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, Volume 01, Chapter 23

Raphtalia (ラフタリア) (also ambiguously translated as Raftalia) is a Tanuki-type demi-human who was the first real member of the Shield Hero's party after he purchased her as a slave. She is now the Katana Hero (刀の勇者)

Personality
Initially, Raphtalia is very timid, sickly, and fearful as a result of her status as a slave as well as traumatic memories of the destruction of her village. After the encounter with the two-headed dog monster, she overcomes the trauma from her parents' death at the hands of the Cerberus and acknowledges Naofumi as a hero in her own mind. The current Raphtalia is focused on efficiency, in both combat, training, and money expenditures, 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 in lieu of her deceased parents.

Appearance
She has undergone some significant changes throughout the story. When Raphtalia is first introduced, she has long, unmanaged hair and a dirty cloth gown. After being purchased by Naofumi, he gave her hair a haircut to an acceptable length, gave her a bath, and bought her a much more suitable set of clothes to adventure in. As a Tanuki demi-human, Raphtalia is shown to have fluffy dog-like ears and an averagely sized bushy tail. After several weeks of traveling with Naofumi, Raphtalia's body inexplicably changes and she gained the appearance of a teenager or young adult It is revealed that demi-humans grow in relation to the progression of their levels, which led to Raphtalia's rapid development (though it is believed that she still has the mental maturity of a child, as seen when she stares enviously at children playing with a ball). In her adult form, Raphtalia began to wear clothing much more fitting for a warrior which consisted of a hide breastplate, skirt, lace-up boots and a pair of gloves. Raphtalia also switched from a small knife to a full sized sword during this time.

Blade Skills:

 * Illusion Sword: Used with Raphtalia's magic sword. It creates the illusion of the blade of a sword used to attack the enemy. This blade does not damage its target physically but causes mental damage associated with the supposed strike of the sword.
 * Ying Yang Blade: A technique where she fires the energy released by a defeated enemy and converts it into an attack.

Vassal Katana Skills:

 * Powder Snow: Drains the enemy's magic power by releasing it in the form of snow from the wounds made by this skill.
 * Misty Moon: Generates a ghostly moon-like disc by lowering the katana and then slicing upwards.
 * Instant Blade: Mist: Similar to Kizuna's Blood Flower Strike, it connects the enemy's weak points and slices through them.
 * Brave Blade: Mist: Traces and shoots out an energy cross by using two blades.
 * Double Sword: Creates a second sword.
 * Spirit Blade: Soul Slice: A skill similar to soul eat that depletes enemy SP. It's also effective against non-corporeal enemies, such as ghosts.

Vassal Katana Accessories:
The Vassal, seven star and legendary weapons can be strengthened by equipping accessories on them.
 * Gemstone Sheath: The gemstone in the sheath starts to charge up once the katana is sheathed. It activates haikuiku when the gemstone is charged up and the blade is drawn. The increased agility can be also used to shorten spell chants.

Magic:

 * First Light: Produces a bright illumination that reveals hidden monsters. Can also be used to blind enemies momentarily to escape.
 * Illusion: Magic that creates an illusion of Raphtalia to confuse her opponents.

Hengen Musou:
Later on in her adventures, Raphtalia learned the Hengen Musou style of fighting, and ever since then, she has become considerably more powerful.

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 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 it. Raphtalia survived the fall and went back to find her parents, but was unsuccessful. Shortly thereafter a group of slave traders came to her village and captured her. After that, she was sold to several different people before ending up in a slave dealers tent 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 a few months until she was purchased by Naofumi Iwatani where her life would be changed forever.

Summary
Raphtalia is the first cursed slave of Naofumi Iwatani. Initially, she was terrified of her new master but slowly began to develop trust and eventually romantic feelings for him. She is 10 years old but she has the appearance of a Tanuki in her early 20s. She generally uses a sword and illusion (Light and Dark) magic but began to be able to use a wider variety of magic types after her Class Up. She was able to study magic under the tutelage of the Melromarc's Court Magician and later went with Granny to study and become a master of Hengen Musou.

