Chapter 32

AFTERWORD A hello to all the new readers and a huge thank-you to those of you who continued from the previous volume. This is the author, Tôwa, speaking. Time has really flown by; we’re already on the fourth volume of this series, but Arihito hasn’t even spent a month in the Labyrinth Country yet. That’s how incredibly jam-packed his schedule has been. As the author, I’ve come to realize that Arihito, who was described as “tired to the core of his soul” when he got reincarnated, has done nothing but work without rest. I have thought about giving him a break, but there’s been so much going on that it just wasn’t in the cards. Misaki demanded in this volume that they take a breather, and that had some serious truth to it. I don’t think Arihito would change his policy of advancing as fast as possible, but I have been thinking of putting in a bit of a rest in the next volume. They went camping in District Seven and came across a spring and even the ocean, then that all-powerful word swimsuit started appearing, so I’m sure there are quite a few readers who sensed a vacation coming on. And that was definitely my intention. The only reason it didn’t was because of the party’s tireless work. Some of you are surely begging to see Arihito and the others have some time off, but even as the author, I can’t guarantee that he’ll listen to you. With a series like this, every time I start writing, I need to ask myself, What are the characters thinking? and What would be the most natural action for them?—which can lead to changes in my plans and the content of the story. On top of that, when it goes to publication, I can ask for the editor’s opinion, which gives me the opportunity to look at the work more objectively. The published version of the story has been revised quite a lot as I’ve taken to heart the advice from the editor or the carefully thought-out recommendations from the proofreader. They do let me write entirely new scenes or dig deeper into other ones, which I do because I have always wanted to give you my absolute best work. My editor has the same hopes and is great at determining exactly when I, as an author, am content. They’ll tell me, “Well, I’ll accept the extra changes you made if you think it’s your best work…” Then I say, “Take your time checking it! You’re the boss!” and then obviously I send the head editors (Kadokawa Books’ editing department) a passionate letter (i.e., the manuscript for the volume with all the marked-up corrections). I really should get a thousand punishments whenever I’m seemingly close to settling, though. As that one person who affects the temperature of the entire Japanese archipelago always said, “Don’t give up!” Or as another quote goes, “If you give up, the game’s already over.” That is perhaps one of the most famous quotes in manga history. Where exactly did I write with such passion, you ask? Well, it would be obvious if you compared the web version to the new print version, but as of right now, it’s a secret I am completely incapable of spilling. The prologue of this volume was an extra piece I wrote for publication that follows from the previous volume. It acts as a tiny glimpse at the secrets of the Labyrinth Country, which are very unlikely to become completely clear anytime soon. It’s fairly difficult to do something like that with the serialized web version. I want to experiment with a variety of different composition types while accepting that the print version is print and the serialized version is serialized. Due to the nature of the series, equipment updates and new skill selection has become a section that has appeared in pretty much all of the volumes. But I’ve been forced to adjust how I show that as the number of party members increases, as well as the number of skills they each have. I want to make it easy to see only the necessary information, but I’m worried that readers will be like, Wait, they had a skill like that? if I don’t show the skills they don’t take immediately for a long time. I’m paying close attention so that the characters don’t suddenly get skills they didn’t have before. I have five whole pages for my afterword this time, so I’d like to touch on what happened in this volume as well as the characters in it a little. First is the three members of Triceratops. Some readers of the web version wondered if they were villains, but they’re actually generally decent guys. They joined the Alliance for stability, and they’re ambitious Seekers who thought they could get a chance to move up to the next district as well. District Seven had become a de facto sieve for filtering out the weak, so many Seekers ended up stalled by the monsters’ strength even if they tried their hardest. That meant they were one of the few groups of Seekers who still managed to cling to their ambition and gave a well-needed vitality to District Seven. Four Seasons didn’t join in on the battle against the giant crab. The biggest reason for that was because the crab’s scythe and Bubble Laser were too dangerous. There weren’t very many members in Arihito’s party who could handle those attacks anyway, and adding more people to the battle would spread out the attacks more. I imagined that Arihito wouldn’t be willing to expose an additional party to such danger. Falma tried to wash Arihito’s back even though she’s married. That was because she sees him as younger than her, but also that he seems so utterly honest about that kind of thing. Even Misaki has taken the stance that Arihito isn’t someone she need be cautious about, and the fact that he takes what she says at face value is proof of that. She is a pretty carefree person, but she’s actually got a lot going on in her mind. Ever since she joined the party, the bright streak of her personality that can be seen in her decisions has come to the fore the most. Depending on the situation, though, she could have become a sort of queen bee who makes men fight for her so she can earn experience and make a living. The fact that she didn’t run into danger when she was doing that previously was largely due to her good luck. I suddenly realized as the author that having Misaki participate in such a dangerous battle to use Fortune Roll, a very important role, was like a secret spotlight. This series is written almost entirely from Arihito’s viewpoint, making any scenes that give the readers an insight into the other party members’ thoughts all the more valuable. I think those are exactly the kinds of elements I can add in bonus content or special content. I plan to be on the lookout for opportunities to really dig into stories about the new members as more join or the members of the party who generally don’t come to the fore. Another thing I want to touch on is Kyouka’s Ethereal Form, Theresia’s strengthened equipment, and Elitia’s new powerful skill, but first I’m going to talk about Suzuna’s flute. It is part of a Shrine Maiden’s job to perform the kagura, a performance of dance and music dedicated to the gods. Suzuna had experience practicing musical instruments before she reincarnated, and she would have practiced dancing and musical performances. In this volume, she used the flute that was made from the curled horns of Silvanus’s Messenger as a weapon, but the flute itself is very close in shape and tone to the straight transverse flutes you’d find in an orchestra. I don’t think there are any kagura performed with that type of flute, but I hope that you can accept a Shrine Maiden playing a flute like that as just another part of this fantastical other world. In the web version of the story, I had Arihito seeing through Gray’s Trickster skill himself. My explanation was that his Hawk Eyes increased his ability to discern what was happening around him. While I do imagine there are a lot of situations in which that skill could be applicable, I was concerned that would easily become overpowered. That’s why I changed it so that Ariadne was helping him to see through Trickster. I want to make sure there isn’t a sense of incongruity between the web version and the published version, but I hope you can all understand that there are small details that I may adjust to make the published version better. Well, I’m starting to get to the end of the space I have, so I’d like to move on to my thanks. A huge thank-you for all the work the head editor had to do with this volume. Your incredible patience in waiting for me to finish the volume allowed it to become what it is. I hope to improve on various fronts so that I can be your best author when it comes to keeping to the schedule. Thank you to the illustrator, Huuka Kazabana, for drawing such vivid scenery and depictions of the Labyrinth Country, as well as incredibly lively images of the characters! The view Kazabana created into the world is, without a doubt, the reason this work has become what it is. I cannot thank you enough. Perhaps the greatest help has been from my proofreader, who thoroughly checks the book despite all the equipment and skill names, and the special displays. Thank you. Thank you very much to Rikizou, the artist behind the manga adaptation. You have taken this work and created something bigger, an absolutely wonderful manga, which I enjoy very much as a reader. Finally, a million thanks to all of the readers who support this series. I couldn’t do it without you. Tôwa, on a Certain December Day