Previous Chapter l After Story

※This afterword has a lot of spoilers. 

The readers, who still haven’t finished the main story, please be careful <Translation: Don’t read this if you haven’t finished the main story>. 

…I don’t think there are any though. 

TLN: Hey guys, Reigokai here! 

This afterword is humongous. Close to 10k words meaning an average of 5 chapters and the last chapter was 8k. It took me 2 days to translate the afterword alone and I am out of a job. I shudder just thinking how long it would have taken me otherwise. 

I have also written an afterword of my own thoughts at the end of the author’s one, so if you are interested, read that one too. 

With Weakest Mage over and so many consecutive long chapters (yeah, World is Game also has super long chapters now) I would like to take a 3 day break. Gonna touch some grass, lol. See ya after 3 days! 

Anyways, enjoy!

——-

Hello, it is Osaki Isle. 

All readers, the web novel version of Zero Believers Goddess has safely ended. 

＼Waah!／＼Kyaaah!／ *Clap Clap Clap!*

The serialization time was May 09, 2018 to April 25, 2022. 

It is the first web novel I wrote, but I didn’t expect so many people reading it. 

The light novel and the manga are both still ongoing. 

I am truly happy to be able to finish writing this story. 

From here on, I would like to touch upon a little bit of the hidden background of the characters.

I have also written my update plans for the future, so if you are only interested in that part, you can skip the hidden background stuff. 

■Takatsuki Makoto <Protagonist>

Left Illustration: 8th Volume Front Cover.

Right Illustration: 1st Volume. The scene where he protects Lucy from the Ogre (illustration of when introducing the character).

Protagonist of the story. 

Even though he is the protagonist, he showed up in the front cover for the first time in the light novel’s 6th volume. 

The origin of his name. 

The reason why I added the 月 (Tsuki) in the family name was because the main heroine at first was supposed to be the Moon <Tsuki> Oracle Furiae-san.

I had the idea of making Makoto-kun say in full chuunibyou ‘Please call me the High Moon (Takai Tsuki) Knight’ when he became a Guardian Knight, and then Furiae-san would respond with ‘Lame!’.

I decided to trash the idea. 

I decided on Makoto because I thought it would be nice to have a name that can be used for a man or a woman. 

I think it fits him since he is kind by nature. 

My first draft of Makoto-kun was that of a meek boy with short hair like that of Ikari Shinji-kun from Evangelion. 

I had planned for him to be shorter and the very definition of a frail boy. 

When I told that to the editor, they said: ‘That wouldn’t be popular these days~’. And so, the design is as it is now. 

The first time I saw him, I remember that my first impression was ‘he is a hotty!’.

The light novel Makoto-kun should be more popular in middle school and high school with that appearance, right? I felt like the setting that he doesn’t have a girlfriend and is a virgin was a bit too hard to swallow with that, but he is super popular in the isekai, so that might have been good. 

I am currently really attached to that character design. 

-Regarding the character itself. 

The story is written mostly from the perspective of Makoto-kun, so I think most of it is said now. 

He is the type of protagonist whose own physical strength and stats are low, but overcomes trials and tribulations by synchronizing with others, or borrowing the mana of Spirits. The type that drags his surroundings with him. 

Because his body is weak, I decided for him to be strong in the mental aspect. 

He normally goes at his own pace, and possesses inhuman mental strength with the Clear Mind skill. 

He is being treated as a madman by his peers in the second half. 

He is also a pathological hard worker. 

The main story was mostly in 1st person perspective, but it is a protagonist I managed to tag along with till the end without getting tired of him. 

-Regarding the plot points I couldn’t put to use in the main story. 

He is an only child, and on top of that, it was a shotgun wedding. 

His parents didn’t get along with each other, and he barely has any memories of going out with his family or traveling with them. 

There’s a portion of that written around chapter 126. 

Both parents worked till late, so he was a latchkey child, always alone at home. 

He got a decent amount of allowance, to the point that he passed his whole childhood playing games. 

However, the person himself doesn’t feel disappointed in that, and just took it as ‘not worrying about anything is nice’.

The reason he likes RPG Games is because he can play them alone and can enjoy them for a long time. 

He was raised seeing the bad relationship between his parents, so he is a late-grower when it comes to love. 

That’s the reason why he didn’t confess to Sa-san in middle school despite having an interest in her.

His impression of love was ‘nothing good comes from marriage’.

That perception of his seems to have changed greatly after coming to the isekai. 

I have not written that change of sentiments in him in the main story at all. 

This is not a love story but an isekai fantasy after all! 

In the story, I kept him virgin, but since the world is peaceful now, I want to progress his relationship with the heroines…at least that’s what I am thinking. 

Please look forward to the After Story. 

■Lucy J Walker <Elf Mage>

Left Illustration: 7th Volume Front Cover.

Right Illustration: 8th Volume illustration (publicized in the OVL site).

One of the main heroines of the story. 

The first member of the party. 

Easy heroine and the one in charge of the sexiness. 

Heroine born in the parallel world. 

Her magic talent is outstanding, but she is an airheaded mage that can’t control it. 

Her mother is a Legendary Hero of the Wood Country, and her father is a High Demon. 

I actually have the plot for her father too, but it was scrapped. 

She was modeled after Megumin from Konosuba. 

I remember at that time I tried to be really careful about not making her a cheap copy. 

I also remember that after the 2nd arc onwards, her own character had been cemented and she managed to establish herself. 

I don’t really have an origin for her name, but the J Walker is the whisky: Johnny Walker. 

There’s a lot of names that come from alcoholic drinks in Zero Believers. 

The Water Country of Rozes → Four Roses (Bourbon)

Water City of Makkaren → Macallan (Whiskey)

Shimei Lake → Chimay (Belgium Beer)

I still hadn’t decided on going 1,000 years in the past at the 1st Arc, so I decided on the name Johnny-san and introduced him later. 

-About her appearance. 

Red haired elf. 

The light novel has an illustration of her since the very first volume. 

The setting is that she has a lot of exposed skin, but the Editor-san told me that ‘she will be seen as vulgar by the readers if it is too extreme’, so it was settled with her current design. 

Since the exposed areas had been toned down in her usual attire, she is usually naked in the illustrations. 

-Regarding how the character Lucy was born. 

・Since Noah is sealed, he needs a heroine that travels together with him. 

・Since Furiae, who appears at a later time, is a dark heroine with a heavy past, I wanted a cheerful character. 

That’s basically the outline. 

And so, even though it wasn’t shown at all in the main story, she was the polar opposite of Furiae-san. 

A tsundere cheerful character. A pretty template heroine, but she was unexpectedly difficult to write. 

“This girl has a big attitude towards the protagonist despite sucking in magic and it pisses me off” -and so, she was hated by the readers. 

That’s where she lost her tsun <cold> and was simply left with the dere <loving>.

Thanks to that, her reputation with the readers was fixed, but I think her punch was weakened because of it. 

However, she is my personal favorite heroine. 

The story got popular after the middle of the 2nd Arc, but she is a heroine I worked hard on since the 1st Arc. 