Raphtalia is the most important person to Naofumi and is considered his right hand, and is among the few people in Melromarc whom he trusts. She is from a subspecies of Tanuki with a unique lineage that comes from a certain hidden village within a secluded country in the east, however, she was born in a town which is now Rock Valley when her parents ran away from the hidden village to elope. When she was growing up, Sadeena acted as her family's guardian but was away when the first wave appeared and destroyed the village she was born in.

Relationships
Legendary Heroes 

Initially, she was scared of Naofumi, because of his demeanor and her experience with previous slave owners. After learning who he was and that he was fighting the wave, she decided to give her all for him. Their relationship has become quite close, and Naofumi is constantly thinking of what would make Raphtalia happy. Though Naofumi considers himself a father figure to Raphtalia, she has developed romantic feelings for him and is constantly trying to get him to notice those feelings. She is consistently let down by his personality, though she understands the reason that he acts the way he does and rarely steps in to stop him. It was because of Raphtalia that Naofumi seriously considered what his reasons were for fighting the waves. She stood by him, even after the rigged duel to free her. After the party exchange, Raphtalia considered Naofumi to be the only hero who deserves the title, but Naofumi reminded her that the other heroes are humans and that humans making mistakes is inevitable. He also asked her about his flaws to remind her that heroes are human, which she begins to list, much to his dismay.
 * Naofumi Iwatani:

Motoyasu thought Naofumi was forcing Raphtalia to be his slave and took it upon himself to free her. He challenged and defeated Naofumi in a rigged duel and forcefully removed her slave crest. He expected her to be grateful and give him a warm hug, but instead, his actions only upset her and she slapped him across the face for coming to his own conclusions and left with Naofumi.
 * Motoyasu Kitamura:

Though she doesn't hate Motoyasu quite as much as Filo does, she doesn't really care for him either. They were once forced to partner together as a training exercise and by the end of it, Raphtalia had lost a fair amount of respect for him. She stopped referring to him with honorifics or respect.

Despite his stupidity, even Motoyasu was able to see that Raphtalia's feelings for Naofumi were genuine and asked him about the progress of their relationship, only to be angered when Naofumi reveals that he does not realize that Raphtalia has feelings for him.

At their first meeting, Ren asked her not to hold him back, implying her to be inferior to him. But, most of the personals agreed that she was stronger than Ren many times. Éclair the sword master respected Raphtalia's prowess rather than his, causing him to become envious of her.
 * Ren Amaki:

He was under the same impression as Motoyasu, that Raphtalia was being forced to work under Naofumi, which reinforced his bad opinion of Naofumi because he was from a time and place where slavery wasn't tolerated and considered slavery evil. However, after Naofumi's name was cleared, he asked Raphtalia about her relationship with Naofumi and her thought of wanting not to fight and be free, but her negative reply betrayed Itsuki's feeling & thoughts which was seen in his face. Vassal Wielders  Companion Though there hasn't been any extended dialogue between Raphtalia and Filo, she does still care about Filo as a sort of younger sister and always looks out for her. Both of them try to get Naofumi's attention and often act as love rivals.
 * Itsuki Kawasumi:
 * Kizuna Kazeyama
 * Glass
 * L'Arc Berg
 * Filo:

They quickly get along, after learning that they both are in similar situations in regards to their love lives. They promise to help each other reach their goals. Both of them become pupils when learning Hengen Musou technique.
 * Melty Melromarc
 * Keel
 * Rishia:
 * Raph-chan
 * Sadeena: Raphtalia sees Sadeena as a reliable person.
 * Fohl
 * Atla
 * Wyndia
 * Imiya
 * Erhard:

Raphtalia considers Erhard to be a very kind man and a bit of a mentor, as he was the first person to instruct her on the basics of proper sword usage. He was worried about her condition at first but amazed at her being in good condition with Naofumi.

Raphtalia was under the governorship of Eclair's father. They view each other in good light. Eclair taught her in depth about swordsmanship. It was her actions that led Raphtalia to Naofumi, though not directly.
 * Eclair Seaetto:
 * Mirelia Q Melromarc: