EpilogueThe new year had just begun not too long ago.Alexandre Gascoigne was currently located in Portugal"s ancient capital ofCoimbra.His latest efforts were directed towards obtaining "a missionary"s journaldating back to the Age of Exploration when a certain heretical monk hadrecorded his activities in various parts of Madagascar, engaged in heinousacts defiling G.o.d."Going through several plans in his head, he strolled along a quiet street inthe ancient capital at night.A phone call suddenly arrived. Checking the LCD screen, he discovered itwas an old acquaintance — the witch he had run into roughly one monthago."How nice of you to call expressly this time, Lucretia. But surely you do notintend to engage in idle chitchat. State your matter concisely.""Hohoho. I offer you my greetings, Your Highness the Prince."Lucretia"s answer could be heard from the phone."However, since you put it that way, I shall dispense with the chitchat. Letme cut straight to the matter. I am actually concerned about the latestnews the Princess brought back from the Far East."The matter. She likely meant the "King of the End." Alec nodded."The G.o.ddess Circe, who once shared an intimate relation with YourHighness several years ago, has died by Kusanagi G.o.dou"s hand.Reportedly, the G.o.ddess used her last strength to summon the heroOdysseus in an attempt to corner the young man... But she failed so closeto her goal and finally pa.s.sed away.""...Oh.""Through this battle, it is readily apparent that Odysseus is not the "King ofthe End.""Alec reawakened vivid memories dating to several years past.Odysseus. The heroic G.o.d he recently mentioned as having a "35%chance."Alec was intending to investigate him thoroughly when he discovered the"sleeping G.o.ddess." The witch G.o.ddess Circe who had trapped thewandering hero for a year. A [Heretic G.o.d] who had apparently remainedin slumber for centuries."By my speculation, Your Highness the Black Prince awakened theG.o.ddess Circe for the purpose of discerning the truth about the heroOdysseus, am I correct? Your goal was to obtain information about him.Hoho, even if Your Highness went as far as to make a highly unusualproposal of "Would you like to search for Odysseus together with me?" toher, I would not be surprised."Alec frowned. It felt like Lucretia had seen through the truth.His bringing Circe to the South Seas to revive her was, of course, a part ofhis explorations.He had awakened the G.o.ddess, who possessed a deep connection toOdysseus, on a land where traces of the "King of the End" had beendiscovered. This would surely bring his journey of demystifying the DevilKing-exterminating hero"s ident.i.ty to an entirely new playing field —However, the "experiment" concluded with unexpected results.The awakened G.o.ddess quickly discovered Alec despite his efforts toconceal himself. Furthermore, she began to cling to him annoyingly forsome unfathomable reason, always speaking like some kind of delusionalgirl, even going as far as to attempt imprisoning Alec using magic.In the beginning, Alec accommodated her as appropriate but quickly grewtired of it. After maybe the fourth day of saying "I love you," he immediatelyfled from the G.o.ddess. Soon after he ran, it developed into an altercation.Finally, Alec used his labyrinth authority on the island he had createdtogether with Circe and succeeded in imprisoning her.Recalling these unhappy memories, Alec naturally put on a bitter face."I never expected such a colorful and heroic saga from Your Highness thePrince, who has never been the subject of salacious rumors.""Really? I, on the other hand, find nothing colorful about it.""As expected of Your Highness the Prince. Still the same old in this regard,even Italian boys in elementary school are better than you."The witch"s last comment was a sincere exclamation, carrying no sarcasmat all.Alec clicked his tongue disapprovingly and changed the unpleasant topic."By the way, since Odysseus is not the "King of the End," then in thatcase...""Oh? Did you think of something? I would be most grateful if you wouldenlighten me free of charge. Just as you already know, I too, once tookpart in the search for that king. Hence I would be rather interested.""Nothing much, it"s just a spontaneous idea."Alec shrugged in response to Lucretia"s request."The image of the wandering Pan-Eurasian hero who often displays hisvalor through the bow and arrows... Yet the hero who fits this descriptionbest, Odysseus, is definitely not a G.o.d with [Steel] characteristics.Nevertheless, given the case, I think the following possibility can beestablished."Without any pretense, Alec simply explained the possibility he had