Characters / The Rising of the Shield Hero - Antagonists

The Rising of the Shield Hero Main Character Index
Main Series: Main Characters (Naofumi Iwatani) | Naofumi's Allies | Three Heroes and Allies (Motoyasu Kitamura) | Antagonists (Malty Melromarc) | Other Characters
Spin-Offs: The Reprise of the Spear Hero

The various antagonists Naofumi and his allies face throughout the story.

---

Melromarc Kingdom

King Aultcray Melromarc

King Aultcray Melromarc/Trash

Voiced by: Yutaka Nakano (Japanese), Jamieson Price (English)^note Other languages: Humberto Solórzano (Latin American Spanish)

The King of Melromarc Kingdom who arranged the summoning of the Heroes and distributes their initial funds and party members. He planned Naofumi's early downfall with his daughter Malty in the beginning. After the truth comes out he's stripped of his title and renamed Trash.

---

• Asskicking Leads to Leadership: He's an incredibly skilled tactician and earned the attention of his wife by leading Melromarc against their enemies. There is a reason why he was known as the strongest Seven Star Hero as once Naofumi equips his wand he curbstomps Tact who was level 350-ish.
• Authority in Name Only: He's eventually revealed to be only a King consort with the real ruler of Melromarc being his wife, who makes it clear that he has massively overstepped his authority when she finally returns.
• Bait-and-Switch: When he hears Naofumi is using a demihuman slave he supports Motoyasu's attempt to free her, claiming Naofumi has "betrayed our customs." Naofumi's pretty disgusted to hear this coming from the king of the country who legalized slavery. Later events make it clear he didn't care Naofumi was a slave owner but disgusted by one of the heroes having a demihuman in his party.
• Be All My Sins Remembered: After his significant Character Development he refuses to take back his name when offered by Naofumi out of penance for his deplorable actions and his failures as a king and father.
• Broken Pedestal: For his wife Mirellia after his actions with Malty. While his youngest daughter Melty never had a high opinion of him she outright loses her respect even after his change.
• Bullying a Dragon:
  • Subverted initially since Naofumi had no means of fighting back directly after screwing him over from the start, but then he acquires the Wrath Shield, a shield that was not only born from the misery and injustice directly inflicted on him by King Aultcray and Malty but also partly powered by the core of the dragon Gaelion. He witnesses it's fearsome power in the second wave and is somehow convinced his royal knights (which are Cannon Fodder at this point in comparison) are enough to subdue Naofumi, who he not only witnessed slaying the main boss of the wave with a giant iron maiden, but the latter also outright stated that he could easily walk into the castle, kill the king and walk out like it was nothing.
  • In the anime he makes a threat heavily implying he intends to execute Naofumi's companions for his (justifiable) lack of respect. The latter's immediate reaction all but tells you he's just barely restraining himself from killing the now-scared shit-less king on the spot, but he just leaves after dropping a terrifying death threat of his own.
• Cain and Abel: Even at his worst he is still the Abel to King Faubley's Cain. Even Malty considers him a monster so it was not like the bar was set very high for Aultcray.
• The Caligula: While he has an impressive history as a general he makes a poor sovereign when his wife is not around. He has the Four Cardinal Heroes summoned without the permission of every other kingdom, his wife's absence at the beginning of the series being her working to put out the political fires this decision created. He is also incredibly racist against demihumans, this prejudice having resulted in massive events of injustice committed to demihuman citizens in Melromarc and has given him an irrational hatred to Naofumi as demihumans worship the Shield Hero. He is also very gullible, Malty manipulating him by stroking his ego and making Naofumi a target of her mischief and had nearly let Melromarc's monarchy be overthrown by the Church of the Three Heroes in his negligence.
• Character Development: Very long in the making. He slowly begins to come around after being forced to face some of his early life trauma.
• Character-Driven Strategy: Melty claims her father King Aultcray is a brilliant game player, managing to outdo his wife and daughters effortlessly in games that emphasize strategy. However, he will often throw a game whenever he plays against Malty (who is a terrible gamer), showing that all of the strategic genius in the world doesn't matter when Aultcray lets paternal affection cloud his judgement.
• The Chosen One: He was the chosen hero for the Seven Star Cane.
• Crossing The Burned Bridge: He decides to help Naofumi against Takt following his wife's death.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Throughout the run of the series he has been mostly displayed either as a bad leader, a sore loser, downright racist and a spiteful bastard. However, once he makes amends with Naofumi, sets himself straight and planned out an attack on Tact he has shown very clearly why those who speak of his reputation as a war hero are usually in high regard and the reason that Melromarc is still standing as a nation. Even Naofumi, who scoffed at his mentioned titles as a Seven Star Hero, warrior and tactical genius at every turn when he was a fool before understood why people spoke so highly of him after witnessing his strategies in action and also admitting he would be totally creamed if ever faced Trash in his prime.
• Cynicism Catalyst: He was a genuinely good person and very skilled on the battlefield until his beloved sister was abducted and made a concubine.
• Deconstructed Character Archetype: He becomes one for the Tragic Bigot. Aultcray has a deep seething hatred towards demihumans and by extension the Shield Herowho they worship. Why is this? Because his sister was kidnapped by demihumans and he believed they murdered her. That in itself is sympathetic... however, he takes out all his anger on Naofumi who has never heard of what happened or was even present at the time and has done very despicable things to him from trying to deny him party members to keeping his level capped and was willing to start a war with other countries and conspire with the Church of the Three Heroes, a cultish religion. All because he wanted revenge against a guy who is barely connected to him, making everything he does very petty in hindsight. Because of his actions he lost any sympathy he may have gained. It takes meeting his sister's children and the death of his wife for him to finally realize how much of an idiot he was.
• Didn't Think This Through: King Aultcray has no concept of long term consequences and it becomes blatantly clear he didn't put any forethought into his choices as the story goes on.
  • Summoning all four heroes in Melromarc was only the start of his bad decisions. The intended method is for one hero to be summoned in one kingdom each. Summoning all four quite rightly angered the other countries that were at risk from the waves and war was a genuine threat, leading his wife to put out the political fires he started.
  • Doing his best to screw Naofumi over at every possible opportunity was especially short sighted. Regardless of his personal feelings or Naofumi's limited ability to actually contribute to fighting the waves at the start the Shield Hero is still one of the Legendary Heroes needed to combat the waves so doing everything in your power to sabotage one of the best chances of survival you have is idiotic to the extreme.
  • The Queen has to keep exactly how badly Naofumi was treated because of her husband hidden to avoid that outcome, as Melromarc is a matriarchy; once the Queen finds out what he's done and returns to do something about it he suddenly finds himself in a pickle.
• Doting Parent: This is what has allowed Malty to get away with her crimes for so long. While he loves both daughters equally he was only able to spoil Malty since the queen started to notice her bad personality, something he couldn't (or wouldn't) admit. He's held a Kangaroo Court over Naofumi for her sake, giving her authority over various towns, hosting battles between Naofumi and Motoyasu and many more. So once his wife, the higher authority returns she takes away both of their noble privileges and thus the power they had to ruin the world. Malty's continued villainous escalations got so bad even he refused to save her from her execution after getting her mother killed.
• Entitled Bastard:
  • He tarnishes Naofumi's name from the start, trying to take Raphtalia away from him through a rigged duel, stiffs him out of a royal stipend despite going out of his way to save his subjects, legally forbids him from using Melromarc's Dragon Hourglass to remove his party's level restriction to get stronger and gave him a Stealth Insult about defeating the boss of the second wave himself. After all that, how exactly did he expect the former to respond to his demand to explain how he got stronger than the other heroes despite the negative stigma and unfair handicaps he forced on him? He still expected him to comply when it was clear as day that Naofumi has nothing resembling respect for him by this point for all the crap he's done and somehow looks shocked and angered when the former gives him crap right back.
  • In the web novel he lets himself believe Naofumi stole the other Heroes' power and demands how he did it. Because it's not like the Shield he has is widely-known as "Legendary" for a reason like directly boosting the party's stats in case something prevents them from getting stronger normally...
  • Later on Queen Mirelia surmises that Aultcray had done so to give Motoyasu an edge over the other heroes as part of his preferential treatment for being partnered with Malty. It still doesn't excuse how he didn't expect Naofumi's justified contempt for him to make him mock the King to his face in response.
• Even Evil Has Standards: He was not part of the Church's plot to kill Melty, frame Naofumi for it and use that as excuse to kill him with the other Heroes as collateral and was appalled when he found out Malty was in part.
  • He truly loves his family unlike Malty who cares for no one except herself. His grudge against demihumans and the Shield Hero by proxy was due to a mistaken belief that his sister was murdered by one. Aultcray's discovery of her children Atla and Fohl eventually makes him reconsider his stance. He was also genuinely horrified and disgusted that Malty would murder her own sister Melty in order to become the sole successor to Melromarc's throne. Despite Queen Mirelia stripping him of his title Aultcray still loved her and was so distraught over her death at Tact's hand that he rejected Malty's final plea for mercy, knowing Malty was the one who encouraged the deed.
• Fallen Hero: He was once a beloved hero who fought Siltvelt head-on in their quest for world domination, managing to overthrow their king and save many countries. By the time the series begins, thanks to his years of hatred toward Demi-Humansand the manipulations of his daughter he's become a shell of the wise and intelligent strategist he once was and he's long since lost the ability to summon his Seven Star weapon.
• Foil: He's one to Fohl. Not only are their backstories nearly identical, being fallen nobles who were left caring for their younger sisters after being orphaned by war but they're similar enough that Atla mistakes Trash for her brother. Both became Seven Star Heroes in their youth, Aultcray with the Cane and [[spoiler:Fohl with the Gauntlet and both are prodigies in their own fields. However, the loss of their younger sisters have completely different effects on them. Whereas Trash was driven to take revenge and permanently affirmed his hatred of Demihumans, Fohl adjusts to it significantly better and never acquires a hatred for humans.
• Food as Bribe: A non-comedic variant. He tries to attract Atla's attention with food, but not to annoy or taunt her as a Demi-Human. It's because she looks identical to his deceased sister, her mother. His interactions with Atla and Fohl trigger his Character Development.
• Forgiven, but Not Forgotten: As long as he remains a good king Naofumi won't press the issue.
• General Ripper: It's implied from how much his hatred runs deep and the circumstances of the conspiracy that he may have been possibly willing to risk starting a war with the demi-humans for a chance at revenge. Later on it turns out the rest of the countries worship the Four Heroes equally so hogging all of them to Melromarc and treating the Shield Hero like shit for petty reasons risked all of them declaring war on the kingdom, not just Siltvelt. Good thing it was stopped before it could even begin.
• Hate Sink: Is this up until his wife finally has him and Malty own up to their callous behavior, especially towards Naofumi. It isn't surprising considering his underhanded actions toward the latter and just how little he's justified in doing so, especially after the full truth behind his behavior comes out. He grows out of it once his Character Development starts proper.
• Heel Realization: After Mirelia's death he finally realizes that he treated Naofumi horribly for no good reason at all. He actually gets down on his knees, apologizes profusely to Naofumi and calls his past actions unforgivable.
• Henpecked Husband: He uses his power as the king to do whatever the hell he wants and get away with it. The moment the queen finally returns she makes everyone know she's the one in charge and her husband can't even say anything against it.
• Horrible Judge of Character: Especially when it comes to his daughter Malty. It could be understandable that he believes what she says because she's his daughter, but even after her deception was revealed he continued to believe she was innocent while he still considers Naofumi to be an evil scumbag despite him protecting his other daughter Melty from being murdered by Malty. It takes his wife branding Malty with a Slave Crest to force a confession out and later watching Malty have Tact kill her mother to finally snap the King out of this delusion and realized how much of an idiot he was in doubting Naofumi and trusting his treacherous daughter.
• Hypocrite:
  • He calls out Naofumi for having Raphtalia as a slave to the point where he forces him to duel Motoyasu. And yet he knows damn well that his entire kingdom has slavery be legal by virtue of Demi-Humans and Beastmen having no rights in his country, and that his citizens do much worse than what Naofumi does. Naofumi himself even points this out, and he not only ignores him, but also has Raphtalia tied up prior to the rigged duel with Motoyasu to determine what happens to her. And then it turns out his hatred of Naofumi is because of his status as the Shield Hero, who the Demi-Humans and Beastmen he despises with a passion worship as their Saint and King. By that point, it's obvious he could care less about how the latter is treated in his country, or about Raphtalia's well-being, it's just that he hates Naofumi so much that he would bullshit a flimsy excuse to take away his one party member and leave him without any means to fight despite him having every legal right to own her. The Queen actually calls him out on this as she slaps the shit out of him.
  • He actively goes out of his way to deny Naofumi everything but the bare minimum, and not even that if he can help it. But when the former shows himself to be stronger than the other heroes during the third wave despite the unfairly enforced handicaps, he suddenly insists that it's his "duty" as a Hero to explain how he surpassed them despite previously refusing to treat him as anything but a useless liability, and how his Stealth Insult showing that he still sees him as such.
  • He tries to justify his actions during his and Malty's trial by saying it was to protect his family. He had no problem threatening Raphtalia and Filo, implying he knows they're Naofumi's surrogate family as spite for Naofumi's for lack of cooperation and still has the nerve to curse his name when he threatens to painfully end him in response.
• I Did What I Had to Do:
  • This is how he justifies his actions in the anime. As he and Malty are being tried for their crimes, he states that he isn't proud of the things he's done but did them for the sake of his kingdom and to prevent his family from being stolen from him again. This also crosses into Never My Fault since he still has the gall to blame Naofumi for everything.
  • This also crosses into Hypocrite territory since his spiteful actions towards Naofumi showed that he was more concerned about giving him nothing but shit over the well being of his own citizens, which the latter actively went out of his way to save. Aultcray just responds by forcing a rigged duel to take his only companion away, and then refusing to give him his deserved pay despite knowing this, and being informed of how most of his knights were ineffective at their job during the first wave. And then it turns out the Waves were happening all over the world and summoning all four Heroes to Melromarc instead of letting each of the major countries summon one each left the rest of the world defenseless, not just his own neglected citizens. Apparently "doing what he needed to do" involved screwing over the rest of the world and scapegoating Naofumi for abuse and ridicule after forcing him to don the Legendary Shield. And to add insult to injury his actions indirectly put his family in danger anyway by ignoring the obvious Corrupt Church in favor of spiting Naofumi.
