnight, Schmelman goes to a factory under the school, to have a meeting with other instructors. During the meeting, Schmelman asks Firenda if she able to reproduce the Ballots or not. She says she can't reproduce the voting power but she can reproduce the unknown power coming from the Althing. Schmelman asks Alexandrov if the upcoming war will happen or not, Alexandrov says that the war will most likely happen and Schmelman's prediction about the war being melee is also right. Lastly, Schmelman asks Davi if he's determined the people who know about Althing, Davi says he did and states they'll kill them when the time comes. Davi asks Schmelman if he still remembers the promise about taking him once they completed their "utopia", Alexandrov stated they will take Davi along once they completed the Clone Technology and cloned him if he was dead. Then, Schmelman asks other instructors about the progress of the "Aerial Ace Project", Firenda stated that the surgery is successful but for unknown reason the rats become more brutal. Soon, Schmelman gives the berserk rat a Ballot which causes it's strength to increase rapidly. Schmelman then freezes the rat with his power and says it's amazing. While releasing his "evil" aura, he asks Firenda to keep researching and says they'll give Class A students the surgery, once the "Aerial Ace Project" is completed.

Sometimes later, Rihito found Schmelman playing with dolls and asks him what he's doing, Schmelman claims that he isn't playing with dolls but he treating them as his children. Schmelman explains his past to Rihito, about how he accidentally killed his mother and how his wife committed suicide due to not being able to produce a child for him. Soon, Rihito calls Schmelman "dad" and says Tokikaze's grandmother told him that he can find his own father. Schmelman, blushing, asks Rihito to call him "Papa" instead of "Dad". This shocked Rihito but he embarrassingly calls him "Papa" once anyway. Schmelman goes to hug Rihito and starts crying. After this, Rihito becomes Schmelman's adoptive son.

Schmelman continues to training Class A for a few months, until Davi is killed by the terrorists. After hearing Davi's last words, Alexandrov starts wondering what does Davi mean by "deceived" but the other instructors don't know what it's about. Firenda tells Schmelman that it's time for them to execute the "Aerial Ace Project", which shocks him and Alexandrov, as the project is still incomplete. After hearing Firenda's prediction that their project might've be leaked, Schmelman asks her who will be chosen for the surgery and she responds with Rihito, as he is the perfect candidate. This angers Schmelman and he trys to freeze her, she then points out that the reason behind the rat's increased brutality is due to Schmelman's bloodlust gene, that he can't control. Firenda also states that they must experiment on humans now or she will abandoned the project which will mean the students will be killed by the terrorists, which leaves Schmelman no choice but to let her give Rihito the surgery.

The next day, the surgery starts. As Schmelman's genes are successfully injected into Rihito's body, the Abandonment War is started by the school, who make a surprise attack. After the surgery is finally completed, Schmelman gives Rihito a Ballot Replica. He explains the Ballot won't start functioning until he set his count. Rihito says he doesn't know how to use a sword and Schmelman explains it's not a problem as long as he has the superhuman power. He also tells Rihito that while he wasn't as strong as Taketora and Tokikaze, after the surgery his strength now surpasses every human. After the explanation, Schmelman tells Rihito to save everyone from United Nations attack. Rihito then forms the "Non-Killing Army".

In the original timeline, the way the Abandonment War happened was completely different without Nana's influences, where Rihito would lose at the fight against the United Nations Force and had Schmelman himself to save the Class A instead. During the war, instead of the Barons, it was Schmelman and Alexandrov themselves entered into the front lines instead. After the creation of Althea, the friendship between the Class A students broke out, as while they were chosen to become Althea's citizens, some of them don't agree with the instructor's decision and caused conflicts due to the their familiy being abandoned and forced to live on Abyss. The conflicts ended with Class A killing each other and Rihito committed suicide for not able to bear the burdens. In the second timeline, where Schmelman would brought Class A's families to the Althea, Rihito and the others all committed suicide after they killed their own parents, as none of them could grant their privilege while lives in Althea.

