Record of Lodoss War: The Crown of the Covenant is finally moving again. Kadokawa's Sneaker Bunko imprint announced on October 16 that Ryo Mizuno's novel series is officially restarting, seven years after the first volume came out in 2019. Volume 2 still needs more time, but the imprint is giving fans an early look by posting part of the new manuscript on the Kakuyomu website next week.
Sneaker Bunko shared the news on its official X account. Check it out below:
The post apologizes for the long wait since volume 1 and announces that the series is starting back up. In a follow-up post, the imprint explained that volume 2 is being written right now and will take a little longer to reach shelves, so it decided to share the current progress with readers by publishing part of the latest manuscript on its official Kadokawa Sneaker Bunko page on Kakuyomu. The excerpt is scheduled to go live on October 22 at around 5:00 p.m. JST, which is 4:00 a.m. EDT.
A Long Wait For Volume 2
The first volume was a big deal for longtime fans when it released, since it was the first new Record of Lodoss War novel in 12 years. Hidari provided the illustrations, and the cover put the high elf Deedlit front and center. After that, things went quiet. The manga adaptation wrapped up its first part, no date for volume 2 ever followed, and the long gap had a lot of readers wondering if the series had been quietly dropped.
Mizuno himself kept telling fans it was coming. When a reader asked him about volume 2 on X in December 2024, he replied with a joke that fits his own fantasy world, writing "The author is currently unable to escape from the deepest labyrinth. I will definitely finish it, so please wait a little longer." Fans now finally have something concrete, even if the full book still does not have a release date.
Deedlit Returns 100 Years Later
The Crown of the Covenant takes place 100 years after the original story, with Deedlit as the lead. The English publisher of the manga adaptation describes the setup like this: "Thanks to 'The Crown of the Covenant', the accursed isle of Lodoss has seen peace for 100 years. However, the ambitious ruler of the kingdom of Flaim now threatens to return Lodoss to a state of war." The young prince Lyle of Marmo turns to the legendary high elf for help, and the big question hanging over the story is whether a new Knight of Lodoss will rise to save the kingdoms.
Atsushi Suzumi launched a manga adaptation of the novel in Kadokawa's Monthly Shonen Ace in October 2019, and it ran until April 2021 for three volumes. Udon Entertainment released all three volumes in English starting in 2023.
The franchise has also branched out in other directions while the novel was on hold. Record of Lodoss War: Queen of Death, the first webtoon from Studio White, launched in South Korea in May 2025 and worldwide in August 2025. It is an official spin-off set before the original story, following the fall of the Kingdom of Kastuul on the island of Lodoss, with Southern Camel handling the adaptation and Blanton providing the artwork. Studio White is a joint production studio founded by Kadokawa, LINE Digital Frontier, and REDICE STUDIO.
From Tabletop Sessions To Anime
Record of Lodoss War started out in a very different form. It began as a series of magazine articles in Kadokawa's Comptiq in 1986, recounting the pen and paper roleplaying sessions of a group of players who called themselves Group SNE, with Mizuno running the game. Those adventures grew into Mizuno's novel series, which began in 1988 and ranks among the earliest high fantasy novels written in Japan.
For anime fans, the name is tied to the 1990 Record of Lodoss War original video anime series from Madhouse, a 13 episode adventure that is still one of the best known fantasy anime of its era. It was followed in 1998 by Record of Lodoss War: Chronicles of the Heroic Knight, a 27 episode TV anime sequel from AIC that aired on TV Tokyo and adapted the later novels more faithfully. Both are licensed in North America by Funimation, which has since become part of Crunchyroll. Deedlit even got her own game in 2021 with the Metroidvania Record of Lodoss War: Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth.
Are you planning to read the volume 2 preview on Kakuyomu next week, or are you holding out until the full book is in your hands?
Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.