Naofumi Iwatani

Naofumi was once a successful otaku University student before being summoned to Melromarc. His past experience with Malty Melromarc has made him dark and cynical, but he is still a generally nice person. He has an extremely high alcohol constitution, eating a heavily alcoholic fruit that would cause severe alcohol poisoning if ingested. Although he experiences a slow start because of the Malty incident and is on a much lower level than the other heroes, he is still able to keep up and even occasionally outshine them. Out of the heroes, he is the only one who has learned the written language because he was not given crystal balls to level up his magic abilities and had to learn from books along with Raphtalia. He is also the only one who treated the world as a world and not a game. He has learned to create medicine through recipes and scavenge for materials, something the other heroes left to their weapons. Lastly, he was the only one not killed in his old world before coming to this one. He named his village Rock Valley in spite of many objections.

Personality
Originally Naofumi was an extremely trusting and positive person, he was also enthusiastic about his situation when initially summoned, but this all changes quickly after he is betrayed by Malty. Left penniless, framed for rape, and hated, Naofumi becomes distrustful, cynical and spiteful towards the world. He becomes unable to trust anyone who is not his slave as a traveling companion and begins planning for events where people try to deceive him or rip him off. This betrayal has left him in an almost permanent state of anger and hostility, even while he usually acts calm and level headed on the surface.

His hatred for Malty is utterly without bound, to the point where he has become completely apathetic and ignorant to the advances of women in general, and even sometimes expresses disgust and hatred purely on the grounds that the other person is the same gender as Malty early on, though he never voices this to them. Due to Raphtalia and Firo, he becomes less inwardly hostile towards women over time, but is still evidently unable to notice their advances, Raphtalia herself, when her Slave Crest was being renewed, even asked him what he thought of her body, which had to be exposed for the application of the crest, only for him to completely miss the point. He was rather amazed when the Slave Merchant was willing to pay 15 gold pieces for Raphtalia after she became a beauty as well. He does however notice Atlas' feelings for him, if only because of how overwhelmingly blatant she is about showing them, and goes out of his way to have others he trusts sleep with him solely so they can kick her out of his bed when she comes by. Finally, when Firo goes into heat later in the story he was willing to do almost anything, including sacrificing the future queen herself, Princess Melty, to her lust instead, to protect himself. When his hatred was completely removed by the Wrath Dragon absorbing it, he did finally show awareness of Raphtalia's beauty, but the women around him found his suddenly happy and uplifting self so creepy that they threw him into the dragon's guts to get his hatred back.

Eventually, he recovers more of his caring side and begins treating Raphtalia like a daughter rather than a slave(she would ironically prefer he treat her more as a woman though). by the time he sets up a base of operations in Rock Valley, he is visibly kind to the slaves under his command, but not soft, as he still would not hesitate if discipline was called for. He comes to care enough about Firo to fly into a rage when he thinks she's dead, despite constantly finding her annoying. He in fact has a rather unique opinion of slavery and a very business-like outlook in general. the prime example is when he bought Raphtalia; he fed her well, gave her medicine, sheltered her, defended her from bullies and even treated her when she was good. He genuinely earns her affection through his treatment of her, to the point where she chooses to remain his slave when given the option to leave him. In his mind all of these actions were taken because they're practical, I.e. an unhealthy, unfed and half dead slave would be useless, so he genuinely can't understand why someone would neglect their treatment and health. He never mistreated or exploited any of the slaves under him and has disciplined them only when they refuse to do as ordered. This same treatment extends to literally all of the slaves he comes to own, with them even coming to treat him like a mother figure in return. According to Rishia and Ren it is even quite difficult to call them slaves, the latter even says outright that they look more like a large family.

He is also very observant, dislikes being ripped off, and will definitely not tolerate being stolen from; for example his grudge against Mald grew noticeably when he realized the man stole what was to be his new shield and made a point to personally defeat him. When merchants tried to rip him off or he saw bullies picking on Raphtalia, he sends literal monsters at them, since he himself can't attack. He can be somewhat of a sadist in this sense, to the point Raphtalia actually tried to warn those same bullies to run away.

His feelings towards the world eventually clear up, but he's still incredibly cynical, for example he will sell medicine to the rich for profit rather than give it out for free, he still buys slaves rather than trusts others, and he will treat another person's sense of justice as naive idealism. His feelings towards the other three heroes is also stained by Malty's betrayal, he accepts that he needs them to save the world, but when given the chance to kill Ren he was quick to take it. For reference, Ren is the one he hates least out of the other heroes.

