Malty S Melromarc/Relationships

Naofumi Iwatani
Malty is ultimately the cause of Naofumi's dark and cynical personality due to the fact that she betrayed him and falsely framed him for the attempt of raping her for no other visible reason. Mr. Iwatani's originally kind personality snapped violently, he became distrustful of anyone who is not a slave, and for a very long time held contempt for women in general. She continued to make life for him by every means whenever given an opportunity, like trying to take his sword away from him, interfering in the duel for ownership of his slave, calling him out as a criminal every chance she got, rigging the race between the Spear Hero and Naofumi for a wave devastated villa and generally framing any crime possible on him. Such false accusation reaching a fever pitch during the Cult of Three Heroes' framing him for kidnapping Princess Malty when in fact they, alongside the despicable first princess, tried to have her killed to frame him for it. When after the Shield Hero's name was cleared, the queen had her & Aultcray completely stripped of their royal status. When she gave the choice of punishment for Malty to her greatest victim. Bitchy attempts to use her craftiness and appeal to put on a façade of contrition towards Naofumi, with the intention of nullifying her punishment. She was seen through however, and in an understandable rage, demanded her punishment be the death penalty.

This was the first and only time for Malty to call the once hated saint by his name. After being talked down, Malty and her father's punishment was revised and her legal name would be changed to "Bitch." likewise, her adventurer name was changed to "Whore" to match. Since then, Malty has grown to hate the Shield more passionately and personally. Failing to repent for past crimes, much less accept that she got what she deserved and barely avoided getting a lot worse. When Whore approached Ren and Itsuki after the Spirit Tortoise incident, she tricked them into believing that Naofumi was the real evil and that she was the victim, again referring him as the "Shield Demon". Part of the lies she told them included saying that Naofumi was "the one who unsealed the Spirit Tortoise", was working his slaves too hard and keeping all the profits to himself (something Naofumi agreed was true despite everyone on his side pointing it wasn't), and "not using the powers of the Shield to bring back people's loved ones who had died", lying to Itsuki that resurrection was "a special power that only the Legendary Shield had". Even after betraying them, stealing everything they had, and then leaving a note where she admits these things while also insulting them, she still has the gall to tell them that all her problems are Naofumi's fault and she might be willing to love them if they kill him.

Motoyasu Kitamura
Motoyasu is the Hero that Malty joins for most of the story. After betraying Naofumi, taking his stuff, and framing him for an attempt of raping her, she gives Hero of the Spear the stolen chain mail and convinces him of her being the victim. Motoyasu blindly trusts her; due mostly to his extreme gullibility and casanova tendencies, he ends up being used by her in most cases, such as leading him to nearly take Raphtalia away from Naofumi and levying a heavy tax on a village hit by the Waves of Calamity after Motoyasu became its lord at, via Malty's coaxing, her father's behest. As well as orchestrating another, somewhat unlawful, duel between the two in a populated township on the grounds of another slave he'd procured (which, more or less, wasn't erroneous). She seems to have sided with him purely because of his good looks. Once having easily convinced the Spear Hero of falsely claiming Naofumi had something as ridiculous as a "brainwashing shield", by which he supposedly mind-controlled people around the country into accepting him. All on top of alleged crimes stemming to kidnapping the second princess and killing Ren and Itsuki via an unsealed monster.

In general, Motoyasu also seemed to pay little to no attention to Malty's suspicious behavior such as she giving other female party members a hard time and secretly kicking them out (even selling the one named Rino as a slave to a noble), her exceptionally wasteful spending of funds (both the parties & the national treasury) or pushing inexorable taxations on grief-stricken rurales and her attempts to kill Melty, something which Ren and Itsuki noticed but Motoyasu did not (or even deliberately neglected). Much of which she explains away as claiming it was "for the sake of the world" or "necessitating a harsh reform" during rebuilding efforts. Later, when the charges on Naofumi were absolved by the Queen, the Spear Hero refused to accept Malty was behind the framing of the Shield Hero for the longest time; Motoyasu even agreed to shoulder her debt to some extent. After the Spirit Tortoise incident, she abandons him completely. After that, he saw her badmouthing him to Ren of many false charges, which causes his mind to break to the point where he now literally sees all women (with exception to Filolial Queens and certain other women) as pigs, indirectly resulting in the awakening of his Legendary Spear's Curse Series.

