Thank you very much for picking up volume 5 of The Boy Who Ruled the Monsters. I am Sin Guilty, the author of this humble work. It is thanks to you, the reader, reading and supporting this series that this volume is now on shelves. I thank you from the bottom of my heart. Once again, as has been the case since volume 3, this is a new record for me, and I am truly overjoyed. I promise to continue giving it my best until this series comes to its end.
The focus of volume 5 is on Sol building up his strength in reaction to his encounter with the unknown being from volume 4. He finally gets around to dealing with Country Eater, expanding his party once again in doing so, then goes through a lot more. I hope you found the journey entertaining. He also gets to take his relationship with Frederica, a character I love very much, to the next step.
As I explained in the previous volume’s afterword, this volume was written almost entirely from scratch and takes the story in a drastically different direction from the version on Shosetuka ni Naro. As a result, we have the Cursed Hero making an appearance before our overlord and master, the feline Lifeless Divine Beast. The episode with the Cursed Hero is a crucial turning point tied to the ending that came to me the moment I came up with this story, so I look forward to exploring it further with all of you in the pages of the next volume.
Once again, the illustrations drawn by NAKAMURA 8 are living rent-free in my head. Not only is the cover art bursting with the vibes of a dungeon crawl, the color frontispiece and other insert images are masterpieces in their own right. I cannot thank him enough. This is true of the Numbers armaments on the colored double-page spread too, but I also can’t get enough of Frederica’s expression and pose. It is honestly a mystery to me how the same person could design such cool mecha and such cute girls. Thanks to all of you who read my work, I am blessed with having NAKAMURA 8 give it shape, and it makes me incredibly happy.
I also want to talk a little about Chapter 3, “Reclaiming the West,” which I wrote in a different style than usual. It is basically a compilation of short stories from the perspective of various people living their best lives who have been affected by and are benefiting from Sol’s group doing whatever they please. I quite like this style of presentation, so I hope you enjoyed reading it. I know it is a little lacking in punch, but...what do you think?
Volume 2 of the manga adaptation by Tamon-sensei is out, with the serialization finally getting to the Oratorio Tangram and the introduction of the Elven Queen. I am overwhelmed with emotion seeing even the characters’ expressions drawn in such great detail. I hope that you enjoy Sol and his companions’ journey in that medium as well.
With hope in my heart that we will meet again in volume 6, this is where I shall wrap up the afterword for volume 5.