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Count Cain C. Hargreaves
The seventeen-year-old protagonist of the series and an Earl. He is infamous for his collection and fascination of various poisons that are all lethal, and solving murders.
He is the child of his father and that man's older sister, but was led to believe to be, and raised as, the son of Alexis' official wife. Cain was repeatedly abused by his father, until he decided to take no more and poisoned his father.
- Abusive Parents: The simple word of abuse doesn't even begin to cover what has been done to him. Alexis withheld any emotional support from Cain, except for the rare occasion when it allowed him to manipulate his son; he also physically whipped him and kept him isolated from all servants by forbidding them from so much as looking at him. And he always made sure to take away things Cain cared about, ranging from animals he held as pets to humans.
- Anti-Hero: Just because he's the protagonist does not make Cain a good person. In fact, a lot of things he does during the story are by no means decent. Graverobbing, for one thing. And that's without getting into what he does during the short-stories.
- Big Brother Instinct: Towards his little half-sister, Merryweather.
- Brainy Brunette: He has black hair and is quite knowledgeable about poisons and on solving murders.
- Chick Magnet: Cain has the ways to charm a lady and often uses them, leading him to have a lot of female admirers. These range not just from aristocratic women, but also down to his sister's governess.
- Child by Rape: He is the product of Alexis raping his older sister, Augusta. Turns out Augusta manipulated and seduced Alexis into doing it.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Abused by his father for years, which he never understood the reason for, until he learned that he was the product of incest. And he learned this by seeing the woman he assumed to be his aunt, but is actually his mother, committing suicide in front of his eyes. Cain then poisoned his father as revenge for the abuse and lies and assumed the role of Count Hargreave at an early age.
- Declaration of Protection: He gives several to Merryweather.
- Disguised in Drag: For Judas Kiss, where he dons fine, silk robes to appeal to the corrupt mayor he is trying to get information out of. It works a little too well for his taste, though.
- Distressed Dude: Plays this role in Oedipus Blade. Imprisoned by his father and at his mercy, as well as that of the quick-tempered Mikaela, he manages to send a message to Clehadol and get rescued.
- The Dog Bites Back: What his entire rebellion against his father amounts to. He has been under his father's abusive thumb and shadow for years and he won't stand for it anymore.
- Even the Guys Want Him: Oscar is in love with him because he resembles his dead fiancée. note
- Has a Type: It turns out that all of the women Cain has really fallen in love with have Suzette's eyes.
- Hopeless Suitor: He knew his love for Suzette was never going to go anywhere because she was completely devoted to her fiancé.
- Lonely Rich Kid: Heavily present in his youth, as his father isolated him from society for years.
- The Lost Lenore: This man has no luck with his lovers! His cousin, and half-sister, Suzette. And then there are Emelyne and Merediana during the Jack the Ripper arc.
- My Sister Is Off-Limits
- Cain refuses to allow Oscar to court his young sister, no matter how much Oscar does to try to impress him. He does assign Oscar as her bodyguard during later chapters. But that still doesn't mean that Cain has accepted him as a future brother-in-law!
- When the Lauderdales want to marry Merryweather off to Gilford, Cain rudely tells them where to shove that idea. Though this has less to do with them wanting his little sister and more to do with their nonchalant way of basically ignoring their daughter's death and just thinking of how to save their house's lineage through a 'replacement'.
- Patricide: He poisoned his father... which turned out to have been a shoddy attempt from an inexperienced Cain and Alexis managed to survive, with Cain intent on not repeating that mistake. He succeeds in the final chapter.
- Red Baron: He is nicknamed the Earl of Poison.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: The blue to Oscar and the red to Riff.
- Scars Are Forever: His back is littered with whip marks, courtesy of his father.
- Sharp-Dressed Man: Always wears a nice suit. Or dress.
- Strong Family Resemblance: When Riff is shown a picture of a young Alexis, he first mistakes him to be Cain. This strong resemblance is what caused Augusta to go insane and kill herself when a pre-teen aged Cain came to visit her.
- Troubled, but Cute: He may wear smart suits instead of leather jackets, but he follows this trope very well.
- Unperson: What Alexis turned Cain into by forbidding servants to acknowledge him. To the point that, when Riff talks to him, Cain is amazed that Riff can actually see him.
- What Beautiful Eyes!: His green eyes, tinted with yellow spots, are often mentioned. Jezebel especially is entranced by them and wants to cut them out for his collection.
- Wholesome Crossdresser: When he crossdresses to obtain access to the club the corrupt mayor heads to, he is quickly believed to be a wonderful woman and often complimented. Oscar would have loved to have seen Cain, who would rather never mention this again.
Riffuel 'Riff' Raffit
Riff was a drop-out medical student and came to Hargreaves mansion on behest of his late father's wish, where he met Cain and was assigned as his personal butler.
