Characters / The Rising of the Shield Hero - Malty Melromarc

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

This page is for Malty Melromarc, a major antagonist in The Rising of the Shield Hero.

Princess Malty Melromarc/Myne Sophia/Bitch/Slut/Whore/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. At first glance, she appears to be friendly, but Malty is incredibly wicked and a skilled liar, leading Naofumi to seek revenge against her.

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• Adaptational Villainy: While Malty's nevertheless a heinous person who deserves her karma misfortunes and eventual cruel death, her true nature as Medea's fragment/Reincarnation brings up the question of whether she's truly capable of her own autonomy that isn't a result of the goddess' influence. However, due to Medea being Adapted Out from the web novel, all other adaptations of Malty are just that much of a Royal Brat whose malicious actions are truly her own choices.
• Alas, Poor Villain: Depending on the source, her punishments are seen this way.
  • Despite everything she's done and all the lives she's gleefully destroyed, her first death as being the 10,000th bride of the King of Faubley is so horrifically cruel that one can't help but sympathize for her. Even Naofumi, her Arch-Enemy who wanted to see her suffer, finds no enjoyment when forced to watch her be raped to death over a magical recording. This only applies in the Web Novel, however.
  • Averted in the Light Novel, Naofumi is moved to the verge of Tears of Joy by witnessing Myne's death at the hands of Rino, thinking about how they've managed to avenge the queen's own demise indirectly caused by her eldest daughter's actions. Upon realizing that Malty's soul has been scavenged by the Third Army and her death might not stick, he becomes frantic to stop that from happening and is upset when the Vassal Boat Weapon absconded to protect Malty's soul from getting erased at the heroes' hands. Suffice to say, Light Novel Naofumi still very much wants her dead, no matter what the methods used.
• All for Nothing: Malty concocts a myriad of nasty schemes to elevate herself or spite the people she hates most. As a consequence of never thinking her actions through, these plans usually amount to nothing because she's focused only on the short-term satisfaction and not on the long-term problems it could create.
  • Malty was dead set on becoming the next Queen of Melromarc, to the point she threw her lot in with the local Corrupt Church to assassinate Melty and Naofumi. Even if Malty succeeded, the Pope made it clear he would never allow her near the throne and would have easily killed her since she and Motoyasu were laughably weak. Surviving the Pope's attack would have also been pointless because she would have to deal with every other country wanting to burn Melromarc to the ground, both for hogging all the heroes and her disgracing Naofumi, who as the Shield Hero is a figure of worship in at least two of those countries. Malty's plan of becoming the next Queen was doomed the moment she convinced her father to summon all four Cardinal Heroes without the other nations' consent.
  • In the web novel, Malty wanted revenge against those who held her responsible for her well-deserved punishment. Said scheme involved betraying her nation to Faubrey and manipulating Takt into assassinating her own mother. Not only did this turn Aultcray against her and lose her last supporter, but it also ensured that every human on the planet knew she was an enemy who needed to be destroyed. Her depending on Takt for protection failed because he was nowhere near as strong as Naofumi and the newly strengthened Cardinal Heroes. When she tried to bail to save her own skin, her betrayal ensured her own death with no one coming to her rescue. She ruined an entire nation in a blind bid for payback, and all it did was delay her inevitable execution.
• Alpha Bitch: She's also a Rich Bitch to boot. Pretty much every major problem in the series can be linked directly to her, and whenever she joins a new hero's group after betraying the previous one, she quickly establishes her superiority as a princess, making any protests futile.
• Antagonistic Offspring: Mirelia makes it clear that she's extremely unhappy with Malty's actions.
• Arch-Enemy: She firmly establishes herself as this to Naofumi once she betrays him, going out of her way to oppose and demonize him through any means necessary.
• Ax-Crazy: She's incredibly deranged, sadistic and malicious and her maniacal antics often result in countless deaths via Disproportionate Retribution to the point she convinces Takt to kill her mother just because Queen Mirelia held her accountable for the dozens of crimes Malty committed towards Melromarc and all four Cardinal Heroes.
• Bad Liar: Mirelia outright points this trope out about Malty in Chapter 75 of the web novel about how, for a supposedly traumatized rape victim, the latter never even bothers to act like one. The fact that her mother knows that she used her body to get her way in the past doesn't help.
• Beauty Breeds Laziness: Deconstructed. The only guys she's able to leech off of are brainless horndogs like Motoyasu and Tact; most other guys see right through her.
• Beauty Equals Goodness: Deconstructed. Malty actually invokes this trope when manipulating people, tricking them into thinking she's a "good, honest girl" to screw them over, trick them into doing her bidding, or both. Unfortunately, someone with her level of sheer petty malice and stupidity repeatedly makes the mistake of shooting herself in the foot with her blatantly nasty behavior and Chronic Backstabbing Disorder so this advantage winds up being squandered.
• Beauty Is Bad: She is easily one of the most attractive characters in the setting. Also one of the most rotten.
• Beg the Dog:
  • In the anime, when she and her father are about to be executed and a disillusioned Motoyasu refuses to help her, Malty turns to and tearfully begs Naofumi, the man whose life she ruined, to help her. He stops the execution only to mock her cowardly pleading before changing her names to "Bitch/Whore" and her father's to "Trash".
  • In Chapter 252 of the Webnovel, after being rejected by Naofumi and Ren in her trial for staging a rebellion with a cursed Itsuki when the Queen offered her mercy from marrying the King of Faubley if one of the Four Heroes took her in, she desperately begs Motoyasu, whom she betrayed into insanity moments ago, to take her in. Obviously, Motoyasu's broken mind sees her as a revolting, squealing red swine and promptly rejects her on Naofumi's orders.
• Better to Die than Be Killed: In Chapter 252 of the web novel, she bites her own tongue in an attempt to kill herself to avoid being sent to Faubley. Much to her dismay, Naofumi refuses to let it happen as the knights use healing magic and a cloth gag to keep her from doing it.
• Beyond Redemption: When it comes to her increasingly repulsive actions, it's not a matter of if, but when. To a point where her entire family, even her father Aultcray have all come to the conclusion that she's a hopeless case in their eyes, especially when she makes it clear, repeatedly, that she's incapable of learning a lesson, feeling remorse, or even giving a basic apology when being forced to face responsibility for her crimes.
• Big Bad Wannabe: While she ultimately sets the plot into motion by falsely accusing Naofumi, much of her evil actions just hinge on riding the coattails of other people, especially ones with power and influence such as Motoyasu, her father Aultcray, the fanatical members of the Three Heroes Church and Tact. Deprive her of all of those (and anyone unaware of her true nature) and she's doomed. Whoever she betrays and ditches in a short-sighted attempt to escape punishment or improve her standing is quickly enlightened to the horrible person she really is and is quick to help the heroes stop her.
• Big "NO!":
  • In the anime, Malty reacts like this in her trial when the Queen declares that she and her father will be stripped of their royal titles and then sentenced to death.
  • In Chapter 251 of the Web Novel, she has a loud one until her face turns blue when the Queen declares that she will be married off to the king of Faubley.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: She strings Naofumi along by acting as a cutesy, cheerful girl eager to support him on his quest, but quickly steals all his belongings, money, and framed him of sexually assaulting her the very next day. And that's just the tip of the iceberg. She doesn't stop trying to invoke this even when everyone can see the "bitch" part of her as clear as day, especially once it becomes her actual name.
• Blatant Lies: If she's not being insulting or condescending, or trying to screw someone over, she's doing this. Naturally, Motoyasu and her father are the only ones stupid enough to buy her crap until she turns her back on them both, too. Possibly her most audacious lie is when she tries to claim that she's an honest and good girl during her trial.
• Blow You Away: She briefly does this in Episode 4 of the anime, Chapter 22 of the Light Novel, and Chapter 21 of the Web Novel. Right as Naofumi was about to win his duel against Motoyasu, Malty cast a wind spell to send him flying. Needless to say, Naofumi's subsequent distraction allowed Motoyasu to recover and go for the win.
• Blue with Shock: Her face turns blue in Chapter 251 of the Web Novel upon hearing that the Queen will marry her off to the King of Faubley as punishment for staging a rebellion with a brainwashed Itsuki.
• Bowdlerise: In the Latin American Spanish dub, her new names, "Bitch" and "Witch", were replaced with the more tamer "Maldita" (Cursed/Damned Woman) and "Meretriz" (lit."meretrix", which is a very archaic word imported from Latin dating back from Ancient Rome which mean "prostitute".), respectively.
• Brainless Beauty:
  • As the series goes on, it becomes increasingly obvious that the only thing Malty has going for her is her (external) beauty, and that she isn't nearly as clever or cunning as she thinks she is, mainly acting purely out of either pure sadism or petty vindictiveness. This eventually gets her killed. Twice.