In the spin-off story "The Reprise of the Spear Hero", Motoyasu still recognizes Malty, to some extent as he can only see and hear her as an oinking pig with red hair, thus he was always wary of her and warn others about her.

Ren Amaki
Ren believes her accusation of Naofumi's attempt to rape her and berates Naofumi without hearing his side of the story. Later, Ren along with Itsuki points her involvement in the foul play of the Sacred Duel between Naofumi and Motoyasu and stands for Naofumi. Ren was the first to notice Malty's attempt to kill Melty and begins to deeply suspect of her as well as the Three Heroes Church, starting his own independent investigation into their affairs with Itsuki - something the Bitch tries to have them both killed for in the anime. When all of her crimes are brought to light by the Queen while clearing Naofumi's charges, Ren, along with Itsuki, agrees with the punishment Malty received to be fitting.

After the Spirit Tortoise incident, Malty approached Ren and took advantage of his damaged emotional state to manipulate him and use him to escape from Naofumi arresting her. Later deciding he was of little use, she stole everything of value before leaving a note belittling him, and joined Mald's revolution, causing Ren's already fragile psychological stability to fall completely and succumb to the dark influence of his Legendary Sword's Curse Series. Ren, like the other Heroes, now holds the same contempt and hatred for Witch, however the former princess herself is shown to be largely unaffected by his grudge against her and in her arrogance and self-absorption, still believes that she could still trick him to do her bidding despite her repulsive actions towards the Sword Hero.

Itsuki Kawasumi
He, along with other Heroes, believed Malty's false rape charges on Naofumi and berated him as well. But he and Ren still questioned her involvement in the Sacred Duel between Naofumi and Motoyasu. He along with Ren calls Malty out on her illegal involvement in the Duel and stands up for Naofumi. Itsuki offering his two cents about depriving the Hero of the Shield his stipend for Wave Disaster rebuttal on a technicality in regard to which on Trash's part. Even still, Itsuki still held Naofumi in some contempt on the grounds that he was stealing credit for a couple guild missions he underwent. Refusing to believe he was causing more harm than good even after the Shield Hero told him such.

After Ren's persuasion, Itsuki agrees to investigate the abduction case against Naofumi, the two almost being killed by the unethical Church on Whore's mention only to be saved by Queen Mirellia's Shadows afterward. When the First Princess's past actions are brought to light by the Queen, he and Ren both agree that her punishment was befitting of the former princess's actions. During their stay at Cal Mira Island, he said that Malty spoke in good terms to him before her disowning.

Sometime after the Spirit Tortoise incident, Malty approached the Bow Hero and took advantage of his psychological instability like she had done to Ren. Telling him all kinds of lies to convince Itsuki she was trying to save people from slavery and that the "Devil of the Shield" was truly evil. This seemed to have activated the Pride Curse Series and caused him to only believe those who praised him such as her. He also began fighting at the coliseums in order to raise money for Whore and his former party, believing they were using it for their "noble" cause of saving people, unaware that they were just leeching off him and wasting on themselves his hard-winning earns. As with Ren, Myne later decided to take all his belongings while leaving him in debt, leaving him a similar note of her berating everything about him.

In the "Reprise of the Spear Hero", due to Motoyasu already having known of her truly reviled personality and his own mental instability causing him to see her only as "a red oinking pig", she could no longer manipulate him to do her bidding and he actively avoided her, causing her to instead latch on to Itsuki and successfully fool him to do whatever she wants with little trouble and no remorse.

