Shiroe

"If we give up when facing problems of this level, we should not have expected anything from the start."

- Shiroe, Volume 2 Annex

Shiroe is a Half-Alv Enchanter-Scribe and the main protagonist of the Log Horizon series. A veteran player of the MMORPG Elder Tale, he was formerly the strategist of the legendary Debauchery Tea Party, and is the current Guild Master of Log Horizon.

In the real world, he is a 23-year old engineering graduate student named Kei Shirogane (城鐘恵). He was a member of the Abyssal Shaft Raid Party and later leads the Shibuya Raid Team.

His Overskill is Contract Art Ceremony, which allows him to create contracts that can change even the laws of the world; for example, his first contract allowed him to change a Lander's subclass into Adventurer, granting them the privileges that Adventurers had, including revival. He has a female Summoner alt on the test server who is named Roe2. Since the Catastrophe, the alt's body has been controlled by a Fool, although she is on his (and the Adventurers') side.

Appearance
Compared to his real-life body, Shiroe is several centimeters taller in Elder Tale and his figure became slightly slimmer. When he first regains consciousness in the game, he notices that his hands are more slender but also seemingly more dexterous. Shiroe in real life has black hair and a slender build, and also wears glasses. Currently, he's one of the few characters seen outside of the game.



Shiroe wears round glasses and is described by Naotsugu as having eyes that are "sanpaku," a term that means that the iris is small and doesn't completely cover the vertical axis of the eye. Although this is also the result of his Half-Alv race, he notes that he is insecure about it since he was called the same thing in real-life.

In Shiroe's original outfit, he wore a brown turtleneck sweater with a harness-like thing over it. He wore green pants that go from a lighter green on the top to a darker green right above the knees. Dazaneg's Magic Bag almost always rests on his left side, held in place by a belt. His boots follow a similar color scheme as his pants. A bracer always sits on his forearm, although whether it provides any sort of purpose is unknown. This outfit is topped off by his signature cloak, which has a collar large enough to comically serve as a basin for water.

Personality
Shiroe was a graduate student majoring in engineering when he was trapped in the game Elder Tale. Naturally a cautious and thoughtful introvert, he has played the game since middle school and is a veteran with a near-encyclopaedic knowledge of the game, which is known for its depth and complexity. Even as a child, he disliked playing outdoors and from middle school-on preferred to stay indoors, where he used computers to explore virtual reality. Shiroe remained somewhat of a hikikomori through college, and he notes upon regaining consciousness in Akiba that it's been awhile since he was last outside.

Although Shiroe is socially awkward and tends to be asocial, he does not actually dislike other people. Instead, he is fiercely independent and wary of others who approach him with ulterior motives. He is not above helping people who are really in need, and he appears to have a soft spot for beginners, such as Tohya and Minori. In addition, he can be quite protective of people he cares for, a trait that Nyanta used to tease him about.



Shiroe is overly humble, seeing himself as prideful and arrogant and leading him to be self-conscious about enforcing his principles or beliefs on others. However, even if he knows that others might not appreciate his actions or thank him afterward, if he sees it as the greater good, he will use any means possible to achieve his goals. This has caused others to sometimes misunderstand his motives and has earned him the nickname Hara-guro Megane (腹ぐろ眼鏡), which is sometimes translated as "Black-Heart Glasses." (In Japanese media, most characters described as "haraguro" appear to be nice but are, in fact, schemers or scoundrels. "Hara" is metaphorically one's true intentions, and "kuro" means black. Crunchyroll translates this as "the villain in glasses," whereas Yen Press takes almost an opposite approach by calling him the "Machiavelli in glasses," which associates him with Macchiavellianism: see the Trivia section).