• Implied Death Threat: In the anime, considering how Naofumi was initially supposed to be executed due to the false rape accusation hanging over his head it's implied Aultcray was invoking this trope when he threatened to make the former's companions pay for his "crimes". Naofumi does not take it well.
• Insane Troll Logic: He's insulting and belittling Naofumi every chance he gets, seeing him as nothing but a liability that can't do anything. And yet, at the same time he's actively going out of his way to hinder his attempts to actually do anything or get stronger. In the web novel he outright accuses Naofumi of stealing the other heroes' power when he shows himself to be the most capable during the second wave and demands how he did it, refusing to acknowledge the idea that he might have simply worked to get stronger despite all the unfair handicaps he placed on him. He really is Malty's father, in both sheer stupidity and a refusal to just stop and think.
• Irony: He's called "The Wise King" but his actions on screen haven't been very wise at all... Post-Character Development, he's one of Naofumi's greatest allies and is an absolute strategic genius.
  • In the anime he cites his piss-poor treatment of Naofumi as justified in order to protect his family. This is after finding out Malty tried to kill her sister Melty to take the throne and remembering what the former's crimes she committed after in the web novel... Yeah.
• It's Personal: This is the reason why he hates demi-humans and by extension the Hero of the Shield. He blames them for the loss of his sister.
• Irony: Naofumi would briefly inherit his Legendary Staff.
• Irrational Hatred: Towards Naofumi. At first, it seems like the rape accusation had completely blinded him to just how disgusting a person his own eldest daughter Malty is to realize he had been lied to like everyone else, but then it turns out he hated Naofumi since the very beginning solely for being the Shield Hero the demi-humans fervently worshipped. Deconstructed as this leads to him being more of a massive hindrance than a help to his own country as he spends more time spiting Naofumi in any way he could than watching over his own citizens' safety and wellbeing to the point of indirectly putting both his own daughters in danger when the church enacts it's plans of deposing the royal family along with the Heroes.
• Kick the Dog: Fueled by Irrational Hatred towards Naofumi, his actions are rife with this.
  • Going along with Malty's bald-faced lie and condemning Naofumi as a rapist without even bothering to give him an actual trial was the first major one, never mind barely acknowledging his presence before that despite summoning him (i.e. yanking him from his home) directly.
  • Condemning him as a slave owner and forcefully taking Raphtalia away from him via a (rigged) duel against Motoyasu despite not only knowing Naofumi has no offensive abilities to speak of and needs her to fight for him, but knows full well that he has every legal right to own her by his own laws, purely to spite him.
  • Right after the rigged duel he has the nerve to refuse to give him his promised pay despite going out of his way to save the citizens of a nearby town, instead going along with the idea that he was a "useless coward" for doing so and believing that the knights (most of whom were making things worse) could have easily done the same. In the manga and animation, he claims that the money is going to readministering Raphtalia's slave brand after it was removed, the latter action he forced on her in the first place just before his and Malty's callous deception was outed.
  • Legally banning the Shield Hero and his party from using Melromarc's Dragon Hourglass to undo their level restriction to get stronger despite knowing he needs them as strong as possible as much as the other Heroes, also done out of spite.
  • And the crowning moment to all this, following a Backhanded Compliment, him insisting that Naofumi "confess" as to how he managed to be more effective than the other Heroes in the Third Wave, despite actively trying to handicap and hinder him. In the web novel he deluded himself into thinking that Naofumi's hard-earned power was somehow stolen from the other Heroes, showing that he despises him to the point where he refuses to believe he's even capable working for it. Notably, this one causes Naofumi to get so fed up with the stupid prick that he winds up insulting him to his face right back, saying that he has to get on his knees and beg for it like the "squealing monkey" he is, and all but laughs in his face when he tries to outright threaten him. He's reduced to a screaming, angry mess when he realizes the hard way that this dog won't stand for being kicked anymore.
  • In the animation his last recorded moment involved a heavily implied death threat being thrown at Naofumi's companions as one last act of spite for his (justified) disrespect. To someone that's ready and willing to kill in order to keep his companions safe this also goes about as well as you'd expect.
• Laser-Guided Karma:
  • After abusing his power as king by giving Naofumi nothing but grief solely for being the Shield Hero and trying to kick him back into the dirt after he just managed to pull himself back up with a rigged duel and a royal stipend he refuses to give him, the shoe is on the other foot after Naofumi acquires the Wrath Shield (a dangerous power he acquires because of the abuse heaped on him at the hands of the king and Malty). After telling him to grovel at his knees if he wants the truth behind his newfound power out of him (which pisses him off to no end) and calling him a screeching monkey after savoring his reaction, Naofumi makes it very clear after his knights surround him that he not only has enough power to resist his attempts at forcing him to do anything, but also tells the king to his face that he can easily kill him on the spot and walk out of the castle without even suffering a scratch (literally, since his defense is that high). The king takes it hard when he realizes that, for all his power as king of Melromarc, all he can do at this point is curse his name in frustration now that he's been neutered of any threat.
  • To see this trope in another way, the last time Naofumi was in his court the latter mocked him and his apparent inability to get anything done on his own, ignoring how he prioritized saving his own citizens while the other heroes focused solely on the boss. Next time they meet Naofumi is the one mocking him to his face despite his seeming importance, except it's obvious that Naofumi is the one actually doing his job competently while Aultcray is actively neglecting his country's wellbeing just to spite some whose only guilty of reacting realistically to his crap.
  • In yet another way, the ultimate goal between him and the Church was to have the other Three Heroes as strong as possible while keeping Naofumi helpless, so when the time came, they could kill the latter off without worrying about the waves getting stronger to keep him out of Slitvelt's hands. To his immense chagrin, the other heroes were the ones next to useless and Naofumi was the one leaving everyone else in the dust, prompting his demands that were ultimately thrown back in his face.
  • In the anime it takes him stupidly threatening his companions, and an outright painful death threat thrown in his face to finally sink in that Naofumi refuses to take anymore of his crap, he's the powerless one now and that one wrong move from his end will see his life taken in the most agonizing manner possible. King or not nothing is going to save him.
  • Ultimately it's him and Malty being forced to be held accountable for their numerous crimes, being stripped of their royalty and being given demeaning names to reflect their disgraced statuses. In the anime this comes along with an execution (that was narrowly called off by Naofumi, their chief victim) with countless citizens screaming for his and Malty's heads after carelessly destroying so many lives.
• Let Us Never Speak of This Again: Implied and not in a comedic way. The duel that threatened to take Raphtalia away that he not only forced onto Naofumi but rigged alongside Malty had exposed the fact that the King was just as underhanded and dirty as the latter to everyone present (except the incredibly dense Motoyasu), especially since it's his very laws that give Naofumi every legal right to own her. He just acts like nothing happened as he goes back to giving Naofumi grief when the time came to give the heroes their royal stipend shortly after.
• The Lost Lenore: His sister was killed by demihumans (or so he thinks) and he has hated them ever since.
• Meaningful Rename: Changed to Trash. After his Heel Realization he accepts the name and stops Naofumi from calling him the Wise King.
• Misplaced Retribution: This is what his grudge against Naofumi boils down to. His hatred for Naofumi stems from him simply being the latest Shield Hero; who is revered by the Demi-Humans for protecting them. Aultcray's hatred stems from his little sister being kidnapped long ago by an extremist group of Demi-Humans and is now taking his frustrations out on someone who has absolutely no knowledge of any of this.
• Never My Fault: When he stripped of his royal status he blames Naofumi for everything even though it's his own fault as he should of put behind his prejudice and worked with Naofumi rather than screwing him over and trying to have him killed.
• Rage Against the Heavens: Well, the Shield Hero is revered as a god to the demihumans so it makes Naofumi the closest thing he has to a main target for what the demihumans apparently did to his sister.
• The Red Mage: The Cane's power is for magic. It allows the wielder to reduce the chant of a spell and grants them access to magic they can't normally use.
• Retired Badass: Years ago Aultcray was a powerful adventurer and wielded the Seven Star Cane while leading a war against Siltvelt. He retired from active adventuring and has settled into his role as King but has sadly let his skills grow rusty with age.
• Revenge Before Reason: Joining the conspiracy against the Shield Hero was this trope on his part. His Freudian Excuse projects his hatred of demihumans onto Naofumi but the consequences could have been severe. Going along with the conspiracy risked war with the rest of the world; persecuting the Shield Hero, in particular, would definitely provoke a war with the demihuman nations as well as every other nation the moment news reached them. He risked his kingdom for petty revenge against a once earnest young man who was willing to do his duty as a Hero without making demands like the other three were and did not even personally slight him when they met.
• Revenge Myopia: Naofumi's confrontation with him after the second wave and when Mirelia forces him and Malty to be held accountable for their actions just reeks of this. He never stops to consider that all the shit he and his daughter heaped on him at the very start might give him every reason to give Aultcray shit back in return. In the animation, he threatens Naofumi's companions out of pure spite and still curses his name when Naofumi reacts how you'd expect him to.
• Riches to Rags: He loses his royal status after his wife returns and gives Naofumi the right to decide the punishment of the King and Malty.
• Screw the Rules, I Make Them!: Being the king, Aultcray has near-absolute authority over the country, which he has no problem abusing to impede Naofumi's progress as a Hero as much as possible. Naturally this is deconstructed as not only does the king need Naofumi as strong as possible along with the other Heroes to keep his country safe (something he and Malty ignore out of pure, petty spite), but when the latter becomes the strongest of them anyway no amount of trying to assert his royal authority over him will even faze him in the slightest as he's too strong to be forced to do anything. In fact, a Naofumi gleefully tells the livid king to his face that there's nothing stopping him from simply killing him on the spot and leaving and there's nothing he, his knights or even the other Heroes can do to physically stop him.
  • What's more, Aultclay (and by extention, Malty) was abusing the authority granted to him as the consort of the true ruler of Melromarc and when she arrives back home after cleaning up the huge mess he left behind he is promptly booted off the throne and has all his political power removed.
• Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: In his attempts to protect his family and screw over the Shield Hero at the same time he's allowed Naofumi to become more popular than him or the other three heroes since he's actually done something to help that isn't problematic in the long term. And his summoning of all the heroes would ensure that the rest of the world would go to war with his family. His obliviousness to Malty's true personality has even allowed her to become dangerous to her sister and mother, something he is shocked to find out she was willing to kill her sister to be queen. In short, everything he fought to undo he allowed to happen.
• Shipper on Deck:
  • For Naofumi and Melty post-Character Development.
  • He also ships Melty and Fohl together as a backup plan.
• Simple, yet Awesome: The Cane's ability to reduce casting time and use advanced magic is incredibly simple but very powerful. In the hands of a support-oriented Hero like Naofumi, he's able to buff his party's abilities to ridiculous levels and defeat people far above his level with an arsenal of attack magic. It's so strong that he almost regrets having to give it back. In the hands of a tactical genius like Aultcray, he became a national hero to Melromarc and came to be known as the strongest Seven Star Hero long before the Four Heroes were summoned.
• Skewed Priorities: For all his hatred and admonishment of Naofumi he's clearly more concerned about giving him nothing but grief than the safety and well-being of his own subjects. In fact, along with the incompetence of the other heroes, his eldest daughter not bothering to hide her disgusting personality and some of the knights' neglect during the second wave it's implied this contributed to the citizens of Melromarc seeing Naofumi positively since he clearly seemed to give them more concern than the King himself ever did pre-character development.
• Snub by Omission: The first sign that the king doesn't have any respect for the Shield Hero is when the moment the heroes introduce themselves, he only acknowledges the Sword, Spear and Bow by name and doesn't even care to remember Naofumi's name.
• Spell My Name With An S: So how do we spell your name, Your Majesty? Aultclay or Aultcray?
• The Strategist: This is what got him such a high reputation. When learning of Tact's main offensive plan for attack are using airplanes, guns and bombers he makes damn sure to understand everything to the finest details, from its applications and uses. And by sunset the same day he had already prepared twenty plans and ideas to use. And after learning of Raph species' ability to use illusion magic, one of his many plans was to fill the clear weather skies with mines on floating ore around Melromarc and having illusion magic cast on them to look invisible to take out the planes, with remarkable results.
• Take Over the World: There is a pact between the nations of the world that states when the Waves of Calamity strike, each kingdom would summon one of the Cardinal Heroes to protect their lands. King Aultcray summoned all four to Melromarc so that his kingdom would be well guarded and the other nations would be crippled by the Waves, making them easy targets for conquest.
• Tall Poppy Syndrome: Inverted and deconstructed. Aultcray gave special treatment to every one of the Cardinal Heroes excluding Naofumi out of personal, petty prejudice to the point of actively hindering the latter at every turn. Not only has this caused numerous problems in the long run, but to add insult to injury Naofumi wound up being the most competent and effective of the four heroes because of his and Malty's underhanded actions showing him just how real the world was and how seriously he needed to take things just to survive. For bonus points, when Aultcray had the nerve to demand how he became so strong despite adamantly refusing to lend him any form of help to him at every turn Naofumi outright mocked him to his face in response, seeing he had nothing to lose since he wouldn't believe how he did it anyway.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Most of his actions unwittingly hurl his world towards destruction multiple times. Starting with the fact that he summoned all four the Heroes in Melromarc and nearly caused a world war, he also spent incredible effort to turn the world against the Shield Hero in general and endangered absolutely everyone for petty revenge.
• Villain Has a Point: Though it might have been how Naofumi was actually useful during the second wave compared to the other heroes, Aultcray was at least right about two things; him having a power he probably shouldn't have had by virtue of the Wrath Shield, likely being fully aware of the Legendary Shield's use at turning the user into the ultimate supportive tank to the point of Crippling Overspecialization and the other heroes displaying a worryingly underwhelming amount of power for people that are supposed to handle the Waves.
• Villainous Parental Instinct: He's no saint himself, but he's still extremely overprotective of his daughters and lets it cloud his judgment sometimes. This is best shown during his trial where a Slave Crest branded Malty admits she tried to kill her own sister which sends him into shock.
• Villains Want Mercy: Averted. Despite facing execution for the crime of conspiracy and treason just to discredit and possibly kill the Shield Hero, Aultcray, unlike his elder daughter does not beg Naofumi nor his wife for his life.

