Cecily Campbell (セシリー・キャンベル Seshirii Kyanberu) is the main protagonist of the series. She wields the demon sword of wind, Aria, her battling partner, and eventually marries her future fiancé, Aria, at the end of the light novel series.
Appearance[]
A young woman with red hair and deep red eyes, Cecily is most often pictured in her knight’s attire: a silver breastplate, white cape and skirt with gold trim, a silver bracer on her left shoulder, and black mesh covering her midriff. On several occasions in the manga and anime, she’s caught wearing a dress, usually (but not always) to her discomfort.
Cecily is extremely well endowed, leading to frequent jokes about her impressive figure.
Personality[]
In the manga and light novels, Cecily is depicted as a strong, smart girl with great leadership skills, evident early when she leads a group of knights and mercenaries against a band of thieves and monsters. She quickly learns from her mistakes and is a skilled sword fighter. The anime portrays her in the opposite: she is inadequate and possesses mediocre swordsmanship, though she does improve as the series progresses.
Cecily cares deeply about the people around her, whether the citizens of the Independent Trade City or her closest friends. She very quickly becomes concerned about Lisa’s well being, wanting to know if Luke takes good care of her and making sure of her happiness. When Aria describes her life as a demon sword, Cecily compares it to slavery. Even when attacked by an assassin while in the militant nation, she sympathizes with the girl’s motives and desire for independence. Through her kindness, she is able to empathize with anyone, including Jack Strader and Lisa Oakwood.
Background[]
Cecily is from a prestigious aristocratic family. She is a 3rd generation knight from the Knight Guards of Houseman, the Third City of the Independent Trade Cities. Her grandfather, a former nobleman who became a knight, was one of the founders of the Independent Trade Cities during the Valbanill War. After the war ended, the Cambell family served as knights protecting the city's independence. When her father died of an illness, Cecily took up the role of the head of house, and thus became a knight. She believes strongly in justice, the protection of the city and its citizens.
History[]
Meeting Luke[]
It’s been 44 years since the end of the War of the Contract. At the beginning of the series, Cecily Cambell—still a newly inducted knight—encounters a crazed Jack Strader causing chaos in the streets and threatening the citizens of the Independent Trade City of Houseman. She challenges Strader in her first real fight, but her sword (the Cambell family sword) is broken in the process. Before Strader can finish her off, Luke Ainsworth intervenes, saving her for the first time.
Impressed with Luke’s sword, she comes to the Atelier Lisa to place an order for a katana. When he refuses, Cecily becomes determined to show Luke her worth as a knight and invites him to participate in an assigned mission the following day. There, she and the other knights quickly subdue their target—a group of bandits accused of attacking merchant caravans—but are suddenly overwhelmed unhuman beasts. Cecily is wounded in the assault, but Luke once again steps in to save her and defeat the monsters. While watching him fight, Cecily is fascinated with Luke’s different style of swordsmanship: how he turns into his opponents, slides forward, and stays dangerously close to his enemy without parrying.
Luke and Cecily chase after one of the bandits trying to escape, but the bandit speaks his death spell, triggers a demon contract, and turns into an ice monster. The demon shoots shards of sharp ice from its body, which piece Cecily and knock her back. Once again, Luke defends her but his katana breaks. With no other choice, he enters the forging spell with Lisa while Cecily engages the ice monster to buy them time. She is severely wounded—and her clothes ripped to shreds—but thanks to her help, Luke finishes the katana, which magically emits heat to defeat the ice beast.
Meeting Aria[]
Soon after the mission, Cecily is appointed bodyguard to the demon sword Aria, who is to be showcased at the upcoming city festival. Cecily shows off Aria’s abilities at the fair as planned, but Jack Strader (manipulated by Siegfried) attacks again, reads his death spell, and becomes a demon. Together, she and Luke defeat the demon/Jack Strader.
