Molt Sol Augustus (モルト・ソル・アウグスタス Moruto Soru Augusutasu) was the emperor of the Empire and a former antagonist. In order to strengthen his power and influence, when the Gate opened, he immediately sent forces to conquer what lands were beyond it.

After Zorzal dethrones him to conduct his suicidal war against Japan, he supports the JSDF to stop his son from damaging the Empire.

Personality

Molt Sol Augustus is known for his stoic, extremely intelligent, and calculating demeanor, but also his cold and manipulative attitude. Unlike the other members of his family, Molt is in better control of his emotions in comparison to the temperamental Zorzal, paranoid Diabo and youthful Piña, whereas he always appears calculating and stoic, repressing his emotions and desires for most of his life just to not appear weak before the Senate and his other subjects. Even when fully prepared to vent his emotions, he is able to retain his composure and dignity, like when his own son was beaten nearly to death before his very eyes when the JSDF rescued Noriko Mochizuki. Moreover, he was calm enough to keep his emotion in check when Shino killed Zorzal's guards with a barrage of fire from her assault rifle, despite the fact that he was clearly and deeply shocked at the power of firearms.

Like all the emperors of the past, Molt is authoritarian, ruthless, extremely determined and inclined to take anything he desires through acts of war, territorial expansion or by bullying the allied kingdoms, but, unlike his predecessors, he also ensures that his ambitions don't make him blind to possible betrayal by his subjects and allies. Many of his machinations have the express purpose of diverting or expose all possible traitors and conspirators hidden among the ranks of the imperial nobility, so that he can deceive and punish all of them later. Not even the members of the nobility of the Empire's vassal kingdoms are considered trustworthy by him, in fact, he considers them all as individuals bound to the Empire not by an oath of loyalty and subservience but by the fear of being destroyed and enslaved. Despite his ever-suspicious and cautious attitude, he tends to underestimate certain individuals present in his court, like his family members and their slaves, who in the end turn out to be the very people who were conspiring behind him from the beginning.

Although he is a haughty elitist and a first-class manipulator, Molt holds the health of his nation to heart and he believes that only a constant territorial expansion is really capable of keeping the Empire prosperous and rich. The greater good of his nation is among his highest priorities and he's ready to challenge any enemy to achieve his goals. However, more than once in the past he has made it clear that according to his point of view the greater good of the nation does not necessarily coincide with the good of his people. For him, everyone is expendable for the sake of the war effort and the glory of the state. For him the high number of casualties among the imperial soldiers and the civilians is just a small price to be paid, a price for which he has never shown particular concern, considering the senseless massacre of the Battle of Ginza and the scorched earth policy that has been carried out by his order. He firmly believes that a nation that loves too much his own people and that is always concerned about the welfare of each individual citizen is bound to grow weak and finally collapse, crushed by the weight of its self-imposed responsibility. When he learned of the great concern of Japan to recover all of its citizens who were captured by the Imperial Army in Ginza, he thought to have finally discovered the great weakness of the enemy nation - the excessive love for its people; but over time, and many failures later, he began to understand that his preconceptions were not fully justified in the case of Japan and this prompted him to change his mind about the importance of the welfare of the citizens.

Molt: "Zorzal. When the war began, nobody could have expected so many unexpected developments. Since things are not going according to our desires, we are best served by ending hostilities before the damage becomes too severe."

Zorzal: "The Empire can still fight!"

Molt: "All the more reason to end this sooner rather than later. Once we can no longer go on… perhaps there may not even be the time for talks."

Zorzal: "What happened to the pride of the Empire?!" — Molt shows his rationality and realism toward the futile war against the JSDF while vainly trying to knock some sense into his son's thick head, depicted in volume 5 chapter 1 of the light novel

Molt lacks, or at least overtly lacks, the sadistic and bloodthirsty nature of his son Zorzal. Molt is intelligent enough to weigh political reality against a desire for personal, petty revenge. He is willing to admit defeat and negotiate with the enemy rather than stand proud, fight a losing battle and risking straining or completely depleting the Empire's resources. After proclaiming he had finally found Japan's weakness, Sugawara asked him if he would like to test Japan's might again. Molt knew by this point that he could not fight anymore, and rescinded his statement, as he knew this was a war that neither side desired and that if he continued the war, the Empire would be utterly devastated, which he did not desire.

As a military strategist, he is shown to lack insight and wisdom, clinging to the traditions of old where he implemented a scorched earth policy to deny the JSDF resources, unaware that they had a single supply point at Alnus, which all JSDF personnel returned to at the end of each day. His scorched earth policy created distrust amongst the populace, and did nothing to stop the JSDF from advancing further; even Diabo stated that Molt was leading the Empire to ruin with his useless policies.

