@vaur You're not exactly right, but not entirely wrong either.
Also, the heroes' development is interconnected to Makoto. This will be made clear much, much later. It won't make much sense to you if you don't read this part though.
I hate this part of the story, and I hate Makoto's part in this too. It's the absolutely worst part of the WN for me. But the story only keeps getting better and better after this part is over, so I recommend hanging in there, although I also recommend reading the WN for the story because the manga is over a decade of chapter releases behind if it continues in this pace. The manga is really nice for the artwork though, the illustrations are really cool.