 |
Harley Quinn thinks that this article looks kinda boring, eh? Why not put some categories there to spice it up? Help by adding new categories to the article! |
Lesty, also known as Woman II by Naofumi Iwatani, is a supporting antagonist in The Rising of the Shield Hero franchise. She is a former adventurer and the childhood friend/right hand woman of Malty S. Melromarc.
Originally, Lesty served as a companion to the Spear Hero, Motoyasu Kitamura. However, she eventually went on to betray not just Motoyasu, but her family, nation and world, by becoming one of the Vanguards of the Waves. As such, Lesty's role changed from protector to an agent working to destroy the very world she had once sworn to defend. Unfortunately for Lesty, this decision caused her to meet an untimely end at the hands of her enemies.
Outside of the Light Novel, Lesty is a minor antagonist within the manga and anime adaptations.
Appearance[]
Like all of the girls within Motoyasu's party/harem, Lesty is noted to be an exceptionally beautiful woman. At the time of this publication however, Lesty's appearance has not been described in detail. The only thing we do know about Lesty is that she possesses sharper features than Malty.
Personality[]
Lesty is noted to have a very similar personality to Malty Melromarc being a selfish, greedy manipulator, who wishes to live an easy life. Like Malty, Lesty is not afraid to use her looks to get what she wants and whines when things do not go her way. In Volume 11, Lesty demonstrated that she has little to no conscience. She willingly framed Motoyasu (who up until then had been her loving benefactor/protector) for a crime he did not commit, before stealing the possessions of another hero and leaving him for dead.
Her villainous role was solidified, when she (along with Malty and many of Itsuki's former comrades) joined the Vanguard of the Waves. As part of this movement, Lesty not only served directly under the entity responsible for the waves, she began hunting down and trying to kill the worlds Vassal and Cardinal Heroes in order to become more powerful. Lesty of course did not recognise or care about the hypocrisy of her actions and had no regard about the suffering she caused.
Like Malty, she's cowardly, as she was afraid to face death or be punished for her actions.
However, unlike Malty, Lesty is capable of genuine emotion and loyalty. She does truly consider Malty to be her friend and willingly serves as her devoted follower. She has also demonstrated sincere concern for the fallen princess' safety and wellbeing on a number of occasions. Apart from this though, the only other person that Lesty truly cares about is herself and she has no other redeemable qualities.
Powers and Abilities[]
Due to a combination of her own lazy nature and Motoyasu's fighting style (of protecting his comrades whilst he does all the fighting) Lesty, despite being a relatively high leveled adventurer, possesses little to no combat experience or pragmatism. Although she has some affinity towards magic, the majority of her skills are implied to be buffer skills, used to enhance the abilities of her allies, rather than combat oriented. As a result of this, Lesty has lost every single battle that she has participated in, with the exception of the Second Wave.
Relationships[]
Family[]
Lesty hails from an unnamed noble family in Melromarc. Her relationship with her parents and siblings (if she has any) is not explored or discussed, but Lesty evidently had little to no regard for them, as she had no qualms about betraying them. It is not known how her kinsman reacted to the news of Lesty's decision or subsequent demise.
Allies[]
Malty S. Melromarc[]
Malty is the only person that Lesty seems to truly care about, apart from herself. She has known the Princess of Melromarc since childhood. They met in school and have been best friends ever since. It is strongly implied that they are also one another's sole friend. As such, it is no surprise that when the duo became adventurers, they ended up together in the same party. Sharing a similar personality to her long time acquaintance, Lesty was a willing accomplice in Malty's schemes, whether that be exploiting Motoyasu's kindness, generosity and coin purse or abusing/evicting their fellow party members.
When Malty eventually ditched Motoyasu, Lesty accompanied and continued to aid her. This loyalty to the villainous renegade however, eventually proved to be Lesty's undoing. She gave her life trying to help Malty during a battle with the Shield Hero, which ultimately went unacknowledged and unappreciated. Tragically, it appears as though Lesty's concern and relationship with Malty was entirely one sided. Whilst her devotion to former Princess was genuinely sincere, Malty only ever saw Lesty as a pawn in her own schemes. Indeed, Malty did not react to the death of her long time friend and within virtually no time at all had replaced her with another confidant.
