Hubert Lipton

About
Hubert Lipton is the former Lieutenant General of Helman's Second Army and son of Thoma Lipton, one of the strongest humans to have ever lived.

He has been the best friend of Prince Patton Misnarge since childhood, and has loyally supported him throughout their lives.

Personality and Appearance
Like most Helman men, Hubert is quite tall, standing at 198 cm. He has long red hair that is slicked back across his forehead and prominent eyebrows that greatly resemble his father's. Hubert is noted to be quite handsome, as both Ho Raga and Freya Idun express interest in him during Kichikuou Rance.

Hubert possesses a rather laid back and sarcastic personality, exuding a great amount of confidence due to his mellow attitude and dry wit. Despite this, Hubert tends to be much more serious than the other members of the Patton Faction, likely due to his own insecurity over being too weak to support them. His general reservedness brings a much needed stabilizing quality to the generally reckless group and makes him a valuable asset to the team.

Of everyone in the Patton Faction, Hubert is the only member who is doubtful of Rance, disliking his manic and brutish nature and often struggling to keep him in line. Nonetheless, Hubert is willing to work alongside him due to his trust in Patton's confidence in Rance's abilities. Rance is generally indifferent to Hubert, to the point of forgetting his name throughout Rance IX.

Abilities
Befitting the son of the strongest man in the world, Hubert is an extremely talented individual, possessing both a very high level cap of 60 and several versatile skills. He is exceptionally skilled in swordplay, earning praise from the likes of Rick Addison for his ability, and also possesses skill in archery and cow-riding.

Despite these many talents, however, Hubert is largely overshadowed in ability by the extraordinarily gifted people he surrounds himself with, which has resulted in him developing a sense of inadequacy.



The sword Hubert wields, Shiranui, is a katana found by his father at the bottom of a dungeon in JAPAN. It has the amazing ability to increase in power based on the user's fighting spirit, surpassing even the likes of Chaos and Nikkou at its maximum power. Shiranui's power is hampered considerably by Hubert's lack of confidence in himself, however, as his refusal to accept himself as a worthy wielder prevents him from unleashing its full potential. Nonetheless, Shiranui's sharpness and Hubert's skill with a sword allow for him to still be very effective in combat.

Personal history
Hubert was born toward the end of the Gi Era to Thoma Lipton and an unknown mother. Due to Thoma's promise to protect Patton after the death of Paelina Misnarge, Patton and Hubert were raised together essentially as brothers and formed a lasting, unbreakable friendship. During this time, Hubert also met and befriended Hunty Kalar, Patton's guardian, and Aristoles Calm, a young archery prodigy who was also taken under Thoma's wing. The three of them usually played together and formed a very solid and long-lasting friendship.

Throughout his childhood, Hubert sported a rather massive complex about not living up to his father's legacy. As a result, he devoted himself to training and achieved knighthood at the incredibly young age of 13, but was still dissatisfied with himself as his friends continued to outperform him. As a present for becoming a knight, Hubert was given the sword Shiranui by his father, which he had found while exploring a dungeon in JAPAN. Though he was honored to receive the weapon, Hubert felt that he was unfit to wield something of its caliber.

By his twenties, Hubert had rose to the rank of Lieutenant General and served under his friend Aristoles at the Fort Banra in the border between Helman and the Monster Realm. During this time, the succession war between Patton and his younger half sister Sheila Helman had been going on for some time. Though Hubert Continued to support Patton as the rightful heir, the pressure brought on from the conflict, along with the manipulations of the recently appointed Prime Minister Stessel Romanov, led to Patton losing all the ambition he previously had, causing him to become a delinquent and distancing himself from Hubert. When news spread that both Patton and Thoma had died during an ill-fated invasion of Leazas, Hubert was saddened by his father and friend's supposed deaths but also felt conflicted over their rash decision.

A few months following the incident, Hubert was recruited to be a member of the Ylapu City exploration team led by aristocrat Bitch Golch, along with Dens Blau, Io Ishtar and Merim Tser. Despite being Bitch's subordinate, Hubert made no attempt at hiding his hatred of him, going against any orders that he disagreed with, such as rescuing Masou Shizuka from his clutches when he attempted to have his way with her. During this time, Hubert formed a close relationship with Dens, who encouraged him to open up about his depression over the deaths of his loved ones as well as his dissatisfaction with the sudden shifts in Helman's government.

After Bitch activated Toushin Upsilon, Hubert narrowly escaped the ensuing massacre due to Dens sacrificing his life for him and a sudden rescue by Freak Paraffin, who informed him of the Holy Magic Sect, the dangers of Upsilon, and Patton's survival. Agreeing to assist Freak in destroying the Toushin, Hubert formed a shaky alliance with Rance and his party, and the group worked together to bring down the Godly War Machine. Hubert and Freak were eventually separated from the group to battle the corrupt Tousho Dio Calmis, but proved to be too weak to battle the powerful metallic warrior. Miraculously, the two were saved by Hunty Kalar, who, through a combination of entering a pseudo-dragon form and Shiranui's full power, defeated Calmis and escaped from the collapsing island with the help of the dragon Cantel. Following this event, the wounded Hubert was reunited with his best friend Patton, who had drastically changed since they last saw each other and had now vowed to become stronger to remove the corruption that had plagued Helman. Impressed by his friend's growth and unwilling to return to the now totalitarian Helman Empire, Hubert agreed to assist Patton in overthrowing Stessel's regime.

In Rance IX he is a member of Patton's rebellion troops under the command of Rance. He uses the magic katana Shiranui and wears a JAPANese armor in battle. Both these items were found in his father's weapon collection, Shiranui being given as a present to him by his father when he was much younger. Due to his inferiority complex Hubert tries to give Shiranui to other members of the rebellion troops such as Rick Addison, but he's constantly told to have more confidence in himself and keep the sword. After Freak's death at hands of the Tousho Bustat he's able to unleash the katana's true form and use its full power, defeating the Tousho in the process, though at the cost of breaking the sword. After the Revolution ended, he became the Commander in Chief of the newly formed Helman Republic's military and the General of the 3rd Helman Army, following the legacy left to him by his father.

Trivia

 * He bears a strong resemblance to the character Alexander and, by proxy, several other similarly-designed characters. This is referenced multiple times throughout Rance IX, where Rance mistakenly refers to him as both Alexander and Bernard Seramite. Additionally, Hubert's own design was largely recycled into the character of Barbazza Lonbrau in the game Mamatoto, which is also referenced in Rance IX by having him wear a fake mustache and JAPANese armor, causing him to appear nearly identical to Barbazza.
 * He was ranked in the 3rd place in the male popularity poll in Rance IX, making him one of the most popular male characters in the series.