Characters / The Rising of the Shield Hero - Three Heroes

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 other three heroes of the story, along with their personal allies.

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General Tropes for the Three Cardinal Heroes

Tropes #-K

• Adaptational Sympathy: Downplayed. In the original web novel, the Three Heroes deliberately released the Spirit Tortoise as they believed defeating this "raid boss" would earn them back the respect they'd lost. The light novel instead had the Tortoise released by Kyo who then captured the Three, making them yet more victims of the whole affair.
• Adaptational Villainy: The anime makes it clear the three heroes think that the world they find themselves in is just a game, but the light novels have a slightly different take on it. They not only assume the world operates on RPG mechanics, but that everyone in it (other than their fellow heroes) are just NPCs and not "real" people. More to that, they're under the impression that if they die they'll just wake up in a hospital and be able to go back to work. When the writing starts to hit the wall that they need to buckle down and really improve, they're convinced that whatever fight they're losing is a Hopeless Boss Fight meant to move the game's story along. Not that this makes their behavior any less idiotic or infuriating, but it does explain the sheer level of carelessness and dismissal they display for the world and people who depend on them for survival.
• Allegorical Character: They represent a typical RPG player. They kill in order to gain power, are happy to see their stats increase, and once they are done with a world, they simply move on to the next with no regret or consideration for what they've done.
• Ascended Fanboy: Deconstructed. They're all Otakus who are fans of the Isekai genre and are summoned to be the Cardinal Heroes. Unfortunately, the power goes to their heads immediately, they treat everything like a game and rush into a situation without even attempting to assess the situation.
• Attack! Attack! Attack!: Deconstructed. Their "strategy" is simply this, as their belief that all it takes for any enemy to go down is to press the offense until the enemy drops because that's how things work in their RPGs. Not only has this failed them repeatedly, but the fact that most real-life RPGs still require a degree of strategy to overcome more challenging enemies shows their abject refusal to think beyond relying on this trope.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: During the Cal Mira arc, they demanded to know how Naofumi had unlocked the Wrath Shield, not realizing that they could use their own curse variants while ignoring the brutal side effects of using it. They each end up activating their Curse Series weapons after they become hated pariahs, going through the same traumatic experiences Naofumi had to deal with and suffered greater consequences for fully giving into its influence.
• Boisterous Weakling: While at first it seems like Ren, Itsuki and Motoyasu are The Aces due to a mix of Genre Savvy and their weapons making them more powerful than the average adventurer, they soon devolve into this. While Naofumi learns how to use what little he has and learns the ins and outs of the world, the other heroes stick to their RPG strategies and quickly start to fall behind, getting to the point where Naofumi and his party have to pick up the slack for all of them whenever they have to work together. Whenever this becomes a problem, they all double down and either act like Naofumi is the one holding them back or try and claim "team effort."
• Brainwashed and Crazy: After the Spirit Tortoise incident, the Three Heroes sink into despair from losing their teammates and becoming wanted pariahs. The ensuing stress combined with Malty personally using and betraying them unlocks their Curse weapons. Unlike Naofumi they don't have anyone to help them, and the curses take over their minds as a result. They become threats to Melromarc in their power-mad states, forcing Naofumi's party to take them down and snap of them out it. The trio eventually get better after they're soundly beaten, though Motoyasu never fully recovers his sanity.
• Break the Haughty: Naofumi all but says they require this in order to break free of their gaming stereotypes and realize that the world they're in isn't a game. They do so after the Spirit Tortoise incident, where each of their experiences winds up hitting them with this so hard that they cross the Despair Event Horizon as a result. Unfortunately, they also each awaken their own Curse Series weapons in the process and have to be subdued in order for their Character Development to happen.
• Can't Catch Up: All three heroes are frustrated that Naofumi, who can't even fight on his own, has surpassed them.
  • It doesn't help that Motoyasu would rather flirt with women, and Itsuki prefers fighting in rebellions than improving their weapons.
  • Ren has it even worse since his refinement method doesn't boost stats like the others do.
• Can't Take Criticism: Thanks to their egos, they don't take criticism well, constructive or otherwise. The only exception is Ren, who is more reasonable than the others.
• Closest Thing We Got: It is revealed that, unlike Naofumi, they aren't so much the chosen heroes of their respective weapons, but rather they were a backup choice. The reason they came with Naofumi when he was summoned was because the spirits of the Legendary Weapon had not chosen a primary Chosen One before Aultcray summoned them.
• Color-Coded Characters: Each of the Cardinal Heroes has their own associated color. Said colors are found on their armor, eye color, and weapon gemstones. They provide the trope image for the Anime and Manga section.
  • Naofumi the Shield Hero is Green
  • Motoyasu the Spear Hero is Red.
  • Ren the Sword Hero is Blue.
  • Itsuki the Bow Hero is brownish-yellow.
• Color-Coded Elements: Motoyasu wears red and has an affinity for fire, Ren wears blue and has an affinity for water and Itsuki wears brown and has an affinity for earth magic.
• Commander Contrarian: Because of their built-in biases as gamers and their Horrible Judge of Character, Ren, Itsuki and Motoyasu tend to knee-jerk dismiss Naofumi in almost every instance. No matter what Naofumi does, they refuse to follow his command, see him as the weakest party member despite him beating more enemies than the three combined, and assume he’s a liar and a cheat when they don’t understand how he keeps one-upping them.
• Crippling Overspecialization: By design, all of the heroes are limited to the weapons that they were chosen to wield, thus cannot use any other weapon and all of them cannot use shields, just as Naofumi cannot use all kinds of weapons. As individuals, they only focus on their individual strengthening methods ^note Ren thinks weapon proficiency is the best way to strengthen the weapons, Itsuki believes copying the attributes of rare weapons is the best, and Motoyasu sticks to refinement as the best way to go without realizing that their weapons are capable of the greater feats if they took the time to study them.
• Crossing The Burned Bridge: Specifically with Naofumi and the queen.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: They get their asses handed to them with a single move by Glass during the 3rd wave and L'Arc in the 4th wave. Both enemies even point out that they're not living up to their titles as heroes. The worst case of this is when they decide to fight a powerful monster called the Spirit Tortoise to prove they're still worthy of being called heroes. Not only do they fail to defeat it, they get captured and used as living batteries for it, resulting in the biggest loss of life and destruction in the story.
• Deconstructed Character Archetype: All three of them deconstruct the typical attributes and characterizations a Stock Light-Novel Hero would have by showing how flawed the core aspects of the trope are.
  • Ren deconstructs The Stoic aspect of the trope. Similar to characters like Kirito, Ren is a heroic but overall stoic badass who prefers to let his actions speak over words and does what he thinks is right because he is a Hero. However, his inability to express his emotions clearly means he leads by simply charging ahead of his allies and fighting so they don't have to. The result is that Ren is very bad at teaming up with people because nobody can understand what he plans or is thinking about, whether it's his own party or with the other Heroes during the waves. His stoic attitude also means when his party is killed, he is so overcome with guilt he falls prey to the Cursed Sword because he has no idea how to process their deaths.
  • Motoyasu deconstructs the Harem Seeker and Harem Genre nature of the trope. His party is all filled with girls, he's a flirt who can't help but make passes at beautiful women, and he is loyal to the harem that he forms. The result is that he is an idiot who can't tell he's being strung along by Malty, and believes her words at face value because of The Power of Trust. When he finally learns how terrible Malty really was, he begins to sink into depression at having been a tool all along, and he finds out the other members of his party hated him and only stuck with him because they could gain fame or power for it. By the end, he's been so hurt by this he is unable to trust a woman ever again.
    • He also deconstructs the Idiot Hero aspect as it is shown that his ignorance of many aspects of the world in favor of playing the part of a courageous and righteous hero leads to him being easily manipulated by his allies, specifically Malty. He also has a hard time understanding that his actions may have consequences, refuses to see reason, or believe that some people that he thinks are good may have evil or selfish intentions until it's spelled out to him.
  • Itsuki deconstructs the Humble Hero aspects of the trope. Itsuki is portrayed as an overall humble hero who wants to help those in need from those who abuse their authority. Like Ren, he tends to be pretty heroic and tries his hardest to protect his party. It's revealed however that Itsuki is actually invoking this to make himself more likable to others and is much more arrogant that he lets on. The result is that he does incredibly silly actions like hold back his power to make the situation more intense so that when he deals the finishing blow, he looks more heroic. He also operates as if he was The Unfettered, meaning he sees his actions as right even when evidence is given to the contrary. This ends up making things worse when he falls prey to the Curse of his Bow and he begins brainwashing people with it, essentially forcing his views onto others and corrupting his party.
• Destructive Saviour: Considering that; Ren killed a Dragon, whose corpse caused a plague in a nearby village; Motoyasu planted a possessed seed in another village's crops, which later tried to destroy said village; Itsuki committed regicide in a neighboring country, causing a Civil War that brought famine and poverty to the country; and they allowed the Spirit Tortoise to go on a rampage towards Melromarc, which destroyed most of the country. It's safe to say, they do more damage than the monstrous forces they fight against.
• Didn't Think This Through: Pretty much all the damage caused by the Three Heroes happens because they don't think any of their actions through.
• Dual Wielding: They can summon a second version of their weapon in a different form if they want.
• Elemental Powers: Their powers grant them access to different forms of elemental weapons like fire, wind and electricity.
• Entitled Bastard:
  • They fully expect Naofumi's cooperation in their often thoughtless actions (ie blindly trusting Malty regarding Melty's "kidnapping" and the fight against Pope Balmus), and act like he's the unreasonable one when he adamantly refuses to, ignoring their track record for terrible decision-making and how dismissing him as a cowardly, treacherous weakling beyond all reason and subsequently treating him like shit might've given him every reason to want nothing to do with them. Granted they had no choice but to team up since Balmus was gonna kill them all, but still.
  • Because they were insistent that Naofumi had gotten the "loser weapon" of the four, they arrogantly saw him as a lost cause and refused to lift a finger to help him since day one. Come the "Heroes' Meeting" following the fight with Pope Balmus and Naofumi's name getting cleared, they follow the (now former) King Aultcray/Trash's example and outright demand what sort of "cheating" allowed him to succeed while their "expert gamer knowledge" repeatedly failed them, still condescendingly seeing him as the weak one and refusing to believe it involved any hard work.
  • Despite contributing next to nothing during the Fourth Wave (mainly due to their relatively flimsy stats), they still expected to loot the drops of the boss that was actually brought down by the combined efforts of Naofumi and L'Arc. Both don't hesitate to call them out on this, with the latter even calling them weaklings who don't deserve their Hero title outright.
• Evil Weapon: The Curse Series forms of the Legendary Weapons. Each have different effects depending on the heroes most glaring negative attribute and gives them abilities tied with them. While this can be controlled and eventually utilized by the hero, they still run the risk of dealing massive penalties to the hero's stats and corrupting the hero at worst.
• Failure Hero: This trope fits the three "Cardinal Heroes" that are Ren, Itsuki, and Motoyasu like a dirty, wet glove. Throughout many, many, many events their stupidity is on full display for a fair number of people to see, including their own separate party members, showing the trio’s incompetence and just how pathetically "shallow" they are.
• Fallen Hero: All three of them after the Spirit Tortoise Incident. It takes Naofumi to snap them out of it.
  • Ren loses all hope after his party is killed. He's taken over by the Sword of Greed and attacks innocent people to steal their weapons after he loses his equipment and money. He also loses his ability to accept his mistakes, instead blames his party for being too weak.
  • Motoyasu loses his sanity when his party abandons him and tell him off, followed by Malty further slandering his name. He literally sees women as pigs, unable to understand a single thing they say, and is even more aggressive towards Naofumi for having Filo.