She had a raunchy outfit and a straight personality, so she is a character that brightened the mood through her interactions with Makoto. 

She is the favorite character of the author, so she was the first kiss of Makoto, and she was also the one who made a promise with him about returning before he went off to the past. I favored her quite a lot. 

-As for the troublesome points. 

Since she was an easy heroine, there was no foreshadowing prepared, and it was really hard to create spotlights for her in the second half. 

Because of the plot point that Makoto got heavily burned due to synchronizing with Lucy in the 1st Arc, his synchronizations with her ended with that one and it was such a waste. 

In the 5th Arc, he entered a Love Pact with Lucy by kissing her, which was a desperate measure for synchronization after much deliberation. 

Also, after reading the first parts of it again, I thought ‘there’s no way she hasn’t gone out with a guy or been allowed in a party until now with her being so cute and having such high power’. 

Sasaki Aya (Sa-san) who comes out later becomes her love rival.

I wanted to write a really dramatic love triangle, but I read somewhere that heroines that don’t get along are not popular, so I changed them to getting along. 

Leaving aside the arc of the past, she is the character that shows up the most in the whole series aside from the protagonist. 

■Sasaki Aya <Sa-san>

Left Illustration: 8th Volume Front Cover.

Right Illustration: 2nd Volume illustration (published in the OVL site).

The second party member. 

A classmate of Makoto since middle school. 

The heroine that came from the same world as him. 

The love triangle rival of Lucy.

I made her a bit yandere in the middle of it. 

-Origin of the name. 

The reason why I call Sasaki as Sa-san is because I call an acquaintance of mine, Suzuki-san, as Su-san, and so I used that as a reference. 

I had her appear as a rival of Lucy and have them clash. 

I planned on having them fight on the regular over Makoto. 

But once I began writing it, I noticed that it would end up becoming a thorny party, so I decided on changing plans. 

As you know, Sa-san and Lucy are love rivals, but they are close friends. 

After Makoto went to the past, she adventures together with Lucy. 

In that time, their relationship deepened and turned yuri-like, but that development wasn’t popular with the readers. 

No demand for yuri. 

-Regarding her appearance.

I pictured her as a bit plain but cute when looking closely. 

She is not the number one in class, but if there were a top 5 cute girls, she would be in there. 

Sa-san was not in charge of the sexiness though.

・Lamia → human transformation scene. 

・Loves hot springs.

・Lucy’s love rival. 

Because of all those points, she ended up having a lot of scenes with high skin exposure. 

The two of them really livened up the light novel. 

About Sa-san, her future plot had been properly decided on beforehand. 

I had already decided by the 2nd Arc that she would evolve into a Lamia Queen in the Fire Country and win the martial arts tournament. 

By the way, I decided on a whim to make Makoto a Hero by the 3rd Arc. 

What really helped me out here was that she was a frontline character. 

Both Makoto and Lucy are mages, so they would reach their limits in the same fashion when bringing out a strong enemy, but with Sa-san present, most could be solved by brute force. 

There’s one plot point that must not be forgotten. 

The sister that betrayed the Lamia family. 

Even in the comments, there would be readers pointing out ‘when is she appearing?’.

Of course, I didn’t forget about her, but…going straight to the conclusion, the sister of Sa-san is currently in the Demonic Continent and is in the Demon Lord Army. 

I actually planned on having her appear in the 8th Arc war. 

But…

・It would turn dark.

・Sa-san has become too strong.

・I prioritized the spotlight for other characters (mostly Sakurai-kun).

And so, it was scrapped. 

By the way, she died in the manga version…

That was a bit sad. 

It is unknown whether she will show up in the After Story. 

By the way, I took a game I liked as a reference, Dark Souls, for the Laberintos Arc.

I wanted to express the dark and humid dungeon, as well as the monsters that come mercilessly to kill the adventurers. 

But the bookmarks were lowering really fast, so I decided to change my plan there as well. 

I tried to be careful to not make the atmosphere of the latter half of the 2nd Arc too dark. 

By the way, because of the Remaining Lives skill, it was already settled that she would be killed by the Sun Hero.

Why is it that I made only Sa-san suffer in this world…? 

Sorry. 

A positive for Sa-san.

Makoto ranking the heroines would never happen in the main story, but if it had been done, the order would be like this. 

Sa-san would be number one. 

1st: Sa-san.

2nd: Lucy.

3rd place and below: Princess Sofia, Momo (Great Sage), Furiae-san, Anna-san, Mari-san, Janet-san.

Exception: Noah-sama…

Makoto doesn’t have romantic feelings for Noah-sama. His religious faith is 100%. 

It is all subjective, so don’t think too much of it. 

Even Makoto himself is unaware of this, so he probably wouldn’t be able to answer even if asked. 

The reason would simply be ‘the order in which he met them’.

The exception being Princess Sofia though. 

By the way, by that logic, Sakurai-kun would be number one…nope. 

Sa-san is actually my second favorite heroine after Lucy. 

■Sofia Eir Rozes (Princess of the Water Country and Water Oracle)

Left Illustration: 4th Volume Front Cover. 

Right Illustration: the draft of the 1st Volume illustration, the scene where Makoto was rejected for the Divine Protection at the Water Temple. 

One of the main heroines of the story. 

The princess of a small country and having a rough time. 

Awkward and easily misunderstood cold princess. 

Different from Lucy and Sa-san, she wasn’t planned as a heroine at first. 

She was supposed to be a character you go ‘serves you right’ in the 3rd Arc at the capital of the Water Country for the grudge of looking down on him in the Water Temple. 

I was gathering hate with the Guardian Knight old man in the 1st and 2nd Arc for the sake of that. 

However, as I continued writing…

・It would be pitiful to do a ‘serves you right’ when she is working hard as a princess of a small country. 

・Their base is in the Water Country, and yet, they would be hated by the princess there? That would have affected future developments. 

・I planned on having Makoto reject Sofia, but I feel like that would instead make Makoto gather hate. 

And so, because of the aforementioned reasons, I scrapped my initial plans. 

Thus, she wonderfully became one of the heroines in the 3rd Arc. 

By the way, that’s also one of the reasons why Furiae-san had fallen off from being a heroine later on. 

I thought 3 heroines on the protagonist would be enough. 

However, that brought trouble in the future. 

At first, Sofia was hated by the readers, but she is already a popular heroine now. 

In the light novel survey, she would always be the number 1 most popular.

Sofia-san really is impressive…

Different from Lucy and Sa-san, her position is that of a princess, so she couldn’t go with them, leading to less screentime. 

I don’t know if it is because of that, but there were a lot of comments asking for Princess Sofia’s turn. 

By the way, the first wife of Makoto in the story is Princess Sofia. 

I plan on having Makoto be wedded into the Rozes royalty. 

That said, Princess Sofia is a busy girl and Makoto has his work as an Apostle, coupled with a variety of other things, I feel like their married life will be one where they rarely see each other. 

Both are workaholics and training addicts, so they are pretty similar. 

They will definitely get along well in their marriage. 