He has been with Cain for the longest and is his faithful servant, but also closest companion. Riff is very gentle and helpful to his master, as he knows him so well and realizes when he is acting obscure or has a plan larger than what he first admits to.
- Alliterative Name: Riffuel Raffit.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Riff lost his parents and younger brother when their mansion was set on fire and lost everything. As everything burned up, he had to give up his medical studies and, in despair, even tried to kill himself.
- Deadpan Snarker: He has his moments, much to Merryweather's surprise.
- Driven to Suicide: After his family died in the fire that he was a sole survivor of, Riff tried to commit suicide by cutting his wrist. He managed to survive, though.
- The Big Guy: Aside from being the tallest character in the cast — even outdoing Oscar by a few centimeters — Riff is often used for the more labor-heavy things to do when Cain heads off on one of his little graveyard visits.
- The Jeeves: Cain's butler and closest companion.
- The Medic: As a former medical student, he is well-versed in medicine and physical treatments, often seen bandaging up Cain's injury or others.
- Scars Are Forever: Riff has a horizontal scar on his right wrist, where he cut himself during his suicide attempt. He also has a large burn scar on his chest, from when Delilah had to restrain him with fire. From afar, it gets mistaken to be in the shape of a large rose.
- Sibling Triangle: He had a fiancée, but was busy with his work as a medical student in a hospital and his fiancée began to seek comfort from his brother. On the day of their wedding, she ran off to be with Clyde.
- Situational Hand Switch: He had his right hand was injured badly enough after his suicide attempt in the hospital that he had to learn to use his left. After it heals, he remains left-handed. When his evil Split Personality regains control over his body, it's right-handed — and when good-Riff starts his Split-Personality Takeover, he shoots himself in the right arm to hamstring evil-Riff.
- Spider-Sense: Riff says that he can always tell when his master needs him most because he can sense him by following his traces on the wind. His original personality claims that to have been a lie and having used a thunder stone, which vibrates when its counterpart is near, and that counterpart being an earring Cain always wears. Then the docile personality says he never used the stone and the whole following his traces thing was real.
- Split Personality: There is Riff, the docile, gentle and sweet butler of Cain, who would do anything to help his master. And then there is the real Riff, who was a sadist, cold and egocentric and delighted in finally having the chance to throw Cain under the bus and be free of him.
- The Stoic: Riff rarely shows emotions beyond a small smile or glare.
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Stoic Woobie: No matter how stoic he appears, he has had a bad past and has attempted to commit suicide after his family's deaths. - Taking the Bullet
- Riff throws himself in front of Cain and takes a bullet in Lion's Emblem. The injuries weren't too severe and he survived.
- During the finale, Riff pushes Cain out of the way of a storm of falling glass shards. Cain refused to leave, though. In the end, it's shown that the glass shards got embedded in Riff's back and his decaying bones are still embracing Cain.
- Undying Loyalty: Towards his master, Cain.
- Walking Spoiler: Trying to talk about Riff in the last few volumes is extremely difficult.
Merryweather (Duke) Hargreaves
The ten-year-old, younger half-sister of Cain. Her mother was a maid that worked for Alexis and left when she was pregnant. After her mother's death, Merryweather earned her living and travelled around as a fortune-teller and swore revenge against the Hargreaves for being responsible for her mother's death.
She gets taken in by Cain and eventually gets officially adopted, changing her last name from Duke to Hargreaves. At times, she still uses tarot cards to read the fortune of a situation.
- Girlish Pigtails: She often wears her hair with some kind of pigtails.
- Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Outside of the times she acts appropriately like a child, Merryweather is as sweet as they come.
- The Heart: Towards Cain, mostly, though she does hold a dear place in the hearts of several people.
- Harmful to Minors: The things she experienced in the series are no laughing matter. She has seen people die and get killed in front of her a lot. And that is without recalling that she found her mother's corpse.
- Intergenerational Friendship
- Merry ends up forming a close friendship with the twenty year old Gilford in Mark of the Red Ram. Though it's downplayed, as Gilford was mentally at the age of ten at the time.
- She has a vitriolic friendship with Oscar for a long time, despite there being the same ten-year difference as with Gilford. She becomes more open and nicer towards him, when he tones down his enthusiasm a little bit.
- Plucky Girl: Once the tension of her introductory chapters has passed, Merryweather is rarely shown to be down.
- Rags to Riches: From being a traveling fortune-teller and living in poverty, she gets adopted into money and high society by Cain. Cain spoils her with gifts and other things she likes, but she is an absolute sweetheart. And no matter how pampered she may be, she is still a former street girl.
- Revenge Before Reason: Merry admits to Cain that she knew that her mother's death was actually a suicide and her hatred for the Hargreaves, and Cain, was unfounded, but she did it as the one thing that would let her cope.
