Azul’s Unique Magic and Ortho

We learn the details of Azul’s unique magic from Leona, who says that it is the ability to take one magic power from a target that signs a scroll, but we later learn that this is not quite true.

Called “It’s a Deal” (In Japanese: Golden Contract), Leona says that Azul’s unique magic seals a person’s power inside a contract for Azul to use at will, forcing them to obey Azul if their agreement is broken.

Jack says “that means he’s cheating at everything”, but Ruggie insists that it’s not a cheat: Azul is simply that powerful. We learn that, while Leona has contracted with Azul in the past, he has never risked his own magic when doing so. We do not learn what Leona did put up for collateral, or what the details of his contract were.

At the end of Book 3 we learn the reality of Azul’s unique magic: Azul possesses “taboo” magic that can steal every power out of anyone, no signature necessary. Azul doesn’t need his contracts to enable his magic, he needs them to limit it. The contracts are a system he made to handicap himself by requiring a target’s consent via their signature.

The contracts are a “filter” for his unique magic, which is too powerful for him control.

Azul is a member of the boardgame club with Idia, but we learn he only joined because of Ortho. The English version of the explanation says “they”, as in both Idia and Ortho, introduced Azul to the strategy games that he came to love (he dislikes games of chance extremely).

What Azul actually says is a jab at Idia for leaving new-club-member-recruitment up to Ortho. This joke was not included in the English localization, which makes it sound like both Idia and Ortho welcomed Azul to the club, which did not actually happen.

Azul says he would like Ortho to be his little brother as his ability to acquire information and make instantaneous calculations would be extremely helpful with Mostro Lounge. Azul wears cologne, saying it’s one of his favorite parts of living on land, “so I’m a bit particular about it”.

He says he doesn’t handle “bustling” places very well and while there are rumors that Azul can “grant any wish”, he only takes on “intellectual work”, as a rule.