Elena (formerly)[]
Lesty and Elena met shortly after the heroes summoning and remained comrades right up until the events of the Spirit Tortoise. Their exact relationship remains unknown, but the two girls are implied to have gotten along amicably. However, whilst they were both lazy, Elena (unlike Lesty or Malty) was not a wholly evil person. Being sharper and more intelligent than she let on, Elena only went along with Malty's schemes because she knew that her team mates would gladly sell her out if she didn't co-operate. As such, Elena probably feared Lesty just as much as she did the evil Princess.
When the Spear Hero's party went to battle the Spirit Tortoise Elena, realizing that they could not win, seized the opportunity to escape. She ran away from the battle and returned to her parents. Lesty never showed any concern for Elena and the two women never saw each other again after this.
Rino (formerly)[]
Rino was an adventurer that Motoyasu seduced shortly after the Heroes summoning. Whilst she ultimately joined the Spear Hero's party to be with Motoyasu, she would not remain with the group for long. Rino was betrayed by Malty who sold her off into sex slavery. Lesty was aware of what happened and although her exact role remains unknown, she later laughed at the plight of her former ally, along with Malty and Elena.
Several months later, Lesty's death ultimately proved to beneficial to Rino. Freed by Queen Mirellia, Rino managed to infiltrate the Vanguard of the Waves and was working as a mole within the organisation. Managing to worm her way into Malty's confidence following Lesty's demise, Rino waited for the right opportunity before managing to take her revenge upon the woman that had ruined her life. This was a fate that Lesty probably would have shared had she not already perished at the hands of Naofumi and the Dragon Emperor.
Mald[]
A former member of the Bow Heroes party and a fellow Vanguard, Mald and Lesty became allies at some point after the encounter with the Spirit Tortoise. Despite their shared objectives, the two former adventurers did not appear to care about each other very much.
Enemies[]
Motoyasu, Ren and Itsuki[]
Lesty originally aided the Bow, Sword and Spear heroes during the Waves of Calamity. She was also present during the battle against the High Priest and helped them in their pursuit of Naofumi. She has also (at various stages) served as an adventuring companion to all three heroes at some point. In each instance, Lesty exploited the heroes, taking advantage of both their naivety and later, their mental states, to benefit herself.
She served alongside Motoyasu for the longest and whilst the exact nature of their relationship is not confirmed, it is possible that they were lovers. Whatever the situation, Lesty did not hesitate to abandon and betray Motoyasu, despite everything that he had done for her. In Volume 11, she and Malty manipulated Ren, by pretending to be sympathetic to his plight, but in less than a day, they had abandoned the Sword Hero, stealing all of his remaining money and equipment. Lesty is implied to have become one of Itsuki's subsequent "allies" following this, but this is not confirmed. Following this, Lesty became a Vanguard of the Wave, which solidified her status as the Three Heroes enemy.
Naofumi Iwatani/The Shield Hero[]
Lesty's opinion of the Shield Hero remains unknown, but like the rest of her country, she probably had a low opinion of him. She probably knew that Malty had framed Naofumi, but if so, she bore witness to his suffering in silence. Given the mission to protect the world, Lesty begrudgingly fought alongside Naofumi during the Waves, but was also was present for his duels against Motoyasu and his battle against the Three Heroes, during which, she served as his enemy. The only time that Naofumi and Lesty would have genuinely worked together was during their fight against Pope Balmus.
The pair did not officially meet until the events on Cal Mira, when Naofumi came to talk to Motoyasu about Rishia (who had just been expelled from Itsuki's party). Throughout the meeting, Lesty glared at Naofumi who responded with a frown of his own, indicating that the hatred between them was quite mutual. In a demonstration of his dislike of her, the Shield Hero did not bother to learn Lesty's name, referring to her instead as Woman/Girl 2.
In what would be their final encounter during Volume 18, Lesty saw Naofumi injure Malty, which enraged her beyond reason. Rallying some of her allies, she led a charge against the Shield Hero with the full intention of killing him. Naofumi responded by setting the Dragon Emperor upon her, leading to the destruction of both Lesty's body and soul. Naofumi has never expressed any remorse for what happened, stating that Lesty brought it upon herself.
Biography[]
Early Life[]
Lesty was born into an unnamed noble family, almost two decades before Naofumi and the other heroes summoning. At some point in her youth, she met Malty S. Melromarc, the first Princess of the Kingdom of Melromarc. The pair became friends and would remain so throughout their school years, being each others sole friend and confidants. Their friendship continued into their adult years, when the Waves of Calamity began threatening the world, causing drastic measures to be taken by their country.
