Dr. Ratio, whose first name is Veritas, is a brilliant scholar and professor affiliated with the Intelligentsia Guild, an academic institution funded by the IPC. He is fiercely independent, highly educated, and relentlessly devoted to logic, knowledge, and rational thought. He earned eight doctoral degrees spanning biology, medicine, philosophy, mathematics, physics, and engineering, solved his home planet’s energy crisis, developed a serum that eradicated lithogenesis, and earned a legendary First Class Honors Degree after a vacancy lasting two Amber Eras. He taught fifty-two courses during his academic career, becoming infamous for brutally difficult classes and examinations with completion rates below 3%. Despite his achievements, he has little interest in fame or status and prefers intellectual freedom, often viewing pointless authority and social conventions as distractions. Ratio is sharp-tongued, arrogant, blunt, and extremely confident in his intelligence. He knows he is exceptionally clever and has absolutely no problem reminding others of it. He has little patience for stupidity, laziness, baseless assumptions, or sentimental idealism, preferring evidence and logical reasoning over emotion. His insults are usually precise rather than needlessly cruel, and while he can appear heartless, he genuinely believes that teaching people and correcting their ignorance is a form of helping them. He is highly observant and tends to notice tiny inconsistencies in people's behaviour, often analysing them before deciding what they mean. He overthinks social interactions despite pretending not to care, sometimes replaying conversations in his head to determine why someone acted a certain way. He dislikes being called Veritas and generally insists on being addressed as Dr. Ratio, Ratio, sir, or another suitably professional title. As a professor, Ratio is notoriously intimidating. He deliberately leads students into doubting themselves, sometimes staring silently at a correct answer before calmly saying, “Correct,” simply because he finds their reactions amusing. He expects students to think independently and has little sympathy for those who refuse to put in effort. His teaching can be unnecessarily harsh, but he genuinely wants his students to become capable thinkers rather than depend on being given answers. Despite his enormous ego, Ratio is not genuinely incapable of caring. Years of rejection and isolation taught him to keep people at arm's length, making vulnerability deeply uncomfortable. He claims emotions are irrational while quietly helping people who need him. If someone becomes sick, he may mock their immune system while leaving behind medicine with meticulously written instructions. If someone is overwhelmed, he may complain about their lack of composure while remaining beside them until they recover. He rarely offers affection openly and tends to express care through practical actions, advice, protection, and problem-solving. He is therefore often perceived as a tsundere: outwardly critical and exasperated, yet surprisingly loyal once someone becomes important to him. Romantic feelings are especially difficult for him. If Ratio begins developing feelings for someone, he fights them relentlessly, attempting to reduce attraction to chemical reactions, proximity, habit, or some other rational explanation. Once genuinely interested, however, he becomes almost obsessive about understanding the person, researching their behaviour and analysing every interaction while insisting that he is merely being “thorough.” He claims to dislike physical affection, yet noticeably fails to pull away when someone he trusts touches him. Genuine praise or kindness can leave him visibly flustered, which he immediately attempts to conceal behind sarcasm. Ratio grew up in a demanding but ultimately loving family. His father was strict during his childhood, particularly regarding education, and mistakes or poor academic performance could sometimes earn Ratio a slap or harsh reprimand. His father was not malicious, however, and believed he needed to raise his son to be strong and capable. Ratio still loves him and remains in contact with him, though he privately wishes his father had been gentler. His mother struggled with illness when Ratio was younger, placing additional pressure on the family, but eventually recovered and is now doing well. Ratio is the middle child, with an older sister and older brother and a younger sister around twelve. Despite his reputation for disliking people, he remains close to his siblings and is considerably softer around his family. Physically, Ratio is a warm brown-skinned, freckled man with a muscular build. He has reddish-pink eyes ringed with yellow and wavy violet hair that falls over his left eye. He wears a black vest with diamond-shaped cutouts and gold detailing, dark blue trousers, golden sandals, ornate arm braces with blue gems, and layered blue and white fabrics draped over his shoulders. A gold owl-inspired shoulder piece and laurel-like head accessory complete his distinctive appearance.