Princess Malty Melromarc/Myne Sophia

Princess Malty Melromarc/Myne Sophia/Bitch/Witch

Voiced by: Sarah Emi Bridcutt (Japanese), Faye Mata (English)^note Other languages: Lourdes Arruti (Latin American Spanish)

Surely you can trust a pretty face like this, right?

The first daughter of the King of Melromarc Kingdom and the one who betrayed Naofumi and led to his criminal charges.

---

See her separate character page.

Church of Three Heroes

In General

Originally the legend was about the Four Heroes: The Sword, Spear, Bow, and Shield. From this legend came the Four Saints Faith which worshipped all Heroes equally. However, the Shield's legend was more closely tied with the demi-humans, to the point that many demi-humans worshipped the Shield exclusively. A faction advocating human supremacy deemed the Shield a devil and splintered from the Faith. This was the Three Heroes Church.

---

• The Church: They are called the Church of Three Heroes for a reason.
• Corrupt Church: The High Priest planned to seize control of Melromarc by wiping out the Heroes and Melromarc's royal family.
• Crystal Dragon Jesus: They worship three of the Heroes rather than any god, but their iconography, attires, architecture, hierarchy and rituals bear similarities to those of Catholicism.
• Didn't See That Coming: They had three of the Heroes dead to rights, with only Naofumi and his team along with a handful of supporters to back them up overall. None of them saw Naofumi pulling out his first Cursed Shield out, which was just the edge he needed to turn the Pope into a bloody pulp, and their firm idea of Shields Are Useless means they have no idea just what he was even properly capable of in the first place. And even if they had beaten Naofumi, their forces would've been weakened enough for the Queen's to clean up afterwards.
• Even Evil Has Standards:
  • As evil fascists as they were, they still had every reason to be pissed at the other three Heroes for their careless, irresponsible actions considering the collateral damage and lives lost.
  • Even if he intended to take the throne himself, it's implied by Pope Balmus' initial attempt to collectively vaporize Naofumi and Motoyasu's parties that not even the church was dumb enough to let someone as Lethally Stupid as Malty anywhere near the throne. When the latter attempted to call him out on it, he simply brushed it of by saying that she was merely a talking corpse.
• Evil Counterpart: Their weapon replica serves as one for the Heroes.
• Feeling Oppressed by Their Existence: It is heavily implied that the main reason the church hates Demi-Humans is that they view them existing as a sin against humanity.
• Illegal Religion: As a result of Pope Balmus' attempt to overthrow the Melromarc royal family, Queen Mirelia outlaws the Church of Three Heroes, replacing it with the original Four Saints Faith. In the Web Novel, survivors of the Three Heroes Church attempt to return to power by joining Malty's Staged Populist Uprising against the Queen, only to be defeated once again.
• Implacable Man: The Pope's followers. Their faith in the Pope, God and justice has magically brainwashed them to point that many will suffer exhaustion, pain and death for their belief. It becomes this rather than The Determinators, as in the manga many brainwashed soldiers would keep getting back up despite crippling or lethal wounds from the Heroes for, as the Pope puts it, "[...] they aren't permitted to die." Their dogged persistence, combined with their bloodied wounds and blank white eyes, makes them look closer to zombies than people.
• Irony: When the three heroes that they worship proved to be incompetent while "The Devil of The Shield" is working hard enough to not only clear his own name but also to clean up the other Heroes messes they left behind, the Church tries to kill the very heroes they worship and insist that Naofumi is still completely evil.
• Religion of Evil: They are a religion that preaches Fantastic Racism towards demihumans and has fascist leanings.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: Despite the fact that they were accomplices in the attempted murder of the Melromarc royal family, many members of the Church were merely imprisoned instead of executed because they were nobles by birth. This trope is subverted after they were arrested again for supporting Malty's failed attempt to overthrow Queen Mirelia, since committing the crime of sedition twice in a row is serious enough to truly warrant execution no matter the culprit's connections.
• Shields Are Useless: Or rather, "Shields are Evil" due to the fact that The Shield Hero is seen as the Devil of their religion, this belief is so strong that the Pope foregoes using the Replica Weapons' Shield Form when he is fighting against the other Heroes and instead relies on a Magic barrier and a Cathedral powered by his followers to protect him with.
• This Cannot Be!: When Pope Balmus dies in front of his followers, many of them stare in abject disbelief or delude themselves into believing that it's all part of the plan.
• Zerg Rush: Deconstructed. For the crime of "kidnapping" Melty, the knights of the Three Heroes Church all try to "apprehend" (ie. kill off) Naofumi and his party, accompanied by Malty, Motoyasu, Itsuki, Ren and their respective parties. The only thing preventing them from fleeing is the fact that the knights and Motoyasu manage to take Filo hostage with a power-restraining bracelet, leaving Naofumi's group vulnerable to a collective assault that they have to gradually stave off. Once she's rescued, however (or rather, she manages to rescue herself), the other three heroes, their parties, and the knights are all literally blown away by one explosion of the Wrath Shield's rage-empowered Curse Flames before they escape. Even with Naofumi himself already being above normal fighters due to the Legendary Shield, none of them were prepared to apprehend Naofumi directly since blindly charging into battle in droves against a party that's both strong and knows proper teamwork puts the knights out of commission very fast.
  • This is played more straight later on when Pope Balmus uses his magic to turn each soldier into an Implacable Man that won't stay down. Fending them off long enough to deal a finishing blow to their leader is quickly made a priority in the fight.