When someone he hates suffers or is injured, or if he has a chance for payback, he will take it readily, much to the annoyance of Raphtalia, who would prefer he act like a prim and proper hero after his name has been cleared. He is also not above antagonizing others if he finds it amusing or if they annoy him. This can reach outright villainous levels, as shown when Malty was sold off to Faulbrey's king. Ren, after his reform, found that Naofumi's policies might indeed be rather villainous for a hero. For example Naofumi has made it a habit to rob any bandits foolish enough to attack him of everything they have, this policy in particular has begun to rub off on his subordinates. Even Eclaire, a knight with a stern belief in justice and yet one such imitator of Naofumi's policies, proudly calls his actions evil while seeing no problem with the fact that he's using them for good reasons, or because they are at the very least beneficial actions for his village and the country. He has even hired and trained, personally, a bandit group and made them into a type of privateering ring to deal with the growing problem of illegal merchants selling their goods in the country. It's precisely this attitude which makes him an amazing merchant and slaver, as noted by the Accessory Merchant and Slave Dealer he frequents, he doesn't concern himself with good, evil or justice and morality when making his decisions unless something is unduly harsh towards someone he actually likes or duly harsh towards someone he hates.

Despite being the most villainous, ironically Naofumi is perhaps the most effective of the heroes at getting things done, he corrected the problems the other three either started or worsened, and managed to deal with the Spirit Turtle, an act which required him to cheer up the allied troops, raise their moral, organise them, and effectively lead people his past would undoubtedly put him at odds with. The latter case is especially important because the other heroes unleashed it to begin with.

Appearance
Naofumi is a roughly 20 year old young man with black hair and fairly sharp features. He has a rather slim build and a permanent scowl on his face as a result of his mistreatment and cynical outlook on the world. The armour he wears is called the Barbarian Armor, and he is always equipped with his Legendary Shield. The armour in question is noted by others to suit him, even though one would expect a bandit leader to be wearing it.

Background
Naofumi was initially the unfavourite of his parents, all the pressure of their expectations were placed upon his brother and he simply lived without having to meet these expectations. One day, when his brother started acting out because of this, it was Naofumi who introduced him to Galga themed games, and managed to provide him with a hobby to relieve his stress.

Despite being an educated student and having a number of skills under his belt, as evidenced from his ability to quickly adapt to living unaided in the world, he is noted to have had poor grades in school.

Devil of Shield Arc
c1-78

Cal Mira Island Arc
c78-114

Spirit Turtle Arc
c115-130

Slave Supremacy Arc
c131-203

New 7 Deadly Sins
c204-357

Towards the Legend Arc
c357-378

The Christmas of Shield Hero
c379-385

After winter sets in Naofumi discovers that even in this world they celebrate Christmas.

The Valentine of Shield Hero
c386-402

The White Day of Shield Hero
c403-409

Loop 1 to 3 - Tutorial Arc
c410-414

Loop 4 - Silt Welt Arc
c415-455

Loop 5 - Melromarc Arc
c456-574

Loop 6 - Foburei Arc
c575-current

Legendary Shield Skills

 * Instant Shield (エアストシール): creates a shield at the location within sight range instantly.
 * Second Shield (セカンドシールド): Creates a second shield.
 * Change Shield (チェンジシールド): this technique allows Naofumi to turn one active shield into a different type. Namely, Naofumi can summon an Instant Shield and then change it to a Spike Shield, making a variable weapon out of it. This technique can be used for a number of combinations.
 * Portal Shield (ポータルシールド): a technique unlocked from a shield of the same name, allowing Naofumi and 6 or so allies to teleport between one of three designated locations in an instant. Requires an hour charge time after use.
 * Shield Prison (シールドプリズ): a technique whereby Naofumi creates a prison using a wall of shields around his intended target, this can be used to protect himself or detain his enemies. Initially limited to 15 seconds and rather frail compared to Eclair's attacks, Naofumi later managed to increase the shield's duration to 5 minutes and made it strong enough that Eclair cannot cut through it.
 * Iron Maiden (アイアンメイデン): Unlocked with Wrath Shield. By charging a Shield Prison with Needle Shield, Naofumi creates a powerful cage filled with violent spikes, skewering an opponent to death.


