Dera

Dera is a man from the East Village who is commonly known by the nickname Dera or Dera-san.

He belongs to the Tadera family, whose inherited role is labeled as a low-ranking servant title, but in practice the family functions more like spies and operatives working exclusively for the East Village.

He normally lives in the outside world and visits the East Village as a trader.

During these trips, he exchanges goods such as medicine and vegetable seeds.

By chance, he was staying in the East Village when it was attacked by the Kagemori family.

He rescued Yuru and fled with him to the outside world.

Asa rule, Dera does not interfere unless the village acts first.

He currently has no paired daemon.

Like Hana, he was originally born in the East Village.

However, he could not accept the village’s obsession with the idea that the legendary twins’ power would allow the East Village to rule the land.

While he continues to outwardly perform his duties for the village, he personally hopes that Yuru and Asa will be free to choose their own lives.

This belief sets him apart from many other East Village insiders.

Gender: Male

Voice Actor: Yuichi Nakamura

Approximate Age: Around 35

His age is inferred from a remark he made after learning that his father had a secret child who was 13 years old.

Because he was shocked by their 22-year age gap, he is assumed to be about 35.

Dera first appeared disguised as a peddler with a mustache.

He later changed his look in order to hide his identity, resulting in his current appearance.

His casual nickname is Dera-san.

The name gives him a familiar and easygoing image, which matches his surface personality.

Dera often comes across as carefree, playful, and hard to pin down.

He has the air of a drifter or a charming rogue rather than a stern operative.

At the same time, he is highly perceptive and difficult to fool.

He can notice even simple attempts to tail him.

He also has a self-destructive streak.

His love of gambling, especially horse racing, has caused him to lose huge amounts of money.

Part of this attitude comes from his past as a former mercenary.

His outlook is essentially that money should be spent before death, a value shaped by years spent on battlefields.

Despite his flaws, he has a firm moral line.

He refuses to accept sacrificing children for power.

Dera is skilled with firearms, including rifles.

His combat experience and instincts suggest a dangerous level of training beneath his laid-back exterior.

Although he currently does not possess a personal paired daemon, he can still see daemons normally.

This indicates that he once had a contract with one.

The reason is tied to his past.

During his time as a mercenary, his contracted daemon was destroyed while protecting him in battle.

That loss stayed with him deeply.

Even more than ten years later, he has still not formed a contract with a replacement daemon.

The Tadera family itself does possess a family daemon.

However, it is not Dera’s personal contracted partner.

When East Village figures begin plotting to kill Yuru once and use the resulting Seal power to seize dominion, Dera opposes the plan.

He finds the idea of sacrificing a child completely unacceptable.

Acting on his own, he hides Yuru in his apartment in the outside world, which also serves as his personal base.

Because of this, other covert East Village operatives consider him a traitor.

Even so, Dera becomes one of the few dependable adults in Yuru’s life.

He effectively takes on the role of Yuru’s guardian.

His relationship with Yuru is especially important because he offers something rare in the series: protection without exploitation.

Rather than seeing Yuru as a tool, he wants him to live as a person.

Ten years before the current story, Dera was called back by Roei Tadera to inherit the family profession.

Before that, he had been working overseas as a mercenary.

This unusual career path explains both his combat skills and his rough-edged worldview.

He is not merely a village operative, but a man shaped by real war.

A major revelation in the story concerns Yuru and Asa’s parents.

The person who helped them escape the East Village was Dera’s father, Roei Tadera.

Dera and his father had long been separated.

Afterward, Roei apparently remarried an Ethiopian woman.

Dera later learns that he has a half-sibling he never knew about.

He also discovers that his father is still alive, confirming that Roei played a major role in setting the entire story in motion.

Dera is technically still part of the East Village system.

He carries out his role on the surface, but his loyalty is far from absolute.

He rejects the village’s ideology when it demands human sacrifice or tries to force destiny on the twins.

This puts him in conflict with others who are willing to use Yuru for political power.

His position is especially interesting because he understands the village from the inside while no longer believing in its central fantasy.

That makes him both an insider and an outsider.

The worldbuilding of Daemons of the Shadow Realm draws some inspiration from The Legends of Tono.

Within that folklore, there is a place called Dendera Field, a site associated with the legend of abandoning the elderly.

This has led to a notable bit of wordplay around Dera’s name.

If the family name Tadera is read differently, it resembles the name of that folkloric location.