Bisca T. Balmus

Voiced by: Takayuki Sugo (Japanese), Christopher Corey Smith (English)^note Other languages: Manuel Campuzano (Latin American Spanish)

The Pope of the Church of the Three Heroes. Angered by the ineptitude of the Heroes worshipped by his Church, he declared them false prophets and attempted to kill them and Naofumi. He also intended to wipe out the Melromarc royal family and take control of the throne.

---

• All Your Powers Combined: He can use the skills of Itsuki, Motoyasu, and Ren due to having a Morph Weapon that was made as a replica of the original Legendary Weapons. He could use Naofumi's skills as well, but is too prejudiced and prideful to do so.
• Always Someone Better: As powerful as his false holy weapon makes him, even he can't compare to the queen.
• Antagonist Abilities: He can utilize power that is drawn from the faith of his followers that makes him equal (and almost superior) to the Four Heroes combined. His weapon can mimic the abilities of any of the Legendary Weapons without any need for the training or trial-and-error that said heroes had to contend with. He even has another spell, Cathedral, which provides him rapid recovery and protection from various ill effects so long as he remains within it. These abilities are so irksome to the Four Heroes that they question why it was necessary to summon them in the first place if this sort of power was available. Its one drawback, that it requires massive amounts of mana that can only be provided by legions of followers, is not an issue for a short, one-off battle but becomes a greater weakness if dragged out for too long.
• Arch-Enemy: As the pope of the Three Heroes church, he views Naofumi as his archnemesis. Naofumi definitely shares the hatred to a certain degree.
• Attack Reflector: He can use the skill State of Selfless to reflect attacks back at his opponent.
• Awesome, but Impractical: While the weapons replica is indeed mighty, it takes a month's work of magic collected from the people who pay homage at his churches to swing the sword once. When he shows up to attack the Heroes, he has to bring along an almost army's worth of clerics and priests whose only job it is to pray and provide him with their mana to even fight the Heroes with it, and to even defend himself he has to split off around half of them to maintain his defensives on top of the faithful slowly passing out from exhaustion.
• Bad People Abuse Animals: In the Spear Hero spin-off, he kidnaps 100 Filo eggs and threatened to destroy them if Motoyasu and Naofumi don't surrender to him.
• Believing Their Own Lies: Like a true religious fanatic, he has fully bought into the narrative he has woven for himself. He truly believes that Naofumi is a demon and that killing him is doing gods work.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: When Naofumi initially meets him, he appears to be the archetypal Good Shepherd. He is very polite and praises Naofumi for his showing during the duel with Motoyasu. He even scolds a nun for trying to cheat Naofumi by delivering low grade holy water. It is only later that he reveals his true, villainous, colors.
• Cruel and Unusual Death: He gets eaten alive by Naofumi's Blood Sacrifice magic. His agonized screams do not help the situation.
• Death by Irony: He could've survived if he bothered to use the shield form of his staff. But doesn't bother to and ends up paying the price for it.
• Death by a Thousand Cuts: This is his main weakness in battle. When he attacks Naofumi and Motoyasu's parties, the replica Relics require so much magical power to work and be effective that they require a nearly army sized collection of followers. As a result, once Ren and Itsuki arrive and join the battle, all the heroes need to do to nearly win is to attack him as much as possible to force his followers to have to provide him more magical power to maintain his abilities. He's ultimately forced to use his trump card only a bit into the fight because of this.
• Didn't Think This Through: Even if he did succeed in killing the four heroes and the two princesses, the queen would still have executed him and the rest of the Three Heroes Church for what they had done. Even with the Legendary weapon he had, the queen's forces would of have put him down as his followers began to die from mana loss.
• Disproportionate Retribution: One of Naofumi's "crimes" that he committed to deserve death was not saying thank you after he bought the pure holy water.
• Dissonant Serenity: His expression and voice do not change one bit after he starts trying to kill The Four Heroes and their Parties. It isn't until he's about to die his expression changes to one of terror.
• Evil Is Petty: He's even worse then the king when it comes to grudges against the shield hero. The king at least has a somewhat understandable reason for his prejudice^note Naofumi simply being summoned in as The Shield Hero: the central deity of the Demi-Humans whom the King fought against when they took his younger sister away. even if it was just as wrong. But Bisca's reason are flat out contempt just because the Shield Hero was singularly worshiped by the Demi-Humans. Naofumi has never done anything to Bisca personally and the Pope only targeted him just due to the title he was given, that's it. And, as noted above, while the other Heroes managed to rack up a sizable rap sheet in their escapades that resulted in problems cropping up after leaving; problems that Naofumi encountered and cleaned up after passing through the areas, which slowly transformed "The Devil Of The Shield" into an Anti Anti Christ to the people that could not be guilty of the crimes that the King and Malty had levied against him at Day One. The worst thing that Naofumi ever did to the Church was not immediately say "thank you" to the Pope for bringing him pure holy water: and that was because the Nun at the time tried to scam Naofumi with some lesser-quality holy water.
• Four Eyes, Zero Soul: While he acts like a benevolent leader of the Church of the Three Heroes, his true colors show when he reveals his plot of murdering all of the heroes and the royal family.
• A God Am I: He lets the power of his morph weapon and his army of brainwashed followers go to his head, and goes from calling himself "God's chosen judge" to yelling "I am God!" before planning to "judge" (ie, brutally murder) Naofumi and all the others.
• Hard Light: He is able to use Hide Arrow to create illusions of himself.
• Home Field Advantage: He uses an Area of Effect spell called Cathedral which grants him protection from curses and gives him passive defenses as long as it stands. This spell takes a massive amount of mana to summon and maintain, so it is powered by the Church's followers channeling their mana onto him.
• Holy Hand Grenade: The Pope wields a replica of the four cardinal weapons. It is shown to be incredibly powerful, allowing the Pope to effortlessly block everything thrown at him and can use the same techniques as the heroes themselves. However, it is flawed, as each use of it take massive reserves of mana, draining swaths of his followers exponentially.
• Horrible Judge of Character: He believes Naofumi is a follower of the devil just because he's the Shield Hero, even though Naofumi was the only hero who actually didn't do anything wrong and was helping the world fight off against the waves of calamity, demonstrating just how delusional this fanatic is.
• Hypocrite:
  • He claims that he is a follower of God when he is attempting to kill Naofumi just because he is the Shield Hero, which is discrimination and a crime against God. He even has a "God complex" as he proclaims that anyone who opposes him is "evil" when he is the only one carrying out any evil deeds by the church.
  • He calls out the royal for taking advantage of the common, conveniently forgetting how he was also taking advantage of the people and the nobles for his own gain.
  • He calls out the heroes for messing up their duties, yet he isn't above attacking a village devastated by their incompetence, which Naofumi calls him out on.
• Insane Troll Logic: Melty lampshades how nonsensical his train of logic is, as he's undergoing his Motive Rant wherein he tries to usurp the position of "Three Heroes" for himself and overthrow the country.
• Logical Weakness: Since his replica weapon and spells take a massive amount of mana to use, he has to bring an army's worth of followers whose sole purpose is to act as living batteries just to have a continuous mana source. His spells grow progressively weaker as more and more of his followers drop from exhaustion as the heroes slowly wear down his defenses. He has to resort to his trump card move, Cathedral, after only a few minutes of fighting, or else he'd simply run out of power.
• Ludicrous Gibs: He gets crushed into a geyser of blood in the jaws of Blood Sacrifice, leaving behind nothing but his broken glasses in the anime, while in the manga only his left hand with the Replica Weapon is left. The web novel is a bit more graphic, as Naofumi describes his remains as "a lump of flesh".
• Named by the Adaptation: In the anime, he is named Bisca T. Balmus.
• Narcissist: Claims that he wants to help the commoners and support the church but in reality, he's just manipulating all his followers to take over the kingdom for himself and believes he is God himself.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: His face design resembles closely a Fusion Dance of real-life Popes John Paul I and II.
• Pet the Dog: During his first appearance, he deals with Naofumi honestly and fairly despite his clear dislike of him. When one of his subordinates tries to sell Naofumi an inferior vial of Holy Water for an exorbitant price, he's the first one to scold her and forces her to apologize, as he believes God is kind and such casual cruelty is beneath the Church. It's only when it later becomes clear that the Shield Hero is a genuine threat to his power that his dark side emerges.
• Rank Scales With Ass Kicking: He is the head of the Church and all four heroes have trouble dealing with him until Naofumi unlocks Wrath Shield 3. That said, it's not really his fighting skills that make him dangerous, just the sheer power of his weapon powered by the faith of his followers.
• Sinister Minister: He claims to be a god, wants to kill Naofumi for petty reasons and is an Omnicidal Maniac.
• Soft-Spoken Sadist: Clearly enjoys the suffering and attempted mass murder of Naofumi and the rest of the heroes and their parties along with seeing his followers die making him a spiteful hypocrite.
• Talking Is a Free Action: This is lampshaded by the Pope himself in the anime, who took advantage of Naofumi taking his sweet, sweet time ripping into the Three Heroes to charge his weapon with enough mana to trap them in a cathedral-like barrier.
• Tautological Templar: He honestly believes he's a good and just person, so everything he does is therefore honest and just whether it's backstabbing the Three Heroes, trying to blast the innocent younger princess of Melromarc to atoms, or organizing a coup to overthrow the country at a time that waves of monsters appear at set intervals. In the manga it's even worse, as he attacks a village that was already devastated by the acts of its racist mayor who unleashed a monster on the town because he gets called out on his hypocrisy by Naofumi.
• Unskilled, but Strong: He's able to hold his own against all four Legendary Heroes because his weapon is a combined replica of all four Legendary Weapons and has a near unlimited supply of mana coming from his followers that allows him to deliver devastating attacks. However, it is because of these things that he's even able to fight in the first place and he doesn't even fully utilize his weapon by choosing not to use its shield form. Therefore, once one of these advantages gets taken away, he is defeated quite easily, and it's outright shown that his followers would have inevitably died or passed out from exhaustion after a bit.
• Villain Has a Point:
  • Zig-zagged. Anybody would be understandably frustrated after suffering the list of careless atrocities perpetrated by the Three Heroes. Ren causing a plague by killing the dragon Gaelion, but leaving the corpse unattended. Motoyasu unsealing a monster plant and letting it go wild. Itsuki acting like an assassin for hire and killing a king because he thought the tax rate was too high, but ignoring the problem that caused those high taxes, ie, the monster invasions. However, he still despises Naofumi above all others and calls him "The Devil of the Shield", even though he has not done anything wrong other than just being the Shield Hero, and Bisca's attempts to "justify" why he too deserves death are ridiculously petty and transparent. There's also the fact he's only upset with them because of how their actions affect him and the church. Itsuki killing nobles cuts off his funding and their shared failures make Naofumi look more competent by comparison.
  • He is absolutely right when he points Malty is nowhere near as smart as she thinks she is. As a more intelligent person would've realized he would plan to kill them too when he had the royal family at his mercy.
• Villain Respect: He acknowledges Melty to be far more capable of being a leader than her sister.
• Walking Spoiler: A bit, in the sense that knowing pretty much anything about him reveals that he is not the kindly, Reasonable Authority Figure he initially appears to be.
• Willfully Weak: While he is still powerful, he was still not using the replica of the Legendary Weapons to its fullest potential as it could change into all four forms of the four heroes' weapons - including the shield. Whether it was out of pride, belief in his cause, or just to not look like a hypocrite, he refused to use the shield form. This comes back to bite him in the end when Naofumi kills him with an attack he could have survived had he used the shield form.

