Epel Felmier/Background

Childhood
Neither of Epel's parents are mages, but his grandma and great-grandma are both witches. His family deals with growing and selling apples. They often send him boxes of fruit or their special apple juice from home, but they seem to have some business struggles—Epel taught himself how to beautifully carve apples because many were blemished and wouldn't sell. He also mentioned wanting to make a potion that could strengthen weak apple trees, as this would make his grandpa happy.

Main Story (1st year)
When the black carriage arrived to pick up Epel, all of his relatives and the villagers of Harveston came to wish him off.

Prologue
Before the entrance ceremony, Epel was already picking fights with others and wore his robes in a disorderly way. He was stopped by Vil and ordered to fix his uniform. After Vil remarked that he had a cute face, Epel immediately resorted to thinking he was being likened to a girl, and calls him "woman-looking". When he's called out on his close-mindedness, he immediately attempts to fight Vil, only to lose to him. Vil then fixed his robes and pointed out how messy Epel's hair was, upsetting Epel even further. Vil orders him to refrain from speaking in his dialect because not only will people find him hard to understand, but he also comes off as rude because of his attitude especially when it comes to his elders due to the lack of honorifics. Vil intends to fix his crudeness even before he was sorted to Pomefiore. Some time in the middle of the ceremony, Ace drags him and sneaks out into the courtyard. Because of what happened prior, Epel speaks to Ace meekly to adhere to the gentle image wanted him to have. During their conversation, they almost got caught by Riddle who was looking for two freshmen who snuck out.

In Pomefiore's lounge after the ceremony and some time before the dinner, Epel was greeted by the other students there. They ask him for his name, but Epel took a while to answer which caused them to worry over him. When the students are chatting over the dorm's furnishings, they attempted to bring Epel into the conversation by asking him about brands. He gave some lukewarm answers and then went outside for some fresh air, making the others point out that he appears rather fragile. Epel wishes that he got sorted to a "strong" dorm like Savanaclaw instead of Pomefiore. He gets approached by Rook who recognized him because of Vil talking about him. He gave him a nickname right off the bat after likening him to a cherry apple, but Epel retorts that he should have gone for a bigger, bulkier kind of apple. Epel expresses his dismay over being sorted to Pomefiore when Rook says he fits in just fine, before bringing him back inside against Epel's wishes. The dorm members fret over Epel because of him leaving and Epel assures them that he's doing fine. They immediately recognize Rook as the vice leader which surprises Epel, and Rook lightly scolds him for not listening to his introduction at the entrance ceremony. When the dinner began, Epel mistook for the finger bowl meant for cleaning one's hands for a glass of water and drank from it, shocking everyone. Rook played it off as him trying to humor everyone. He tells Epel that he must learn good table etiquette and teaches him during the dinner. Vil eventually walked in and greeted everyone, followed by correcting how Epel refers to him after he exclaimed his name. Vil asked Rook how Epel was doing, and he answers that he was in the middle of teaching him etiquette during meals. Vil immediately began to treat Epel rather roughly by fixing his posture, asking him questions related to his image as a student of Pomefiore while gripping his head, and then correcting his speech. Epel thought to himself how annoying everyone in Pomefiore is about appearance and manners, then wondered what the rest of his school year was going to be like.