Aoikou here. Everyone warned me in advance that they wouldn’t let me get away with a “To Be Continued!” ending like I did for volume 2; I’m just relieved to have gotten volume 3 out the door safe and sound.
The truth is, I had a really tough time with this volume—there was just way too much I wanted to write. During the initial plotting, I had enough material that I would’ve needed to split this volume into two parts. I did my best to narrow down the themes and restructure the story, but there was still too much to fit in one book. So I pared things down even more, but before I knew it, I’d ended up going off on another random tangent, and I had to focus back on the story I wanted to tell... The plotting was an absolute nightmare, and the deadline for my manuscript was already set in stone by that point, and hgawawawawa...
Anyway, my editor put in an incredible amount of work as well, and in retrospect, I managed to fit in pretty much everything I’d wanted for this volume. I’m honestly amazed. Humans really can do anything we put our minds to!
By the way, even with all that going on, I still found myself wanting to write a separate side story as well, so I made my unreasonable request and got permission to post The Hero-Killing Bride 0: The Blood-Soaked Berserker on Novel Up Plus. If you haven’t read it yet, go give it a look. It’s a story about a certain royal knight captain and champion in their younger days.
With that said, I’d like to thank my editor, Rinrin-dono—I’m so sorry for bothering you with extra work even though you’re busy as is with your actual job. Thank you for not abandoning me!
There’s also a manga adaptation by Dean Law-sama currently being serialized in Young King Lambda. The adaptation does an amazing job making use of the strengths of its medium, and I’d love if you’d check that out as well. The battle scenes are intense, and Alicia’s frustrated faces are super cute!
Finally, my thanks once again to Enji-sama for bringing the story to life with your wonderful illustrations. I’m sorry for asking so much of you every single time. Thank you for delivering such powerful cover art and insert images. The cover art especially wowed me. I mean, it does every time, but still!
Now that this volume’s over, we’ve reached the end of the Demon-Slayer Arc. Next up will be the “little vacation” that Alicia talked about at the end of the volume—it’s time for a hot springs episode.
Alicia and Cion’s relationship has gotten pretty close all of a sudden. Even if you’re not a certain Holy Saint, you might be worrying about what sorts of things they’ll get up to with their clothes off... Well, that’s for the Gods alone to know. If there isn’t another volume, then you’ll just need to imagine it for yourselves. Cion probably begs and pesters Alicia, and Alicia reluctantly [a cloud of steam rises up to hide the rest of the paragraph].
I hope we can meet again soon in another afterword.
—Aoikou