  • In the anime, she bears witness to Naofumi's Wrath Shield in action against the Soul Eater. She clearly sees that her former victim has the means to directly attack close-range opponents, and proves it by cooking the boss alive with curse-flames. Meanwhile, Motoyasu and the other Heroes could barely scratch said boss beforehand. She ignores this danger and proceeds to mock Naofumi within earshot for not fighting like a Hero. Malty is completely oblivious to the possibility that her former victim could easily turn said rage-fueled shield against her at any time, or that even her precious "Motoyasu-sama" wouldn't be able to stop him if he tried.
  • She continues to behave destructively even after her name is changed (twice, no less) to reflect her true personality, which ultimately leads to her painful end.
• Burn the Witch!: Literally. Her second execution is by being burned at the stake, and she had been given a Meaningful Rename to "Witch" by that point.
• But for Me, It Was Tuesday: She's screwed over so many people so casually that she can't remember most of them, even if they reintroduce themselves without any alias. Deconstructed, as this leaves her with more than plenty of vengeful victims wanting her head, with Naofumi being just one of many, that she's too stupid to even acknowledge partly because she's convinced her royalty status means doing whatever she wants without ever facing repercussions. This trope is even exploited later on in the Light Novel by Rino, the girl she sold off to slavery when she first joined Motoyasu's party, when she is freed and joins the Queen's spy unit. Because Malty doesn't recognize her, Rino successfully infiltrates the Third Army and when the time is right, stabs Malty in the back, kills the ex-princess with the stolen Whip Vassal Weapon, and leaves her as a soul without a body.
• Cain and Abel: She's the evil princess to her younger sister Melty's good princess. She would gladly kill Melty so she can be the only successor to the throne.
• Can't Catch Up: Thanks to her laziness and letting someone else do all the fighting for her, she quickly falls behind Naofumi and his crew. Even when her level's high, he can No-Sell anything she throws at him.
• Character-Driven Strategy: Unlike her father, Malty "Myne" Melromarc is a terrible game player. She will routinely make up rules that arbitrarily benefit her and handicap her opponents, only to throw a tantrum and wreck the board when her own poor planning costs her the game. This reflects her low-functioning sociopathy and tendency to Kick the Dog even when it bites her in the long run, never learning from her mistakes.
• Childish Older Sibling: She is a spoiled, immature, entitled Psychopathic Womanchild compared to her younger sister Melty, who is Wise Beyond Their Years.
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Given a chance, she will bite the hand that feeds her. No exceptions. In order of who trusted her only to be betrayed, we have Naofumi, Motoyasu, and Ren (who lasted less than a day), Itsuki, and the conspirators attempting to overthrow Melromarc. At that point, she didn't have anybody to turn to because she had already betrayed everyone who could have helped her. She was saved by Tact and betrayed Melromarc, only to betray Tact when he failed under the false belief she would be spared.
• Composite Character: After her death in the web novel, Malty is eventually revealed to be an Artificial Human whose Made of Evil thanks to a God of Evil known as Medea. Since Word of God states that Medea will no longer exist in the later adaptations (oddly fitting when taking in her final fate in the web novel), Malty's capable of her own autonomy but she's, ironically, so heinous of a psychopath that she might as well be Medea in all but name and in human form. Rinse and repeat.
• Compulsive Liar: To the point of Exaggerated Trope. Rare is the time when Malty actually tells the truth, especially about people she wants to hurt. This is the reason that the Queen has to use a Slave Brand on Malty which shocks her whenever she lies; it's not only to punish her for lying, but it's a very obvious tell that she's lying. Even then, Malty is simply incapable of telling the truth that she keeps lying even as the brand keeps shocking her. In the anime's trial scene, her compulsive lying overworks the Slave Brand to the point of shocking her before she could even utter a lie.
• The Corrupter: Her whole reason for existing is to corrupt and destroy anyone she comes into contact with. She is directly responsible for each of the Four Heroes unlocking their Cursed Weapons, indirectly renders Motoyasu permanently insane, and causes her father's decline from the Wise King to Trash. Naofumi suspects she may have resulted in Tact's warped personality. In the web novel, it's explained that being one of Medea's fragments had something to do with her ability to corrupt others, while the light novel implies that this is simply her being a spoiled sociopath with an enormous entitlement complex.
• Crocodile Tears:
  • She cries several times, but always to trick her current benefactor into believing her story. Naofumi notes that despite crying she also smiles rather nastily.
  • In Chapter 31 of the manga, after confessing her crimes under the pain of a high-level slave seal, she puts on the waterworks while accusing the Queen of being "mean" and "going too far". Much to her dismay, Mirelia isn't fooled and proceeds to ask if she's fake crying. Cue Malty denying it with obvious results.
• Cruel and Unusual Death: She faces her demise one way or another, but changes depending on the source.
  • Web Novel — On being married off to the King of Faubley she is repeatedly raped and tortured to the point of losing an arm and eye in the first night. She ultimately returns but is executed again by burning, and her soul is then devoured to ensure she can't even reincarnate to Medea's annoyance.
  • Light Novel — Averted. She faces a more traditional punishment by being stabbed in the back and having her head caved in by her former victim Rino using the Vassal Whip. It's also heavily implied that she's in for another death when her soul is retrieved to be reincarnated and brought back to life.
• Daddy's Girl: She was spoiled rotten by Aultcray, while the latter protects her from the consequences of her actions as she encourages him to abuse his authority, and after the trial, he still dotes on her. She loses this status, however, once she has Tact kill Mirelia, which wakes him up to the truth about her.
• Deader than Dead: In the web novel, after being burned at the stake, her soul is consumed by a domesticated Soul Eater to make absolutely sure that she's gone and isn't coming back. Subverted in the light novel, where Rino kills her without a soul-destroying weapon, and the Third Army retrieves the soul to revive Malty later on.
• Death by Irony: As cruel as it was her Web Novel end is full of this. She made many False Rape Accusations that ruined the lives of many that are on her opposing side. She gets married off to the King of Faubley who repeatedly raped and tortured her. She is also a skilled fire mage who gets burned at the stake for her crimes.
• Deconstructed Character Archetype:
  • She is one for the Royal Brat trope by showing just how nasty any members of the Royal Family can be when they're so entitled that they genuinely believe that the world and everyone in it exists solely for their own selfish gain and amusement. As the first princess of Melromarc, she's a walking Karma Houdini for the first few chapters because of her political power, lying manipulations, and her father protecting her from any blame. She takes advantage of everyone around her without a care for any long-term consequences because she is so used to getting away with whatever she wants. This behavior keeps getting worse even after her mother exposes her and the King's disgusting behavior, on top of confiscating their royal titles. Eventually, it's taken to a point where her horrendous personality is literally what gets her killed in the end, as everyone wants her dead and gone by that point, even her previously doting father. Turns out, screwing over everyone you know will mean nobody will actually stick up for you when it most matters, and she undermines her own plans because she simply cannot stop trying to Kick the Dog.
  • The Chronic Backstabbing Disorder, The Corrupter, and False Friend tropes are also deconstructed through Malty. She shows the audience what kind of person would casually string along, betray, and corrupt others for both their sole benefit and their own callous amusement. Her punishments in the Web and Light novels shows what would happen to people with such behavior, as absolutely no one wants anything to do with her in the end because she's too toxic to spare. Even her own parents have deemed her a living safety hazard to everyone around her, and have taken precautions to get rid of her in two of the most horrifying ways possible simply because her crimes were that unforgivable.
  • She deconstructs the Beauty Is Bad and Face of an Angel, Mind of a Demon tropes of characters that are using their superficial beauty to appear as innocent. She isn't that good of a liar, but it works anyway because some refuse to believe that she's bad news despite the glaring signs.
  • The Stock Light-Novel Calamity Princess trope is also put through the wringer as she has the outward appearance of one, but ultimately ends up either subverting, defying, or otherwise playing all the qualities associated with it negatively;
    • Malty's driving ambition to become the next queen of Melromarc above all else is partly what screws herself over as she is far from competent in a way that makes her both The Load and Lethally Stupid to her own allies and the country as a whole.
    • It is not a good thing that Malty is fiery in temperament, as she's willing to indiscriminately "burn" everything and everyone in her way in a blind attempt to meet her selfish goals, leaving countless ruined and/or destroyed lives in her wake and forcing everyone involved to "extinguish" her very life before she inevitably causes any more damage.
    • Malty's fire magic is just as destructive as she is, but her refusal to do much of anything beyond lie, cheat, and hide behind others leaves her all but helpless in a fight against anyone experienced.
    • Lastly, Malty has zero loyalty to anybody but herself and is clearly incapable of feeling anything resembling love, as she only got with Naofumi to steal his stuff and ruin his reputation before latching onto Motoyasu and using him as her personal attack dog. She would later proceed to ditch him and go through Ren, Itsuki, and Tact, doing the same to each before predictably having no one else left to turn to because of her frequent propensity for backstabbing.