 * Blutopfer (ブルートオプファー): A technique unlocked with Wrath Shield 3, Naofumi's blood is extracted from his body in a large quantity when using this ability, it then forms a bear trap-like shape under the intended enemy and repeatedly mashes them to death. Use of this technique has the unfortunate side effect of seriously wounding its own wielder, to the point where his first use nearly killed him and his second weakened him for a full month.


 * Reflect Shield (リフレクトシールド)
 * Change Shield (Attack) (チェンジシールド（攻）)
 * Meteor Wall (アイアンメイデン) (流星壁)
 * Instant Float Mirror (エアスト・フロートミラー)
 * Second Float Mirror (セカンド・フロートミラー)

Heroes

 * Amaki Ren: Like the other heroes, Ren was initially led to believe Naofumi guilty of the charge of raping Malty, however, he was also, alongside Itsuki, one of the only people to defend Naofumi when Malty cheated to allow Motoyasu to beat him in their dual. He is also the only one of the heroes to actually believe Naofumi when he is later charged with kidnapping Princess Melty and he denies it. Neofumi considers Ren something of a loner, who runs his party like a guild and acts on his own at most times. While it can be said Naofumi does not find him as unbearable as Motoyasu or Itsuki, he still displays petty dislike of him and even tried to kill him when he succumbed to the influence of his Curse Series weapons. He does however see Ren's good side as a hero, and defends him when criticized by Raphtalia's high standards. When Ren refused to take responsibility for his actions in releasing the Spirit Tortoise and getting his comrades killed, Naofumi's opinion of him took a dive, causing him to view Ren as a selfish brat. Finally, after being freed from his Curse Series and finding himself in Naofumi's custody, Ren has begun learning from Naofumi and accepts the faults and responsibilities of his former self and past actions.
 * Kawasumi Itsuki: Naofumi's relationship with Itsuki is strained to put it politely, he dislikes how Itsuki acts solely to flaunt his pride and show off, and, like the other heroes, is quite begrudged at Itsuki for believing Malty's frame up. Later on, he did defend Itsuki from Raphtalia's criticisms by stating that Itsuki was stuck up, but would never let harm befall his allies, however, what little respect he had for Itsuki completely dissapears when Itsuki kicks Rishia out of his party for being weak. When they are reunited, Itsuki, in his cursed state, accuses Naofumi of various crimes, including partaking in slavery without rewarding said slaves and selling medicine to the rich while ignoring the poor. Naofumi comically remembers that his slaves love to eat his cooking, wondering just how unrewarded they really are in their services, and points out that he needs to make a profit, so the latter issue can't be helped. As of now, Itsuki remains in Naofumi's village, still undergoing his cursed state. In his cursed state, he is emotionless, expressionless, and his ambition as being seen as the hero of Justice, non-existent.
 * Kitamura Motoyasu: Initially Naofumi believed Motoyasu played a part in framing him for raping Malty, but over time has come to realize that Motoyasu is very stupid and evidently doesn't know he's being manipulated by Malty. It was Motoyasu nearly taking Raphtalia away from him through a rigged duel which finally set Naofumi off enough to awaken the Shield of Wrath. Motoyasu tries to behave in a friendly manner towards Naofumi, despite the charges placed on him, but becomes something of a rival to him, especially with Malty's continued influence upon him. Once Naofumi's name is cleared he begins to show more of a kind side towards him, but refuses to accept it when he's told that Malty is the one who set him up. After Malty finally betrays him as well, Motoyasu completely breaks, falls completely in love(or lust) with Firo, and starts calling Naofumi Father in Law. He becomes even easier for Naofumi to manipulate, and all but swears loyalty to him.
 * Aultcray Melromarc XXXII(Trash): Naofumi hates the king, and with good reason. With his daughter Malty, the king set Naofumi up as a criminal with the charge of rape and spread the word all over his kingdom. However, given his genuine display of stupidity in believing the claims that Naofumi could brainwash people, it's also likely he just believed Malty's claims. Ultimately, the king hates the Hero of the Shield, and that just unfortunately happened to be Naofumi. When the Queen cleared Naofumi's name and allowed him to punish the king, Naofumi immediately asked for the death penalty, but was talked down to renaming the king to "Trash" and stripping him of all his rights to the throne. After the death of the Witch, Trash seems to no longer be mentally aware of the world.
 * 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 moments before defeated the other three heroes and their respective parties, all of which are groups larger than Naofumi's party, at the same time). Like many others she finds some clear fault with Naofumi's personality, namely when he first appeared before her and steps on the unconscious Malty's head, though it's unknown how she'd react to that upon hearing about why he's so hostile towards said person.

