Naofumi Iwatani/Relationships

Motoyasu Kitamura
Naofumi initially believed Motoyasu played a part in framing him for raping Malty for his own personal gains, but over time, Naofumi came to realize that Motoyasu is very naive, delusional, stupid and evidently doesn't know that he's being manipulated by Malty.

Motoyasu would continually believe Malty's words and cause Naofumi and his party trouble. These troubling events lead to Naofumi awakening the curse series.

Motoyasu tries to behave in a friendly manner towards Naofumi, despite the charges on him, but becomes something of a rival or more rather an annoyance, especially with Malty's continued influence upon him. Once Naofumi's name is cleared, he begins to show more of his decent side towards him but refuses to believe Naofumi when he's told that Malty is the one who set him up.

After Malty eventually betrays him, Motoyasu falls into depression, which leads to Filo cheering him up and causing him to fall completely in love with Filo and start calling Naofumi "father-in-law." Naofumi finds his new personality troubling, but easier to cooperate or manipulate since he has sworn his loyalty to him.

Ren Amaki
Like the other three Legendary Heroes, Ren was led to believe Naofumi was guilty of the charges of "raping" Malty. However, he was also, alongside Itsuki, one of the only few people to defend and stand up for Naofumi, albeit a couple of times, only for personal gains.

He is grateful and apologetic towards Naofumi after he is told directly by him that he had to clean up the messes that Ren caused because of his careless actions. Naofumi originally believes Ren was cold and heartless, but after seeing him apologize and regret his actions, his views on him have improved. He is the only one of the other three legendary heroes who had doubts about Naofumi kidnapping Princess Melty.

After the events of the Spirit Tortoise incident, Naofumi meets Ren again, this time their roles reversed, Naofumi is now loved and adored by the public while the three other Heroes are hated and despise. As Ren explains how his party was murdered during the Spirit Tortoise Incident, he calls them weak and blames his now deceased party members for their deaths and not himself, causing Naofumi to call him out for this. Ren refuses to face the reality that he was easily manipulated by Malty, who later betrays him, causing Ren to unlock his Curse Series and going rogue.

Eventually, after tracking down him down, Naofumi, with the help of Eclair, suppresses him and knocks some sense into him. After his rampage, Ren finally admits it was his fault that his party died and starts to atone for his sins as he begins training with Eclair while living in Naofumi's village.

He gets rid of the cold, lonely, and cool persona he was trying so hard to maintain for a genuine hard-working attitude. He also holds Naofumi in high regard and follows his requests, such as implementing the Power-Up systems and learning a new language.

Itsuki Kawasumi
Naofumi's relationship with Itsuki is very strained, to put it politely. He dislikes how Itsuki's actions are driven with the sole purpose of flaunting his pride and showing off for applause. He also begrudges Itsuki, along with the other Heroes, for believing Malty's false accusations and their subsequent treatment towards him afterwards.

Although Itsuki does stand for Naofumi during the rigged duel and rebuked funds, he only does so to satisfy his own ego and to indirectly annoy Motoyasu.

Later on, Naofumi defends Itsuki from Raphtalia's criticisms by stating that Itsuki is stuck up, but will never let harm befall his allies. However, Naofumi's attitude changes when he loses what little respect he had for Itsuki after he finds out that the Bow Hero kicked Rishia out of his party under the pretense of a crime that he and other party members orchestrated against her.

After finally tracking the whereabouts of Itsuki after the events of the Spirit Tortoise Incident, this leads to a fight between Rishia and Itsuki who was under the influence of numerous Curse Series and was being manipulated by Bitch (who later betrayed him.)

Following his defeat, Itsuki completely breaks apart, losing his pride, sense of justice, and becoming near-emotionless. He follows any orders given to him and is unable to lie. Naofumi, seeing Itsuki in his current condition, brings him to his village where Rishia continues to look after him.

After Itsuki's curse is lifted, the two heroes have a heart-to-heart conversation. Itsuki admits that he was wrong as a hero and he regrets his actions, especially what he did to Rishia. From now on, he desires to truly help people in trouble and to make everything right again. This greatly improves Naofumi's perception of Itsuki and he recognizes the drastic change in attitude.

