And so ends volume 4… wait a second, this has nothing to do with the LN's volume 4!
Well, it's not actually like that. What I did is that I changed the main antagonists from Rikimaru and Seigi to Yotaka. But lots of things happened, so let's comment by parts.
Starting at the start, Yuuto's grades. It's also a joke in the LN, but it's not really much more than that. In fact, it's a matter that's never resolved there. Here, I tried making it a bit more important, it took a whole week off of Yuuto's training, but it was also a chance for Yuuto to get closer to his teacher, as well as to show the effects of his memories being sealed.
It's also the first time God is mentioned. Or maybe I mentioned it before and forgot? Anyway, just keep in mind that there is a God in this world, and the gods humanity knows (like Zeus, Odin, the one from the bible, and so on) are only imitations of the real one.
Then next is the beach part. Discounting that I switched Ruki and Stella, the general idea is fairly similar. The biggest change is in regards to the daily training part (the nightly training is also along the same lines as the LN)
In the LN, Yuuto's training with the objective to reach 100000 mana and unlock his 3rd Characteristic Magic, but then, on his meeting with Sein, she tells him he'll actually need 200000. Here, I had Yuuto's goal being to recover his memories, getting his 3rd Characteristic Magic is a bonus. The 200000 goal comes from volume 2.
There's also a change in regards to the training. Basically, in the LN, Yuuto trained once with Tenka Fubu and then, while he was all "you're my partner now" with it, Reina tells him he reached the maximum potential of that sword, so, much like an RPG, he'd have to switch to something stronger. It was a funny joke, but I was never a fan of this game mechanic, so I decided to also get rid of it here.
Then there's Poran and the other children's arrival. There's not much to comment here since it's similar to the LN (Yuuto saves them and Neith takes them in, they get in the way of Healing Lovers, so Yuuto and co are forced to go somewhere else). Biggest change was that, since the fight wasn't against Rikimaru and Seigi, it means the conflict with their Cards was cut out.
Now's the big change. As I mentioned before, in Kuji's story, Yuuto faces Seigi and Rikimaru in this volume. But here, I switched it to Yotaka. And it's not even Yuuto who faces her in the end.
If I'm going to be honest, out of the 5 volumes, 4 is the one that makes the least sense in terms of why Yuuto fights who he fights. Basically, Seigi and Rikimaru wanted information on Lost, so they decided on going to his friend, Yuuto, for that, and that somehow became a fight to the death. There's also how Rikimaru and Seigi pretended to hate each other but were actually working together, but I changed that from the get go, so I won't even comment on it.
Yotaka is also introduced in the LN's volume 4, but she only shows up in the prologue and epilogue. She's built up as Lizel's rival, but their fight takes place in volume 5, so it was rushed.
So, since I seriously couldn't see a way to make Rikimaru and Seigi VS Yuuto to make sense, and I felt Lizel and Yotaka's rivalry deserved some focus, I switched some things around and the result is what you read. Hopefully it wasn't a complete disaster. I have to admit I'm a little afraid of this volume, since Yuuto doesn't really see the bigger picture until the end, and because of the first-person thing a lot of things that I felt should be mentioned ended up not making it, but I think it ended up fine.
I guess what's left to comment on is the other plot points of the volume. There's how Yuuto made Neith into his Card. In the LN, it was common knowledge, but that just seems like a gaping plot hole to me, so I changed it so that it was something impossible, until Yuuto went and did it. We'll talk more about it early next volume.
There's also Lizel's magic circuits (or lack of them). It's also something we'll explore better when the time comes, but for now I'll just say that the LN equivalent was Lizel sacrificing half of her life. I chose to change it because taking half of Lizel's life was shocking, but it kinda falls apart when you look at it too much. Like, how long do devils live for? Was half of her total life taken or half of what she had left? Taking her magic circuits is a more palpable and easier to understand sacrifice.
Also, something funny, if you look at the LN really carefully, you'll see that, despite being the second-last volume (currently) volume 4 is the one that expands the MGH world the most. There's the Devil World, it's implied that there's multiple Devil King Academies, the whole Devil Sword thing, Sein. Not all of it made it here, but I felt it was something worth pointing out.
And yeah, I guess this is it for now. Like I mentioned before, volume 5 is the last LN volume and it'll also be the end of my part 1. I don't intend to rush like the LN did, but the next time we meet will be closing in on the halfway point of the story.
Last question before I leave: does that dream scene with Neith count as the story's first sex scene? - not a serious question.