She will appear in the After Story. 

Or more like, despite their deep relationship, she doesn’t appear much, so I feel like I could write an infinite amount of stories about her. 

I have pretty much written everything about Lucy and Sa-san in the main story after all…

My current wish as the author is to quickly see Princess Sofia getting all loving in the manga version. 

I am looking forward to it…

■Leonard Eir Rozes <Prince>

Sub-Heroine (?) and a girlish boy. 

The first prince of the Water Country and the Glacial Hero. 

He adores Makoto. 

The heroes of the Water Country are normally not strong, but he is in the lowest of them in history. 

He hates fighting to begin with, so that can’t be helped. 

By the time Makoto comes back from the past, he should have grown more than what the illustration shows and will have become a pretty boy…most likely. 

He is hidden behind the shadow of her sister, but Prince Leonard also loves Makoto quite a lot. 

I want to create spotlight for him in the After Story. 

■Furiae Naia Laphroaig (Moon Oracle)

Left Illustration: 5th Volume Front Cover. 

Right Illustration: Draft of 6th Volume illustration (the scene where Makoto accidentally touches her breasts)

A main heroine in the story and a troublemaker.

The people who read it in real time probably know about it, but I had taken her off from the main heroines at first. 

She is a character I planned on having be together with Sakurai-kun. 

A spot like that of the bride of Fuji-yan, Nina-san. 

But this was super unpopular with the readers. 

The comments were burning. 

There were even readers who were writing ‘I won’t read this anymore!’.

I thought this was bad, so I lowered the appearances of Sakurai-kun, and made it so she slowly gravitated towards Makoto. 

As you know now, she officially became a heroine in the ‘farewell’ 9th Arc. 

As for why it happened…

I was planning on having Furiae-san become the Great Demon Lord in the last arc. 

I thought a couple with the Light Hero that saves the world and the Great Demon Lord that rules the world would be interesting. 

That idea was scrapped. 

Furiae-san was a character with extremely high popularity. 

It seems like not treating her like a heroine was NG <not good> for the readers. 

Writing a novel is difficult…

-Regarding her appearance.

A shrine maiden with black long hair. 

Most beautiful human. 

One piece long skirt. 

She had a white dress at first, but in order to create a difference with other existing characters, her dress became black in the light novel. 

I think it suits her a lot. 

The design of her outfit was left to the illustrator Tam-U-sensei, and the designs that came were super lewd which shocked me. 

Lucy…your role as being the sexy character was taken away…

-Origin of her name.

As a number of people have pointed out in the comments, it is the heroine Furiae from Drag-On Dragoon (also known as DOD) <Drakengard in western media>.

The origin is one of the 3 Goddesses of Vengeance in Roman mythology, Furiae. 

I am a big fan of DOD, so it was a dream of mine to write a heroine with that name. 

I don’t know if it is the power of names, but she ended up being a tragic heroine like the DOD one. 

The difference is that this one managed a happy ending.

The worry of hers is that, since Makoto will be marrying into the Water Country’s royalty, she can’t easily meet Makoto because of her standing as the Moon Country’s queen. 

■Noel Althena Highland (Sun Oracle and Queen of Highland)

The wife of Sakurai-kun.

2nd problem.

Actually…I planned on having Queen Noel as one of the main heroines. 

In other words, I planned on having her get together with Makoto-kun. 

I think the readers of the last arc should have gotten a hint there. 

Her role in going with him to the Deep Sea Temple and the fight against Leviathan. 

‘Why is Queen Noel with him despite not being a heroine?’ -were pretty prevalent comments at that time. 

That’s because I wrote the plot with her as the heroine. 

She fell off from being a heroine, but because I didn’t change the plot, it turned weird. 

Why is it that in the most climatic moment of the last arc, he is conquering the Last Dungeon with the wife of his childhood friend…?

Why did she fall off from the heroine role…?

The reason is obviously the aforementioned Furiae-san. 

If Furiae-san will be with Sakurai-kun, it should be fine for Queen Noel to go to Makoto -is what I was thinking, but Furiae-san turned into a heroine, and if even Queen Noel were to be moved to Makoto…

I would feel bad for Sakurai-kun, and Makoto would turn into a pretty despicable guy, so I gave up on turning Queen Noel into a heroine. 

As you can see in the last chapter, she safely managed to marry Sakurai-kun. 

There may be many difficulties with the annulment of the hierarchy and the correction of views regarding human race supremacy, but he should become a good king. 

■Fujiwara Michio (Fuji-yan)

■Nina-san

■Kawakita Keiko

Makoto’s buddy. 

He loves games, so he is a friend of Makoto since way back in their original world. 

Nina-san is the wife of Fuji-yan that comes from the isekai. 

Keiko-san is the wife of Fuji-yan that comes from his original world.

Also, there’s no illustration, but he also has a wife called Christiana-san. 

He is currently the representative of the Water City’s feudal lord.

He is also the president of the biggest store in the Water Country. 

Fuji-yan is winning them all. 

I wrote about it in an afterword of some chapter, but the Galge Player skill of Fuji-yan has a powerful mind reading ability. 

And there’s also the hidden power: Save & Load. 

Depending on the world, he is a character with enough power to become a protagonist of his own. 

He is in the world of Zero Believers Goddess where battle power speaks louder, so he is living a modest life. 

In stories where classmates are isekaied, the friends of the protagonist would usually turn their backs on them when they learn they are ‘too weak’, but in this story, the friends of the protagonist in the previous world are still friends here. 

Fuji-yan wouldn’t look down on Makoto just because the skills of Makoto are weak. 

This policy is also followed by Sakurai Ryosuke-kun. 

The reason being that I thought it would be more fun if the human relationships were not thorny. 

-Origin of the name. 

“I think of this world as mine as long as I don’t lack in mochi” is the waka poem of a great noble of the Heian Era, Fujiwara Michinaga. 

…I am bad with giving names, so I have a tendency to just drop whatever. 

I later regretted it thinking that I should have given them more connection. 

■Mari Gold <Receptionist of the Guild>

Sub-Heroine. 

The receptionist of the Adventurer Guild in the Water City. 

Somewhat of a triangle relationship in the 1st volume with Lucy. 

She thinks of Makoto as a little brother(?).

She has even kissed Makoto in the light novel, so she is already a heroine. 

She appears pretty early in the story (The heroine that shows up right after Noah-sama), but it was only in the 6th volume where an illustration of hers showed up.

Same as with Princess Sofia, she doesn’t adventure together with him, so her screentime is low, and she ended up phasing out at the latter half. 

I personally really like this character. 

She properly does her job and her personality softens up when she drinks which is something I liked a lot. 

I wanted to have her show up more often, but since Makoto-kun is jumping around every country, it was hard for that to happen. 

I plan on having her show up in the After Story. 

■Lucas <Dragon Hunter>

A veteran adventurer of the Water City. 

The adventurer teacher of Makoto. 

Same as Mari-san, he showed up pretty early, but the first drawing of him showed up in the 6th volume. 