Kizuna Kazayama
Naofumi first meets Kizuna when he falls into Kyo's trap while traveling to Glass’ world and is dropped into an inescapable prison instead. She quickly decides to trust him after hearing he has been working with Glass. He feels sympathy for her and they pool their knowledge together and Naofumi is able to engineer their escape, earning him her eternal gratitude. They decide to keep travelling together because it is safer, especially for Naofumi because his levels have been reset. He remains cautious of her because Glass and the others have tried to kill him before. But Kizuna completely takes his side and lectures her friends on what they had done, diffusing that threat.

They come to admire each other’s talents and sympathize with each other. They have both suffered injustice after being summoned to a new world and have the same kind of limitation placed on them by their holy weapons. The fact they were both serious otaku in Japan means they sometimes get into serious discussions their other friends cannot follow at all. They share many other personality traits and seem to develop a close friendship.

While the two heroes are both authentically trying to save their respective worlds, they have two different styles. Kizuna tends to be more diplomatic and friendly to her enemies while Naofumi would rather show a strong hand. Naofumi respects Kizuna attempting to be diplomatic but doesn't hesitate to point out the flaws in her efforts.

Raphtalia
Naofumi's first slave, a Tanuki demi-human child, that he purchased from Beloukas. Naofumi was forced to purchase her as a slave early on in order to compensate for his lack of offensive abilities, along with the stigma of the false charges against him that prevented him from forming a party with anyone else. Naofumi initially chose Raphtalia for her low price, and because he wanted to imagine enslaving Malty, who trumped up the false charges against him. Despite his questionable motives for obtaining her, Naofumi becomes a naturally benevolent master and treats Raphtalia very well after acquiring her. He provides her with medicine when she is ill, food when she is hungry, and protects her from harm during battles. Although she is a slave to him, the only times he would ever activate the Slave Crest to force her compliance was when she was too frightened to fight on her own. He also provides her with adequate shelter and comforts her during her various night terrors.

Raphtalia matures rapidly from a child to a young adult within a week or two due to the effects of her level grinding and her being a demi-human. Raphtalia becomes significantly more outgoing towards Naofumi and even has a decent handle on him, carefully finding ways to get him to comply with her choices despite their master-slave relationship. She becomes a much-needed pillar of support for him throughout their time together. When the three other Legendary Heroes, along with the King and Malty, attempt to sabotage Naofumi's ability to excel by forcibly removing the master-slave relationship between him and Raphtalia, she rebels against her new status as a free woman and willingly chooses to restore her Slave Crest at Beloukas' tent in order to remain beside Naofumi.

She's the first person, after Erhard, to take his side after what Malty did to him, and the one who ultimately succeeds in bringing him out of his despair. She wants Naofumi to look at her as an adult woman and has stripped completely naked in front of him to get his opinion of her nude figure. Unfortunately for Raphtalia, Naofumi misses her point completely, as he still sees her as the young girl he started with despite her maturity.

Naofumi constantly expresses a father-daughter relationship with her, but Raphtalia very much begs to differ. Naofumi trusts her implicitly. In fact, among his companions, she is one about who he cares the most. Raphtalia is also the only reliable restraint against Naofumi's more villainous tendencies and she expresses to him her preference that he acts as a proper hero, despite his belief that he is not. Whenever Naofumi takes pleasure in the suffering of those who've caused him grief, especially Malty and Trash, Raphtalia tries to reign him in and cautions against expressing this joy.

For Naofumi, Raphtalia is a reliable and loyal friend who he shares his joys and sorrows together with and is one of few he is willing to wholeheartedly trust with a sense of no doubt. Naofumi notably defines Raphtalia as "very charming" when he sees her dressed in a traditional Japanese miko (shrine maiden) outfit.

After Naofumi unlocked the blessed series which suppresses the effects of the wrath series shield, he is able to feel proper feelings and empathize with others for the first time since he first found Raphtalia. He struggles with these newfound emotion and tries to sort out his feelings - including the ones with Raphtalia.

Eventually, the two have a heart-to-heart conversation which briefly touches on the subject of marriage. While they don't directly talk about getting married, Naofumi gives her an exclusive bracelet which contains objects relating to their time together which Raphtalia emotionally accepts.

Rishia Ivyred
She joined Naofumi's party after being kicked out of Itsuki's party. She was framed for breaking one of Itsuki's accessories by another member of the Bow Hero's party, with Itsuki himself being a willing participant of it after Rishia inadvertently stole the spotlights that he wanted for himself during a clash with Glass and the Heroes from another world.

Naofumi empathizes with Rishia and feels a mutual connection with due to his similar situation of being framed on false charges. After Filo saves Rishia, Naofumi swears to her that he will help make her stronger so that Itsuki will beg to have her back on his team.

