Rundelhaus Code

""Okay! Leave it to me, I'll handle the transaction.""

- Rundelhaus, Volume 8

Rundelhaus Code (also spelled "Rundel Haus Code" and "Rundelhous Cord", among other translations), also known as Rudy, is one of the People of the Earth in Elder Tale. He is a Human Sorcerer-Adventurer and currently a member of Log Horizon. He was a member of the Shibuya Raid Team.

His birthday is November 11, and he is a year older than Isuzu, making him around 17–18 years old.

Appearance
Rundelhaus is a young, noble-looking boy with blond hair and blue eyes. He has been described as attractive by a few characters, although his popularity is decreased by his somewhat eccentric personality.

Personality
At the start of the story, Rundelhaus comes across as a brash and boastful person with a bit of a narcissistic streak. He has a habit of using English phrases when being especially flamboyant, making the rest of his party conclude he was a rich pampered kid in the old world. However, in spite of these off-putting traits, he is genuinely hardworking and thoughtful about his combat abilities.

The reason behind his boastful nature (like thinking that being level 23 is high) and the significance behind his participation at the summer training camp is revealed during the defense of Choushi Town. Rundelhaus is a Person of the Earth, not an Adventurer&mdash;and naturally has much lower EXP gain, lower innate combat ability, and most importantly, cannot revive after death.

Having grown up in a corrupt noble family, Rundelhaus' frustration with them made him choose to emulate the freedom and righteousness he saw in Adventurers. To this end, he risked death several times during the party's attempts at Lagranda Dungeon; he even takes an arrow to his skull in their first battle (toned down to catching the arrow between his fingers in the anime). Despite repeated failures, near-death experiences, and the exhaustion he endures, he never falters and vows to train even harder until they can succeed.

His determination and resolve leads to his self-sacrifice during the defense of Choushi. This event, however, is also what fulfills his dream when Shiroe saves his life using the information he recently gleaned from Li Gan regarding the Spirit Theory. Now both an Earthling and an Adventurer, his unique status proves invaluable for relations between the two groups later in the story.

Out of all of the Log Horizon members, while he loves them all, he seems to get along with Isuzu the best, with Touya a close second. However, he also is confused by Isuzu's treatment of him, wondering if her hitting him constantly is an Adventurer custom that he doesn't understand.

Before the Catastrophe
The third son of a corrupted military governing family of the Ninetails Dominion, Rundelhaus Code, nicknamed Rudy, was one of the Earthlings that inhabited the world of Elder Tale. As he grew up, he was captivated by the freedom and sense of justice of Adventurers who fought for his people. After the Catastrophe, this admiration subsequently led to him taking on the guise of an Adventurer. He put tremendous effort into this guise; as a Earthling, his EXP leveling rate was 1/4 that of an Adventurer, yet he was able to achieve a class level similar to beginning adventurers before his status change (most professional POTL soldiers only have a level in the low teens at best).

At some point, his hometown was destroyed.

Round Table Alliance arc
Rundelhaus makes several cameos, watching the starry sky and purchasing a Crescent Burger.

Summer Training Arc
Pretending to be a Sorcerer, Rudy joins a summer training camp in the Sand Leaf Peninsula hosted by the Round Table Alliance for the low-level adventurers of Akiba. He is grouped with twins Minori and Touya and Crescent Moon Alliance members Isuzu and Serara to challenge the Ragranda Forest dungeon.

Though initially having a difficult time working as a team, the five learn to work together after learning about each others' skills and abilities. Their teamwork allows the team to successfully clear their half of the dungeon, even defeating a powerful monster called Burning Dead.

As the days go by, Rudy grows close to the Bard Isuzu. While camping outside one night, Isuzu discovers of Rudy true identity as a Person of the Land when she is unable to add him to her friend list. Isuzu promises to keep it a secret after learning of his strong desire to live as an adventurer.

Return of the Goblin King arc
As the team grows stronger by the day, the event Return of the Goblin King triggers. Goblins, as well as Sahuagins, invade the Sand Leaf Peninsula. The invasion endangers the town of Choushi and the adventurers training in the peninsula decide to guard it.

While the other members of the training camp defend Choshi town from the Sahuagins invading from the sea, Rudy and his party mates successfully eliminating several goblin parties all by themselves, proving to be excellent assets for the defense. However, fatigue and the number of the enemies overwhelm the group as they fight a party of goblins, hobgoblins and dire wolves. Faced with the possibility of them being wiped out and the town being overrun, Rudy sacrifices himself to defeat the enemy.

As Rudy dies, Serara and Minori try to resurrect him to no avail. Desperately, Minori calls her guild master Shiroe for help. Shiroe arrives minutes later and manages to save Rudy by having him sign a top-class contract that he created. In exchange for being a member of Log Horizon, the contract forcibly gives Rudy the Adventurer subclass, giving him all of their abilities, one of which is the ability to respawn at the Cathedral when he falls in battle which saved him from death.

Route 43 arc
Rudy joins to the rest of Touya's Party on their quest to acquire Dazaneg's Magic Bag. At Earthling villages, the scrubs (sans Rudy) would perform for them, and Isuzu starts gaining a fandom among them. She dismisses her music as just stuff to do in her spare time, but then Rudy reveals why the Earthlings loved it so much: they themselves could only play 42 tunes. Because of that, they find Adventurers amazing. This fact makes Isuzu upset, because she feels like she’s cheating the Earthlings by playing music that wasn’t hers. However, Rudy reassures her that it’s okay because it makes people happy, and that’s what matters.

During the Wyverns' invasion in the city of Saphir Rudy determines to save this town, wanting to spare it from the fate of his own hometown. In the middle of the battle Isuzu becomes more desperate. Throwing away her spear, she takes out her lute, to Rudy’s surprise.

She sings a song that she created herself, the 43rd Song, which filled the air with rainbow-colored notes and turned the rubble into shields, protecting the Earthlings and the Adventurers.

After the battle, the kids decide to leave the day after. Rudy understood that some Earthlings would blame the Adventurers for what happened and for not protecting everyone, and didn’t want his friends to be hurt by those words. As they are leaving, Rudy and Isuzu hear some Earthling children singing. It’s Isuzu’s song, which has reached their hearts and has truly become the 43rd song. As she burst into tears, Rudy hands her his handkerchief. It’s her birthday song, a song that will spread throughout Yamato.

Side Story: Birthday IV
Rudy is the focus of the side story, Birthday IV, which was predictably released on his birthday.

Log Horizon: New Adventure Land
Rudy is a recruitable character in the mobile game. He currently has four forms: his volume 8 outfit, a SR and LR version of his interim outfit, and his swimsuit.

Other Equipment
Magician Gauntlet: is a level 25 equipment that boosts the damage of magical attacks. Rundelhaus and his party mates won it at Ragranda Forest and the other members decided to give the item to Rundelhaus, the only mage of the group.

Trivia

 * In Contract, Rudy signed the contract as Rundellhous Kode. Tetsuya Kakihara, Rudy's Japanese voice actor, designed this spelling.
 * Between all the different media, Rudy's name has been spelled the following ways: Rundelhaus, Rundellhous, Rundelhaus, and Rundel Haus. His last name varies between Code, Kode, Cord, and Core.
 * In the Let's Go to Summer Camp! manga chapter illustrated by Hara Kazuhiro, it is revealed that Rudy's swimsuit was donated to Log Horizon (and more specifically, Shiroe) by The Roderick Firm. In order to avoid wearing it, among other reasons, Shiroe skipped attending the summer camp. Touya then took it with him just in case there was an attendee without a swimsuit.