Shiroe is generally a loner and has reservations about guilds, due to unpleasant experiences with people who sought him out only to exploit his expertise in the game. He was, however, a member of the informal group of players known as the Debauchery Tea Party and was its unofficial strategist. He became a well-known strategist due to his effort in researching and mastering his skill called Full Control Encounter, which he describes as using 1% as a unit, forecast 30 seconds ahead; in other words, he can grasp his allies' remaining MP with 1% margin of error, know all remaining resources of both allies and enemies, and forecast battles 30 seconds ahead.

Shiroe's main class, the Enchanter, is an unpopular class in Elder Tale. Lacking the firepower most would associate with a magic-user class, the Enchanter is a pure-support class that shines only when supporting the party with its buffs, de-buffs and binds. As a result, he loves this class for its potential, its complexity, and because the idea of "a class that can't do anything on its own" offered an experience totally opposite from his tendency toward independence and self-reliance.

Due to his expertise in CAD drawing as an engineering student, he chose Scribe as his subclass. After the discovery of cooking without the in-game menu allows a player to produce out-of-the-game products, he started experimenting with his Scribe subclass. After learning about Spirit Theory from ReGan, he was confident that if the conditions are met, it could be used to create new magic and laws. For example, he created a contract between Log Horizon and Rundelhous Code to keep him alive by converting him into an Adventurer and a member of Log Horizon, allowing him to be reborn at the Cathedral.

Prior to the Catastrophe
As a child, Shiroe found it difficult to make friends, and oftentimes went to the library rather than hang out with other people. At around 15 years old, Shiroe began playing Elder Tale. Four years prior to the main storyline, he became a member of the Debauchery Tea Party until its disbandment two years later.

Shiroe never joined a guild after leaving his first one because of his inferiority complex and his belief that the system was too easily corrupted, and found himself once being used as a tool by a guild. Although joining the Debauchery Tea Party helped him with play with others, he still found himself distrustful of guilds, preferring to act as a mercenary during raids after the group disbanded. For example, he helped the Black Sword Knights, gaining the favor of Isaac despite rejecting a request to join the guild.

According to Naotsugu, their first offline meeting entailed a thirty-minute lecture on the difference between black and oolong tea, which then moved on to Taiwanese politics, the EU, and the economy of tea. The two of them lived an hour's bike ride apart, and were often among the five Tea Party members pulled along to various events by Kanami.

Along with being a member of the Debauchery Tea Party, Shiroe was also well-known among players for his contributions to the Elder Tale community. He often frequented foreign boards and forums to find out information, and ran a blog or guide called "Shiro Log."

The Catastrophe
At the moment when the Homesteading the Noosphere expansion pack was deployed, Shiroe had been exploring a beginners' area with Minori and Tohya using the game's Teacher System to help them practice playing. When the pack was released, his screen filled with jet black darkness, and when he regained consciousness, he was no longer at his desk but rather appeared to be inside the in-game city of Akiba.

At first, he was unsure whether he was inside of Elder Tale or merely in an unrelated world that happened to resemble the game, but after accidentally triggering the appearance of the in-game menus by raising a hand to touch his chin, he is convinced that he has somehow been transported into the game.

Saving Serara arc
While discussing the increasingly-deteriorating situation in Akiba, Maryelle requests Shiroe and his group to take care of their guild while they are away, revealing to them that they have to head out to Susukino to save a member of their guild, Serara, who had gone there for a quest prior to the Catastrophe and was now stuck there with a malicious guild. She had nearly been forced to become a slave by Brigandia's guild master Demiqas, but was saved by a kind Werecat after escaping from Demikas.

Realizing fully well that Maryelle's guild, which had low experience in fighting, would not stand a chance, Shiroe is pushed by Naotsugu and Akatsuki to take the initiative, and offers to go in Crescent Moon's stead. While journeying up to Susukino, he reveals that his offer is more out of his growing spite for Akiba's situation and a desire to get away rather than pure goodwill.

Conference of the Lords arc
Shiroe is invited to the Ancient Palace of Eternal Ice to attend the League of Freedom Cities Eastal's Conference of the Lords, and learns more about a spell called "World Fraction" from the Sage of Mirror Lake, ReGan.