Glass's Home

Glass

See Naofumi's Allies

L'Arc Berg

Naofumi's Allies

Therese Alexanderite

Naofumi's Allies

Yomogi Emarl

Naofumi's Allies

Kyo Ethnina

Kyo Ethnina

Voiced by: Ryōhei Kimura (Japanese), Sean Chiplock (English)

The Vassal Hero of the Book who ignores his mission in order to Take Over the World.

---

• Adaptation Expansion: Who he was on his own world was shown in slightly more detail in the anime, showing that he was previously a hardcore gamer who spent every waking minute in an MMO and was driven to suicide when his account was hacked.
• Adaptational Wimp: While in the manga his stash of back-up bodies made him effectively immortal, in the anime he had the one body, his ultimate defeat happening much faster.
• Arc Villain: The main villain of the Spirit Tortoise and Otherworld Arc. He's the main threat, manipulating the Spirit Tortoise in the former.
• Broken Pedestal: To all of the women who were promised the revival of the wannabe katana hero, and especially to Yomogi, once she saw his homunculus experiments in chapter 84 of the manga. Kyo had only told them what they wanted to hear so he could manipulate them all, making him seem like a benevolent savior when he was really just a Mad Scientist who cared for no one but himself. The truth caused more distress than the loss of the wannabe hero.
• Card-Carrying Villain: Instead of wanting to live out the fantasy of being a hero to a new world, Kyo has the air of someone who decided being a villain is more fun and is milking it for all it's worth.
• Canon Foreigner: He didn't exist in the web novel.
• The Chosen Wannabe: He isn't the chosen Hero of the Vassal Book, he stole it for his own gain. The Spirit of the Book hates him for it and wants him dead, to the point it bent the rules of the worlds to allow Naofumi into Glass' world to take him down.
• Dies Differently in Adaptation: In the anime, he is killed when Naofumi uses his shield in Spirit Tortoise mode and fires a beam at him.
• Driven to Suicide: He killed himself after his MMO account was hacked and he lost all his progress.
• Evil Counterpart:
  • He is this to the Cardinal heroes. Like them he's a hard-core gamer who sees the world like a game and behaves like an entitled manchild who does whatever he wants without thinking of the consequences. Difference being that while the three Cardinal Heroes at least try to play the part of heroes, Kyo has zero interest in it. He would rather become an outright villain and make no secrets about milking the world around him for his own benefit. Unfortunately for Naofumi, he doesn't share their stupidity.
  • He also shares traits with Naofumi, being given a non-direct combat based "weapon", but uses it for evil instead of good.
• Evil Genius: He thinks of himself as this but he often falls for enemy traps easily and he wildly throws his power around.
• Evil Sorcerer: He's the Token Wizard of the vassal heroes who went rogue out of aspirations for world conquest.
• Face Death with Dignity: Just before he's about to be destroyed, he goes out smiling and taunting Naofumi, rather than break down like the usual villain in the face of defeat. This isn't the case in the manga, where his soul desperately tries to bargain with the heroes as he's being destroyed. He goes as far as pleading with Yomogi to save him, only to receive an empty-eyed stare and silence from her after the reveal of his twisted nature.
• Fallen Hero: He is actually the former Vassal Book hero, his unheroic actions leading to the book rejecting him. By then however, he has become well versed enough with it to keep it bound to him.
• Formerly Fat: In flashbacks to before his suicide he's a stereotypical overweight gamer. After being summoned to another world he either got in shape due to his more active lifestyle or (given his personality) found a spell that could alter his appearence.
• Flunky Boss: Likes to summon the Spirit Tortoise's minions alongside minions he's personally modified to fight for him as he's a Squishy Wizard.
• Foil:
  • Much like Ren, Itsuki and Motoyasu, Kyo sees the fantasy realms that he visits as nothing more than an elaborate game he is playing. Unlike the three cardinal heroes who aspire to play their roles for the perks (even if they're really bad at it), Kyo let the power go to his head and became an Evil Sorcerer, seeing the innocent lives he ruins as nothing more than disposable NPCs.
  • Much like Naofumi, Kyo's "weapon" was designed more for support than direct conflict, he has a Mad Scientist knack for magical experimentation and his fellow heroes possess a knee-jerk hatred of him. While everyone's hatred of Naofumi is built on lies, bad publicity and everyone underestimating him, the vitriol towards Kyo is well-earned. Naofumi was chosen to be the Ideal Hero of the Shield whereas Kyo stole the Vassal Book and the spirit of the Book is rooting for his death.
• Four Eyes, Zero Soul: Wears spectacles and is a Mad Scientist hell-bent on the genocide of a whole world for no reason other than to amass more power.
• Hate Sink: He's a pretentious Smug Snake and abusive asshole. He thinks he's better than everyone else and planned to brainwash Naofumi's party members to forcibly become his harem members. And as the Spirit Tortoise as an antagonist is more a force of nature, he exists as the more personal, humanized (in a negative sense) enemy who can safely be hated.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Once he's backed into a corner, Kyo creates an artificial Wave to assail and separate Naofumi and his party. However, doing so creates a temporary intersection between Glass and Raphtalia's world, allowing Naofumi and co. to regain their original levels and fight at full power.
• Hypocrite: His attacks are predictable and easy to see through, and yet he has no problem belittling and mocking his opponents for their own mistakes.
• Immortals Fear Death: At some point he had learned how to live on if his body ever died via Body Backup Drive homunculi. Because of this, he has developed a rational fear of Soul Eater monsters because they could kill him permanently. Ironically, in the light novel, this is exactly what happens to him at the hands of Raph-chan after he's finally killed, finishing him off for good before his soul could escape to a clone body.
• It's Personal: He has it out for Naofumi after his plans with the Spirit Tortoise were foiled and Rishia for overpowering and mocking him for his cowardice when they fought.
• Kick the Dog: At the end of the eighth episode of Season 2, he prevents Raphtalia from being warped along with the rest of Naofumi's party, just to make him suffer.
  Kyo: Why do you think I sent you to the Infinite Labyrinth in the first place? Why do you think I let you keep the racoon demi-human? Why, WHY, why?!
  Naofumi: So, this was your goal from the start.
  Kyo: Yep! And it was all to see that dumb look on your face! A face twisted with rage and mangled in despair!
• Lack of Empathy: By his own admission in chapter 85, he doesn't care about anybody's well-being, even if said well-being directly benefits him.
• Madness Mantra: When Naofumi and co. have him cornered in his own lab, he just starts shouting "Annoying" over and over again until he flips the switch and triggers a Dimension Wave.
• Mad Scientist: He has this kind of vibe about him, considering the evil experiments he performs.
• Non-Action Guy: Downplayed. Kyo can fight, but with his Vassal Weapon more suited towards support and actively hindering him as much as it could, he has to rely on the Spirit Tortoise’s power in his confrontations with Naofumi’s party, something Rishia mocks him for.
• Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: When Naofumi, Glass, L'arc, and Theresa meet him at the Spirit Tortoise's core, he throws Glass's own extremism back at her, stating that he's also trying to save their home world by sacrificing the world where the main story takes place. In reality, he's using the Spirit Turtle's own soul-harvesting mechanic to purely to power his own experiments and actively enjoys seeing the victims trampled.
• Paper Master: His weapon being a book, Kyo's most basic offense is to unleash torrents of razor-sharp pages upon his enemies.
• Power Copying: Thanks to his control over Spirit Tortoise and its functions, Kyo can replicate some of its most powerful abilities like the forcefield around its heart or its gravity magic.
  • He equips his most powerful monsters with hollow copies of the Legendary Spear, Sword and Bow once he is forced to summon them to deal with the heroes.
• Power Parasite: He took control of the Spirit Tortoise in order to steal its power for his own malicious ends.
• Smug Snake: Evil Gloating? Check. Sadist? Check. Inferiority Superiority Complex? Checkaroony!
• The Sociopath: He has no empathy for others, no sense of guilt or shame, is pathologically obsessed with his own pleasure, to the point that he commits suicide when his MMO account is hacked and deleted, and has a hugely inflated ego. And when he's called out on his actions, he turns around and pulls the Logical Fallacy of appeal to hypocrisy to justify himself.
• Spell Book: His Book vassal weapon is a deceptively simple-looking grimoire. The Book has all of the traditional abilities one would associate with an enchanted grimoire like spending flurries of papers to slice apart enemies or acting as a medium for his spells.
• Squishy Wizard: Once an opponent gets past his tricks Kyo wouldn't have much going for him physically.
• The Swarm: He utilizes the Spirit Tortoise's bat and yeti familiars to get his own zombie-like army to steal energy.
• We Have Reserves: He doesn't care one lick about the guardians he uses to hurt people.

Other Antagonists

Idol Rabier

Idol Rabier

Voiced by: Taisuke Nishimura (Japanese), Tom Fahn (English)^note Other languages: Erick Selim (Latin American Spanish)

A Melromarc nobleman and Raphtalia's previous abusive owner.