  • Itsuki has his party abandon him as well, which results in him being more egoistical with his Curse series weapon that allows him to brainwash others. When he recovers, he's an Empty Shell with no autonomy and can't make any decisions on his own without someone instructing him to do so.
• Fatal Flaw: The three heroes have personal flaws that they have themselves and share together.
  • Ren's lack of foresight, insistence on being a loner, as well as his hollow pride in his skills, has allowed a rotten dragon's corpse to cause a plague, made him useless in a fight that doesn't require his sword skills, and lead him to join the other two in fighting the Spirit Tortoise and getting his whole party killed.
  • Motoyasu's is his overinflated ego, trust, idiocy, and skirt-chasing has made him the least popular hero. He insists on trusting everything he's told by anyone who isn't Naofumi (only being convinced when he outright realizes he's being lied to) and is too stupid to realize he's some Spoiled Brat's lapdog, and the fact he'd rather flirt with girls than train has made him an annoyance.
  • Itsuki insistence on appearing to be an Ideal Hero has made him incredibly irresponsible, and holding back in fights to seem more heroic, and is so obsessed with waxing faux-heroic speeches and phrases that the more people spend around him, the more they find him detestable.
  • And the flaw all three share is the insistence they are in a game and can beat it in simple RPG fashion, refusing to actually train, or study anything to make them better fighters, ending up as Leeroy Jenkins who the rest of the world see a hindrance. It gets worse when they recklessly try to fight the Spirit Tortoise just to prove they are better than Naofumi.
• The Fighting Narcissist: To varying degrees, they believe they're the best fighters around due to their Cardinal Hero status and they have the Legendary Weapons. This is why they refuse to take any negative opinions about themselves until Character Development sets in.
  • Motoyasu fights because he wants to show off in front of any pretty woman he can, including the ones in his party. Any heroic speech he recites is as hollow as it sounds because he only wants to look cool in front of girls. Imagine his frustration with Raphtalia and Filo not being impressed by his looks or skills. Only Myne and the rest of his party are willing to feed his ego, so long as they use him to make their lives easier.
  • Ren has the least narcissistic traits of the Three Heroes, but he still believes he's better off fighting alone and doesn't communicate with his party.
  • Itsuki has the biggest ego out of all of them. He believes heavily in his own brand of justice and is incapable of seeing fault in himself. His ego is so fragile, he willingly kicked Rishia out of his party, because she unintentionally made him look bad. Like Motoyasu's party, the rest of Itsuki's party mainly feeds his ego because it's easier for them to take advantage of.
• Point of Divergence: Especially in the manga. When they charge against the Spirit Turtle, they do manage to behead the beast. If it was like any other monster they'd faced before, this would have done the job nicely. Unfortunately for them, it's a powerful Puzzle Boss that requires beheading and the destruction of its heart simultaneously or very nearly so, which is something they could not pull off with their limited numbers and Wrong Genre Savvy. The fall-out and aftermath get them Hated by All.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: Ultimately, all Four Heroes are this to each other. They frequently end up bickering amongst themselves for the slightest reason, and this animosity is further enforced by the fact that the nature of their legendary weapons prevents them from working together for any lengthy period of time, or else they'll end up interfering with each other.
• Genre Savvy: A minor example, but the three used their gamer knowledge to unlock one strengthening method each.
• Hard Work Hardly Works: They definitely believe this, thinking they can coast by with just the inherent strengths of their Legendary Weapons in contrast to Naofumi, who works his and his party's collective butts off to get as strong as they can by using every avenue they could get their hands on to compensate from the lack of royal support or outright obstruction. This ends up harshly averted, as the three are dead set in believing that this trope is in effect against all logical reasoning, as their lack of training leads to them underperforming in every major fight they've been in onscreen. After the Spirit Turtle fiasco and getting their psyches put through the Curse Series wringer, they finally start looking to Naofumi for advice and start to honestly work harder.
• Hated by All: Initially the trio were revered and loved by the citizens of Melromarc while Naofumi had the exact opposite due to Malty and the King's treachery. But over time, their reputations gradually pulled a switcheroo when the other three Heroes carelessly caused more and more problems while Naofumi was forced to fix them himself, and the three experienced this trope once they attempted to fight the Spirit Tortoise and failed to kill it. Their failure left thousands of innocents dead and turned everyone in Melromarc and the other surrounding nations against them.
• Headbutting Heroes: At their worst, they're prone to get into petty arguments, and not just with Naofumi.
• Hero of Another Story: The other Heroes count as this for Naofumi as each is fighting their own battles and working on behalf of the people off-screen. Unfortunately, they are very bad at the heroic part and end up creating more messes than they fix because of their carelessness. Their "hero" status ends as a result of the Spirit Turtle incident shattering their credibility completely and Naofumi becomes their de facto leader.
• Hero Insurance: Zig-zagged. All four heroes must live in order to protect the world, and new heroes cannot be summoned until all of the originals are dead, so death as a punishment is out of the question. But after they arrogantly try to defeat the Spirit Turtle to prove themselves, fail miserably, then begin committing crimes due to their Curse Weapons, the Queen immediately orders for them to be arrested and brought into the capital for justice. While they cannot be executed, they can absolutely be charged for various felonies against the country.
• Hero with an F in Good: Every last one of them are (arguably) well-meaning individuals who want to be "heroes", but have absolutely no idea what actions they would need to take to be one, nor what consequences their mistakes have. Ren is the least egregious, as his Fatal Flaw is understandable. Itsuki is more problematic, as he is far more willing to make selfish decisions and ignore the problems he causes. Motoyasu is the worst of them, as he actively refuses to engage in critical thinking, is unconscionably smug, and frequently acts on his own selfishness and impulses and makes up excuses for them. He becomes one of the major obstacles Naofumi faces while believing that he is in the right.
• Heroic BSoD: Motoyasu, Ren, and Itsuki all had this after they bring about a disaster. Motoyasu never really recovers from his.
• Heroic Wannabe: All three heroes believe that since they were summoned to be heroes, they don't have to work to live up to the title. The only one who attempts to live up to the title is Ren, while Motoyasu and Itsuki focus more on their desires and egos than being actual heroes.
• Horrible Judge of Character: Anybody who blindly listens to someone like Malty or the more clearly shady members of the suspiciously named "Three-Heroes Church" easily qualifies for this trope, and these three are heavily guilty of it. Ren and Itsuki both notably assume the worst of Naofumi even without the former's input, while Motoyasu utterly refuses to think beyond his horribly obtrusive "It's all that Dirty Coward Naofumi's fault!" mindset without needing to have it outright spelled out to him that it isn't the case.
• Hot-Blooded: They're seldom seen considering the long-term consequences of their actions, make snap judgments, and frequently get in over their heads because they act first, and think second (later, maybe... at all).
• His Own Worst Enemy: Each hero is very self-destructive and sabotaging, especially Motoyasu. They refuse to consider the other heroes have information that could help them and refuse to work with their party members.
• Hypocrite: Motoyasu and Itsuki are completely guilty of this as they constantly commit actions that they are against and when Naofumi calls them out on it, they make up some excuse to satisfy their own egos which makes them heavily disliked by Naofumi.
• Hypocrite Has a Point: All of the other three heroes (especially Motoyasu) condemn Naofumi for his actions (such as taking slaves, acting selfishly, and other behavior) despite the fact that each of them is in some way guilty of the same or even worse actions. However, as mentioned to Naofumi by Fitoria... none of that excuses Naofumi's own decisions. Though he is unquestionably guilty of even more predatory and sexist behavior, Motoyasu is absolutely right that Naofumi taking young children as slaves is a pretty scummy thing to do. Though the other three heroes are all scumbags in their own right, Naofumi is certainly not doing himself favors with the choices he's made.
• Idiot Ball: Not a single one of them stops to question their actions or to consider the possible consequences thereof, treating the whole thing as a game rather than a matter of potential life or death.
  • Motoyasu especially for his inability to see when Malty is manipulating him, especially considering how he died before being summoned.
• Inadequate Inheritor: Compared to previous generations of heroes, they are underwhelming in comparison, both in overall power level and ability to work as a team.
• Infinity +1 Sword: The Legendary Weapons. They provide the chosen wielder the best stats and give access to a diverse set of skills that can be unlocked by any chosen method the hero believes is the most effective. Deconstructed, as the other Heroes' complacency in thinking that their respective weapons are already the strongest by default, only requiring high levels, their unique strengthening methods, and little else leads to them, and by extension their owners, not being nearly as strong as they should be. They only make their owners look impressive compared to normal adventurers, and even then, possessing enough battle experience skill can allow you to overpower them as they are. Just ask Eclair and Rishia when Ren and Itsuki were driven crazy from their respective Curse Series weapons and needed to be subdued.
• Insane Troll Logic: Ren, Motoyasu and Itsuki rely on the RPG logic they've obtained from playing video games instead of actual common sense, resulting in messes that Naofumi is the victim of or ones that he has to clean up. It proves to be another reason why they fail so miserably as heroes. They come up with the dumbest explanations with little to no evidence, refuse to think about it until the truth is revealed, and then they contradict their earlier judgements to nurse their bruised egos instead of admitting fault. They try to live in a delusional sense of righteousness until the truth smacks them in the face, and it gets to the point where they're convinced that battling a destructive skyscraper-sized monster from imprisonment without any support from the nation's army just to prove themselves was a good idea. It wasn't.
• I Reject Your Reality: Deconstructed as one of their chief problems on why they fail so hard as heroes, and any attempt to spell this out to them just causes them to double down.
  • It's mainly in the "I refuse to believe my gamer logic could fail me in any way, regardless of blatant evidence to the contrary" sense, stubbornly seeing their poorly-thought out actions as without any consequence and that the one member of theirs who can't properly attack on their own is a useless deadweight specifically because of that one limitation on principle.
  • This also goes to their individual flaws, as Ren refuses to be anything but a lone wolf towards everyone including his own party, Itsuki adamantly believes he can do no wrong regardless of evidence to the contrary, and Motoyasu sees every cute girl he meets as a Damsel in Distress as well as Naofumi being the root of all evil regardless of context, reasoning, or even basic logic.
  • After they fail to stop world-wide disaster that destroys their reputations and can no longer deny it, they realize that the world they are in is very real and take steps to rectify their errors.
• Irony:
  • At the beginning, they get all the respect from Melromarc's Kingdom (mainly the King) just for being heroes who are not the Shield, and Naofumi is treated like crap by just being the Shield Hero (then made worse by Malty's False Rape Accusation). But when confronted by other heroes from another world on the second (Glass) and third wave (L'Arc), they only get utter disrespect from them and Naofumi is the only one they acknowledged as a hero.
  • They repeatedly accuse Naofumi of breaking the law or instantly believe people who say he's broken it and should be arrested for his "transgressions". In the entirety of the series, Naofumi never breaks any laws as much as he'd like to, while Ren, Motoyasu and Itsuki become wanted criminals and they become corrupted by their curse weapons, causing mass destruction and deaths in their frenzies.
  • In a more serious matter, after the Spirit Tortoise incident, each of them falls into circumstances that are the complete opposite of their status when they started. These situations cause them to unlock their respective weapons' Curse Series and drive them into despair and madness. In the end, the one hero who they always refused to help, and his allies who they dismissed as weaklings, end up being the people helping them overcome their respective curses.
  • A downplayed example in the anime, while they spoke kindly of Naofumi becoming a village owner, they claimed he wasn't going to get stronger that way or that he was helping enough innocents with that method. Not only did Naofumi continue to grow stronger than the trio and help dozens of homeless demihumans, Ren, Motoyasu and Itsuki settle down in Rock Valley to recover from after their Curse weapon adventures and to make amends with their fellow hero.

