Raphtalia

"Please believe me. I believe, I know you never committed any crime. You gave me medicine, saved my life and taught me what I needed to survive. You are the great Shield Hero, and I am your sword. No matter how rough the path, I will follow you."

- Raphtalia to Naofumi Iwatani in Volume 01, Chapter 23

Raphtalia (ラフタリア) is the main heroine and Deuteragonist of The Rising of the Shield Hero series.

She is the first real companion of the Shield Hero. Although she was originally bought as a slave, she was never treated badly and forged a strong bond with her master.

She later travels to another world and obtains the Vassal Katana, becoming the Katana Hero (刀の勇者). Additionally, she becomes the Heavenly Emperor of Q'ten Lo after overthrowing the previous emperor.

Appearance
She has undergone some significant changes throughout the story. When Raphtalia is first introduced, she is a child with long, unmanaged hair and a dirty cloth gown. After being purchased by Naofumi, he gives her a haircut to an acceptable length, gives her a bath, and buys her a much more suitable set of clothes to adventure in. As a mixed-race of Raccoon and Tanuki, Raphtalia is shown to have fluffy dog-like ears and an averagely sized bushy tail.

After several weeks of travelling with Naofumi, Raphtalia's body inexplicably changes and she gains the appearance of a beautiful young adult. It is revealed that demi-humans initially mature in relation to the progression of their levels, which leads to Raphtalia's rapid development. However the rest of the kids in the village only grow up to be teenagers. This is later revealed that only Demi-Humans from Q'ten Lo can only break this age gap and grow up into adults though this means.

During their travel to the Glass' World, L'Arc mentions to Naofumi that Raphtalia has reverted back to her child-self when her level is been reset to one and she has to grind to reach her adulthood in that world before reuniting with Naofumi. In her adult form, Raphtalia begins to wear clothing much more fitting for a warrior, which consists of a hide breastplate, skirt, lace-up boots, and a pair of gloves. Raphtalia also switches from a small knife to a full-sized sword during this time.

Once Raphtalia reaches adulthood in Glass' World she is revealed to have started to wear a Miko Outfit. (Traditional shrine priestess outfit.) With the Vassal Katana on her side. This is revealed before the Fight with trash 2. During the Reunion in the Light Novel and Manga. While in the Anime it is shown to be given to her during her POV. It was given to her by a priestess whose family have helped the previous wielder of the Vassal Katana. She became the wielder of the Vassal Katana when it fled from Trash 2 and selected her. Once she is chosen by the Vassal weapon she lost her slave crest. Which dissolved in the Anime and Light Novel while shattering in the Manga. From this point onward she does not have a slave crest for the remainder of the story.