In the third timeline, where Hina and others time travelled to the past, sometimes before the Abandonment War ended, Schmelman was replaced by his clone as the Field Marshal of the Special Service, although nobody except Firenda knew about it. After the replacement, Schmelman's mind has been broken and he always regretting that he could not able to save Licht and the Class A from Firenda's hands. Schmelman also suffers a lot of abuses from Firenda in attempt to make him feel on despair. Because of this, Schmelman chosen to hiding himself behind the shadow on Ende for the next 300 years without letting out his emotions even once, to the point where he barely shows any emotions even when Firenda tortures him. Although it's later revealed by Alexandrov in present time that Schmelman is merely just acting in front of Firenda, in order to lead her into her downfall and realizing her own crimes.

Last War Arc
While Schmelman is still hiding himself under the shadow, after Jail defeated Robert Du Vanvich and became the new Supreme Commander of the Royal Guard, Schmelman regained some hope after knowing that Licht has regained his happiness from being suffered on despair for 300 years long, so he decided to use this chance to shows himself in front of Licht and the others, in attempt to telling him the person that's currently giving order to the Speical Service, was in fact his clone not the real him.

Once Schmelman appeared on the screen projectiles created from Erin's ability, Schmelman finds Jail's words about the Royal Guards should uses their power to protect everyone from evildoers, despite they're all scumbag as claimed by Jail, was impressive. He also ordered the White Special Service and air forces to retreat, as the Special Service currently don't have enough weapons use to kill citizens, presumbably due to Gespenst and the Gefängnis' actions earlier. Although it's later revealed that Schmelman doesn't want to see innocent people being killed by his clone and the Special Service. Soon, Schmelman asked Jail that when will the new war start and he responded that the new war will take place in three months later. Then, Schmelman accepted Jail's declaration of war and leave. Before he leave, Schmelman told Licht that he is waiting for his coming in the Ende.

When Schmelman and the Class A reunited, he is glad that he is able to meet them once again, although he believes he shouldn't deserves this reunion due to his involvement on the creation of Althea. The Class A soon reveals that they forgive him for what he has done in the past 300 years and they wanted to listen his storybook again, which makes Schmelman cries afterwards. At evening, Schmelman stated that he will begin the graduation ceremony for the Class A which he didn't got the chance to do so until now due to the Abandonment War, where he will give them oryza as a present. He explains that those aren't ordianary oryza but a upgraded version created by the Special Service, where it would able to grow and produce foods normally regardless on how dead the land was, which means the lack of resources issue would finally solved, which he and the Special Serivce took 300 years of time to finally completed. As Schmelman giving them the oryza, he requests Hina to take care of Licht after the graduation and make fun of Lyne's weight. When it's Kyouka's turn, she tried to confess her feeling to Schmelman but he denied her and advised her to find another man instead.

When it's Licht's turn to be graduated, Schmelman offered him an special task where he have to kill "the world's greatest enemy", which Schmelman referred to himself. And then if Licht successfully killed Schmelman, not only he will receive the specially made oryza, he will also get all seven original Ballots to grant one wish. Licht doesn't want to kill him but Schmelman told him that he had to do it. As Licht couldn't kill him, Schmelman had no choice but to kill Licht by his own hands. When Licht is about to be freezed, Tokikaze stopped Schmelman's attack and want him to explain what exactly going on. Taketora also said that if Schmelman really wanted to die so badly then he should choose him to do that job rather than Licht, but Schmelman denied it and stated that Licht must be the one to do that.

After the Class A students asked him about the fight, Schmelman said that he do this for the world's sake. He explains that he is actually came from different timeline and he has a ability to time travel in the same way as Nana, he grant the ability around the time when Licht became a Baron. In the original timeline, Licht never join part into the battlefield when the Abandonment War happened, instead it was Schmelman and Alexandrov who fought in the war. After they collected all seven Ballots, Schmelman tried to brought the Class A to the Althea but the result ended of having everyone beside him died. In the second timeline, Schmelman tried to brought their families together with them but it still result of them commuted suicide. Schmelman then keep time travel back to the past several times but it always ended up having the same result. Due to the side effect of time travel ability, his body became weakened to the point he could no longer able to fight anymore and shorten his life-span, without the mysterious energy from the Althing he would already died 300 years ago. Since he could no longer fight, Schmelman decided to trust Licht for once and let him joined part of the Abandonment War. Considerately, Nana also used her ability to sent Hina and the others to the past which also dramatically changed Licht and the Class A's fate as well, which is why none of them died in the current timeline. Schmelman told everyone that thanks to the side effect of his ability, he don't have much times left to live, so he had to help Licht to end the war properly before he dies, while also said he always loves him and the Class A students so much.