Companions

 * Raphtalia: Naofumi's first slave that he bought from the Slave merchant. A Tanuki Demi-human. Naofumi bought her early on to compensate for his inability to attack and chose her both for her low price and because he wanted to imagine enslaving Malty. Despite his questionable reasons for buying her, Naofumi treats the growing child well, giving her medicine, food, and protects her during battle. The only times he ever activated the Slave Crest is when she's too scared to do it on her own. He also shelters her and comforts her during her various night terrors. By the time she physically matures due to level grinding. One week later, Raphtalia becomes significantly more outgoing towards Naofumi and even has a decent handle on him, carefully findings ways to get him to comply with her choices despite their master-slave relationship. She becomes a much needed pillar of support for him; even willingly chooses to remain his slave, despite her new status as a free woman, all because of Malty's actions, Naofumi can't trust anyone who's not a slave. She's the first person, after Oyaji, to take his side after what Malty did to him, and the one who ultimately succeeds in bringing him out of his despair. She want’s Naofumi to look at her as an adult woman, to the point where at least once she's stripped completely naked in front of him and asked him what his opinion of her naked body was, only for him to miss the point completely. The primary issue is that he knows that she's really ten years old despite looking like a twenty year old, and thus he doesn't think of her feelings are romantic. That, and Malty's betrayal has left him apathetic towards women in general. Naofumi constantly believes they have a father-daughter relationship but Raphtalia would very much beg to differ. She's the one he trusts the most, and the one he ultimately cares for the most. It's slightly possible he subconsciously notices her romantic feelings for him after all, but has his own reasons for pushing them aside. These reasons are implied to be logical, as he doesn't want to dismiss her as war potential by making a mistake with her. Emotionally, as he remembers his initial reasons for buying her, he doesn't feel deserving of such a relationship. He figures out that she loves him, but believes she's mistaking her feelings for what should be a father figure with feelings of romance instead. Raphtalia is also the only real leesh that's reliably restraining Naofumi's more villainous tenancies as she would prefer him to act as a prim and proper hero, which he doesn't think he is. Whenever Naofumi takes joy in the suffering of those who've caused him grief, especially Malty and Trash, Raphtalia tries to caution him against showing his joy. On that note, she hates the people who've hurt him as much as he does, especially Malty, who she ultimately takes the chance to beat up and humiliate when she rebels against her own kingdom, she just doesn't revel in their suffering like him.
 * Firo: Naofumi's second real comrade and slave. He bought her as an egg from the same slave trader that he got Raphtalia from and he raises her quite lovingly together with Raphtalia. She quickly grows beyond a normal Philorilo and is revealed to be a Queen, and later demonstrates the ability to assume human form. 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. After she started to assume human form, he has found her to be visibly annoying at times, especially for her selfishness and gluttony, but he still cares for her greatly. The moment he thought died was enough to invoke his Shield of Anger for the first real time since Raphtalia was nearly taken away from him.
 * Melty Melromarc: The Second Princess initially believed her father's lies about Naofumi and hated him, she attempted to make him apologize for dishonoring her father but was treated by him as an annoyance in return. After the Three Heroes Church tries to kill her, Naofumi becomes the only person Melty can actually rely on to save her life as the other heroes, her sister, and her knights are all either being used by the Church or are willing participants in the conspiracy. Because of this, she has become something of a Tsundere towards him, and it's implied that her feelings for him extend beyond what she wants him to hear about. She dislikes being treated by him as a child or being called "second-princess" by him, and gets him to call her by name instead. He's not above playing pranks on her and still uses her for his own convinience; to which he once called her Firo's fiance and spread that to Motoyasu to get him off his case. The end result of this was that when she found out she destroyed his house, with him still in it. She appears to be one of the few people he trusts well enough to keep Atlas out of his bed, a task which would require her to sleep in the same bed with him, when asked, she blushed and ran away. They're fully capable of behaving professionally with each other at times and bickering the very next minute.
 * Rishia: Recruited to Naofumi's party after being kicked out of Itsukis party. She was framed for breaking one of Itsuki's accessories by another member of the party. After Firo saved Rishia, Naofumi swear to make her stronger so Itsuki would beg to have her back on his team. As she spent time with Naofumi's village, she gained confidence and immense fighting skill. According to the Battle Instructor, her abilities are one that come every hundred years. As of now, she is a confident and skilled member of the Naofumi's party.
 * Kiel
 * Gaerion: Naofumi has a fairly strong master-pet relationship with the child Gaerion, and a rather professional relationship with the adult one. The adult Gaerion, partially unbeknownst to Naofumi, has been a powerful catalyst in strengthening his Wrath Shield over time. His soul entered the sheild during the fight against hiss own zombified corpse and gave the hero's shield the ability to use the dragon's flames as a counter attack. Naofumi is stunned by the fact that Gaerion is so proud, even when admitting rather shameful things like the fact he's the weakest of his kind or the fact that he's still weaker than Firo. Both Gaerion are willing to listen to Naofumi's orders, and share his hatred for the sword hero, Ren, until they ultimately settle things with him. Gaerion draws strength from Naofumi's Shield of Wrath just as Firo does, but since he's also a source of power for it he shows much more authority over that power. Even before then, being the Shield Hero's dragon has already made the adult Gaerion far more powerful than he was in his own life, to the point where he absolutely dominates Ren, the one who killed him in that life, while the latter is powered up by a Curse Series weapon, and ultimately defeats him. He has agreed to use his power to assist Naofumi if Naofumi brings him the Dragon Emperor's cores, which would make him even stronger and thus even more useful to Naofumi anyway. The Dragon Emperor's memories also become a useful source of information via Gaerion.
 * Taniko:  A girl who is good at raising monsters. Abandoned as a child, she was raised by Gaelion. But crazy things happen on the mountain, and it was up to Gaelion to protect her new home. After Gaelion died, she was captured and sold off as a slave. Through a turn of luck, she ended up at Naofumi’s village.
 * Lato
 * Sadina
 * Fouru
 * Atlas
 * Imia
 * Rough