It is not depicted in the main story, but he has accompanied Makoto countless times in his days as a newbie adventurer at the Water City. 

He is a busybody old man that doesn’t like seeing newbie adventurers die from overestimating their abilities and looks after them. 

But after adventuring with Makoto a few times and seeing him defeat goblins easily as a full on assassin, he thought ‘what’s with this guy…?’.

By the way, there’s no ill-natured adventurers that bully newbies in the Adventurer Guild of the Water City. 

It is because it is in the countryside and because of Lucas-san’s watchful gaze. 

■Jean <Water City Adventurer>

■Emily <Water City Adventurer>

Since there’s no illustrations of them in the light novel, this is from the manga. 

Former party of Lucy. 

They have also formed a party with Makoto temporarily. 

Actually, in the 1st Arc, it wasn’t a big story where Makoto saves the world, but a story about an adventure on a small scale with the Water City as the base. 

Because of that, I planned on Jean and Emily to have a lot more spotlight, but…

I changed plans heavily from the 2nd Arc on, and decided on moving the story in the direction of saving the world. 

Sorry, Jean, Emily…

■Sakurai Ryosuke (Light Hero)

■Yokoyama Saki

Sakurai-kun is an over-the-top childhood friend that has been together with Makoto from kindergarten to high school.

Yokoyama-san has been together with Makoto and Sa-san since middle school. 

Sakurai-kun has a past of being saved by Makoto over and over. 

Like the stalker incident in the 8th volume of the light novel. 

For Makoto, it was a dark past that he thought ‘why did I do something like that?’ and wanted to forget about it.

Because of this, Sakurai-kun thinks of Makoto as his benefactor.

Makoto wants to forget those days. 

And so, their views of those times are disjointed. 

-Origin of their name.

I like Sakurai-san from Mr. Children. <Mr. Children, commonly referred to by their contracted nickname “Misu-Chiru”, are a Japanese pop rock band formed in 1989. Consisting of Kazutoshi Sakurai, Kenichi Tahara, Keisuke Nakagawa, and Hideya Suzuki, they made their major label debut in 1992.>

At least that’s what I think the reason was (not sure).

As for Yokoyama Saki-san…I don’t remember at all!

Actually, my plan in the beginning was to make the roles of Sakurai-kun and Makoto-kun be ‘The public hero’ and the ‘hidden hero’.

What I aimed for was something similar to Final Fantasy Tactics with Ramza and Delita. 

Sakurai-kun who has the same skill as the Savior Abel will gather attention from the masses. 

But in the shadows, Makoto would flourish and…that’s basically how I wanted it to go. 

Makoto became a Hero in the 3rd Arc, so that plan crumbled. 

In the beginning, because of my own fault, he was given a hateful impression, but I think I managed to bring him back up in the latter half. 

I actually wanted to have him adventure together with Makoto-kun more. 

I want to create an episode for Sakurai-kun in the After Story. 

I still haven’t thought of one though. 

■Geralt Valentine (Lightning Hero)

■Olga Tariska (Scorching Hero)

Heroes from the parallel world. 

They were the ones who were expected to defeat the Great Demon Lord until Sakurai-kun and the otherworlders came. 

But the two ended up in their shadows once they came.

Because of that, they don’t have a good impression of the otherworlders. 

4th Volume: Geralt vs Makoto.

7th Volume: Olga vs Sa-san. 

They ended up taking the role of punching-bags which I feel bad for doing. 

They were originally planned to have terrible personalities and be defeated by Makoto and Sa-san…but they also have their own problems, and by the time I noticed, they ended up getting along well with the main characters. 

Especially Geralt-san. He had a yankee-like friendliness after the fight which was well received by the readers. 

I personally find Geralt-san and Olga-san getting together as a good ending for them. 

Valentine and Tariska <Talisker> are both whiskey brands.

The whiskey couple. 

■Janet Valentine <Female Knight>

Sub-Heroine. 

Little sister of Geralt-san. 

Pegasus Knight.

The daughter of a high noble family. 

Just like her brother, she had the role of looking down on the protagonist and flipping it around later, but I thought ‘it would be boring to always use the Flying Ship of Fuji-yan all the time’ when they were going to the Wood Country, so I had him ride the pegasus of Janet-san. 

-Regarding her appearance. 

I didn’t really make it detailed, but I was shocked when the design came out. 

“S-She is way too cute…” 

It was to the point that I even thought about moving her up to a main heroine. 

There was a congestion of heroines, so she stayed as a sub-heroine. 

■Rosalie J Walker <Crimson Witch>

Lucy’s mother. 

Legendary Hero of the Wood Country. 

Has a lot of children. 

The hero that arrives late. 

So strong she doesn’t get involved in the main story. 

-Origin of the name. 

She is an elf that lives in the forest, so I wanted to make it a flower-like name, and decided on it on a whim. 

I thought everyone would think I got it from the rose. 

My biggest mistake. 

There’s actually a super famous elf called Rosalie in DQ4. 

I only noticed it after-the-fact. 

It was the moment when I decided I should properly google before deciding on the names of important characters. 

She is the 2nd strongest mage in the West Continent. 

The number one is Momo. 

That’s why she sees the Great Sage-sama as a rival. 

But Momo is a mage that has been polishing herself for 1,000 years for the sake of Makoto. 

Even if Rosalie-san has a lot of talent, she is 200 years old. 

She still can’t surpass the difference of age. 

By the way, the reason why Rosalie-san looks terribly young is because she ate the Life Fruit. 

She has obtained the Life Fruit somewhere aside from the Deep Sea Temple. 

■Setekh <Demon Lord Executive>

One of the tops that came back with the revival of the Immortal King in the 6th Arc. 

Owner of the Petrification Eye. 

Good friends with Cain. 

I was actually planning for him to show up in the time traveling arc, but…the Petrification Eye was too strong. 

Makoto-kun’s party would have probably been wiped out if he had shown up. 

The Petrification Eye is bad. 

That was a power I should have given to a Demon Lord, not an executive…

I am thinking of having him appear in the time traveling arc of the light novel. 

■General Tariska <General of the Fire Country>

Father of the Scorching Hero Olga.

Top of the Fire Country’s army. 

He sees Makoto favorably from the 7th Arc and up. 

By the way, he has also taken a liking to Sa-san. 

Because of that, he was feeling down when Sa-san quit being the Country Designated Hero of the Fire Country. 

Cute. 

■Yuwein (Sun Knight General) 

The top of the West Continent’s Alliance Army. 

The leader of the Sun Knights and the superior of Sakurai-kun. 

Buried in work. 

He would have Hero level battle prowess if he fought, but because he is a commander, he didn’t show up at all. 

A sympathizer of Sakurai-kun. 

Even though he was born in the Sun Country, he is against the hierarchical system, and holds effort in a higher standard. 

I wanted him to show up more, but he retired. 

■Alexander Olympos <Son of the God King>

The son of the God King Jupiter. 

Little brother of Althena-sama. 

1 year old.

My vision of him is that of a bad Heracles. 

A child of god that was raised into a selfish person by the Destiny Goddess. 

