This series is a relaxed school story about a former Hero after his retirement. It’s a tale of growth for the protagonist, Blade, as he goes from being an inhuman Hero to a fully human person in his own right. If you want to get fancy, a story like this is known as a Bildungsroman.
And now this story is on its fifth volume…but I think Blade’s become a lot more human, hasn’t he? What do you think? No? Not quite yet? Not at all?
Well, I get it. Blade demonstrated a lot more of his superhuman abilities in this volume, too. I think his lack of common sense might be growing even more pronounced… Either way, if you can be patient and watch over him as he matures, I’d appreciate that. Keep in mind, he is still mentally a five-year-old.
In the last volume’s afterword, I said I wasn’t sure what the structure would be for Volume 5. Well, now that the dust has settled, you can see that it’s the standard Classroom of Heroes setup of three short stories and two medium-sized ones. However, I’ve decided that Volume 6 will consist of nothing but short stories—about ten. Whenever I write a book like this, I find myself coming up with more and more ideas for short stories, and now I’ve got a great big pile of them. If I don’t take a break and bust out ten short stories in a row from time to time, these ideas will pile up far beyond what I can actually get published.
It’s almost like I have this ghost haunting me, telling me I can’t waste anything. Well, ten short stories or not, the tales in Classroom for Heroes never go beyond medium length anyway, so it probably won’t feel too different to read. In fact, some readers might not notice anything new at all.
If you have any comments about the structure of my books (or anything else), visit the QR code below to fill out my survey. The feedback I receive might well change the future of the story.
I should also note that a new heroine has appeared in Volume 5. Ta-daaa! That, of course, is Lunaria Steinberg, the other “Empress,” who’s just as famous and talented as the woman vying with her for the position of Blade’s “official” wife. Earnest has trouble accepting herself as she is, but Lunaria, despite being a proper lady on the outside, is a fierce predator. She’s an uncommon type for this series (excluding Iona), the way she’s constantly firing out her “lovey-dovey” rays at Blade.
As the current strongest, Earnest holds the position of “official wife.” The relationships in this series are stable, but with Lunaria’s entry, there are probably some choppy seas coming up. Even I can’t predict what’ll happen. For now, I just want to become an automatic writing machine, recording the paths these girls take without any authorial interference.
Finally, some news. A new manga adaptation of Classroom for Heroes is in the works. For more details…well, you’ll just have to wait! (I should be able to write something more definite in the afterword of the next volume, I think.)