Finished—time to celebrate.
After three bumpy years, I finally finished this book. It may have been a little rushed, but everything planned in the outline was written. Anything more would just have been padding.
I'll be updating a few side stories afterward, mainly about Lothar's harem life, the ranger knight Baldwin and his demon-hunting squad, Otto returning to Europe after successfully taming Ladon's offspring to establish his own kingdom, and finally the later fates of some major supporting characters. Then it'll be over.
The new book isn't out yet. I'm saving up some drafts first.
It will be about Constantine XI's son embarking on a life of exile, rising from mercenary to noble officer, minor lord, leader of a Knightly Order, and eventually King and Holy Roman Emperor.
It'll be called "Holy, Roman, and Even More an Empire." After all, he's Constantine XI's son, so he's Roman to the fullest. Reclaiming the old capital in the name of the Crusaders would make him holy enough as well. Then, with that kind of prestige, he could centralize power and make the Empire worthy of its name.
But it still won't be historical fiction. There will be monsters, dragons, a vampire count locked in a love-hate relationship with Mahmud IV, Sigismund's Dragon Knight Order, and pirate knights on Rhodes.
The characters won't be arranged entirely according to the historical timeline either. For example, I really like the protagonists of the Heavenly Kingdom Salvation series, as well as Young Master Capon, but based on their ages, both of them would have been dead for a long time during the protagonist's active years.
Having learned from this book's lessons, the next one will probably focus mainly on the period before the protagonist rises to prominence. Being granted land and becoming a great noble will