• Determinator: In a dark deconstruction of this trope, Malty is utterly determined to screw over everyone and anyone that even slightly pisses her off no matter how tortured her logic is or how justified their actions were, which includes people who forced her to be held accountable for her reprehensible actions. She doesn't have the forethought, brainpower, or even a sense of basic empathy to stop and consider that her own actions led to her punishments, and this just leads to her crimes escalating more and more in a blindly vindictive attempt to have the last laugh. In the end, this just leads to her making an enemy of the entire world, and by the time she's finally burned at the stake, she was pretty much set to go down in history as one of its worst and most hated war criminals.
• Dirty Coward:
  • Whenever she does anything, it's always behind someone else, whether it be her father Aultcray, Motoyasu, or some fanatical knights.
  • In the manga, she finds herself about to be killed by the ringleader of the Three Heroes Church, and Naofumi bluntly tells her and Motoyasu that, for all the trouble they caused out of sheer stupidity or petty spite, they could both die for all he cared. She immediately tries to bail on her party and flock to his side, pathetically trying to deny everything she did to him while an unnamed party member tries to keep her from fleeing.
  • In the anime, when she was sentenced to death by her mother, she immediately breaks down in fear and begs Motoyasu to save her, when that fails, she turns to the person she wronged the most, Naofumi to save her despite everything she did to him and insulting him during her trial.
  • When her coup fails, she begs the heroes to save her from her intended fate as her Uncle Faubley's next "wife". They understandably have no intention of doing so, especially considering how obnoxiously unrepentant she was about her crimes just seconds ago.
• Does Not Like Men: Implied to be the case, considering how she has no problem with leaving them to suffer the rather fatal effects of her accusations. Then again, women like Rino show that she's not above acting like this to the same sex either.
• Driven by Envy: She will hurt people who get something she thinks she deserves:
  • She attempted to murder her younger sister Melty for being the next in the succession line. Considering Malty's rampant irresponsibility and malice, the Queen had a more than understandable reason to make Melty the heiress.
  • In the Light Novel, she sold several party members, particularly Rino, into sexual slavery because she didn't want them to steal Motoyasu from her.
• Entitled Bitch: Positively reeks of this after she and her father were put on trial. Despite the number of atrocities she committed, two of them being assisting a homicidal cult in a coup and trying to burn her own sister alive, and not even hesitating to try and lie her way out of a serious trial, she actually has the nerve to act like she's entitled to either leniency or revenge. Naofumi and the Queen both call her out on this, which naturally flies right over her head.
• Electric Torture: When she is put on trial for what she did to Naofumi, Malty has a slave-brand placed on her by Mirelia. This brand often electrocutes her whenever she's lying.
• Elemental Personalities: Malty's specialty in magic is fire spells. Fitting how Malty herself comes off as destructive and out of control when it comes to her disgustingly toxic personality. Doubly so, considering its also how she finally meets her well-deserved Karmic Death.
• Embarrassing Nickname: Despite everything she does to him and his allies, once her misdeeds are finally exposed, Naofumi cannot bear to watch her own mother order her beheaded, so he invokes his authority as a Cardinal Hero to exact some Restrained Revenge of his own: to wit, she is to be permanently renamed "Bitch", and her Nom de Guerre as an adventurer replaced with "Slut".
• Establishing Character Moment: Myne is introduced as a helpful girl who seems to have faith in Naofumi when the other people who came with him to the other world wouldn't let him join them. She shows him the basics of absorbing, takes him on a shopping trip, and even makes a little romantic overture. She also doesn't lift a finger to help him against the orange balloons and the first thing she talks about after Naofumi gets his new armor is how much the buyback price is going to be, explaining to him that once he gets stronger and gets better armor, he won't need the old one anymore and can sell it off. After a nice dinner where she again tries to go into seduction mode, she gets this little devious look in her eyes as Naofumi heads off to bed. All this serves to foreshadow how Myne will betray him by stealing his stuff and making the False Rape Accusation which kicks off the series.
• Even Evil Has Standards: As unbelievable as it sounds, even she looked disturbed at how Itsuki abandoned Rishia for what amounts being more helpful against the Cal Mira wave, though this may have been because he was stupid enough to throw away a potentially useful tool the moment she starts showing promise. And while that could have been an act, she had no idea that the Church's plot included the murder of all Heroes and would have not taken part in it had she known. Too bad she slowly loses even that...
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Being a greedy, deceitful, and manipulative backstabber of the first degree, things like compassion and friendship are alien to her. Why would Malty care about others when she can screw around them For the Evulz? She is also totally apathetic and uncaring of how those same people have a laundry list of reasons to hate and condemn her. Even if people condemn her for being vindictive and petty, she'll instead blame them for her "misery", ignorant of what she's being punished for even if she realizes she's screwed.
• Evil Is Burning Hot: She's a gifted fire mage, and a sadistic, backstabbing villainess.
• Evil Is Petty: For starters, to show how much of a Hate Sink she is, she's willing to have to her own sister assassinated. Why? Because in addition to the latter being next in line for the throne instead of her (for obvious reasons), she was also given a mild "The Reason You Suck" Speech by Melty when they met each other again after the Second Wave (in the anime).
• Evil Laugh: She gives off one twisted laugh in the anime after believing she's taken away Naofumi's only means of survival. However, Raphtalia bitchslapping Motoyasu for his "help" cut it short.
• Evil Redhead: She's a redhead and the most malicious individual in the entire series.
• Exact Words: Ironically, she actually falls victim to this at the hands of her own mother. Even following the second attempted coup at the hands of the Three Heroes Church, Witch was smugly certain that she would just get off with a slap on the wrist since her (former) royal status meant that she couldn't simply be executed. Unfortunately for her, she was too stupid to realize that while this was true, this only applied to killing her off directly. There was nothing stopping Queen Mirelia from throwing her into a situation where she would most likely get killed, such as being delivered into the clutches of her Uncle Faubley...
• Extreme Mêlée Revenge:
  • In the Web Novel, Raphtalia inflicts a "tortuous barrage of attacks" on Malty during the uprising of the Three Heroes Church remnants after fending off her Justice Zombies.
  • In the Light Novel, this is how Malty is killed at the hands of Rino, who disguised herself as one of the wave vanguards. Once her guard was down during a fight, Rino took the chance to stab her to death.
• Eyelid Pull Taunt: After falsely accusing Naofumi of Attempted Rape, she cruelly taunts him via pulling down one of her lower eyelids and sticking her tongue out at him◊. She later does the same to Motoyasu later on after his failure to defeat the Spirit Tortoise.

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• Face Death with Despair: Unlike her father, she panics upon learning she's going to be executed and begs for mercy.
• Face of an Angel, Mind of a Demon: Behind her lovely and alluring face is a hideous and manipulative mind.
• False Friend: Anytime she becomes anyone's ally, it's to exploit and manipulate them. She first pretended to join Naofumi's party to then steal from him and frame him for sexual assault. She later allied herself with Motoyasu and slowly stroked his ego to use him as a pawn in her schemes. After she and the rest of the party members abandon Motoyasu after the Spirit Tortoise incident, she moves on to Ren while happily telling the same lies about Motoyasu that she said about Naofumi. And then she betrays him too. In other words, her only true ally is no one but herself.
• False Rape Accusation: This is how the entire plot begins, with Naofumi being neither Myne's first nor her last victim.
• Fan Disservice: She might be physically attractive with her red hair, large breasts and alluring face, but she's got a repulsive personality underneath it all and won't hesitate to stab anyone in the back when it suits her.
• Fantastic Racism: Almost never misses a chance to refer to Raphtalia as "a damned Demi-Human".
• Fatal Flaw: Malty has four: Her first flaw is her constant lying, her second flaw is her Chronic Backstabbing Disorder, her third flaw is her utter refusal to stop kicking the dog, and her fourth flaw is her laziness and over-reliance on other people to do everything for her. What did you expect? Telling the truth must be a taboo in her twisted mind.
• Femme Fatale: She uses her looks to screw anyone over. Naofumi found out the hard way, as did Motoyasu and Ren.
• Fiery Sensuality: Malty is a (purportedly) skilled fire mage and uses her looks to entice men to get what she wants and screw them over when done with them.
• Flaming Sword: Using the spell, "Fire Slash", she can light her sword on fire and uses it to attack her opponent.
• Foil: Naofumi and Malty are opposites in every way.
  • Naofumi starts out naïve and optimistic but quickly turns into a Jerk with a Heart of Gold while Malty is a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing who drops the "sheep" act when she thinks no one is paying attention (which is most of the time).
  • Naofumi is (technically) just a civilian who is initially hated, but gradually becomes beloved by the peasantry, praised as a true hero, and given a noble title late in the story. Malty starts out as a princess whose country gradually wisens up to her rotten behavior before being exposed as a manipulative sociopath and stripped of her royal title.
