Maxwell (マクスウェル) is an Archdemon and one of the seven Dukes of Hell.[1] He was summoned by Lord Alderp using a Divine Treasure and served him, which mainly involved covering up his various crimes,[2] until the terms of their pact were finally fulfilled and he subsequently collected his due.
Appearance[]
Vanir describes Maxwell as good-looking by most standards, with a handsome youth of nobility. He has a long and wavy ashen hair with a ponytail, and possesses different coloured eyes, with the left eye white and the right eye blue. Maxwell also wears a suit sloppily similar to that of Vanir's (the Dukes of Hell outfit), but without the coat.
In the novel, Maxwell also has a hole in his head, and in the manga, he also has straight hair, and uses a robe and glasses.
Personality[]
Maxwell is a rather lethargic type, who usually doesn't express any emotion, panting and remaining expressionless even when he laughs. Because Maxwell has serious memory problems, he is also childish and forgetful to the point that he doesn't recognise his fellow Duke of Hell, Vanir, who has already introduced himself to Maxwell thousands of times.[1] He is manipulable too, as Alderp exploited the fact that Maxwell always forgets the job he did and to collect his payment to force Maxwell to work for him for years.[2]
However, while Maxwell was a submissive type at first, allowing Alderp to swear and beat him while he just laughs, Maxwell is actually a frightening sadistic who feeds on people's despair. Although he doesn't kill, Maxwell enjoys "to break" his victims, seeing them as mere toys. According to Vanir, he is the type dedicated to his toys (in the web novel, Maxwell says he will keep "fixing" Alderp after breaking him), "playing" with them day and night.[1]
History[]
Maxwell was summoned by Alderp using the Cheat Item that summons random monsters before contracting with him, though one side was oblivious to what the true consequences were, while the other side who got imprisoned in the governor mansion's basement kept forgetting to enact the consequences. Through repeatedly manipulating the thinking and perceptions of people, Maxwell allowed Alderp to rise from the local governor of a backwater province into a powerful noble of Belzerg. He in addition covered up evidence of Alderp's many crimes, ranging from exploitation and bribery, to the kidnapping and ravaging of multiple pretty young women.[1]
After the city of Axel was badly damaged by the flood that a party of adventurers had summoned when defeating Beldia, through Maxwell's powers the people's perception were tweaked to make them forget how Alderp as the governor was supposed to cover the reparation costs, instead slapping a huge bill on Kazuma and his party.[3] Then during the trial when Kazuma, whom Alderp wanted dead for Teleporting the Destroyer's volatile coronatite core above his mansion and resulting in its destruction, was about to be acquitted of treason charges due to lack of evidence, Maxwell was again called on to twist the judgment of Sena and the judge into making them sentence Kazuma to death, though this alerted Aqua to the dark powers of the Archdemon at work.[4]
Maxwell anyhow carried out Alderp's orders to slap the reparation costs for his mansion upon Kazuma's party just like before, in addition to making people accept the governor illegally shirking his responsibility of financially aiding his farmer subjects whose homes and livelihoods were destroyed by the Destroyer. As part of Alderp's conspiracy to usurp Lalatina, Maxwell went on to make her think that the impoverished House Dustiness needed to borrow 2 billion eris from Alderp for aiding those stricken farmers, even if the terms of the loan stated how in the event Ignis wasn't able to repay the loan, then Lalatina would need to offer her body to Alderp.[3]
As Alderp enacted his even bolder conspiracy involving taking Jatice's body through the other Cheat Item for switching bodies and using it to marry Lalatina, Maxwell helped by facilitating the divine necklace's delivery into the Royal Castle as a gift for the prince, before covering up the affair's connections to Alderp. The Archdemon however wasn't able to do anything when the necklace instead ended up around the neck of Iris, nor could he locate the Cheat Item subsequent to it being stolen by the Silver-Haired Thief Gang, prompting the enraged Alderp into give him a stomping.[2]
Next ordered to make Lalatina Alderp's, the Archdemon cast a powerful death curse upon Ignis, which slowly eroded his health while the common doctors and priests were none the wiser to the cause of the ailment. Slowly adjusting Lalatina's perception, Maxwell made her think that the only way to save her family when Alderp began calling the debt, was to forsake her party and marry the governor. Yet on the day of marriage, as the wedded couple and the guests gathered for the ceremony, the holy aura of the church of Eris where it was held interfered with Maxwell's powers. As such, he was unable to prevent Kazuma and Aqua from disrupting the ceremony before they, under the support of Megumin and Yunyun as well as other adventurers, made off with Lalatina.[1]
Soon after his death curse on the dying Ignis was dispelled by Aqua, Maxwell while getting stomped by the infuriated Alderp found the goddess' divine aura prohibiting him from adjusting the memories and perception of those who witnessed the day's events. He next began recalling how Alderp, who out of dissatisfaction at him considered ending their contract, was meant to pay him a price for his services. The Archdemon next received a final order to forcibly bring Lalatina to Alderp, though the said heiress unexpectedly showed up at the basement despite Maxwell not doing anything. Then subsequent to the overjoyed Alderp declaring their contract ended and promising to pay Maxwell the price he was owed, the newly arrived Lalatina shapeshifted back into Vanir, whose greeting to Maxwell made him remember his identity as a Duke of Hell.[1]
After Vanir explained how he had manipulated events so that Alderp would be led to end his contract with Maxwell and free the Duke of Hell from enslavement, a Maxwell who remembered how much of a price was owed to him by Alderp began debt collecting through breaking the governor's arms to make him to release delicious negative emotions of despair. Told by Vanir how Alderp's remaining natural lifespan won't be enough to repay the remaining price and accordingly advised to continue the torture in Hell, Maxwell who had grown quite fond of Alderp, now apologising for all the abuse and pleading for mercy, promised to stay by the governor's side nonstop once they returned to Hell, so that he could keep Alderp alive until every drop of despair owed was tortured out of him.[1]
Abilities[]
As an Archdemon known as the "warper of truth", the only counter to Maxwell seems to be the power of gods themselves, as his powers are weakened when the targets are in churches in addition to them having no effect on Aqua.
- Powers of Adjustment: Maxwell is able "adjust" people, by manipulating their perception, making them act and think in a way they usually won't without them noticing. He can also manipulate people's memories of previous events, which seems to be his speciality.
- Cursing: Maxwell can put powerful curses on people, such as the death curse upon Lalatina's father that regular priests couldn't lift.
- Immense Strength: Maxwell seems to possess an extraordinary strength, enabling him to effortlessly break Alderp's arms with his bare hands.
Trivia[]
- According to the Japanese Wiki, Maxwell is named after "Maxwell's demon", a thought experiment created by the physicist James Clerk Maxwell in 1867 about a setup that breaks the second law of thermodynamics in theory, but which fails in practice because the titular demon cannot retain information indefinitely, here referenced by Maxwell's awful memory.
- In the initial web novel, the story surrounding Maxwell is much darker than the light novel.
- When Vanir questions Maxwell as to how he remembers killing his mother, he soon comes to the realisation that Maxwell ate her. Vanir then laughs in a similar way as Maxwell, unlike his usual laughter.
- When Maxwell speaks of his act of killing his mother to Alderp, Vanir refers to this individual as "Mom", implying that they're siblings.
- Maxwell made his first appearance in Chapter 20 of Volume 3, the equivalent of the Interlude in Volume 7 of the light novels, without the brief introduction like in Volume 6 of the light novel adaptation.
Image Gallery[]
