The Slave Girl

The Slave Girl (盾の勇者) is the second episode of The Rising of the Shield Hero anime.

Synopsis
Naofumi bought a sickly tanuki child slave and made her his comrade. The child still suffers from the trauma of her parents getting killed by the First Wave monsters. Will she be able to kill monsters for Naofumi to level up and also help him fight the Waves? How will the distrusting Shield Hero treat her?

Plot
The Slave Trader takes Naofumi to his tent where he shows him some of the individuals he has for sale. All of the beings he has in stock are Demi-Humans, who possess physical animal characteristics. Though the sale of slaves in Melromarc is not illegal, the owning of a Human slave is strictly forbidden by the human supremacist government.

The Slave Trader initially offers a high-level werewolf-type Beastman, but Naofumi is able to tell straight away that it's out of his price range. Congratulating Naofumi's eye for quality, the Slave Trader shows the three cheapest slaves and Naofumi settles on a sickly Tanuki-type demi-human girl named Raphtalia. Naofumi takes her to the Weapon Shop Owner, who outfits her with a chainmail dress and a knife. He then orders her to stab one of his Balloons to introduce her to combat. This experience enlightens him about the Party system, that the party members share their EXP, and more importantly realizes how Myne never made a party with him. Specifically, since Raphtalia is in the same party as Naofumi, any monsters she kills will also give him experience points. Naofumi next dines with Raphtalia at a restaurant, and later when he's grinding medicinal leaves in the forest, he gives some medicine to cure her illness. He later learns while selling to the Medicinal Shop Owner that due to the Wave impacts on towns, medicines are products of high demand, to which he then centers his productivity.

After days of hunting, Naofumi bonds with Raphtalia: buying her a ball to play with in her free time, buying her snacks, giving her haircut, and comforting her when her nightmares begin to get the better of her. Naofumi then explains that they hunt in order to build power to face the Waves of Calamity, and since he has next to zero attack power Raphtalia will have to kill for him; but in exchange, he will act as her guardian. Erhard starts to notice her progress and upgrades her from knife to short sword.

The two travel to Riyute Village to trade their game but learn of a lucrative venture from one of the local merchants. The town's coal mine is full of valuable minerals but is inhabited by monsters from the First Wave, and neither the Heroes or the country's Knights have made any exterminations. Before entering the mine, Naofumi unlocks the Rope Shield that gives him the ability to lasso and「Air Strike Shield」, a summoned barrier. Soon after, he unlocks the Pickaxe Shield, that helps him easily chip through bedrock in the mines.

After acquiring some ore, Naofumi and Raphtalia are confronted by a Two-Headed Black Dog, a monster from the first Wave that reminds Raphtalia of the beast that murdered her parents during the same Wave. Narrowly fleeing to safety, Naofumi decides that they might as well attempt to slay the beast since they cannot outrun it.

As he struggles to hold the Black Dog, Raphtalia freezes up in terror against the Dog in spite of Naofumi's attempts to use the Slave Crest to make her fight. Seeing as how Raphtalia can't fight, he tells her to flee while he holds off the Dog monster. Her trauma of her parents' death played out in front of her again, but this time she remembers her bond with Naofumi and realizes the fear of losing him as well. Out of courage and despair, Raphtalia grabs her knife and pounces on the Dog, twice stabbing it to death before going to the injured Naofumi for comfort - she addresses him for his given name for the first time, marking the actual beginning of their relationship.

Back at the restaurant, Raphtalia collects the flag from her kid's meal. Naofumi adds a red dot to the white flag (making it a miniature Japan flag) as a reminder to himself what he's fighting for.

Trivia

 * Raphtalia was bought for 30 silvers plus one for the commission to apply the Slave Crest.
 * The restaurant's establishment reveals the rampant discrimination against demi-humans in Melromac.
 * When Raphtalia discovers Naofumi is the Shield Hero, she remembers her father talking about the Shield Hero's legendary compassion for Demi-Humans.

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