I was excited to see a new Record of Lodoss War anything really come out both in terms of the Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth game which Ive just finished Lets Playing Ill have a review of that in November and when I learned that a new manga was coming out set after the events of Chronicles of the Heroic Knight. I had wondered if it was going to be an adaptation of Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth but Crown of the Covenant being its own story albeit one that Wonder Labyrinth led directly into was something of a pleasant surprise. The manga and the novel it adapts is set about 100 years after the end of Chronicles of the Heroic Knight. As we saw in Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth Parn has long since passed on Deedlit has gone into seclusion and the various kingdoms of Lodoss are at peace. This peace is held through the use of the Crowns of the Covenant 6 crowns originally created by the ancient kingdom of Kastull which you may recall Karla was part of and then enchanted by Wort. The crowns bind each of the kings to each other none can go to war against the other and if facing an outside threat all must band together. This system generally worked well until the new heir to the throne of Flaim the kingdom of Kashew in the original campaigns chose not to be crowned with his kingdoms Crown of the Covenant and several other new kings chose to do the same. The rulers of Marmo the descendants of Spark and Neese the Younger as Ashram Pirotess bailed if the plan to resurrect Kardis succeeded now face a new challenge to keep the peace. The youngest of the princes of Marmo Lyle sets out to find Deedlit and ask for her help in bringing the people of Lodoss together to stop this war. So to be upfront this is not a complete story. This is the first act of whats meant to be a larger series of novels by Ryo Mizuno and the storys structure doesnt fit the same framework of the Record of Lodoss War campaigns. If anything Id almost compare this to the Dragonlance novels in that this is telling the parts of a story that could be told with roleplaying game adventures but was always planned to be done as a more conventional narrative and like the Dragonlance Chronicles this story was intended to be told over multiple books which means that the end of this book is meant to end on a To be continued The art by Atsushi Suzumi is different than a lot of the other Lodoss art. Theres a stronger usage of emphasis lines in the art than what Im remembering from the earlier Lodoss manga that Id read. Additionally the art for the earlier Lodoss series felt like it was made as fantasy art in manga form whereas this feels more like manga that is fantasy. The earlier art had less claustrophobic panel layouts and was more willing to keep the camera wide. This feels like its closer in on faces and reactions. This isnt to say there arent wide shots but the arts scope feels more confined. I havent read Suzumis other work so I cant say at the moment if this is representative of her previous manga necessarily. This isnt me saying its bad either the artistic decisions keep the focus on the characters and their reactions. The scope feels smaller but it keeps the readers attention on the people in the story. In all while this isnt a complete story it is an enjoyable story and I hope when the next book comes out the manga adaptation and its official English translation doesnt come too far behind.