After explanation of the time travel, Schmelman asked Licht that if he know the reason why Abandonment War happened in the first place. He explained that the reason why it happened was because of national border. He believed the rulers around the world afraid that if they help the other countries, they might have been attacked and invaded instead. Because of border, the government doesn't care how citizen from other countries suffers as long as it doesn't directly affect them. As a result, none of the countries willing to unite. Due to this, Schmelman came out a plan to create both Althea and Abyss while mark himself as the world's enemy, and then he would let himself killed by a hero who helped both sides, which he refer to Licht. With that way, the rulers around the world will work together as one with Licht to solve the resources, as the world's enemy would no longer around therefore there's nothing to be afraid anymore.

After Schmelman revealed his plan, Licht finally took his Ballot and prepared to fight against him, just so they can finally archive the peace they promised with the world earlier. Before the fight begin, Schmelmen told Gespenst to shown a transmission to the worldwide while pretending himself to be a villain. The citizens from Althea and Abyss all angered at Schmelman and wants Licht to kill him, while the Class A students all cries at this inevitable fight and the false image Schmelman himself inserted to the world.

Schmelman's Alternative Tales
Schmelman appeared in the Drama CD Schmelman's Alternative Tales, mostly portrayed as the narrator of the storybooks he read.

Abilities and Power
Schmelman's count has yet to be reveal. He is one of the first people to ever utilize the powers of the "Althing" prior to the Abandonment War and the formation of Althea and unlike the Red Barons or the Althean Royal Guard, Schmelman has never needed the Baron Operation Surgery or use a Ballot Replica to develop his supernatural/superhuman powers and abilities due to him being one of the few people who was naturally born with the genetic compatibility to access and synchronize himself with the energies of the "Althing" since birth.


 * Baron's Strikes: As a vessel of the Althing and the source of the seven Barons, Schmelman possessed several powers and abilities.
 * Frost Strike (氷撃): Schmelman possesses the ability to create, shape and manipulate ice.
 * Freezing: Throughout the series, Schmelman has been shown to be able to freeze anything. The freezing ability is strong enough to even freeze flames and bullets, rendering Alexandrov's "Blast" and Mizuka's "Pursuit" useless.
 * Flashing Strike (閃撃): Like Licht, Schmelman is able to move at incredibly high speeds, which even faster than the light.
 * Blink Strike (瞬撃): Like his clone and Tokikaze, Schmelman can draw her sword faster than light.
 * Speed Cutting: Schmelman can draw his sword and attack in the speed of light.
 * Heavy Strike (重撃): Like Taketora, Schmelman is capable of manipulating the direction and intensity of gravity for both offensive and defensive means.
 * Gravitational Downforce: The ability to generate a crushing downforce of gravity in a certain area.
 * Blast (爆撃): Like Alexandrov, Schmelman has a ability to control fire.
 * Causinomancy: The ability to burn an entire object or person with intense heat.
 * Pursuit (追撃): Like Mizuka, Schmelman has a ability to manipulate his attack missiles.
 * Pierce (心撃): Like Gespenst, Schmelman has a ability to read other people's mind.
 * Telepathy: Schmelman can perceive and interact with the mind and/or consciousness. He do this when he told Gespenst to mute his transmission so that the citizens won't discover that he's just pretending to be a villain.
 * Conscious Strike (識撃): Like Nana, Schmelman has a ability to travel through time. However, instead of costing his own count, the amount of usages would cost Schmelman his own life by weakening his body. In present time, due to his weak body, Schmelman no longer able to do time travel anymore.


 * Superhuman Strength: Schmelman's physical strength is stated to be superior to Taketora, the physically strongest of the seven Red Barons, implying that Schmelman could easily physically overpower him and withstand his "Heavy" ability with little effort.