Tropes L-Z

• Lack of Empathy: Due to their belief that any character besides the Cardinal Heroes is an NPC, they aren't near as caring as they should be, especially Itsuki, who kills on a whim.
• Lack of Imagination: It never occurs to the other heroes that there is more than one potential strengthening method for the legendary weapons or work on their teamwork skills. Since their main strategy is Attack! Attack! Attack! and never attempt to adapt their attack methods, they aren't especially good at creative thinking or adapting to a situation.
• Leader Wannabe: Despite the fact that the Cardinal Heroes are assigned to be the leaders of their respective parties, none of them are particularly skilled at it. In addition to the aforementioned poor strategic abilities and arrogance, each hero has traits that make them poor leaders with Ren being socially distant and stunted, Itsuki is an Attention Whore who will abuse those who don't praise him and Motoyasu is an idiot who is clearly Malty's puppet.
• Leeroy Jenkins:
  • The Three Cardinal Heroes have multiple occasions of this, but the one that takes the cake happens when they think that they can defeat a Gigantic island-mountain-shelled turtle called the "Spirit Tortoise" in order to make them look better than the Shield Hero. They charge ahead without any help, thinking they can defeat it, and they fail miserably. The monster goes on a major rampage, leaving death and destruction in its wake. Once the public learns the truth, the trio is effectively dead in the hearts and minds of the people of the land as "heroes" anymore, leaving them with a small dose of what the Shield Hero had to endure and suffer through near the beginning.
  • It is established that their predecessors have a similar reckless streak and have gotten themselves killed on multiple occasions.
• The Load: While they managed to defeat the First Wave boss, they have since been unable to contribute much to the Waves afterwards. Even when just doing quests, they tend to do more harm than good, due to their short-sightedness.
• Manchild: Their tendency to treat their situation like a game makes them come off as this, though Ren and Itsuki at least have the excuse of being teenagers. Motoyasu, on the other hand, borders on Psychopathic Manchild due to his Black-and-White Insanity and I Reject Your Reality tendencies.
• Might Makes Right: Given on how they rely on raw power, they seem to believe this mentality.
• The Millstone: They utterly despise working with Naofumi even after his name is cleared, they can barely form a functional party, and they refuse to learn any actual combat techniques and just let their Hero skills carry them. This leads to them causing roughly half of the problems Naofumi has to solve and becoming a liability in battle when the Waves arrive. However, because the Waves will become exponentially stronger if they don't survive and summoning new Heroes requires all of the current ones to die first, Naofumi can't simply leave them to get killed from their own messes.
• Never Learned to Read: Although the Heroes can speak with the locals, they're illiterate in the language. When they learn Naofumi can read it, they chalk it up to him having a shield that auto-translates for him.
• Never My Fault: They refuse to see that their failures stem from the fact that they think everything in the world works like an RPG game from their respective worlds. Whether it’s Naofumi becoming stronger or limiting their own abilities out of ignorance, they fail to see reason and continue blaming Naofumi for everything wrong that happens to them. After numerous failures, notably the Spirit Tortoise incident, they finally mellow out and start from the ground up to become better people.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Deconstructed. Because of their Wrong Genre Savvy biases stemming from their insistence on believing they're in a video game, these three do not have the self-awareness or common sense to register, learn, or even apologize for their many avoidable mistakes (although Ren had the decency to do so only once), leading to them carelessly making, or helping make bigger messes that everyone else has to deal with, especially Naofumi.
• Nice Mean And In Between: They all have a lot of collective flaws that make them more hindrance than assets but this does apply on a personal level with them. Ren is Nice, being a Token Good Teammate against the other two and his biggest issue is being a Socially Awkward Hero. Motoyasu is Mean, going out of his way to be as much of a headache to Naofumi as possible and being ruled by his vices. Itsuki is In-Between, as he has far more faults than Ren but can keep some of his worse impulses in check unlike Motoyasu. It's telling that of the three, Ren and Itsuki get better overtime, while Motoyasu doesn't.
• Not Worth Killing: The only reason they survived fighting Glass and L'Arc is they consider them unworthy of killing.
• The Poorly Chosen One: As time passed, it became clear that they were not living up to their titles as Legendary Heroes due to their poor track record and competence, with several characters lampshading this. None of them can accept the fact that the supposed weakest hero (Naofumi) ends up being more competent and heroic than they are. It got to the point that the Three Heroes Church that supposedly worships the Three Heroes elects to brand them as "fake heroes'' and attempt to kill them all simply because of their incompetence.
  • The reason for their poor performance is revealed to be that the group summoning ritual forced the weapons to choose imperfect wielders. Only the Shield was able to pick its ideal candidate.
  • It is revealed that their predecessors also had this problem, and had a habit of getting themselves killed in the process.
• Possession Equals Mastery: Averted. Their legendary weapons grant them the best stats and some basic inherent skills. However their lack of experience wielding actual weapons and different ideas on how to unlock said skills cause them to fall behind experienced fighters. Their reliance on their weapons as they are leads to them not being able to unlock their respective weapons' full potential. When they see Naofumi's more diverse and powerful shield forms, they immediately conclude he must've been cheating.
• Poor Communication Kills:
  • Part of their problem is their refusal to communicate their game knowledge with each other. If they had shared what they knew, they'd be far stronger than they are, due to each of their methods offering its own unique benefit.
  • This also leads to the trio causing trouble on their personal quests after the second Wave. Ren, Motoyasu and Itsuki leave a trail of misery in their wake because they don't bother to get the full story of the problems they "fix", and the people they help don't question their actions until it's too late because they trust that the Legendary Heroes know what they're doing. Especially in Ren's case where the villagers hide the fact that the dragon had a demi-human foster daughter that they sold into slavery once he finished the beast off.
• Powers via Weapon: Their legendary weapons grant them access to spells and Hero Skills.
• Pride Before a Fall: Due to King Aultcray spoiling them with patronage and their stubborn videogame ideology, the Three Heroes refuse to consider their actions or realize they're hurting dozens of citizens while living out their Wish-Fulfillment escapades ^note Even Ren only acknowledged his Dragon-slaying mistake once before he became as arrogant at Motoyasu and Itsuki. Then they allow a nationwide catastrophe to destroy the country in the form of the Spirit Tortoise, the trio end up losing all their Royal sponsorship, party members, becoming social pariahs, and unlocking their Curse Weapons only to suffer from long-term psychological side effects. By the time their beaten down by Naofumi and his team, the trio is thoroughly humbled and have to start from the ground up with varying degrees of success.
• Protagonist-Centered Morality: Completely deconstructed. They all stubbornly cling to their native culture's sense of right and wrong, unless it personally benefits them, happily ignoring all empirical evidence that the world they've been summoned to, the country of Melromarc in particular, just doesn't operate the way their native cultures do^note An example is the fact that in the country, demi-human slavery is legal and accepted, but they constantly kick Naofumi while he's down for adapting to the situation he's in and taking advantage of the slave system. Because they just constantly insist on being "right" rather than being correct, they remain an unmitigated disaster until reality itself gets even with them, hitting them over the head with a clue-by-four until it breaks and holding them responsible for all their nastiness, while Naofumi prospers and becomes the only real hero of the Four.
• Resurrected for a Job: All three of them originally died in their homeworlds before being summoned as the new Cardinal Heroes alongside Naofumi.
• Shields Are Useless: After discovering Naofumi is the Shield Hero, they all mock him for getting a "useless" weapon.
• Signature Move: In the anime, all three of them favor the "Meteor" attacks, powerful long-ranged abilities. "Meteor Slash", "Meteor Thrust", and "Meteor Shot" for Ren, Motoyasu, and Itsuki respectively.
• Skilled, but Naive: They all start out as this. Naofumi sees the truth after he is falsely accused while it takes the other three for the Church to try to kill them before they realize something is up.
• Sticks to the Back: Seen sometimes with the Sword and Spear Heroes, who carry their weapons this way when not in use. Somewhat justified given that said weapons are Clingy MacGuffins and they're permanently stuck to their wielders
• Suicidal Overconfidence: The heroes aside from Naofumi believe they cannot die because they have "Divine Protection". It leads to them trying to battle the recently unsealed Spirit Turtle, believing they can kill it, when the four heroes of the past could only seal it.
• Super Weapon, Average Joe: The Three Heroes are just average gaming otakus who happened to receive a Legendary weapon. They tend to rely on the power boost of the weapon rather than improving their own skills, which is why Ren was easily beaten in a straight sword duel by a lower-level knight. And that boost stops being useful as their opponents quickly outpower them.
• Super Zeroes: Ren, Motoyasu and Itsuki have an easier path than Naofumi from the start, with the King's patronage and the three offensive Legendary weapons. But because the three so stubbornly cling to their RPG mindsets and refuse to actually train and grow stronger beyond leveling up, they are hilariously incompetent heroes who create way more messes than they fix. It becomes more noticeable in the following waves where they can’t even put a scratch on their enemies, get their asses kicked with a single move by an opponent (thrice), and are so in denial about their weaknesses that they’d rather accuse Naofumi of cheating or brainwashing others. Glass and L’Arc tell them point-blank they’re sorry excuses for heroes and only see Naofumi as an actual challenge.