  • While Naofumi helps as much as he can (albeit with a demand of payment most of the time), Malty seems to actively blight the lives of everyone around her either for her own gain, amusement, or petty spite.
  • While Naofumi treats his party members like Raphtalia and Firo like his own surrogate family, Malty not only regularly booted out other members of Motoyasu's party without his awareness out of petty jealousy.
  • Malty actively plotted to murder her own biological sister Melty (who's just barely older than ten years old, no less!) in cold blood, to the point of trying to burn her alive with fire magic simply because her mother knew Malty was too unstable to become the next ruler of Melromarc. Meanwhile, in the backstory, Naofumi is also treated as lesser than his own younger brother to the point where Naofumi's brother is nearly Driven to Suicide by all the pressure their parents put on him, only for Naofumi to calm his brother down and introduce him to some videogames as a means of helping to manage his stress. Bonus points for Irony in that it's implied Melty now sees Naofumi as a protective older sibling instead of (or because of) Malty.
  • Naofumi's party all volunteer (in Raphtalia's case, volunteer after being freed) to become his slaves because of the immense Level Grinding advantage that will help keep them alive, and because Naofumi's too traumatized from Malty's actions to trust anyone who isn't magically bound from lying to or betraying him (any other controls are immediately released). In the first short story from Motoyasu's POV, it's heavily implied (not outright stated only because Motoyasu has a bad case of Love Makes You Dumb) that all the women who join up with his party except Malty and her two friends haven't simply 'decided to seek other opportunities'. Malty has been selling them into slavery, mostly in brothels, because she doesn't want any competition for Motoyasu's 'heart'.
  • Naofumi fights as a defensive tank with healing and support magic at his disposal, while Malty is a fire mage who essentially uses Motoyasu as a meat shield while she hangs back with the rest of his party. While Naofumi also uses fire through his Wrath Shield, it's tempered by the love and care he has for his party, while it's obvious that Malty is incapable of feeling such things.
  • Naofumi's parents gave up on him early for being an otaku and focused on his brother's education but rewarded him with a higher allowance for helping the latter when he was stressed out. Meanwhile, on top of spending the royal treasury on frivolous things, Malty was spoiled rotten by her father while her mother tried her damnedest to teach her humility as she groomed her younger sibling Melty for the throne. Malty responded by trying to kill the latter during the coup being staged by the Three Heroes church to have the throne to herself, only to be stripped of her princess title, renamed Bitch/Bitchie/Whore/Slut (depending on the version), and made to pay off a massive tab as punishment by her mother.
  • Naofumi was chosen by the Legendary Shield to become the Shield Hero and save the world, while Malty stole the Vassal Whip using an enchanted accessory and sides with the Vanguards of the Waves to use the waves' influence to destroy multiple worlds.
  • In the web novel, Naofumi is an ordinary human who becomes a god to protect multiple worlds across the universe. On the other hand, Malty is one of many fragments created by a world-destroying goddess to slowly drive the world to ruin.
  • While Naofumi gets much better after the brutal kick into the dirt given to him near the beginning of the story and eventually gets numerous allies, a harem of his own, and a happy ending out of it, Malty unrepentantly sinks lower and lower with each crime she commits, screws over each and every person she encounters until she has no one left to turn to, and is eventually burned to death like the witch she behaves like.
  • Naofumi succeeds in all his goals while Malty fails in all of her as Naofumi worked for everything that he needed to do in order to survive while Malty relied on others to do the work for her which caused her to completely fail at the end.
• Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: Foolish to Melty's responsible as she has been a problem child since always, which is why her mother labeled her unqualified for ruling the kingdom and raised her younger sister Melty into a suitable heiress.
• For the Evulz:
  • She’s dead set on destroying Naofumi’s life, along with trying to attack his party members, at ANY given opportunity when there would have been little if anything to gain. She simply enjoys making him suffer. And she planned this on the very moment they met, as she made it seem like she would be a loyal friend, only to turn on him just cause she can easily get away with it due to her status as a princess.
  • Once Naofumi proves to be too powerful to mess with, she makes Ren her next target and treats him the same way as she did when she first met Naofumi, at one point winning Ren’s sympathy by planting a False Rape Accusation on Motoyatsu. Then she proceeds to steal Ren’s valuables and leave a taunting note. She did all of this just because she found it enjoyable to destroy Ren since he wasn’t in his right state of mind after suffering from the Spirit Turtle and losing his party members.
• Gainaxing: During her trial in the anime, her chest shakes every time her lies are exposed by the slave crest. When her head is put on the guillotine, she begs Naofumi to save her, while at the same time, her breasts jiggles as she begs.
• Girly Run: She runs by swaying her arms left and right as a way to make herself look like a cute, innocent girl that is trustworthy.
• Green-Eyed Monster: Malty simply can't stand when people other than her get anything she feels she deserves, so she tries to dispose of them to get it. Such as attempting to immolate her little sister Melty to have the throne all to herself, or in the Light Novel, selling other female party members of Motoyasu's into slavery for driving him away from her. It helps that she has literal green eyes.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: She can go from calm to extremely angry with minimal provocation.
• Hate Sink: She was designed with the intention to make the audience hate her guts. Malty is presented as being despicable and irredeemable to the core, and she only sinks lower with every appearance. Her rampant cruelty, Chronic Backstabbing Disorder, compulsive lying, and willingness to cross any line without even the slightest shred of remorse to get what she wants only increases the hatred that she receives from others. By the time she's executed a second time in the web novel, she's detested by literally everyone in the world. Being a fragment of Medea will do that to you.
• Hated by All: Literally. It comes with being such a despicable excuse for a human being that you would betray, throw away or kill off even your own family and allies in a very shortsighted attempt at either revenge or higher social comfort. This gets her horribly killed twice in the Web Novel, once in the Light Novel, and judging by the foreshadowing regarding her soul being snared after death, another horrible death might ensue for her soon...
• Her Own Worst Enemy: Despite earning herself many enemies, it becomes increasingly clear that Malty herself is the reason her plans usually fail. She could have gotten what she wanted long ago if she stopped acting like a Spoiled Brat and Alpha Bitch, and actually start being more pragmatic. If she actually took the time to think things through, she might have gotten the edge over her enemies but she still prioritizes trying to ruin other people's lives through her compulsive lying, backstabbing tendencies, and sheer cruelty, whether it's out of petty spite, for the sheer fun of it, or because a seemingly better opportunity presents itself. Naofumi was able to manipulate her in the web-novel into doing what he wanted before having her set up to be executed, because her treachery and self-serving personality just make her that predictable.
• Horrible Judge of Character: She honestly believed that the priest from the Three Heroes Church was just going to give her the throne after her sister and the four heroes were killed. This judgement caused her and the rest of Naofumi and Motoyasu`s party to be trapped in a Cursed cathedral and about to be wiped out along with her in it.
• Humiliation Conga: In her trial, not only does she get a slave brand put on her that zaps her every time she lies (which is frequent), but it's used to expose every single one of her lies, up to and including the False Rape Accusation against Naofumi. In the anime, this is followed by Malty and Aultcray being nearly executed by the Queen before Naofumi steps in — not because he's feeling sorry for them, but because he feels execution would be too good for them. She is renamed Bitch, while her father is renamed Trash, and both of them are stripped of their royal titles.
• Hoist by Her Own Petard: In an ironic twist, whilst forced to do a team building exercise during Chapter 85 of the Web Novel. Bitch purposely has her slave collar deactivated by a Shadow at the behest of Naofumi. During level griding on Cal Mira; she'd been probing the limits of her slave crest and was looking for an opportunity to blast him the moment he wasn't looking, playing it off as accidental misaiming. When she gets the chance to kill him like she always wanted, he easily deflects her spell back on her while the queens shadow reactivates her slave collar shortly afterwards.
• Hypocrite:
  • In the anime, when she witnesses Naofumi soloing the Soul Eater with his Wrath Shield, she proceeds to insult him (again) over "not acting like a Hero". This is coming from the person who's not only shown to be the furthest from the good guys as you can get and had done so repeatedly without even the slightest hint of remorse but also sunk as low as to help her chosen "Hero" cheat in a duel just to screw Naofumi out of the only party member he had. Adding to this, Raphtalia also proceeded to point out that she hadn't done a damn thing to contribute to the fight the whole time, instead just standing by and acting like a glorified cheerleader to Motoyasu.
  • In the manga, when she's finally brought to justice by Mirelia, she begs Naofumi to intervene on her behalf, telling him revenge isn't the way of a hero, only for him to snap and violently rebuff her. After being told her punishment, she immediately swears vengeance on Naofumi, his party, and everyone else. Mirelia calls her out on it.
  • She shoves Motoyasu away from her for "abandoning" her and calling him a coward when she's the biggest Dirty Coward in the series as she begs for her life whenever she's in danger or about to get retribution for her crimes.