Personality
Raphtalia is initially very shy, sickly, and fearful this is a result of her previous owner actively being abusive to her due to her status as a slave. Her poor treatment eventually lead to her getting very sick with the same illness that killed Rifana this lead to her being emotionally broken. This left her in a very vulnerable state of health and mind. This was all made actively worse by her constant nightmares at night. The nightmares are revealed to be direct result of the extensive trauma she suffered during the first wave. Primary the death of her own parents who died in protecting her from the wave boss Cerberus. These nightmares are also intensified with the destruction of her her village. In which almost everyone she ever knew died. When she first meets Naofumi she actively began to fear for her life and came to terms with the fact that this is where she would meat her end. This is because she can actively sensed the hatred he was feeling to the world due to his framing and Malty’s Betrayal. This actively left him hated by nearly everyone as well as being penniless. But quickly comes to find him caring and comes to accept him. She begins to recover from her trauma with Naofumi’s care who actively actively comforts her. He also treats her illness and allows her to emotionally and physically recover. This is shown when during the encounter with the two-headed dog monster, where she is able to overcome her trauma of her parents death at the hands of the first wave boss Cerberus. These events make her to decide to fight to help prevent others from going what she went through. These actions of Naofumi make her see Naofumi as her hero and actively wishes to be his sword for he can’t fight. She is shown to be kind worried for others even when she is being targeted by them. This can be seen when Raphtalia was still a child and was getting bullied since they wanted her ball. She actively warned them to go away due to Naofumi as she understood that he would be very protective and do something unpleasant. This can be seen in her reaction to Naofumi’s balloon monsters at the kids. This growth and mindset of hers make Naofumi acknowledge Raphtalia’s mental fortitude of being able to continue even after such great trauma for someone as young as her. Her wish is to prevent what happened to her from occurring to others. This ranges from the deaths of one’s parents and family, to the death of most of everyone you ever knew. To one being sold into slavery with the only friends you have left, to actively seeing the torture of your best friend and their eventual death, and finally the dread of accepting death at last. She also understands that she is lucky and that it’s rare to maintain one’s morals and sanity after such traumatic events. She also decides to keep hope of one day hoping in gathering the survivors of her villager together and rebuilt it from the ashes. She also understands to do all of these things she wishes for she must fight to help and protect the country which actively wronged her and discriminates against her kind. This also helps Naofumi to start taking up as hero to help her in achieving her goals and rebuilding the village that was lost. Raphtalia is shown to be very caring and tends to be serious at times. She even threatens Naofumi saying that if he doesn’t take fighting seriously he will certainly die. During the second wave she actively fights to help protect the people of Lute Village. At the end of the wave she laments having killing so many monsters and hopes she has managed to helps people from going from what she went through. Her caring side reaches its peak after the end of the second wave. Where she actively comforts Naofumi after he lost to the cheating spear hero in the duel where she is forcibly taken away from him. This was after they used her to further damage Naofumi’s emotions with the pretext of “freeing her” by getting rid of her slave collar. At the end of the duels she slaps the Spear hero that she never asked to be freed and told him everything Naofumi has done to her at this point. She explains that he never beat or abused her and that he helper treat her illness. She also tells them that he only used the slave collar to force her to fight when she was too scared to continue going. When she tries to reach Naofumi and is rejected for “betraying him” she refuses to backdown. She goes ahead and comfort him understanding the great hardship which he has gone through up till this point. She understands that the Princesses plot left him very emotionally traumatized and damaged to the point he doesn’t trust others anymore. She comforts him in his arms and lets him cry out his heart which begins to allow him to recover. It’s at this point where in a way she becomes Naofumi’s her just like he has become hers. After this point Naofumi is far more open to her moving forward. She is the first person to continue travailing with him by their own choice. She cares for him and understands how cruel the world truly is. She even goes as far as to get the slave crest reapplied of her own free will to help Naofumi trust her. Although she is very susceptible to being teased. This can be seen when Beloukas offers to buy her for 35 gold pieces. For which Naofumi entertained the thought of since he had been broke for awhile at this point. This short encounter leaves her emotionally distraught and agitated. This is shortly followed by Raphtalia questioning Naofumi on why he wasting money on a random monster egg. Due to them being nearly completely out of money which was there reward for helping the first wave. From here they return to Lute Village to help the continued rebuilding from the wave. It is here where Filo hatches as a chick. In the village once Filo hatches she is initially happy. She enjoyed watching and was startioed by the speed Filo grew. Over the course of the next week where Filo grew up into an adult Filolial, Naofumi and Raphtalia helped rebuild the village. She is later unhappy with the name Naofumi chose and points out that he is very uncreative with names. This somewhat happy time was interrupted by Princess Malty and Motoyasu. Who brought forward an edict from the king that Motoyasu was to be the new Governor of Lute Village To which the village protests since it was Naofumi and Raphtalia who saved the village not Motoyasu. Raphtalia and the villagers all scoff at the absurd price to be imposed a fee for entering and leaving the village which is 50 silver each. Naofumi then points out that staying at the inn only costs 1 silver per night and food is included. To this all the Villagers and Raphtalia agree and they show this by making clear how unhappy they are with Malty’s and the king’s decree. Then everyone is shocked with the arrival of Shadows of the Queen. They give Malty a scroll from her mother which makes her lose her cool. In a fit of rage she Challeges Naofumi to a race with Motoyasu. To which Naofumi reluctantly agrees due Raphtalia and the villagers pleading with him. He only ends up agreeing due to Raphtalia telling him to. This leads to a race between Naofumi and Motoyasu. Raphtalia supports him during the whole racing incident by cheering for Him alongside the villagers. Once naofumi wins the race Motoyasu gets to close and gets kicked by Filo in the crotch. This leads to Raphtalia being somewhat upset and disappointed at seeing Naofumi being very happy and activity laughing at Motoyasu’s suffering. As a reward for all the help and protecting the village from Malty’s attempted takeover. Raphtalia and Naofumi are gifted a carriage to use with Filo as well as a pass for traveling merchants which allows them to negate most tolls. From here they plan on going around as as traveling merchants to get money and help people all around. When they start traveling Raphtalia is shown to be very vulnerable to illnesses such as motion sickness. Which she overcomes by the end of the traveling arc. She is also shocked by Filo’s transformation into a little human girl. This is made worse by her freaking out with this new little girl cuddling with Naofumi out of the blue. This little incident shows how possessive of Naofumi, Raphtalia is as he doesn’t want any other girl to have him. Which can be seen a lot later on in the story.

