Naofumi's sure moving up in the world to be attending meetings with foreign leaders alongside the queen! This is what the other three doofuses miss out on by being absolute tools
.
The pink-haired knight lady is named Eclair? She's definitely a very stunning, chivalric, beauty...and not only is she a knight, but she's the lord of Naofumi's domain, having inherited the title from her father who died in the first Wave. And now she seeks to make it up to Raphtalia for what happened to her village by doing right by it now, even training Raphtalia and Rishia in the sword. I really hope we get to see her in action
.
So there are more than just the Four Cardinal Heroes in this world, with the Seven Star Heroes...somehow, even though they're not supposed to be as strong as the Four Cardinal Heroes, I'm expecting they'll be more useful than the other three Cardinal Heroes
.
Kana Hanazawa brings out her mature lady voice for Ost Hourai, who is more than just a pretty face and royal concubine/regent, she's actually an artificial human familiar of the Spirit Tortoise designed to manipulate nations in order to help harvest souls for the Tortoise. The matter-of-fact way she just tells everybody this and how she was basically using her own nation for the sake of the Spirit Tortoise was kind of surreal, like she doesn't quite understand the gravity of what she's saying/doing, and that she was just playing the "role" of an "evil consort." I'm not quite sure what to think of her. Although it was kind of funny how none of what she said about dealing with the Spirit Tortoise was anything they hadn't thought of at that point
.
The queen seemed to know Hourai personally and was really thrown off by the truth, so I wonder what the relationship is there
?
So the Spirit Tortoise is like an anti-Wave weapon? Harvesting a bunch of souls for the sake of stopping the countdown and preventing the Waves from happening? And the Four Heroes are meant to basically find out about it, defeat Hourai, and then decide whether to use the Tortoise to stop the Waves? It just backfired this time because someone woke the Tortoise up earlier than it was supposed to. But while it seems like they've settled on killing it, is using it for its original purpose still on the table? But is it worth using it to sacrifice all those lives just to stop the Waves
?
Raphtalia is still Naofumi's conscience, helping speak to his compassion and willingness to help others, and leading Naofumi to spearhead the counterattack against the Tortoise
.
So Naofumi's whole party gets new weapons from the blacksmith, including a Filo outfit for Rishia. I love how she even does Filo sounds when she puts it on, although is wearing animal costumes really going to be Rishia's main thing on this show
?
I guess Hourai wasn't a concubine for nothing in that she's in-tune with peoples' relationships and feelings to where she could bluntly point out that Rishia is in love with Itsuki, and give tips on how to seduce him into bed...and Raphtalia's listening in like she's getting tips for winning over Naofumi
.