  • Just like Tact, her hypocrisy reaches its zenith in Chapter 344 of the web novel, and she and the other members of his harem are told that if they renounce him, they will go free. Naturally, she does so along with the other more self-centered girls with the excuse that her mother (whom she told Tact to kill) was dead because of him and proceeds to beat him up while he's restrained, with Witch laughing as she calls him out on the callous actions, she's also guilty of and smugly blames her actions entirely on him. Even when he knew she and the others were never going to be spared in the first place and that they were lied to, so they'd break Tact even further, Naofumi still had to restrain himself from shouting at her, and Tact himself seemed to realize just how rotten she is before he's finally killed.
• Inadequate Inheritor: Being that she's a vindictive and spoiled Royal Brat, her mother declared her unfit to inherit the throne, knowing firsthand that Malty would burn the kingdom down to the ground if she took over due to her immaturity.
• Indirect Serial Killer: Her M.O. is to falsely accuse men of rape and have them executed. The only reason why Naofumi was spared is because the kingdom can't afford to kill him.
• Insufferable Imbecile: Her arrogance and stubbornness do little to hide what a complete idiot she is, and any real chance of being able to pull off long-lasting nice girl facade inevitably crumbles when she thinks she sees a chance to backstab someone.
• It's All About Me: These four words sum up her personality in a nutshell. The only person that matters to Malty is Malty, and everybody else can go screw themselves. Beneath the mask of a friendly, encouraging and flirty person lies an arrogant, treacherous, and manipulative monster who would spite even her own family into getting what she wants.
• Jerkass: There's a pretty good reason why she is nicknamed and later officially renamed "Bitch" and "Whore".
• Karma Houdini Warranty: After decades of corruption and getting away with a lot of evil actions towards Naofumi, Malty gets her first major comeuppance when she has her noble titles revoked by her mother and is later raped to death by the King of Faubley. Then, Malty gets another one when she is Killed Off for Real by being burned at the stake.
• Kick the Dog: Stealing Naofumi's stuff and her False Rape Accusation against him is only the start of the many despicable things she does throughout the story. In fact, it's safe to say that whenever she appears, such a moment is likely to occur. This is deconstructed as her constant and increasingly despicable puppy-kicking is what eventually leads to everyone seeing what a disgusting and irredeemable person she is. Nobody wants anything to do with her as a result, to the point where even a previously doting Aultcray realizes what an utter monster she truly is and condemns her along with everyone else.
• Kill It with Fire: In her final moments of life, she gets burned to death at the stake for her actions.
• Lack of Empathy: It comes with being The Sociopath. Spelling out to her just how many lives she either, or attempted to, ruin or kill will never elicit any kind of remorse out of her. If anything, she'll just whine and cry foul about how she's the one who was wronged and that her victims are the ones who must suffer.
• Lady and Knight: As a princess, Malty acts like a defenseless damsel who needs protection, using her looks to appear as the Bright Lady to Motoyasu's White Knight. Furthermore, Motoyasu himself is both gullible and perverted enough to take Malty's side and defend her in spite of her heinous demeanor while she treats him like an attack dog. Later on, after the Three Heroes became pariahs for causing the Spirit Turtle incident that resulted in countless deaths, she ditches Motoyasu and manipulates Ren into becoming the White Knight to her "Bright Lady" facade.
• Lady Macbeth: Her primary role in the story is to be this to anyone either unaware, naive or stupid enough to take her word at face value (primarily Motoyasu). She'll gleefully encourage their worst traits to watch the drama and carnage unfold for her personal gain or amusement. This will last until she either ditches them for someone else, or she's forced to take responsibility for her actions. She feels absolutely no remorse for it and would sooner see the entire world burn than acknowledge any wrongdoing or apologize for it.
• Lady of Black Magic: Former Princess of the Melromarc Kingdom who is attractive and more so cruel and manipulative. She's also a powerful mage with a penchant in fire magic.
• Laser-Guided Karma:
  • Comparatively minor to the rest, but her "chosen champion" being repeatedly made an ineffectual fool of himself almost every time he tries to wave his spear around for her sake is very cathartic.
  • Every nasty little crime she committed towards Naofumi, and countless others winds up catching up to her in a humiliating trial where she's essentially tortured into telling the truth via slave seal. After this, not only is her name forcefully changed to Bitch (or Whore/Slut depending on the version), but the royalty status she used to abuse for her own selfish ends is stripped away from her. This leaves her with nothing but the clothes on her back and a massive debt that would take several lifetimes to pay off. Her new peasant status mirrors the state that her horrible lies had left Naofumi in at the start of the series. Because her own mother has so little sympathy for the punishment she brought upon herself, her only hope to escape it is to actually contribute to the safety of the country she helped endanger as Motoyasu's party member.
  • In the Light Novel, it turns out that Malty sold one of her party members, Rino, to slavery behind Motoyasu's back. This just makes the slave seal she's forced to wear from then on even more cathartic, while Rino (and several other victims of the former) were eventually saved by the Queen and became one of her spies under the promise of getting revenge.
  • When Malty, motivated by pure spite, shows that having everything, including her royalty status, forcefully taken away isn't enough to keep her from trying to screw over her own allies despite the immediate consequences involved, she gets poisoned by the food she intended for Naofumi to eat, and later set on fire by her own fireball while her slave seal's punishment is active.
  • When Witch is sentenced to become her Uncle Faubley's 10,000th "bride" (a painful death sentence in itself), nobody would come to her aid. Motoyasu would have gladly done so himself, but Witch's previous betrayal of him had damaged his psyche so severely that he sees and hears all women as gross pigs. He literally sees her as a disgusting red swine (a fitting reflection of her equally repulsive personality) and simply shoved her away when she begged for his help.
• Lethally Stupid: While it's not just the people around her that tend to suffer because of her, her top priority (intending to be the next Queen of Melromarc) perfectly encapsulates how the woman is completely ignorant of the idea that her actions might be helping drive all of Melromarc to ruin. Whether it be encouraging Motoyasu to put zero thought into what he's doing, helping insane cultists make a violent takeover of the country (twice), or encouraging Tact to maim and kill the very people trying to save the world from the waves.
• Like Mother, Unlike Daughter: A variant. The only thing Malty inherited was her mother's captivating beauty, which she uses to seduce and screw over others. She doesn't have either of her parent's intelligence or cunning that makes them so notable, which bites her in the ass multiple times since someone smarter would Know When to Fold 'Em. Considering her true nature in the web novel, it makes sense that she barely has anything in common with her own family.
• Made of Evil: In the web novel, she's an Artificial Human reality-warped into existence by a truly despicable God of Evil, intentionally programmed to cause as much evil as humanly possible. Averted in the other versions, as she's just an incredibly spoiled sociopath.
• Magic Knight: She's a powerful spellcaster, wields a sword and wears heavy armor. Too bad it's hard to notice since she's more than content with sitting back and letting Motoyasu do most of everything himself.
• Manic Pixie Dream Girl: A dark subversion. She starts off acting as a cutesy, helpful girl who joins the underdog Naofumi to help him become the strongest hero, introducing him to the world's workings and taking him to a nice inn, only to crush the poor guy's hopes the next day by stealing his possessions and accusing him of raping her.
• Manipulative Bitch: There's nothing that she enjoys more than playing people like they were her puppets.
• Meaningful Name: Not Malty's actual name, but she uses the alias "Myne Sophia" when she's traveling. "Myne" is pronounced like "mine", fitting for a Spoiled Brat with an It's All About Me attitude. "Sophia" meanwhile is an Ironic Name, as it means "wisdom", while Malty's as Book Dumb and short-sighted as they come.
• Meaningful Rename: Naofumi refers to her as Bitch after all she has done to him and to others. When she escalates to all-out treason, it changes to Witch.
• Moral Myopia:
  • Malty has no problem swearing vengeance on those who "wronged" her, either completely ignorant or uncaring of how those same people have a laundry list of reasons to hate and condemn her. She's even had this trope all but lampshaded to her face more than once, only for it to fly right over her head and declare herself the chief victim. Of course, she has no problem turning around and begging for mercy she doesn't deserve, or bother trying to apologize or even understand what she's being punished for in the first place when even she realizes she's doomed.
  • Malty is infuriated when the priest of the Three Heroes Church betrays her, which rings pretty hollow coming from a compulsive backstabber like her.
• Ms. Fanservice: Despite how evil she is, one cannot deny that she is physically attractive with her red hair, fairly ample breasts, and choice of wardrobe. Invoked in-universe as well as one of her ways of manipulating others. Too bad she loses this advantage over time, even over Motoyasu once he goes insane from her betrayal.
• Ms. Red Ink: Malty is extremely careless when money is concerned. This is shown in the very first episode, when returning to the Weapon Shop after taking on a few Orange Balloons, she buys an expensive set of armor, forcing Naofumi to haggle with Elhart and asking her to "downgrade a bit" to save money for the inn until she seduces him into letting her buy it.