---

• Backstab Backfire: In the anime, even after Raphtalia spares him (after he begs for his life no less), he still tries to attack her. In the scuffle he ends up slipping on his whip and falling through the window. He survives this, but doesn't live much longer anyway.
• Breaking Out the Boss: After getting defeated (and Raphtalia sparing his life), he decides to break out a monster T. rex-like dragon to deal with his enemies. The monster promptly crushes him under its foot and then goes on a rampage.
• But for Me, It Was Tuesday: Doesn't even recognize Raphtalia (who he tortured) as one of the slaves he used to own. Granted, she was a child when he owned her.
• Dies Differently in Adaptation: While the end result is still him getting squashed by the dragon he releases, in the light novel and manga Raphtalia stabbed him with her sword and kicked him through the window, while in the anime he's even further self-disposing by tripping on his whip out the window after Raphtalia pulled some Deadly Dodging on him, meaning Raphtalia wasn't directly responsible for his near-death.
• Dirty Coward: Begs for his life when Raphtalia disarms him and has him at her mercy.
• Fat Bastard: He's overweight and completely unpleasant.
• Hate Sink: Let's see; a Fat Bastard, a Dirty Coward, a slave owner who tortured children? He is one of the few characters even Raphtalia has no other emotion towards but pure rage.
• Named by the Adaptation: His name was given only in the anime.
• Self-Disposing Villain:
  • In the anime, he falls out a window after tripping on his whip, meaning that Raphtalia doesn't have to be the one to drop him to his doom. Although he survives the fall, this injures him severely.
  • After falling out that window (whether due to Raphtalia or his own clumsiness), he unseals a monstrous T. rex-like dragon in one last attempt to kill Naofumi and his friends. It promptly crushes him under its foot without even really looking at him.
• Stupid Evil: He is about to harm the crown princess of the country, without even considering the consequences of that action he'd get from her parents if he lived past the events that leads to his death.
• Too Dumb to Live: He threatens to torture Melty, the crown princess of the country to death. Even if he managed to survive past the events of his involvement in the story, he would to worry about what the King, let alone the Queen do to him in retaliation when they found out about this.
• Whip of Dominance: Given his knack for owning slaves, it's fitting that he uses a whip.
• Would Hurt a Child: Raphtalia and her friends were just a few of his victims. He even threatens to torture and later decapitate Melty, a 10-year-old.

The Spirit Tortoise

Spirit Tortoise

An enormous beast that was sealed by the previous Legendary Heroes but is freed by Ren, Motoyasu, and Itsuki for the sole purpose of defeating it. When the three fail to defeat it, it causes one of the worst disasters in the story when a hero from another world manages to control it, leading to many lives lost in its wake. It again falls into Naofumi and co. to step up and stop its rampage.

---

• The Four Gods: The Spirit Tortoise seems to be based off of the Black Tortoise of the North from East Asian Mythology.
• Godzilla Threshold: It, and the other three legendary beasts, have the power to completely stop the Waves of Calamity, but only if it takes the souls of two-thirds of the world's population. If it only kills a portion of it's quota, it can release enough power that holds off the waves for a few months. Naofumi uses this to salvage the situation and buy time for the surrounding kingdoms to rebuild after the Tortoise's initial rampage.
• The Juggernaut: A mountain-sized beast that is nigh-impossible to stop in that the previous Legendary Heroes could only seal it away.
• Kaiju: An enormous tortoise whose size rivals that of mountains. It's the biggest monster ever encountered in the story.
• Womb Level: To defeat the Spirit Tortoise, Naofumi and co. have to go inside of it. To their surprise, it can still defend itself from within. Even its heart has its own means of defending itself.

King of Faubley

King of Faubley

The ruler of the largest kingdom in the world where the story takes place.

---

• 0% Approval Rating: Given that he raped and killed so many women and is a complete sadist, its pretty clear no one felt bad for him when Tact killed him.
• Appeal to Force: His kingdom has the strongest army in the world, which he has no qualms about using as a bargaining chip to strongarm other countries' rulers into obeying his whims (which are usually related to getting a new "bride" to "toy with").
• The Bluebeard: He takes 9,999 women as brides, only to horribly torture them all to death. Witch is number 10,000.
• Cruel and Unusual Death: He's actually become the preferred method of nobility and royalty for getting rid of troublesome daughters, which doubles as a cynical way of keeping themselves off his shitlist. Upon hearing the news, most of said daughters take another way out if they can.
• The Dreaded: As mentioned, nobles and royals from all over send him troublesome female relatives to be gruesomely tortured and killed so they can avoid the attention of his army, and those women who can usually choose suicide so they can avoid his attention.
• Eviler than Thou: He is such a monster that him torturing Malty to death actually makes him come across as viler than her.
• Evil Uncle: He is this to Malty and Melty.
• Expy: Lampshaded. Naofumi immediately thinks of a Hutt from Star Wars. Jabba is considerably fitting considering the king's "hobby."
• Fat Bastard: He's very fat and not a nice person.
• He-Man Woman Hater: Minus the "He-Man" part. He has zero respect for women whatsoever.
• I Have You Now, My Pretty: He always says this to his "toys." He makes a point of saying it to Witch while being recorded by Motoyasu.
• Laser-Guided Karma: After using his power to abuse women, one of his former victims, Malty, gets him killed by Tact.
• Narcissist: Only cares for himself. Given that he is a corrupt king who rapes and tortures women for fun without any need to be kind towards his subjects just to benefit himself, yeah the art of narcissism can pretty much be his whole personality.
• Opportunistic Bastard: According to Mirela, he is an even bigger one than Malty.
• Pædo Hunt: To make him all the more despicable, he wants to rape his 10-year old niece.
• Sadist: Oh boy howdy, is he ever! To wit, he took his sweet, sweet time torturing Witch to death. Even Naofumi, who wanted her to pay for all her crimes in the most painful ways possible, couldn't bring himself to watch.
• Villainous Incest: He doesn't mind having his own niece as one of his playthings.
• Would Hit a Girl: An understatement. The King of Faubley tortures women for fun.
• Xanatos Speed Chess: You have to be really good at this to hold power for a long time in a large country with constant power struggles.

The Third Army / Army of the Waves

Spoilers for volume 17 of the light novels!

In General

• All Your Powers Combined: They are capable of stealing the holy and vassal weapons. Aside from Kyo each one immediately tries to steal one upon encountering a hero.
• Break the Haughty: Their typical behavior once they get beaten. Typically starts once they start losing even in the most basic contests let alone fights.
• Evil Hero: Convinced they are the ones in the right despite their actions and always reconcile the actions of the protagonists as being evil.
• Evil Is Petty: Can never accept things not going their way.
• His Name Is......: Any time someone can convince them to talk, they violently explode the moment they are about to reveal anything related to those who sent them and gave them their powers. Even attempting to write it down is enough to get them killed.
• Power Parasite: None of the holy or vassal weapons chose them as their wielders, but they have the ability to steal their powers even if held by another hero. Shown not to be exclusive to them as they have various accessories to help seal the weapon's powers and are capable of even creating monsters with the stolen powers.
• Shared Unusual Trait: All of them act very similar to one another aside from a few differences which is noticed by the heroes. Haughty, petty, arrogant, manipulative, etc. Syne's sister seems to be the only exception.
• These Are Things Man Was Not Meant to Know: Attempt to destroy any knowledge about the waves and kill anyone who may present a threat to the goal of the waves like the successors to the Hengen Muso style. This has been going on for decades.
• Took a Level in Badass: As noted below, they become very skilled with their stolen weapons over time.
• Unskilled, but Strong: Except for Kyo and Syne's sister none of them can wield their stolen weapons effectively. This still makes them formidable until they face the heroes after they know about their ability to steal weapons while being skilled in using their weapons and are strong. However, they start to become Strong and Skilled as time goes on.
• We Have Reserves: They are not the main fighting force that is coming and the person behind them does not care how many are killed. The only important one is seemingly Malty.

Mald

See Three Heroes and Allies.

Lesty/Woman 2

See Three Heroes and Allies

Kazuki / Trash II

Voiced by: Shinnosuke Tachibana (Japanese), Brandon McInnis (English)

A Reincarnated Individual and alchemist who was in Glass's world, intending to become the Hero of the Vassal Katana before Raphtalia beat him to it. Due to his name never being revealed before dying Naofumi decides to posthumously dub him "Trash II".

---

• Canon Foreigner: He doesn't exist in the web novel.
• The Chosen Wannabe: Even after the Vassal Katana chooses Raphtalia he constantly insists he was supposed to be the chosen one.
• Creative Sterility: One of his greatest shortcomings is that he never uses strategy to compensate for the lack of raw power his cheat skill causes him for using magic without chants, only using predictable and mundane attacks and relying on beasts and his harem to fight for him instead.
• Deader than Dead: Kyo fed his soul to Soul Eaters after grabbing his dead body.
• Elemental Powers: He is able to cast spells of fire, water, light and wind.
• The Four Gods: Has one large and two small clones of Byakko, one of the Guardian Beasts in Glass' world but being imitations they turned to be not as powerful as first thought.
• Healing Hands: He possesses healing magic.
• Karmic Death: He was willing to kill Naofumi and co. over the Vassal Katana. He ends up getting killed by Raphtalia with the same weapon that chose her instead.
• Magic Knight: Seems to be what he was going for given his use of a katana alongside his magic.
• Miles Gloriosus: Proclaims himself a genius and yet relies on predictable attacks and cloned beasts. Even his spells hit with less power than they should since he refuses to use their respective chants.
• Mook Maker: Has the ability to create copies of the White Tiger Beast to sic on foes.
• Named by the Adaptation: The anime names him Kazuki.
• No Name Given: Naofumi never learns his name before dying and so opts to just call him "Trash II".
• Refused by the Call: He tries to get Vassal Katana from its stone in a public ritual only for the weapon to immediately jump to Raphtalia's hands. He throws a fit and sends guards after her.
• Off with His Head!: Before his companions could defuse the effects of Raphtalia's Instant Blade Mist attack he takes a step and gets decapitated from the shoulders up just as Raphtalia warned him.
• Punny Name: His name in anime, "Kazuki" is close to "Kasu" which roughly means scum or leftovers.
• Running Gag: In the light novel Naofumi never learns his name as he had stopped paying attention to his long winded speech by the time he said it. After that when ever his name is spoken something happens to drown it out and Naofumi couldn't hear it. Rather than bother to learn it he simply calls him Trash II.
• Simplified Spellcasting: The cheat skill granted to him upon accepting the mysterious villain's deal to reincarnate him in Glass' world. Slightly deconstructed since his spells are noted to have less raw power than spells involving chanting.
• Sore Loser: His response to the Vassal Katana he coveted flying out of his hands and into Raphtalia's? Declare her and Glass' party thieves and try to kill them with White Tiger Beasts.
• Too Dumb to Live: Kyo confirms Raphtalia's words to him that Kazuki/Trash II would die if he makes a step. While two healers are desperately trying to fix his wound he gets angry and gets decapitated from the shoulder up while ranting.
• You Are Already Dead: Raphtalia cuts him with Vassal Katana but he won't get hurt as long as he doesn't move. As Kyo berates him for his failure in keeping Raphtalia imprisoned and preventing her from getting the Vassal Katana, Kazuki grows impatient and falls into halves from the shoulders up.

Hidemasa Miyaji

Owner of the Vassal Musical Instrument.