As she spends time within Naofumi's village, she gains confidence and immense fighting skills. Rishia doesn't share the negative view of the Church of Three Heroes because of her education at Faubley and expresses fear at Naofumi's demeanor until Raphtalia is able to remove her doubts. Since then, she greatly respects and aids Naofumi with whatever he needs to.

While Itsuki was under the Pride curse and began accusing Naofumi of being evil, Rishia defends Naofumi from Itsuki's baseless accusations. She points out how Naofumi has saved many demi-humans from slavery, gave them a home, and has worked tirelessly to help them. She further describes Naofumi as being like a parental figure to all his slaves - much to Naofumi's annoyance, as he denies being a slave master.

Glass
Glass seems to consider Naofumi and his party to be worthy opponents, even asking for his name after he manages to force her to retreat during their battle (for reference, she had moments before effortlessly defeating the other three Heroes and their respective parties - all of them being groups larger than Naofumi's party - simultaneously). Like many others, she finds some clear fault with Naofumi's personality. She later warns her comrades of Naofumi.

When they meet again in the Spirit Tortoise, which was rampaging because of a man named Kyo from Glass's world, they display their respective hostility towards one another but are willing to become allies against Kyo as their common enemy.

When Naofumi enters Glass's world and rescues Glass's most important friend, Kizuna Kazayama, Glass starts showing her softer side, which he didn't really expect and sees as "out of character" to him. Because of Kizuna, Glass starts to become more mellow towards Naofumi. In their final battle against Kyo, the two eventually develop a bond of deep mutual trust. A significant sign of this new friendship is when Naofumi gives Glass the recipe for soul-healing water, a concoction that didn't exist in Glass's world, which helps cover her SP weakness in battle.

By the time Naofumi return to her world for a second time, Glass sees him as a valuable ally to fight alongside.

Aultcray Melromarc XXXII
Naofumi hates the King, and with good reason, as he played a part, along with his daughter Malty, in setting Naofumi up with the criminal charge of rape and made certain to spread the word all throughout the kingdom. Although given the King's genuine display of stupidity in believing the claims that Naofumi could "brainwash" people, it's likely he may have just believed Malty's claims and acted upon them rashly. Ultimately, the King hates the Shield Hero in general, which just unfortunately transferred to Naofumi because of that relationship.

When the Queen returns and clears Naofumi's name, she allows him to mete out punishment to the King, Naofumi immediately asks for the death penalty, but is talked down to a less extreme punishment that results in changing the King's given name to "Trash." Naofumi at this point realizes the real threat of the Waves of Calamity (after witnessing Glass's strength) and avoids making any new enemies, so he agrees to just rename Aultcray to Trash. He is subsequently stripped of all his rights to the throne, along with any power he had already accrued within the kingdom.

Trash's unreasonable hatred for Naofumi continued after this until he meets Atla, who closely resembles his deceased sister, under Naofumi's care. After this, Trash resigns himself to remain silent in front of Naofumi, unlike previously when he would create a ruckus against him.

Volume 16 Spoilers

Filo
Naofumi's second real comrade and slave. He purchased her as an egg from the same slave trader that he obtained Raphtalia from. Although she was purchased more along the lines of a beast, he raises her with compassion alongside Raphtalia. Like the phenomenon of level grinding that Naofumi experiences with Raphtalia, Filo quickly grows beyond a normal Filolial and is later revealed to be an extremely rare Filolial Queen, manifesting in her ability to assume the form of a youthful human girl.

Filo is far more direct with expressing her impulsive nature, which in some instances has been encouraged by Naofumi when he finds it amusing to him and negatively impacting those he views have wronged him. For example, when she kicks Motoyasu in the crotch during her first encounter with him, Naofumi immediately feels she was a brilliant investment and tells her to do it every time henceforth. Generally speaking, Naofumi has found Filo's expression of selfishness, gluttony, and childish-tantrum behavior to be annoying. However, despite these misgivings, he still cares for her greatly as a companion. This reflects a relationship similar to a parent and daughter.

Overall, the two truly do care for each other so much that the second time he invoked his Wrath Shield, his belief that Filo had died fueled that manifestation. Like Raphtalia, Filo displays great affections (including romantically) towards Naofumi. She even sometimes competes with Raphtalia as a love rival. Naofumi sees himself more as Filo's owner like how he views Raphtalia as his own daughter, thus not seeing Filo as a love interest. She constantly seeks Naofumi's attention and approval and expresses great joy when she pleases him but displays great worry that he may possibly leave her.

