Meiren Xin

Meiren Xin (メイレン シン, Meiren Shin) is one of the main characters in Tales of Ylemia. She works as a merchant. She is Linyu Xin's older sister.

Introduction
"'It's never wrong to help a person in need. Even if everyone thinks I'm too weak to do so, I guess I should prove them wrong.'"

The level-headed and calm merchant who seeks to help her sister in her mission. Acting as the eldest sister of the group, Mei is a strong, mature young woman, often taking care of the party and gives advice to everyone. She is a lovely person, concerned about those around her and gives her all to support everyone, her kindness returned. One of the things she gets frustrated about is her own weakness in society as a woman, as men are considered the stronger half of the population.

Losing their mother at a young age, Mei held the responsibility of taking care of her little sister, Lin. As her sister was chosen to be Undine's Heiros as the Priestess of the Lake, she took over the family business as merchants, hoping to be able to support her clan and her sister. She was often scolded for doing a man's job, but she keeps on persisting, proving that women aren't as weak as society dictates.

Her undying supportive nature and strong opinions will be tested by the Pillar of the Frozen Plains, Celsius, who teaches her that support is not always given, but also received, and weakness is just a proof that there's still room for improvement.

Appearance and Personality

Past
Born as the older sister yet having her younger sister chosen by Undine as her Heiros led to a deeply sorrowful childhood for Mei. Constantly being compared to her sister, she wanted to prove that she was also a person with a great ability. However, her hard work never amounted to what her sister could do. Whatever achievements she had, she was never praised. All she could do was work harder than anyone else. However, she never blamed her sister, but only blamed herself for her weakness. Giving up on proving that she could be equal of importance to her sister, Mei decided to support Lin from background, tying her hair in braids like with Lin's as a symbol for this.

Her hardworking attitude developed a knack for the mercantile industry. With her help, their family business grew and spread to the other Roots.

Beginnings
Expanding their family's business to Salamandra, Mei moves out to Mithalwa to increase her sales, knowing that it was the Root's season fit for training and their medicines would sell very well in training areas and in the coliseum town. In the third day of her business, thieves stole her medicines and Life Bottles, and in her rage, pursues the thieves without hesitation. She didn't notice she was being followed by a knight, and only realizes this after she defeats a few bandits. Not wanting to waste any energy, she agrees to team up with the knight to retrieve the stolen goods. After defeating the bandits' leader, she thanks the knight for his assistance and quickly retrieves her items while she's still early and there are still a lot of customers around. Leaving the rest of the investigation to the knight, she finds her way to her stall and managed to sell the rest of the goods before twilight (which she estimated should have lasted until the fourth day).

Setting off to Undini
Early the next day, she travels back to Undini. However, in Blaiton Harbor, the boats had an issue regarding a sea serpent attack, and so her ship was delayed. The harbor continued its operation only after a group of adventurers volunteered to hunt the sea serpent, and was confirmed safe to travel again. As she makes her way to the ship, she encounters the knight again, who introduces himself as Kenneth Flourith. She asked what the knight was doing here, knowing that knights are stationed and aren't allowed to go wherever they please when in duty. Ken's answer sparked her interest, commenting that knights like him are like gold - some are only pyrite, only appearing valuable while having no real value at all, and some genuine gold that some take for granted when they do not appear as shiny as they should.

Curious to the object Ken was carrying, she quickly identified it as the staff of Guan Yin Shrine as the knight showed it to her. She wondered how the staff ended up in Salamandra while she last saw it in their shrine only about a week ago. Mei volunteers to take the staff back, thanking Ken again for his good deed, but Ken refused the offer and wanted to carry out his orders himself. He asks her to accompany him instead, because he was not familiar with the other Roots, to which she delightfully agrees to, and joked that she would charge him Gald.

Trivia

 * Mei used to love letting her hair down. Nowadays, she does whatever she likes with it. She also thinks buns are cute.
 * She never saw her mother as a mother. She doesn't have any fond memories of her, only images of her mother's silhouette or back. The impression Mei has on her is of a stranger.
 * Her favorite food is sashimi; her least favorite being anything spicy.

Artist's Comments
I am a fan of strong women, and I liked to have a strong woman as the main heroine of Ylemia. To go back to the 'ideal heroine' archetype, I made Mei a strong, mature woman, who is a kind and caring older sister of the group, and strongly upholds her beliefs. As an older sister who took the place of her dead mother in raising her sister, she is very independent, does a lot of chores and housework and can even cook perfectly. She is very sensitive on the idea of equality, and believes that all people should be equal. Also, as an older sister, she becomes very strict and scary when provoked. Mei is someone who's better off as a friend than an enemy (laugh).

Personality- and conviction-wise, Mei is the most developed in the party, being a mature older sister taking a lot of responsibilities at the age of 19. However, her belief on equality will very much be tested when they reach Gnomos, a Root where slavery is most prominent. I like that part of her, though.