Return of the Goblin King arc
While attending the Conference of Lords with others of the Round Table Alliance, Shiroe learns of an army of thousands of Goblins moving to attack the cities of Eastal and the attack on the Adventurers Training camp at Choushi by approximately a thousand Sahuagin.

He relays this information to the rest of the Round Table Alliance leaders at Akiba and those with him at the Conference of Lords via a telepathy meeting and guesses that the Goblin and Sahuagin attacks are related to the Return of the Goblin King event part of the Elder Tale game. When Elder Tale was a game, the Return of the Goblin King event never grew to this scale because the Adventurers mostly prevented it from happening by destroying his minions, thus weakening the Goblin King's Forces and making it easier to slay him. Success in the quest rewarded players with gold and rare items. It was considered an easy Intermediate-Level quest making it a popular event enjoyed by players.

However, after the Catastrophe, the players were more concerned with making the world more livable and leveling up their skills. As a result, they didn't accept quests from Landers, and the Goblin King event was neglected. Unfortunately, this has made the Goblin King and his armies more powerful than ever in the history of Elder Tale. Furthermore, the fact that the number of monsters grew to this number meant that something was amiss with the Knights of Izumo, powerful Landers called Ancients who would help defend the land in case the Adventurers were not up to the task. Usually, if the minions weren't cleared in time, the Izumo Knights would step in and help reign in the monsters. However, it did not happen, resulting in a huge amount of monsters.

The Round Table Alliance leaders concluded that with the Knights of Izumo missing, the Eastal Lords would try to manipulate them into sending an army to eliminate the goblin threat.

He developed a new form of spell that did not exist before in the original Elder Tales game, creating a magical contract with Lander Rundelhouse Code to save his life. Despite trying to keep it under wraps, both ReGan and Nureha end up finding out about it.

Libra Festival arc
During the Libra festival, Shiroe is busy with paperwork when Minori and Akatsuki lead him out of the cake contest. Later on, he realizes that they are under attack by someone trying to undermine the Round Table conference and takes measures to counter the attempt. It is after these events he meets with Nureha, who offers him a chance to join her, but he refuses as it would make everything they had done to this point a lie.

Fallen Guardian arc
Shiroe and Naotsugu leave Akiba under secrecy, with Akatsuki and Nyanta helping to maintain an alibi for them. After Akatsuki falls against the murderer, the two reunite at the beach on the Moon, where they talk to each other before respawning at the Cathedral. He is there because of an unexpected occurrence, but does not specify what it was to Akatsuki.

Gold of the Kunie arc
Hoping to resolve the Round Table's financial issues caused by maintaining Akiba's important structure, Shiroe turns to Kinjo, the leader of the Kunie Clan, even asking ReGan to help him persuade the stoic man. However, his efforts fall flat, although Kinjo makes him aware of a difficult raid at the bottom of the Depths of Palm.

The group so goes to Susukino, where Shiroe asks for William and the Silver Sword to join him into the raid zone At the same time, Demiqas, who still harbors a grudge towards Nyanta and Shiroe for that overwhelming defeat in the first month of the Catastrophe, barges into Shiroe and William's meeting. After being forced to stand down by William (who apparently overwhelmingly defeated the Monk in a duel). With the addition of Demiqas and Tetora to the raiding party, Shiroe and William barely gather enough members for a Full Raid, as many of Silver Sword's members have become demotivated from dying so many times. Shiroe, who had yet to experience death, is told by William that he would have to die in order to understand the demoralizing effect of death in this world.

The Abyssal Shaft Raid Party goes to the raid zone and defeat the two first raid bosses, despite that Shiroe was worried due to the amount of supplies it would use, although William does not seem to care. However, when they got in confrontation with Ruseato of Seven Prison two other Raid Bosses come to the aid of the first, resulting in a party wipe.

