Melromarc

Melromarc (メルロマルク) is a matriarchal country under a monarchy system, where the current queen holds the true authority of the country. It is a human supremacist country, where slavery of demi-humans is legal.

Summary
With the capital situated in the center of the country and referred to only as Castle Town, the country of Melromarc is a matriarchy ruled by the queen, Mirellia Q Melromarc. While the queen is away handling diplomatic relations, power and authority falls into the king's hands to rule as he sees fit. During one such diplomatic outing, the waves of calamity abruptly started, ravaging the kingdom and other regions of the world. This resulted in the destruction of the demi-human protected village. Melromarc's king summoned the four heroes and asked them to fight the waves. The queen was shocked after learning what her husband did and tried to release the pent up tension of the international community. Unfortunately, all the negotiations by the queen were undone by the actions of the King and the church's cumulative actions.

Meanwhile, the Shield Hero was heavily discriminated against due to false charges. This increased the tension in the community as the heroes were not properly managed and were ramping things on their own accord, which resulted in more damage than success. The king and the first princess were misusing their power and authority and the most privileges were denied to the Shield Hero, actions that the king kept a secret from his wife as he was not responding to her letters.

When Mirellia returned, she punished everyone who was involved and proved the innocence of the Shield Hero. She tried to persuade the Shield Hero to base his action in her land, but the Shield Hero was considering moving to another nation until he recalled Fitoria's words, where she emphasized that all the heroes need to cooperate to fight the waves. The queen lowered her head as she begged him to work in her nation.

Mirellia revealed that her nation lost access to the seven-star heroes because of the four cardinal heroes' summoning. Towards the end of the series, it rose up to be the most powerful country of the world, not only because of the possession of four holy heroes, but also because of their resounding victory against Faubrey, which had until then been the most powerful country. In the past, Trash became a well-renowned hero of Melromarc.

History
Melromarc has had a long history of waging war with neighboring countries, most notably with the demi-human nation Siltvelt. This was mostly due to the racial discrimination that existed in both nations against the other race and also because of the religious beliefs of the other nations/races viewed as evil entities.

Customs
Due to the matriarchal nature of the kingdom, Melromarc practices the tradition of having the husband's name decided by the wife.

Government
Melromarc is a matriarchal country under the rule of the queen, who holds the highest authority. Along with being a matriarchal country, Melromarc has an oligarchy power structure with powerful nobles bidding to keep in the favor with the monarchy for power and influence. In society, women hold higher social value and power than men. Any violence against women is considered to be an offense punishable by the death penalty.

Religion
Melromarc's religion is the extremist faction that split from the Four Saints Faith into the Church of the Three Heroes. However, due to the terrorist nature of the church's actions, the majority of their members were either executed or imprisoned. It was later replaced by the Religion of Four Saint Faith. Their first task was to correct all the misconceptions spread by the former church in regards to the Shield Hero and also to improve the relationship between the humans and demi-humans. Unfortunately, it wasn't as easy as it seemed, as it took too long to both overwrite the centuries of Three Heroes Church preaching and mend the bad blood between the humans and demi-humans, and the reputation of the Shield Hero was far too damaged to be corrected. The staunch believers of the cult refused to change even after the evidence was brought to light. In addition, cult fanatics caused problems for Naofumi many times later. While the majority of the commoners switched to the new religion, the nobles who aided the country to fight the war against demi-humans were still adamant and were helping the remnants of the cult to rise.

Military
In times of Trash's youth, Melromarc made its mark for its resourcefulness, as they were able to defeat the mighty Siltvelt which dreamed of world conquest. But in times when its glory and strength went downhill, they did all they could to prevent Naofumi from crossing the border, for they were fearing a war with Siltvelt. The queen used her diplomatic wit to prevent war, even willing to marry off her first daughter, Malty, to the cruel king of Faubrey to prevent the war. The queen bowed to the feet of the Shield Hero and begged him to stay in Melromarc, as it might start another war if he chose to leave.

After Trash comes to his senses, they take down the powerful expedition of Faubrey under Tact, reclaiming its former glory and rising to be the most powerful military of the world.

Economy
Melromarc uses a system of metals pieces as its legal tender. The smallest unit is the bronze piece. 100 bronze pieces are equivalent to a single silver piece. 100 silver pieces is worth a single gold piece. Within Castle Town, a room for a single person and the cheapest meal available at a tavern is worth 30 and 9 bronze pieces respectively. Outside of Castle Town, a room in Riyute village's inn is 1 silver per night.

Geography
Melromarc is on the main world continent surrounded by some of the most powerful kingdoms on the continent: Rock Valley, Shieldfreeden, Siltvelt, and the Zeltoble kingdoms, etc.

Faubrey
Though peaceful relations existed between them, it deteriorated after Melromarc summoned the four heroes against the international agreement. However, the Queen agreed to the demand of the king of Faubrey, winning the nation's support in the world conference for the time being. It was again stained when Tact rose to power and killed the queen of Melromarc for no apparent reason. He invaded all the countries, including Melromarc, under the pretext of uniting the world under the true hero, himself. The original four heroes and Siltvelt followed Trash's plan to squash its army and took control of most of Faubrey, making Melromarc the powerful nation.

Siltvelt
Melromarc and Siltvelt had centuries of bad blood mostly because of the treatment of racial differences and discrimination based on it. When Siltvelt desired for global domination, Luge of Melromarc halted their way. The queen of Melromarc mended things with Siltvelt after decades of peace negotiation by setting up a protected demi-human village in Melromarc while Siltvelt followed her example and set up a human protected region in their land. This earned both nations a decade of peace. Unfortunately, this peace shattered when Melromarc summoned the four heroes against the international agreement, and to make the matter worse, the horrible treatment of the Shield Hero enraged Siltvelt to wage war. The Queen was able to diffuse the situation and things finally settled after she gained the trust of Shield Hero.

Siltvelt was upset with Tact's action and joined forces with Melromarc, surprising themselves for forming an alliance. Finally, they jointly put down their enemies. Their relationship was mostly mended except for the treatment of slavery under the pretext of fixing that in the future. They even gave their approval for the engagement of the Shield Hero and Melty, if women from their land are permitted into Nafumi's harem.

Shieldfreeden
Nothing much is mentioned about the past relationship between Shieldfreeden and Melromarc. But they were infuriated by Melromarc for going against the international agreement. They were ready to wage war with Melromarc for their misdeeds against the Shield Hero. They allied with Tact when he claimed himself to be the real hero, even though he stole the weapon from Naofumi. This earned the ire from the allied forces and the heroes. After the defeat of Tact, they changed their stance. Trash called the world to join hands to fight against the waves and not petty squabbles like Shieldfreeden's actions. It was clear that the nation lost its stand and power in the world.

Zeltoble
They have a fairly decent relationship. Zeltoble also helped Melromarc in shadows in times of the Tact expedition.

Trivia

 * Despite Melromarc being a matriarchy, even the women born in the noble and royal families feared being sent to Faubrey to be the king’s playthings, implying that their mothers would send them to Faubrey if their crimes were to be serious.