The Slave Girl

The Slave Girl is the second episode of The Rising of the Shield Hero anime.

Synopsis
Nafoumi bought a sick tanuki child slave and made her his comrade. The Child still suffers from the trauma of her parents getting killed by the wave monsters. Will she be able to kill monsters for Naofumi to level and also help him fight the wave? How will the distrusting Shield hero treats her ?

Plot
The Slave Trader takes Naofumi Iwatani to his tent where he shows him some of the individuals he has for sale. All of the beings he has in stock resemble inhuman monsters, Demi-Humans more specifically the sub type known as Beastmen. Though the sale of slaves in Melromarc is not illegal the owning of a Human slave is strictly forbidden by the human supremacist government.

The Slave trader initially offers Naofumi a High level werewolf type Beastman, but Naofumi is able to tell straight away that it's out of his price range. Congratulating Naofumi's eye for quality the Slave Trader shows him his three cheapest slaves and Naofumi settles on a sickly Tanuki girl named Raphtalia.

Naofumi takes her to the Weapon Shop Owner where he outfits her with a chain mail dress and a knife and uses the slave crest to force her to kill a Balloon he had on him, learning about the Party system in the process, that the party members share their Exp and more importantly realize how Myne never made a party with him. Specifically since Raphtalia is in the same party as Naofumi then any monsters she kills will also give him experience points. Naofumi takes Raphtalia to a restaurant and feeds her, and later when he's grinding medicinal leaves up for sale he gives some to Raphtalia to cure her illness.

Naofumi then explains that they are going hunting in order to build power to face the Waves of Calamity, since Naofumi has next to zero attack power Raphtalia will have to kill for him but in exchange he will keep her safe. After days of hunting Naofumi and Raphtalia begin to bond, buying her a ball to play with in her free time, buying her snacks, giving her haircut and comforting her when her nightmares begin to get the better of her. Elhart notices her progress and advances her from knife to short sword.

The two travel to Lute Village to mine in their mines to make some money, there one of the local merchants warns them that monsters from First wave have been living in the mines and neither the Heroes or the countries knights have done anything to get rid of them. Before going into the mine Naofumi unlocks the Rope Shield that gives him the ability to summon a magic barrier and the mining shield that helps him to easily chip through bed rock in the mines.

After acquiring some ore Naofumi and Raphtalia are confronted by a Two-Headed Black Dog, a monster from the first wave that reminds Raphtalia of the beast that murdered her parents during the wave in question. Narrowly fleeing to safety Naofumi decides then and there that they are going to kill the dog, as they cannot out run it. Thus after he holds it in place Raphtalia will pounce on it and stab it to death.

However Raphtalia freezes up in terror against the dog in spite of Naofumi's attempts to use the slave seal to make her fight. Seeing as how Raphtalia can't fight Naofumi tells her to flee while he holds the dog off. Her trauma of watching her parents die playing out in front of her again. Raphtalia grabs her knife and pounces on the dog stabbing it to death before going to the injured Naofumi for comfort.

Later while at the restaurant again Raphtalia collects the flag from her kid's meal, Naofumi however adds a red dot to the white flag as a reminder to himself what he's fighting for.

Adaptation Notes
Light Novel: Volume 1 Chapters 9-16

Manga: Volume 1 Chapters 3-4

Trivia

 * Experiences are shared by party members