Aultcray Melromarc XXXII
Aultcray, the Vassal Hero of the Cane, is her father. He was a doting parent and spoiled her too much. Most of her evil personality stems from this upbringing, or at least that is what it was thought. Even if she causes any trouble, she pins it on someone else and he will punish the victim without a seconds thought. Malty mainly gets away from anything with the help of her father. Trash supported Bitch in framing Naofumi for a false rape crime. As a King, he gave too much preferential treatment and blatant favoring to the Spear Hero with the sole reason of Malty being in his party.

As seen from the King's reaction during their trial, Aultcray himself genuinely believes all of Malty's lies of whatever she tells him to justify her vile actions. This is seen where her father was visibly shocked to learn of all of his eldest daughter's lies being revealed via the temporary slave brand marked on her set to shock her every time she lied, hinting that Aultcray never even suspected of Malty lying to him.

However, due to her actions of helping Takt and her later encouraging him to kill Queen Mirellia, her own mother, and him later doing so to her own pleasure, Aultcray was shown to have been completely horrified by his own daughter's actions and later fell into shock upon realizing the monster Malty actually is. This would later cause the King to fall into a deep depression due to losing his wife and his own favorite daughter being the one responsible, finally seeing first-hand what Malty's true character is.

Later upon recovering thanks to Naofumi, Aultcray orders her execution despite his personal attachment to her for the sake of his country and finally have Malty pay for her crimes. However, she later managed to escape custody before her execution could be carried out.

Raphtalia
Understandably, Raptalia hates Malty for what she did to Naofumi and holds her as a personal enemy. Taking particular offense when the duel instigated to deprive Naofumi of proper defense in battle was guised as means of freeing his unlawfully procured servant. Malty seemed to consider Raphtalia nothing but an annoyance and (as most noble people in Melromarc usually do) a lowly demi-human. Being an adamant racist against demi's, gaining more and more resentment of her after the repeated sneak attacks Raphtalia landed upon the haughty royal whenever the crossed each other in battle. At the banquet held in honor to Naofumi and the other three Heroes. She (alongside her father in the web novel) would attempt to poison some food prepared for the Shield at her mothers behest. In the anime it was a pie she was slated to take to Raphtalia's table during festivities, but was caught in the act by her younger sister Melty and ended up electrocuted by her slave crest when she tried to lie about her malignant intentions. In the manga however she gets into a heated argument with Mald of Itsuki's party after the former cites her as a criminal. But the two are sidetracked when Raphtalia tries to alleviate hostilities, only escalating them when the traitorous ignoble flat out insults Naofumi to her face.

Melty Q Melromarc
Malty has no affection for her younger sister and sees her only as an obstacle between herself and Melromarc's throne. She would put on a front of affectionate interaction whenever seen in public or around their father, but it was merely an act to hide her jealous contempt of that which barred her from proper successorship. Melty, on the other hand, cares for her sister's well being (even after Malty attempted to murder her) despite knowing full well her rotten character, but also understands that Malty needs to be punished and held accountable for her crimes. Malty often acts like a doting big sister to Melty in regards to the actions of the crown, but the main reason why she was targeted for her and the Cult's latest scheme to undermine "Shield Demon" Naofumi in the first place was, simply because she rebuked her regarding the matter of having Naofumi and the King reconcile since it was on the Queen's order. going so far as to fatally poison her in the web novel just to have another crime to be framed on the Shield Hero.

Mirellia Q Melromarc
Similarly to her younger sister, despite whining and braying to her every now and then for allowances, Malty also has no real affection for her own mother. Likewise, Mirellia is well aware that her firstborn is a writhing mass of deceits and full of putrid trickery. While the Queen loves Malty dearly, her true loyalty lies on the country of Melromarc. As such, she was put in the reluctant position of punishing Bitch and using her as a political tool in order to save Melromarc since her eldest and her husband Aultcray had nearly caused a world-wide war. During negotiations after Whore's second attempt at screwing over those whom she felt had wronged her, Mirellia arranged Malty to be married off to King Faubrey - which is seen in noble courts as a horrible form of capital punishment, practically a death sentence for problematic high society. To stave off the marriage, Malty remained with Motoyasu as a companion until she could escape. However, Malty's hatred of her mother festered during this time.