• Tall Poppy Syndrome: Inverted. They essentially see themselves as superior to Naofumi in every way regardless of their crappy track record or combat performance. Whenever they're called out on it, they delude themselves into thinking that nothing else is wrong and that Naofumi is somehow cheating simply because his competency heavily outstrips their adamantly negative opinion of him. This only changes when reality itself has to beat them over the head with the harsh fact of why Naofumi is better than them, and they promptly follow his lead.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Whenever they have to work together, they spend most of the time trying to one-up each other instead of coordinating with each other and fighting as a team. Also, they still refuse to work with Naofumi even after his name is cleared and repeatedly proves to be more competent than they are simply because they still think he's the weakest Legendary Hero.
• Teleporter's Visualization Clause: Once they hit level fifty, they can teleport to any place they've saved before.
• Too Many Cooks Spoil the Soup: When Naofumi asks their advice on how to use the Legendary Weapons this turns out to be in effect as each of them uses a completely different method to upgrade them. Ren focuses on improving weapon proficiency, Itsuki favors weapon rarity while Motoyasu prefers refining weapons and improving their stats. Downplayed as Naofumi is made aware of some shared abilities that all of the Legendary Weapons possess but he ultimately storms off because they clash on what the best method is among themselves.
• Trauma Conga Line: Hoo boy do these three go through the mill because of their egos. After they're soundly beaten in every wave they're in past the second (the first being before they were summoned) Wave, losing the Queen's favor to Naofumi, and being humiliated for their sub-par fighting skills, they arrogantly try to prove their superiority by fighting a giant mountain-sized monster. Unsurprisingly, they're beaten to a pulp and are captured by Kyo Ethinia to become living batteries for the monster. By the time they're freed and they recover, they lose all of their money and teammates, are screwed over by Malty/Bitch, and are left with nothing. This despair allows them to meet the criteria to unlock their respective Curse Series and lose their minds to its corruptive influence. The trauma leaves Ren and Itsuki anxious and emotionless wrecks respectively and leaves Motoyasu permanently insane.
• Took a Level in Badass: Once Naofumi and his party beat them out of their Cursed Weapon states, they have to start from the ground up, especially Ren who lost several levels and states. Fortunately, they begin to take their training seriously, such as perfecting each of their weapon's forms and focusing on strategies over power. Ren, Motoyasu and Itsuki evolve from Super Zeroes to powerful, efficient Cardinal Heroes who can fight the off Wave monsters and the Third Army members with ease.
• Took a Level in Kindness: After dealing with the fallouts of their reckless Spirit Tortoise stunt and being snapped out of their Curse weapons, they all become much better people, though the change of heart varies between each hero.
  • Ren loses his loner habits and personally apologizes to Eclair, training with her to become a more skilled swordsman. He also works to make amends with Wyndia, and defends Naofumi from the brainwashed Itsuki's false ranting.
  • Motoyasu is driven insane and never fully recovers. But he finds happiness in raising Filolial kings and queens, becoming more fatherly and compassionate in the process.
  • Itsuki takes a while because his curse removes his emotion and free will, but once he heals he reconciles with Rishia and eventually becomes a genuinely Humble Hero without arrogantly enforcing the image. He even pretends to stay affected for a while to atone for his actions, and becomes an invaluable ally when Naofumi returns to Glass' world.
  • All three of them are grateful to Naofumi for helping them in their Darkest Hour and being allowed permanent residence in his village. They come to respect him as their superior, following him as the leader of the Heroes during the Wave battles and other skirmishes. They also are much less hostile to each other and can work together without a fuss.
• Underestimating Badassery: They are all guilty of underestimating Naofumi since he is the Shield Hero and how useful a tank is.
  • Ren assumes that he's in for an easy win against Eclair both times they fight, only to get his ass handed to him without doing any meaningful damage back, humiliating him.
  • Being the one who butts heads with Naofumi the most frequently of the other three Heroes, Motoyasu's the most prone to this due to refusing to see the latter as anything more than a useless coward. It leads to him being one-upped over and over again unless he has outside help, and even that doesn't always score him a victory.
• Unskilled, but Strong: As the chosen Legendary Heroes, they are immediately on a level above normal warriors in terms of strength. They also have no problems gaining levels because unlike Naofumi, they have offensive capabilities. However, this ends up deconstructed when they only rely on the default strengths afforded by their Legendary Weapons, fully convinced that they didn't need to develop actual fighting skills like tactics or leadership. They don’t bother to experiment and discover what their weapons are actually capable of, while Naofumi did so to get by the forced level restriction. This means they often underperform during important battles because of their lack of skills, and as a result are barely stronger than the average adventurer. Especially proven for Ren and Itsuki when they unlock their Curse Series weapons and in their madness try to kill Eclair and Rishia respectively, they get absolutely schooled by their respective opponents due to a lack of skill and sanity despite the boost in raw power.
  • Motoyasu is another blatant example of this, as he needed Malty's underhanded help to win against Naofumi in an otherwise fair duel despite the latter being twenty levels lower and stuck with a "weapon" that restricts his offensive ability. Much later on when Naofumi and his party are forced to go on the run because of another false accusation, Motoyasu's party gets utterly curb-stomped despite the latter's being cornered in an inescapable forcefield and their levels being stuck at forty due to the King's own unfairly enforced handicaps.
• Unwitting Pawn: Like Naofumi, they've all been manipulated by Malty at least once.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Each of the heroes tries to fix problems around Melromarc. But because of their short-sightedness and refusal to believe that the people and the world are truly real, they create more disasters that harm or outright kill innocent civilians in the process. This is especially true with Motoyasu, who makes every problem Naofumi could easily fix worse because he refuses to engage in any sort of critical thinking. All of these blunders causes the Church of the Three Heroes to betray them and try to stage a coup to take over just because of the trio's sheer incompetence. Not learning from that debacle whatsoever, they then intentionally charge into battle against the Spirit Turtle to try to prove they're worthy heroes after all these screw-ups, which led to mass devastation, their prompt defeats and their reputations destroyed (with Ren's party wiped out to boot). After a certain point, Naofumi and the rest of the cast start considering the idea that wherever the three go, hell's going to follow.
• Useless Without Powers: Due to being Unskilled, but Strong and invoking Crippling Overspecialization, each of the heroes (Ren in particular on display the most) are subpar fighters when they cannot use any of the special skills and spells.
• Wake-Up Call: The other three summoned heroes besides Naofumi were less than great at their jobs, often causing as much if not more trouble than they solve due to their belief it was all just a game. It was not until after the Spirit Tortoise incident, where they suffered personal losses and their reputations were destroyed they realized that the world they're in is not a game and that their actions have very real consequences.
• Wants a Prize for Basic Decency: At the start of the story, all three of them want a great many perks, threatening to become enemies rather than allies, on the promise that they would fight to save the world that they're now stuck in. Naofumi is rather quickly chagrined at such a shameless display of greed.
• Weaksauce Weakness: They become seasick very easily.
• We ARE Struggling Together: They can barely coordinate with each other, let alone Naofumi, on or off the battlefield. When Queen Mirelia calls the four heroes together to compare notes in light of how much stronger Naofumi is than the rest, they're utterly convinced that their way and only their way of getting stronger works, eventually devolving into a shouting match between the three that amounts to nothing.
• We Have Become Complacent: They quickly become lazy due to the advantages the kingdom gave them and fail to keep up with Naofumi or contribute to the waves.
• The Worf Barrage: Frequently when the three heroes fire their "Meteor" attacks at a single target, that target will be largely unharmed to show just how powerful they are compared to the group.
• Wrong Genre Savvy: All of them assume that they are in a video game world where they can breeze through by growing in strength and completing quests like they normally would and everyone around them are non-playable characters. This reckless mindset, taken to the point of borderline delusion in the cases of Itsuki and Motoyasu, ends up harshly deconstructed to the point where Naofumi ends up spelling it out to them that no; they are not in a video game world despite it running partly on RPG mechanics. The world they are in is very real and their reckless actions had serious consequences that he ended up fixing. Even after the incident with the corrupt Pope, they end up ignorantly retaining this mindset until they collectively screw up so badly that the entire country ends up seeing each one of them as a Lethally Stupid Super Zero and becoming wanted criminals, and even then they had to have the sense literally beaten into them for it to be finally driven home that their attitude needs to change.

