Due to the author Noboru Yamaguchi's illness, Zero no Tsukaima was discontinued in 2011, only publishing 20 volumes out of the 22 planned. In 2015, the official site announced that it will resume publication until the series' completion.
Noboru Yamaguchi died in 2013 at the age of 41, after more than two years of fighting cancer. The remaining plot and ending of the series were assigned to the series' editors by Yamaguchi on his sickbed.