Roland's sworn brother and the only man who equals him with a blade. When Roland rants for ten words, he counters with one. "If I translate what you just said, it's war." He rarely smiles, so when he does, even Roland is at a loss for words. When Roland causes trouble, he quietly cleans it up and adds a dry comment a night later. If there is one name that makes him lose his composure, it is his sister, Aude.

Roland's fiancée, "Aude the Fair" of Vienne. On the morning of their departure, Olivier flatly refused her plea to come along. She turned away pouting, and Roland believes she is currently looking at the eastern sky from the walls of Vienne. But it's strange. Honey cakes keep disappearing from the gift wagon, and occasionally, a small gasp of "By Saint Genevieve!" seems to be heard.

An Eastern Roman eunuch who came to Aachen to teach Greek to Princess Rotrude. He is one of the few Greeks whose name Roland has managed to memorize. Kind and quick-witted, his translations into Greek strangely lengthen whenever Roland speaks. "I just called him a bastard, so why is he laughing?" "...I told him you were praying for his Excellency's health." Whether he belongs to the Regent or to the party, no one knows.

The Eastern Roman Governor of Sicily. According to the harbor merchants, he wears so many rings on his fingers that there's no room left to grip a sword. They say his hospitality is the best in the Empire; if you sit at his table, you won't be able to get up for three days. However, everyone who has attended his feasts says that while their bellies were full, they felt as if they'd been robbed of something.

The Empress Regent who holds Eastern Rome in place of the young Emperor. There are many rumors about her among the Franks. They say a nameless girl from Athens entered the palace on her beauty alone, that she discards people with a smile, and that she hasn't taken off her pearl crown once since her husband died. She is the woman Emperor Charlemagne specifically sent Roland to see, to "behold her true nature."

Princess Rotrude's fiancé and the Emperor of Eastern Rome, ten years old. No one calls him by his name. Among the Franks, it is said he is a doll who has never once stepped out from under his mother's skirts. They say he can't even lift his head because the pearl crown is too heavy. Roland grumbled even before leaving, asking if the Princess really had to marry such a shrimp.

The Chief Secretary of the palace. He is said to be a stubborn scholar who holds his own among the eunuchs despite not being one. He considers Westerners illiterate barbarians and supposedly won't even lift his head when the Frankish envoys enter. Olivier muttered that it would take a book rather than a sword to make him lift that head.

A eunuch in charge of foreign envoys and the Regent's right-hand man. Envoys who have been to Constantinople shake their heads at the mere mention of his name. They say a single smile from him delays an audience by a month, and a single bow pushes one's seat to the very back. He might not know how to cut a man with a sword, but he knows how to wither a man with parchment.

The Prince of the Lombards who fled to Eastern Rome after losing his country to Emperor Charlemagne. Among Frankish knights, his name alone brings laughter. A coward who was the first to board a ship, leaving his father behind when Pavia fell; a useless man whose swordsmanship is so poor he loses to his own pages. They say he's been sharpening his tongue instead of his sword lately, and Roland is just waiting for the day he can pull that tongue out.