The Sword, Spear and Bow Heroes

Ren Amaki/Hero of the Sword

Ren Amaki

Voiced by: Yoshitsugu Matsuoka (Japanese), Alan Lee (English)^note Other languages: Bruno Coronel (Latin American Spanish), Dario Sansalone (Italian)

A 16-year-old high school student summoned to be the Hero of the Sword. Due to preferring solo play in MMOs he is poor at teamwork and his party suffers from poor leadership. He tends to act without thinking things through but is quick to accept and try to atone for his mistakes.

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• Armor-Piercing Attack: His Eagle Blade can completely ignore a person's defense.
• The Atoner: After the Spirit Tortoise fiasco and his subsequent fall to the Cursed version of his sword, Ren dedicates himself to making amends for his past mistakes. He is particularly driven to make amends to Wyndia since he killed the dragon that was her foster father.
• The Baby of the Bunch: Downplayed. Ren is the youngest of the Cardinal Heroes but this hardly ever gets brought up since they're all relatively close in age. Naofumi does see him a bit more favorably than Motoyasu and Itsuki, but this has more to do with Ren's not being a total jackass than his age.
• Benevolent Boss: Compared to Itsuki and Motoyasu he is a compassionate leader, which is a very low bar to clear. He is still mister I Work Alone.
• Black Swords Are Better: Downplayed. His primary form of the legendary sword has a mostly black blade and said sword gives him an edge over the average adventurer, but a skilled fighter like Eclair or Glass can still kick his butt.
• The Blacksmith: After he is freed for the curse series and mentors under Elhart, he is revealed to have a natural aptitude for blacksmithing.
• Blinded by the Light: The Flashing Sword lets him blind opponents with light.
• Blue Is Heroic (see also Dark Is Not Evil): He has a blue and black color scheme as a cardinal hero. And is the noblest hero after Naofumi.
• Can't Catch Up: He's the only Legendary Hero whose unique refinement method doesn't boost his stats. Due to the very slow skill release time of the Sword, he's also put off stacking stat bonuses from mastering weaker weapons like Naofumi did with his Shield. By the time of the Spirit Tortoise incident, he goes from the strongest Legendary Hero as described by Naofumi to the weakest of the four, despite his very high level. Taken even further after he suffers the side effects of his Curse series, with horrible EXP gain and bad luck, and can't even pick up precious metals to power up his sword. With enough training from Eclair and the curse gradually fading away, he eventually returns to his original strength with improved skills to match.
• Casting Gag: Being an Expy of Kirito, it's only fitting for him to be voiced by Kirito's voice actor himself.
• Chain Pain: His skill Chain Bind summons chains from the ground to bind his opponent.
• Close-Range Combatant: Between himself, Itsuki and Motoyasu, he has the shortest attack range. Justified since Itsuki's status as the bow hero makes him a long-range specialist and Motoyasu's spear gives him a longer attack range than Ren's sword.
• Cool Mask: Gains a black, iron mask with fangs while under the control of the Greed Weapon curse.
• Corrupted Character Copy: Ren is very blatantly based on Kirito from Sword Art Online, being a dark-haired, sword-wielding hero who has No Social Skills, prefers soloing, is stoic and serious, dressed in black, and is even introduced to the story playing a VRMMO called "Brave Star Online". To drive home the point, he's also voiced by Yoshitsugu Matsuoka, Kirito's Japanese voice actor, in the anime. However, the way he's written points out several glaring flaws in Kirito's character as Ren is essentially what Kirito would be like if he didn’t bother to learn the systems of the world he’s in, never opened up to others or learned to work with other people, or work to get better, instead relying on raw force to get the job done.
• Crippling Overspecialization: His refinement method solely focuses on weapon mastery but he never uses any sword other than his Legendary Weapon. Therefore, his skill set is limited to the entirety of the Sword's skills and not much else. To make matters worse a lack of actual swordplay because of over-reliance on the Sword's inherent skills and abilities makes Ren easy to defeat by experienced fighters when all these advantages get taken away.
• Dark Is Not Evil: He has black as his color motif and is a Token Good Teammate with the cursed weapon set.
• A Day in the Limelight: After he's subdued from his Curse Weapon, Ren plays an active role in building the Lunrola village community when it starts up, joined Naofumi's party to stop the rogue Gaelion and helping Naofumi hunt down Itsuki at the coliseum.
• Despair Event Horizon: His entire party was wiped out by the Spirit Tortoise. Just to add insult to injury, he becomes Bitch's next victim after she abandons Motoyasu and she runs off with all his valuables.
• Dramatic Irony: Despite having a party devoted to him, Ren insists on doing things by himself and even told his party members up front that he has no problems leaving them behind if they're not strong enough or go level up on their own. What unlocks his Curse Series weapon is not a glaring character flaw that he has but the despair of losing his entire party during the Spirit Tortoise incident.
• Dull Eyes of Unhappiness: In Chapter 252 of the Webnovel, he is depicted with "dead eyes" when he tells a begging Malty (renamed Witch) to go to hell for her crimes.
• Energy Donation: One of his power-up methods is to turn weapons he's absorbed into energy and use them to power up his other swords.
• Equipment-Based Progression: His primary power-up method. By increasing his levels, his swords got stronger too.
• Everyone Has Standards: While he does go along with the assumption that Naofumi raped Malty, he draws the line at how the King and Malty seem to be doing their damnedest to screw him over every chance they get. Whenever the King unfairly does something to Naofumi, he doesn't hesitate to call him out on it. Also, he is the only one of the three who doesn't immediately blame Naofumi for their problems, even going so far to call out Itsuki over something that Naofumi wouldn't have a reason to do.
• Evil Costume Switch: When Ren's mind is consumed by the curse of the Greed Sword, he becomes a bandit leader and disguises himself with black spiked armor and a ripped blue cape, on top of the Cool Mask listed above.
• Finishing Move: Like Naofumi and Itsuki, Ren unlocks a torture/execution-themed finisher with his curse series in the form of a guillotine. Taking it further, he was also shown to form a golem made of his pilfered riches and make an area rot into a barren wasteland, tying into the penalties from using such a power.
• Fragile Speedster: Ren is the fastest of the Legendary Heroes. His defense stat is also the lowest of the four, but is still higher than that of a Seven Star Hero's.
• Gravity Master: The Gravity Sword allows him to use gravity to restrict a target's movement.
• Happily Married: The original web novel has him marry both Eclair and Wyndia.
• Heroic Wannabe: Like Itsuki and Motoyasu, Ren doesn't really need to work to be recognized as a hero because he is the chosen Hero of the Sword. What sets him apart from the two is the fact that he actually tries to live up to his title. It's just that his shortsightedness and stubborn adherence to RPG tropes that he fails to become the heroic figure he strives to be. In fact, when Naofumi calls him out on what happened after his dragon-slaying quest, he immediately tries to rectify the situation by going back and killing the dragon-zombie and only stops when Naofumi says he already cleaned Ren's mess. He also doesn't justify his mistakes when Naofumi calls him out on them, and apologizes for them, clearly ashamed of what his actions resulted in.
• Heroes Prefer Swords: Invoked since he is the Hero of the Sword, and played straight since, aside from Naofumi, he, the sword wielder, is the most heroic and the Token Good Teammate of the summoned heroes.
• Heroic Sacrifice: The way Ren was reincarnated was when he died protecting his childhood friend from a murderer on a killing spree.
• Hopeless Suitor: Ren eventually falls for Eclair who outright states that she's not interested in romance and that Ren isn't her type when Naofumi asks her. It eventually proves to not be so hopeless in chapter 377.
• Horrible Judge of Character: Not as bad as Motoysu and Itsuki, but he appears to be unable to realize the negative effect they have on him.
• Invisibility: His Hide Sword lets him turn invisible.
• Irony:
  • Ren has Super Drowning Skills and is terrified of the ocean. At the same time, he has an affinity for water magic.
  • One of the power-ups Ren has is that other forms of his swords get stronger as the heroes level up, but he only used one.
• Make Them Rot: While it's not a power Ren directly possesses, he gains an uncontrollable form as a price for using the Gluttony Sword. For a while, he cannot pick up any sort of precious metal or jewel because it simply rots away in his hand. This becomes a problem for his training and rehabilitation after losing his weapons and levels from the Greed curse. Ren is so worried about this that he refuses to carry Gaelion's egg in fear he'll kill the dragon before it hatches.
• Making a Splash: He is noted to have an affinity for water magic.
• Mind over Matter: He can use the E Float Sword to manipulate his blade from afar. He hates using it since it takes too much concentration to use.
• Mr. Vice Guy:
  • Solitude. While he is in a team, Ren prefers to order his teammates to fight by themselves while he trains solo. Naofumi compares him to the guys who play MMO alone and have high pride in their abilities, which also makes them unable to work well with others.
  • Greed: One half of his Curse Series, with Gluttony as the other. Using the Greed Sword makes him into little more than a bandit attacking others for their equipment. Unlike most examples of this, it's less about him being money-grubbing and more about him being so used to working alone, sharing rewards are fairly foreign to him.
  • Pride: While usually not as bad as Motoyasu and Itsuki, he refuses to study, work on his swordsmanship and incorporate other strengthening methods, even though his method works best when combined with another.
• Never My Fault: Rather than take responsibility for his party being killed, he blames them for being too weak as he can't take the guilt otherwise. He gets better after Naofumi and Eclair set him straight.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
  • He killed a dragon, but he didn't dispose of the corpse resulting in pollution of the local ecosystem. Then it became a zombie dragon.
  • To say nothing of the fact that said dragon was the foster father of a young girl who ended up enslaved by the very people who charged Ren with the dragon-slaying quest in the first place.
• One Degree of Separation: A Day In The Life Of The Shield Hero reveals he once crossed paths with Raphtalia while she was still a kid, but didn't know she was with Naofumi at the time.
• Pet the Dog:
  • He and Itsuki come up to Naofumi's defense when he lost against Motoyasu in a duel due to Malty attacking him in the back. And when King Aultcray attempts to refuse payment for Naofumi, he points out Naofumi's efforts in defending the village while he, Motoyasu and Itsuki were fighting the monsters and thus deserves something out of it.
  • He also thanks Naofumi for treating the plague his dragon-slaying caused, mortified at his own carelessness. He even lightly calls out Itsuki for accusing Naofumi of stealing their jobs, pointing out that Naofumi would have no reason to do so.
• Power Parasite: His Rank III curse skill drains levels from the enemies it's used on, but at the cost of his own levels.
• Power Stereotype Flip: For someone who specializes in support and water magic, Ren is very cold, stubborn and prefers to work alone.
• Shock and Awe: His Thunder Sword allows him to strike his opponent with an electric strike.
• Sore Loser: In the manga. In a duel between Eclair and himself where hero skills and magic were prohibited, he used a hero skill after being downed by a single parry. He then condescendingly tells Eclair that she would have been obliterated if he had gone all out.
• Stop Drowning and Stand Up: When Ren refuses to answer when the other heroes suspect Ren is unable to swim, Naofumi tosses him off the dock. He struggles and falls under, even though the water is shallow enough for him to stand. In the manga Motoyasu and Itsuki grab his arms and throw him into the same effect.
• Super Drowning Skills: He's completely helpless while underwater. He even struggles at a 4-feet dive and almost drowns, when he could just stand up.
• Super-Speed: The legendary Sword grants him the high-speed stats of the four heroes.
• Survivor's Guilt: After his team is killed, he feels incredible guilt for their deaths and went into denial.
• Teleporter's Visualization Clause: The Portal Sword allows the user to go back to a place they've saved before.
• Token Good Teammate: Of the other three cardinal Heroes as he lacks Motoyasu's lecherousness and Itsuki's overwhelming arrogance and megalomania. While Ren does have his flaws, he is the one who consistently at least gives Naofumi the chance to explain himself and does not exploit his party members. Whenever the group gangs up on Naofumi, he usually is the only one who offers any sort of sympathy to him and defends him in some way. Even how he originally died speaks to having heroic impulses.
  • Unlike the other two Heroes, he also genuinely cares about his mistakes and tries to take responsibility for them, such as when he tries to run off to get rid of the Zombie Dragon before Naofumi tells him he's already taken care of it. Right before battling the Pope of the Church of the Three Heroes, when Naofumi calls out all three for how Wrong Genre Savvy they are, he is the only one who doesn't argue against what Naofumi said, knowing Naofumi is correct and that he did make a bad choice that hurt people.
  • He unlocks the Cursed Series weapons because of the guilt of getting his party killed, rather than personal flaws like Itsuki's arrogance and Motoyasu's lust. He's also the easiest of the three Heroes to reason with and turn over by Naofumi. Most impressively, this feat was done when he had two Curse Series effect, meaning it should have been much harder.
  • Even Naofumi realizes, to his own shock, when Eclair questions if he hated Ren enough to kill him after the latter unlocked his Cursed Series, that aside from not standing up for him after Malty's betrayal, he didn't have as much of a reason to hate, much less kill Ren when compared to the other heroes.
  • This even extends to his own party; While Motoyasu's team consists of nothing but gold diggers, and well... Malty/Bitch, and Itsuki's team is belligerent to anyone who isn't him, Ren's companions are notably friendly and cooperative while training with Naofumi during the Cal Mira Arc, with his only real complaint being that none of them stand out to him in particular. He even considered offering to recruit them but chose not to because he realized they were too devoted to Ren.
  • His Nice Job Breaking It, Hero moment is the only one born of bad circumstance rather than poor foresight like the other two. He was investigating and got attacked by the dragon, killing it in self-defense. What followed was not anything he could have predicted but would have dealt with had he been aware of it.
  • When Naofumi is, again, accused of kidnapping and brainwashing Princess Melty, he briefly considers handing Melty over when Ren gives his word that he will ensure her safety, implying that Naofumi finds Ren a bit more trustworthy than Itsuki and certainly a lot more trustworthy than Motoyasu.
• Total Party Kill: His entire party is wiped out by the Spirit Tortoise, sending him into a deep depression.
• Toxic Friend Influence: Despite his flaws, Ren is the most heroic and repentant out of trio when he is with/being called out by Naofumi. Whenever he's with Motoyasu and Itsuki, their presence encourages the worst of Ren's and he becomes as arrogant and blind to his faults as the other two are naturally.
• The Unchosen One: Downplayed in the adaptations of the web novel. Unlike the other Cardinal Heroes, Ren is revealed to be a "backup" wielder for Legendary Sword as the spirit of the Legendary Weapon wasn't able to get to its original desired wielder.
• Water Is Blue: His magic affinity is water and his color scheme is blue.
• What the Hell, Hero?:
  • Along with Itsuki, he calls out Motoyasu for his attitude following his duel with Naofumi, pointing out that he lost, and that Motoyasu has no right to act the way he is. He also calls him out later for how he let Malty walk all over him and tell him what to do, letting her easily set up situations that she could abuse.
  • He himself gets called out by Naofumi for blaming the deaths of his party members on them for being so weak. In reality, Ren went way over his head trying to fight the Spirit Turtle head-on with Itsuki and Motoyasu in desperation to prove themselves. Naofumi outright says Ren doesn't deserve to be considered a hero for his Never My Fault attitude.

Motoyasu Kitamura/Hero of the Spear

See his page here.

Itsuki Kawasumi/Hero of the Bow

Itsuki Kawasumi

Voiced by: Yoshitaka Yamaya (Japanese), Erik Kimerer (English)^note Other languages: Diego Becerril (Latin American Spanish), Simon Lupinacci (Italian)

A 17-year-old high school student summoned to be the Hero of the Bow. He wants to appear as the "humble hero" who appears when others are in danger to protect them and then disappears, but only so he can receive praise.

