Naofumi Iwatani

Naofumi was once a successful otaku University student before being summoned to Melromarc. His past experience with Malty Melromarc has made him dark and cynical, but he is still a generally nice person. He has an extremely high alcohol constitution, eating a heavily alcoholic fruit that would cause severe alcohol poisoning if ingested. Although he experiences a slow start because of the Malty incident and is on a much lower level than the other heroes, he is still able to keep up and even occasionally outshine them. Out of the heroes, he is the only one who has learned the written language because he was not given crystal balls to level up his magic abilities and had to learn from books along with Raphtalia. He is also the only one who treated the world as a world and not a game. He has learned to create medicine through recipes and scavenge for materials, something the other heroes left to their weapons. Lastly, he was the only one not killed in his old world before coming to this one. His village was named Rock Valley in spite of his many objections. After defeating the Goddess Medea, he created fragments of himself to live in his original world and this one while his main body traveled to save other worlds from Gods that prey on them with Raphtalia.

Personality
Originally Naofumi was an extremely trusting and positive person, he was also enthusiastic about his situation when initially summoned, but this all changes quickly after he is betrayed by Malty. Left penniless, framed for rape, and hated, Naofumi becomes distrustful, cynical and spiteful towards the world. He becomes unable to trust anyone who is not his slave as a traveling companion and begins planning for events where people try to deceive him or rip him off. This betrayal has left him in an almost permanent state of anger and hostility, even while he usually acts calm and level headed on the surface.

His hatred for Malty is utterly without bound, to the point where he has become completely apathetic and ignorant to the advances of women in general, and even sometimes expresses disgust and hatred purely on the grounds that the other person is the same gender as Malty early on, though he never voices this to them. Due to Raphtalia and Firo, he becomes less inwardly hostile towards women over time, but is still evidently unable to notice their advances, Raphtalia herself, when her Slave Crest was being renewed, even asked him what he thought of her body, which had to be exposed for the application of the crest, only for him to completely miss the point. He was rather amazed when the Slave Merchant was willing to pay 15 gold pieces for Raphtalia after she became a beauty as well. He does however notice Atlas' feelings for him, if only because of how overwhelmingly blatant she is about showing them, and goes out of his way to have others he trusts sleep with him solely so they can kick her out of his bed when she comes by. Finally, when Firo goes into heat later in the story he was willing to do almost anything, including sacrificing the future queen herself, Princess Melty, to her lust instead, to protect himself. When his hatred was completely removed by the Wrath Dragon absorbing it, he did finally show awareness of Raphtalia's beauty, but the women around him found his suddenly happy and uplifting self so creepy that they threw him into the dragon's guts to get his hatred back.

Eventually, he recovers more of his caring side and begins treating Raphtalia like a daughter rather than a slave(she would ironically prefer he treat her more as a woman though). by the time he sets up a base of operations in Rock Valley, he is visibly kind to the slaves under his command, but not soft, as he still would not hesitate if discipline was called for. He comes to care enough about Firo to fly into a rage when he thinks she's dead, despite constantly finding her annoying. He in fact has a rather unique opinion of slavery and a very business-like outlook in general. the prime example is when he bought Raphtalia; he fed her well, gave her medicine, sheltered her, defended her from bullies and even treated her when she was good. He genuinely earns her affection through his treatment of her, to the point where she chooses to remain his slave when given the option to leave him. In his mind all of these actions were taken because they're practical, I.e. an unhealthy, unfed and half dead slave would be useless, so he genuinely can't understand why someone would neglect their treatment and health. He never mistreated or exploited any of the slaves under him and has disciplined them only when they refuse to do as ordered. This same treatment extends to literally all of the slaves he comes to own, with them even coming to treat him like a mother figure in return. According to Rishia and Ren it is even quite difficult to call them slaves, the latter even says outright that they look more like a large family.

He is also very observant, dislikes being ripped off, and will definitely not tolerate being stolen from; for example his grudge against Mald grew noticeably when he realized the man stole what was to be his new shield and made a point to personally defeat him. When merchants tried to rip him off or he saw bullies picking on Raphtalia, he sends literal monsters at them, since he himself can't attack. He can be somewhat of a sadist in this sense, to the point Raphtalia actually tried to warn those same bullies to run away.

His feelings towards the world eventually clear up, but he's still incredibly cynical, for example he will sell medicine to the rich for profit rather than give it out for free, he still buys slaves rather than trusts others, and he will treat another person's sense of justice as naive idealism. His feelings towards the other three heroes is also stained by Malty's betrayal, he accepts that he needs them to save the world, but when given the chance to kill Ren he was quick to take it. For reference, Ren is the one he hates least out of the other heroes.

