A tale that started on 11th February 2019 as an idea I had after watching The Rising of the Shield Hero anime. and here we are 9 months and 297,520 words later (which excludes all author's notes and non-story updates). Honestly... I don't know what else to say. When I first started this I half-expected that I'd be giving up on this story after about 10 chapters or so, but as the time and chapters went on and it became more and more popular it was no longer just a story. It became an essential part of my daily life, and even though it would take hours to write parts and days to plan the chapters I loved every single bit of it.

I've read hundreds, maybe thousands of stories here on FanFiction but I never thought I'd actually have the guts to write my own much less finish it. And not only that but actively planning for a trilogy based on this story! And yet here I am and I'm so glad I took the plunge. It has allowed me to not only give my idea wings and bring it to life but also to inspire other authors to write their own stories.

Now that this story is out of the way, what does the future hold for me until the second season of The Rising of the Shield Hero starts airing? Well first of all the corrections that I talked about starting in one of the last chapters? Well in the next week or so I am going to dedicate an hour or two per day to noting down corrections for every chapter, without doing more than one chapter a day. And once that is done I will start implementing them chapter by chapter when I have the time.

I am also happy to announce that my next story will be a one-shot based off of my AU Shield-Hero, and since it's this time of year...that's correct, I am planning a one-shot Xmas story for Fergus and the gang as Fergus gets his first experience of Christmas in this new world. What presents will be exchanged between Fergus and his party? And will Fergus even bother getting the other Heroes presents? It will be much more light-hearted and expect some more Fergus and Raphtalia fluff as well.

And then once we get into 2020 my next story will be based on the ending of the video-game Attack on Titan 2 and will focus on my OC Nameless Hero and his determination to return to his friends. This will obviously change the ending of the game and will then follow the events of Attack on Titan from that point forward in small storyline chunks that will focus on the major events in particular, and will also feature an OCxSasha ship.

And then once that is done, the next story will be an Isekai Quartet AU called Isekai Quintet where Fergus, Raphtalia, Filo, Melty and Keel will be transported to another world where they will attend school alongside the characters of Overlord, Konosuba!, Re:Zero and The Saga of Tanya the Evil. How will they get along with such a colourful array of characters and what japery will ensue? We shall see!

Now that my future plans are all sorted now, it's time to move on to thanking everyone and every story who has given me advice and has inspired this story, and we have quite a list so let's get straight to it:

The first person to thank of course is Aneko Yusagi for creating the Rising of the Shield Hero in the first place, without whom none of this would have been possible. Thank you for giving us the memorable story and characters we have all come to know and love as well as the original sandbox that has allowed us to produce our own fan content based on your work. We are not worthy and we will always be grateful.

The next people to thank are Takao Abo and everyone at Kinema Citrus who is responsible for the anime adaptation of the Rising of the Shield-Hero since it was by watching the anime that gave me and many others the inspiration to start our own fan stories in the first place.

To all of my real-life friends who have supported me all the way even though they had no idea what I was writing about. Your unconditional love and support has meant and will always mean the world to me and I love you all for it.

Now on to the FanFiction exclusive thank yous, and I would like to start by thanking two people in particular for all of their advice at different points in the story: The first person is najex, whose constructive criticism and advice near the start gave me the encouragement to keep going with writing the story my own way. And the other person is KaminoDoujutsu whose tips for correcting the way I constructed paragraphs and spoken exchanges really helped tidy up my story from Chapter 21 onwards. Thank you both so much for what you did.

Second of all, I want to thank everyone who exchanged PM's with me and whose advice, encouragement and chats have kept me sane throughout the past nine months. Particular thanks go out to altajir95, SaibotVapor, rmarcano321, NorthSouthGorem, Zinmaster24, 3dge, VladImpaler and Ascandas for everything you did for me and all of the encouragement, support and words of wisdom you bestowed. You are all awesome.

Now I want to list off all the stories that helped and inspired me to write this story and that you should all check out when you have the chance (and unless I specify otherwise they are all Rising of the Shield Hero stories on this site): "The Fear of the Kingdom" by ChsisAnialation, "From Soldier to Hero" by zinmaster24, "Shield-Hero: A New Symbol of Faith" by HunterQwon, "The Teachings of the Bow hero" by NorthSouthGorem, "Armory of the Forgotten Hero" by Masked Spider, "The Hardest Choice" by Allen Blaster, "For A Price" by Danny vs A Month and "Moments" by momoxtoshiro (which is a Sword Art Online story).

Also want to give a shout-out to authors who were inspired to start their own stories based off my own, two in particular: "The Demon Lord of the Shield" by OverlordDracoLucifer whose conversations also kept me sane during the past few weeks and "How I became a Shield Hero" by Spamdex. Best of luck to the both of you and I hope you will all send some love their way.

And my final and biggest thanks goes out to everyone who has read, favourited, followed and left a review on my story. To be honest, I don't know what got you all to stick around this long, but it means the world to me that so many of you have liked this story. I never expected it to get the numbers it did and that is all thanks to each and every single one of you, and whilst I may not have gotten to read every review, all of those I did read, whether they were positive, negative or offering feedback/advice, thank you all so much.

And so for the final time, this is theoneandonlyedster signing out for now, and I will see you...in my next story! Expect the True Shield Hero Xmas story to drop during the Christmas week, so until then take care everyone!