Renard Jester

Renard Jester appears in That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime as a prominent member of the Western Holy Church’s combat forces.

He holds the position of vice-captain of the Holy Knight Order (Crusaders) and combines high-level swordsmanship with advanced holy magic.

Renard’s title as the “Prince of Light” comes from both his contract with a powerful light spirit and his refined, almost princely demeanor in battle.

Although his main class is that of a holy wizard, he is also a first-rate swordsman capable of fighting on the front lines.

His voice actor in the anime adaptation is Kenji Nojima.

This portrayal emphasizes his calm, earnest, yet emotionally conflicted personality.

Renard is fundamentally earnest, loyal, and idealistic, with a strong sense of duty toward the Holy Knight Order and the Western Holy Church.

He is especially devoted to Hinata Sakaguchi, whose overwhelming strength and charisma he witnessed as a student, leading him to admire and follow her.

This admiration shapes many of his decisions.

He strives to live up to Hinata’s example, sometimes to the point of overlooking inconvenient truths if they conflict with his image of her and the Church.

A notable flaw in Renard’s personality is his bias toward his own side.

He harshly criticizes opposing factions while conveniently ignoring that certain conflicts were initiated by humans, including the Church and the Kingdom of Falmuth.

This “soft spot” for his allies makes him vulnerable to manipulation by the Seven Days Clergy, who exploit his trust and sense of righteousness.

As a result, Renard becomes a pawn in the political maneuvering that nearly drives the Western Holy Church and the nation of monsters into all-out war.

Overall, Renard comes across as a good person with a strong moral compass, but one who struggles with self-reflection and objective judgment when emotions and loyalty are involved.

His character arc touches on guilt, doubt, and the painful process of realizing he has been used.

Renard is formally a holy wizard (Saint Wizard) who has formed a contract with a spirit of light.

This grants him powerful light-element magic and holy spells that are especially effective against monsters and evil-aligned foes.

Despite his primary role as a magic user, his swordsmanship is top-tier.

He is fully capable of holding his own in melee combat alongside other elite Holy Knights, making him a rare hybrid of mage and swordsman.

Because of his contract with the light spirit, his fighting style blends swift, precise sword strikes with blazing light magic.

This elegant yet lethal combination helps justify his nickname “Prince of Light.”

His high-level skills and combat sense are recognized by the Church, which entrusts him with commanding roles and critical missions.

As vice-captain, he can also lead squads of Holy Knights, coordinating both magical and physical attacks on the battlefield.

Inspiration from Hinata Sakaguchi

As a student, Renard witnessed the actions and overwhelming strength of Hinata Sakaguchi, the leader of the Holy Knight Order.

Deeply impressed, he chose to become a Holy Knight himself, taking her as his guiding ideal.

This early experience formed the core of his ambitions and loyalties.

From then on, Renard admired Hinata passionately and devoted himself to the Church’s cause under her banner.

Decision to Remain as Vice-Captain

In volume 7 of the novels, Hinata decides to travel to the Tempest Federation, the monster nation led by Rimuru Tempest.

At this crucial moment, Renard chooses not to follow her.

Instead, he remains behind in the capital as vice-captain, fulfilling his duties and keeping the Holy Knight Order’s command structure stable in Hinata’s absence.

On the surface, this looks like a loyal and responsible decision, but it also leaves him more exposed to other influences within the Church.

Manipulation by the Seven Days Clergy

Later, acting under the instructions of the Seven Days Clergy (a secretive group manipulating the Church from the shadows), Renard is ordered to lead a detached force of Holy Knights to the Tempest Federation.

He follows these instructions and heads toward Tempest with his unit.

During this march, Renard begins to doubt the orders he has been given.

The situation feels off, and he starts to question whether the Seven Days Clergy truly represent Hinata’s will or the Church’s ideals.

Despite these doubts, he does not immediately revolt or withdraw.

His uncertainty, combined with his ingrained trust in the Church hierarchy, keeps him moving forward into danger.

Confrontation with Shion

On the way to Tempest, Renard encounters Shion, one of Rimuru Tempest’s closest subordinates and a powerful warrior in the monster nation.

The Seven Days Clergy’s scheme, along with external provocations, pushes the situation toward open conflict.

Renard is provoked and goaded by Garde, one of the schemers involved.

Under this pressure and emotional manipulation, Renard ends up engaging in a fight against Shion, escalating tensions between the humans and the Tempest Federation.

This confrontation is one of the key moments that nearly leads to a full-scale war between the Western Holy Church and Tempest.

