Sophia

Sophia Keren (ソフィア・ケレン), formerly Negishi Shouko (根岸彰子), is one of the reincarnated students from Japan. A major antagonist in the prolepsis, she later becomes one of the main characters in the main story. She was reborn as a progenitor vampire to John and Seras Keren, the lords of Keren County, until she was orphaned in The War in Sariella, after which she was taken in by Kumoko and Ariel.

Character File
The only daughter of the noble Keren family in Sariella. A reincarnation who retains her memories of being Shouko Negishi, a high school student in Japan. She is a vampire progenitor, a being who should no longer exist in this world. Displaying unbelievable power, she often stands in the way of Shun and the others. She serves a being she calls Master. Born to a human family, she initially lived without any contact with Demon and the like, but after encountering the Nightmare of the Labyrinth as a baby, her life quickly became very turbulent.

Appearance
In her previous life, Negishi Shouko was often described as having a creepy appearance. She was extremely thin, with a pale and permanently dour face, making her comparable to a ghost. She also had sunken eyes, crooked teeth, messy hair, and poor posture that further contributed to her poor appearance and reputation.

After reincarnation as Sophia, she is a peerless beauty, with extremely pale-white skin, silver colour hair, blood-red eyes and an hourglass figure.

Personality
Sophia is pretty dense in certain situations but has no qualms about using her power to muscle through them if she can. Her nature as a Vampire causes her to lust for a battle that can challenge her, but she is denied that by intense training that has made her overwhelmingly more powerful than almost everything within the System. This causes her to lapse into depravity or depression when she focuses too much on it.

Her previous identity of Negishi Shouko was a target of ridicule; due to this, she has an intense dislike for anyone who insists on using her original name. This is also the root of her jealousy towards Shiraori, whom she believes is Wakaba Hiiro, the beauty queen of the class in their previous life. This jealousy makes it easy for her to obtain the title Ruler of Envy and the skill Envy.

Because of the poor treatment she was subjected to back in her previous life, she was firmly convinced that good looks meant everything, a belief she initially carried on in her next life. It was only after Ariel scolded her for being hostile to Shiraori despite owing her for saving her life that Sophia realized how ugly she was on the inside, and strived to become a better person.

Background
Shouko Negishi was a social outcast in her previous life due to her ugly appearance, constantly being bullied with nicknames like "Vampire" and "Rihoko" (short for "Real Horror Girl"). This treatment also distorted her view of life to where she believed that looks were all that mattered. Her appearance was inherited from her parents; a dead-end office worker father and a housewife mother who could only give her love. While she would regularly insult them for bringing her into the world with such a visage, they continued to love her regardless.

In high-school, Negishi was classmates with fellow social outcast Wakaba Hiiro. However, their reasons for being pariahs were completely different: whereas Negishi was ugly and avoided because of it, Wakaba was beautiful but did not attempt to fit in. Because of this, Negishi became jealous of Wakaba.

One day, Negishi's entire class was killed in a mysterious explosion and reincarnated into a different world. She was reborn as Sophia, the only daughter of the lord of Keren County; John Keren. Now finding herself in a new body, in addition to all the benefits her social status would bring, Sophia looked positively at her new life.

Introduction
During the coup d'état of the Analeit Kingdom by Hugo, Sophia appears during the moments after King Analeit is slain to support Hugo and Cylis while halting Schlain's resistance. Much to Shun's surprise, his appraisal is blocked, and even worse, Ms. Oka, who has come to stop Cylis and Hugo's plan, is shocked and horrified by her appearance. Oka forces Shun to make a run for it, terrified of Sophia. Sophia appears before Shun, Oka, Leston, and Hyrince again as they try to escape, presenting the decapitated head of Potimas, the Elven Patriarch and Oka's father. Her absolute presence is intimidating, with her power unmatched as the wind magic Oka casts on her is dissipated. Just as the situation appeared hopeless, as they were completely outmatched by Sophia and her associates, Feirune sudden appeared in her new Light Wyrm form and everyone manages to escape on her back.

As Shun and his party escape, however, Sophia converses with one of her associates, revealing they let them escape. The associate also warned Sophia that she will be reporting to their "Master" that she attacked Ms. Oka and Shun, which was not a part of the plan.

