It actually makes a lot of sense that the kingdom would try and develop a means of fighting back against the Wave without needing to summon all four Heroes even if the reason why it's so impractical (and hazardous) are made pretty clear in this episode. I mean, most of those church people would probably have been slaughtered during the Wave before they could actually do any good
.
I love how Filo keeps burning Spear Hero. That's always enjoyable
.
I also loved them pointing out how dumb Malty is for not knowing something pretty much anyone in the royal family is expected to know
.
So the Queen saved Ren, Itsuki, and their parties? Makes me wonder just how much control she's been exerting on the plot all this time despite being "away" and what she's really like
.
I admit, I did get a good laugh at how the Heroes seem to be finally coming together and then they pan to Naofumi huddled together with his actual team
.
I guess it stands to be said that there were probably better times for Naofumi to finally unload all his grievances and anger at the other Heroes for how they treated him, especially when his goal should be working together with them moving forward. I think Naofumi being tired of their @#$% is perfectly fine and believable and I can understand not wanting to get let them off scott free (even if they gave him an out with the "framed" thing), but it seemed a tad counter-productive to what they should be accomplishing now
.
Maybe they needed that humbling to make them re-assess themselves and become the kind of Heroes who that world deserves and not the kind who garner the distrust and lack of faith that leads to the Church doing what it's currently doing. I mean, Ren already seems to be on that path so I don't think he needed to get read the riot act again like Motoyasu and Itsuki did. He was actually agreeing with Naofumi
.
Naofumi says he's only agreeing to work with them for this battle, but hopefully the other Heroes teaming-up here and getting faced with all their mistakes again will lead to them finally letting the past go and deciding to be better Heroes moving forward. Maybe then Naofumi can let go of his grudges for good and start to genuinely agree to work with them once the Waves start again. I'm not expecting the four Heroes to ever be close buddy-buddies but maybe they can become companions worthy of the title of "Four Cardinal Heroes"
.