A monster who aspires to be a great mage. He will eat anything and everything, and his tendency to get carried away often gets him and the main character into trouble.
Appearance
Grim very closely resembles a cat. His fur is grey with a white patch at his chest and pink paw pads, and he has electric blue flames blazing from his ears. His eyes are also bright blue. Around his neck, he wears a black-and-white striped bow tie which is torn at the ends; it also bears a light purple gemstone that rests against his chest. His tail is shaped like a pitchfork.
Personality
The first time MC meets Grim, he acts devilishly and mischievously, causing trouble wherever he goes. He can be quite narcissistic and prideful, often bragging about his magical abilities, despite not showing much magical prowess. At times, he goes to extreme lengths to achieve the things he desires, such as burning the welcoming ceremony hall to show off his magic in an attempt to get accepted to NRC. He likes getting attention from other people, as he joined the Spelldrive tournament just to get exposure through the show.
Aside from that, he is somewhat easy to impress and quite curious of things he is unfamiliar with, such as learning about the The Great Seven. He is also easy to taunt, such as when Ace insulted MC and Grim for not knowing who the 7 figures were. Grim is shown to enjoy teasing people around him, most notably MC, Ace and Deuce.
As the story progresses, he starts to enjoy the company of his friends, which includes MC whom he spends most of his time with. Grim also becomes quite attached to MC, often acting protectively or possessively over them. Although Grim does not usually act considerately or selflessly with other people, Grim does sometimes make an effort to do something nice for MC or look out for them.
Background
Almost nothing is known about Grim's past and even he is unable to recall memories of his childhood other than waking up alone, hungry, and cold.[1] The only thing that is known is that at home he was called "Grim The Digger", but isn't known by whom or whether this is instead a nickname he invented for himself. [2]
After a stormy start for causing chaos on campus, Grim finally manages to qualify to join Night Raven College along with MC. While MC waits to find a way home and Grim to become a great wizard, both try their hand at their current school life. As time progresses, Grim gets to know various students located in the school's seven dorms and learn about the more dangerous sides of magic: overblots. MC and Grim are present for seven overblots, which occured when seven mages, due to their extreme negative emotions and overuse of magic, overwhelmed their magestones with blot, a byproduct of magic. After the defeat of each overblotted character, Grim has eaten a stone left behind from the overblot. Up until Book 4, there were no obvious negative effects from doing so, but after eating the black stone left over from Jamil's overblot, he began acting strange and became addicted to eating more black stones. [3] Grim's behavior became even more unstable after he ate the stone from Vil's overblot and grew more hostile. When he sensed MC nearby at the coliseum, Grim attacked MC in his belief that they were there to steal the stone from him.[4]
Because of his "berserk" state and disappearance, Ace, Deuce, and MC rely on Crowley for advice on dealing with Grim. In Book 6, Crowley explains more about the black rocks eaten by Grim, believing that they are actually concentrated blot crystals. However, the Headmage is also quick to downplay that his attack could have been a result of his true nature as a direbeast. Given his feral state, Crowley entertains the possibility of expelling him. Grim's capture by S.T.Y.X stops this from happening.
At the end of Book 6, Grim seems to greatly regret attacking MC, apologizing repeatedly once he has been saved. Later, Crowley shows particular interest in Grim after his experiments on the study of the blot. [5]
Magical Skill
In addition to having a natural ability to use fire magic, Grim has shown the ability to draw on other magic and spells but with no strong talent. He has a problem with the precision of magic.
In Book 6, Idia confirms that Grim is not very powerful but the analysis team has detected ancient magic layered on top of each other within him that makes it impossible to accurately track Blot's accumulation. The current theory is that he possesses a curse or blessing that is activated only under conditional circumstances. [6]
Always in Book 6 Riddle claims that Grim's magic is even cruder than Ace and Deuce's, further confirmed by S.T.Y.X researchers.
Trivia
- His name may be a reference to Grimm's Fairy Tales, a popular fairytales collection which includes the tales of Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, and more.
- Grim's design might be a fond reference to the characters from The Nightmare Before Christmas, as many of his features are similar to many of its main characters. This is plausible as the series creator and lead artist, Yana Toboso, loves that movie. This could also suggest why Grim is referred to as a "monster" in the Prologue rather than just simply a cat.
- Grim can use fire magic.
- Riddle once caught Grim scratching up the sofa in the Heartslabyul lounge.