Reiko Hayami

Overview

Reiko Hayami is a hero of the Demon War, the king’s royal guard, and the father of Yuki Hayami. Although his house began as minor nobility, it has grown influential through his reputation. Volume I presents Reiko as a knight whose standing is matched by the ice magic and discipline his son inherits.

Reiko comes to the school in His Return, arriving beside Yuki as the adults respond to the conflict around Ryuji. He later enters the arena, raising a huge pillar of ice against Shun. The intervention places him opposite his old fellow hero at the very moment Yuki chooses to stand with Ryuji.

Connections

Reiko is Yuki’s father, Kimiko’s fellow hero, and Shun’s former companion in the Demon War. His arrival confirms that the school dispute has become a confrontation involving the generation that founded its postwar order.

Veteran on the mountain

Reiko guides the rescue party through dangers the students cannot yet read. He explains that monsters sense mana by instinct and avoid the Tower because its aura promises certain death. At the summit he identifies the barriers, shapes immense pillars and an ice cannon, and gives the group a method of reaching the upper floors when ordinary force cannot open the gate.

The journey also exposes the cost of Reiko's wartime service. He recalls rationing in which supplies were redistributed to keep civilians from starving, and he becomes physically ill when men approach too closely. The response is not disdain but trauma, made worse by his memory of Shun's demon form. His rivalry with the Lord of the Tower therefore rests beside a fear his jokes cannot erase.

Published-story boundary

This article includes information published through Volume II, Chapter 17, “Love & Loyalty.” Events from Chapter 18 onward remain undisclosed.