After his recovery, he becomes more benevolent, mellow, far-thinking and more humble since he steps down from being an Emperor so his daughter Piña can lead the Empire to the brighter future. During her coronation, Molt told her that he did not care what she did with the Empire, either by keeping it together to fight Zorzal or splitting it up, as long as the Empire could survive in the future. He also knew that he needed to step down and let someone more capable rule the Empire, as he didn't want it to fall down the same path that Zorzal was taking it down. Unlike most other members of nobility, Molt was quite open-minded in other areas of the Empire, stating that he regretted relegating Piña's Rose-Order of Knights as an honor guard, admitting that its knights were some of the best soldiers that the Empire could offer, even though most of them were women.

Appearance

Molt is an elderly man with light blonde hair and a beard, and sharp blue eyes. He also wears an ornament on his head that resembles a crown and noble clothes when in public.

History

According to Gaiden 4, Molt is the younger brother of the previous Emperor Grahn. When Grahn died early, his son, the Imperial Prince Kati, was 14 years old at the time and too young to take the throne. Since the position of Emperor is entrusted by the Senate and the position of Regent doesn't exist in the Imperial system, a new Emperor had to be decided there and then. The Senate decided to hand Molt the throne and make Cati his adopted son, under the legal requirement that he would surrender power to Cati when he came of age. Instead, Kati died under mysterious circumstances (almost certainly murdered by Molt) and without an apparent heir, Molt's family became the new royal line. This posed a problem though; Emperor Grahn was known for much of the expansion that led to the Empire dominating much of Falmart, and there were doubts that Molt could match his brother when there was so little land left to conquer. To Molt's convenience, he was informed that a Gate to another world had opened in Alnus for the first time in centuries.

Seeing his chance, he sent soldiers through the Gate to conquer whatever lands they would encounter there while disregards the warning of Casel and pro-peace senators to be cautious about the unknown beyond the it. This proves to be his undoing since he cannot anticipate the tremendous military power of the JSDF over the Empire. As the result, he lost 60% of his military after two disastrous Battle of Ginza and the First Battle of Alnus Hill.

Plot

Molt is first seen sitting on his throne ordering scorch earth tactics to slow down the JSDF, despite his retainer's protests. Suddenly his daughter arrives and started talking about Alnus because the army that was sent there faced a miserable defeat and that the Alnus hill is being invaded by enemies. Then she asked him what they should do. He asks her order to scout the enemy position and she agrees.

Later on, Piña wakes up Molt as he is sleeping to talk about the "earthshakes" that had just occurred. Molt dresses up and meets with Kōji Sugawara, Japan's representative in the Special Region. Zorzal comes in and talks to Molt about the "earthshakes," which inquires Piña to ask him how he knows of it. Zorzal brings up a slave who is one of the Japanese captured during the Ginza incident, which enrages Itami. Molt gives no reaction when Shino Kuribayashi kills most of Zorzal's soldiers and when she brutally beats him up. When Kōji tells him Japans cares for the lives of their civilians, Molt believes that he has finally found their weakness while at the same time admitting that the Empire has zero chance against the JSDF.

During a banquet, Molt drinks wine which Tyuule had Bouro poison, and falls severely ill. Zorzal takes over in a military coup. Molt is taken care of, but essentially becomes Zorzal's prisoner in the Imperial alace, along with Piña.

Itami leads a rescue operation to rescue Piña, and Molt if possible. Molt is rescued and brought on the Humvee. As the group escapes the capital, Molt wakes up, claiming that he cannot rest when he is being carried around like luggage. Itami informs him that the pro-peace senators have already been evacuated to Italica, and that they should be there the next day. Molt is extremely impressed with the Humvee, as taking a horse to Italica would take a week, while the Humvee could get there in less than two days. Piña asks him to tell Zorzal to stop, but Molt tells her that Zorzal will not listen to anyone, and that a civil war is inevitable. Molt agrees to Japan's plan and appoints Piña as his successor, and that she can do what she wants with the empire. He later attends Piña's coronation and formally appoints her as the new queen of the Empire.

Relationships  

• Piña Co Lada: Despite his ruthless behavior, Piña apparently seems to care about her father and is the only one, among her siblings, that currently seems to visibly show concern whenever something happens to her father; her solicitude, for her father, was the reason why Piña refused to leave the Empire, during Zorzal's coup, unless she was able to take her father to safety. In return, Molt also shows some degree of paternal love towards her daughter such as how he tells Piña in how proud she has grown. After Zorzal was labeled a traitor, following Japan's suggested plan, Molt had made Piña the crown princess and did not care how his daughter chooses to ameliorate the Empire, being fine if Piña chooses to pursue peace or divide the Empire; during Piña's coronation, Molt proudly tells his daughter that he is counting the newly crowned princess as "her era begins." showing that he believes Pina is more capable than him in leading the nation.