It highlights how Renard’s underlying bias and emotional vulnerability can be twisted into dangerous aggression.

Betrayal and Injury

In the midst of these events, Renard learns in the harshest way that he has been used.

Garde, who had been riling him up and pushing him toward conflict, betrays him outright.

Garde stabs Renard, inflicting a serious, potentially fatal wound.

This sudden betrayal shatters Renard’s trust and forces him to confront how thoroughly he has been manipulated by those he believed were allies.

Lying gravely injured, Renard stands at the brink between life and death.

In this state, he can no longer cling to simple “us versus them” thinking or blindly trust the Church’s internal factions.

Saved by Hinata Sakaguchi

Renard’s life is ultimately saved by the very person he has always admired.

Hinata Sakaguchi arrives and uses her abilities to heal his severe wound, pulling him back from the edge of death.

This healing is more than just physical recovery.

It symbolically represents Hinata literally and figuratively “restoring” him, giving him a chance to rethink his choices and beliefs.

Through this experience, Renard is forced to acknowledge how his one-sided loyalty and willingness to blame outsiders—such as Rimuru Tempest and Shion—made him easy prey for manipulation.

He must face the fact that both the Church and the Kingdom of Falmuth had initiated earlier conflicts, which he had conveniently ignored when condemning the monsters.

Hinata’s intervention both saves his life and challenges his worldview.

It opens the door for Renard’s potential growth into someone who can see beyond factional bias and question the Church’s darker elements.

Hinata Sakaguchi

Hinata Sakaguchi is the central figure in Renard’s life and ideals.

He admired her from his student days after witnessing her prowess and leadership, and she is the reason he joined the Holy Knight Order.

Renard’s feelings toward Hinata combine deep respect, loyalty, and strong emotional attachment.

He wants to be worthy of standing by her side as vice-captain and to live according to her sense of justice.

However, this devotion also blinds him at times.

He assumes that everything done in the Church’s name aligns with Hinata’s will, which is not always true.

Hinata ultimately saves his life after he is betrayed and gravely injured.

This act reinforces their bond but also highlights that genuine justice and loyalty do not always align with the Church’s internal politics.

Garde

Garde plays the role of a manipulator and betrayer in Renard’s story.

He exploits Renard’s emotions, pushing him to clash with Shion and drive the conflict with the Tempest Federation toward a catastrophic war.

By provoking and agitating Renard, Garde turns his inner doubts and frustrations into reckless action.

Renard’s own bias and emotional vulnerability make this manipulation easier.

The ultimate betrayal comes when Garde stabs Renard, using him as a disposable piece in a larger scheme.

This moment marks a turning point for Renard, forcing him to face how far removed the Church’s internal schemers are from the ideals he believes in.

Shion

Renard’s relationship with Shion is adversarial at the point they meet.

Shion is a powerful subordinate of Rimuru Tempest, and she stands as a protector of the Tempest Federation.

Their confrontation is not born purely from personal hatred, but from a chain of political manipulation, misunderstandings, and old grudges.

Renard, influenced by the Seven Days Clergy and Garde, attacks from the human side, while Shion responds as a defender of her nation.

This battle serves as a symbol of the widening rift between humans and monsters.

It also underscores how Renard’s inability to view the situation impartially contributes to the escalation of conflict.

Rimuru Tempest and the Monster Nation

Renard initially views Rimuru Tempest and the Tempest Federation through a hostile, heavily biased lens.

He criticizes Rimuru for annihilating the combined forces of the Church and Falmuth, while glossing over that these attacks were instigated by the human side in the first place.

Similarly, he resents Shion for intercepting the human forces, ignoring that it was the humans who launched the aggressive action.

This double standard reveals his deeply ingrained “us-first” mindset.

Because of this, Renard plays an unwilling but significant role in nearly pushing the Western Holy Church and Tempest into total war.

His later realization of this fact adds emotional weight to his injury, betrayal, and rescue by Hinata.

Renard Jester’s story touches on several themes:

loyalty, manipulation, and the difficulty of facing one’s own hypocrisy.

His devotion to Hinata and the Church is genuine, but it leads him to overlook the wrongs committed by his own side.

This selective morality allows schemes like those of the Seven Days Clergy and Garde to succeed.

His near-death and salvation at Hinata’s hands create the groundwork for a more mature Renard—one who can question, reflect, and possibly seek a more balanced justice.

In this way, he represents the human cost of blind allegiance and the painful path toward true understanding.