Four Heroes Council

Four Heroes Council (勇者会議) is the twenty-second episode of The Rising of the Shield Hero anime.

Synopsis
After being unable to for so long, Naofumi finally gets to upgrade his party's classes. He then takes part in a meeting of the Four Cardinal Heroes, held under the guise of a celebratory banquet. There, he learns of the existence of a bonus stage, with increased XP earnings. Meanwhile, Raphtalia gets into a fight at the party.

Plot
Melromarc, at dawning. Filo pulls Naofumi's and Raphtalia's wagon towards the Church of the Three Heroes, which is being restructured to become once again the country's original religion, "The Church of the Four Heroes" - including the Shield in its teachings, as depicted in the new official crest. Raphtalia comments that the country is about to change for the better, and Naofumi states that they can finally upgrade class, thanks to Queen Mirellia. Inside, Ake tells them the Queen had entrusted him the Dragon Hourglass, and they can commence the class upgrade ritual. Raphtalia and Filo try to class up, complete with the free choice option for them. However, in the throne room, Naofumi explains the process was somehow flawed, as they couldn't make some specific choices. The Queen explains that some items can affect the class upgrade process, which Naofumi attributes to Filo's cowlick given by Fitoria. Upon hearing this name, Queen Mirellia suddenly gets a fit of delight and Melty tells about her experience with the titanic Filolial Queen, to which Mirellia would love to experience too - Naofumi notices how mother and daughter are birds of a feather. Once their excitement fades, Mirellia tells them that she intends to throw a party tonight and needs the Four Heroes to attend, but this party is only an excuse to cover up something extremely important that she wants the Heroes to know.

Naofumi feels sorry the class upgrade failed, as he wanted Raphtalia and Filo to become free after he returns to his own world, to their concern. During the banquet at the reception hall, Raphtalia feels sad for Naofumi's absence at the table. Melty notices Bitch, now wearing commoner clothing as she was officially stripped of any royalty status, sneaking into the kitchen. In another room, Queen Mirellia sits at a meeting (their table is round-shaped, which hints an informal reunion) with Naofumi and the other three Heroes, who feel all displeased about it. Back at the banquet, Raphtalia feels concerned about Naofumi returning to his world but gets very angry when Mald, completely drunk, starts ranting prejudice against Demi-Humans and the Shield Hero. A huge fight ensues in the dining hall, while in the kitchen Melty catches Malty/Bitch in the act, slipping some liquid (much probably, poison) into a pie. Naofumi remembers how he had promised Fitoria to clear his name and reunite the Heroes. Attempting to quell the animosity, Queen Mirellia tells that the Cal Mira Archipelago will soon "activate" (it does once per decade), meaning the island grants additional EXP bonus at a faster rate, catching the Heroes' interest. Melty comes in and tells Mirellia about Bitch trying to poison food intended to Naofumi's party. Motoyasu keeps refusing to believe Malty's evil nature, but it was confirmed by her still-present Slave Crest (revealing that Motoyasu had also made the slave pact with her). Mirellia also adds that the constant infighting between the Heroes (partly thanks to Malty's antics) halted their leveling up considerably, that's why she wants them to go to Cal Mira, but they keep detaching themselves out of pure selfishness. So the Queen has no other option but to shock them by telling that they must unite until the next Catastrophe Wave, or they will die.

Simply put, Queen Mirellia recalls how they were all easily defeated by Glass during the previous Wave. Even that way, the Heroes still refuse to cooperate. Ren asks Naofumi where he did get his "cheating shield". The reception hall is completely thrashed due to people fighting each other (except Filo, who keeps eating nonchalantly), as Mald, now pinned down to the ground, keeps disparaging Naofumi. A waitress asks Raphtalia to calm down, but she tells that she'll "calmly" get rid of Mald in a swordfight. After Naofumi justifies his Shield as his hard work instead of "cheating", the Heroes discuss other capabilities from the Legendary Weapons: Motoyasu explains that, by touching any weapon of the same type of his Legendary Weapon, the Hero can copy its properties into his own Weapon; Ren adds that, by feeding specific materials and recipes into the Weapon, it can later craft desired items (such as bottles) while Nafoumi had been doing it manually; Itsuki declares that the Legendary Weapon allows instant teleportation to any place the Hero is registered on. Naofumi gets surprised, as he didn't know any of this beforehand. However, the other Heroes hold different viewpoints about which weapon is the best: Itsuki talks about a weapon's rarity; Ren defends the point of the Hero's weapon proficiency; Motoyasu calls for refinement and status. This only increases their animosity, annoying Naofumi even more. Raphtalia sword-clashes with everyone from Itsuki's party at the messed-up hall (and Rishia comically takes a pie to her face), while at the council the Heroes start a ruckus about their petty weapon talk; Naofumi, having enough of it, literally slams his fist on the table, declaring them "a lost cause", and abandons the meeting in frustration.

Later that night, as Filo sleeps with Melty, Naofumi, and Raphtalia feel quite bad for how their day had ended without any positive outcome. Naofumi still thinks about the weapon copy systems of the Legendary Weapons and sees his Shield still lacks one. As he chooses to believe what the other Heroes discussed about it, the Shield suddenly unlocks its own weapon copy skill, to Naofumi's surprise. At sunrise, much after the other three Heroes had already gone, Queen Mirellia tells Naofumi the ship to Cal Mira will depart from the nearby harbor within the next 24 hours. This time, Melty did not want to follow them, as she now has her own royal duties at Melromarc. Naofumi's party arrives at Erhard's weapon shop and Naofumi starts assimilating every shield he finds inside, much to Erhard's frustration; however, Naofumi promises to pay him once he returns from Cal Mira. During the way, at sunset, Raphtalia asks to make a stop at her old ravaged village, where Rifana and many others are interred. Keel vows to help reconstruct the village to its old glory, and Van Reichnott comments that there are many other surviving demi-humans scattered across the lands. Naofumi wonders if he can do anything for them; he gets rapidly acquainted to a red-haired guy and his blue-haired companion, who are passing by as well. Raphtalia and Filo are still worried about Naofumi someday going back to his world; he dismisses it because he can't leave the world at the hands of the "Three Cardinal Stooges" as he himself declares the other Heroes, but actually he's far more concerned about his girls' happiness after he's gone. The next morning, the ship is about to leave, and Naofumi sees the other three Heroes have arrived much earlier and will travel with them too. They all happily get aboard and depart to Cal Mira Island.

However, aboard the ship, Naofumi is told that the other Heroes had already occupied the private cabins, obviously due to their much earlier arrival, so he and his party will have to share a room with L'Arc and Therese (who are also en route to Cal Mira), much to the Shield Hero's repulse.

Light Novel & Manga Differences
Information to be added later on.

Trivia

 * The Church of the Three Heroes is remodeled into the Church of the Four Heroes (actually Melromarc's original religion), with the Shield being included in its faith.
 * The star mark near the level of Raphtalia and Filo disappears, indicating that they upgraded their class, but were not able to choose their option because of the cowlick gifted by Fitoria chose the best outcome for them.
 * Mirellia shares the same Filolial interest with her daughter, Melty.
 * Malty's new names, "Bitch" and "Slut," are being used in this episode, and she now uses commoners clothes to signify her being removed from royal lineage.
 * Malty retained the Slave Crest from the previous episode, which is forged by Mirellia and also by Motoyasu.
 * Nafoumi and Filo visited Raphtalia's village for the first time.
 * Naofumi refers to the other Heroes as "the three stooges," a real-life comedy series from the 1920s.

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