Chapter 61

AFTERWORD It’s been a while, everyone. Rifujin na Magonote here. First of all, I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to everyone who picked up Volume 6 of Orc Eroica. Thanks so much to you all. On this occasion, I would like to write seriously about the work itself. Surely no one would be interested in hearing about what I’ve been up to recently. Whereas surely everyone reading this is interested in Orc Eroica. I can yap about Volume 6, and the story will only become more interesting. Okay, so in this volume, Bash and Zell arrive in the land of the demons. The strongest species in Orc Eroica… The demons. With demons as the strongest race in this world, it was easy for me to come up with a story around them. They were the strongest race in their day, but they lost the war, and they lost to the dragon. Their pride was completely shattered, and they now teeter on the brink of extinction, grasping on to the last dregs of their dignity. Then Bash, the Dragon Decapitator, arrives. He defeats the dragon and has demon women all over him! A classic setting and story. Super simple to write. But with a twist. All creators like to subvert an audience’s expectations a little. So the female love interest…is actually the dragon! Just kidding. To tell the truth, I’d been thinking about having a dragonewt love interest since the first volume, but instead, Asmonadia, the demon heroine, popped up out of nowhere. To start with, there was no demon lady, much less one called Asmonadia. But the illustrator Asanagi said, “I’m looking forward to the demon heroine!” and I thought, Oh, the readers must be eagerly anticipating one, too… Guess I’d better write one, and so I went from there. It’s interesting how creative work can come out of a roundabout set of circumstances like that. The spark of inspiration is so important when doing creative work, I think. Since these ideas are often far removed from the plot or concept, I have to carefully decide whether or not to include them in the work, but most ideas come from thinking, What would happen if I did it like this? I feel like this one question has an inherent zest for what’s fascinating contained within it. When I plot my books, I always write, “What would happen if I did it like this?” or “Maybe this would be fun?” as the first line and refer back to it if I get stuck while writing. The ideas that pop into your mind when you’re hesitating or you’ve got writer’s block…they’re unconsciously generated by your subconscious brain while it’s working on other things, so as long as you’re careful about it, in most cases, including them will only make the story more interesting. Of course, as long as you stick to the spirit of “What would happen if I did it like this?” that is. And in order to generate plenty of ideas, I like to keep the plotting loose and not go into too much detail. Well, it looks like I still have some blank space left again. So I’d like to write an update on my current situation. Honestly, I’d really like to write about my theories on creativity, rather than about my current situation, but unfortunately there’s no point. When I write my next book, I’ll probably discover something new again and change my way of thinking. Thus, my theories on creativity will change, too. In any case, a writer’s true value only emerges when he or she writes a book and publishes that book. So if possible, I’d like to be evaluated based on my work, rather than on my theories about writing. Anyway, I write these words to you on an ancient version of Earth. So what happened is that the other day, after I was resurrected by an evil secret society, there was a clash of titans during a hellish tournament, and I traveled back in time. I was sent waaaaay back. I don’t know if this is the Jurassic or Cretaceous Period, but there are so many dinosaurs around that definitely look familiar to me, so all I really know is it’s some time period that has dinosaurs. Apparently, other people have been sent to this time period besides me. I found some notes, but they were written in English, so I couldn’t read them. Where are these people now? Can we meet up…? That’s all I wanted to know. But being me, I’m used to surviving. This is nothing new to me. Tomorrow, I’m thinking of going to investigate the giant pillar in the southeast. I don’t know if it’s something from the dinosaur era or a relic of an ancient civilization, but maybe I’ll find some clues that can help me get back to my original time period. Not that I found any clues when I was a zombie. So this time around, I can’t say I have high hopes. I guess I’ll just try to take life slow. Well, I’ve rambled on too long, I think… To Asanagi, who once again drew some wonderful illustrations, and to Editor K, whom I have inconvenienced by focusing too much on Mushoku Tensei…and to all the others who were involved in the creation of this book, not to mention all the readers who’ve been waiting for updates on the Shousetsuka ni Narou website… Thank you very much again this time. If I survive this dinosaur age, I’ll see you again in Volume 7. Rifujin na Magonote