I actually wanted him to appear again in the last arc, but he is way too big of a balance breaker, so I decided against it. 

I am still thinking about what to do with him in the After Story. 

■Momo (Great Sage)

Main Heroine of the 1,000 year Arc.

She fulfills the loli role but is the oldest one. 

Vampire heroine. 

I wrote the time traveling arc for Momo’s sake. 

My personal favorite scenes were: 

・When Makoto notices Momo is the Great Sage-sama. 

・When Makoto reunites with Momo in the present (when he wakes up).

The aforementioned scenes also had a lot of comments. 

The 1,000 Year Arc took 1 year, but I am glad I managed to finish writing it.

Momo is the character with the most heavy feelings towards Makoto. 

She did wait 1,000 years for Makoto after all.

Despite that, she didn’t have much of a spotlight in the last arc…

I might have made her a bit too strong. 

She ended up being a balance breaker. 

She is the strongest mage that surpasses even Rosalie-san after all…

-Origin of the name. 

I think it is the Momo from Michael Ende. <Michael Andreas Helmuth Ende was a German writer of fantasy and children’s fiction. He is best known for his epic fantasy The Neverending Story; other famous works include Momo and Jim Button and Luke the Engine Driver.>

There’s no episode associated with it. 

I decided on writing the 1,000 year arc when I was writing Makoto meeting Momo. 

I thought it would be interesting if ‘Makoto actually knows the Great Sage-sama…’.

Because of that, every time Makoto met the Great Sage-sama, I expressed that they were awfully close. 

However, if I overdid it, it would be discovered that it is a foreshadow, so I tried to be careful about that. 

In the 8th volume of the light novel: “…You haven’t changed either…to-sama.” 

Is the phrase I added. 

It was already obvious in the web novel, so I thought it should be fine. 

I will properly write a story about Momo and Makoto in the After Story. 

■Anna Highland (Savior Abel)

No illustration. 

The one other heroine in the 1,000 years arc.

She looks just like Queen Noel. 

There should be an illustration of her once the 10th volume comes out! 

Her gender is special.

Abel: Male

Anna: Female

She can switch between the two. 

The Ranma ½ formula (old).

At first, there was the suggestion of making her be both genders, but it was scrapped. 

-Origin of the name. 

It is from the mother of Saint Maria of christianity, Anna. 

There’s no episode referencing this. 

The promise between Makoto and Anna-san will be made clear in the After Story. 

The story of Anna-san will probably be the longest one in the After Story. 

That said, the author is currently burned out from having finished the main story, so I think Anna-san will be showing up after a good while more. 

I would say by the end of the year.

Anna-san will be showing up in the 10th volume of the light novel, so please wait for a bit. 

I think my motivation will rise up once illustrations of her show up, so I might even suddenly begin writing. 

■Helemerck <Mel-san> <White Ancient Dragon>

No illustration.

Sub-Heroine(?).

Legendary Holy Dragon. 

Served as the ride in the 1,000 years arc. 

The oldest and the one that kept order in the party. 

She is also the master of Momo in magic. 

I didn’t put much importance in her at first, but she became an extremely important character. 

She has a lot of knowledge, so she got the role of guiding the protagonist who didn’t know his surroundings. 

Most of all, after Mel-san appeared, I could go to the places I wanted to go, so it was easy to proceed with the story. 

-Origin of the name. 

From the angel Helem Melek <ヘルエムメレク>. <Couldn’t find the angel in english. If someone knows, please write it in the comments.>

After giving her the name, I thought ‘that’s too long!’ and shortened it to Mel-san. 

It should have been fine to just make the name short from the very beginning, but I wanted her to have a majestic name. 

I was also unsure about whether to treat her as a heroine. 

I feel like it is a bit different…

She was the important straight man in the party with a lot of nut-jobs like Makoto. 

■Johnny Walker.

No illustration.

Lucy’s great grandfather. 

A member of Hero Abel’s party.

-Origin of the name. 

Just as I explained in the Lucy part, his name comes from the whiskey Johnny Walker. 

I didn’t even imagine the protagonist would be going to the past when I was writing the 1st arc, so he is one of the tops of my ‘named on a whim’ list. 

…I am sure there were better names. 

About his personality, I changed him a lot. 

Lucy has a lot of siblings from different fathers. 

Rosalie-san falls in love easily. 

I wrote in the 1st arc that she is related to Johnny-san. 

And so, I had already planned on him being a playboy character like that of a host. 

But when I tried to write him, I thought ‘I feel like I can’t write an appealing character like this!’ and abandoned the idea. 

And that’s when I settled with the leader of the people that managed to escape the persecution of the Demon Lords and their subordinates. 

The reason he has a lot of children is to leave descendants. 

A silent samurai character. 

He ended up becoming the complete opposite of what I originally planned. 

-Appearance. 

I imagined him as a samurai, so he has long hair, tied up haphazardly. 

He is red haired, so I think it is close to Himura Kenshin from Samurai X. 

Johnny-san is a reincarnation character. 

His past life was that of a japanese person. 

But he has lost most of his past life memories. 

I was thinking about making him the reincarnation of a character that ended tragically in Japanese history. 

The candidates were: 

・Sakamoto Ryoma.

・Minamoto no Yoshitsune

But I abandoned the idea because of lack of knowledge. 

The 1,000 year arc was already long on its own, so I couldn’t add in even more episodes. 

What little remained of it was that ‘he uses a katana’.

In hindsight, he didn’t have much interaction with Makoto. 

I wanted to have them talk a bit more. 

■Bifrons <Immortal King>

No illustration.

Demon Lord that rules the West Continent. 

The king of vampires. 

He was defeated by Makoto 1,000 years ago. 

A pitiful Demon Lord that was also defeated in the present. 

-Origin of the name. 

It is Bifrons. The 46th demon of the 72 demons of Solomon. 

>There’s cases where he is connected with necromancy and communicating with the dead (Wiki).

And so, I decided on the name Immortal King from there. 

I pictured him as more of a reaper than a Demon Lord.

I remember getting really into writing the Demon Lord battle of the first half of the 1,000 year arc. 

It is a shame that he died, but he is a Demon Lord, so it can’t be helped. 

■Cain <Evil God Apostle>

No illustration.

Black Knight Demon Lord. 

Apostle of Noah-sama 1,000 years ago. 

He saw Noah-sama and was enslaved by her beauty. 

On top of that, he was on the bottom of despair, so Noah-sama poked into that hole.  

Even so, the person himself finds it a great honor to be the Apostle of Noah-sama. 

Because of that, he tried to increase her number of believers, but because of the divine punishment of the Holy Gods, he couldn’t. 

Despite that, he still tried to increase her believers, making him a troublesome Demon Lord. 

He has been invited at least once by all Demon Lords.

He refused them all though. 

He also did his best trying to convert people in the Demon Lord army, but there’s obviously no one who became a believer. 

Thanks to that, he was an outlier in the Demon Lord army. 

-Origin of the name. 

Cain and Abel from the Old Testament.