Reincarnation
As a baby, she was being transported by carriage with her mother when they were attacked by bandits. Kumoko saves them and heals their escorts, including Merazophis. Lady Seras leaves the carriage to thank her, taking Sophia. Kumoko is shocked by the number of skill points that she has. Kumoko is also extremely flustered by Lady Seras's behavior and decides to flee into the forest.

Upon being saved by the spider monster, Sophia's mother preaches to the town that the Divine Beast of the Goddess saved her daughter and her, mistakenly confusing Kumoko for the real Divine Beast - Ariel. Since Kumoko has taken up residence in the nearby forest, the townspeople begin to bring her offerings of fruit and worship. They bring their sick and dying to be healed, and the town begins to earnestly worship the spider as the real Divine Beast. News of such a holy being from the Goddess Religion would not stay quiet for long, much to Lord Keren's chagrin. Eventually, the news reaches the ears of the neighboring country of Ohts, whose fort was destroyed by Kumoko. They send a diplomat to bring the spider back to Ohts; if this isn't possible, the diplomat is to kill it using the dispatched assassins. This fails splendidly, resulting in the death of not only the assassins, but also the insufferable diplomat.

Unfortunately for Keren County, this is the final straw that breaks the camel's back: Ohts declares war on Sariella, backed by the Renxandt Empire and the Holy Kingdom of Alleius. During the ensuing battle in which the Hero takes part, the supposed Divine Beast appears on the side of Sariella, unleashing a devastating spell that instantly obliterates 10% of the army of Ohts. The attack routs their army, and although they manage to regroup and turn the tides against Sariella when the Divine Beast is seemingly destroyed by a powerful spell, it came at a heavy price. The battle becomes known as Tragedy of Zatona.

Meanwhile, Potimas leads an attack with an elven unit and some of the Ohts armies on Keren County to capture the reincarnation known only as Sophia. Lord and Lady Keren urge Merazophis to take Sophia and flee with their dying breaths, charging Merazophis with her safety. They flee the mansion but are discovered by some Ohts soldiers. Merazophis is beaten to near-death so Sophia has no other choice but to use her Progenitor skill to turn Merazophis into a vampire. With his newfound stat increases, Merazophis can fend off the attackers until Potimas shows up, quickly followed by Kumoko in her newly-evolved Arachne form. A battle ensues between Kumoko and Potimas, with Potimas having the upper hand. Out of options, Kumoko is backed into a corner until Ariel finds them, leading to Potimas's robot clone getting destroyed. Things quickly calm down after Potimas is dealt with. Kumoko and Ariel call a cease-fire, and then their attention turns to Sophia and Merazophis.

With their home destroyed and nowhere to go, Sophia and Merazophis decide to join Ariel and Kumoko, now nicknamed White, on a journey to the capital of Sariella.

Relationships

 * Unnamed Parents
 * In her previous life, Shouko had a somewhat negative relationship with her parents due to her having inherited her appearance from them, causing her to regularly insult and vent her frustrations at them. Despite this, though, her parents never insulted her back. After reincarnating, Sophia admitted that, despite her frustrations, she deeply cared for her former parents and was thankful to have been born to such good-hearted people who continued to love an ungrateful daughter like her. When thinking about her parents, she always remembers her original ones first.


 * John Keren & Seras Keren
 * Due to their short time together, Sophia admits to not having had deep connections to her new parents and was thus not all that broken up by their deaths. To her, they mostly represented the prospects of her new life as they were both beautiful and wealthy, which she was likely to inherit. However, when thinking back about them, she describes them as "wonderful people".


 * Merazophis
 * Her servant. Merazophis was originally the head butler of the Keren family, but was turned into a vampire by Sophia when she was a toddler to save his life. He was extremely loyal to Sophia's parents, and in turn to Sophia. He has remained her father-figure, guide, and servant her entire life. Because of this, Sophia continues to remain very protective and attached to him, even during her teenage years.