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• Atrocious Alias: He calls himself Perfect Hidden Justice.
• Ax-Crazy: He's the least sane of the Three Heroes. Get on his bad side and he will kill you. Don't get on his bad side, and he will still kill you anyway.
• Bad Boss: He's horrible as a boss. Even mildly contradicting him can result in an agonizing death at his hands.
• Blow You Away: He has an affinity for wind magic.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Pretends to be a Humble Hero when he is really a narcissistic Attention Whore.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: He can weaponize this through his curse series.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Back in his world, he was bullied in school and withdrew into video games to escape reality.
• A Day in the Limelight: He accompanies Naofumi and his allies on their second trip to Glass' world, where he contributes a good amount of help and becomes the Vassal Instrument Hero in the process.
• Despair Event Horizon: He hits this during the Spirit Tortoise incident along with Ren. After getting himself and his party arrested for trying to free it, the whole latter tells him to his face that he's no "Hero of Justice". After being forced to fight it off anyway, his party abandons him.
• Didn't Think This Through: It never occurred to him that trying to do heroics in secret would cause people to not recognize him and allow others to take credit for his actions and deeds.
• Dishing Out Dirt: He has an affinity for earth magic.
• Dude Looks Like a Lady: It is said that he would fit in female clothing with no one doubting his gender.
• Empty Shell: He becomes this after being freed from his Curse, but gradually recovers with Rishia by his side.
• Engineered Heroics: A variant. While Itsuki doesn't outright create dangerous scenarios in order to display his heroism, he will do stupid things during actual dangerous situations that will allow him to come out as more heroic. For example, he will deliberately hold back during a fight in order to make it seem that he's getting a Heroic Second Wind and finish the fight more dramatically or he will deliberately withhold his assistance to invoke a Big Damn Heroes moment.
• Extreme Doormat: Like Motoyasu's Lust Spear, the side effects of Itsuki's Pride Bow damages his mentality. After being subdued by Rishia, Itsuki loses all emotion and becomes spinelessly obedient. He'll heed anyone's command without emotion or question, to the point he almost hanged himself when ordered. While he eventually recovers his autonomy, he pretends to still be under it's effect out of guilt for his past behavior. After he's chosen by the Vassal Instrument and has a pep talk with Naofumi, he drops the act but is now a truly humbled and modest hero.
• Finishing Move: Like Naofumi and Ren, Itsuki unlocks a torture/execution-themed finisher with his curse series in the form of a bronze bull.
• For Great Justice: Subverted. Despite him constantly spouting out justice speeches, he only cares about being seen as the perfect hero.
• Freudian Excuse: He was bullied in his world due to being a rank E esper. It's why he's a borderline Attention Whore; he wants everyone to see him in a positive light, even if his attempts to do so make him come off as an egotistical jerk. This is also the reason why he kicked Rishia out of his party as callously as he did, though it varies from each version of the story. In the Web Novel, he wanted to get rid of her partly because she reminded him of his past self with her timid nature and weak stats. In the manga, it's because he couldn't stand a supposed weakling outshining him during the wave at Cal Mira.
• Glory Hound: When fighting with his party he deliberately delays attacking until they are in danger and then swoops in with a perfectly-timed save, invoking a Big Damn Heroes moment.
• Gun Nut: Heavily implied and lampshaded by Naofumi. He has extensive knowledge of how firearms operate, and starts adding them to his repertoire upon learning that he can Weapon Copy guns.
• Heroic Team Revolt: Itsuki gets betrayed by his own party and left to shoulder a mountain of debt. While he is rather flawed, Itsuki is far more heroic than most of his party making this one of those rare occasions where the hero is abandoned by his party because they became increasingly villainous. The addition of Malty/Bitch certainly did not help matters.
• Heroic Wannabe: Like Motoyasu and Ren, Itsuki doesn't strive to be recognized as a hero since he is already one simply by virtue of being the chosen Hero of the Bow. However, what he wants is to be seen as the perfect hero so he displays traits and actions that would look heroic to others so he would be praised and thus feed his ego. Deep down, he's such an egotistical jerkass that he absolutely refuses to acknowledge anything he does could be wrong or have negative consequences. This line of thinking escalates once he unlocks his Curse Series weapon, as to him in his power-mad state, anybody who says otherwise must be either be forced into submission via brainwashing or just outright killed.
• Hidden Depths: He is a gifted musician. This serves him well when he is chosen for the Vassal Musical Instrument.
• Horrible Judge of Character:
  • Itsuki trusts Malty when she praises him as a hero, even after her deception was revealed to him and the rest of Melromarc. To add insult to injury, Itsuki even trusts Mald who at that point ditched Itsuki to avoid being arrested and is clearly using him to gain fame of his own. This makes you question Itsuki's judgment when it comes to anyone praising him.
  • In Reprise of The Spear Hero, it is shown that he would have made all the same mistakes Motoyasu did pre-Curse Series as long as Malty stroked his ego.
• Humble Hero: Invoked by Itsuki himself to make himself look better. He's later humbled for real once the side effects of his curse series wore off, and Rishia helps him recover.
• Hypocrite:
  • In Episode 22 of the anime, he calls Ren out saying that all he cares about is to make himself look good. This is the man who tries to play himself up as the Ideal Hero, not to mention that he killed a ruler for taxing citizens.
  • Earlier on, he had the nerve to drop the iconic "With great power comes great responsibility!" line on Naofumi despite refusing to even acknowledge how he screwed up in dealing with a noble he assumed was heavily taxing his people out of pure malice.
  • In the web novel, right after brainwashing Mald with his curse series bow, Itsuki shows he readily believes Witch and the Three Heroes Church claiming that Naofumi possesses a "brainwashing shield". Overlaps with Irony.
• Improbable Aiming Skills: He's actually an ESPer, and his ability grants him perfect accuracy. It's implied that it's the reason why he was chosen as the Bow Hero. He uses it well when he becomes the Vassal Hero of the Musical Instrument, as he can use this to aim explosive notes at his opponents.
• Inferiority Superiority Complex: Shows the most shades of this when he's the first to accuse Naofumi of "cheating" just because he and his party is stronger than theirs despite him not having an actual weapon. It really just comes off as his Fatal Flaw showing itself again; he's simply too full of himself to admit that the guy with the Shield is doing better than he is.
• Insane Troll Logic:
  • In the web novel and manga, and during the Cal Mira arc. Seeing that Naofumi and his party had become the strongest of the four heroes despite his Legendary Shield's (mostly) non-existent offensive ability, Itsuki comes to the conclusion that the former had "met God" and had granted him the power to cheat. It's more blatant in the web novel when Naofumi goes out of his way to explain how he and his party got so strong, but Itsuki's not having any of it. The "meeting God" thing is even based on a mere rumor from a game forum, showing that Itsuki's really grasping at straws. Also slightly overlaps with I Reject Your Reality since it's clearly a mix of jealousy and his own massive ego that's making him come to such a ridiculously stupid conclusion.
  • Not to mention how he personally witnessed the deadly side effects of using the Wrath Shield, including seeing Naofumi nearly die from having all his blood burst violently from his body, and yet he's still convinced that the former is using some kind of cheat power.
  • In chapter 109 of the web novel, Naofumi confronts him after kicking Rishia out of his party in the most callous manner possible and notes that Itsuki's so-called "Justice" was what compelled him and his party to treat her like a villain for just having sub-par stats. He points out how ridiculous his logic is, and Itsuki's response is, "A battle for the fate of the world cannot be won on feelings alone!"
• Irony:
  • He readily believed that Naofumi had the ability to brainwash people with his shield. Guess what power his Cursed Series Bow gives him?
  • Chapter 109 of the web novel had Itsuki arrogantly reaffirm the trust between himself and his comrades, minus a recently kicked-out Rishia. Three guesses on who bails on him after the Spirit Tortoise incident, and who chose to stick by him at his very lowest.
• It's All About Me: Itsuki only cares for himself and himself only. He gets better.
• Jerkass: Just as bad as Motoyasu and Malty/Bitch in this department.
• Kick the Dog: Frames Rishia for breaking an item of his and then has her kicked out of his party just because she had become an inconvenience. And then has the gall to claim he was just being Cruel to Be Kind.
• Kill Steal: On Cal Mira, he partakes in this despite the archipelago's explicit rules for adventurers during the bonus exp raids. This earns him the entire islands' ire and, as Naofumi points out, is something even Ren and Motoyasu are polite and smart enough not to do.
• Knight Templar: What he becomes due to the Legendary Bow's curse of pride affecting him. His massive ego already made him insufferable to deal with prior to the Spirit Tortoise incident, but under its corrupting effect, he's prepared to either brainwash or kill anyone in the way of his "Justice".
• Laser-Guided Karma: Out of all the cardinal heroes, Itsuki was by far the most arrogant and antagonistic while trying to pass himself off as the Ideal Hero. He only kept party members who stroked his ego, kicked out Rishia in the cruelest way possible, and was most adamant about giving Naofumi grief over "stealing credit" or "cheating" despite Itsuki's own deeply flawed and lackluster actions. Come the Spirit Turtle incident, he loses everything as result of his arrogant belief he could kill the monster. His allies ditch him, his reputation is in the gutter like Ren and Motoyasu, and he finds himself used and thrown away by Malty. He even gets a "cheat skill" like the one Naofumi had, only for Risha to be the one to defeat him. By the time he recovers, his overuse of the Curse Bow of Pride leaves him an Empty Shell under Rishia's care until the effects dissipate.
• Long-Range Fighter: Justified as by being the chosen Hero of the Bow, he is prohibited from using any weapon other than his legendary weapon.
• Mister Big: When he was the leader of his party.
• Mr. Vice Guy: Pride/Vanity. While he comes across as sweet, humble, and chivalrous, everything Itsuki does he does is to bolster his own self-image, routinely fabricating excuses or attempts to change the subject whenever anyone or anything threatens this. When he hits the Despair Event Horizon after the Spirit Tortoise fiasco, his ego becoming so fragile that he either kills or brainwashes anyone who contradicts him, unlocking the Pride series that helps him accomplish this. After he is freed of the Pride series' influence, he develops humility reaching Extreme Doormat levels.
• Murder Is the Best Solution: He kills a king who was supposedly imposing exorbitant amounts of taxes on his subjects. When Naofumi calls him out on this because of what happened to that kingdom afterwards, he questions why Itsuki didn't ask the king's reasons for imposing high taxes and just opted to kill him instead. After falling to the influence of his Cursed Series weapon, he will immediately try to kill anybody who doesn't agree with his idea of justice if brainwashing them doesn't work.
• The Napoleon: He's 155 cm tall and is overall the most villainous of the Four Heroes.
• Narcissist: Itsuki is always about Itsuki but the Legendary Bow's curse of pride takes this up to eleven. Anyone whose worldview contradicts his is met either with brainwashing or instant death.
• Never My Fault:
  • Unlike Motoyasu who refuses to admit when he's wrong out of sheer ignorance, Itsuki's ego is so big that admitting he can be wrong is a blight on his image of being a perfect, magnanimous hero. Instead of just being honest and telling Rishia that she doesn't fit the dynamic of his team, Itsuki concocts a lie and has the entire team shun her.
  • Implied when Naofumi tells him that his actions in assassinating a supposedly corrupt ruler didn't fix the high taxes and resulting famine and that he was credited for it partly because he fed the starving refugees and that the latter was acting more like a stealthy Robin Hood-esque assassin. Itsuki's response was "Don't change the subject!".
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: He took down the king of a small kingdom because he was taxing the citizens too much. The new government had to tax them just as much to fund the military to protect them against monsters. To add insult to injury, Itsuki's ego refused to let him acknowledge his mistake when this was told to him.
• Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond: He is an esper, specifically Accuracy level E, and always knew he was special. But after enrolling to a school for espers, his pecking order is low and he gets bullied as result.
• "Not So Different" Remark: Naofumi notes that Itsuki desires revenge against Mald, similar to Naofumi's own hatred towards Malty.
• Official Couple: With Rishia, surprisingly enough.
• Out of Focus: Of the Three Heroes, he tends to get the least amount of focus due to styling himself as something of a Robin Hood like Hero. Naofumi only tends to see him during the Waves or when all the other Heroes are summoned together. It isn't until the Spirit Tortoise Incident that he starts to get more focus and has his personality expanded.
• Pet the Dog: He and Ren come up to Naofumi's defense when he lost against Motoyasu in a duel due to Malty attacking him in the back.
• Power Copying: He's the first to discover that his bow to copy the attributes and abilities of any other bows he touches. He focuses mostly on copying rare and powerful ones.
• Power Equals Rarity: He certainly believes in this given his preference for copying the stats of rare weapons. It is deconstructed, since besides the trouble of finding rare weapons in the first place he never goes looking for them, preferring to fight in rebellions instead.
• Pride Before a Fall: He eventually gets beaten so soundly and affected by his Curse Series Weapon that afterwards, he's turned into an Extreme Doormat.
• Psychic Powers: Itsuki is revealed to have come from a world where people with ESP is common, himself having an ESP ability which raises his accuracy when aiming.
• Royal Favorite: In Reprise of The Spear Hero, after Motoyasu rejects Malty, he become the royal favorite and is easily manipulated by the king and Malty.
• Seven Deadly Sins: Itsuki suffers from all the Seven Deadly Sins.
  • Pride: Itsuki is a narcissist who wants to be praised by everyone and has a massive ego, especially as his status as a hero.
  • Envy: Gets envious of anyone who receives praise in a situation he's in when he doesn't get it as he got rid of Rishia from his party just because he was jealous that she received praise from the queen when he didn't.
  • Lust: Not love or more specifically a love for power and praise which pretty much stems from his lust for power and ego.
  • Wrath: Gets enraged easily if he doesn't receive praise or when someone insults him as he took a shot at the back of Naofumi's head after he stated that his thoughts of Itsuki had dropped and became more enraged after Naofumi blocked his attack.
  • Greed: Thinks all of the skills and power along with praise belong to him and him alone as his greed for these things lead to negative repercussions.
  • Gluttony: Not seen eating much but he's a glutton for power as his greed brings out the thirst for any kind of power and skill he can get his hands on.
  • Sloth: Doesn't train like he should in order to improve his skills or think things through as he feels like he doesn't have too due to his lazy habits and ego of being a hero.
• Single Tear: After recovering from the curse, he can only shed a single tear when he sees Rishia by his side.
• Sissy Villain: Let's see, a feminine appearance complimented by a short size (to the extent that he would easily fit in as a girl if put on female clothes), a penchant for grandiose speeches, and a massive narcissist to boot.
• Skewed Priorities: A non-comedic example, given how it highlights one of Itsuki's flaws. When Itsuki confronts Naofumi along with Ren about him supposedly stealing credit for their quests, the former adamantly refuses to believe his explanation. He's more concerned about how Naofumi "stole" credit for assassinating a supposedly corrupt noble than the detrimental effect it had on said noble's people, and that the latter simply fed the starving refugees that fled to Melromarc.
• Smug Snake: Itsuki has an over-inflated ego and fancies himself as being the perfect hero when in reality he has shown himself to be an ultimately incompetent person with the title of "Hero".
• Stupid Evil: Itsuki frequently does things to glorify his own ego, even when doing so would ultimately bite him.
• Tautological Templar: Due to his overwhelming arrogance, Itsuki always dismisses anyone's views on him as being against him, even when they clearly have a point.
• Tiny Schoolboy: He's the shortest of the Cardinal heroes at 155 cm.
• Token Super: He is the only one of the Cardinal Heroes confirmed to have had powers before coming to Melromarc.
• Troubled Abuser: The reason he treats his teammates so poorly is partly because he was bullied in the past, leaving him with a strong desire for love and praise.
• Tyrannicide: Subverted. He believes in this trope, after all, take out the villain peace is restored to the kingdom always crops up in fiction. But when he applied that to reality, where things aren't so black and white, he ended up committing genuine Regicide instead and left a nation having to continue the high taxes he was brought in to stop.
• Unholy Holy Sword: The "Justice Bow" is a bow from the Cursed Series born from Itsuki's Pride. While its feathers that make it look angelic, it brainwashes anyone struck by its arrows.