I have said it countless times now, but I didn’t think at all that I would be writing the 1,000 year arc, so I decided on it on a whim. 

The savior’s name is Abel, so the enemy being Cain should be fine, is what I thought.

…That was a mistake. 

There’s a lot of things I have to reflect about the names, but I think I didn’t manage to write him as a madman at all. 

Makoto was a lot crazier. 

That said, I personally like the scene where Cain saved Makoto at the cost of his life in the present time.

The only named ally character that clearly died. 

I think I want to go to his homeland in the After Story. 

■Astaroth <Ancient Dragon King>

Strongest Demon Lord in the North Continent. 

Ancient Dragon that has been living for 100,000 years. 

Father of Mel-san. 

I have written this in an afterword before, but I was conflicted in what will be his relationship with Mel. 

I was thinking about whether to make him her brother or boyfriend. 

He became the father in the end, and Mel-san was treated as a daughter that ran away from home. 

By the way, his appearance in the last chapter was also on a whim. 

I had set Leviathan pretty crazily, so he appeared as a ride. 

Since he is the father of Mel-san, the possibility of dying was gone, but I feel like he lost his majesty in exchange after the 1,000 year arc. 

-Origin of the name. 29th demon of the 72 demons of Solomon, Astaroth. 

The original one has nothing to do with dragons. 

I decided on it just because it sounded cool.

■Great Demon Lord Iblis and Calamity Witch Nevia.

No illustration.

Troublemakers. 

Characters that troubled me all the way till the end. 

-Origin of the names.

Iblis is the demon king in Islam. 

The Satan of christianity.

Nevia comes from the queen of Arthur in the King Arthur story, Guinevere <written as Guinebia in Japanese>.

I thought it was perfect as a villain from the fact that Queen Guinevere had an illicit relationship with the head of the knights of the round table, Lancelot.

As for the Great Demon Lord, his character was hazy all the way to the end. 

I hadn’t decided on anything at the 3rd arc. 

I made him have a childish voice, so I planned on having him look like a child at first, but having Anna-san cut down a child-looking Great Demon Lord sounded questionable, so I made him into a hard to describe appearance. 

As for Nevia-san, I planned on making her more of a villainous character. 

The type that would make human experiments in the Moon Country.

But in the end, I decided to have her do something similar to the Infinite Tsukuyomi <from Naruto>, and have her aim for world peace. 

I don’t know if to change the development in the light novel or not.

■Eir Olympos <Water Goddess>

Guardian Goddess of the Water Country. 

Peaceful Goddess that hates conflict. 

The one ordered to keep an eye on Noah and also her friend. 

I wanted to bring out a big sister atmosphere from her, but she is far younger than Noah. 

Regarding the reason why I had Eir-sama show up…because I ran out of ideas for the conversations of Makoto and Noah. 

Conversation topics run out really fast with just the two of them.

Since Eir-sama showed up, Makoto, Noah, and Eir began talking on their own which helped me out a lot. 

In the 1st arc, she should have hated the Holy Gods a lot. 

But I thought that would shift the story to a dark tone, so I was worried about how it would develop in the future. 

And then, my plans changed after I had the Water Goddess appear. 

As you may know now, the confrontation of the Old Gods and the Holy Gods ended up becoming lax. 

Please imagine it as a parent and child fight or a sibling fight. Relatives fighting could also work.

Eir-sama is the most gentle within the Holy Gods. 

She hates disputes the most, and because of that, the military power of the Water Country is the lowest one. 

Princess Sofia is suffering thanks to that. 

Eir-sama isn’t a heroine. 

She might be. 

I am still considering if to include her in the After Story. 

■Ira Olympus <Destiny Goddess>

■Esther <Destiny Oracle>

The Guardian Goddess of the Commerce Country.

The West Continent is under the jurisdiction of the Destiny Goddess. 

The youngest within the 7 Goddesses. 

The head of the latest Goddess candidates. 

Airheaded despite that. 

She was the overwhelming No.1 for the readers in the latter half of the story. 

I don’t know why she is so popular despite me being the author. 

-Hidden background story. 

I actually planned on Ira-sama to be the last boss. 

She would appear riding Leviathan, and was supposed to be the Holy God that stood in the way of Makoto. 

You can tell that she was pretty antagonistic towards Makoto the first time she showed up. 

(It has been adjusted in the light novel).

However, because Noah-sama doesn’t appear in the 1,000 year arc, there was the need of a substitute Goddess.

Eir-sama would have worked too though…

But with Eir-sama, it would be too calm, so I judged it would lack tension. 

If possible, someone that’s a lot less calm than Makoto… And so, there was only Ira-sama. 

I hadn’t gotten a clear grasp of her character at first, but her popularity rose up as she got involved with Makoto. 

Her popularity surpassed that of Noah-sama in the last chapter. 

Ira-sama…is a heroine. 

She changed from a last boss to a heroine in one go. 

How did it turn out like this? 

But the relationship between Makoto and Ira-sama is troublesome. 

・Makoto→Ira: Reliable senpai. But it is dangerous, so I have to follow-up for her. 

・Ira→Makoto: A reliable kouhai. But he really is hopeless without my help! 

That’s their impression. 

Both have zero romantic feelings towards each other. 

They rely on each other, and try taking the high ground that they are hopeless without them. 

The distance between Makoto and Ira-sama is so close, it must be distressing for the heroines. 

Noah-sama is no exception. 

I of course plan on her showing up in the After Story.

■Naia <Nyarlathotep> <Moon Goddess>

No illustration.

Outside God. 

Free transforming and the incarnation of thousands. 

Creeping chaos. 

Popularly known as Nyarlathotep-san.

There were a decent number of people who wrote ‘isn’t the Moon Goddess Nyarlathotep?’.

Furiae-san being the most beautiful human (APP18) is also a reference from Cthulhu. 

The reason why I had her appear is because I wanted to create a 3rd power within the confrontational structure of the Holy Gods and the Old Gods. 

The reason I made the Gods from Lovecraftian lore is just the hobby of the author. 

■Althena Olympus <Sun Goddess>

The Goddess of justice and victory that rules over the sun. 

Childhood friend of Noah-sama. 

Representative of the God King. 

One of the strongest Gods of the Holy Gods.  

Ruler of the whole universe. 

She has it rough because of her many little sister gods and her philanderer father. 

-Origin of her name.

Athena of Greek Mythology. 

Her father Jupiter originates from Roman Mythology, and in Greek Mythology it would be Zeus. 

By the way, the base of the world of Zero Believers is Greek Mythology. 

1) Genesis Gods: the ones who set the planets at first: Uranus (Sky) and Gaia (Earth).

2) Old Gods: Cronus and the Titans that stole away the control of the world from Uranus. 

3) Holy Gods: Zeus went against his father Cronus and governed the Olympus Gods. 

The Devil God Typhon is the biggest monster of Greek Mythology. 

I couldn’t write episodes of the Devil Gods at all which is something I have to reflect on. 

■Noah Titan <Goddess of Beauty and Freedom>

Left Illustration: 6th Volume Front Cover

Right Illustration: a frontispiece somewhere

The poster girl heroine and the wire puller. 