oncesuspected in the past."Simultaneously possessing [Steel] traits and the characteristics of thewandering Pan-Eurasian hero... The "King of the End" must be a hybrid likethat.""I see, so that runs completely contrary to the notion of purebloodedness. Ifthat really is the case...""Yeah. If one were to carefully trace forwards and backwards from thepedigree of the hero Odysseus, the chance of finding the "King of the End"should be substantial. That"s what I believe."Naturally, this was nothing more than speculation.But after saying it out loud, Alec somehow found his argument morecompelling than first imagined.Afterwordh.e.l.lo everyone, it"s been a while.This series finally reaches its thirteenth volume, and even rarer still, ananime adaptation...I originally thought it would happen much later.This is all thanks to every reader"s loving support. Let me express myoutmost thanks to everyone here.Well then, this time we have a volume advertising a vacation story.Even the heroine who is always training in the mountains gets to enter thestage from the very beginning.The content is fully packed with hot springs, the beach, camping and otherleisure activities. Oh well, whether the characters themselves were able torelax, who knows? (wry smile)Then there is this series" oft-mentioned great hero whose true name isunknown.New keywords have been disclosed to allow everyone to seek his truevisage. These keywords can be used to further narrow down the searchrange.Perhaps those of you who enjoy myths and other stories might be able touse these clues to confirm a probable target."It"s not like this is a series based on solving mysteries, isn"t it about time tosay the answer?"Because that"s what I think, I have decided to reveal the solution to theriddle in the near future. Everyone, if a character appearing in the futurereally does match the name you predicted, it would be wonderful if youmake an •MR-style exaggerated pretense of surprise while going "N-No, itcan"t be-!?"Furthermore, this time is another round for a certain heroine.It goes without saying for Erica and Ena, but even Liliana happens to be a"carnivorous" heroine in actual fact. As the only "herbivore" in the group,this girl usually hides behind other people"s backs.Nevertheless, that sort of position can easily turn around into an advantageas the "only one."Anyway, when this volume goes on sale in August 2012, it happens to beduring the anime"s broadcast. Furthermore, it is also published after theanime plot focuses on her — Mariya-san.It sort of feels like favorable tailwind (laugh).As a side note, I definitely did not plan this ahead of time, it was simplycoincidence (wry laugh).I started writing this volume when the release date was still not set... Thenby the time I noticed, I realized to my great surprise that the release datemiraculously coordinated with the anime broadcast schedule.Could this be considered a coincidence of fate?However, the one who will really receive favorable tailwind might very wellbe Liliana instead.With regards to the Liliana story in the latter half of the anime, I am alwayssurprised by the potential drawn out, going "this is too amazing" everytime, even as the original author.As Liliana fans, readers, please check out her anime version. Promise me.Well then.Of course, as the one responsible for the central role, Erica"s all-importantsense of presence, necessary for supporting the plot"s development, hasbeen portrayed thanks to the anime.In actual fact, during Volume 1, rather than being the heroine, Erica wouldbe more aptly described as the "hero" I recognized... This time, withimages and audio added, I am once again confronted with the fact that shereally is a heroine with her own strong and distinctive style.Oh dear, despite the lack of Ena"s appearances, she turned out to be quitea memorable character. So I guess all the heroines were successful inreceiving favorable tailwind.By the way, I also secretly a.s.sisted the anime as the original author.Regarding all the various mythological knowledge mentioned throughoutthe story, I wrote up a new doc.u.ment suited to the anime"s requirements.Without paying attention to things like word counts, I once again cooked upnew scenarios to add only to discover "what kind of puzzle is this..." Whata brain-racking challenge (wry smile.)Okay okay.Let"s talk a bit about the next volume. After such a long time, I intend to letanother Devil King apart from our protagonist enter the stage.Who will make an appearance, in what kind of manner, to cause what kindof commotion?If possible, readers, please confirm for yourselves in Volume 14.Actually, wait, I have already decided who is coming out to make acommotion.