Volume 1[]
Shortly after the first wave, Queen Mirellia Q Melromarc left the country along with her youngest daughter and heir Melty, for an emergency meeting with the leaders of the other nations. Whilst they argued about what to do King Aultcray Melromarc XXXII, despite his position as the royal consort and with a little persuasion from the Church of the Three Heroes overstepped his authority, by illegally summoning all of the Cardinal Heroes to Melromarc. With the quartet under his direct protection/custody, the King of Melromarc, ignoring the ramifications of his actions set about aiding the Legendary Heroes in whatever way possible (with the exception of Naofumi Iwatani, the Shield Hero) to help them save the world.
As part of the arrangement, Aultcray had the countries top adventurers brought forth to serve and aid the heroes during the early stages of their adventures. The adventurers were allowed to choose which hero they wanted to partner up with. Lesty was one such individual and chose to join Motoyasu Kitamura, the Spear Hero's party. Her reasons for doing so remain unclear, but it was probably done because her friend Malty (operating under the name Myne Sophia) was also present in this party. However, Malty soon left the group in order to join the Shield Hero's party out of "sympathy". Within twenty four hours however, Malty was back in the Spear Hero's party having betrayed Naofumi and framed him for attempting to rape her.
Over the next few weeks, Lesty and the others continued to "train" under Motoyasu's care. Serving as one of his glorified cheer leader, she and the others let him do most of the work, whilst they sat/stood back and lived the easy life. At one point the group was tasked with providing aid to a village that was undergoing a famine. Motoyasu and his party responded by raiding a nearby dungeon, which contained an enchanted seed, which when planted would grow an endless supply of produce. Unfortunately, the plant turned out to be cursed and the village ended up in dire trouble until the Shield Hero rescued them some time later.
Between the First and Second Waves, Motoyasu, who was a shameless playboy, seduced several other girls into joining his party. Alongside the man that joined Motoyasu's party at the start of their adventure Malty, Lesty and Elena drove each and every one of these newcomers out in order to monopolize Motoyasu. The preferred method of doing so was to sell these helpless victims into slavery under Myne's authority, then claim that the girls had left because they could felt they could not meet Motoyasu's expectations. One such victim was Rino, who called Malty and Lesty out on their actions shortly before her "eviction". Lesty and her friend did not know it, but their decision to treat their comrades so callously, especially the aforementioned Rino, would later prove to be Malty's undoing.
Shortly before the Second Wave, Lesty accompanied Motoyasu to the Dragon Hour Glass. There she and her comrades met Naofumi who was in the company of his new demi-human companion/slave, Raphtalia. Lesty watched as the Shield Hero was insulted by the other heroes (Ren and Itsuki having also shown up moments later) and made no effort to interact with the Shield Hero. After surviving the battle with the Chimera, Lesty joined the others for a banquet provided by the King. The celebration was interrupted when Malty revealed Raphtalia's status as a slave to the Spear Hero who challenged the Shield Hero to a fight for Raphtalia's freedom. The event ended in Naofumi's favor however, when Malty's cheating was exposed and Raphtalia returned to Naofumi's side willingly. Unable to do anything but watch as her comrades were both insulted and called out, Lesty along with the rest of the equally silent spectators withdrew.
Volume 2[]
Although not mentioned directly, Lesty attended the presentation ceremony, where the four heroes were rewarded for their various efforts across Melromarc. She watched on silently as the Bow, Sword and Spear Heroes were presented with huge sums of money, but said nothing when the King of Melromarc unsuccessfully tried to revoke Naofumi's payment. Not long afterwards, Aultcray appointed Motoyasu as the new Lord of Lute, the region affected by the most recent wave. It is not known if Lesty accompanied Malty and the others to the village, but if not, she soon learnt that Motoyasu's lordship had been revoked after the Spear Hero lost a race against Naofumi and his new companion/steed, Filo.
Volume's 3 - 4[]
Following the defeat at Lute, things started to go downhill for Lesty and her companions. Shortly before the Third Wave, Motoyasu tried to pick another fight with Naofumi, only to end up being humiliated by Filo. During the Wave itself, the Three Heroes were unable to locate the Boss Monster, until Naofumi showed up. Within a few minutes, the Shield Hero had not only tracked down, but single-handedly eliminated the Soul Eater without any aid or support. To add insult to injury, Lesty (and her allies) were subsequently beaten by Glass, a rival hero from a parallel dimension, who defeated them with a single move. When word of this got out, the Three Hero and their parties reputation and prestige suffered a humiliating blow.