  • After accusing Naofumi of rape and stealing his money and belongings, she manipulates Motoyasu into charging 50 silver coins after making him lord of Lute Village.
  • In the Web Novel, it's revealed that she even wastes money from the royal treasury on frivolities. Had the Queen not returned, she would have spent the country broke.

N-Y

• Narcissist: Her personality as a whole, Malty only cares about herself and will manipulate anyone to get what she wants, especially men.
• Never My Fault: According to her, everything bad that happens to her is always the fault of someone else. When you pay attention to all the times she pathetically begged for her life, you'll notice that she never explicitly apologizes for her actions. It's another dead giveaway that she is incapable of feeling anything resembling remorse or shame.
• Noblewoman's Laugh: She often laughs like this, complete with the raised hand and tilted head, such as after insulting Naofumi after helping Motoyasu win in his duel against Naofumi in Episode 4.
• Non-Action Big Bad: As noted under Big Bad Wannabe, she is the closest to an actual Big Bad that isn't a force of nature like the waves, inciting all the other villains to fight Naofumi and his party. However, she focuses so much on her looks and manipulation that she barely trains her combat skills outside of a few fire spells and thus sends her goons to fight for her (Like Motoyasu and her father).
• Not Quite Dead: Rino gives her a brutal ending in light novel 19, but since she lacked weapons that can harm the soul, and the Third Army was able to recover and extract Malty's soul from the battlefield before anybody who could was able to catch her, it's likely that this death won't stick for long.
• Opportunistic Bastard: If the opportunity for increasing her personal comfort or standing appears she'll jump on it, usually without fully considering what will come after.
• Paper Tiger: Despite her status as a Princess and as an Adventurer, she does very little beyond cowering behind her status as a Noble, complaining at others to make herself look good, and having those around her fight her battles for her.
• Playing with Fire: She's already an accomplished fire mage before the start of the story, contrasting her sister and mother's affinity for water and ice magic respectively. This puts more holes in her accusation: if Naofumi did try to rape her, it would've been at a point where he had almost no fighting skills, and Malty would've burnt him to a crisp with no trouble at all.
• Pretty Freeloader:
  • The only thing Malty has going for her is her looks, and it shows with just how little she actually contributes to Motoyasu's party when she's not busy kicking puppies. Granted, this is every girl in his "harem", only bothering to throw a spell or two out in between cheering him on since he's only concerned with looking good in front of the ladies. Deconstructed, as this means she (and by extension the other girls) are just as incompetent as Motoyasu in a straight fight, whether it be between parties or "one-on-one" (backed by a number of brainwashed followers).
  • What's more, this also results in Melromarc's royal treasury being spent on frivolous things since, as its princess, she was essentially this trope to the whole country.
  • Malty insists on being a parasite even when she's a wanted fugitive, as Ren's possessions get stolen from under him and Itsuki. Despite being saddled with massive debt, she can't help but leech off the two by taking advantage of the mental breakdowns they suffered from the fallout of the Spirit Turtle incident and then abandon them both upon milking them dry. Unsurprisingly, this turned both firmly against her and, in the Web Novel, this leads to Ren condemning her alongside Naofumi and the Queen, and Itsuki in a coma when both could have saved her from her first death.
• Princess in Rags: Despite being stripped of her royal status for what she done, she is hellbent on getting revenge on Naofumi and her mother for it, escalating her plans to the point of betraying Melromarc by having Tact kill her mother and declare war on the country.
• Psychopathic Womanchild: She's a Royal Brat in a grown woman's body who thinks she can get away with anything because her daddy is the king and throws tantrums whenever things don't go her way. This is the reason why her younger sister Melty was personally groomed to be the heiress to Melromarc's throne, simply because their mother could clearly see that Malty is the kind of person that would run the whole country into the ground. Considering how Malty encourages her father to overstep his authority and nearly ruin Melromarc because of it, Mirelia's decision to displace Malty as the heiress and later revoke her royal status was more than justified.
• Puppy-Dog Eyes:
  • The trial scene of the manga, near the end of Chapter 31. When the Queen brings up the possibility of the Shield Hero forgiving their sins, Malty pulls this on Naofumi while pleading for mercy to manipulate him into sparing her in the trial, after showering him with platitudes about how revenge is bad. After she mispronounces Naofumi's name, the latter calls for her immediate execution.
  • In the anime, as she is put in the stock and the executioners await for the Queen's orders to drop the guillotines over hers and her father's heads and her cries for help being understandably ignored by Motoyasu, she directs this gaze towards Naofumi and cries to him for help at the top of her lungs. He obliges, only for him to have her names changed to "Bitch" and "Slut" while changing her father's name to "Trash".
• Really Gets Around: In Chapter 75 of the web novel, Malty tries to convince the Queen that Naofumi did rape her and it was her first time, only for the latter to see through the lie, revealing the former had already lost her virginity.
• Red Is Violent: She is a redhead with Ax-Crazy and sadistic tendencies.
• Redheads Are Ravishing: Subverted to the extreme. She's a redhead and Naofumi was attracted to her early in the story. The keyword being was. Once she screwed him over, suffice to say that he wants nothing to do with her now. Played straight to a tone-deaf degree with Motoyasu, until she betrays and ditches him, too.
• Redemption Rejection: She is completely unrepentant of everything she's done to Naofumi and everyone else she's ever crossed. Despite this, she's not above acting remorseful to try and escape punishment, and her lack of apology during her pitiful begging is a dead giveaway that she doesn't feel a damn thing about what she's done. Even her parents view her as a lost cause.
• Revenge Myopia: It takes some serious self-delusion to voluntarily put her victims through as much trauma and suffering as she did for petty reasons, and still swear revenge when they fight back and end up forcing her to be held accountable for her own disgusting actions. Deconstructed, as this just convinces everyone that Malty will never change or improve her behavior no matter what punishment they put her through, and decide to get rid of her at their earliest convenience.
• Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves: A mage skilled in fire magic who started the whole mess with her accusing Naofumi of raping her. Later on, she would try to burn her sister Melty alive with fire magic. How ironic it is that her first intended fate is to be raped to death, and the second had her burned at the stake.
• Rich in Dollars, Poor in Sense: Due to her being raised as a princess and her father spoiling her, she really doesn't put a lot of thought into how she spends money. Motoyasu's constant pampering and similar lack of self-control when it comes to spending money certainly didn't help either. She talks him into charging 50 silver for entering and leaving a town when the same amount could be used to stay 100 nights at a local inn with food included. When it's revealed she was already leeching plenty of money off the royal treasury, her mother later forces her to work off a debt she made while a member of Motoyasu's party.
• Riches to Rags: She loses her title as a princess after her crimes are exposed and her mother disowns her for it. This is further shown in Chapter 79 of the web novel, where Naofumi notes she is now wearing cheap equipment since the fancy one was confiscated by the Queen, one day after having her name changed and her poison fed back to her.
• Royal Brat: Her personality in a nutshell, and taken to the extreme. She sure believes that being the spoiled daughter of the king gives her the right to do whatever she wants. She maintains her obnoxious, and downright destructive behavior even after her royal title is stripped.
• Sadist: She pretty much loves to ruin people's lives for fun.
• Schemer: It takes more than one hand to count how many schemes she's concocted, yet no more than that to count how many of them have worked.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: Her royalty status, father, and later Motoyasu were the only things protecting her from the repercussions of her callous actions. Deconstructed, as her behavior, and by extension Aultclay's, was so vile that even this couldn't save them from a trial, and later disownment from the royal family.
• Self-Insert: An in-universe example in the web novels, as she turns out to be one of the many "fragments" of the local jerkass god Medea. Deconstructed hard, since while Malty has all of Medea's vices, she also has none of the former's power to back it up. Once her protection is gone (Motoyasu, Aultcray, Tact), all she has left is her superficial beauty, and it's nowhere near enough to save her from her former, vengeful victims.
• Serial Escalation: She responds to every punishment or attempt to correct her behavior, no matter how slight, by increasing the severity of her crimes. This reaches its apparent zenith when she teams up with Tact to betray the entire world, only to have that action one-upped when it's revealed she's joined the Vanguards of the Waves to kill off the Cardinal and Vassal heroes protecting the world for the heck of it. And that's not even getting to the web novel where it's revealed she's a fragment of a goddess that's destroying multiple worlds.
• Seven Deadly Sins: Fragment of an evil world-destroying goddess or not, Malty embodies all of the Seven Deadly Sins:
  • Envy - Malty is envious of whoever gets anything she thinks she's entitled to. Like her attempts to kill her younger sister Melty because Queen Mirelia made the latter next in line for the throne and not her. In the LN, she has sold other female party members, like Rino, into sexual slavery for getting too close to Motoyasu.
