Kid's Meal

Kid's Meal (お子様ランチ) is the third chapter of The Rising of the Shield Hero manga adaptation.

Synopsis
This chapter covers Naofumi’s first day with Raphtalia as his slave and how the two begin their journey together with Raphtalia reluctantly accepting that Naofumi is different from her previous master.

Summary
Naofumi enters the weapon shop run by Erhard while placing the money that Naofumi promised to pay for the clothes given to him previously. At the same time, he requests that Erhard provide some equipment, clothing included, for Raphtalia who had entered the shop with Naofumi now that she was a registered slave for Naofumi.

Once Raphtalia exits the dressing room, no longer dressed in the clothing she wore as a slave, Naofumi lifts his cape to reveal a Balloon that has been biting his side the whole time and orders Raphtalia to kill it. Due to her hesitation and fear of monsters, Raphtalia is shocked by her Slave Crest that is on her chest and quickly kills the Balloon in order to make the pain stop. Due to the death of the Balloon, Naofumi receives a notification that he had received experience as well as Raphtalia who was registered to his party. Irritated at the realization that Myne had not done registered to the party when she was traveling with him, Naofumi orders Raphtalia to fight monsters from this point onwards and he will protect her in exchange. Stunned by the behavior Naofumi was showing, Raphtalia had not noticed that he had left the shop already and rushes after Naofumi.

Outside of the Castle Town Naofumi and Raphtalia fight various monsters such as Balloons, Eggug, and Mush, but Raphtalia is covered in various fluids due to killing the monsters. After several hours, Naofumi makes camp for himself as well as Raphtalia as she is warming up from her bath in a nearby river. He notes that the efficiency for his leveling has completely changed as he could gather materials and still gained experience from killing monsters to the point that he had unlocked the Blue Mush Shield which provided the effect of Simple Compounding I.

While going over the materials, Naofumi notices that Raphtalia had enter a coughing fit that she was trying to suppress. Remembering that she had her illness, Naofumi gave Raphtalia a medicine that he had created using his newfound skill, ordering her to drink the medicine. She could not stand the taste of the medicine and spit the medicine, but was hurt due to the slave seal’s effects of harming the slave for disobeying the master’s orders and was made to drink more to get the seal’s effects to stop harming her.

Eventually, Naofumi goes back to making medicine, but while doing so he hears Raphtalia’s screams of protests as she slept due to a nightmare that she was having and rushes to hold her to calm her down. He also begins to question her past as she’s a child slave that has nightmares like the one she’s having.

The next day, Raphtalia and Naofumi are in town gathering equipment for the next trip outside of town, Naofumi notices that Raphtalia is staring at kids playing with a ball made of Balloon skins and unskillfully protests when Naofumi asks her if she likes it. He then asks if Raphtalia is hungry, and she denies her hunger, but the rumbling of her stomach was telling Naofumi otherwise while he wondered why Raphtalia was lying about something like being hungry.

The two enter a restaurant, drawing the attention of the other patrons before Naofumi orders the cheapest meal for himself and a kid’s meal for Raphtalia as he had noticed that Raphtalia was looking longingly at the food that a nearby kid was eating, sparking protests from Raphtalia once again. Naofumi then asks what is going on with Raphtalia and her denying anything that would make her happy, she explains that her last master would get angry. Understanding the whole situation now, Naofumi then tells Raphtalia that as his weapon, he wants to keep her in good shape before ordering her to take a seat. Once the food arrive, Naofumi and Raphtalia began eating while he comments that he hasn’t liked anything that he’s eaten since he arrived.

The next day, Raphtalia and Naofumi encounter their first animal-like monster, the Usapil, which attacks Naofumi who stepped in front of Raphtalia as it was attacking. Once he captures the Usapil, Naofumi orders Raphtalia to kill it, but she hesitates due to her fear of blood. Attempting to motivate her, Naofumi tells her that he has no use for a slave who cannot fight because as the Shield Hero, he cannot fight monsters on his own against the Waves of Calamity.

Realizing who Naofumi is and what he is fighting, Raphtalia then attacks the Usapil, coating her and Naofumi with its blood as she begs for Naofumi to not leave her. Reassuring her as he decides to cook the Usapil for food, Naofumi then explains that he will not leave her as long as she does her job as his slave. While eating though, Raphtalia breaks into another coughing fit before Naofumi gives her the same medicine that she previously had difficulty drinking and praises her with a head pat when she finished the drink.

Characters

 * Naofumi Iwatani
 * Erhard
 * Raphtalia
 * Beloukas (flashback)

Monsters

 * Balloon
 * Eggug
 * Mush
 * Usapil

Weapons

 * Legendary Shield
 * Blue Mush Shield

Locations

 * Melromarc
 * Castle Town