AFTERWORD
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First of all, I’d like to thank everyone who has read up to this point.
The volume started off with ox’s loud-out-loud comic featuring Chubbyela’s face—and contained one of the saddest scenes in this series.
Lynx’s death.
I had settled on this from the time I was planning out this entire series.
In Volume 1, there is a scene where Mariela and Lynx wander through the City at dusk. “I’m as tall as Captain Dick,” he says. The shadows that stretched out before him—with Mariela by his side—was an allegory for his imagined future.
As a matter of fact, that scene hinted the two of them wouldn’t become adults together.
Lynx was an important character, giving Mariela a place to belong in the world after two hundred years and encouraging Sieg’s mental and physical growth. In the original version of the story on Shousetsuka ni Narou, I didn’t sufficiently explain when and how Lynx fell in love with Mariela, which was why I made a major revision to focus on the psyche of Lynx as the shadowmaster in Volume 3. As a result, his story gained more depth.
The catalyst for Lynx’s tragedy was a worthless man known as Jay—the lowly, the weak, the foolish. He seethed with the kind of trivial spite that is familiar to everyone and couldn’t even harm Mariela unless several conditions were met. I depicted Jay as a foil exemplifying Sieg’s growth and as a symbol of malice to demonstrate that trouble can brew as small oversights and spite build up. He was an extremely unpopular character, even in Shousetsuka ni Narou. I may have succeeded in expressing the familiar and unsettling feeling.
Mariela lost Lynx, survived the Stampede all alone, and expressed her guilt for hiding her identity as an alchemist to enjoy a peaceful life. With renewed determination, the people are gearing up to defeat the Labyrinth. And the Sage of Calamity is heading for the Labyrinth City.
In Volume 4, I hope to focus on Mariela as she changes in big ways. I hope you’ll enjoy it!
Before I end, I’d like to express my heartfelt thanks to ox, the illustrator who drew Chubbyela in the cutest and plumpest way; Shimizu, the editor who chose the Chubbyela scene to be in the opening pages of the book; and everyone else at Kadokawa.
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Usata Nonohara