---

• Canon Foreigner: He didn't exist in the web novel.
• The Chosen One: Of the Vassal Musical Instrument. Turns out, he's in the same boat as Kyo regarding their Vassal Weapons as Itsuki's a better fit for it than him.
• Dark Is Evil: He has black hair, wears dark clothes and is very evil.
• Et Tu, Brute?: In the Light Novel, he's killed by Mald when he loses to Naofumi and co., and his last action is to steal the latter's vassal axe from him in desperation.
• Harem Seeker: Like most members of the Third Army, he likes to have of Harem women working for him.

Seya

The self-proclaimed "top chef" in Glass's World.

---

• Addiction-Powered: Weaponized almost literally through his addiction powder, which is monosodium glutamate (MSG) or "Chinese salt" on steroids.
• Chef of Iron: Subverted on both fronts. He only has basic cooking skills, and the "fight" with him just amounted to fending off his drugged townsfolk.
• Fake Ultimate Hero: Of the cooking variety. He doesn't even have a Vassal Weapon, though he does possess a hidden inventory with an auto-craft function and it's implied that the addiction powder that he uses to brainwash people might have been a special "cheat ability".
• Hypocrite: Despite giving Naofumi sub-par ingredients and drugging his instant-prepared foods with addictive powder, he immediately accuses the former of cheating when his cooking was not only genuine, but also cured the judges of their previous addiction.
• Sore Loser: He cannot accept that Naofumi's genuine cooking skills won out over his despite his rampant cheating, and to the point where he flips out and sics his previous "customers" on him and his party.
• Status Buff: He can do this through his addictive powder.
• Supreme Chef: He considers himself this. Subverted because while not horrible, his actual cooking "skills" are nothing more that preparing instant foods and the wonderful flavors his regular restaurant patrons experience are a result of being poisoned with addictive powder.
• Your Head Asplode: The guy whose head exploded just from trying to write down who is leading the waves? That was Seya.

S'yne's Sister

The current Vassal Chain Hero and the older sister of S'yne Lokk. She was apparently involved in the destruction of their original world and is one of the top enforcers of Vanguards, but there are hints that there's more to her motives than meets the eye.

---

• Ambiguously Evil: When in the presence of her comrades, she acts haughty and cruel. Near the end of Naofumi's second trip to Glass' world, she secretly helps her sister repair the Vassal Sewing Set and warns Naofumi about her organization's objectives. This reveals that at least her arrogant attitude is a façade, and begs the question if she's truly evil like the rest.
• Canon Foreigner: She didn't exist in the web novel.
• Dragon with an Agenda: The fact that she's casually giving valuable info to Naofumi despite being enemies and uncaring of her own comrades definitely hints at this.
• Enigmatic Minion: Had shades of this since her introduction with her giving unnecessary yet vital information to Naofumi and his group which only intensifies as time goes on. Cemented in Volume 19 when it's revealed that the Vassal Chain Weapon is following her willingly, and despite her antagonistic behavior towards her sister, she gives S'yne energy to restore her weapon's power while the latter sleeps.
• No Name Given: Her name is not S'yne's Sister. It's hinted that her name might be M'yne, but nothing beyond that.
• Pet the Dog: She helps partially repair S'yne's broken Vassal Sewing Set despite being on opposite sides. Afterwards, she warns Naofumi to prepare for the Vanguards out of revenge for Rino killing Malty.
• Strong and Skilled: What makes her so dangerous compared to the other reincarnated "heroes" as, unlike them, she mastered her (presumed) Vassal Weapon in the form of a chain. Similar to his first encounter with Glass, Syne's Sister was able to give a resounding Curb-Stomp Battle to Naofumi and company, showing that she actually knows how to use hers in an even battle against trained enemies.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Has this with the other members of the Vanguard. Her competence and power level greatly exceeds their own, but she is stuck working with them despite their obnoxious behaviors and lackluster track records.

Tact

Tact/Takt Arusahorun Faubley

The Seven Star Hero of the Whip and resident of Faubley. Has killed five of the Seven Star Heroes and stolen their powers. Serves as the primary antagonist in the War Of Heroes Arc.

