Love the concept! Excited to see if there’ll be a sequel and how Nanami and Malty/Mein’s interactions go from here. Also would be awesome to see Nanami’s relationships with the other heroes in this universe and how it differs from Naofumi’s

I can't believe I missed this absolute gem of a story when I keep lamenting most writers for Shieldbro aren't being creative to make interesting stories, and just take the easy way out and write self-serving power fantasy.

I absolutely loves this what-if scenario you created. A female shield hero to take Naofumi's place is interesting enough (the idea of the three male heroes tripping each other to impress her instead of antagonize her alone is enough for a story), but what you pulled off with Malty in this story is nothing short of pure genius. I love how you made her action and thought ambiguous for the most of the story, teasing a sense that maybe Malty is slowly turning for the better through her journey with Nanami and the orphans like a carrot on a string, but yanks this suggestion of humanity away in the end in the most violent and brutal way possible.

And I imagine the shield hero's big moment of defeat and despair must hit Nanami much much harder than it hit Naofumi in canon story.

Naofumi's moment of despair is bad enough, but he didn't have a chance to live a fantasy live before he realized the whole world (at least from his point of view) hates him, so it's easy for him to be angry and simply hate the world back. Not to mention Naofumi knows he's framed and he did nothing wrong. So it's easy for him to justify himself in that scenario.

On Nanami's case, she actually had lived a fairly long happy fantasy life, and she just had a moment of triumph before her big moment of defeat and despair. Not to mention the tragedy happened to the orphans instead of her. So I can imagine after her anger passes it would be replaced by a crushing sense of guilt, if Nanami is basically a female version of Naofumi with the same personality. Naofumi actually have a very heavy guilt complex, as shown in the spear hero side story where he blames himself for a town's destruction when the Three Heroes Cult tried to murder him. I can imagine Nanami must blames herself most for the children's death, thinking she neglected to protect them because she got drunken in her moment of fame.

If I do have one minor critic, is I think the short segment where Malty reveals her inner thought between the conclusion of the third wave and the death of the children is redundant. The first time I read this story I scrolled pass that segment by accident and read the last scene right after 3rd wave scene, and the tragedy hit me much harder because I didn't have a clear warning of Malty's true nature before hand. I think the last scene is enough to have the readers figure out what Malty wanted all alone instead of making it explicit right before the big despair moment.

Absolutely loved this one-shot even if I have my own idea for a 'what if Malty decide to stay with shield hero' scenario. My biggest respect to you for making this great story.

Humm whould the other heros fall for Nanami

Malty loving someone is such an interesting scenarion when you think about it.

This is really good.
A complex and quite dark scenario.