Naofumi's Triumphant Return

Naofumi's Triumphant Return (尚文の凱旋) is the twenty-first episode of The Rising of the Shield Hero anime.

Synopsis
After saving Naofumi’s life, Queen Mirellia tells him the truth about the Heroes being summoned and the reason why he was particularly persecuted. Furthermore, as Mirellia wants to clear Naofumi from the false accusations, she starts the impeachment trial.

Plot
Naofumi, Melty, Raphtalia, and Filo see themselves at an island, whose ruins bear a flag that gets Naofumi shocked. It was just a dream, as the Shield Hero wakes up in Castle Town's infirmary at Melromarc, recovering from the Blood Sacrifice's gruesome wounds, with the three girls sleeping by his bed. He had lost consciousness after destroying the malevolent Pope, his entire body bandaged, and has been sleeping for three days (and still one entire month to recover completely). Even with Queen Mirellia's potent healing magic, curses like the Blood Sacrifice can only heal with time, according to Raphtalia. Blood Sacrifice is a powerful cursed technique that destroys both caster's and target's bodies, but it seems to not have affected the others that much thanks to Fitoria's containment magic. Naofumi recognizes two of the Queen's Shadows among the medics treating him, and the Queen herself comes into the room to formally re-introduce herself. Naofumi questions her about why Melromarc hates the Shield Hero's figure so much, and she tells him the real story about it...

When the second Catastrophe Wave struck, she was away in an international forum with the other countries, discussing the battles against future Waves, and each nation should invoke one Cardinal Hero, but Malty and King Aultcray had summoned the four at once, which angered the other nations, and she entrusted her friend Lord of Saeatto (the one mentioned by Van Reichnott) to keep them under control, but he was tragically killed during the Wave. Mirellia also explains that the Church of the Three Heroes had taken advantage of Aultcray's latent hatred for the Shield Hero persona to manipulate him. Despite this, there are other nations, like Siltvelt (who is known for demi-human supremacy), who empathize with and even worship the Shield, but Naofumi decides to leave Melromarc and fight off the Waves so he can soon return to his world. More privately, Mirellia asks Naofumi to come to the Castle the next day to witness Malty's and Aultcray's punishment and have his name publicly cleared. Raphtalia is specially happy on hearing the news, but that night Naofumi has a horrible dream about Malty and Aultcray being put to death in guillotines, though he shouldn't care about their deserved fate. Next day, at the Castle, a party members of the heroes complain that they aren't allowed into. Inside but the shield hero party was allowed. Naofumi's party, sans Melty, finds the other three Heroes, who were also asked to come. Inside the throne room, Malty and Aultcray are brought in handcuffed and brought to trial before the entire court, having the Queen herself as judge and executor.

For the trial - including even Erhard's presence -, Aultcray gets frozen by the Queen's ice magic and Malty is given a temporary Slave Crest (similar to Beloukas' slave rituals) to ensure she cannot lie anymore. Motoyasu still refuses to believe their guilt in the crimes. Their first charge is their conspiracy together with the Church's Pope to murder the Cardinal Heroes as the Church's remaining followers are being hunted and arrested, not to mention how Malty tried to murder Melty and frame Naofumi for this other crime, which is confirmed by Ren and Itsuki, much to Motoyasu's shock. The Slave Crest tortures Malty everytime she tries to lie her way out of the trial. Worst of all, Malty's Crest finally confirms the lie about Naofumi having tried to "rape" her, thus clearing his name at the public eye for good. Aultcray, however, in a last defensive attempt, insists on Naofumi being the "Shield Devil" and claims to have done all this "for the sake of Melromarc and his family". The Queen's verdict is, father and daughter are found guilty of all the charges of high treason and conspiracy, officially stripped of their royal status and sentenced to death. However, Naofumi doesn't feel any better, as he knows from his dream what comes next. Melty feels sorry that many had suffered and even died (such as Raphtalia and Rifana) due to their crimes. Even with the Queen's verdict, the people of Melromarc doesn't approve their death sentence.

The public execution flows exactly the same as shown in Naofumi's dream, and after the Queen explains the reason to their deaths, the entire people, now in rage, wants them executed. Naofumi still questions himself if death is what they truly deserve. Malty pleads help to Motoyasu but he simply scoffs her, so she turns to Naofumi... for the first time calling him by his given name, "Naofumi-sama". Seeing that even the Queen herself is very reluctant on going ahead with the execution, Naofumi suddenly orders to stop it, much to the surprise of everyone. With sadistic pleasure, he states that death is too good for them, so they may choose between death or having their names permanently changed into "Trash" and "Bitch" respectively (with Malty's new adventurer name being "Slut" instead of "Myne"), their humiliation greatly overjoying the crowd. Their death sentence is then officially lifted in exchange for this permanent tarnish on their lives. Queen Mirellia also declares the Three Heroes Church to be abolished and replaced with the "Four Heroes Church" as Melromarc's new official religion, with the Shield Hero equally revered with the other three Heroes, again to the public's happiness as they throw away their old Church rosaries.

Queen Mirellia intends to hold a ceremony to generously award the Heroes, but Naofumi wants none of it; he instead declares that he, as a Cardinal Hero, will help all nations against future Waves, but may think about a reward later. At sunset, as Naofumi, Filo and Raphtalia are departing, Melty vows to change Melromarc for the better, including for demi-humans. After they are gone, Mirellia confesses to Melty that she would sacrifice herself in exchange for Malty and Aultcray, should Naofumi not stopped the execution in time. As Naofumi's party prepares to leave the Castle, the entire people and even the Knights respectfully revere him. Melty cries with happiness because he had brought her back home safely and spared Trash's and Bitch's lives. Naofumi now smiles, as he feels he can be himself again, respected and revered as a true Hero. As one of the Four Cardinal Heroes, he reassures his vow to fight the Waves wherever they happen.

Trivia

 * This is the third episode which didn't begin with the Opening theme.
 * This is the first episode without any Ending theme.
 * The queen confirmed Aultcray's hatred for the Shield Hero.
 * The status screen of the queen is shown during the time of slave registration of Malty, despite being mentioned in the first episode that Status Magic is only exclusive to the Heroes.
 * This episode shows the first time for Malty to call Naofumi by his given name and he was the only hero whom Malty never called by name. But, in English dubbed version she called Naofumi by his name at-least twice (Episodes 2 and 13) without Mr.
 * This episode showed for the first time for Mald to talk on screen.