Light Novel Spoilers

Elena Haven/Girl 1 (former)
Though she hates Malty, she pretends to get along with her, so that she doesn't get into any trouble. She also suspects Malty's claims of Naofumi's attempt to rape her but decided to ignore it. She knows all of Malty's wrongdoing in the party and also her involvement in kicking others out, but played along to keep herself in the team. She felt that, in the near future, Malty will abandon Motoyasu and she hopes to claim him for herself. After the Spirit tortoise incident, she abandoned her teammates and left without turning back. She tells Naofumi that Malty is a person who will out lives at the cost of others and believes that she survived the spirit tortoise.

Mald
A blowhard with character akin to sanding paper, not to mention the personality of most higher caste found within Melromarc, the adventurer noble Mald held the former princess in considerable loathing after she was found to be a traitor and criminal. The two of them often traded harsh words whenever they came in contact with one another after Naofumi's name had been cleared. The only thing that could make the haughty aristocrat eke out partly amicable union with Myne when not denouncing the disgraced former princess for her folly was an agreement in their shared hollow viewpoint of the Shield Hero. Mald decrying the former as "a lesser hero whom partners with monsters and demi-humans" whilst Malty openly citing him as "despicable in character and demeanor".

Lucy/Girl 2 (former)
She was a school friend of Myne a.k.a. Whore. She teamed up with the Spear hero after a couple of days of Malty becoming his party member. She was mentioned to be of nobility. Sharing the same mindset of Malty in many ways and was almost similar to her, thus the two demented aristocrats got along well with one another and joined in on all of the evil acts. Notably, despite how she had betrayed Motoyasu, Ren, and Malty. She remained loyal to Malty, until Malty's failed rebellion. Naofumi not knowing her name called her "Woman 2". It is unknown why she was so loyal to Malty since she is of blue blood that was not obligated to serve a former princess, but she was also faced a fate similar to the Witch when after confronting the Shield Hero.

Pope Balmus (former)
Whilst in the manga & novels, Malty only ever attempted to take advantage of the havoc begotten from the Pope's machinations for her own benefit. In the anime the first princess was willfully collaborating with the heretical cult. Working with their sect to further discredit Naofumi by murdering her younger sister, second princess Melty because their mother; Queen Mirella, chose the latter to take the throne over her firstborn. Truthfully however, unbeknownst to Bitch. Pope Balmus held Malty and the entire royal family in contempt as a blight on the nation, citing how they're abuse of their station was an insult to the pride of the clergy standing as gods apostles on earth. Going so far as to speak on how pathetically incompetent said malignant royal was compared to her sibling who was infinitely more erudite than Whore would ever be. Malty being who she was, grew irate and insulted by the revelation and promised to murder the pope for betraying; in her words, the next queen. A threat that fell on deaf ears as she was too underpowered to be a viable opponent to him while armed with a replica of the four holy weapons.

Cultists
Despite initially being enemies of the royal family, Malty somehow managed to find common ground with the remnant assets that remained of the Three Heroes Cult after their church was deconsecrated and dissolved. Having worked with a great number amongst whom that escaped judgement for their many crimes against the crown on top of the country due to their status as aristocracy. Even going so far as to collude with what remains of many amongst the Sword, Bow and Spear Heroes parties after the Spirit Tortoise incident, adding them to her ranks. In order to grow their numbers, Bitchy opted to manipulate the now fallen Itsuki's cursed series Pride Bow to brainwash a number of Melromarc's citizenry to the cult's side, opting to stage a populist uprising to overtake the kingdom.