She is an Old Gold and a former Evil God. 

The Goddess that guides the protagonist. 

She is the character that I ‘changed’ the most when the light novel came out. 

The publisher advised me ‘The Goddess is a heroine, so make her way of speaking and personality cuter’.

I showed a peek of Noah-sama’s desire for revenge towards the Holy Gods in the 1st Arc, but I have refrained from using those expressions later on. 

On top of that, she gets along well with the Holy God Eir-sama, so she has become quite the gentle character. 

The reason being that a heroine that smells of a villain has a chance of ‘not selling’.

I think well-versed readers should know, but it is not rare for light novels to be axed. 

And so, the editors will give as much advice as allowed so that doesn’t happen. 

My story is one where heroines stand out (led by a Goddess heroine and adventuring with an elf heroine) so it would be outrageous for the heroines to not be appealing. 

That’s why I had a long discussion with the editor-san about Noah-sama. 

Thanks to that, it has ‘lived for a long time’ until the 9th volume. 

The one in charge of me has changed from that time, but I am really grateful for the advice at that time. 

However, I personally think Noah-sama is a heroine and also the string puller, so I wanted to show that. 

>7th Arc: Fire Country Arc. 

>Chapter 170: Takatsuki Makoto gets the blessing of victory.

>◇Olga Sol Tariska POV◇

>What I saw there at the side of the Water Country’s Hero Makoto was a holy figure. 

>Something I shouldn’t have seen.

>That way too beautiful existence warped its mouth into a big smile. 

>I was hit directly by that…and had goosebumps running through my whole body, my body froze, and I couldn’t even speak.

I wanted to give the scent of Noah-sama as a string puller. 

There were a number of comments saying ‘Noah-sama is scheming something?’ which made me happy. 

By the way, in the plot at first I planned on her actually destroying the world. 

The origin of Noah’s name is of course the flood of Noah. 

Once it turned into a light novel, I scrapped the idea of destroying the world.

The reason why the last arc is the Goddess Arc is because it is the arc where Noah-sama falls in love with Makoto. 

She was a character that troubled me in a variety of ways, but I think she was an appealing poster girl. 

■About the new story

Actually, I have already stealthily uploaded the new story. 

■Name of the story: The squishy swordsman with zero attack power ~abandoned by his childhood friend Oracle, he entered the magic academy, and ended up looking after the Demon Lord~ <TLN: I am in between Squishy or Soft. I haven’t read the story yet, so I might switch to Soft depending on what the actual meaning is.>

■URL: https://ncode.syosetu.com/n3992hp/

Currently uploaded until the 4th chapter and planning to continue. 

<Synopsis>

The protagonist gave up on being a magic swordsman due to a certain incident. Top student from the Empire’s Military Academy, Eugene Saintfield. 

He had a dream. 

It is to become the Royal Sword of his childhood friend Airi Grandflare, who is aiming to become the Emperor, and bring even more prosperity to the Empire. 

But that dream crumbled. 

Due to his lacking talent. 

Eugene had no talent and was easily abandoned by his childhood friend. 

Having fallen into despair, he enrolled in the highest academic center of the Empire, the Lykeion Magic Academy, under the discretion of his father. 

The life of Eugene will be moved heavily by the many encounters in the academy. 

Eventually turning into a wave that will drag the whole continent…

<End of Synopsis>

The stage takes place in the center of the South Continent -the place where the Last Dungeon, the Zenith Tower Babel, is towering at. 

And so, this is a story about the South Continent that’s across the ocean of the West Continent where Takatsuki Makoto shone in. 

The time it takes place is at the same time as Zero Believer Goddess starts.

In other words, it would be right after Makoto-kun and Sa-san come to this world. 

Makoto-kun is currently desperately training in the Water Temple of the West Continent. 

If you are interested, please do check it out. 

※Important※

■Regarding the uploads for the future. 

I am thinking of writing the 11th Arc: After Story. 

The speed of the uploads will be once every month. 

However, there won’t be an afterword for it. 

The next update will be on May 25th. 

That’s the day the volume 4 of the manga is being sold. 

The front cover is Lucy & Sa-san. (I will publish it in twitter)

The Lucy & Sa-san that Shiroi-sensei drew is really cute, so please check it out. 

About the contents of the After Story, they will in essence be Short Stories. 

I won’t be writing long stories (probably).

How long will I be writing the After Story? The answer is: I plan on doing it as long as the commercial serialization goes on. 

To be more precise: 

・The light novel goes on.

・Manga version keeps on. 

As long as any of the two continues, I will continue the After Story. 

That’s why, please do support it. 

■Lastly.

I will answer comments. 

I have gotten more than 370 comments! 

Many thanks!!! 

>Congratulations on completing the story! 

>Good work on reaching the end! 

>Grats on ending!!! 

→Thank you very much. 

I managed to finish it thanks to the support of everyone. 

>I am looking forward to the After Story too. 

→I will be uploading them at a lenient pace, but I would be grateful if you tag along in that. 

>What about the sister of Sa-san?

→There were a lot of questions about that.

As I mentioned above, it is unknown whether she will appear again. 

>We are talking about Makoto, so I thought he would become a Demon Lord, but it was actually the God end. 

→Actually, Makoto has the Proof of the Dragon King, so for the people living in the North Continent, he is in essence a Demon Lord. 

That said, Makoto himself isn’t that aware of it.

There’s a lot of other comments, but I will leave it at that. 

I would like to do some advertising in the end. 

I plan on uploading Squishy Swordsman with Zero Attack Power every day until chapter 10.

https://ncode.syosetu.com/n3992hp/

Golden Week is a consecutive holiday after all! 

May everyone have a good holiday! 

Let’s meet again!! 

 

———Translator Afterword———

 

Hey guys, Reigokai here! 

Man, we finally made it all the way to the end! This would be the second web novel I have managed to translate to completion. Woohoo! 

The 1st chapter I posted was on February 12, 2020 and as of May 11, 2022 -a whopping 2 years- we have reached the end of Weakest Mage. 

From here on, I would like to go into a completely biased opinion of the story. This is just me spewing my thoughts out of the top of my head, so I will keep it to just an outline of the pros and cons as time went on. 

—First of all, let’s talk about the beginning of it all. The class transfer trope. 

This is actually the first instance of ‘I might want to translate this story’. The way it was handled was pretty great in my eyes. Everyone was full with their own matters, so they didn’t waste their time on bullying and were eager to go outside and test out their full powers. Result? People died off-screen and we barely saw them in the story aside from a select few. 

—That leads me to the other point I liked a lot. Male friends: Sakurai and Fujiwara. 

There is usually that one male friend that’s the super supportive type or the comic relief. In this one, Sakurai and Fujiwara really stood out. They had their own issues, their own stories, and they felt like the protagonists of their own story, developing completely outside the view of Makoto. I myself wouldn’t have a problem with having a Fujiwara spin-off (maybe in a different continent?). This was the second instance of ‘I might want to translate this story’ and mainly because of Fujiwara. Also, I am really glad Sakurai stayed a really good friend all the way to the end. I seriously thought he would get corrupted at some point. 