 * Superhuman Speed: Schmelman is shown to possess immense natural born superhuman speed, as seen where he was able to easily out pace several powerful individual with little effort and attend to each and everyone of his students in the original Class A simultaneously while training them in a variety of different weapons in a flash. It's also been stated by Gespent that in terms of speed, Schmelman could easily keep up with Licht's "Flash" and easily out draw Tokikaze's "Blink" slashes with little effort.


 * Superhuman Reflexes: Schmelman's reaction speed is noted to be his greatest and by far his most monstrous ability, as stated by Gespenst that this ability is the real reason why Schmelman was invincible when combined with his other abilities. As seen during the time he trained and taught the students of Class A 300 years ago, where he managed to easily keep up with and teach each and everyone one of his students in several widely different weapons with little to no efforts, catch and correct each of their stances, positioning and fighting styles and instantly react to each and every single mistake each of his students made before they could hurt themselves simultaneously, almost as if time itself is still in his perspective of the world, an achievement and ability considered completely and utterly inhumane and was stated to surpass the superhuman abilities of "Insight" possessed by Nana to see the future and the psychic mind reading "Pierce" of Gespenst. Due to this ability, its been stated that despite possessing immense power themselves, each Baron possess no hope of defeating Schmelman on their own individually and only Licht possess the necessary reaction speed to even put up a descent fight against him and even only then, in order to even have the slightest chance to even fight him on even grounds, Licht would need the other six Barons to provide him with support in order to even stand a silver of a chance of actually winning against him.


 * Skilled Actor: Although it wasn't seen on-screen, it's later revealed that all the pain and emoless expression Schmelman make since the creation of Althea was all an act, he also managed to flawlessly trick Firenda with her believed his mind has really become broken thanks to her torturing. Schmelman alao do this in front of the worldwide as well later on, in attempt to be seen as the world's enemy just so worldwide could believe he is the villain.


 * Combat Mastery: Being a soldier prior to the Abandonment War, Schmelman is a master at close-quarters combat, able to take out Jail and Lyne with ease.
 * Teaching Skills: Schmelman was noted to be an immensely talented teacher and combat instructor, as seen 300 years ago where he personally oversaw the training of Class A and successfully trained them in a wide variety of different weapons and fighting styles, implying that he had mastered several different forms of combat. Later after properly observing his students in Class A's body build, habits and personalities, Schmelman was able to immediately pick out the best weapon best suited for them in combat, further showing his skills as a seasoned soldier and combat instructor.
 * Master Swordsmanship: Being a soldier prior to the Abandonment War, Schmelman has shown exceptional skills in swordsmanship, able to draw his saber faster than Tokikaze,a gifted swordsman, prior to his Baron operation. He was also noted to have personally trained Licht, Saki,Tokikaze and an unnamed female Class A student in swordsmanship and giving them an advanced mastery over the sword, impressive considering that all three use three different kinds of swords (Odachi, Katana and Saber) and use three different sword styles.
 * Master Spearmanship/Polar-arm-user: Schmelman was also noted to have trained Genji, Kyouhei, Kyouka and an unknown female student of Class A
 * Master Marksman: Schmelman was also noted to be exceptionally skilled in the usage of firearms,with a handgun being his most used weapon outside of hand to hand combat and his ability. He was also noted to have trained Asumi in the use of Bows and Arrows into an advanced level of skill.
 * Master Club User: Schmelman was also implied to have been skilled in the usage of blunt weapons,as seen where he managed to train an unnamed female Class A student in using a bat in battle and giving her immense skill and mastery over it. These Skills would then be passed on to her clone.
 * Master Hand to Hand Combatant:  Schmelman was also known to have been a master hand to hand/bare handed fighter, having been able to easily overpower several powerful soldiers such as Jail, Gespenst and Lyne barehanded with little to no effort and later was shown to have taught all of his students in Class A advance skills in unarmed combat and later a testament to his skill in hand to hand combat was seen when he was able to easily identify the type of kick based fighting style used by Lyne and analyze all of the weaknesses and flaws in her style with a single fight and proceeded to then tutor her on how to improve her skills.

Trivia

 * Although it's confirmed Schmelman has a blonde hair, in Chapter 16's colored pages, his hair color was silver.
 * Field Marshal is the highest military rank, even outranking a five-star general.
 * Although in Yen Press' translation, Schmelman's rank is Generalissimo. While in Funimation's translation, his rank is General.