When the city purchases Aria, Cecily is placed as a permanent bodyguard to the sword, cementing their friendship and making possible Aria’s quest to be used to protect people, not murder them. Over the next few weeks, she and Aria visit the Atelier Lisa much more frequently and often have lunch with Lisa and Luke (almost always at Lisa’s, not Luke’s, invitation).
Not long after the attack at the festival, Cecily and Aria are attacked by three masked assailants, who reveal themselves as Doris, Margot, and Penelope, the bodyguards of Charlotte E. Firobisher, a daughter of the emperor. Wielding demons swords of their own, they try to take Aria by force. Cecily manages to hold the three of them off, although she is badly battered, until Luke appears with a captured Charlotte in tow. Luke forges a new katana to defeat the three bodyguards at once, but Cecily passes out from injuries.
Called to a meeting after she recovers, Cecily is annoyed to find Charlotte, Doris, Margot, and Penelope in the mayor’s office. However, over the course of the next few days, Cecily softens when she sees a different side to the girls and their princess and recognizes their real motives in trying to steal Aria: to ensure Charlotte’s happiness. She fiercely defends the group when the empire refuses to recognize Charlotte as a legitimate daughter and convinces them to accept political asylum in the militant nation. In the process, she is forced to fight Doris, Margot, and Penelope once again and is placed on suspension. Before they leave for the militant nation, Charlotte warns Cecily of a man named Siegfried, who is in charge of a military unit designed to create and train unhumans.
The Greatest Secret of the Continent[]
On a visit to Atelier Lisa, Luke asks her to accompany him to visit the grave of Lisa Oakwood, and he explains to her the circumstances under which she died and Lisa the demon was born. It’s here in the cemetery by Lisa Oakwood’s grave that Cecily learns that the seal on Valbanill will soon wear away, which Luke calls “the greatest secret of the continent.”
Now that she knows, Luke invites her to the meeting with representatives from the major powers of the continent, including Empire Combat Unit Commander Siegfried. The others lament the loss of Luke’s father and question Luke’s blacksmithing skills. When the conversation turns to Lisa and Lisa Oakwood and Luke is accused of forcing a demon contract on Lisa Oakwood, Cecily jumps to his defense and recognizes Lisa Oakwood’s love for Luke, similar to her own. Disgusted with their attitude, Cecily swears that she—not the empire, militant nation, or the crowd power—will defeat Valbanill with a sword forged by Luke.
Encounter with Siegfried[]
Once Cecily is reinstated as a knight, she obtains a sheath for Aria, who complains of not feeling well, and is assigned to be Siegfried’s escort while he is in the city for the upcoming ball. Cecily is furious with the task, hating Siegfried for his apparent involvement with the recent series of demon contracts in the city. Drinking that evening with the group (Luke, Lisa, Aria), Cecily vents and angrily clashes with Luke, who questions her ability to protect everyone and tells her that she is not as strong as she thinks she is.
The next day, Siegfried asks her to escort him to Luke’s smithy, where he accuses Lisa of having some of Valbanill’s blood inside her. Siegfried crudely asks to cut Lisa open to learn more about Valbanill. Luke is enraged and forces Siegfried and Cecily to leave.
On the way back to town, Siegfried continues to slander Luke and tells Cecily that he only uses Lisa for her flesh instead of his own during the forging spell. Cecily refuses to believe him and fervently defends Luke, placing her full trust in him rather than Siegfried’s accusations. Her demonstration of love and her faith in her own strength/will cause Siegfried to lash out. He strikes her, drags her to a nearby abandoned barn, and assaults her. A sheathed Aria can do nothing to protect her. As he beats her and rips her clothes, Siegfried stresses over and over again her weakness before leaving her broken and alone.
Cecily is wrecked by the events with Siegfried, locking herself in her room with Aria as her only comforter and petrified that Luke would find out about what happened. She becomes convinced of her own powerlessness. It’s not until another demon is loose in the city that Cecily finally snaps out of her misery and remembers her mission to defend the citizens and the people she loves around her. She near-singlehandedly defeats the demon with Aria as her weapon.