Three Heroes' Party Members

In General

• Can't Catch Up: In both teamwork skills and power, they are no match for Naofumi's party.
• Eviler than Thou: While it's a stretch to say that Motoyasu and Itsuki are outright evil, their party members are shown to be far more corrupt than either of the duo. While the two of them eventually redeem themselves and become genuine, competent heroes, Motoyasu's harem and Itsuki's ruffian teammates sink to villainy by helping Malty stage a coup against Melromarc and later join the Vanguards of the Waves to avoid punishment.
• Face–Heel Turn: While they start off as adventurers supporting the Cardinal Heroes, they all (sans Ren's party) quickly abandon their leaders during the Spirit Tortoise incident and several of them commit more and more crimes to save themselves to the point they throw their lot in with dangerous otherworld reincarnators who fight to allow the Waves to destroy everything.
• Failure Hero: Despite joining the Sword, Spear and Bow Heroes to protect Melromarc, they aren't exactly the most reliable defenders of the country.
  • Motoyasu's party is nothing more than glorified cheerleaders who provide support magic and look pretty. In terms of actual combat, it takes one hit to knock most of them down. After they ditch him to save themselves from the Spirit Tortoise, he tracks down Elena, only for her to tell him point blank nobody liked him and they were all using him for his money and popularity. Meanwhile, Malty and the other two girls turn traitor and become wanted terrorists to avoid being caught.
  • All Itsuki's group does is butter up his ego while indulging in their own selfish, Jerkass desires. Like Motoyasu's group, they're pathetically weak and can barely put up a fight. They lose their hero status entirely when they join Malty's Staged Populist Uprising and manipulate a curse-controlled Itsuki to fight in rigged tournaments to win them money. In the web novel, all of the members are tried and killed for betraying their Legendary Hero. In the light novel Mald and the others escape to join the Forces of the Waves, proving they are even worse people than Itsuki ever was.
  • Zig-zagged with Ren's party members. While they are strong and genuinely want to stop the Waves, they have zero teamwork skills due to their leader's I Work Alone tendencies, which leads them to lose just as many fights as the other heroes' parties, to the point it gets them killed by the Spirit Tortoise.
• Fair-Weather Friend: Due to the contradiction between their boorish personalities and prestige of being legendary heroes, this leads to them being surrounded by party members that are sycophants most of the time, yet when shit hit the fan, literally in the case of the Spirit Tortoise, they abandon the heroes without remorse and give a "The Reason You Suck" Speech that comes across as Kick the Dog. Only Ren's party averts this, and that doesn't even protect them from being killed.
• Irony: Most of them joined their respective parties to fight off the Waves because they idolized their Hero or wanted the perks of being their companions. When Naofumi surpassed the other heroes and the trio became the laughingstock of Melromarc, most of their crew to abandoned the trio for being disastrous weaklings. It's this loss that makes Ren, Motoyasu and Itsuki clean up their messes and train to live up to their titles while their former teammates sink to levels of villainy and terrorism by joining the Vanguards to allow the Waves to destroy numerous worlds.
• Killed Off for Real: Despite traveling with the Legendary Heroes, they're not immune to biting the dust. Ren's entire party is wiped out by the Spirit Tortoise. In the Web Novel, Itsuki's unit uses him and his curse weapon to wreak havoc, and are executed for their treason. In the light novel a few of them join the Vanguards of the Waves, but are killed alongside Lesty from Motoyasu's group during the second trip to Glass' world. The number of survivors can be counted on fingers.
• Out of Focus: Besides Malty, none of the party members of the other Cardinal heroes receive focus. This goes double for Ren's party, who receive no real characterization outside of being loyal to Ren.
• Positive Friend Influence: Part of the reason Ren isn't as bad as Motoyasu and Itsuki, is that his teammates are genuine allies, and aren't just gold diggers using him and feeding his ego.
• Professional Butt-Kisser: With the exception of Ren's group, most of them spend their time fawning over the heroes and defending their mistakes instead of actually helping them fight the waves. All of this was done to leech off of their leaders; they had no problem ditching the trio once they screwed up beyond compare and bluntly tell them that they were failures as heroes.
• Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves:
  • In the wed novel Itsuki's party side with Malty during the Staged Populist Uprising and use the three heroes they once served as tools to take down Melromarc. This leads to Malty being sold off to her abusive, rapist uncle, and all of Itsuki's party being burned alive via Bronze Bull execution.
  • In the light novel, after Itsuki is subdued, several of them escape with Malty and Lesty, joining the Vanguards of the Waves in their quest to destroy the worlds and steal Legendary and Vassal Weapons. When they fight Naofumi's group, Lesty is killed via a soul eater.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: When the Three Heroes recklessly battle the Spirit Tortoise and fail to kill it, Motoyasu and Itsuki's parties call the trio fakes and bail to save their own hides. Ren's teammates push on and are killed for their efforts.
• Token Good Teammate: Just like their leader, Ren's party consists of members who genuinely want to protect Melromarc and are completely loyal to him. They never betray him or their ideals which sadly gets them killed by the Spirit Tortoise.
• Too Good for This Sinful Earth: Ren's party only consisted of altruistic fighters who wanted to protect Melromarc from evil and were steadfastly loyal to the Sword Hero. They are killed by the Spirit Tortoise when they try in vain to stop it, and their deaths send Ren into Heroic BSoD and later Curse Weapon madness. When he recovers, Ren vows to become a true hero and protect the world that his team cared for so much.
• Undying Loyalty: Zig Zagged. Most of them started out as loyal to their particular hero to various degrees. But as time passes the heroes' specific neuroses start to affect their followers differently, from Motoyasu's party pretending to like him to Itsuki's party becoming dogmatic puppy kickers. Both parties end up abandoning the two heroes the first chance they get. Ren is the only one to have a party genuinely loyal to him.

Mald

Mald

Voiced by: Taiten Kusunoki (Japanese), D.C. Douglas (English)

A member of Itsuki's adventuring party, and the de facto second in command.