Eventually, as more people joined Naofumi's village, Filo's romantic advances towards Naofumi dies away. When Naofumi hatches Gaelion the dragon, Filo and Gaelion compete for Naofumi's affection, much to his annoyance.

Melty Q Melromarc
The Second Princess, and younger sister to Malty, she first got along with Naofumi for befriending Filo until her status as the Second Princess and Malty's younger sister was revealed, making Naofumi immediately distrust her. Whenever Melty tried to speak to Naofumi or when she didn't understand why he was so cynical and cold towards her, Naofumi expressed disdain, as he believed she was no different than the other nobles and royalty who looked down on and ridiculed him. She attempted to force Naofumi into apologizing for dishonoring her father and amend the relationship between them but was treated by him as an annoyance in return.

After the Three Heroes Church attempted to kill her due to a trumped-up conspiracy, Naofumi became the only person that Melty could actually rely on to save her life, as the other Heroes, her sister, and her Knights were all either being deceived by the Church or were willing participants in the conspiracy. It was through this journey that Naofumi begins to see she is very different from the other nobles and royalty but still finds her rather naive.

She has become something of a tsundere towards Naofumi due to these events, and it's implied that her feelings for him extend beyond what she wants him to hear about. She dislikes being treated as a child or being called "second princess" by him and eventually convinces him to call her by her name instead. Their relationship improves to the point that he allows Melty to play with Filo again when he originally warned Filo not to befriend her and would entrust Filo to Melty when he returned to his world.

After the death of her mother and the victory of war against Faubrey, she succeeds in the position as the new queen. Naofumi teased her about her new responsibilities, which causes her in a fit of rage to promote Naofumi to archduke to make him share some new responsibilities, which is a position only second to the queen. In addition, without realizing at first, she accidentally makes Naofumi her fiance in name.

Keel
Besides Raphtalia, Keel became the first villager of Lurolona Village which Naofumi saved. Due to their early history, Keel becomes the voice of the villager slaves but also acts casually and familiarly which annoys Naofumi. Naofumi puts Keel in charge of the peddling operation to generate revenue for the village and ends up being extremely good despite Keel despising being dressed up as a girl. Keel is also obsessed with Naofumi's cooking and will even eat it off the floor if it drops.

Sadeena
An Orca demi-human who was Raphtalia's family guardian before the Waves destroyed Raphtalia's village. The two first met when Sadeena, under the alias Nadia, gives Naofumi advice on how the Zeltoble colosseum works. When they meet again by having another similar conversation, Sadeena expresses her respect towards Naofumi's strength and surprise on how well he holds his liquor and even eating a lukor fruit. When they finally face each other, Raphtalia ends up revealing their respective true identities. This makes them realize their shared goal in saving the villagers who were slaves in Zeltoble, leading the two to work together.

When Sadeena returns to the rebuilt village with Naofumi and his allies, Naofumi expresses both his shock and displeasure on how Sadeena ostensibly wants to make him her life companion because of how well he can hold his liquor better than her. While Naofumi doesn't realize this, it is revealed that this flirting is partially Sadeena's way to push Raphtalia to pursue her relationship with Naofumi more aggressively. Naofumi thinks about how he would've originally liked this before being betrayed by Malty but now finds it annoying. As a result, he constantly rebuffs Sadeena's flirting. When Naofumi's emotions were released and he becomes confused with his newfound feelings, he attempted to accept Sadeena's repeated advances. However, for Naofumi and Raphtalia's sake, she declines.

Regardless, Naofumi deeply respects Sadeena for her strength and begins depending on her in the rebuilding of the village and training the villagers to fight the Waves. This reliance also expands towards becoming a party member, where she helps fight various adversaries for him and Raphtalia. He also considers doing the slave contract with her to further increase her strength through the slave bonus stat leveling even if she has to restart her level, although Sadeena doesn't mind.

Atla
A Hakuko-human hybrid slave that Naofumi purchased from Beloukas, along with her brother to help Raphtalia's village. Naofumi bought the siblings because of the potential he saw in their bloodline and saw her as a means to ensure her brother's loyalty. Despite being blind, Atla felt Naofumi's presence, which she described as being "both strong and kind, though with deep sadness hidden within." This made Atla trust Naofumi and request him to take care of her brother because of how she originally wouldn't live much longer. When Naofumi cured her with an Elixir of Yggdrasil, which was created by his Shield, Atla became very attached, if not affectionate, towards him and wished to be of great use to him.