"Is that why you think you can easily gain the throne? When this war ends, the Emperor will step down with it. But he won’t stop pulling strings once he steps down. He’ll give the throne to a know-nothing like me so he can play me like a puppet and hold the real power behind the country. That’s probably what he was thinking. You showed too much of your talent. The Emperor already knows what you’re up to." — Zorzal indicates that Diabo was too much intelligent to be manipulated by Molt, showing the reason why he cannot be chosen as successor depicted in volume 3, chapter 8.

• Diabo El Caesar: Diabo is a second prince and the second line in succession, which causes him to be less favorable than Zorzal by Molt. However, the real reason why Molt neglects Diabo and never choose him or Piña to become his successor are because Diabo and Piña are far more intelligent than Zorzal and not easy being manipulated. This fact often leads to the point that Diabo always being neglected by Molt throughout his life and his talent always being suppressed and ignored by his father. Diabo often reprimands him for being shallow and irresponsible in choosing a right successor and he not wrong as Molt soon regrets his decision later on.

• Zorzal El Caesar: Zorzal is Molt's first-born son and his original successor as well as his biggest failure and mistake, beside his recklessness in attacking Japan. Molt does not think highly of Zorzal, as he did not try to protect him when he was beaten up by Kuribayashi and revealed that he wanted him to rule, noting his lack of intelligence would make him easily manipulable. During the Imperial Civil War, he disowns his son and wishes to see him dies since Molt realizes that Zorzal is driving the Empire down the drain for conducting suicide war against the JSDF. At the same time, he also regrets of raising him into a buffoon like he is today as well as choosing him as a successor, which leads to the near devastation the Empire in the suicidal war against the JSDF.

• Lelei La Lalena: While they had never met, upon hearing that she assisted in slaying the Flame Dragon, Molt had planned to use Lelei by giving her all the credit in order to improve the Empire's image. Unintentionally, Molt had also angered his son, Zorzal, where Lelei as added into Zorzal's list of people that he wants to kill. While Lelei was upset with how Molt's influence had twisted the story, where many were inaccurately informed that Lelei had finished off the Flame Dragon, she was able to take advantage with how Molt sent Lelei an invitation which allowed Itami's group to successfully infiltrate the main Imperial Palace, during Zorzal's coup, to save both the ill emperor and Piña.

• Borbos: A formally retired commander of the Imperial Guard, who came out of retirement after his successor had deserted his post during Zorzal's coup. Borbos is loyal to Molt, as he obeys the Emperor's orders.

• Marcus: Marcus is Molt's right hand man and he trusts him the most. Unlike Molt, Marcus has more mellow and caring attitude toward the Empire citizen than Molt since he disgusts Molt's scorch earth tactic. Like Molt, he dislikes Zorzal and considers him as a fool.

• Maquis Casel: Molt and Casel have strain relationship with each others due to their disagreement of how to manage the Empire and dealing with the JSDF as well as the fact that Casel has more noble attitude toward the welfare of the Imperial citizen and being much more far-thinking than Molt. After Molt steps down from his crown, he has better relationship with Casel to the point of admitting that he wish he listened to Casel of how to manage the Imperial citizen and dealing the JSDF peacefully from the beginning to prevent all the damages cause by him and Zorzal to the Empire.

• Sherry Tyueli: Molt became able to see Sherry's extremely gifted intelligence and became fond of the consummate child. The then-emperor had chosen Sherry to be one of the Empire's diplomats to help with the peace conference between the Empire and Japan, where Sherry's innocent young presence would provide favorable political results for the Empire as the said girl's pure appearance was able to prevent the Japanese diplomats from making a domineering attitude in regards to war reparations. When Japan had demanded that Molt, the main initial instigator of the Japanese-Empire War, was to be brought to Japan to be held responsible for the war and give a personal apology, Sherry was able to safeguard Molt by saying that the elderly ruler was a "sick old man," while also shifting the responsibility to Piña Co Lada in making a formal apology to Japan.

Skills & Abilities

• Swordsmanship: Molt is the Emperor, so he had undergone training since young and would be able to adeptly use a sword in battle.
• Royal Authority: As the emperor and ruler of the entire Empire, Molt held unlimited authority over the Saderan Empire, which couldn't be surpassed by anyone.

Gallery

Molt is confined to a wheelchair after the end of the Imperial Civil War, a couple of months ago.

Trivia

• Augustus was the Name of the first Roman Emperor and later the title of the ruling Emperor (the successor was called Caesar)
• Sol is the Name of a sun god both in the Roman and the Norse-Germanic Mythology
• Sol means "sun" in Latin, Spanish and in old Norse language