Damrada

Damrada of Gold (〝金〟のダムラダ) was one of the three governing officials of Cerberus, the most powerful underground organization in the east. He was also the vice commander of Rudra's Imperial Guardians as 002 in the sequence.

Appearance
Damrada had the appearance of an aged man with blonde hair and a goatee. His long hair was tied into a single low ponytail draped down his back. Befitting his title as "Gold", he usually wore expensive clothes like a black eastern-style suit with gold embroideries that depicted 3 tiger heads.

Personality
Damrada was a cold, calculating and pragmatic person who, in his efforts to expand Cerberus, pursued any means to turn a profit. Caring only for money, he welcomed fraud and betrayal and was unsympathetic to the pleas of those he deceived and trampled over, hence the reason he was always said to bring back dead man's loot. He was insightful and possessed a keen intuition to identify uniquely charismatic individuals such as Yuuki and Rimuru, and was very drawn to such people. He also knew when to cut his losses and run, a vital requirement for any man in his line of work.

In ancient times he was a more honest and light-hearted man who held a good rapport with his comrades. He was particularly noted to have been close with Granbell -a comrade-in-arms and a close rival serving under the same master- but with the passage of time and a switch of affiliation the two grew apart with their relationship devolving into indirect petty disputes and each trying to outwit the other.

Background
Damrada was the former prime minister of the Nasca Kingdom and a close friend of Emperor Rudra. He was originally the head of the Imperial Guardians before Tatsuya Kondou took over his position and was hailed as a Champion in the east as a Fist Saint and also held a bitter rivalry with Moss.

As part of his promise to Rudra, he roamed the land looking for a suitable candidate to kill the emperor who worried the day of Michael fully taking over him would arrive. Through that journey he came across a youth with a unique bodily composition that nullified the effect of Skills and Magic. That boy was Yuuki Kagurazaka, an aspiring young man who held grand ambitions of ruling the world. Damrada was seduced by his charisma and chose to wholeheartedly follow him, eventually becoming a close friend and partner-in-crime.

Damrada made great efforts building up the underground organization Cerberus which was founded by Yuuki on top of its predecessor Echidna, expanding it to hold great influence and power in the east. He took a spot as one of its leaders and became Yuuki's point man in the east. At some point he took in Vega who was fated to be executed by Ingrassia's authorities and arranged an education for him, shaping him to be one of the organization's leaders. He also welcomed Misha, an old acquaintance he's known for decades and a skilled femme fatale.

One day Damrada came across Masayuki, an up-and-coming hero who caught his attention, most likely because of the rumors of him being the Hero of Beginning reborn, and found that he had a very keen resemblance to Emperor Rudra. He assigned two of the Double 0 Numbers – Bernie and Jiwu – to guard him.

Under his disguise as a lowly eastern merchant, Damrada nestled up to Hinata Sakaguchi – captain of the Crusaders – and fed her malicious information on Rimuru to get her to attack the slime. He also offered Tempest's silk products to the King of Falmuth, drawing his eyes to the developing nation as a potential target of his greed. Near the night of the Walpurgis Banquet where Clayman met his end, he attempted to call Hinata away from the defense of Ruberios' inner sanctum but failed to do so and lost the trust of the holy knight when she learned of his intention to remove her as an obstacle to Laplace's second invasion of holy grounds.