 * Ariel
 * As one of her saviours during the conflict in her hometown when she was still a toddler, Sophia is extremely grateful for Ariel, without her intervention during the conflict, she might not have even survived. Sophia views Ariel as both a friend and a mentor, getting advice on survival, understanding the harsh reality of the new world. Ariel's mentorship is one of the main reasons how Sophia was able to repair the one-sided anger she felt towards Kumoko. Ariel was also her benefactor during their long journey together, providing her with well-cooked meals and lodging in human territories.


 * Kumoko
 * In their previous lives, Negishi was jealous of Wakaba's looks and lamented how they were treated so differently despite both being social outcasts. After meeting again in their current lives, Sophia initially had complicated feelings for Shiro, whom she saw of her as a reminder of her past life. While grateful to her for saving her life, she also occasionally felt happy at how the "Queen of the Class" had been reincarnated as a monster and would be naturally be ostracised by other humans. However, after being lectured by Ariel for her behaviour, Sophia started to realize just how much she had done for her and began opening up.
 * By the time of Shiro's evolution into Shiraori, Sophia had more-or-less lost her original petty jealousy and now considered her a dear friend. Though she was somewhat elated at seeing her initial helpless state, she was also delighted that she could be the one to protect her for once. After Ariel and Merazophis became occupied with their jobs, Sophia got increasingly possessive of Shiro and when even she became busy with work the neglect caused her to suffer a slow mental decline that culminated in her causing an incident at the demon academy. Unfortunately, this only angered Shiro and prompted her to become stricter with her, starting with placing a curse on her that forces her to refer to her as "master" and prostrate whenever she disobeys her.


 * Wrath
 * A fellow reincarnate. The first time they crossed paths in this world he was under the influence of the Wrath Skill and attacked her, handily overpowering both her and Merazophis. She actually did not notice that he was Sasajima Kyouya until Shiraori figured it out - and even then she found she did not even remember him. Nontheless, this defeat caused Sophia to develop a one-sided rivalry with Wrath and have no reservations about killing him. Unfortunately, their rematch was ruined by Shiraori beating him by accident. While helping to restore him to normal by sealing his skill, Sophia initially continued to hold a grudge all the while being disappointed at the loss of her rival due to him being weakened. However, over the years, she mellowed out and the two now have a working relationship.


 * Wald
 * Former classmate from the Demon Academy; during their time in school, Sophia took notice of how Wald constantly tried to best her and show off in front of her. However, she always beat him in everything and generally saw him as a nuisance. She was aware that he was developing a crush on her as time went on but turned a blind eye on it as she already had (one-sided) feelings for Merazophis. After the incident Sophia caused at the academy, Wald was the only one who remained loyal to her and even asked her to make him a vampire as well, to which she obliged. However, she continues to shun his feelings for her.


 * Schlain "Shun" Zagan Analeit
 * Former classmate and a potential rival. As an experienced fighter and partly due to her nature as a vampire, Sophia often looks for strong opponents to challenge her supernatural battle strength. She sees Shun as a potential way to release her strength and a source of amusement. As seen in their battles due to Hugo's many plots to kill Shun, Sophia herself primarily toyed with him and made a point of flaunting her superior power to Shun during their duels and his helplessness in beating her. Sophie herself made a point by taunting Shun for his naivety regarding how things work in the new world and his inability to be cold-blooded in a fight where it was necessary to fight someone with the full intention to kill.


 * Felmina
 * Mutual dislike and allies. Sophia teases her by pointing out that she would lose to Shun in a fight. Sophia has a somewhat passive-aggressive relationship with Felmina, as she stole her fiancé during their academy days.


 * Hugo Baint von Renxandt
 * Acquaintance and temporarily ally. Sophia was assigned to aid him by Shiraori. To this end, she lends her assistance whenever he was being cornered and pretty much carried him to victory during The Fall of Analeit. While Sophia appeared unbothered by Hugo's demeaning attitude, during the Elf Village Battle she revealed that, despite being fellow Reincarnates, she never cared about him and discarded him once his usefulness had run out.


 * Filimøs Harrifenas
 * Ms. Oka was Negishi's teacher in their previous lives. Sophia first crossed paths with Filimøs when she tried to "save" her from Ariel, only for her to attack her as she was an elf and did not know her identity. They seemingly met several more times after this, with Sophia rejecting Filimøs' "help" each time and being annoyed at her calling her by her old name. Sophia has grown to dislike her former teacher so much that she attacked her twice despite having been ordered not to.

