Darkness

Lalatina Ford Dustiness (ダスティネス・フォード・ララティーナ), usually known as Darkness (ダクネス), is one of the main heroines of the KonoSuba main series. She is a crusader who joins Kazuma's party, as well as a noble of the prestigious Dustiness House.

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Appearance

Darkness is a 5'6" tall young woman with graceful features and alabaster skin. She is well-endowed and also has light blue eyes and straight, long blonde hair, usually kept in a ponytail tied with a braid and red hair clips secured on both sides of her bangs. According to Kazuma, she is "drop-dead gorgeous."

She is usually seen wearing a yellow and black sleeveless dress with silver trimmings, black chainmail, and silver armor composed of metal greaves, sabatons, tasset, shoulder plate on her left side, a wing-like cloth perched upon her right shoulder, and a cuirass with a red bow.

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Personality

Although Darkness looks like an orthodox and heroic knight at first glance, she is actually a masochistic pervert who feels pleasure with pain and humiliation, enjoying all types of abuse (both physical and moral). Darkness' supposed selfless desire to face danger and protect her companions is actually a selfish desire to feel the pain of the opponents' attacks, and for such a reason, she constantly charges toward the enemy without regard for the consequences.

Darkness' masochistic pleasure is well visible, as she blushes from excitement and embarrassment easily. Darkness also moans when she suffers any type of verbal abuse and becomes breathless when she is excited. While Darkness tries to hide her excitement, her voice goes suddenly high when she is tense or psyched, and Darkness is ecstatic and squirming after being attacked by some monster or opponent.

Darkness also has a wild imagination, having lewd fantasies about being harassed by others, but once she tries to make out with them (believing those are their true intentions), they actually get freaked out. It is her dream that one day, she will be captured by the Devil King's Army and suffer all types of torture. Darkness also gets carried away in the moment, acting without thinking in many situations.

Darkness' masochism is evident in her preference in men as well, as she prefers perverse, useless, alcoholic, and even ugly men who would explore her body and look at her as a piece of meat. The reason why Darkness joined Kazuma's party is because she thought he was the type who would harass her female party members. Although her masochism slowly decreased, it didn't fade away.

While Darkness enjoys shame, there are two types of embarrassment she doesn't like. As a woman, Darkness dislikes any hint about weight and her tough muscles. She also despises looking somehow cute (one of the reasons why Darkness hides her true name, "Lalatina," which sounds cute). It comes down to a point that making a cute voice or wearing cute outfits is considered to be the same as torture for her.

Although Darkness is usually very perverted, she is still an innocent and pure maiden. Darkness is so inexperienced that, at one time when she tried to have intercourse with Kazuma, Darkness needed instructions since she had no idea what she should do. Darkness is also shy in lewd situations, and although she always makes remarks about her lack of experience, nobody believes her.

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Morals and Background

However, as a Crusader, Darkness is a proud defender of the people, a resolute law-abiding figure, and a fervent follower of the Eris Order doctrine. Her family contributed to the Eris Church for generations, and Darkness herself used to pray for Eris every day, asking for a friend, until she met and befriended Chris. Darkness is very proud of her religion, particularly when it means that she will suffer any kind of discrimination.

Also, as a noble of a prestigious house, Darkness is well-mannered and knows more about etiquette and high society than her party members. While the latter might embarrass her, she interacts normally with commoners. At first, Darkness used to hide her heritage, never using her influence unduly even when it was necessary. However, after her true identity was exposed, Darkness slowly started to feel more proud of her noble status and began using her authority to support her party.

Finally, while Darkness is a rough, irritable, and stubborn person—often reacting violently or seizing the moment to pay back—she is actually a selfless and altruistic knight, ready to sacrifice her own happiness for the sake of others. However, since Darkness is too reticent about her sacrifices and altruism, she often causes more problems than she fixes. Also, throughout the series, Darkness started to be more self-fulfilled and fulfill her desires, even using her authority and resources to get items and monsters that please her fetish.

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Family and Early Life

Darkness came from the highly respected Dustiness House of nobles, nicknamed the "Shield of the Kingdom," and the family in charge. After Darkness' mothers died of disease due to a weak immune system on her side of the bloodline, Darkness grew up with other nobles and acted as an older sister to Iris, then later a mother figure to her cousin Sylphina. She also found herself frequently the target of uncomfortable attention from Alderp.

As Darkness got older, she began developing her perverted fetishes, so her father Ignis tried to arrange marriages for her, yet Darkness kept rejecting them by clobbering him unconscious whenever he brought the matter up, and frequently ran away to Axel where her family had to offer rewards for her whereabouts.

Despite becoming a Crusader clad in a suit of armor created by the blacksmith of the Crimson Demon Village, due to her incompetency in attacking as well as her perversions, Darkness found herself all alone even after registering as an adventurer. Thus, as a devout follower of the Eris Order, she went to the Eris Church every day to pray for adventuring companions.

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Meeting Chris

One night, coming back from the church, Darkness' wallet was stolen by a thief named Chris, who wanted to draw her attention in order to invite her to join her party. However, before Chris could finish the invitation, Darkness called the police, who apprehended Chris. This became a routine until Chris could finally finish the invitation and open Darkness' heart, and she agreed to join Chris' party.

After joining her party, Darkness and Chris started to go on quests to slay monsters together, with Chris using her Bind skill to paralyze monsters so Darkness could finish them off while they were still immobilized.