Basil Walt

Basil Walt is the First («Первый») of the Seven Ancestors of House Walt, whose living personalities and memories are preserved inside the Blue Jewel (синий самоцвет) that Lyle inherits. He was the family's founder: he led a band of settlers, cleared a dangerous forest almost single-handedly, subdued the wild tribes of the region by force, established a village-settlement, and became its lord — raising House Walt from nothing into provincial nobility. He is remembered by later generations as a remarkable pioneer who fortified the surrounding lands.

Loud, blunt and boorish, Basil is the boisterous heart of the ancestors' constant chatter. He is called a blockhead who cannot handle complicated matters, bickers endlessly with the Second (Crassel), and often speaks crudely — yet he is surprisingly sensitive and emotional beneath the rough exterior, and he naturally takes the role of leader and host among the seven spirits. Because Novem's family, the Forxuz, once served his house, he dotes on her. Above all he is prized for his exceptional intuition, which Lyle comes to rely on as a trustworthy compass in danger.

His combat art is 'Full Burst' (also 'Limit Burst'), a support skill that temporarily multiplies all of Lyle's abilities — Lyle's decisive trump card — accompanied by the use of a Great Sword. Basil's art was the first Lyle was able to wield; access to it (and to Aria's rescue) was tied to Aria's resemblance to Basil's lost first love.

Basil's arc is shaped by regret over Alice, a red-haired woman he loved in his youth who was married off to another. Aria Lockwarde is Alice's living image, which is why Basil pushed Lyle to save her. Long ago Alice had secretly bought a red stone as a gift for Basil but never found the courage to give it; the stone was then handed down among the women of House Lockwarde. In the story's finale, before the ancestors' spirits finally fade from the fulfilled Jewel, a bashful Basil at last gets to speak with Aria, and she pours him wine — a quiet closing of the circle he never completed in life.