  • Lust - Malty is a promiscuous vixen who used her looks to manipulate men into doing what she wants. She accused each new lover of rape when done with them. This is also the reason she chose Motoyasu as her knight, as he is a dashing yet gullible pervert.
  • Greed - Malty overspends money from the royal treasury on frivolities and hates when someone doesn't spend a lot of money on her. For example, Naofumi's haggling with Elhart to buy her fancy armor set for cheaper. She also has no problems with stealing Heroes' possessions and money when they're no longer useful to her.
  • Pride - Malty has an incredibly inflated ego and believes she can do no wrong and do as she pleases without consequence. As a result of this, she's extremely vindictive when put in her place by someone more competent than her.
  • Sloth - Despite being purportedly skilled in the art of the sword and fire magic, Malty never bothers to train her skills. Instead, she relies on proxies to win her battles.
  • Gluttony - While not literal gluttony, she has gluttony for absolute power and pleasure for the sake of it. Being spoiled rotten by her father Aultcray, she wants to have anything she fancies, no matter the cost.
  • Wrath - She becomes murderously angry when humiliated or not given what she wants, driving her to make rash decisions without thinking beforehand.
• Shockingly Expensive Bill: In Chapter 76 of the webnovel, when Queen Mirelia was about to banish her, she changes her mind and instead hands her a piece of paper, which is a bill for the money demanded of her by the guild. She pales in shock at the outrageous amount she owes, a sign of her careless spending of the royal treasury. Naturally, she whines that she can't pay it.
• Sibling Murder:
  • She tried to kill her little sister Melty personally by burning her alive with fire magic under the flimsy excuse of irreversible brainwashing, something Ren calls her out on. In the anime, she even begs Motoyasu to "take the heads of Naofumi and Melty for her" when their party lost. Naturally, Motoyasu was the only one too stupid to notice this trope in action.
  • The spin-off reveals she had a little brother, who she is implied to have murdered while he was a baby.
• Significant Green-Eyed Redhead: Yep, that red hair and green eyes mean that she's important. Not that it's a good thing, though...
• Smug Snake: She's manipulative, haughty, believes she's more intelligent than she really is, plus will gleefully insult and kick down anyone she perceives as an easy target for fun. But when her actions inevitably backfire on her, she wastes no time shamelessly begging for her life or blaming someone else.
• The Sociopath: Unsurprisingly, Malty ticks off all of the telltale signs...
  • She has nothing resembling an emotional connection to anyone and never feels the slightest bit sorry for her increasingly despicable actions, though she's not above acting like she does to elicit mercy from the very people she tried to screw over. This also extends to her family and "associates", including her younger sister Melty (who she not only marked for death, but also personally tried to burn alive with fire magic), her parents (who she tried to kill off during the second Three Heroes Church), and Motoyasu (who she ditched without a second thought after the Spirit Tortoise incident).
  • She never bothers to think for a single second about how her extreme actions will play out in the long term, always acting impulsively out of either petty sadism or pure spite.
  • She lies so blatantly and so often that she had to be forced to tell the truth under the immense pain of a slave seal. Even then, she only tells the truth if it's to distract people from her own crimes.
  • She manipulates everyone around her without the slightest bit of care or consideration of their safety or well-being, and isn't above simply throwing them away if she sees them as having outlived their usefulness (which has bitten her in the ass several times).
  • She practically lives to blight the lives of everyone around her for her own selfish gain or petty amusement, on top of spending the nation's treasures frivolously and the queen outright confirming she had slept around prior to becoming an adventurer.
  • It's obvious that she only cares about herself considering how many people she threw under the carriage, and whines about "revenge" against people who simply responded in kind to her terrible actions like Naofumi.
  • She wholeheartedly thinks she's meant to be the next queen of Melromarc despite her disgusting, self-serving personality making her mother choose her younger sister Melty instead, and to the point where even her magical arias have her refer to herself as the future queen (which she flimsily tried to deny to the former).
  • To put it simply, she's seemingly a high-functioning one at first with her manipulations, but then you realize it's literally just Motoyasu and her father King Aultcray and later the Three Heroes Church remnants and Tact that's shielding her from the immediate consequences of her own cruel actions, and that she's not nearly as smart, clever, or manipulative as she thinks she is. Once those are gone, she's completely screwed.
• Soul Fragment: She is actually a fragment of the goddess Medea. This is only present in the web novel.
• Spared by the Adaptation: Malty in the original web novel met her final end along with Tact in the wake of their failed invasion. In future adaptations however, she escapes the aftermath of the battle, and becomes a recurring enemy aligned with the Vanguards of the Waves.
• Spiteful Suicide: In Chapter 252 of the Webnovel, she attempts suicide to avoid being married off to the King of Faubley, and to spite her own mother for sentencing her to such fate. Unfortunately for her, it fails because of Naofumi's intervention.
  Witch: Damn you all! Rather than going to Faubley, I'd rather die here and now!
• Spoiled Brat: She was spoiled rotten by her father, which likely contributed to her personality. Much later on in the web novel, it's revealed she would have turned out to be this regardless of her upbringing due to her true origins. In the light novel and anime, this is her base personality with no known outside influence.
• Stock Light-Novel Calamity Princess: Played with. Malty is an example of how this trope and its associated traits would play out in real life:
  • Malty is singled out for having a bad reputation and singled out an Inadequate Inheritor by the Queen. Therefore, she is hellbent on becoming the next queen of Melromarc to prove herself. However, Malty's actions make it clear such "mistreatment" was well-earned: She has had a history of getting innocent men killed after falsely accusing them of rape, mooching off of the royal treasury, and trying to kill her sister Melty to secure the throne for herself, being few of the many reasons she's clearly unfit for such a position. Moreover, while Malty is stigmatized for such atrocities, no one could do anything for fear of incurring Aultcray's wrath.
  • Being a redhead, Malty has a foil and rival in the form of her younger sister Melty, a blue-haired princess and a proficient water mage whose kindness made her the next in line for the throne instead of Malty by the Queen's decision. Moreover, it was Malty's destructive nature that caused such a decision in the first place, but she refuses to acknowledge it and wants Melty dead nonetheless. Once Malty is stripped of her titles, however, she openly antagonizes the Queen herself, a formidable ice mage with purple hair. Unlike with Melty, she succeeds in taking the Queen out with the help of Tact, which cost her Aultcray's support.
  • As a princess, she goes out of her way to look as regal and fashionable as possible, be it by flaunting her authority on other party members, buying expensive stuff with either the reward money her Chosen Hero earns from missions or even the royal treasury, and making others fight for her while using support magic from the backline and uses her power to cow others into submission. However, these displays of regalia and vanity only serve to distract from her huge flaws; without all that, Malty is nothing but an obnoxious bully who just got lucky to have mesmerizing beauty, a royal title, and fire magic on her side.
  • As mentioned above, her talent with fire magic could win her so many battles and get her what she wanted if she put her mind to it and bothered to unlock its true potential, but with her laziness and penchant for manipulation, she doesn't even try to master such destructive power. Instead, she counts on lies, schemes, and proxies to win, leaving her defenseless against more astute, experienced fighters.
  • The aforementioned displays of sheer incompetence and laziness are the reason she desperately needs the Heroes to accomplish her goals. However, she screws even that up because she merely sees them as either tools or toys rather than genuine partners. She showcases it by using her looks and acting like a "good, weak girl" to manipulate them into her side until she decides to steal their stuff and accuse them of rape the moment they stop being useful. Her chosen Hero, Motoyasu, stuck with her the longest not only because he was gullible and perverted enough to ignore Malty's heinous behavior, but because he's a show-off who wanted to play Knight in Shining Armor.
• Strong Family Resemblance: She looks almost exactly like her mother, save the hair and eye color. That's where the similarities end, however.
• Stupid Evil: She simply cannot resist trying to hurt people, even when it's clearly against her own best interests. Most other villains would Know When to Fold 'Em and stop acting out of spite upon having their name publicly changed to reflect their true personality. Malty, unfortunately, is not most other villains in this case. It's like she just doesn't know when to quit and it's ended up with her brutally killed in every continuity because of it. The web novel presents a dark justification for this. As a fragment and puppet of Medea, she may genuinely not have the autonomy to act any other way.
• Tampering with Food and Drink:
  • Web Novel: Along with Trash spiking his food with laxatives, Malty tries to do the same with poison during Naofumi's private banquet. Both were forced to consume them by Queen Mirelia once they were caught.
  • Anime: During the banquet between the four heroes, Malty, who was recently renamed Bitch, secretly poisons Naofumi's food. Fortunately for him, Melty intervenes before any harm can be done.