Allies

 * Mirelia Q Melromarc: the queen and Naofumi are on fairly good terms as business aquantances go. While he knows he's being used by her, he also knows that she needs him, so he's willing to put up with it. The fact she cleared his name and punished her husband and daughter for their mistreatment of him seems to be the crux of their relationship. Mutually benefiting off of one another, Naofumi and Mirelia have a business like relationship.
 * Elhart: He runs a forge in Melromarc. The only person who believed in The Hero of the Shield after he was falsely accused by Bitch. He made most if not all of the equipment worn by Naofumi as well as his carriage. 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 skill to be sub-par.
 * Slave Merchant: While Naofumi considers the Merchant to be a useful ally due to his role in providing him various slaves for his growing army, he does not per say trust the man. The merchant has noted that Naofumi has good business sense, and is not an easy man to deceive, he refers to Naofumi as his favorite customer.
 * Eclair Seaetto: A knight sent by the Queen to watch over Naofumi’s progress in the village. Is amazed by the behavior of Naofumi’s monsters. She has leaned the basics of Hengen Musou swordsmanship, and can see the flow of magic. Otherwise, she is mostly self taught. She is the daughter of the previous lord of the land Naofumi rules over.

Enemies

 * Malty Melromarc("Bitch" and later "Witch"): Naofumi hates Malty for setting him up for the crime of raping her, this hatred grows exponentially over the series as Malty continues to antagonize him and try to add to the misery she'd already made his life into. After Malty's mother,thustomer.e Queen, clears Naofumi's name and strips Malty of her right to inherit the throne as punishment for her actions, he immediately asked that she be executed, but was talked down to renaming her "Bitch" and later "Witch" instead. Malty remains utterly unrepentant for her past actions and aims to do whatever she can to get back at Naofumi. In the end, when Malty's attempted revolution fails and she's sentenced to be married off to the King of Faubley as punishment for her actions, she immediately freaks out and becomes desperate enough to even beg Naofumi to take her back as an ally and save her. to put this in perspective, the King of Faubley treats women as toys and frequently "breaks" them, having gone through 9,999 women before Malty. Being banished into this King's custody is enough to utterly break even Malty's high and mighty attitude and leave her literally begging for help, but by this point she's exhausted everyone's sympathy and nobody is willing to lend it, least of all Naofumi, so she rather predictably gets sent off to her fate instead. She died two weeks later and her body was returned as proof, it was, by Naofumi's own words, not a pretty sight.