Schmelman Bach

"There is no reason to worry. After all... we won't let them get away. I am... a wizard after all... Hurry up and let me meet my cute tortoise."

- Schmelman talking with Nikola

Schmelman Bach (Shumeruman Bahha) is a character and the main antagonist introduced in Plunderer. He is the Field Marshal of the Special Service.

Appearance
Schmelman is a young man with long blonde hair and 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. Schmelman is shown to have heterochromia. 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, when Schmelman shows his killing intent or angered, his eyes would turns into red color similar to Licht's.

Personality
Being the Field Marshal of the Special Service, Schmelman is an expert in planning and leading his troops often through radio or through specialized infiltration troopers. 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.

Prior to the Abandonment War, 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 and the children in the church managed by the Special Service. After the Abandonment War, Schmelman's personality took a drastic change as he is now more sadistic and manipulative towards his former students and other Barons by setting up plans to render the Barons unable to fight back against him.

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 closed 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".

It's not clear when Schmelman's personality changed, but it's believed the Abandonment War is what caused him to become evil. On the last day of the war, after the Barons collected all seven original Ballots, the instructors use the Althing to approved the permanent ban of nuclear weapons and create the sky island known as Althea. Tokikaze steals one of original Ballots and Schmelman orders Firenda to release Rihito, to kill Tokikaze and take back the original Ballot, so that Rihito will forever be in despair and Tokikaze will be blinded by revenge. Schmelman also gives Sonohara Mizuka a lot of drugs to make her enjoy it, so that both her and Taketora won't betray him and the Special Service faction.

Story Event
Schmelman's name was first mentioned at Chapter 10, when Nana Bassler explains the truth about Licht (Rihito) and how the Red Barons was created. He later made his debut near the end of Chapter 11, reading a storybook about a tortoise who kills a hare to the children. Soon, Nikola went to see him and informs him about the situation of the Flash Baron.

After Taketora killed Licht and captured Hina and the others, Schmelman went to meet them in Abandoned Capital Hoffnung. When he arrived, Schmelman noticed there's something wrong with his memory and soon realized it's Nana's time travel ability changed his memory. Lyne asks Schmelman why he betrayed Licht and the Class A, he answers it as they're served as a experimental for the "Aerial Ace Project" and the Class A was a failure as a soldiers. Schmelman then stated that since Hina and the others once studying on the training school before, he give them a "chance" by giving them a Baron's surgery. As he ordered his subordinate to gives the drugs to them, he leaves the cipital and teleport back to his main base.

When Tokikaze killed one of Schmelman's henchmen and took the phone, he told Schmelman that he must protect his "paradise" from Licht so that the Abyss could taken the whole Althea from him. As Tokikaze took a Ballot from Hina, he and Schmelman have a war in Althing form. During the Althing war, Tokikaze made his first Ballot question that stopping Abyss sent their foods to Althea, while Schmelman is against that question Tokikaze took the majority votes as he have 4 Ballots in total. Then, Tokikaze made his second Ballot question about the removal of Althea's border to uses the modern weapons. With this, Schmelman approved Tokikaze's question as he wanted to have a war against the Abyss. Schmelman told Tokikaze that he already prepared the war against them and stated that they will surely lose in this war, due to they only have immature soldiers and limited weapons. He stated that it's not his intention for Althea's creation and he doesn't want the Abandonment War happened again. He also suggests Tokikaze move their base to live in somewhere on Althea and provide foods as he wished, so that he can pretend this war never happen. Although Tokikaze doesn't want to follow Schmelman's suggestion and said his words cannot be trusted. Soon, Tokikaze made a third Ballot question about the permanent abandon of nukes be annulled, in which the question approved. After the end of Althing war, Schmelman orders Herz Vaalheit to rehire Licht back to the Special Service and reapprove the permanent ban of nuclear weapons.