She desires for Naofumi to act as a hero and is disappointed by many of his actions. The current Raphtalia is focused on efficiency, in both combat, training and money expenditures. Seeing this trait, Naofumi feels that he brought her up wrongly, as she doesn't show any girly desire for her appearance or care for efficiency. She is extremely devoted to Naofumi and harbors feelings for him which he remains oblivious to, preferring to see her as his 'daughter' he raises her in lieu of her deceased parents. As she matures, Raphtalia not only becomes much more skilled and deadlier in battle, but she also gets much bolder, opinionated, stronger-willed, and fiercely protective of her beloved Naofumi.

After being separated from Naofumi during the Adventure to Glass’s world she ends up with traveling with L’arcs group. This experience has a great impact on her personality leading to her becoming a lot more independent. She also further makes up her mind to continue traveling with Naofumi not to just be his sword but to also be his equal. She heavily blames herself and wishes to see him again. She also grows and stars to understand herself and her emotions to Naofumi far more. This is largely due to this being the first time they are ever separated like this. This experience leads her to be more mature and be far more decisive in the future.

Background
Until the age of 10, Raphtalia lived in a small coastal village outside of Melromarc, where everyone lived in harmony until the first wave of calamity attacked. During the attack, Raphtalia and her parents fled from their home, but considering they could only dive into the sea to escape the monsters, Raphtalia's parents made the ultimate sacrifice. Her parents pushed her off a nearby cliff as the wave approached them and she watched as her parents were engulfed by the Cerberus. Raphtalia survived the fall and went back to find her parents, but was unsuccessful. Shortly thereafter, a group of Melromarc Knights came to her village and killed all the adult survivors. They captured all the young ones and sold them to the slave hunters for money.

She and many of her friends ended up being purchased by Idol Rabier, who pleasured himself by torturing the innocent demi-humans. Raphtalia suffered and witnessed her best friend die, which caused her to have a mental breakdown and left her traumatized. Afterwards, she was sold multiple times until she ended up with the slave dealer in Melromarc. Alone and sickly, she was picked up by a slave merchant and put up for sale in the capital of Melromarc. Raphtalia was at the slave traders for weeks until she was purchased by Naofumi Iwatani, at which point her life would be changed forever.

Trivia

 * Her bond towards the Shield Hero has reached a point where she can often tell what exactly he is thinking with just his facial expressions. She often points it out and scolds him when he thinks of something very unreasonable.
 * Raphtalia has a strong dislike for the Raph species, she finds it strange for a monster to be based on her genes.
 * In the Anime Raphtalia is portrayed as far more naive than in the light novel. A well know example is the scene where Raphtalia thinks kissing Naofumi would get her pregnant.
 * In the anime the otherworld arc is dramatically changed. For in the Light Novel Raphtalia is transported alongside Glass, L’arc and Therese instead of Naofumi’s group. This means she is not originally present for the beginning of the arc.
 * Raphtalia’s POV from when she is separated from Naofumi is also exclusive to the Manga and Anime while it was not in the Light novel.
 * The character who helps Raphtaia and gives her a Miko outfit in the Anime is completely original as she does not show up in the Light Novels. Instead I the outfit was chosen by L’arc.
 * The whole reunion between Naofumi and Raphtalia is very different between the Anime compared to the light novel. In the Anime we see Naofumi find and protect her after she defeated Trash 2. While in the Light novel we see her, Glass, L’arc and, Therese meet up with Naofumi, Kizuna, Rishia, Filo, and Raph-Chan in a very emotional scene. Before the fight with trash 2 and his harem, army and divine beast clones.
 * In the anime there was a lot more buildup to the battle with Trash 2 and his harem When compared to the Light Novel. The Light Novel itself had little to no buildup to the fight as we followed Naofumi’s view instead as Raphtalia’s POV is absent from it.
 * The whole fight with Trash 2 played out out completely differently between each source. For In the Light novel It is a group battle between Trash 2 alongside his Harem with his Divine beast copies Fighting the combination of Raphtalia’s and Naofumi’s group. While in the Anime it’s a single battle where Raphtalia fights Trash 2 on her alone.
 * In the Light novel Trash 2 dies to Raphtalia due to his own pride and ego when he does not heed Raphtalia’s warning to not move. While in the anime he does not move which spares ends up sparing his own life.
 * In Light novel 22 When Naofumi asks her to stop calling him Mr.Naofumi and instead call him by his name alone. Raphtalia tries to do it but she is unable to do it an gets extremely embarrassed. Naofumi then says that she can one day drop the Mr prefix.
 * In light novel 22 Naofumi teases Raphtalia about what he should call her once they get married. The joke name is Raphtalia Heavenly Empress Iwatani. This interaction makes Raphtalia extremely embarrassed and unable to speak properly for a moment.
 * In the Web Novel, she possesses the Vassal Hammer rather than the Vassal Katana.