I hoped he'd go Wrath Shield, but I guess he hasn't unlocked it here. And I seriously hope that the author won't make Raphtalia a hero, that's be really stupid.
@K_Takuya like mentioned above, Ren can use any sword, 2 handed, cutlass, katanas, rapiers, even scissor swords like in Kill la Kill, while being a "katana" hero only lets you use katanas. @nachtness like said a bit below your comment but above mine, vassal heroes are weaker than cardinal ones, they're supposed to be subordinates to cardinal heroes. @Fuko , @Maximum and @Kampfarsch the manga has deviated TONS from the LN, on the LN the city was closed, but it was never shown to be such a fortress, also Filo had already leveled before getting there and was in the falcon form and they had Raph-chan out, there wasn't many ppl trying to get in or it was never mentioned, Naofumi noted with Filo and Raph-chan he looked more like a monster trainer than a Shield Hero, and when they tried to take a detour, both Raph-chan and Chris started pointing somewhere else, so they knew they had to go that way. They asked Filo which had a similar moment, but instead Naofumi told her that if there was a problem he'd protect her before asking if he'd ever lied to her to which she says "yes" after that he assures her that he isn't this time. Naofumi then checks the slave crest registration menu while seeing she isn't there he panics thinking the worst and hugs Raph-chan, to which Raph-chan acts embarrassed and Filo asks what is he doing, he just tells her to go look while calming down thinking that it has to be other reason since Raph-chan keeps pointing towards that direction, she goes and comes back fast and says "Um...It looks like some people are being chased!" they ask "Who? Who's being chased?" and Filo replies "They were wearing hoods, so I couldn't see. I was going to get closer, but they were being chased by scary monsters, so I flew back here." After that they got in to go check it wasn't their friends and Naofumi used Air strike, second and dritte shields as steps while Kizuna used her reel. They went through the roofs until they got to a place where there was too far of a distance so they got off, and the group wearing hoods was there. Naofumi, Kizuna and Rishia had masks there and when the shinigamis started pointing there they took the masks off and the others took the hoods. They even had a little exchange like this "That outfit looks great on you." "A compliment? From you? It feels a little strange." (thoughts "Did I really not compliment her?") "You should keep dressing like that when we get back to where we came from." "Do you like it that much?" "I think it looks good on you." while they talked about that and a few things more related and unrelated they heard the howl of an approaching beast, they tried the ofuda to call Ethnobalt to no avail, Naofumi then tried to teleport after sending invites and it failed too. After which the guy came with his retinue and the tigers and started complaining. They start telling the story, about them getting in jail, escaping, the level reset. They "manipulated" the information, but it backfired supposedly. They had the same plan, basically get to the hourglass in the capital. They leveled a bit while moving, and Naofumi got excited thinking of Kid Raphtalia with Miko clothes. Raphtalia felt it and got angry especially because of the pain of having to grow again. So Naofumi asks why they had the katana, and they explain when they got to the capital it was being displayed in the town square where a lot of people had arrived to compete for the nomination. Glass and the group split to check it out because they wanted to know who would be chosen, if it was a good person, they could be allies and help each other, if it was a bad person they would have to know to watch out just like Kyo. Then this guy came with a group of high-ranking officials, stood before the crowd and was going to try to remove the sword. Naofumi was picturing it happening in his mind XD. But before he could touch the hilt (not sure if this is still his imagination) the katana flashed with blinding light and shot like an arrow to the crowd to land on Raphtalia's hand. And since he didn't like that he said they were thieves and brought those tigers to chase them, they had to flee from where they were (probably close to the hourglass) and then met them there. After which they fight on the LN, I hope they don't waste next chp with the explanation. Here's the page where you can see the image of when they meet in the LN being nothing like what happened here. https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/the-rising-of-the-shield-hero/images/2/2b/Volume_8.9.png/revision/latest?cb=20171127212540 @Kidawesome55 said above heroes can't be slaves. @Drm186 not sure, later on when they try testing Naofumi's stuff they end up getting no exp because of too many, so maybe there's a limit to 2 for the vassals? I mean they had Glass, L'arc, Raphtalia and Ethnobalt there. @kabalfs Naofumi partied with L'arc in Cal Mira. @BanditHadron
The axe is one of the 7star weapons from Raphtalia's world, because the 8th one no one knows because they haven't seen it in AGES and probably the info got lost, is OBVIOUSLY without even having to wonder "Fitoria's carriage"