Powers & Abilities
Unlike most Reincarnations, Sophia does not possess a unique skill. Instead, her bonus as a reincarnation comes from her being a Progenitor Vampire, one of the strongest types of monsters. On top of this, she underwent years of hellish training at the hands of Shiro and Ariel, which molded her into one of the most powerful beings within the confines of the System. She displayed her overwhelming might when she fougth on-par with Wrath with his namesake skill active at the mere age of five and, as a teenager, easily defeated Shun's entire party without them even being to damage to her, causing the Hero to outright call her "overpowered".

Equipment

 * Broadsword: Made from the claw of a legendary-class monster, Fenrir, it is a single edged broadsword around 1.5m long with a jagged backside. After subduing Wraith, Guliedistodiez infuses a scale from Nia, the strongest ice dragon, into the weapon as a gift. Now the sword is infused with powerful ice properties that compliment Sophia's own skills really well.

Titles & Skills

 * Vampire: Being a vampire grants her enhanced stats along with the following unique skills:
 * Progenitor: As a pure-blood she has none of the weaknesses of being a vampire, being able to go out into the sun and not needing to regularly drink blood.
 * Blood Sucking: Allows her to suck another's blood to regain MP and SP as well as temporarily gain some of the target's skills.
 * Shape-Shifting Allows her to transform into any of her familiars; like a bat.
 * Kin Control: Grants her control over her familiars and anyone she turned into a vampire.
 * HP Auto-Recovery: Restores HP naturally over time.
 * Undying Body: (不死体): Allows her to survive any attack with 1 HP remaining once per day.
 * Undying King: (不死王): Raises nearby corpses as zombies under her command. Said zombies won't stop moving unless their bodies are destroyed, and also don't give any experience.
 * Water Magic: Allows her to summon and manipulate water freely.
 * Blood Mist: Using a combination of water, acid, and blood magic, she conjures a red mist that melts everything it touches.
 * Ice Magic: Allows her to summon and manipulate Ice freely.
 * Magic Resistance: Due to her vampire heritage, along with her specialized training, Sophia can cancel any low-to-mid-level magic the moment she makes contact with it.
 * Wind Resistance: Cancels out any wind magic directed at her.
 * Light Resistance: Cancels out any light magic directed at her.
 * Foul Feeder: Acquired when Shiro had her eat poisoned food; grants poison resistance.
 * Envy: Allows her to turn off any skill and System magic that she can perceive. However, repeated usage will cause her to be overcome with overwhelming envy.
 * Divine Scales: Gained along with Envy; allows her to harden any part of the body with a silver scales.
 * n%I=W: Granted by D to all reincarnations; fully restores the HP, SP, and MP when she levels-up.

Trivia

 * Sophia's name in Greek means wisdom or skill. While her last name Keren is a name that is derived from Katherine which is associated with the Greek adjective Katharos meaning pure, Katherine is also theorized to come from Hecate the goddess of magic including necromancy.
 * Most of Sophia's starting skills come from the effects of her Vampire and Progenitor titles.
 * Sophia's synergistic attributes are ice, water and dark. Her conflicting ones are light, fire, and lightning.
 * According to D, Sophia has the largest chest size amongst the Reincarnations, with Karnatia and Shiraori being second and third respectively.
 * Shiraori is bothered by Sophia being bigger than her and even considered cutting them off.
 * D believes the reason for this is because all her nutrients went straight into her chest.
 * The reason Sophia refers to Shiraori as "master" is because of a curse she placed on her as punishment after she caused an incident at the demon academy.
 * In the web novel, the curse was accidentally placed on her by a drunk Shiraori when they were playing with set of cards from D that make it so the loser has to follow the winner's commands.
 * She has little-to-no alcohol tolerance, which she seemingly inherited from her mother, losing consciousness at the slightest sip and becoming dizzy just from smelling it.
 * Her father in her previous life was a fan of the ALIEN franchise and she would often watch it with him when younger, which ended up slightly traumatizing her as those movies are not suited for children.