When someone he hates suffers or is injured, or if he has a chance for payback, he will take it readily, much to the annoyance of Raphtalia, who would prefer he act like a prim and proper hero after his name has been cleared. He is also not above antagonizing others if he finds it amusing or if they annoy him. This can reach outright villainous levels, as shown when Malty was sold off to Faulbrey's king. Ren, after his reform, found that Naofumi's policies might indeed be rather villainous for a hero. For example Naofumi has made it a habit to rob any bandits foolish enough to attack him of everything they have, this policy in particular has begun to rub off on his subordinates. Even Eclaire, a knight with a stern belief in justice and yet one such imitator of Naofumi's policies, proudly calls his actions evil while seeing no problem with the fact that he's using them for good reasons, or because they are at the very least beneficial actions for his village and the country. He has even hired and trained, personally, a bandit group and made them into a type of privateering ring to deal with the growing problem of illegal merchants selling their goods in the country. It's precisely this attitude which makes him an amazing merchant and slaver, as noted by the Accessory Merchant and Slave Dealer he frequents, he doesn't concern himself with good, evil or justice and morality when making his decisions unless something is unduly harsh towards someone he actually likes or duly harsh towards someone he hates.

Despite being the most villainous, ironically Naofumi is perhaps the most effective of the heroes at getting things done, he corrected the problems the other three either started or worsened, and managed to deal with the Spirit Turtle, an act which required him to cheer up the allied troops, raise their moral, organise them, and effectively lead people his past would undoubtedly put him at odds with. The latter case is especially important because the other heroes unleashed it to begin with.

Appearance
Naofumi is a roughly 20 year old young man with black hair and fairly sharp features. He has a rather slim build and a permanent scowl on his face as a result of his mistreatment and cynical outlook on the world. The armour he wears is called the Barbarian Armor, and he is always equipped with his Legendary Shield. The armour in question is noted by others to suit him, even though one would expect a bandit leader to be wearing it.

Background
Animals have liked Naofumi since he was young. When he walked around the mountains, wild birds naturally perched on his shoulders, and he encountered wildlife easily. Once he encountered a bear, and played dead to try to survive. Rather than attacking, it started licking his face. He later learned that playing dead didn’t actually work.

When he was in elementary school, a large dog in his neighborhood let him ride on its back. More like it sat down in front of him asking to be ridden. He rode around waving a stick, pretending he was an Ainu Girl from a fighting game.

Naofumi was initially the less-liked child of the family, an all the pressure of his parents expectations were placed upon his brother and he simply lived without having to meet these expectations. One day, when his brother started acting out because of this, it was Naofumi who introduced him to Galga themed games, and managed to provide him with a hobby to relieve his stress. Despite being an educated student and having a number of skills under his belt, as evidenced from his ability to quickly adapt to living unaided in the world, he is noted to have had poor grades in school.

He has taken up multiple part time jobs in the past, including one at a Crepe Stand, and one at a convenience store. Despite his reluctance to admit it, he has shown skill in cooking from an early age. His brother says he should go to cooking school lest he waste all of his talent.

Abilities
Naofumi doesn’t just hold up a shield. He has to catch and shift the impact of opponents’ blows to stop them, and parry them as well.

Naofumi’s self-made defense style allows him to break opponents’ weapons, thus aiding his party. Though this doesn’t work on Legendary Weapons. He can do Shirahatori, and grab weapons and arrows out of midair. He can interfere with magic as well, and support magic is his duty.

While he has enough agility and skill to dodge, as the person tasked with protecting those behind him, he is unable to do so.

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Magic

 * 「Faust Guard」 c39
 * 「Faust Heal」 c44
 * 「Revelation Aura」 c257
 * 「Faust Grow Heal」 c273
 * 「All Zveit Heal」 An AOE recovery spell, that heals multiple allies’ wounds. c296
 * Aqua Seal Water support magic, that increases fire resistance.
 * Revelation Aura Revelation, the level above Dreifach. The visibly dense mass of magic envelops the target, and permeates into his or her skin. It’s the spell Aura, which increases all stats, however, being a high level skill every single stat more than doubles. After about 10 minutes, the effects of Revelation Aura wear off. Naofumi's magic and SP’s is drained clean, as cost.
 * 「All Zveit Resist Fire」 c302
 * 「Revelation Heal」 c303
 * 「All Revelation Aura X」 c326
 * 「Zveit Fire」 c328
 * 「Zveit Water」 c328
 * 「Dreifach Heal」 c329

