And so ends volume 3. How did you guys like it? It's the shortest volume so far, both in number of chapters and timeframe.

This volume is pretty different from the usual. Yuuto doesn't fight any other Devil King Candidates on this one. Well, there was Marios' attack, but other than that, this is the first volume that shows the Devil King War going on where Yuuto doesn't see it.

Let's see what's there to comment about… I think the first point has to be Reina's whole thing, since it was the main plot point of the volume.

In the official LN, all Reina needed was a new core and a new source of energy. Here, I switched that for a new core and a new body. In the LN, Yuuto solved Reina's energy source problem by using Cutting Connect so his mother's love for Reina would become her energy.

Here, I completely discarded that plot point and instead had Fleminar step in. That came at the cost of not developing Reina's relationship with Yuuto's family as much as I would have liked, but hopefully there will be more opportunities for that.

I don't dislike Kuji's choice, but (this is a small spoiler) the Triumph Candidates are very important to part 2 of the story. Kuji only has Fleminar and Marchosias show up for 2 scenes in the last volume of part 1 (the other Candidates don't show up at all), so that was a problem I knew I had to address when going from the beginning. Considering Fleminar's story (which we'll get into more details later) it only felt right she should be here.

And of course this means we'll most likely be seeing the other Triumph Candidates in the remaining volumes of part 1. Maybe as allies, maybe as enemies, maybe they'll just be there, who knows?

This is also the volume where we learned the Devil King's true power, having the power of all Arcanas. I don't know how strong it looks for you guys yet, but as we learn more about the Arcanas and their true power, I think you guys will come to see just how powerful that really is.

There's also Stella's backstory. Save for her human ancestry, there wasn't much change there from Kuji's LN, the biggest one I can mention is that I tied it to Reina Koiwai's death. We'll be revisiting that when the time for part 1's big reveal comes.

Another minor thing I changed in this volume was the girls' tattoo. Basically, in the LN, Lovers' Cards have a heart-shaped tattoo on their navel. I wanted to keep that detail, but I chose to discard it since it's never brought up again after the love hotel scene, and I didn't want to think of tattoos for all Arcanas.

One major thing I did change though is that Marios is still alive. The LN has what I like to call the "villain of the volume" problem. In short, every volume has a main antagonist which Yuuto defeats by the end, and save for Aspite they're never heard from again. I don't really mind it (it's cliche, but this is no groundbreaking work), but I found it especially strange on volumes 3 and 4 (I'll get into volume 4 when the time comes).

So I let Marios live. He'll become an important pawn for Lost soon. There's also the whole thing with Lost, but I'll refrain from commenting now since I don't want to spoil too much.

Oh, and let me talk about Swordia before I forget. Like I mentioned last time, she's built up to be Reina's rival. She joined as Moon's Card to eventually fight Lovers and consequently Reina. But now that Moon's dead, she'll have to join another team.

As for her swords… none of them come from the LN. There, she just has 2 swords, so I chose to do a little more than that. Imperator is a sword Yuuto uses in the LN's volume 5 for training, but I'm going to go on a slightly different route, so I gave Imperator to Swordia. As for Husher, I made it up.

And just to be clear, it's not like Swordia wants to kill Reina or anything, she just wants a revenge match. In fact, she would rather not hurt Reina and her friends. Maybe that detail will come into play later, maybe it won't.

I guess this is it for now. I'll see you guys… not in volume 4 actually, but on volume 3.5. Without going into much detail, I recently reviewed the planning for the story, since a few things outside the plan happened (like Hinata showing up in chapter 5 of this volume, even though she was only supposed to show up in part 2). So I reviewed the planning and included volume 3.5 in. It's more an extension of volume 3 than another volume, that's why it's 3.5.

It's going to be a short volume (and I mean really short), so it might not take me long to have it ready. I'm not going to give an exact date since something unexpected might happen, but I hope to see you guys soon.