• Tempting Fate: A dark example in the web novel. After being apprehended following the quelling of the Three Heroes Church uprising, Witch immediately tries to pull the brainwashed card yet again in an attempt to escape punishment. When that fails, she drops any pretense of innocence and acts so self-assured that she'll avoid any severe punishment by being the Queen's daughter, regardless of her stripped status. She quickly learns that her actual punishment isn't an execution, but considering what it really was and how it involves her Uncle Faubley, her smug attitude turned a complete 180° and she ended up pathetically groveling for mercy. When that didn't work either, she tried to kill herself on the spot, which a vengeful Naofumi refused to let happen.
• There Is No Kill Like Overkill: When Witch was to be executed following the defeat of Tact and his army, Naofumi and the others really wanted to make sure she and her "allies" never came back. Not only was she thoroughly burned at the stake, but she had her soul devoured by a domesticated Soul Eater to make dead certain they were rid of her for good.
• Too Dumb to Live: In between this trope and Lethally Stupid, Malty does not have a functioning brain in her head. Unlike the other Heroes, who merely suffer from Aesop Amnesia and Wrong Genre Savvy in comparison, Malty has a chronic case of Stupid Evil that prevents her from even registering that constantly kicking puppies was inevitably going to backfire on her in the worst way possible. Even she had to realize she was going to get a reputation for screwing over so many big names, some of which could spark a war and get the entire country destroyed in the process, and her name change and stripping of her titles were effectively a warning, but she just kept on going.
  • It's to the point where, by the time the heroes are allowed to intervene on her behalf for one of her punishments in the Web Novel (which essentially involved a Cruel and Unusual Death), she's simply too dangerous to be in contact with because she's virtually guaranteed to continue trying to ruin them.
  • In the anime, during the Second Wave, Malty apparently thought it was a good idea to mock Naofumi within earshot, despite him using a sinister-looking version of his shield that was literally roasting the Soul Eater the other heroes could barely scratch, on top of it having him running on pure rage. She's lucky he was too focused on the boss to properly hear her, or else she would have likely gone out like her web novel counterpart, only much sooner.
  • Sure Malty, get yourself and Motoyasu involved with the fanatical human supremacists who seek to violently overthrow your own country. They just want to help you kill your own sister, right? Of course, they'd just hand you the throne afterward...
  • You'd think Malty would have the common sense to choose her words better around Naofumi once she's arrested and put on trial for her crimes instead of shamelessly trying to play the morality card but... well, it's Malty.
  • Malty, you're already on thin ice with the crown for the attempted coup, what made you think that they'd simply let you carry a (poisoned) pie to Naofumi without suspecting anything?
  • Malty, what the hell was going through your mind when you tried to immolate Naofumi during the Cal Mira trip? Ignoring the slave seal, the Shadows watching your every move and the fact that he's Nigh-Invulnerable compared to you, this is right after the shoddy attempt to poison him.
  • Web Novel: Sure Malty, keep Tempting Fate by smugly taunting your rightfully pissed-off captors that they can't simply kill you off after engaging in another bloody coup. Because it's not like your mother had a contingency plan to dispose of you formed a long time ago...
  • Web Novel: Did she honestly think Naofumi and the others were simply going to let her go after siding with Tact and helping kill so many people, including her mother? But then again, at this point it's pretty clear she never bothers to think before she acts, period.
  • Light Novel: Given the sheer number of people she screwed over in her life, you would think she would be more cautious in her actions instead of thinking nothing of them and forgetting about it completely. This is exactly how she was killed, as one of her victims counted on her being too stupid to even recognize them on sight, even after introducing themselves. Unlike most examples, Plot Armor couldn't save her from being mercilessly stabbed, and then finished off with her head being crushed courtesy of Rino and the Vassal Whip.
• Traitor Shot:
  • In the first chapter of the manga, she looms over a sleeping Naofumi in his inn room, gloating to herself about how the Shield Hero was such an easy mark while sporting a devious grin.
  • In the first episode of the anime, she sports an equally devious face after Naofumi heads off to bed after dining with her at the inn's pub.
• The Unapologetic: She never apologizes for any of her crimes or wrongdoings, not even when she's begging for mercy, proving that she doesn't feel anything resembling regret, remorse, shame, or guilt.
• Ungrateful Bitch:
  • In Chapter 74 of the web novel, When Naofumi rescued Malty and Melty from the Three Heroes Church, Mirelia begins apologizing to Naofumi for his horrific injuries. When Malty asks her, "Mother, why are you apologizing to this person?", a frustrated Mirelia has a Shadow arrest her.
  • A rather minor one happens in Chapter 85 of the Web Novel. During the Cal Mira arc, Naofumi unfortunately finds himself briefly partnered up with Motoyasu's party for the day, the latter of whom behave as stuck-up and arrogant as you'd expect for what are essentially the latter's glorified cheerleaders. Malty demands that Naofumi buy her a souvenir before they go monster-slaying, and she still finds a reason to complain because he bought it at a discount.
  • An anime example occurs when she attempts to poison Naofumi the same day he prevented her execution through Cruel Mercy, as opposed to the manga where he asked for her death. Also counts as Stupid Evil due to Naofumi's immunity to poisons.
• Vague Age: It's not clear how old she is, for all anyone knows she could be in her late teens or early twenties.
• Villainous Breakdown: If you were about to have your royal titles revoked, sent away to become a bride of a corrupt king and ultimately burned at the stake, you would be freaking out too.
• Villainous Princess: She is a princess who's the Big Bad of the series who kicks off the plot by making a False Rape Accusation against Naofumi, turning him into an outcast. She also treats her more kind-hearted sister like trash and is behind a lot of the bad happenings in the series. She also screwed over a lot of other people besides Naofumi as well.
• Villain Forgot to Level Grind: Part of the reason Malty becomes less of a threat to Naofumi later on is that she is too lazy to actually improve her abilities and relies on attack dogs like Motoyasu to do all the fighting. By Cal Mira, she is so far behind Naofumi he can just deflect her attacks back at her with ease.
• Villains Want Mercy: She's a sadist in every sense of the word and will kick down anyone she pleases out of amusement. The moment she finds herself in a bind, she will cry and plead for someone to save her, even if they are the ones she kicked around herself.
  • First was when her mother made her and her father accountable for their callous actions against Naofumi and the citizens of the country, and the former stated that she would go free if he vouched for her. Despite screwing him over from the very start and continuing to do so even after he hit rock bottom, partly to help her father and the Church of Three Heroes undermine the Shield Hero and out of petty sadism towards who she perceived as an easy target, and going so far as to try and burn her own sister alive with fire magic under the faulty excuse of "brainwashing". How she handles it differs:
    • In the manga, Malty not only still had the nerve to beg for his forgiveness, but also used the "forgiveness is a virtue" excuse in a profound display of shamelessness that showed her disgusting lack of remorse. Naofumi quickly called for her execution after this, easily realizing just how full of it she was but relented after Mirelia proposed an alternative punishment.
    • In the anime, she is seen kicking and screaming for mercy as she's put into the guillotine. After Motoyasu (understandably) rejects her cries for help, she turns to Naofumi, whose life she went out of her way to ruin, and cries for him to save her. Naofumi has her and her father spared, only to have them live under new names as a suggestion to the Queen.
  • The second time was after a failed coup she incited, and she was sent away to become the bride of King Faubley. Queen Melromarc gives the condition that if any of the Heroes speak out against it, she will spare her daughter. Once again, Malty has the nerve to shamelessly beg the heroes, even her primary victim Naofumi, to save her. None of them do.
  • When she's about to be burnt at the stake, Malty begs her father for mercy. Considering how she's still blaming others for her own actions, and that she's partly responsible for the deaths of her mother and countless others, this understandably falls on deaf ears.
• Wasted Beauty: She is an admittedly attractive woman, but she is a complete idiot and a petty sadist.
• Weaksauce Weakness: She is prone to being seasick.
• Wicked Witch: She's a sadistic madwoman that uses fire magic to burn folks alive and ruins the lives of those around her.
• Witch with a Capital "B": She gets renamed a second time to "Witch" before her burning, which considering all the crap she pulled up to that point and that she actually was named "Bitch" at the time, is rather appropriate.
• Work Off the Debt: In chapter 76 of the Webnovel, Malty is shown a piece of paper by Mirelia: a bill with the amount of money the Guild demanded from her for her spending while part of Motoyasu's party. So Malty must be part of Motoyasu's party as a slave to pay back that debt. Chapter 111 has Malty try to claim it was "necessary for the sake of the world", but Mirelia said it was for "expensive accessories, precious metals, clothes. A luxury rental estate and several visits to expensive night clubs. Is THAT what you call the sake of the world?".
• Would Hurt a Child: She has zero qualms with trying to burn her 10-year-old sister alive with her fire magic and is implied to have murdered her infant brother.
• Wounded Gazelle Gambit: One of her favorite strategies is to tearfully confess to her mark that her previous benefactor abused her in some way.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: She has everyone who has helped her abandoned at some point when she decides that she doesn't need them anymore.

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