Later when the White Special Service captured the Abyss children and trying to kill them, Schmelman told Tokikaze this is what happened when he stand against him. Tokikaze stated that Schmelman is the one who caused all the messes in the first place and told him to stop his action already. This annoyed Schmelman and orders his henchmen to kills all the children. Soon, Schmelman went to find Gespenst Zerlegen in Ende, as he discovered Gespenst's true plan and realized he is betraying him not Licht. He freezes Gespenst while told him to drop Licht's original Ballot from his hand. Gespenst stated that this is misunderstood as he just trying to check the Ballot. However, Schmelman claims this is a lie and stated that Gespenst is trying to reveal his trump cards to Licht's groups. He also that he already feel odd on him the moment when he let Herz and her henchmen to captures the other White Special Service members, when he releases the clones to fight against Licht's group and when he ordered to releases the air forces. Then, he asks Gespenst if he know what's he planning to do and Gespenst answered that he can't because he feel like Schmelman has two minds in his head. Soon, Schmelman orders Mizuka to kill Gespenst. but unexpectedly she also betrayed him and tried to took Licht's Ballot back to him. Schmelman tried to orders his henchmen to capture Mizuka but it's stopped by Gespenst. Gespenst stated he will holding Schmelman off from Mizuka before she give the Ballot back to Licht. Schmelman found it interesting and told Gespenst that he will facing a living hell during the time period.

Soon, Schmelman defeated Gespenst effortlessly. As Gespenst is defeated, Schmelman asks him why he chose to help Licht, Gespenst explains it's because of Lyne and his love towards her. Gespenst also stated that he will never let Schmelman destroy her cheerful smile. Schmelman, stabbed Gespenst with his rapier, only asks him that if he seriously thought he can escape his grasp and thinks he will ever meet Lyne again after this, which he stated that he already said farewell to her. After this, Schmelman ordered his henchmen to capture Mizuka by releases the clones.

Later, when the clones returned to their main base, they discovered the healing tank was disabled. Schmelman then appeared behind them and told them they're abandoned due to their failures. The clones was scared and keep begging Schmelman to not seals them into the tubes. Then, Schmelman gives them one last chance and their new mission is to pretend themselves as "someone else". Soon, the brainwashed Tokikaze appeared and told the clones not to kill, as he mistakenly thought the Class A is still alive. Soon, the clones understand that Schmelman wanted them pretend themselves as the original Class A, so the Special Service are able to keep Tokikaze in control. Schmelman then told Tokikaze that the Special Service is not his enemy but Licht was, which Tokikaze said he will surely kill Licht later on.

After Jail defeated Robert Du Vanvich and became the new Supreme Commander of the Royal Guard, Schmelman appeared on the screen projictiles 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, mostly due to Gespenst and the Gefängnis' actions earlier. 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.

After the retreats, Schmelman eventually started to trains the clones to makes them become stronger. Two months later, as he training the clones, he stated he is extremely disappointed that after two months of training, the clones is still too weak and they barely improved themselves. With this, Eins claimed that Schmelman is a crazy madman for these training, and asked him why didn't he kill all the citizen before he ordered the air forces retreat. Schmelman explained he retreat because he has somehow being tricked by "someone". Then, Schmelman stated he now understand why the clones were so naive due to he never kill them before. Soon, Schmelman choking Eins' neck and tried to kill her so the clones can improve their fighting skills, but it's interrupted by Tokikaze went to save her. Despite Tokikaze saved Eins, Schmelman defeated him by just a single slash. While he felt disgusted at Tokikaze's action, he ordered Eins to brought him to the medical room, and he ordered the remaining clones keep continue their training.

One month later, the final battle between Royal Guard and Special Service has finally begun.

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.


 * Cryokinesis: 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.


 * 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. A well known example of Schmelman's immense strength is seen when he was able to lift Gespenst and drag him across a room with a single finger.


 * 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.


 * Dual Consciousness: Schmelman has the inherent ability to conduct multiple thought functions simultaneously and possess memories from more than one vantage point as is evidenced when he remembers Hina, Jail, Gespenst and Lyne being present 300 years prior while also remembering a past where they were not present . Thus making him largely immune to the effects of Nana's ability on himself. He is also the only one exempt from Gespenst's ability to read minds because he claims that it is like he has two of them in his head, which in and of itself does not say he could not do so as much as it leads one to believe that Schmelman is always considering every situation from multiple angles so as to be too confusing for even "Pierce" to instantaneously sift through.


 * 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. Later two of their clones would inherit these skills from the originals.
 * Master Spearmanship/Polar-arm-user: Schmelman was also noted to have trained Genji, Kyouhei, Kyouka and an unknown female student of Class A in the usage of a wide variety of spears, halberds and staffs to an advanced level of mastery that was later passed on to their three clones.
 * 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 that was later passed on to her clone.
 * 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.