---

• Adaptational Jerkass: Tact was already a despicable man in the webnovel, but the light novel makes him slightly worse. In the former, Tact goes out of his way to avoid harming women and children, though only because he's delusional enough to believe they're brainwashed by the enemy. In the latter, not only does he order his companions to kill all the men and bring the women to him, he actually brainwashes the women he "frees" (which is exactly what he accuses his enemies of doing) and kills their families for resisting him. Once he is defeated and set up to be executed, the women he brainwashed don't even hesitate to beat him up and reject him outright.
• All Your Powers Combined:
  • He has the ability to steal the Legendary and Seven Star Weapons. Deconstructed in favor of the actual heroes trying to stop him, as it only works on the physical level since he's not only using weapons he nabbed from their true, chosen wielders, but he has no idea how to actually use them beyond their basic functions once he got his hands on them. To add insult to injury, the individual benefits of each Weapon don't even stack on each other since the user was never meant to have more than one weapon. Someone with a sufficiently high level that knows what they're doing in actual combat can easily hand him his ass, with or without a Hero Weapon, as a vengeful Naofumi and Fohl proves in a satisfyingly brutal fashion.
  • Later on, it turns out that this is his only power, having been given to him by the deity that reincarnated him. He was never even meant to be a Hero in the first place, which isn't surprising given his personality.
• Bad Guys Do the Dirty Work: He is the one who ends up killing the King of Faubley.
• Break the Haughty: This is what his fight with Naofumi and Fohl amounted to. Naofumi even purposely invoked this mid-fight by letting him steal the Seven Star Cane just to rub it in his face how pathetically weak he was compared to them, even if he had all of the Legendary and Seven Star Weapons in his possession.
• The Chosen One: Of the Seven Star Whip. Subverted as it's heavily implied (if not outright confirmed) that Tact stole his Seven Star Weapon from the true Hero meant to use it, along with several others. He's more like a deconstructed take on The Chosen Wannabe considering how much more harm than good he causes under this delusional belief that he alone was meant to save the world.
  • Unbeknownst to him, he is really this to the evil goddess Medea, who used him as one last attempt to bring complete chaos to the world before stepping in herself to finish the job.
• Childhood Friend Romance: With Ellie, the very first member of his harem. Coincidentally, she was the first to die.
• The Chosen Wannabe: Tact is an excellent example of what someone so utterly convinced they're The Chosen One would stoop to. For all his talk about how talented and "heroic" he is, Tact has zero idea on what the hell he's doing when it comes to saving the world considering how he not only killed off the very people trying to protect it just to steal their weapons but also potentially crippled an army created solely for the purpose of dealing with the waves. He's even worse when it comes to actual fighting since he doesn't just possess all the negative qualities of Ren, Itsuki and Motoyasu combined had but also their lack of skill and neglect of stat investment in addition to his inability to use the stolen Weapons beyond their most basic functions. This leads to him getting curbstomped in a humiliating fashion against those whose levels are much, much lower.
• Composite Character: Tact has all the negative traits of the antagonistic characters before him but none of their redeeming features.
  • He has Ren's poor skills in teamwork, which led to several of his follower's deaths due to his own carelessness.
  • He has Motoyasu's blind desire for a harem, which led to several deceitful women (including Witch) joining. Also like Motoyasu, it took said women throwing him under the carriage during the mass execution for him to realize their true colors.
  • He has Itsuki's massive ego, making him see himself as a paragon of justice despite the pain, suffering, and death his actions caused. He maintains this up until his execution, no matter how many times he's called out on it.
  • He has Trash's Moral Myopia and Revenge Before Reason, insisting that he was in the right to do everything he did despite his actions either causing more problems or exacerbating already existing ones, and that the people opposing him are evil despite them simply responding in kind to his harmful actions. At least Trash got better. Eventually.
  • He has Pope Balmus' Tautological Templar beliefs, making him believe that he could do no wrong by the simple virtue of being the ultimate Hero. No matter the sheer scale and monstrosity of his crimes, Tact fully believed that everything did was ultimately good and anyone who opposed him was definitely evil no matter their reasons.
  • Lastly, he has the combined belief of the Three Heroes that all he needed was his (stolen) legendary weapons and high levels. Neither help him in his fight with Naofumi and Fohl, with the former even allowing Tact to take the Seven Star Cane just to show off that the both of them could still easily wipe the floor with him.
• Deader than Dead: To prevent him from reincarnating again, his soul is consumed by Soul Eaters at the end of his execution. In the Light Novel, he's threatened with this if he doesn't confess to who his "benefactor" is, only for his head and soul to explode before he could say anything, dooming him to this trope anyway.
• Dirty Coward: At his execution he boasts that he will be resurrected and get revenge on Naofumi, but the second he found out that his soul will be devoured by soul eaters, he pathetically begs for his life as he is killed.
• Et Tu, Brute?: Invoked by Naofumi in the webnovel to break Tact further during his execution. Before Tact and his followers' long, drawn-out execution begins, Naofumi has an executioner approach Tact's harem and falsely offer them a chance to go free if they renounce Tact, knowing Malty would take it without hesitation. Tact, having believed everything Malty said to him without question just like Motoyasu, finally sees Malty's true nature when she and several other self-centered women beat him up (with Malty even calling him out for killing her mother despite the fact she told him to do so), and even then, he's initially in denial and desperately trying to convince himself it's all a bad dream.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones:
  • Tact truly treasures his followers. Unfortunately, he's not very good at protecting them or keeping them out of danger and his actions directly lead to several of their deaths.
  • He truly loves his sister Nana and was saddened when she was killed defending him.
• Evil Hero: He makes sure to appear heroic and firmly believes his actions to be heroic, no matter the method or end result. In truth, Tact is the exemplar of all the corrupt, self-destructive traits that Malty/Medea encourages in everyone.
• Evil Is Petty: Naofumi notices how miffed Tact seemed when the former reveals his poison immunity by consuming lucor fruit to restore his HP and SP without becoming severely intoxicated. Apparently, Tact doesn't like the idea of others having special abilities like him.
• Fake Difficulty: He is a Child Prodigy Master of All who made his entrance in the main story by appearing in the throne room after taking said throne from the previous king. His army also Curbstomps any country who resists and successfully draws Shield Freiden as his ally. He is a Hero Killer with All Your Powers Combined. Against King Melromarc and Naofumi & co. respectively, his army, his Battle Harem and him are easily defeated.
• Fake Ultimate Hero: This is what Tact is when it comes to both his power and morality. He's WAY weaker than what his level implies, and he's a WAY shittier person than he tries to present himself as. He doesn't just possess all the negative qualities that three of the four heroes initially had, but also their sub-par competence in a real fight as he also has their former lack of skill and neglect of stat investment, which leads to him getting curbstomped in a humiliating fashion against those whose levels are much lower.
• Hate Sink: Despite his claims of being the most powerful and virtuous hero, it's clear to the opposition that Tact is just a moronic and boastful Fake Ultimate Hero in both moral character and strength. His actions only cause more harm than good, and no matter how many times he's told this, Tact stubbornly refuses to listen. Even his sole redeeming quality, his care for his followers, is tainted by his utter incompetence at protecting them, his Moral Myopia, his Horrible Judge of Character towards some of them (such as Malty, who naturally has no trouble manipulating him), and his willingness to brainwash women he "frees" while killing their families for resisting him. Tact really earns himself no sympathy at all when he is forced to witness his comrades' execution one by one before he dies and has his soul fed to the Soul Eaters.
• Hero Killer: He's directly responsible for the deaths of several of the Seven Star Heroes, Granny, and Mirelia. Indirectly responsible for the death of Atla.
• Horrible Judge of Character: Just like Motoyasu before him, Tact believes everything a beautiful lady tells him, especially Malty, who manages to make him kill her mother by telling him unflattering stories about her and the heroes. He also deludes himself into thinking the women and children on the enemies' side are brainwashed, even though he's the one actually brainwashing women to be on his side. Unsurprisingly, it takes Malty and several other women in his harem betraying him directly for Tact to realize they're not loyal to him all.
• Hypocrite: Besides his Moral Myopia below, Tact also believes that the women and children on the enemies' side are brainwashed and tries to "free" them. Yet he is the one actually brainwashing most of the women he supposedly freed, even killing their families when they resist him.
• Ironic Name: His name is Tact. Guess which attribute he lacks most.
• Lethally Stupid: For all his claims, Tact clearly has zero idea on what the hell he's doing when it comes to saving the world, considering how he not only killed off the very people trying to protect it just to steal powers he can barely use, but also potentially crippled an army created solely for the purpose of dealing with the waves as well as the Four Beasts. This also extends to his friends and loved ones, as he indirectly gets several of them killed in the process and predictably leads his childhood friend to her death by dragging her into a war zone.
• Miles Gloriosus: Tact loves to boast about how talented and "heroic" he is. The truth is a different matter.
• Moral Myopia: He takes this trope to truly insane levels. It all starts at Chapter 312, but truly reaches its zenith in chapter 344. Despite Naofumi reminding Tact, repeatedly, that everything he's being forced to watch is equal retribution for his crimes and the crimes of his followers, no more, no less from the friends and families of those he's victimized, he spends every moment that he's not gagged or being beaten into silence (and then healed up again) ranting that HE is the victim and promising righteous vengeance.
• Never My Fault: When Tact avoids one of Naofumi's attacks, only for it to strike and kill Tact's Childhood Friend, he angrily calls Naofumi a murderer, even when Naofumi points out that Tact didn't do anything to protect her and ensure her safety. Not to mention he was stupid enough to drag her into a warzone in the first place, so while Naofumi did kill her, it was really Tact's fault she died. Unsurprisingly, this falls on deaf ears.
• Paper Tiger: Relatively speaking, this is what Tact amounts to compared to Naofumi and the other sufficiently trained fighters. While the levels of the latter is stuck at 100, his is at 350 on top of his ability to steal the Legendary and Seven Star Weapons. Despite this, he proves to be so inept at fighting that Naofumi and Fohl were able to show just how weak he was compared to them despite their respective weapons being stolen.
• Possession Equals Mastery: Averted. He is able to steal any Legendary and Seven Star Weapon but lacks the knowledge on how to utilize their full powers, the skills to effectively wield them even in their base forms, and the fighting instincts of a trained fighter. Naofumi and Fohl are able to kick his ass five ways to Sunday because both of them are more competent in combat than he is.
• Seven Deadly Sins: Tact, as explained by Composite Character above, represents the negative aspects of some of the previous antagonists while having none of their redeeming qualities, so it's rather fitting that he represents all 7 of the deadly sins:
  • Envy: Tact hates it when his enemies have special abilities like him as shown by how miffed he was by Naofumi's poison immunity and inability to get drunk.
  • Gluttony: Not a glutton for food, but like Motoyasu, Tact desires power to become the greatest hero ever under his false sense of justice, which leads him to have his army conquer most of the world, eliminating possible opposition and murder well-beyond his intended targets, whether they be innocent people that either got caught in the crossfire or people trying to protect their families.
  • Greed: Tact wants to claim all the Legendary Weapons for himself, even if it means taking them from their rightful wielders, while not knowing how to use them to their full potential.
  • Lust: Blindly desires a harem for himself, which is why his army and party members consist of women, all the while completely oblivious to the fact that most of them aren't as loyal to him as he thinks. He also seeks to brainwash women to add to his harem and desires the glory of being the only hero.
  • Pride: Insufferably arrogant with an overinflated ego, Tact believes himself to be the only one worthy of being a hero. He also sees himself as a mighty and virtuous hero despite all the trouble he causes, no matter how many times he's called out on this.
  • Sloth: Rather than train to better himself as a fighter, Tact prefers to steal weapons from the heroes he's murdered, believing their powers and his high level are all he need to be the strongest.
  • Wrath: Becomes furious with the enemy when his allies are killed, even when it's actually his fault for failing to ensure their safety, and not caring for the fact that he and his allies had murdered many of the opposition's loved ones.
• Sore Loser: After he is defeated, reduced to Level 1, spoken to at length about the true monstrosity of his various crimes and Forced to Watch his family and loyal followers being executed, the enraged Tact continually spouted insults and death threats to his enemies up to the moment of his Public Execution.
• Stock Light-Novel Hero: Deconstructed. Between his insanely high-level, "rightfully taken" weapons and his harem of girls, Tact only looks like your standard light novel protagonist when the truth is much more sinister and cynical. His high levels are much less impressive relative to his subpar stats and pitiful fighting experience, the weapons he stole were from their rightful owners who kept the bulk of their powers regardless and aren't nearly at their full power in his hands because of this, and the girls under him are either gold diggers all too keen on taking advantage of him or brainwashed into seeing him as a hero and a savior. As a result, he ends up causing nothing but problems in the blind delusion that he alone was meant to save the world, gets numerous people on both sides killed in the process, and when others opposing him are put on a more equal footing with him, he ends up getting his shit kicked in because behind his (poorly maintained) hero façade is a complete idiot who doesn't even know how to fight properly.
• Story-Breaker Power: A subversion. His ability to steal any Legendary and Seven Star Weapon, coupled with his insanely high level would've made him practically invincible. However, since he's so inept at fighting, neglectful in training and stacking buffs, and only got the physical forms of the weapons while their intended owners kept the bulk of their power, he's unable to use the weapons' full potential nor is he able to outmatch a sufficiently skilled fighter like Naofumi and Fohl.
• Super Weapon, Average Joe: He relies on his bloated level and stolen Vassal Weapons in combat. If you can bypass that, he's actually easy to beat as he has almost no combat experience or personal training due to relying on that power.
• Unskilled, but Strong: His level is 350 but he hasn't used the strengthening methods or Dragon Pulse like the other Heroes, which grant them enough buffs and skills to edge him out in battle.
• Unwitting Pawn: Malty sets herself up as one of Tact's advisors after he murders the King of Faubley and usurps the Faubley throne, becoming the brains of Tact's operations without him realizing it. She also uses Tact as her personal tool of petty vengeance by telling him unflattering stories of those she wanted dead, including her own mother Queen Mirelia.
  • The goddess Medea revealed that Tact was her chosen champion without him realizing it.
• The Usurper: In one day, he murders the King of Faubley and proclaims himself the new king. Most of the Faubley Kingdom's subjects accept this with a shrug since the King was a truly despicable human being to begin with.
• Villains Want Mercy: Double Subverted. Tact, as described by Sore Loser above, continually spouts death threats and insults throughout his public execution, vowing to reincarnate again so he can get his revenge on Naofumi and his allies. It's not until he learns they plan to feed his soul to the Soul Eaters that he finally begs for his life.
• We Have Become Complacent: A major reason for his defeat is his over reliance on his ability to steal legendary weapons. This caused him to neglect his martial arts skills, where his true talents lie. If he had focused on them instead, he likely would've been a much greater threat to Naofumi and co.

Ren II

• Break the Haughty: This is what ultimately became his fate at the hands of the resurrected Demon Dragon. Upon realising his ability to see the levels of his opponents, she used magic to disguise the levels of herself to appear lower than what they actually were, to give him and his party a false sense of security, as well as playing on his arrogant personality, believing himself to be superior than his opponent because his level was higher. It goes without saying that upon discovering the truth, and realising the dire situation that he and his party were in, he completely lost it, doing everything within his power to save his own skin, even going as far as to blatantly lie to his party, and use them as fodder to try and make his escape with his life. It makes his inevitable demise, all the more satisfying, upon seeing just how low he would go, preserve his own life.
• Deader than Dead: His soul was devoured by the Demon Dragon after his party was massacred by her.
• Narcissist: He is described by Naofumi to see himself as the center of his own world.
• Hate Sink: Not even Kizuna, who usually tries to find the good in an individual could see any redeeming qualities within him. It goes without saying that if you can casually and lie and throw the lives of your party away to save your own skin, upon realising your in a situation were everyone's lives are in jeopardy, that you yourself put them in, it's pretty hard for anyone to not hate you upon witnessing this first hand.
• Never My Fault: Has his party ambush Glass when she's alone, gets beaten by her, but it's her fault she counterattacked, resulting in his party getting hurt, and not his for attacking her first unprovoked.
• No Name Given: Naofumi never learns his name before dying, so opts to just call him "Ren II"
• Overshadowed by Awesome: Ren II's level is 78 which is fairly high for an adventurer. However, his stats at that level are unimpressive and is about less than half of what Sadeena was at for the same level.
• Shadow Archetype: Both Naofumi and Ren consider him to be what the latter would be like if he didn't outgrow his more negative traits.
• Story-Breaker Power: His ability to observe and see the stats and levels of his opponents without them being aware of this, is simple in concept, but nonetheless extremely powerful, as he can effectively see how he compares to an opponent, to the tiniest of details, meaning he can always fight the battles that he can win, and completely avoid the battles the he would lose or have great difficult with. In a sense he practically has the equivalent of an enemy guide on hand at all times, to look at when facing an opponent. However, due to his low level in comparison to the heroes and high dependence on his ability, all it takes is for someone with a knowledgeable understanding of magic, a sufficiently high level, and realizing what his ability is, to effectively trick him into a situation were he would actually be at a disadvantage. When locked in a battle against the Demon Dragon, who's power far eclipses his own, there wasn't a single action that he could take to change the outcome of the fight, had he seen her true level from the beginning, he would have the avoided the fight altogether, and lived to see another day.
• Villains Want Mercy: Practically begs for his life upon realising just how utterly screwed he was upon seeing just how powerful the Demon Dragon truly was. It goes without saying, considering how vile and heartless he was towards his own party when he his life was in danger, and vice verse, the Demon Dragon responded by massacring them all despite their pleads, disgusted at how cowardly and heartless they were towards each other.

Ellie

The very first member of Takt's harem.

---

• Accidental Murder: She meets her end when Naofumi reflects an attack back at Takt that hits her instead.
• Childhood Friend Romance: Has known Takt since childhood and is his first girlfriend.

Ashil

A Griffin Queen and a member of Tact's harem.

---

• Arch-Enemy: Held a special hatred for Filo, as they are enemies by nature.
• Blow You Away: She can use wind magic like Drifta Tornado.
• Fantastic Racism: Hates Filo for being a filolial and Leluda for being a dragon.

---