Ikki Kurogane

Ikki Kurogane is the main protagonist of Chivalry of the Failed Knight. Despite hailing from a clan of well-respected Mage-Knights, Ikki is considered a failure amongst the members of the Kurogane clan as an F-rank Apprentice Knight and is known as the "Worst One". To make a name for himself, Ikki continues to study in Hagun Academy as a repeater, hoping that he would eventually become powerful enough to win in the prestigious Seven Stars Sword Art Festival.

Appearance
Ikki is a young man of average height with dark brown hair and brown eyes. Ikki is usually seen wearing the standard Hagun Academy male uniform. He's been noted to have a thin but well-built, toned body and a cute face that makes him popular with the girls. Sara Bloodlily described Ikki to have "beauty and kindness, yet with strength within his straight-backed, clean-cut figure and a robust musculature, honed and trained to unblemished perfection." These being the reasons why she wanted Ikki to be her nude model.

Personality
Ikki is a strong-willed and noble young man, with a caring personality; this is seen throughout the series as selflessly helps others. This holds truer for those struggling to become better on their own, as he understands what a hard road it was. Ikki can also be very cold in battle and doesn't mind enjoying a heated battle with a strong opponent.

Ikki is shown to be quite calm in even the most arduous of the situation, as seen when he stayed calm the entire encounter with Kuraudo even brushing off the fact that he was hit with a bottle, trying to avoid the fight.

When it comes to dealing with women of his age and the whole academy in general Ikki is clumsy because he has no prior experience with them outside of respect towards a superior or as a knight. This is shown when he confronts Stella on that subject. Due to his years of being discriminated against for being an F-Rank, Ikki is not entirely used to his sudden rise in popularity and often doesn't know how to best deal with his many female fans.

Despite situations implying otherwise, he is not very perverted. He usually tries his hardest to show restraint and respect to the woman who act lecherously around him, such as Stella and Shizuku. He also chose not to have sex with Stella at the log cabin they were staying, even though she suggested it, knowing he needed her family's approval first.

History
Ikki is a member of the Kurogane Family, a family that has produced superior Blazers for generations, the most well known being Ryoma Kurogane. When his family found out that Ikki is an F-rank, they immediately discriminate against him, forcing Ikki not to do anything while treating him like he doesn't exist.

During a new year celebration Ikki, unable to withstand the environment, ran out of his house and got lost in the snow. Down to his final breaths, the almost dying Ikki cries out his frustration as Ryoma Kurogane appears in front of Ikki, telling Ikki to never give up and to become strong.

Ikki eventually left his house to live on his own. During his time in middle school, Ikki would go to many different dojos and challenge their masters. They either refused his challenge or the students would gang up on him, which occurs on multiple occasions. He eventually started attending the Hagun Academy a year before the story, thanks to the evaluation by his examiner, Yuuri Oreki. While there, Ikki faced opposition from his family, who forced the school to make Ikki fail and made him retake a year. He was also harassed by many students during that time, mainly Shizuya Kirihara who even challenged Ikki to a fight and attacked Ikki who avoided retaliation due to not wanting to be expelled.