Chapter 75

AFTERWORD Thank you very much for picking up Volume 8 of The World’s Strongest Rearguard. First and foremost, I’d like to apologize for taking up so much of your time! This series has only come as far as it has thanks to the support of readers like you. Thanks again for reading. And now a warning: Some of this afterword assumes you’ve already read the main story thus far, so if you skipped ahead, please go back and finish the novel before continuing! Volume 8 represents an important waypoint on Arihito and crew’s overall storyline. When Elitia joined Arihito’s party back in Volume 1, she brought with her a score that had to be settled in District Five. Now that goal has been reached, and the story proceeds to its next phase. You might be wondering, What kind of person is Rury? Will she join Arihito’s party, too? And what about Johan and his White Night Brigade? Will they be an obstacle to Arihito and friends now that they’ve been overtaken as the top party in District Five? The Simian Lord might be gone, but Arihito’s adventure in the Labyrinth Country—with all its powerful monsters and dangerous labyrinths, all its people and their comings and goings—will continue. I imagine you’ve got a few different guesses as to what’s in store, including a possible return to District Six. As a writer, though, my goal remains to present the story as an accumulation of choices that the party makes, one by one. The most up-to-the-minute developments in the story are currently being serialized on the web platform Shousetsuka ni Narou. (I think most of you are probably already aware of this, but just so you know.) I post updates every Saturday, so if you’re curious and have some time to spare, I’d appreciate it if you checked it out! If there’s one thing I reflected on as I wrote the parts that would become Volume 8, it was the way monsters are named. Both readers and proofreaders asked if I would give names to the Slow Salamanders! At first I figured I would save that for a scene at the monster ranch, but since names are so important, I had to consider that perhaps Arihito should name them as soon as they join the party. At the same time, I was moved—I was delighted that people thought the Slow Salamanders needed names. What’s so moving about that, you ask? Well, it felt like the Slow Salamanders were important enough to people to deserve them! They’re basically gentle giants, like the Japanese giant salamander; they’ve got a certain charm to them, and they might even make surprisingly adorable pets. Their names are Sula and Manda. As for who decided to name them in the story itself, you’ll just have to wait and read that scene. There’s another new monster at the ranch, too: the Lamia of the Deep. But if I tell you too much about her now, I think it’ll spoil some of the fun. Please keep reading The World’s Strongest Rearguard to find out about her! There were sixteen characters who took on the Simian Lord in this volume, not counting the group of supporters that remained on standby. To tell the truth, up until I was actually writing that part of the story, there was a possibility that there’d be even more! I thought I might have Leonard and Natalia’s party lend a hand. However, since facing the Simian Lord is risky business, they didn’t end up fighting alongside Arihito and crew. Theirs was a chance encounter. Arihito’s party will likely fight together with several other parties going forward, but at least some of these will probably just be one-time alliances. When you factor in the support staff, Arihito’s party has grown rather large, but I’d still like to write situations for everyone in it to shine. All right, now I’d like to move on to more thank-yous! As a writer, I bow down to the tireless efforts of my editors, who make it possible for this and every other volume of The World’s Strongest Rearguard to see print. (I bow so deeply, in fact, that my head is basically underground at this point.) Of all the ways I could possibly show that appreciation, the one to prioritize is getting my drafts done and submitted as soon as I possibly can. From now on, I hope to move forward in earnest, without getting too bogged down in details. I promise I won’t spend months on end fretting over what to call certain skills and jobs in the Labyrinth Country anymore. Huuka Kazabana, who brings the world of Rearguard to life with lovely illustrations, really outdid themself this time. Their pictures shine so brightly, I thought they’d put my eyes out. Their art is always brilliant, but their piece for the cover of Volume 8 in particular overturns preconceived notions of what it means to be a rearguard as Arihito steps forward through the composition. I think it wonderfully conveys both the contents of this volume and the relationship between Arihito and Theresia. What do you think, readers? I sincerely hope to hear your impressions. As always, I greatly appreciate my proofreaders; I bow so deeply to them, they’ve probably forgotten what my face looks like. They carefully compare the data between current and previous volumes to point out contradictions—and catch so many that somehow slipped through my own authorial check that it’s frankly scary. My supervising editor suggested I should collect this sort of data into a list long, long ago…so I’m going to start figuring out ways to make editors’ and proofreaders’ workload lighter, little by little. Rearguard has about as much of this information as an RPG—and I don’t have any plans to introduce new skills, equipment, or characters any less frequently. The Labyrinth Country is vast; any one of its labyrinths can produce countless monsters and items, and the Seekers who explore it are numerous and diverse. To close this out, I’d like to return to what I said at the beginning: Thank you so, so much for your readership and support. That’s all from me for now! I hope to see you in the pages of the next volume. With warm regards from just after the harvest moon, Tôwa