Shiroe finds himself on Mare Tranquillitatis, and wanders through areas that he remembered from his childhood. He remembered his regrets from childhood, reminiscing on how foolish he was and how he always rejected other peoples' kindness. After some time, he finds himself on a beach, where he meets Akatsuki, who had just died against Enbart Nelles, and talks with her. They both harden their resolve, and depart by reviving.

After listen William speech he reflects how  William was like a mirror of his own 16-year-old self, Shiroe determines to clear this raid because, as Tetora says, he wants them to win. Quickly coming up with a new battle plan, Shiroe declares he has a plan that has a 15% chance of working.

Shiroe's plan starts to work and the raid party gain the upper hand against Ibura Habura of Third Prison and Tarutauruga of Fourth Prison, however Ruseato injures itself in order to spawn the Shadow Vanguard, what put all the plan in risk, however Demiqas grabs Shiroe to throw him into the room where both Kinjo and the gold production where while draw the attention of the Shadow Vanguard from the raid party. During this moment Shiroe that he never treated Demiqas with respect, and the two finally agreein something, they hate each other.

Shiroe successfully negotiates with Kinjo this time, and temporarily gains access to the gold he needs in order to buy all the important structures and open fields in the Yamato server and give it all back to the server so that no individual could now hold them, relieving the Round Table Alliance of the duty of maintaining the Guild Meeting Hall. However, he specifically leaves personal property out of the equation so that he wouldn't infringe on anybody else.

Upon returning to Akiba, Shiroe is immediately hugged by Akatsuki, who herself had completed her first raid battle.

Route 43 arc
Shiroe discusses some more problems Akihabara faces, such as the dwindling numbers in D.D.D now that Krusty is gone. Misa, too, is away (her arm never healed either), so Rieze is taking care of most of the guild’s work, Thanks to the way Krusty set up the guild, it could run even without him, but it’s still difficult, so some other guilds are helping her out. Shiroe has worries about what Eins is doing with the Fairy Rings, but we don’t know what or why. He then meets up with Isaac and Charasin to discuss Eastal; the two of them would head to Eastal to power-level the Landers' knights. Charasin asks Shiroe if Minori could transfer to his guild, for which he gets called a lolicon by Isaac.

Homesteading the Noosphere arc
With the knowledge that the Genius are cutting off the Adventurers' attempts to contact Mare Tranquillitatis, Shiroe organizes the Shibuya Raid Team to retake the city, which has been turned into a raid zone.

However, under heavy pressure from the growing desire to return home, the mounting attacks of the Genius monsters, and the steady changes to this world cause Shiroe to lose his edge. Unable to think on his feet, he stumbles around and makes mistakes that cause Rieze, a fellow strategist, to begin doubting his reputation. It takes a slap from Henrietta and encouragement from his guildmates to restore him to normal.

Trivia

 * Shiroe's name is written in kana (not kanji), so the meaning of the name is intentionally ambiguous. Phonetically it's a combination of the first character of his real last name (城 = "shiro") and his first name (恵 = can be read as "e"). Put together, they make "Shiro-e," which would mean something like a "fortress of wisdom." However "shiro" is also a homophone with (白), which mean "white" or sometimes "innocent." Henrietta often pokes fun of Shiroe by calling him Kuroe ("Kuro" = Black), playing on the alternate, more common meaning of the word "shiro". "城恵" is used in the official Chinese translations by Kadokawa (translator: haniwa) and has been accepted by the community as the standard.
 * Yen Press also calls Shiroe the "Machiavelli in Glasses" instead of the "Villain in Glasses," in reference to both Niccolò Machiavelli and Machiavellianism. Ironically, although Machiavellianism is often regarded as being predominantly in favor of self-interest and personal gain, most if not all of Shiroe's schemes are for the greater good, and he rarely takes self-interest into account unless he believes that it is for the better.