- Stepford Smiler: Type A. Merryweather admits that she tries to be cheerful a lot because she knows it makes Cain happy and that's something only she can do.
Oscar Gabriel
The (disowned) son of a Baron. He was one of the suitors for Emelyne, but admits that she was not actually the one he wanted. Oscar threw in his hat to actually get to know Merryweather, on whom his sights are set. He thinks that, if he were to marry into the Hargreaves family, he will return into his family's good graces.
- Big Damn Heroes: Plays a big one alongside Clehadol in Judas Kiss.
- The Big Guy: Second-tallest next to Riff and he is capable of a lot of physical labor. He carries Merryweather through a fire like it's nothing!
- Dumbass Has a Point: Oscar is more brawn than brain, but he is one of the few that rightfully points out when Cain does wrong. He rightfully points out that, even if his marriage to Emelyne was nothing but political, it was Cain's duty to protect her.
- Dumb Muscle: His first appearance has him mock Cain's lean stature, who retorts that literature to an all-muscle guy like Oscar would be wasted.
- I Have No Son!: He was disowned by his father.
- Red Herring
- Jack the Ripper tries to make it out like Oscar is a very possible candidate as the titular character's identity.
- Judas Kiss has Oscar being seen as a potential suspect of Sheila's death, as his brand of cigarettes was found near the crime scene and the killer is described as having been very tall for a man.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: The red to Cain.
- Throw the Dog a Bone: In the final pages, it's revealed that he and Merryweather get married and are expecting their first child.
Dominic Clehadol
A well-known medium in high society. His abilities are not for show and he can even force a person to recall their worst memories through mere touch. He was once scouted by Delilah to become The Magician of their higher arcana, but he refused.
- Abusive Parents: His mother became abusive towards him shortly before her death.
- Briefcase Full of Money: Cain bribes him with one, which Clehadol accepts.
- Creepy Child: People began to label him as one because of his ability to communicate with spirits.
- The Lancer: He begins to take on this role to Cain after Riff abandons him.
- Last-Name Basis: Unlike most of the group, he is rarely called by his first name.
- Spooky Séance: Performs multiple ones in the series.
- The Butterfly's Remains has him pull two theatrical ones, the first resulting in Lucia's body being taken over by her mother's spirit. The second one is meant to remove the spirit from her body.
- He's hesitant to perform one in Judas Kiss because the spirit to be called only recently died, so the risk of them being in danger is higher. There's also the fact that it involves calling upon Sheila, a woman he loved.
- He also turns out to be the medium to perform the ritual for the grand finale that involves summoning Augusta's spirit into a host body.
Dr. Jezebel Disraeli
Jezebel first appeared under the guise as young Dr. Allen, but turned out to be a member of Delilah, a secret club that Alexis has created. He is also a half-brother of Cain's.
Jezebel detests Cain and wishes for nothing more than to torture him, relishing in its hypothetical situation, and seems especially entranced by his eyes. He is behind Merediana and the other Deadly Dolls that Delilah creates.
- Abusive Parents: Obviously, with Alexis as his father. He whipped Jezebel even more than Cain, but his were never severe enough to leave a mark.
- Break the Cutie: Ho, boy! Alexis made him eat his beloved sheep, admitted that Jezebel is only alive because he has his dead sisters' organs implanted into him and, while the kid is still down, shows him a picture of his legitimate heir, Cain, revealing that Jezebel was no longer needed and all that love and attention he got was just a farce.
- Delicate and Sickly: Jezebel used to be weak and sickly as a child, until his father took him to a sanatorium. Where he got multiple organs of his dead sisters implanted into him.
- Even the Guys Want Him: The priest Cassandra certainly does.
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: He doesn't understand and is infuriated by the deep, complex relationship and loyalty between Cain and Riff.
- Face of an Angel, Mind of a Demon: Cassian describes Jezebel as having an angelic smile on his face when he is interacting with animals and how gentle he is with them, yet has no qualms about doing horrendous things to humans.
- Heel Realization: As he's dying, realizes he could have found brotherly love with Cain instead of antagonising him.
- Humans Are Bastards: Jezebel hates humans, seeing them as being vile monsters that cause nothing but violence and cruelty to others, while hiding this nature behind a friendly mask.
- Mad Scientist: And his favorite toy to experiment on are humans.
- Used to Be a Sweet Kid: Before Alexis decided to drop the bomb on Jezebel, he was an utterly adorable young boy that loved to spend his time outside, cuddling and talking with the animals.
- "Well Done, Son" Guy: To his and Cain's father -most of his work through Delilah is in this regard.
- White Hair, Black Heart: No matter how light his ash-blond hair is, his heart is nowhere near as light. He does play the main antagonistic role, until Alexis steps back into the spotlight of Cain's life.