Lesty was soon given an opportunity to prove herself however, when the Shield was falsely accused of kidnapping the newly returned Princess Melty Melromarc during a rendezvous, Setting off in pursuit, her group eventually managed to corner the Shield Hero at one of the border crossing. Despite Naofumi and Melty's best efforts, Malty made sure that a fight broke out when she accused Naofumi of having unlocked a brainwashing shield. Whilst Lesty's role in the battle is not certain, she was probably joined the Bow and Sword Heroes companions when they charged the Shield Hero head on, after a bit of goading from Naofumi. If so, then she was thrown backwards by Naofumi's Shield of Wrath, which knocked her out and left Lesty incapacitated for the rest of the battle.
Although defeated, Lesty and her allies pursued Naofumi and would have an opportunity for revenge not long afterwards, Having met with the Filolial Queen Fitoria, Naofumi had been persuaded to try and sort things out with the other heroes. Unfortunately, the first party he met was the Spear Hero's who were not in a conversational mood. Having just been informed by Malty and the Church that Naofumi had killed Ren and Itsuki, Motoyasu with the help of Lesty and the rest of his allies, tried with all his might to kill the Shield Hero. This led to a four v four bout between the two parties, with Lesty using her magic to both heal and bolster Motoyasu's stats. Despite this and their higher levels, Lesty and her allies ended up on the losing side, because as Naofumi pointed out, whilst he and his companions were battling real opponents, the Spear Hero's Party was goofing around and being lazy. Now they were paying the price for their arrogance.
Before the two groups could engage one another again, Pope Balmus arrived with a group of religious extremists. To Lesty and her allies astonishment, the Pope attempted to assassinate them, proclaiming that the Three Heroes and their companions were worthless fakes that needed to be put down alongside the "villainous" Shield Hero. Despite some initial hostilities, Naofumi and Motoyasu, along with the newly arrived Ren and Itsuki, put aside their differences for the time being and worked together to defeat their common enemy. Lesty would aid Motoyasu where necessary and ultimately, thanks mostly to Naofumi, stood on the winning side.
However, the celebration would be short lived. Malty's mother Queen Mirellia had turned up at the penultimate stages of the battle. Aware of what had been happening in Melromarc, Mirellia had her eldest daughter arrested and, when she returned to the Capital proceeded to expose all of Malty and Aultcray's lies to the populace. Unable to do anything, Lesty could do nothing but watch as her childhood friend was found guilty of treason. Although she was allowed to remain within the Spear Hero's Party, Malty was stripped of her royal status, fined a huge amount of money and had her birth/adventurers names change from Malty/Myne to Bitch/Whore respectively. This last punishment was requested by the now vindicated Naofumi, who did this with the Queens full blessing. Although not confirmed, it is implied in Volume 5 that the events of that day sealed Lesty's hatred for the Shield Hero, once and for all.
Volume's 5 - 6[]
To be added.
Volume's 11 - 12[]
To be added.
Volume 18[]
To be added.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- At present, it is not known which of the girls features in the manga or anime is Lesty. However, in the Rising of the Shield Hero Relive the Animation computer game, Lesty is the woman in the witch outfit.
- It has never been explained why Lesty is so loyal to Malty.
- Both she and Rino are called Woman II by Naofumi.
- Lesty was featured in the original (now non-canon) Rising of the Shield Hero web novel. Her role as both Malty's friend and as a fellow traitor to Melromarc remains unchanged. However, the circumstances leading up to her defeat and death vary between the two sources.
- In the original story, Malty was founder of the Vanguard of the Waves and launched a coup against Melromarc, shortly after Naofumi and his allies rescued Itsuki. Lesty was present in the battle against Melromarc, but was ultimately no match for the Shield Hero or his companions. As such she was eventually defeated and captured alongside many of her allies. With her true nature revealed, Lesty together with all of the surviving traitors (bar Malty) was sentenced to death by Queen Mirellia. Whilst the exact method remains unknown, she was later confirmed to have been executed.
External Links[]
- Lesty on the Rising of the Shield Hero Wiki.
[]
 Villains
| ||
|
Melromarc Glass' World Legendary Heroes Former Companions Medea's Reincarnators Vanguards of the Waves Army of the Waves Church of the Three Heroes Faubley Siltvelt Qten'Lo | ||