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• Aristocrats Are Evil: His status as a noble has convinced him that he's inherently better than most people around him, and he behaves accordingly.
• Break the Haughty: The main reason why Mald hates Naofumi is because, as the Shield Hero, he practically spits on every arrogant belief, from hatred of commoners to racism, that Mald takes to heart. It got worse as Naofumi and his friends (one of whom was a former companion Mald abused regularly) continued to grow in power, to the point where they overtook the so-called Three Heroes in both deed and popularity, with Queen Mirellia's full support. As a result, Mald joined Malty's coup for the purpose of restoring what he considered to be the Good Old Ways to the Melromarc Kingdom, even though his megalomaniacal desires far outstripped his actual abilities.
• The Brute: A direct, frontline fighter, and not a nice person at all.
• The Bully: Many of his interactions with anyone who is not Itsuki consists of him trying to intimidate them into doing what he wants.
• Butt-Monkey: He gets his ass handed by Raphtalia quite easily.
• The Corrupter: It is safe to assume that, similar to Malty, he fed Itsuki's more negative impulses to manipulate him. He is also part of the reason Itsuki unlocked his Cursed Series Bow.
• Evil Is Petty: Mixed with Ambition Is Evil. It's partly what motivates him during the Three Heroes Church uprising, that and his hatred of demi-humans. He hates the "Demon of the Shield" and the other "fake" heroes because his reputation plummeted following Itsuki's failure to stop the Spirit Tortoise. Meanwhile, Naofumi's reputation soared as he not only helped defeat it, but also helped countless others through his peddling of much-needed goods. Mald's actions in trying to kill him and his followers are both motivated out of pure spite and a selfish desire to be seen as the epitome of "Justice".
• Expy: Aside from a complete absence of beard, Mald greatly resembles Sir Arthur, the protagonist of Ghosts 'N Goblins.
• False Friend: As second-in-command, Mald can easily manipulate Itsuki into doing what he wants so long as it satisfies his leader's ego. This includes enabling Mald to abuse Rishia and later tricking Itsuki into fighting coliseum matches to get him money. It's partly because of him that Itsuki falls victim to the Bow of Pride in the first place.
• Fantastic Racism: Like most people in Melromarc, he hates demi-humans.
• Hate Sink: Moreso then Motoyasu, strip out every sexual perversion and all you get is an entitled, self-righteous Hypocrite, who is ten times more deluded with himself, even Ren thinks very little of him in the Light Novel.
• Irony: He despises the Shield Hero like most nobles, yet L'Arc mistakes him for the Shield Hero since he's basically the asshole the church promotes the Shield Hero as.
• In-Series Nickname: Naofumi just calls him "Armor".
• Jerkass: He's pretty much just a deplorable person, with no real redeeming qualities.
• Kick the Dog:
  • He stole Itsuki's reward and framed Naofumi.
  • He used his status as Itsuki's Number Two to abuse the party members like Rishia.
  • After using Itsuki to make money and spend it all, he left him with the bill.
• Laser-Guided Karma:
  • He lead the charge to "save" Melty from Naofumi and was burnt by the Wrath Series.
  • He's a smug, self-righteous bastard that touted himself as "Justice", and yet had no problem abandoning Itsuki to the Spirit Tortoise when things went south. Then comes Chapter 237, when the followers of the Three Heroes Church tried and failed to back him up with support magic and saw fit to abandon him (using a smoke bomb, no less) after it was clear that Naofumi was too strong for him to handle in 1v1 combat. That failed, and Naofumi had Atla "poke" Mald until he dropped the Spirit Tortoise shield he stole.
  • Later on in Chapter 241, he tries to sic a curse series-addled Itsuki on Naofumi as a last resort, but winds up brainwashed himself using the very Legendary Bow used to create the brainwashing daggers.
• Narcissist: His status as a noble proves this as he sees everyone as lowlifes who are beneath him. Mald only uses Itsuki to advance his own agenda and treats Naofumi and his party like dirt, which usually ends up with him getting his ass kicked in fights.
• Obviously Evil: His appearance alone is more than enough to tip one off of his uncaring, muscle-headed self. Mald is always seen taking strides of abusing Itsuki's less-experienced party member's without a shred of remorse and, like the rest of the nobles in Melromarc, hates demi-humans and anything related to them. He goes along with viewing the Shield Hero as a useless, inferior speck of dirt, despite the massive amount of evidence to the contrary. Naofumi and his party were able to spot his no-good attitude a mile away, and not the least bit surprised when they learn he's sided with the Wave Vanguards to escape his crimes and to spite the Legendary Heroes for "betraying" him. Even Filo could tell he was an ass, and L'Arc notes that he looks like a thug.
• Smug Snake: He's awfully overconfident and prone to looking down on his opponents.
• Spear Counterpart: He is basically a male Malty.
• Tin Tyrant: While he's not a ruler, he does behave like a tyrant with the people he considers inferior to him, and he's almost always seen in armor.
• Underestimating Badassery: His ego causes him to constantly underestimate his enemies.
• Weapon Specialization: In the light novel, his preferred weapon is an axe, and later uses the stolen Vassal Axe when he joins the Third Army. Subverted in the anime where his weapon of choice is a sword.

Elena Haven/Woman 1

Elena Haven

One of Motoyasu's female followers. She eventually leaves him and returns to her family's mercantile business.

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• Adaptation Dye-Job: In the manga, she's a redhead but in the anime, she has light-brown hair.
• Brilliant, but Lazy: She's a very good and trustworthy merchant, but she just doesn't want to do the work. She changes her mind after the Spirit Tortoise debacle and helps Naofumi as he's building his village.
• Broken Pedestal: Elena was genuinely attracted to Motoyasu at one point. However, due to his incompetence, she lost all attraction to him.
• Brutal Honesty: Elena doesn't beat around the bush when it comes to speaking her mind. When she reunites with Motoyasu after the Spirit Tortoise, she bluntly tells him that nobody in their party liked him and that he was a disappointment as a hero.
• Everyone Has Standards: While she was fine with Motoyasu being a perv, she disliked how he used them as status symbols and how reckless he was.
• Hard Work Hardly Works: She regrets joining Motoyasu rather than Naofumi at the beginning of the story because while Motoyasu started out as the strongest hero, he didn't put in any effort to keep being the strongest. Naofumi on the other hand clawed his way out of the mud with nothing but hard work and determination, and it wasn't long before Motoyasu was eating his dust. Ironically, her admitting this makes Naofumi realize it would have been a terrible idea to make her a teammate when he first came to Melromarc since she was more concerned with picking the winning side and being pampered without putting in any effort herself.
• I Fight for the Strongest Side!: She joins Motoyasu because he started out as the strongest hero. After Naofumi becomes the strongest thanks to his dedicated efforts, she admits she would have joined him instead if she could go back. It's deconstructed because she wanted to fight for the strongest hero so she wouldn't have to do the fighting herself, which aggravates Naofumi.
• Lazy Bum: Elena doesn't really care about the fate of the world, and only becomes an adventurer to gain business opportunities and live a luxurious life.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: She's not nearly as vapid as she let Malty or Motoyasu believe. She's well aware that if Malty realized she was intelligent she'd be driven out.
• Pet the Dog: The volume 19 epilogue reveals that she's the one who told the queen that Rino had been sold into slavery.
• Pretty Freeloader: She played this role most of the story under Motoyasu. But in reality, she was keeping an eye on Malty, and following Motoyasu to gain business opportunities for her family. It's partly because of this that Naofumi's grateful she didn't join him at the beginning.
• The Smart Girl: She is easily the smartest member of Motoyasu's party by far. She is a gifted businesswoman, and Motoyasu and Malty really should have let her be in charge of the finances.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: After Motoyasu and his party are branded as criminals for the Spirit Tortoise fiasco, Elena is only able to avoid jail time with her parents' business connections and making a deal with the Queen to set up a trap to let Naofumi catch Motoyasu.
• Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: She strikes this relationship up with Naofumi. For example, Naofumi only agreed to work with her to increase her workload.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: In the web novel, she and her party are assigned to Naofumi on Cal Mira. She makes no secret that she dislikes him but still makes an effort to work together (unlike her teammates) because she respects his strength and business acumen.
• Token Good Teammate: Downplayed. Besides Rino, she was the only team member with any real loyalty to Motoyasu. But that loyalty only went so far as she mostly used him for the benefits and left him in the lurch to save herself.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Eventually develops this dynamic with Naofumi. Between all the insults, he enjoys teasing her and she aids in the construction of his new village.

Rino

Rino

Another of Motoyasu's female followers. Malty disliked her and decided to sell her as a slave. She later joined the queen's spy unit.

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• Action Girl: The only member of Motoyasu's Battle Harem to be a warrior, as opposed to a glorified cheerleader.
• Best Served Cold: After being freed from slavery by the Queen, she joined the Queen's spy unit as repayment. Following the Spirit Tortoise incident, she was assigned to a special task force to track down Malty with the promise of revenge. She eventually managed to infiltrate Malty's group, which gave her the chance to kill Malty and claim the stolen Vassal Whip (though Malty's soul was retrieved by the Forces of the Waves).
• Birds of a Feather: When Rino reveals her true colours and allegiances to Naofumi and Co mid-battle, she does so via stabbing Malty and delivering a merciless beatdown with the stolen Whip Vassal Weapon that Bitch was using. This demonstration of anger and rage towards her abuser impresses Naofumi, as he finds it comparable to his own negative emotions towards the ex-princess. He semi-seriously considers forming a support group with her as fellow victims of Malty and even offers her to join his party as a reward in the aftermath. Both Raptalia and the Revived Female Demon Dragon are concerned by how quickly Naofumi bonds with this newcomer, due to their issues with making any headway with Naofumi on a romantic front, and Naofumi's usual trust issues with strangers. For her part, Rino gladly accepts his offer, and even seems to bond with Naofumi as an actual friend rather than a potential Love Interest.
• But for Me, It Was Tuesday: Invoked. Rino is well aware that Malty has screwed over so many people in her life that she can't possibly recognize all of them. She uses this to approach her former teammate and integrate herself into Matly's inner circle without fear of being recognized until Rino reveals her true allegiance once she's best in a position to take revenge. It works like a charm, which speaks more to the sheer volume of people Malty has abused over the years more than anything.
• Canon Foreigner: She is a downplayed version of this. She didn't exist is the web novel and was introduced in the light novel.
• Chekhov's Gunman: She was the party member that was described as falling afoul of Malty's manipulations in the special Side chapter of Vol 1 'The Spear Hero's Buffonery', as shown through Motoyasu's oblivious perspective of events.
• Heroes Prefer Swords: A swordswoman and probably the most heroic member of the Spear Hero's party.
• In the Back: She reveals herself as the spy within Malty's group to both Naofumi and the Third Army this way, stabbing Malty as the latter was charging an attack. This turned the tides against the Third Wave, with their more "competent" members busy fighting Naofumi's group and destroying their trump card for the fight.
• Made a Slave: Malty sells her as one, and when she begs for help, Motoyasu was in the other room but figures that it is a standard hentai catchphrase she's using.
• Nice Girl: She was this before Malty betrayed her. Even after she Took a Level in Cynic, she was still perfectly civil and kind to Naofumi and his party.
• Revenge: She sought revenge on those who made her a slave.
• Token Good Teammate: Pretty much the only member of Motoyasu's party who never planned to manipulate him. She defected to the Queen and became one of her spies to get her revenge on Malty.
• Took A Level In Cynicism: Being sold to a brothel by one of your teammates because she doesn't want you getting cozy with the Legendary Spear Hero, all while he's blissfully ignorant to your cries for help can really do a number on you. The once cheerful Rino becomes cold and hellbent on revenge against Malty. Thankfully, she doesn't lose her all of kindness and consideration, as shown when she speaks with Naofumi.

Lesty/Woman 2

Lesty

A noblewoman and a member of the Spear Hero's party. She was Malty's accomplice in many of her crimes.

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• Aristocrats Are Evil: She is about as much of a bitch as Malty.
• Deader than Dead: Her soul is eaten in the Light Novel.
• Dirty Coward: Like Malty, she was afraid of death and being punished for her actions, when Naofumi and his allies gained the upper hand, she immediately had fear on her face as Naofumi killed her.
• Femme Fatale: Like Malty, she will use her looks to manipulate and screw over anyone she wants.
• Healing Hands: She heals Malty after she is burnt alive by her own magic.
• Horrible Judge of Character: She thinks of Malty as a friend and the perfect partner, but she cannot see that Malty is using her as a pawn like everyone else. Her death in the light novel doesn't even faze Malty, confirming she didn't care for Lesty.
• Making a Splash: After Malty is set on fire after being hit by one of her own spells, Lesty uses a water spell to put her out.
• Manipulative Bitch: She's just as manipulative as Malty and sways Motoyasu to her side till she abandons him during the battle with the Spirit Tortoise to save her own skin.
• Narcissist: She may think of Malty as a friend, but other than that she only cares for herself and nobody, not even her leader Motoyasu.
• Only Friend: She and Malty are probably the only friends both of them have. However, it's implied that this is one-sided and Malty sees Lesty as just another pawn in her manipulations.
• Satellite Character: She doesn't have any real characterization besides being Malty's Number Two.
• Spoiled Brat: Along with being a Royal Brat. She comes from a noble family and spends most of her time whining when things don't go her way. Combined with their similar appearances, one could mistake Lesty and Malty for sisters, and explains why the two are considered friends (at least to Lesty).
• Token Evil Teammate: She willingly goes along with Malty's schemes and orders instead of pretending like the others, including using a Curse-brainwashed Itsuki to win them money when they become wanted criminals and later joining the Vanguards of the Waves to destroy worlds.

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