At the ball, Cecily challenges Siegfried to a duel as revenge for his attack on her and his role in the attacks against the city, but she becomes unnerved when Siegfried reaches out and grabs her wrist, reminding her of the assault in the barn. She freezes, but Luke intervenes, forcing Siegfried off her, and demanding the duel—now to the death—himself.
As they fight, Lisa comes beside Cecily, confessing that Aria told them both what had happened and that Luke has never been so angry. Luke and Siegfried are both severely wounded in the duel, but they are broken up by Hannibal and Francesca and the duel called off before either one can kill the other. Outside, a battered Luke apologizes to Cecily for not being able to finish Siegfried. They talk earnestly about her genuine goal to protect everyone possible, and in the night with no music, Luke asks her to dance.
Journey to the Militant Power[]
After the ball, Luke accepts an invitation to visit the militant power with Cecily and Lisa during which Cecily and Luke continue to bond. While in the militant nation, Cecily meets back up with Charlotte and her bodyguards. While Luke works with the local blacksmiths, the girls force Cecily to define her relationship with Luke.
Their conversation is interrupted with news that the empire and the crowd power have united and will attack the militant nation unless they forfeit their land and rights from the Valbanill War to the newly formed Imperial Allied Power. When the militant power refuses, Cecily gets roped into a battle against the ambitions of the empire.
The army of the Imperial Allied Power, led by Siegfried, attacks the militant nation in one deciding battle, relying on a host of unhumans. Here, after her recent training, Cecily begins to consciously fight in a style more like Luke’s, thinking further ahead and being lighter on her feet. In the battle, Luke tries to get to Siegfried to fight him again but is unable. However, because of Luke and Cecily, the militant power was able to ward off the Imperial Allied Power and remain independent.
After the battle, Cecily settles on an answer to the girls’ earlier question about Luke, deciding that “Luke is…my hero.” She laments that Luke, too busy in the militant nation’s smithy, did not get to see her in a dress. When she mentions this to him on the way back home to the Independent Trade City, he confesses that he would love to see it one day and Cecily smiles, not knowing that Luke is losing sight in his remaining eye.
Valbanill Awakening[]
Back in the Independent Trade City, a rare earthquake signals the start of Valbanill’s awakening. With time running out, Cecily’s mother confesses a truth hidden from her daughter about Cecily’s upcoming role in defeating Valbanill once again: called the “sheath,” members of the Cambell line have a specific death spell that will turn them into a demon sword capable of resealing Valbanill. This curse began with Cecily’s grandfather, on whose heart the First Houseman applied a technique that would turn the bearer into a demon sword capable of reinforcing the seal on Valbanill and passed down from generation to generation of the Cambell line.
Searching for support, Cecily visits Luke, just as he was preparing to leave for Valbanill’s volcano. He admits that he knew the secret of the “sheath,” but Cecily asserts that she knows Luke will forge a sacred sword himself and prevent her from having to be used as a demon sword herself. Promising that he will, Luke embraces her before heading out to the volcano.
Quotes[]
- “I can’t be as skilled as Luke, but I can make up for it with my spirit!”
- “You can never neglect hard training if you want to use a sword. It’s the way to show courtesy toward your sword. And it’s the way to protect the city!”
- “I will save everyone these eyes can see!”
- “It won’t be the empire, nor the militant power, nor the crown power, of course not the independent trade cities either—someday it will be ME who will slay Valbanill with Luke’s katana!”
Trivia[]
- In the anime, most of the jokes are about her over-sized chest and inadequacies. She usually blushes but lashes out violently only to Luke.
- Her birthday is on March 31.
- Cecily's English voice actress in the anime is the prolific voice talent Cherami Leigh, who portrays many other strong female leads, including Lucy Heartfilia in Fairy Tail, Asuna in Sword Art Online, and Ayano in Kaze no Stigma.
- Cecily and Luke made an appearance in Asobi Ni Iku yo Episode 4.