Legendary Shield Skills
Others
 * 「Air Strike Shield」 creates a shield at the location within sight range instantly. c16
 * Shield Prison 
 * Wrath Series
 * Iron Maiden Unlocked with Wrath Shield. By charging a Shield Prison with Needle Shield, Naofumi creates a powerful cage filled with violent spikes, skewering an opponent to death. c52
 * Blutopfer A technique unlocked with Wrath Shield 3, Naofumi's blood is extracted from his body in a large quantity when using this ability, it then forms a bear trap-like shape under the intended enemy and repeatedly mashes them to death. Use of this technique has the unfortunate side effect of seriously wounding its own wielder, to the point where his first use nearly killed him and his second weakened him for a full month.
 * 「Self-Burning Curse Physical」 "description here" c22
 * 「Change Shield (Attack)」 "description here" c52
 * 「Dark Curse Burning Physical」 "description here" c52
 * 「Roar of the angry Dragon」 "description here" c52
 * 「Roar of the angry Dragon」 "description here" c52
 * 「Frenzy of Companions」 "description here" c52
 * 「Roar」 "description here" c72
 * 「Magic Sharing」 "description here" c72
 * 「Dark Curse Burning S」 "description here" c116
 * 「Mighty Dragon's Rage」 "description here" c116
 * 「Roar of the Raging Dragon」 "description here" c116
 * 「Shield of Needles (S)」"description here" c25
 * 「Bee's Poison (Paralysis)」"description here" c25
 * Chimera Viper Shield
 * 「Snake's Fang (Intermediate) Hook」"description here" c25
 * 「Change Shield」"description here" c25
 * 「Snake's Fang (High) Long Hook」"description here" c104
 * 「Shield of Stinger (Small)」"description here" c43
 * 「Bee Poison (Poison)」"description here" c43
 * Soul Eater Shield
 * 「Soul Devour」"description here" c54
 * 「Second Shield」Creates a second shield. c54
 * 「Drain Effect」"description here" c115
 * 「Intangibility」"description here" c115
 * 「Undead Control」"description here" c115
 * 「Shark’s Fang」"description here" c82
 * 「Shark’s skin」"description here" c82
 * 「Shield Bash」"description here" c105
 * 「Hate Reaction」 A skill that lures monsters. Actually it has one other hidden effect that was confirmed on Cal Mira Island. It can drag out the real form and reveal opponents lightly concealed by magic and skills. Therefore detection can be used in cases of concealment. Also translated as "Heightened Reaction". c106
 * 「Diving Time Up」"description here" c107
 * 「Meteor Shield」"description here" c114
 * Spirit Turtle Carapace Shield
 * 「E Float Shield」"description here" c133
 * 「Gravity Field」"description here" c133
 * 「C Soul Recovery」"description here" c133
 * Spirit Turtle Heart Shield
 * 「C Magic Snatch」"description here" c134
 * 「C Gravity Shot」"description here" c134
 * 「Monster Book」"description here" c134
 * 「Portal Shield」 a technique unlocked from a shield of the same name, allowing Naofumi and 6 or so allies to teleport between one of three designated locations in an instant. Requires an hour charge time after use. c171
 * Spirit Turtle Shell
 * 「S Float Shield」"description here" c237
 * 「Reflect Shield」"description here" c237
 * 「Gravity Field」"description here" c237
 * 「C Soul Recovery」"description here" c237
 * 「C Magic Snatch」"description here" c237
 * 「C Gravity Shot」"description here" c237
 * 「Tenacity Enhancement」"description here" c237
 * 「SP Drain Block」"description here" c237
 * 「Growing Power」"description here" c237
 * New Seven Deadly Sins Series
 * 「C’mon Raphs」 An ability to summon the Raphs by portal.
 * Shield of Compassion
 * 「Change Shield (Attack)」 this technique allows Naofumi to turn one active shield into a different type. Namely, Naofumi can summon an Instant Shield and then change it to a Spike Shield, making a variable weapon out of it. This technique can be used for a number of combinations. c305
 * 「Iron Maiden」"description here" c305
 * 「Meteor Wall」"description here" c305
 * Philo Rial:Familiar The skill was given to him by Fitoria as a courtesy. They’re parasite Philo Rials made of magic and are always there to protect Naofumi. They were inside of him for a while, silently adapting to his magic power.
 * Philo Rial:Mode Change Naofumi can tamper with his Philo Rials' settings.

Seven Star Cane Skills
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 * 「Fenrir Force X」 The clamped wolf head ornament opened its mouth and fires a beam of light from Jewel portion. It is capable of completely disintegrating a person, but it takes 3 seconds to cast and has high SP consumption.

Chronology
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The Rising of the Shield Hero
Devil of Shield Arc c1-78

Cal Mira Island Arc c78-114

Spirit Turtle Arc c115-130

Slave Supremacy Arc c131-203

New 7 Deadly Sins c204-357

Towards the Legend Arc c357-378

Side Stories
The Christmas of Shield Hero c379-385

After winter sets in Naofumi discovers that even in this world they celebrate Christmas.

The Valentine of Shield Hero c386-402

The White Day of Shield Hero c403-409

The Reset of The Spear Hero Gaiden
Loop 1 to 3 - Tutorial Arc c410-414

Loop 4 - Silt Welt Arc c415-455

Loop 5 - Melromarc Arc c456-574

Loop 6 - Foburei Arc c575-current }}

Trivia

 * No other Hero of the Shield has appeared after him since he is an immortal God, while new wielders of the other Holy Weapons has appeared in generations later on.