While Naofumi found these actions rather bothersome, he continued to care for Atla like the other slaves he purchased for the village. He didn't think much of Atla's goal to be his "shield," not realizing Atla was very serious about it. He began to see how Atla had more potential in combat than her brother and reconsidered her usefulness that he sparred with her along with Raphtalia. This level of trust developed to where Naofumi was able to entrust Atla in a strategy and battle against the Demon Dragon.

Volume 15 Spoilers

Mirellia Q Melromarc
The Queen and Naofumi were on fairly good terms as business acquaintances. While he knew he was being used by her, he also knew that she needed him, so he was willing to put up with it. The fact that she cleared his name and punished her husband and daughter for their mistreatment of him seemed to be the crux of their relationship. Both of them treated each other as equals, but she acknowledged his worth both politically and as a Holy Hero.

Erhard
He runs a weapons shop in Melromarc and is the only person who believed in Naofumi after he was falsely accused by Bitch - ironically, it was Bitch herself who had introduced Naofumi to Erhard. He makes most, if not all, of the equipment worn by Naofumi along with his carriage, especially his Bandit-themed Barbarian Armor, and is also responsible for teaching Raphtalia the basics of swordsmanship. His skills come from a blacksmith from the East. He wants Naofumi to find another blacksmith, as he believes his own skills to be sub-par, but Naofumi places a higher value on his skill and his friendship.

Beloukas
While Naofumi considers the slave merchant to be a useful person due to his role in providing him with various slaves for his growing army, he does not indicate any real trust for the man. The merchant has noted that Naofumi has good business sense, referring to him as his favorite customer and a man who cannot be easily deceived. Naofumi, on the other hand, creeps out on him. Regardless, Naofumi continues to do various forms of business with him, whether it involves purchasing more slaves, establishing slave contracts, or obtaining valuable information.

Ost Horai
At first Naofumi was suspicious of Ost since she claimed to be a familiar of the Spirit Tortoise. However, she proved to be a valuable ally in defeating the corrupted Guardian Beast. Through her unique magic, she was able to provide assistance in battle and even prevent Naofumi from being overcome by his Shield of Wrath. She also taught him about the hero-exclusive magic: Liberation-class. Naofumi deeply respected her and her sacrifice needed to defeat her own body.

Eclair Seaetto
Eclair was first introduced as one of the mentors Queen Mirellia had called in order to train the heroes how to properly fight. Unfortunately, Naofumi was the only hero that didn't try to skip out on training and she eventually joined his party for a small while.

Eclair was also the governor of the land which Naofumi eventually took over. While she was a proficient fighter and eventually helped contain the rampaging Ren, she was a terrible governor and preferred to train instead of managing a territory. Naofumi eventually stripped her of her responsibilities and gave them to Melty instead.

Elrasla Grilaroc
Elrasla was an old lady which Naofumi helped deliver medicine to while he was a peddling trader. It turns out that she was the last remaining practitioner of the art of Hengen Muso. Due to his help, she was inspired to come out of retired to help fight enemies and teach others about Hengen Muso. She was one of the experts which Queen Mirellia found to help teach the heroes how to properly fight. Naofumi's party where the only ones who properly trained under her. Eventually, she came to Naofumi's village to help train to villagers in Hengen Muso to fight against the waves. Due to her training, Naofumi's combat potential greatly increased and he started to be able to see life force.

Malty S Melromarc
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. Naofumi'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 him suffer by every means of opportunity, like trying to take his slave away from him and interfering in the duel for ownership of his slave, calling him a criminal and framing any crime possible. When Naofumi's name was cleared, the queen gave the choice of punishment for Malty to Naofumi. Malty uses her craftiness and appeal to craft a facade of contrition towards Naofumi, with the intention of nullifying her punishment. But she was seen through, and he demanded the death penalty. This was the first and only time for Malty to call Naofumi by his name. After been talked down, her punishment was having her completely stripped of her royal status and her name changed to "Bitch."

Since then, Malty continues to try to hurt Naofumi which causes his hate to grow and become more maniacal. She manipulated Ren and Itsuki into attack Naofumi and manipulated multiple vanguards of the waves to attack Naofumi which results in some of Naofumi's companions to die. It is Naofumi's main dream to be able to one day capture Malty and reciprocate all of the evil which has be done to him.

Naofumi Iwatani/Relacje