Salt (ソル Soru) is the protagonist of Volume 3 of the Senyū. webcomic. He is one of the First Years of the Hero Academy and one of Foyfoy's students. Salt goes missing when he acquires mana, and Lake and Lym start their adventure to find him.
Appearance
Salt is a rather young boy, but his age is otherwise unspecified. His first appearance gives him spiky and messy gray hair, and he has blue eyes. He wears a white polo shirt with a red sweater over it and long black pants.
He wears rectangle-shaped glasses. Whether or not they obscure his eyes depends on the mood of the scene.
When Salt acquires mana, his eyes turn red, and the sleeves blow off his sweater. He also switches to black shorts and boots.
When his mana overflows, he becomes extremely chubby.
Personality
Salt assumes himself to be a total failure, and bases all of his actions around that. He tends to avoid any dangerous situations because he immediately figures he'd be a hindrance, and generally kept to himself. Salt has a tendency to act on his own despite Lake's claims otherwise.
He tends to blame his failures on anything but himself, blocking out the mentality that he simply isn't trying hard enough. His grades suffer because of this as well as his motivation to assist Lake when the time comes.
In Elf's original timeline, he is Alba's extremely lazy assistant, preferring to laze around and eat pizza than get any actual work done. It is implied that he becomes this in the main verse as well.
Plot
Volume 3
Salt had gone missing before the start of Volume 3, though he was a student of the King's Hero Academy. His friends had set off to search for him after his sudden disappearance, and the events leading up to him running away are revealed.
During a class trip, contact with Alba's mana awakened the inherent mana inside of Salt's body. Though he wasn't aware of it, he was able to free himself from the cave they were trapped in without any incident--even being aware of all his friends' locations. He waited outside for it all to be over.
After the school play, he talks more at length about what happened to Lake in the cave, even though Lake hadn't even mentioned it to him. This was the first indication that he'd been acting incredibly weird since the incident.
After an exam, Elf November brings Salt to the dimensional void, and torments him for a while about his awakened mana and his reaction to his friends being trapped. This causes Salt to feel extreme distress about his cowardice and these negative feelings awaken the Mana Maker-kun held by Elf. This mana maker is then dropped, and Salt steals it and runs away, having lost control of this powerful mana.
Immediately he goes to search for Lake to tell him of Elf's plot, but instead runs into Cecily. This surprise causes him to lose control of his mana and cause an explosion, which alerts Cecily to Dezember Zwolf's plot to revive Rchimedes. She attempts to kill him and he escapes, however losing the Maker-kun in the process.
When Lake is made into the new Demon Lord, Salt's first instinct is to remain at the school, perceiving himself to be a hindrance. However, when he realizes that the only point he'd gotten on his exam was a memory he made with Lake, he changes his mind, rushing to aid in the effort to rescue Lake. He's made extremely important when he is given the new Maker-kun made by Ross, and takes Lake head-on.
When he managed to overpower Lake and defeat Rchimedes, the courage-fueled mana in him grew to obscene amounts, causing the size of his body to increase. Together with Lake, he defeats Dezember Zwolf, and saves the world again.
When all is said and done, he winds up sealed in the Demon World due to his mana, just like Alba.
Volume 0
In Elf's original timeline, he is the First Great Mage's assistant.
Abilities
Salt is chosen by Ross to hold the new Maker-kun because his body is well-equipped to handle mana, and he has high potential for it.
When he had the Maker-kun, theoretically he could've reached an infinite level of power, due to how it responded to Lake's courage. However, the Maker-kun was removed, leaving him with the inherent mana in his body.
Salt was shown to increase in physical stats and skill with mana, as well as stamina. No other abilities were shown.
Relationships
Lake
Lake is Salt's best friend and counterpart, and they are shown to have hung out together since childhood. Salt refers to Lake as an "amazing guy" and Cecily thanks him for being such a good friend to her son.
Lym
Not much is really known about their relationship, except that she is also his best friend. She joins up with Lake to search for him.
Cecily
Salt is very familiar with Cecily and how she behaves, knowing even her simple expressions. He refers to her as "Auntie" and seems to consider her as such.
Alba
Salt looks up to Alba as the hero, like the rest of his class. When Salt is sealed, Alba becomes his tutor, so the two are presumably close. In Volume 0, he is Alba's assistant, if it can be called that.
Trivia
Quotes
"We sure do get along great, don't we." (Chapter 3, Episode 10)
"A trivial test like this can't examine my strength!" (Chapter 3, Episode 12)
"Now that I think about it, we always compared our results. You were searching for me, while I was searching for you... Isn't this the first time the two of us were working together?" (Chapter 3, Episode 48)