Afterword
THIS IS YOUR AUTHOR, Nekoko, speaking.
Thank you for buying Volume 7—the final volume—of Disciple of the Lich!
All right, so, Disciple of the Lich has at long last come to a close. I’ve come to realize since then that a series this long becomes a big part of an author’s life, since stories like this take years to write. I doubt my life as a writer can hold many series that are longer than seven volumes.
Speaking of, I was wondering how long ago it actually was that I started writing Disciple of the Lich, and so I decided to take a bit of a look back.
I uploaded the first part of the web series in July 2019, and the first print volume came out in May 2020. Which means it’s been about three and a half years since I started writing it.
The first volume came out just after I graduated from college, around when I was starting my life as a real adult.
I remember sitting in the lobby of our company dorm, my older colleagues giving me funny looks as I stayed up until three o’clock in the morning, pounding frantically on my keyboard. (I had a shared room then, so I couldn’t exactly work right next to my coworker, who was trying to get some sleep.)
To all my coworkers from back then, I’m sorry.
Luckily, thanks to all my readers, I am now able to make writing my full-time job.
Rereading past volumes of Disciple of the Lich is quite a trip down memory lane, since it makes me remember the difficulties I had at certain points or what I was thinking at the time, showing me why I had a certain side to a character’s thoughts.
There’s something about long series—and I imagine people who write novels as a hobby might feel the same way—but these long works are almost like a compilation of the author’s thoughts.
You can sort of feel the author’s likes and dislikes, what they were interested in at the time, what lessons they’ve learned in their life, and there are all sorts of little aspects that show how that person looked at the world and their surroundings. It’s obviously true of single novels or shorter works, but when it’s a longer series, I can see how I’ve changed in those aspects over time. Going back and reading it is like looking at the path I’ve walked in life, which makes me feel a bit sentimental.
Sorry, I went off on a rant. I just wanted to throw all my emotions about ending Disciple of the Lich into the afterword, no filters. Later, I might read this and then bury my face in a pillow as I wonder why in the world I wrote something so embarrassing. But I know that the only people reading this are those of you who stuck with me through the entire series and made it all the way to reading this afterword. So I like to believe you’ll regard me with compassion.
I don’t necessarily think it’s a good idea to write what I’m about to say, but to be honest, such a small percentage of you readers will get to the afterword of the final volume that I’m writing under the assumption that it’s fine to write whatever I want, so I’ll just say it: long series almost never stick to the original concept the author had. It’s just not really practical.
There are market conditions to consider, and the author’s condition also changes over the years it takes to finish it.
I have another series—not Disciple of the Lich!—with another publisher, and the lead editor for the series asked me how many volumes I was thinking the series would be. I confidently declared that I would conclude the series in ten volumes, with a total of a million Japanese characters. They drew back from me in fear.
On average, I think most novel series tend to be four volumes, where it gets to a point that would be good to cut off, and they just wrap it up there. But fantasy series in particular… When you think about how you have to neatly wrap up the main character’s story and any of the relationships with side characters, as well as really work in the fantasy world…well, you probably need about as many words as this series took.
When I look at that aspect of things, I’ve slowly started to become painfully aware that there’s a disconnect between the market and the actual process of writing a book.
But even though it exists among all that, I still feel Disciple of the Lich is a happy series, one where I did what I wanted to do, wrote out everything I wanted to write, and brought everything together for a nice, neat ending. Readers, thank you again for coming all this way with me.
Since this is the final volume, there were things I wanted to do, like giving certain characters a chance to say certain things, hinting at what other characters would be doing in the future, and just generally digging into the side characters.
But…it would end up too long if I did too much of that. That would put me in a difficult situation. I could go on forever, but there would be the very big question: Would that actually make an interesting novel?
I didn’t necessarily aim to limit the story to certain characters—I was trying to tie up loose ends—but certain characters kept popping up and stealing the spotlight. Sorry, Mel.
If we’re talking about side characters, then I can’t forget to mention Lovis. He seemed to be the second most popular character, after Lunaère, based on comments on the web series and reactions on social media. Why?
Actually, I originally had Lovis giving the assist during a certain last boss fight, but then I came to my senses and gave that duty to Noble. Dodged a bullet there.
The cover illustration for this volume shows Kanata and Lunaère. I’ve been thinking ever since the first volume that I want the last volume to have the two of them on the cover. And actually, because of the schedule, the cover illustration hasn’t been picked yet. (And if I’m being 100 percent honest, it’s because I’ve been dragging my feet and not doing my work!)
I have received three illustration proposals, though. The meetings in my head go something like this: “This one is clearly the best one!” “Wait, wait, this one is incredible too!” Which means I haven’t been able to give an answer on that either. I am sort of pushing the schedule back, so I really do need to just reply right away like normal… I think after I finish writing this afterword, I’ll spend the next three hours debating with myself, and then I’ll decide.
Really, though, all the character designs and cover illustrations for this series have been amazing! I particularly like Lunaère, and Pomera, and Philia, and Kotone, and Lovis’s party of three. All the ladies are super cute. And not just cute—they’re cool too.
The backgrounds were all great as well. Every time I received the cover illustration for the next volume, I got super excited, like a reader looking at it and thinking, “Wow, so this is where their next adventure is going to be!” Hihara Yoh-sensei, thank you for all the illustrations you’ve done for the series!
The manga version of Disciple of the Lich ended in July 2022. It covered the first volume of the light novel, and it stopped there because it was a good ending point. It’s too bad, since I’ve always felt that around the second or third volume of the light novels is when things start getting easy to show in a manga. But it is what it is…
The manga version has certain things that you can only express because it’s a manga, and you even get to see some of the side characters that couldn’t be shown in the light novels’ illustrations, and I found that very exciting and fun to read. Lunaère and Pomera are so cute in manga form!
I liked the parts where Lovis made his appearance, and when Naiarotop revealed his true form. Naiarotop’s transformation scene was so intense. It was way better than what I had in my head when I wrote the light novel, so when I was writing Volume 7, I actually had the manga version of him in mind as I was writing. Kasei-sensei, thank you so much for giving us the manga!
I think I might have gotten carried away and said this already, but let me give my final thanks again.
Thank you to my editor for dealing with all the trouble I put you through. Thank you to Yoh Hihara-sensei for giving us your beautiful and exciting illustrations. Thank you to Kasei-sensei for the amazing manga version. I want to thank all of you for being involved in this work.
I also give my thanks to you, the readers who stuck with the series until the final volume and supported me throughout this journey. Thank you for staying here until the very end. I look forward to meeting you again in another series.