—After that, we get the introduction of Lucy, the first heroine. 

This is where many people began calling the story a cheap Konosuba knock-off. Yeah, she was pretty similar to Megumin, and because of it, even Noah was called Aqua when she was nothing alike. But the base of the story is completely different, so there’s no way it would turn into a Konosuba. So what was my opinion? Hell yeah! If you are going to take something from Konosuba, it has to be the characters! I have no complaints about it as long as you make the story your own thing. 

—And so, characters, that’s for me one of the strongest points of the story. 

There’s an absolutely massive cast of characters as already shown above in the author’s afterword. And I would say that my favorite characters are mostly not even the main heroines. Yeah, crazy. If I had to name a few, it would be: Fujiwara (obviously), Setekh, Bifrons, Sofia, and my most favorite of them all is Ira.

Yes, I am in the Ira faction. I could gush on about her, but it really is the synergy she has with Makoto and how they try to one-up each other. The hilarious interactions are what propelled her to my very top. When I read that the author planned on making her the Last Boss, I legit laughed. Putting that image in my head of Ira swooping in with Leviathan sounds like a joke, lol. Just how in the world was the author planning to make Makoto even win that one? 

Speaking of information from the afterword, now that we have taken a peek into the mind of the author, we now know why the relationship of Furiae and Noel was so strange. This probably bled into the design of Anna being similar to Noel. 

There’s actually only one reason why I didn’t accept Noel switching hearts to Makoto and that’s because of the one POV chapter given to us extremely early in the story about how Sakurai was a comfort in her busy life. 

I really didn’t like how the author continued teasing the notion of Furiae and Sakurai over the whole course of the story. To be honest, if not for the scene where Furiae had a whole room full of Makoto pictures and how she kissed them every night, I would have still suspected her until now. Man, I required yandere levels of evidence, lol.

While we are speaking of romance, I think that was the weakest part of the story. I would say the only romance that was handled decently was Princess Sofia. You could clearly see as time went on that Sofia was warming up more and more to Makoto and it is really cute to see her efforts and how completely oblivious she is about love. 

—Now, how can I talk about the characters without talking about the protagonist himself? Makoto.

I love me some weirdo protagonists. The types where you know there’s something wrong in their heads, but they don’t realize it and we get the unreliable narrator syndrome in specific instances. 

This story executes that perfectly. I love how the Clear Mind in this story was handled. It sounds like a simple skill that calms your mind, and when in the perspective of Makoto, it doesn’t sound like a big deal, but once you switch to a POV chapter…oof. That’s when you see Clear Mind in its true colors. 

Makoto looks like an efficient robot unfazed by anything, simply performing the most optimal moves while disregarding his own well-being. Actions that any person would normally hesitate to do. To be fair, that’s how Makoto originally was, but Clear Mind amplified it. 

POV chapters were among my favorite chapters. Especially the Olga POV when Makoto was stopping the comet, and the Anna POV when he owned Bifrons by synchronizing with Ira. 

—Anyways, we now enter my most favorite part of the story. The power progression of Makoto. 

Since the very beginning of the story, Makoto has had clear weak points that continue on through the whole story aside from the very end when he turned into a God. This really allowed for some interesting battles that still had stakes. But most of all, it is how the progression of Makoto felt really organic. 

In the beginning, we see that he struggled with generating water, but he has great control, so he had to fight like an assassin to economize. This was actually the part with the most interesting battles for me. Especially the Chimera battle when he used Fuji-yan to carry water for him and moved the Chimera when Lucy was obviously going to miss (which we already knew just how bad her control with magic was). We get a peek of Synchronization too.

He got gifted the skill from Noah. But Spirits are whimsical and are affected by the mood of the user. 

When the capital was about to fall from a giant, we see Synchronization again but in its full force with Princess Sofia. But that’s not all, he practiced Transformation from Sa-san. A skill that lets you transform freely, but it is easier to transform the more familiar you are with what you are transforming to. 

He then kicks the ass of Geralt after getting pissed off the most in the whole story. Anger being the most dangerous emotion to use when controlling Spirits (reasonably so). 

Now he got Charm with Furiae, but that was a gateway to allow the trick to call for the Great Water Spirit for the first time which led to the most epic water giant, sweeping the whole horde of Ancient Monsters.

Then we got the first fight against an Ancient Dragon. Nothing Makoto did worked on it and he couldn’t call an Undine on command. And so, he applied the sacrificial technique that he learned from the suicide bombers before. Offering lifespan to Noah and slicing the dragon down with a blade wave from the OP dagger. 

Now we enter the heavy powercreep phase. Stopping the comet. This is probably the chapter that gave me the most goosebumps. The best power up moment of them all. Makoto uses Transformation to become part Spirit. Such a clear possibility, yet it didn’t even cross my mind. But it then got turned up a notch. In order to maintain his Spirit arm, he had to make his Clear Mind to 100% and he moved his Perspective Change into the stratosphere as if he were watching down on the world…like a God. 

All right, all right, I don’t want to make this one too long and I don’t even think I did a good job at it. It is something you feel when you read it after all. But you get me now. The author uses previous points and expands on them. There wasn’t a moment where I felt it was an asspull (not that I remember). 

We see clear progress as enemies grow organically stronger with Gods still in the picture to let you know that there’s something even above that. 

The whole God business was handled really well too, despite not seeing the world of Gods directly, you can tell there’s a whole system and a bigger world out there.

—That’s it!!

This was truly a long journey and a really enjoyable one! Seeing everyone’s comments, theorycrafting, and getting excited at the same moments as me really bolstered my passion to continue translating and reminded me just how much I love doing this. 

I began translating this story when times were getting tough, so it really helped me out a lot, enjoying a nice story with everyone, it really made me feel how great it is to translate. Couple that with the ultimate escape from reality that are isekais, I really felt refreshed. 

As you can see, even though this journey is over, we still have more worlds out there to explore. Hell, the author currently has a story running in the same universe, moreover, exactly when Makoto arrives in that world. 

You can be damn sure I will be translating that one. Reading the afterword, I can tell the author has really been polishing their writing and I am really curious what they will bring to the table now. 

And so, as customary, this isn’t an end, we are simply traveling to a different isekai now. We are the tourists of worlds. 

It is a bit impudent to pitch a different story here, but hey, what better time than when I am talking about journeying to different worlds. 

I am translating the story Only I Know the World is a Game. I am sure many disliked the beginning, I certainly did, but that’s why I normally read 100 chapters before deciding whether to translate something (unless it hooks me before that). And let me say, it gets better. Like, a lot better (in my opinion). Also, please don’t get swayed by the manga art or the story in the manga. The manga made changes I thought were horrible and made everything more unnecessarily silly. Basically, just give it a try as if you were playing the early game of an mmo (early game is slow and it is for foundation) and forget the manga even exists, lol. 

Anyways, I hope to see you on the next destination! Most likely the South Continent. Onto the Zenith Tower! 

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